#anyway i was dragged into watching the anime and the recap movie

[always-a-joyful-note]

Revue Starlight is just ORV but what if it was theatre instead and what if we told you that a tragedy can always be rewritten? What if the end of the story, the end of the play, your defeat onstage - what if all that doesn't mean everything is over because you can always make a new play, always become better, always rebuild the stage and stand on it again? What if there WAS death but what if rebirth was also possible?

What if this tragic tale that always ends the same had new actors, you know? How would they play it? How would they spin the story a different way? Will they try to outshine the past, outshine others? Or will they find their own unique brilliance instead and join the stars that shine in the night sky?

[shirtlesssammy]

6x21: Let It Bleed

Then:

Dean and Cas broke up

Now:

March 15, 1937

Providence, Rhode Island

It was a dark and stormy night, and HP Lovecraft sits at his typewriter clicking away. He finishes his manuscript, and his door slowly creaks open. He pulls out a revolver and heads to the hallway, but quickly backs back into the room and locks the door. A window blasts open and a shadowy figure is there. He pleads with it --but becomes blood cannon fodder anyway. 

Dean continues to dissect what could have gone differently to prevent his breakup with Cas. Sam tries being the logical friend --but there’s no explaining heartbreak, folks. Bobby comes in to tell them that when Cas popped in for his late night tet-a-tet with Dean, he stole a journal. But don’t worry, Bobby had a copy. 

Upon reading it, Bobby discovers a mention of HP Lovecraft. Dean doesn’t know who that is --and you’re going to tell me the dude that knows horror movies like the back of his hand and reads Stephen King doesn’t know who the father of horror is? And I know that Dean lies to cover up things he thinks other people would look down on him for, but this would be a weird moment to do that. 

Anyway, Bobby thinks Lovecraft knew something about purgatory. 

Meanwhile, Ben is chilling in his room reading Cthulhu graphic novels while his mom is watching the sportsball with her new beau. Demons bust in and gut the boyfriend right away. One takes after Ben. Ben gets to his room and calls Dean in a panic. He doesn’t know what’s out there and he can’t get to the shotgun in Lisa’s closet. Dean tells him to jump out his window. It’s too late --Crowley’s there and has both Ben and Lisa. 

Crowley tells Dean that no harm will come to them if he backs off from the purgatory plan. 

Sam throws some salt on Dean’s wound and asks if Cas knows about this. “We gotta assume that he does.” OUCH.

While Bobby heads off to follow the Lovecraft lead, Dean and Sam set to finding Lisa and Ben. They summon Balthazar and tell him that Crowley is alive. He blinks and tells them Cas already informed him. They then tell him about splitting the souls in purgatory plan. Balthazar knew that too, ahem. He refuses to help find Ben and Lisa. 

Sam thinks they should call Cas. “WE’RE NOT CALLING CAS.” This is a man in pain, Sam, he needs time. 

Bobby, meanwhile, interviews someone who possesses a large collection of Lovecraft’s private letters. He asks about March 10, 1937 specifically, and the dude wonders if he’s working with the other guy --”trench coat, looks like Colombo, talks like Rainman.” We’re supposed to assume he’s describing Cas, but ?? okay. They’re competitors actually.

The guy tells Bobby that Lovecraft had a dinner party with other blackmagic followers. They were getting together to perform a ritual to open a door into another dimension. He has --or had-- letters describing the dinner. Bobby leaves, knowing exactly how the letters disappeared. 

Bobby discusses the case with Sam, revealing that one guest of the party -the maid’s son- didn’t die and has been in a mental ward since that night. He’s gong to interview the man now. 

Dean, meanwhile, is lining the demons up and taking them down if they don’t answer his questions. 

For Murderous Rampage Science:

Sam tries to get his brother to take a break, but Dean is 100% on an emotional bender and will not stop. Sam then heads outside to pray to Cas --pleading with him to bring Ben and Lisa home. 

When Cas doesn’t appear, Sam walks away, dejected. Only Cas is there, invisible to Sam. AND I WANT TO TEAR OUT MY EYES. 

Cas confronts Crowley. Crowley was “merely exploiting the obvious loophole.” Cas demands he tell him where they are. 

Crowley tells Cas the only way to save Lisa and Ben is for him to find Purgatory. 

For Literal Science:

Cas flaps away when Balthazar summons him. They meet in a wooded area, and Balthazar confronts Cas about his partnership with Crowley. 

Balthazar confirms that Cas would be the vessel to take on the souls from purgatory. He could explode from all that energy. Cas assures him he won’t (weeps). Cas demands Balthazar tell him if he’s with Cas, and Balthazar laughs but agrees. 

Bobby interviews the maid’s son, and discovers Cas was already there. Bobby asks for the story. The man tells what was said at the time, but then asks, “Do you believe in monsters?” He tells Bobby that the door did open that night, and whatever came through took over his mother. Then the others died. Bobby gives his condolences to the man, and he shows Bobby a picture of his mother. Bobby recognizes her.

Dean prepares his Tortures for Demons™ when his foot drags part of the devil’s trap away. The demon immediately gets the drop on Dean, only for Cas to flap in (or turn visible) just in time to save Dean’s bacon. 

Dean’s...ungrateful. Surly, even! Cas apologizes about Lisa and Ben, and he’s hurt when Dean doesn’t believe that he had nothing to do with their abduction. 

“Dean, I do everything that you ask,” Cas pleads. “I always come when you call and I am your friend - still. Despite your lack of faith in me, and now your threats.” Cas is just asking for backup this ONE TIME. (And you know what? Knowing the crap these Winchester boys have pulled, I always felt like Cas made a good point here.) They lob soulful looks at each other. Cas promises to rescue Lisa and Ben if Dean will just PLEASE stand down and let him absorb every single monster soul EVER it’s NOT A BIG DEAL. This is entirely the wrong tactic, and Dean tells Cas to go back to Crowley and he’ll save Lisa and Ben on his own. 

Cas flaps away. Soulfully. 

Bobby arrives at Eleanor-the-Dragon’s door. She’s at a little cabin in the middle of nowhere - one of her safe houses. He confronts her with the old photo and demands to know her agenda. “You know, we’re not all alike,” she retorts. She reacts similarly poorly to Bobby complaining about sleeping with her without knowing she was a monster. BOBBY! WASH YOUR MOUTH OUT RIGHT NOW. She tells him that the world’s lucky that she’s who popped through the portal. The professor is on Team Earth. Bobby begs to know the secret of the portal so that he can protect her from Cas. 

Balthazar flaps in on Sam. He’s joining Team Winchester because he’s terribly concerned about Cas’s life choices. He flies them close to Crowley’s angel-warded lockup, and Dean and Sam swoop in to save Lisa and Ben. 

They split up inside the warehouse - always a sensible plan. Sadly, Sam “Soft Noggin” Winchester gets knocked out IMMEDIATELY. Sam plz. Dean bursts into Lisa and Ben’s prison like a little angry blur of knives and in short order, he’s killed all the demons standing guard. They start to flee, when Lisa holds Ben at knifepoint, her eyes flashing black. 

The demon goes all in on the mental torture, telling Ben that Dean’s his real father (JK!) and that Dean is Lisa’s WORST EVER MISTAKE. While Dean catalogues the internal damage, he and Lisa fight. He sheathes the demon blade and starts an exorcism, and I look directly at the camera. Demon Lisa’s got another trick up her sleeve. While the exorcism progresses, the demon grabs a tool and jabs it into Lisa’s gut. Then, she gives Dean a choice: exorcise her and Lisa bleeds out or let Lisa remain animate (but a demon puppet). Wrenchingly, Dean finishes the exorcism. 

He makes sure Ben’s armed with a salt-round shotgun and then they head out of the factory. Ben shoots his first demon while Dean shouts at him to “pull it together” and I...just…….

Guys.

I’m just going to box these feelings up and stuff them in my Dean Winchester is a Sad Child attic, while humming Cat’s in the Cradle to myself.

They find Sam and head for a hospital, Dean muttering the whole time that she’s FINE Lisa is JUST FINE she is FINE. Cut to the hospital where Lisa is NOT FINE, but also is not dead! Yet! 

Cas flaps in. 

Dean refuses his apology. REFUSES IT. But Cas didn’t come to apologize. Okay, he DID, but he primarily came to heal Lisa miraculously. Dean looks up at him like he completely forgot that Cas can heal. 

For Healing Cas Science:

In Jensen Ackles your face is a menace news, Dean displays grief, joy, relief, anger, betrayal, sad cat memes, and more in like less than five seconds of screen time. He thanks Cas for healing Lisa. “I wish this changed anything.” Regrets lie thickly between them. Dean asks for one more favor. He wants himself erased from Lisa and Ben’s memories for good. 

When Lisa wakes, Ben explains that they were in a car crash. Dean enters, and introduces himself as the guy who hit them. GAH. The shitty things these characters do!!! Excuse me while I hurl knives at the wall for a solid thirty minutes!

“I lost control for a minute,” Dean says, not AT ALL metaphorically about their time together. “And I just want to say that I’m sorry.” He heads out, leaving the Braedens entirely unprotected from future supernatural threats and missing a substantial chunk of their lives. Hope Cas also cleaned up Matt’s body??? And the busted door??? (Side note: does anyone else have weird squid emotions thinking about Cas willfully blanking their memories when his own memories have been tampered with time and time again? I SURE DON’T!)

Dean meets judgmental Sam back at the Impala. Sam, I see your judgment, and I judge thee valid. Dean talks about his emotions in an open and healt----hahaha nope. Dean tells Sam that if he ever mentions the Braedens to him then he’ll break Sam’s nose. He punctuates that with mournful, red-rimmed eyes which definitely deal at least 1.5X damage against Sam’s puppy eyes. They drive off into the sad music. 

Elsewhere, Eleanor Visyak leaves her cabin, only to encounter Cas behind her. Cas flaps her away. CAAAAAAAAS!

You QUOTE Miette??!!

Your chocolate's been in my peanut butter for far too long

What’s with the slow burn?

You’re just a man. I’m better off protecting myself

I’m officially on your team. You bastards

Want to read more? Check out our Recap Archive!

[mitsuhasnolifebutwatchesanime]

I’m usually never disappointed in anything I’ve seen from studio bones because I know the teams that work on their shows work extremely hard to do what they can. This anime has a lot of History to it too, the director of free and banana fish? Gorgeous animation and designs? Hilarity? A banger of an OP AND ED? Honestly Sk8 the Infinity was just a Good Time.

Our story follows Reki, a high schooler in Okinawa who is OBSESSED with skateboarding, and the new Canadian transfer student, Langa, becoming friends because of skating. Reki takes Langa to the underground skateboard scene S, where Langa, after being taken away from snowboarding in Canada, is introduced to skating in such a way, it makes him want to keep going and get better.

S is also filled with lots of interesting side characters, like Joe, Cherry, Shadow, and yes, even Adam. These people looked at skateboarding and were like “but what if it was like WWE?” Anyway…

While it’s not the strongest in the story department (looking at you failed political subplot!), in the character, animation, and comedy department? Just, great marks all around. Sk8 is RIDICULOUS with some of the nonsense it pulls, but it pulls it in a way that makes sense in context, and never lets you rest from it. The scenes outside of S are also just really fun, funny and wholesome. I just love the character interactions and chemistry.

Am I mad that certain things didn’t happen? Eh, not really honestly. It did the best it could in it’s very limited 12 episode run-time, but honestly, if this went longer than 12 episodes? It might’ve gotten into some trouble. Sometimes, short, sweet, and open ended is good. Would I say no to more Sk8? No???? Except season two and onward of Free just....(this I think is more a fault with the writer than the director. I’m mad with ALL of the character development they ruined in Free season two, I’m sorry). I think Sk8 would greatly benefit from a movie or some OVAs that aren’t recap, but I think it’s charm might be lost if they put more weight into a more serious plot. In general, I think a lot of the problems with the story were when they leaned too heavily on serious plot. The misunderstanding/jealousy subplot was okay, but it dragged on for sooooo many episodes.

Another thing I don’t think enough people talk about is I LOVE the setting for this anime. Very few anime get set outside of Tokyo, and Okinawa is such a melting pot of culture! It makes for a great background, very colorful and enjoyable. It reminds me a lot of tsuritama (which hey, if you want another wholesome sports anime with "friendship", watch it) even though I'm pretty sure it was set in Enoshima which is an island neeeeaarr….Shikoku? Not in the Okinawa region. Plus all of it’s love given to the actual theme of the show, skating. As someone who used to play the Tony Hawk N64 game a LOT as a kid (but the only time I “skateboarded” I ran over my thumb with my full body weight ouchie!), it just felt fun seeing the way S was set up and all the cool ass moves people pulled.

And I think the two main things people have been arguing about a lot was the whole iS ReNgA cAnOn?! And SEND ADAM TO JAIL-- I like that they queercoded a lot and left it up to interpretation. I’m sure they had studio and network heads breathing down their necks to not be explicit, but there is nary a heterosexual explanation for anything. And ya I wanted to see Adam in handcuffs in not the sexy way. I’m not like 100% mad what they did, but like, it sorta made the entire political subplot wasted. A twist I didn’t like was the whole “haha, you THOUGHT she got the warrant to arrest him but she DIDN’T bc the politics in this city are corrupt af” ya, just, probably could have been cut out, but also this is a sports anime where grown adults put on costumes to do ridiculous anime skating illegally, I wasn’t expecting an award winning masterpiece.

I already mentioned it, but I really do like the quality of the animation here. I think it’s definitely what sets Bones apart from many other studios, and in general, probably what saved Sk8 from feeling generic. The animation is dynamic, the colors pop, and the settings are gorgeous and detailed. It just makes me happy to see so much care and details put into it. Just the flipping physics of skateboarding alone are cool to see be explained and animated. Does it pull some sports and BS of humanly impossible feats? Yeah, but they look flipping awesome, combined with everything else, I think it just makes it a good time. Also DAMN I LOVED that compilation in I think episode 2? Of Reki just showing Langa many videos and magazines about skating. It just added another layer of realism to it.

Overall tho, I’m gonna rewatch this one A COUPLE times. It was just a good time, and I will gladly watch more if it comes out, but in the meantime, I can entertain myself with this for a while.

[popculturebuffet]

Ducktales Reviews: Let’s Get Dangerous!

The Duck Knight Strikes Again as our Darkwing Double Feature concludes! Scrooge, the Kids and Launchpad visit the fair city of St. Canard. While Huey tries to work out how the seemingly world changing project Scrooge is financing for researcher Taurus Bulba .. um.. works, Launchpad and Dewey visit Drake, whose struggling to find any crime to actually fight, but soon finds himself tangled up in the case of a plucky young orphan, her missing grandfather and Bulba’s dark secrets and soon Darkwing and his new family find themselves the only three people standing between the world and it’s untimely end. Let’s Get Dangerous with a full review with recap and spoilers under the cut.

It’s time! I’ve been obviously, being a fan of both darkwing duck, if only finally watching it in full now, and superhero stories in general, and this show having told some REALLY good ones over the past 3 seasons including darkwing’s previous episode “The Duck Knight Returns!”, which I sadly didn’t get to in time before this episode. But this is a worthly replacement to conclude our double feature so it all works out. But yeah a big one hour special that changes the course of the season, brings Goslyn in, and brings in Darkwing’s old rogue’s gallery? Sign me up. And it’s also VERY clear that Disney has plans for a revivial/spinoff for darkwing. Besides this episode setting it up and Frank being very clear he has plenty of ideas for this big duckverse as a whole and is a massive fan of the series, there’s the fact Disney conspciously posted a trailer, 4 preview cilps (Though to their credit none really give the game away entirely and all but one take place in the first act, and the one that didn’t is so they could show off Stephanie Beatriz as Goslyn, which is fair enough). And if that werent’ enough, the killing stroke is that the episode is FREE TO WATCH on Disney Now, and likely on Youtube sometime soon given they usually do that when the make an episode readily avaliable as done with most series premires and, for some weird reason, the season 3 premire of big hero six. But wheras that’s probably just to drum up hype for an aging-ish series, this feels like a delberate move to drum up hype for the episode among both fans of the ducktales reboot and the old darkwing fanbase. The only way they could’ve been more transparent is if they put a giant sign at the end of the episode that says SPINOFF COMING SOON.. MAYBE.. DID YOU LIKE THIS? TWITTER US IF YOU LIKE THIS.. THAT’S THE RIGHT TERM RIGHT?. 

That being said I can’t blame them as Darkwing’s a beloved property, superheros are big right now thanks in large part to disney themselves with the MCU, and the fandom reactied with overwhelming praise to “The Duck Knight Returns!”, which is one of season 2′s best episodes even if the cliam that scrooge never went to the movies nor saw one on cable after 1938 is implausable at best and really dumb and I hate it at worst. I mean I get he wouldn’t love rising prises, but I seriously doubt Della wouldn’t have dragged him to one at some point or that someone wouldn’t of tried to get him to invest in theirs long before boorswan. It just dosen’t fit the character and it was dumb.. it’s also unrelated to this episode but I had pent up rage from preparing to review that episode and I might as well get it out of the way now. Point is this episode has a lot riding on it and had all the hype. So did it live up to it? Let’s take a look. 

We open in St. Canard, former wretched hive of scum and villiany and soon to be home to the second John Oliver Memorial Sewage Plant. Launchpad’s narrating and nearly getting everyone killed in a car accident as Scrooge argues with Bradford over the project Scrooge is on his way to see.. with the boys in two naturally. And since eveyrone else is missing and I had fun with it last time i’m assuming Webby is with Violet helping Lena with her burdgoening superhero career and trying to ask her out,  Beakly is tending to the house ,  Della and Penny are working out and trying not to admit there’s clear sexual tension and Donald is once again in the Pantry because he never learns. HE NEVER LEARNS. 

Anyways we learn their going to visit Tarus Bulba, in this continuity a famous and well loved scientist who I’m sure defintely won’t turn out to still be evil... yeshewillletsmoveon. Huey and Louie are excited about it because of Huey’s well established love of science and Louie smelling the money in a big inavation with Scrooge likely smelling both. As for Launchpad and Dewey their going to check in on Drake, whose living here now: Launchpad because he’s his best budy and possibly future boyfriend and Dewey because he needs more hits for his channel as he’s finally taken Dewey Dew Night to the masses. Bout time. Now he just needs a streaming deal. Make it happen Disney, D+ needs some animated series of it’s own. They also do a naturally terrible job of keeping the fact h’es a superhero a secret. We also breifly see drake doing a superhero dive before also comically tripping up and getting injured off screen. Cue.. Darkwing Colored ducktales logo as we don’t have time for the theme this week! And given this episode is an hour long that’s saying something.  Anyways Scrooge and the boys sans dewey head to meet Bulba whose a charming, gregarious man who quickly hugs the boys, puts them on his shoulders and snaps a selfie with the group. And he’s also familiar with the boys: Huey for wining the junior woodchuck science award and Louie for Louie Inc which ended before it’s time.. on public record. He’s a fan of both. And even given later reveals this seems genuine which I did not expect it to end up being anything resembling that. But we’ll get more into Bulba’s character when the time is right for now he shows off his invention: The Ramrod! While it shares the same name as Doctor Waddlemeyer’s device from the original, and as we’ll soon learn he made this one too, instead of a gravity device it instead can make ANYTHING you ask for, with Taruus wisely using Haggis to demonstrate. Huey however can’t help but wonder how it does what it does as surely what it makes has to come from somewhere though Louie tries to shut him up as he dosen’t want him to look a gifthorse in the mouth. I mean Horace gets self concious about it.  Meanwhile Launchpad and Dewey meet up with Drake at the reboot version of Darkwing Tower, where he’s set up nicely: Multiple costumes, gadgets, including arrows with his face on them, and the ratcatcher in all it’s glory. Seriously I do love motorcycles even if I’m terrified of riding one. It’s part of why yugioh 5d’s holds a special place in my heart despite card games on motorcylces being patently nuts.. but it’s in the best way possible. As for how Drake got this sweet setup turns out  Launchpad introduced him to Fenton who designed all his gadgets and presumibly his HQ as well as his snarky crime detecting and st.canard monitoring computer, W.A.N.D.A. Naturally he also is unaware he’s gizmoduck and freely shit talks gizmoduck again, though apparently Fenton does too. Granted Fenton could just be doing it to awkardly agree but it’s just as likely fenton uses it as an excuse to vent about his superhero alter ego, as we’ve seen that while Fenton loves being Gizmoduck he also resents it at time for keepiing him from doing science and getting glory just for punching people. But I love this dynamic, as Fenton’s just too nice for the old “they both hate each other and want the glory” dynamic to work, so Fenton untetionally pissing DW off as Gizmo but secretly supporting him as Darkwing is great and I can’t wait to see where this goes.  Before we get back to the main plot, and there is a LOT of it to get to, I just wanted to point out that Dewey seems an awful lot like drake.. i’m not saying he’s the boys father and Della simply didn’t knoow who it was mama mia style nor did she, in her more selfish form of 11 years ago want to know.. but that’s exactly what i’m saying. THanks to whoever sent me that theory, it got more fire this week.  Back on the actual plot turns out Darkwing dosen’t really have any foes to fight as while St. Canard has a reputation as a crime hole, Zan Owlson has taken over as mayor and cleaned it up. I assume in part because Glomgold seems to have no idea where she went and thus hasn’t done some elaborate scheme to show how much better off he is/kill scrooge mcduck. I mean let’s face it it always involves killing scrooge mcduck. His charitable contributions involve killing scrooge mcduck, his team ups with scrooge involve killing scrooge mcduck, his breakfast cereal came with a free knife and a map to scrooge’s house. Though I do defintely want to see Darkwing vs glomgold. I mean he’s not DW”s normal type of supervillian but still, tell me you wouldn’t see that.. and if your serious there’s the door. 

Anyways despite having no crime to fight and trying to bluff past it despite WANDA trying her best not to help his case, DW goes out on patrol with his boys anyway.. and procedes to just pose for several hours before trying to stop what turns out to be two guys moving furniture and being force to admit he’s not in a great place. He just wanted to fight crime and inspire people the same way Jim inspiried him.. before he you know went insane, tried to murder Drake and everyone on a film set then seemingly died but is now presumibly still in duckberg’s sewers.. or just as likely hiding in glomgold’s house hider in the house style.

And yes that’s a real movie in which a real gary busey lives in the walls of someone’s house. And funner fact it’s on amazon prime and I was unaware of this or I would’ve watched it sooner and will be as soon as this reivew’s finished. Possibly while this review is going on I dunno. Point is your lives are richer and we might have another possible spinoff/gay love story for Disney. Just saying Disney. 

Point is Drake is breaking down, but thankfully he landed in the right alleway as a small figure is breaking into the mcduck industirie’s st.canard branch, i.e. where Bulba is. Also I gotta admit while McDuck industries having a branch in St. Canard wasn’t a huge stretch, it was set up all the way in the pilot meaning Frank had the backdoor to set up an episode here since day one, along with every other major location really. Nicely done. 

Darkwing follows her and confronts her, stopping the seeming intruder from stealing the key to the ramrod device and finding out she’s a.. little girl? It’s goslyn everybody!

.... I .. why was this under clap. I mean it’s a very good message with a very nice garfiled head but i jus... what. 

Okay that’s better. Thank you Genie and thank you ghost of robin williams.. I miss you man. She escapes, though sans key and security storms in, with Drake looking guilty. After some banter with Scrooge who fails to recognize him which would be funny if it wasn’t utterly nonsencial. And utterly nonseical can be funny it just comes off less as “haha scrooge still dosen’t remeber him” and more “Wait you seriously don’t remember the guy who was crucial to one of your plans during the moonvasion and who got beat up on your behalf.. I expect better from you. “ Scrooge just dosen’t seem like the type to forget someone helping him in such a big way. He can be stubborn, stingy and selfish, but he’s not that forgetful. 

However Bulba enters, says he knows exactly who he is.. and we cut to a press confrence where Bulba is lauding him for stopping a dangerous intruder. Presumibly he vouched for Darkwing since he knew about Goslyn and it was an easy way to cover up her involvment and it’s probably not the first time she’s tried this. He’s awarded the key to the city by Mayor Owlson who, while not wanting more costumed vigilatnes, is happy to reward someone doing the right thing. And I .. love this. I was worried she’d be your standard I don’t like superheroes type mayor, the kind gotham keeps getting with predectable results despite you know, the bat family being vital for gotham not becoming more of a hellscape. Instead Mayor Owlson is grateful, respectful and only reasonably dosent want St Canard overun with heroes it dosen’t need.. yet. She may want to use the proper channels but she’s not going to try and run someone out of town or grumble out of them for trying to help her city. She gets it.  Meanwhile Huey’s hat explodes with with notes and what not, to Louie’s annoyance, though my boy’s excuse is utterly hilarious “It’s dewey’s hat”... boy still cannot lie. Louie is of course annoyed at him wanting to know how it works and possibly runining his dreams, but Huey is rightly concerned that he has no idea just how the Ramrod works or what powers it or what prinicpals it runs on. And it makes sense: Besides Huey always wanting to know how things work being his deal at this late point in the series there have been quite a few times, both involving huey and not involving him where something seeming to be too good to be true in fact was and had some dark secret behind it. Counting them off:

The House of the Lucky Gander: A seemingly swanky casino with the best water show ever turned out to be mostly an illusion created by a luck vampire. 

The Infernal Internship of Mark Beaks: Beloved tech icon Mark turned out to be the con artist we all know and love as well as the jackass we also know and tolerate. 

Beware the BUDDY System: Beaks new driving robot turned out to be stolen bulb tech that Beaks hadn’t bothered to fix properly. I know Huey wasn’t there for that one but still. 

Day of the Only Child: Again Huey wasn’t involved but probably heard about it later but since Louie WAS, he should know better. Louie befriends rich kid Doofus Drake only to end up nearly kidnapped because he’s creepy as shit. 

Who Is Gizmoduck?!: While Huey wasn’t the target here, he and Fenton are close friends at this point and he was direclty involved. Beaks trying to sponsor Fenton turned out to be a scheme to steal the Gizmoduck Armor. 

The Town Where Everyone Was Nice: A seemingly central american town having a friendly festival turns out to be a carnverous plant monster that wanted to eat them. 

The Dangerous Chemistry of Gandra Dee!: Fenton’s seemingly nice date turned out to be an industrial spy for .. Mark Beaks. Seriously he seems to love this type of scheme. Mark Beaks alone is reason for Huey not to take Bulba at face value. 

A Night On Kilmotor Hill: The kids being able to go into their dreams ends in Magica stalking and nearly taking back Lena. 

Quack Pack: A wacky sitcom wish nearly gets everyone eaten by horrifying versions of humans. 

The Lost Harp of Mrivana: While the Mirmaids werne’t responsible for the dark secret this time, their society was built on the philosphy of a man who turns into a giant sea monster and nearly lead them all to the same fate. 

The Trickining: A lost horde of candy ends up being a trap by a bunch of monsters to steal candy that nearly got them all eaten and hurt Huey’s feelings. 

The Forbidden Fountain of the Foreverglades: A two-fer as the resort their at steals youtha nd the fountain of youth they went to find turns out to need to drain it from someone first. 

And Louie was present for 9 of these! And the only one around for one of them! That’s what makes this frustrating: Huey and Dewey have grown, but Louie instead of learning from his mistakes, blindly trusts something too good to be true despite the fact he has a running tally of when that’s happened!  I get he’s lazy and dosen’t want this to turn out to be too good to betrue, but he’s too smart for him not to see the red flags or see that Huey’s not “ruining this for them” but has been through this enough, mostly with mark beaks or people around him, to see a pattern. It’s frustrating when Louie was given a whole season arc, and didn’t seem to have any of it stick despite you know nearly murdering his family and nearly getting murdered by a zombie. The show is better than that and knows it’s better than that and it’s one of the weaker points of the episode. 

Back to the stronger stuff though, it’s time for the moment you’ve been waiting for IT’S DEWEY DEW-NITE WITH DARKWING DUCK! I figured after the preview clips this was the one Frank had been hinting at all season and it’s finally here! Dewey, now fully on team darkwing, interviews the terror that flaps in the night.. and has a picture of him just coming out of the shower for some reason.. okay are Launchpad and Drake already together and no one told us? Whatever the case, Darkwing’s first big interview is interupted by Gosalyn. As for how she found them, she followed a combination of the resedue from his smoke bombs and Dewey’s livestream that’s been going on this whole time. As his attempts to hide Drake’s identnity and really this entire show up to this point has shown subtley is not Dewey’s strong suit. 

Gos, after snooping around a bit and even letting out a “Keen Gear!” for old time’s sake, and finding Drake’s lunch box and first darkness poster, reveals she came for help since she figures DW owes her one for last night.. or earlier tonight. The timescale in this special is really hard to figure out and only gets worse.  Gosalyn fills in her side of the story and why she broke into two places in the span of 24 hours. Turns out the Ramrod was in part created by Gosalyn’s grandpa, who was working under Bulba on the project. But one day Dr. Waddlemeyer found out the Ramrod was critically unstable and went to warn Bulba.. and never came back. Gosalyn wants to find him, and wants to DW to punch Bulba into telling her where he is. DW.. naturally does not and raises valid concerns: He’s an upstanding citzen whose offered his full support, has done nothing wrong in the public eye, and is nothing but nice to everyone and Gosalyn.. is a kid whose clearly in mourning, broke into two places, and has no evidence to back her up. He wants to help but he simply can’t and Gosalyn prepares to storm off herself.  However in a VERY nice moment, Dewey goes to her and offers to help, as obviously missing parents are a big button for him and he appricated the fact he had someone when he needed to look into his own missing parent and wants to be Gosalyn’s webby.. his exact touching words. It’s a nice call back that really ties Dewey into this story well: He has a solid motive besides crimefighting stuff to help here. Granted Gosalyn’s confused as she hasn’t met webby, yet, and Dewey’s puns don’t help, but as Dewey explains his Dewey puns to her and his name, Launchpad talks to Drake and encourages him to help her. Drake is in fact reluctant like Gosalyn thought for his image but also because as mentioned Bulba seems to belive in him And that’s. understandable. Since starting out, he’s had no crime to fight, no villians to vanquish and only one person acknowledge his work and existance and that person is standing right there. Bulba is the first person besides Launchpad to not only enourage his Darkwing Duties, but to honor that and got him cleared of possible tresspassing charges, a key to the city and an interview on the hottest show on the internet. This risks all of it. But Launchpad makes a good point.. that he needs to help those who can’t help themselves and while he dosen’t have to fight bulba, he can at least look into him. A look at his dented lunchbox reminds Drake that his best friend/future husband is right, and that he became darkwing to protect people like he used to be.. to help the helpless.. and Gosalyn is helpless right now.. plenty capable, but someone who clearly can’t do this alone. So the four take off in the ratcatcher.

The four sneak into Bulba’s office and root around, but end up having to hide when Taurus comes in, with DW hiding in his massive filing cabinet that resembles Darkwing’s own from the original series, that was retired since by now computers have made that kind of thing obsolete. Still it’s a nice nod. Turns out Huey is confronting Bulba as he genuinely dosen’t know how it works and Bulba is annoyed at all his questions. Really Terry there’s an easy way to fix that. 

But instead Scrooge comes in and while Terry TRIES to use him to brush off Huey.. Scrooge dosen’t bite and has learned to take Huey’s inquires seriously. And it’s something I didn’t notice about the series but love dearly now i’ve realized it with this bit: The Adults almost always take the kids concerns into considration and when they are brushed off it’s more due to personal issues, like scrooge’s pride, than because their kids. And given just how many hundred series have had the adults just brush off the kids issues like nothing, it’s REALLY refreshing that even reckless adults like Launchpad usually listen and that the kids competence isn’t entirely ignored just because of age. 

Bulba brushes them off by giving them the map to the ramrod.. speficially extensive notes on it that they have to carry out as a team. He then adresses Darkwing as he somehow knew he was there but again, is more than happy to help him with any investigation.. and it just so happens evidence Gosalyn was at least telling the truth on some level flies out of Bulba’s files as it shows a picture of him happily playing with Gosalyn and Dr. Waddlemeyer. 

Darkwing asks if he knows them and surprisingly Bulba is completely upfront about it or at least his version of events: Waddlemeyer was his best friend his close partner until one night he ran in raving about a problem with the ramrod and in trying to fix it, it backfired and then he was gone. Gos takes this well.. and tackles Bulba while calling him a liar and pockets the key toossing it to dewey as the two soon run from a pissed off Bulba. While Launchpad tackles Bulba away from the kids, Gosalyn TRIES to trigger the ramrod only for Darkwing to stop her. “I’m Sorry Kid but this isn’t going to bring your grandfather back” it’s then the entire episode is turned on it’s head. While, unfortunatley, the trailer gave away other dimensions would be involved, it didn’t however set this up “He’s not dead, he’s in another dimension!”

Yeah while it makes perfect sense in hindsight I dind’t see him being ALIVE ever being a thing, so well played frank.  Back with the rest of the family, Huey, Louie and Scrooge are diving around a stack of papers and Louie is sitll being a little shit, and not in the fun way in the “well not everything’s a missing mystery blah blah blah”... when you .. you learned tolerance for your brother two episodes ago. Thankfully this ends here..mostly because Huey ends up being right as Louie mentioning the misssing mysterys gives Huey his eurkea moment. Turns out the Ramrod uses one of them, Solego’s Circuit. Solego, based on the chaos god from the disney afternoon crossover something I missed on first watch, was in this universe a mad thinker who belived in the old theory that fiction is just a mirror to another universe and everything is real and found a way to open portals to other worlds. Problem was his methods were unstable, and could destroy the world, and likely the universe, if used repeadtly. Wuh-Oh

Back at the Ramrod, Bulba has launchpad on him, while Darkwing aand Gosalyn discuss things and come to the obvious conclusion: If Dr. Waddlemeyer was caught in a ramrod explosion then he’s likely out there somewhere and Darkwing clearly wants to help. Bulba TRIES playing diplomat again and mentoning that even if he’s out there the trillions of dimensions out in the multiverse mean he may be nigh impossible to find.. and the ramrod’s too unstable for that. This however finally backfires on him as Bulba had previously said it was perfectly stable, and has now fully confirmed gosalyn’s side of the story.. and since it is stable, if he’s not lying that is, then that means they can find Dr. Waddlemeyer and get the full truth.  Naturally at this point Bulba finally stops playing nice and knocks both over and triggers the ramrod which is now very clearly unstable from use and prepares to throw both into another dimension, also confirming that what happened to her grandfather was no accident. Thankfully Dewey arrives in the nick of time with a well place smokebomb and bulba gets hit with lightning from the machine giving him a scar and cleaving one of his horns. While Gos is able to escape thanks to launchpad it dosen’t last long and Bulba confronts her.. but soon makes the classic mistake of saying no one can save you now.  Cue Darkwing with the classic terror that flaps in the night speech. And unlike the original darkwing’s fights with Bulba, this fight is entirely in darkwing’s favor, as in a thrilling fight Darkwing beats the crap out of them then escapes Bulba’s fist , the only blow the man gets in this time. While Bulba still is a legit threat, he can’t match Drake’s speed or misdirection skills. However when trying to get the key, which Bulba grabbed earlier in the scene, Goslayn falls and Darkwing goes to save her. And while our heroes celebrate for a second with launchpad joining them.. Bulba has escaped AND still has the ramrod key. Uh-Oh

Bulba is of course activating the ramrod with SCrooge and the boys telling him to stop.. it’s too dangerous... but Bulba decides to get dangerous and pissed at darkwing, unleahses the fearsome four! Cue act break. We’ll be right back. Let’s have an intermission shall we. 

Okay break’s over. St. Canard isn’t doing great as the fearsome four have locked down the city, with Gizmoduck barely holding his own against bushroot and unable to get past, and thus meaning implicitly no one else from duckberg can either and with scrooge and the boys missing, Mayor Owlson calls on darkwing to save them, again giving her more points in my book as she rightly figures the guy dressed up as the hero from the tv show and playing him for reasl is the best person to face four villians from a 90′s tv show suddenly out and about and holding her city hostage. 

But Drake is spiraling a bit as these are super villians with super powers. This dosen’t quite work for me as A) He’s a super fan and thus should know their weaknesses and B) What.. what did he expect. Even the vast majority of Batman’s Rogues Gallery is super powered. But it’s a quick speed bump, understandable as Drake probably didn’t grasp the very real reality of fighting super crime. We also get to see all 4 classic DW Badguys int heir glory, and beating up bonkers, who apparently exists in this universe which is more suprising than it should be. HOwever Darkwing, ends up accidently coming up with a plan: capture one of them, get them to let them into bulba’s heavily foretfied lab turned lair, and use the ramrod to send them home and find dr. waddlemeyer. Easy. Well okay not so much as the two argue over Gosalyn coming along but Launchpad’s experince has taught him kids are the best adventuerers at all and they just need to be an adventure family. Gosalyn’s dewey, Darkwing’s launchpad and Launchpad’s the uncle.. not quite the right congifuration but his heart’s in the right place.. even if Gos refuses a family since she still has one.. even if you know she can always add the two of them in. Eh semantics point is WANDA found Quackerjack and Goslyn rightly points out they can handle just one villian. So they head out. Also during the scene Fenton tried to contact them but Darkwing semeingly brushed him off.. we’ll get to that later. As the camera closes in on Scrooge and the boys being seen as missing we find the boys at least as Bulba throws them in jail. Scrooge is still missing, though we’ll find out where he is soon enough. Bulba returns to his office to find Bradford. Unsuprisingly finding the circuit wasn’t an accident and Bulba was working out the circuit for F.O.W.L. this whole time. However Bradford also isn’t remotley happy about how big and bombastic things are getting. After all his modeus operandi is stealthy and quite not you know hyjacking an entire city with an unstable super science device and 4 villians from an old cartoon show. Bulba points out hey he wanted the world, this is the way to do it and when Bradford continues to push back against him Bulba rants: he’s just like scrooge or the waddlemeyers or darkwing no vision. Bradford may not see fowl as supervillians, which no dude you are just because you don’t operate in the open dosen’t make you not supervillians. one of you wears a hood for fucks sake. Supervillians don’t have to wear costumes just ask the kingpin.. or his lookalike bulba who has his newfound minons take out bradford and throws him in with the kids. Yeah maybe.. don’t downtalk the well intentioned madman. This is why you haven’t taken the world yet. But with both his bosses gone Bulba feels they need a big splash and takes Liquidator’s suggestion of killing darkwing duck, and sends everyone’s faviorite dog shaped liquid pitchman to bring him to Bulba. Side note I watched a few episodes to see if the series gets darkwing’s villians  down.. what changed. and .. yeah it ended up being irrlevant as while the four do get to show their stuff and liquidator, my faviorite so far and sadly the most underused, relaly gets time to shine, they aren’t really that diffrent. Except for bushroot who weirdly only uses godzilla noises now. Thanks I hate it. Otherwise though it’s pretty accurate to the series and hopefully wtih a reboot we’ll get full on reboot versions of all four. 

Meanwhile Team Darkwing stakes out quackerjack, with Darkwing still unsure of what to do, and Launchpad having brought snacks like a good uncle. Yeah while he did immitate scrooge for a second it’s clear he’s taking after donald. Awwwwwww. The two then procede to think over one of quackerjacks episodes and while gos goes to find him, they sing the theme song. Great. They do end up finding him.. and as in the episode it’s inside a giant mech.. that probably wasn’t cgi in the show.. or maybe it was but god it’d be awesomely horendous.. somebody make that. They narrowly escape him.. but run into liquidator instead. Wuh-Oh.  Meanwhile, literally as these bits are intercut but it was just easier to do it this way, Bradford is thrown in his cell and the kids are curious why he’s here, with Huey assuming he’s getting money and the kids breaking out with Bradford forced to follow, though caling Heron for an evac. Dewey actually has a plan: Since he knows Darkwing an Gosalyn won’t stop till they get to the ramrod, they simply need to find the ramrod and wait for them to show up and offer a way out, though Bushroot bars the way. Thankfully Dewey knows who he is as Launchpad naturally made him watch a LOT of darkwing duck but hey it came in handy and gives him something to bond with his birth dad over so that’s a bonus. 

The three make their way through, with Dewey singing the darkwing theme song.. and naturally being the one to trip the vines. our heroes make it out alive but bradford  is pisseeeeedddddddddd. And in his rage accidently says maybe a bit too much after dewey incorrectly assumes he’s never felt this alive in years. 

“I’ve never been closer to death thanks to your foolhardy adventuring! If you didn’t meddle with forces you didn’t understand Magica De Spell wouldn’t have broken the bin, the moon never would’ve invaded earth and all of reality wouldn’t be in jeopardy! SOMEONE HAS TO PUT AN END TO THIS!” Yeah this speech .. is damn good hence me quoting it in full and Mark Evan Jackson really sells it. While granted we knew this was what started FOWL trying to elimiate the ducks, that’s how we found out FOWL existed still after all at the end of last season, here it becomes clear that despite Bradford saying it’s just buisness and seemingly being business minded.. this is PERSONAL. He genuinely seems to hate the ducks and their adventuers and the damage they cause and seems to blame them and soley them for everything that goes wrong.

And I was going to say “Well he’s not entirley wrong” as their adventures have had consequences.. but as I looked through the episodes.. I realized I was wrong. Out of 60 episodes so far, the ducks actions have only threanted duckberg or Scrooge’s buisness a handful and most of those are Louie. They are :

Louie misusing little bulb in the great dime chase wrecking parts of the bin

The beanstalk incident from Jaw$, which Scrooge was called out on in the public. 

Gizmoducks messy bank robbery prevention in who is gizmoduck, easily outweighed by everything since. 

Destroying an underwater research station in the depths of cousin fethry which was in part due to natural wildlife. 

Scrooge’s flu and stubborness tanking stocks in “The 87 cent solution” not to mention destroying property. While yes Scrooge was being played by glomgold his own stubborness and the kids refusal to call beakly lead to it playing out longer than it should have. 

Ruined an expensive movie production (Which is partly Jim’s fault, but scrooge still didn’t get intolved at any point or have anyone more experinced oversee boreswan or even ever contact jim about a cameo. )

Louie nearly destroying time itself in timephoon.

Della giving the moonlanders the blueprints for the spear

And as you can tell almost all of them aside from louie’s two incdients involve some form of extenuating circumstances. While Chaos has insued it’s never been intentional and always been cleaned up. Even the invasion, as close a call as that was, was solved BY the family and their allies.. and glomgold, but hey sometimes you need an x factor.  Most of the duck’s actions have only backfired on themselves of people nowhere near duckberg or scrooge’s intrests and most villians gunning for them would regardless if scrooge was active or not: Glomgold hates scrooge for entirely personal reasons, Magica was locked up for good reason and while she got out due to the family’s rift, she would’ve done what she did with the bin regardless, the beagles just want their land back even if Scrooge rightfully owns it, Beaks maniuplated fenton to get the armor and now goes after him out of jealousy, and Lunaris was already going after earth Della just sped it up and did so in good faith entirely unaware he was a invader. These nuts would be gunning for scrooge anyway, and while some of it’s due to his life as an adventuerer, said life was started before Bradford was born. Scrooge isn’t responsible for guys coming after him any more than batman, or spide-rman. Sure a hero being around gives them reason to keep trying but it also means there’s someone to STOP them.  And more importantly, as I always intended to prove, their adventures have done more good than harm: Beisdes the obvious mending and extending of their family, with Donald and Scrooge patching things up and Beakly, Launchpad and especially webby being warmly welcomed in and Della finally finding a way home, not to mention their various allies, over the last 60 episodes our heroes have, and yes another list and a long one so buckle up. In chrnological order:

Brought clean, limitless water to duckberg, if through scrooge’s water company. 

Defeated a luck vampire that was kidnapping innocent people (Okay Gladstone’s probably mildly incident but even he didn’t deserve that) and likely left him unable to continue his scheme. 

Freed a lost and enslaved Egyptian civlization from a tyrant and brought them quite literally into light.. and gave them burritos. 

Defeated Zeus.. not really a huge change for humanity but given what a dick he is I’m counting it. 

Through Gyro’s invetion of the gizmotech armor and Fenton’s use of it, gave duckberg a superhero whose since cleaned up crime, keeps the city safe while scrooge isn’t around and is beloved by the city. 

Stopped a known super spy.. who works for Bradford but still. 

Defeated Magica, saved the entire city, and depowered her all in one day and all together.

Found an entirely new and giant species of plankton and gave their cousin a purpose

Destroyed an evil plant monster that had likely eaten dozens before that. 

Helped a man find his family’s treasured lamp

Opened a museum wing to share Scrooge’s various treasures with the world. 

Hundreds of years ago stopped a robber baron from bleeding a town dry. 

Donald selflessly possibly sacrificing himself in a dangerous rocket to try and get home to warn earth and his family of the coming invasion. 

Taught Lena how to love herself, got her to turn against magica, and then with Violet’s help Webby helped her return to life, and find a home where she’s actually loved and wanted and finally happy and free. 

Stopped beaks rampage.. granted it was with stolen gizmotech, but he still stole it int he first place. 

Gave the Drakes an adopted son who genuinely loves them and sucessfuly gave them finacial freedom from their cruel, sociopathic biological son. 

Stopped an army of scrooge’s greatest foes from stealing his company. 

Formed a resistance against the moonlander invasion, stopping it eventually with glomgold and the cousins help. 

After that stopping Lunaris backup plan to destroy the earth itself along with his own people. 

As a result of all of this, despite the invasion, introducing a new population of happy, repentant for their invasion of the world aliens into duckberg who have been loyal and hardworking. 

If unknowingly stopping Fowl’s own agent from killing everyone in duckberg. 

Saving a lost society of mermaids and helping them start over

Sucessfully saving a charity gala from hyjackers. 

Helping Daisy start the career she wants. 

Saving BOYD from being hyjacked by dr akita

Saving all of Tokyok from Akita’s plans for boyd.

Finally letting BOYD be his own boy and break free from his past. 

Defeating team Ragnarok and saving the earth from the end of days. 

Defeating the phantom blot while unlocking Lena’s powers, both saving an innocent child from death and giving duckberg protection from Magica once and for all. 

Helping penny adjust to earth giving Duckberg another defender besides Gizmoduck and the clan mcduck. 

Stopping ponce de leon from draining the youth from anyone else and restoring all his victims. 

So yeah five times the number of bad things they’ve done or money they’ve lost. For all the chaos it causes the ducks have changed so many lives and not just their own for the better. And I think that’s the problem: Bradford only sees thing in the terms of possesion in money, and helping people gets him NONE of that. To him all of this is just more risks to the world and his control of it. To him Scrooge has near complete control of duckberg, thousands of buisnesses, the potetial to grip the world.. and he uses it to seemingly endanger it and better lives instead of his own. I mean he has enriched his own but still. Bradford simply CAN’T see past himself or his own saftey and greed to see any benifit for anyone else. ONly himself and with scrooge gone the world is his, the world is safe, and the world is better. In other words.. he’s who scrooge ALMOST became, minus the effort to get things himself. A bitter old man who cares only about himself and his possesions and wants nothing else. We’ve seen it here and we’ve seen it in the life and times: Without his family scrooge grows cold and alone.. and without anyone to really care about Bradford is what he’d become.  He’sd also forced to eat his transmitter after blaming his outburst on his lack of medication. Wah Wah. 

Back at Darkwing Tower, after what feels like 80 years, our heroes squabble a bit as Gosalyn wants to run off after another villian to get to her grandpa while Darkwing wants them to get some rest while he takes care of some buisness> Gosalyn balks at this, all but shouts YOUR NOT MY REAL DAD! and then runs off to the overlook of hte tower. While Darkwing takes a call with Fenton at long last, Launchpad goes to comfort the girl. She admits straight up she was a bit hard on the guy she’s just desperate to find him. And it turns out darkwing as over hte last.. few nights? Wait....

I’m genuinely confused as the time skip at the end of act one indicated a day at most yet i’ts apparently been several and drake’s been loosing sleep over it? And even WITH the lockdown the rest of the duck family hasn’t barged in? I mean yes the four are keeping the gates shut but even with fenton trying, I highly doubt della has the patience to wait while her kids and baiscally dad are in serious danger, and they still have the cloudslayer/sunchaser and while yes bushroots pplans could stretch up it’s as simple as della flying up and then landing somewhere. I don’t think mayor owlson would complain TOO much about property damage and while scrooge would grumble he’d pay for it. Point is the timescale here is confusingingly worded. At most i’d say a day has passed and darkwing hasn’t slept since last night, as that makes more sense than “Whelp I guess our famiy’s been missing for days nothing weird about that. As I said the timescale for this episode is really weird and one of it’s few problems, the other being, now we’ve met them might as well get out of the way, how throwaway darkwing’s foes feel. They all, minus mega volt, get a moment to shine but they all feel like interchangable goons. Like any of them could’ve done any of their scens just swap out the gimmick. I do get this episode has a LOTTTTTT going on at once, so I get any character bits with them probably got shoved out and odds are we’ll get “real world” throughly updated versions next time, it just feels weird to make such a big deal and bring the fearsome foursome in and not either give them a bigger roll or have them stick around for the future, though as I said frank will probably remake them from the ground up for the reboot with new origins and what not, and some might intentional take after them like drake did with tv darkwing, so fair enough, just felt it was a bit of a waste but I understand it given the sheer amount of stuff to fit into a 45 minute special. 

Back on the actual plot though Darkwing’s been up all night conversing with Fenton trying to find dr. waddlemeyer. And Fenton sadly has no good news: Not only does the Ramrod have only one shot left in it before it breaks reality, but even if that gives them one shot to find Dr. Waddlemeyer.. there are trilions of universes out there. The odds of finding it before reality goes bye bye are slim to none. But Darkwing refuses to give up as he refuses to let Gosalyn down. It shows that despite his earlier fear.. Drake is a damn good person and wants to make up for not beliving in gosalyn, to help her anyway he can no matter what it takes. Gosalyn realizes she’s been kind of a dick and helps darkwing and herself get some sleep, and in a reversal of the scene from Darkly Dawns the duck, hums little girl blue to him. Awwww.. my heart.. it’s too full!. 

Back at the tower, the boys and bradford find the ramrod and bradford grumbles as he finds where scrooge is: trapped in the ORIGINAL ducktales reality, though using the remastered proportions and blue eyes. It’s a good gag especially since Bulba specifically trapped him in this scene. 

Beautiful. Bradford wonders how the hell he’s going to cover this up.. and Huey overhears him, having already been suspcious because while good at running a massive shadowy conspiracy, he didn’t you know, tell heron to keep it down on the transponder as the boys were around and her continuned interputions and his outburst earlier made Huey suspcious. Before Bradford can cover he starts coughing (With Dewey’s pricless injection of “Oh no we killed him!”) and coughs up the transmitter.. with Heron inconvently pointing out he’s fowl high command. He’s the bad guy.. from the kids point of view at least. But Bradford just chucks them into the 87 dimension where they stare blankly at scroog’es rampage. So now it’s all down to team darkwing.  Speaking of which their all asleep but Wanda wakes darkwing up and in another ddtd parallel, he leaves to take care of this himself, if without Gosalyn waking up this time. His reason is simple though: The ramrod has fired up and this is their only shot at getting her grandpa back. So Darkwing strolls in.. and once Bulba and the fearsome four marvel at his directness, Bulba sends them to knock his brains out and drag him in. Thankfully Gosalyn and Launchpad wakeup and while Gosalyn is mad for a second, she sees him getting drug in and finally realizes just charging in isn’t going to do it. .and since Launchpad knows DW like the back of his hand, he gets them in by dressing them up as Jumbalya Jake and the Bugmaster. I’ve heard of both though why the hell Frank chose Jumbalya jake over .. ANYONE else, is beyond me. Bugmaster is fairly popular, Jumbalya Jake.. is basically a less intresting fuzzy lumpkins. Regradsleess it works and our heroes make their way inside. 

Bulba is preparing to his big hyjack the airways villian speech, contacting the leaders of the world.. and killing darkwing, whose none to happy about it to show their serious with an ultimatium: either let him use the ramrod to change the world for hte better or else. And this seems a good as time as any to talk about Bulba.. whose utterly EXCELLENT in the reboot. And I loved the original but instead of just being a super comptietn villian bulba is instead a well meaning one. While he embraces the supervillian lifestyle and flunkies and flamboyance, he’s also just trying to remake the world, to make it BETTER than it was beofre, to end hunger, no traffic acidents. It dosen’t make him a good person, much like magneto or disney’s own toffee, the ends do not jusify the means and he’s likely going to destroy reality in the process, and it’s clear his own arrogance is at much at play as his desire to do goo dand anyone with valid concerns is just a doubting asshole. He’s a compelling villian and James Monroe englehart REALLY fucking brings it, creating a villian with style, a mission and competence galor. He’s really damn good and easily tops the original which is not easy at all, but props to frank for doing it. 

But before he can get started, Gosalyn throws the smoke bombs down all around and does Darkwing’s terror that flaps in the night bit for him, and the distractoin allows DW to escape and kick bulba in the face. A HELL of a fight insues. That’s one of the best things this series does is fight corpegraphy as while battles aren’t in EVERY episode, whent hey do happen their spectacular as Darkwing and Launchpad take on the fearsome four in one hell of a beautiful sequence. Darkwing and Launchpad plan to take the four on while Gosalyn gets to the ramrod. Gosalyn understandably questions how an actor and a launchpad are going to take on four villians with the two piping in that bushroot really isn’t na villian which .. I mean he KINDA is but the symapthetic kind that would probably give it up eventually but fair enough. I still like that nod even if this version is less adorakable traumatized plant and more...

Still Goslyn realises their power! THeir nerds! And with the power of fanboyness, and taking a few hits and refrencing the just us justice ducks episode I haven’t seen yet, their triumphant. Singed but triumphant. 

Meanwhile Gos continues to try and find her grampapapapapapapappapappaaaaaaaa while Bulba engages Darkwing and Launchpad. Jokes on him their already engaged to each other! She fails to find him but does find the ducks, who wonder what quackaroonie means and why their heads were round.

As the Ramrod rips a massive hole in time and space that threatens to suck everyone in. While Dewey encourages Gosalyn to keep going Huey tells her to stop... which.. Huey you lost your parent too, end of the world or not you can phrase it better. Otherwise top notch youv’e been the best this episode. And in one of the best scnees of the episode Gosalyn realizes what she has to do and despite Bulba tempting her with another relality she ddosen’t even consider it.. she shoots the ramrod with her crosbow, destroying it, with the final portal taking the fearsome four .. somewhere. I dunno? Cleavland..antis? I’m sure their fine. Bulba is knocked out though, and Gosalyn slowly weeps while her new dad consoles her. It’s a touching scene.

Thattt’s soon interupted with one last bit of unfished buisness as Huey suddenly realizes OH CRAP BRADFORD”S MISSING. They find him heading off in a marked FOWL helicopter, which Bradford points out the stupidity of but with Scrooge now having concrete visual evidence his head investor is running one of the oldest and deadliest spy agencies in the world, and their gunning for him decides to give a big of a gloat and tells Scrooge his adventure fantasy is ending while Scrooge remarks their world got a lot more dangerous. And yeah.. while I doubt Bradford will still brook over the top villiany, he now no longer has to hide his agents from scrooge or dance his operation around him and likely has enough embezlled funds to keep fowl going long enough to take out scrooge.  And yeah before we get to the end, thank god as while I love this review it’s been one of the longest writing experiments of my life., let’s talk about the FOWL overarching Plot and the interlocked missing mysteries subplot. The progress up till now has.. not really been great. Understandable but wheras season 2 had way too much plot this season took until thsi episode for the plot to really kick in. It’s been aggrivating and both fowl agents after you only crash twice .. really had nothing to do with them in their missions, with both only really using their resources. However.. as slow as it’s been, I will give credit in two places: 1, htis was likely done to get plots out of the way that were lighter and less tied into things, with only two exceptions in the next 6 episodes judging from the just released synposis for novemeber. And 2) the fowl episodes that WERE there set things up brillinatly. You Only Crash Twice set up heron’s lack of stealth and overt villianly, so her calling bradford a ton and bringing a marked helicopter did’t come out of nowhere, while last week’s episode hinted at the fact that FOWL somehow has acess to their own copy of finch’s diary or an equivleant. While we don’t know all the details. This episode also got the plot into overdrive by fleshing out bradford anymore, adding into his lack of liiking cartoon supervilliany by giving him a well and true hatred for scroooge and co. It’s not just the risk, he truly hates their lifestyle and LOATHES all of them and wants them gone.. and now he’s getting his chance. Overall it hasn’t been a bad plot and I get why it’s mostly in the back, but it still could’ve used some build up. But they worked well with what they had. I will also say the focus on Huey is ramping up with the last batch of episodes, so this really has turned out to be his season afterall. Good.  So we wrap our story back at Darkwing Tower as Gosalyn bemoans the fact her grandpa is gone. But Drake, for the first time this episode in his civies, softly encourages her to, much like him at her age, get back up again. She got blown up, buffeted around and lost a lot. but they WILL find him. Afterall Drake has a scientest friend who knwos another scientest, and until then.. she can be his crime fighting partner/implicit daughter. So Gosalyn, after so much rejection of it finally accepts her new family while Launchpad runs in to join them with dewey’s blessing. He’s not leaving the show ind, he’s just going to spend days in duckberg, nights in saint canard and sleep on the drive over, to Drake’s pitch perfect “What the actual shit bud” face. Gosalyn is happy, ,and Wanda has a crime for them to chase and our hapy family , back after way too long, heads off into the night to get dangerous. Wheew. 

Final Thoughts: God damn this was a long one. I mean it was an hour long but god damn I had a lot to say. But it was a good one. Minor flaws aside, a second watch showed off the pacing, great jokes, amazing emotoinal core, perfomances and plot progression. Unlike the Duck Knight returns the episode wisely ballances darkwing with the boys and scrooge, and interweaves them beautiful as well as finding a credible way for them to find out about FOWL. The game has changed.  I also saved the best for last as Stephanie Beatriz was fucking amazing as Gosalyn. While i’ve always loved her, she’s nice, bi and utterly fantastic on brooklyn nine nine why wouldn’t I?, and was excited I was both suprised by how diffrnet her gos voice is from her regular one, though shouldn’t have been as her rosa voice is also vastly diffrent.. seriously stephanie do more voice work your great at it, and Gos was rebooted well, sanding a bit of her hellion streak off while still feeling like the character and instead of just ignoring her grandpa’s death after one episode, making it inot a major part of her character arc here and likely in the future. It’s damn good stuff. The special really overall gets the spirit fo darkwing while making something, new , fresh and bold out of it and easily holds it’s own among the other specials. Nothing much else to say that hasn’t been said, this special was utterly amazing, go watch it. 

Now with that done if you like my weekly ducktales reviews, you can follow me for more, comment to tell me how i’m doing and i’m proud to announce.. follow me on my brand spanking new patreon! 2 dollar patrons get a poll once I have enough to do one of those, a discord once I get any, and 10 dollar backers get to pick a review for me a month! If you have the dough, please check it out and if not tha’ts okay. Until next time get dangerous but in the safest way possible, don’t forget to vote trump out and happy halloween! Play us out  Jeff Pescetto!

[magiccallie]

So I wrote down my thoughts as i watched through most of Season 2 of Scooby Doo Mystery Inc, and would like to share them, major spoilers below cut

Notes of Season 2 of Scooby Mystery Inc Shout out to this jock bully(?) who upon encountering a monster threatening a girl, did no hesitate to take on said monster, recuse said girl, and protect her as they escape Fred really needs to talk to someone about his new parents, who are now living in his house with him???? The house of the man who took him from them?????? Bronson might not be exactly straight looking at how he acted around the old mayor vs the new one, but *shrugs* Jock Strikes again, is this gunna be the twist? That''s a really douchy twist to pull a stunt like this Love how-I mean this is just the plan. He wanted girls too so he set up the same scenario. Is this extra set up by the parents to get him to trust them that is some next level douchery/ Scratch that on Bronson, omg Oh shit starting with a furry attack this is going to be a weird episode the gang's meta knowledge coupled with their sure willingness to go along with tropes and shit makes for great dialogue oh *oh* this is the episode where we get a peak to see just how big the picture is, love the lore building. knew this episode was gunna be good is that a demon? the furry isnt the mosnter??? ummm...weve been getting hints, are things getting real? so we've established motive for why someone whould want this plavce closed, but actually tangent but dont a lot of these monsters that they encounter seem like, weirdly powerful and mobile for costumes oh there's the furry that red aura is a...the things that happen around it are something deeper it seems. fascinating. is the red just representative of fire hallucinations? those seemed a bit real in effect for hallucinations... this guy, like my manager, needs to hire a little more staff occult magic book falls from the library to gang, and no one is as concerned as they should be nazi robot nazi robot get BJ on the phone Cassidy is the kinda retired PC that the players can strive to be Shit is getting real quick isnt it. Wait is that a seal. does Cassidy die? I know about a certain other death that makes me sad, but i dont want Cassidy to die too this episode is a rollercoaster of odd events weird hologram disguise for Paraclese is nifty Seeing the tragic fate of past groups is...well obviously sad oh dear, she does die huh its super low key, but it plays at the terrifying corrupting ordeal of the eldritchstuff really well with the lore notes bear troubles oh that badge...is that where they buried him? that's...kinda grim they have stealth suits and killer nazi robots? why have the evil guys not won yet? there is a bomb and they are not evacuating. There is a BOMB and they are not evacuating oh the bear can talk, how dare i assume that a bear is incapable of speech the bear is a twunk, scratch that, still a bear, is...he doing a christiphor walkin impersonation? aaand that’s enough for tonight, starting fresh later We're back, 13 more episodes oh so were getting into why i don’t like astrology Enigma machine omg. sorry, im a sucker for bits like that i wanna have long white hair too, i could rock that look How does Paraclese still have an accent after all these years? It is like destiny's Rasputin and just a stubborn superiority complex? something about visiting villains you can talk to in a prison is-ohp thats just all of um huh, cameo episode- err, anyways, it just paints a delightful scene about the relationship of the protags and antags and villainy as a whole in the world well this is horrific, throw some brownish red stuff around and it would be a silent hill scene update: still gay Thirteen more episodes and they have the disk...that does not bode well for what is going to happen the writer's willingness to reference other hannah barbara characters/shows is great oooo anticaptilism, BF is scoring points excuse me???? cyborg dragon girl???? he cant even call her by her name through most of the episode wtf??????? see now im at the point i gotta ask, is this a real ghost thing, or a fake ghost thing? ah i understand now youd think he would be more willing to explain to th-there we go so the animal companians are more suceptible, but they all have the risk Paraclese talking about these cattle is every gm talking about their homebrew monsters omg writers wth was that conclusion for the cattle im dying sk-ska zombies. ska. zombies. i can pick it up oh like the dancing plauge but worse, nifty these ghosts are rude boys, like, thats actually one of their names. And just caught that it the band name is skatastic oh they mentioned the dancing plauge, thank you wtf 101 the 'lighthearted' tone of this episode speaks dark tidings about the horrors to come aaah, hex girls, omg oh damn, update again: still hella gay bards duels be like, but for real loving this more and more young me is crazy about having the hex girls interact with a magicy thing like the disks, the rest of me is concerned at the events that are taking place scooby agrees, and his dog girl friend...well that was something Ricky displaying increasing regrets is not going to do good things for his lifeespectancy ohp then he drags in the other two well, i didnt see that coming for the criminal identity this little girl just had her mom ditch her for a stranger that robbed them, the heck i should probably eat dinner at some point, or like, anything at somepoint... calling it now, this guy is a circus performer/stunt driver, and if he is the random hired british poolboy it is a fake accent he's lureing women away with emotional intemacy. thats funny in itself, btu that they accept so readily still isnt normal oh and apparently kinks, lured with kinks so hes going to be the librarian dude then?? maybe? k, so at least i got that o.o O.O, well, that was quite the lead up and explanation food on plate, depresso in heart, ready to continue so they have to know right? like, this is a planned trap since Fred is 'the only one who knows where it is' doesnt explain Fred though, or how the fake acts "jeepies you found my scarf" oh there it is, they are after the info from him and its all fake, not some hell vision to show why he has to suceed Fred knew first? good on him plastic surgery, holy crap, next level villainy here holy shit they're all in puragoty thanks to the corrpution?????? Going back to early about the horrifying nature of all this. it is just so immensly sad watching them go through these bits. Cool, but sad. Velma demonstrating why thinking and understanding are not always good in eldritch horror games so he's got a guilt complex? heart felt talk with Mayor Dad awwww, poor Velma doesnt think she's pretty guessing...well id say the wife of Enrique but that seems too easy some how, stiill shes the only offered suspect beside Enrique himself thus far *deep sigh* i will never guess any culprit i bother to write down correctly would be a real move of the writers to Uzumaki the town two day deadline given, props to velma for having the foresight to model the disks in a digital format incase theyre lost mad max mystery machine sounds like a doom metal synth wave fusion song things are going too well... How many giant evil doors will this lair have? alchemy. of course. should have guessed. is...is this the episode where Marcie...oh no oh at least shes trying good on her, she's going down in style and flame... oh. ya know, even knowing it was coming and talking it up a sentence before, not a happy event this is a nifty dungeon last episode, hell of an opening/recap wh-what fghaseguk this went batshit didnt it. i wish i had the willingness to write at unhinged as these writers one more media that i am surpised didnt end in a poly relationship this climax is eerily familiar to the live action movies at times and then they all died and went to heaven aww Rickee and Cassidy *and* Velma and Marcie, aww, my heart will heart to think about that one for long, but awwwww Miskatonik University, or however the heck it is said. i thought it was going to be a one off joke but wasn't expecting that.

[drink-n-watch]

These opening paragraphs are always the hardest part for me. Once you get into the review you can weave your thoughts through a recap of the episode and everything falls into place. Here, I have to come up with something all on my own. It’s a little intimidating. Thankfully, I can always count on my esteemed collaborator. Hi Matt, how are you?

Too much pressure, Irina! I’m fine, hope you’re well too and all our readers as well.

Actually, before we fall into it, how pumped were you to see Yayoi? Cause I was mega super pumped. I always loved Yayoi and she looked amazing with her hair down. I gotta say, season 2 must have been something. Everyone seems to have had some sort of happy ending, whereas to me, Psycho Pass had always ended on a rather bleak note with most of the cast scattered and/or hopeless but the system intact.

But I digress. Yayoi!

Yeah she’s pretty cool, I guess… Nah, you’re right, it was great to have her back!

So Yayoi is back because reasons and she’s going to help our ragtag team of  law enforcement officers while looking mighty fine indeed. We find out that some organisation, possibly to do with Enomiya is smuggling criminals in as dead bodies since the cryo sleep hides their hues. I really liked the idea although considering the rest of the episode, I’m still a bit fuzzy on the necessity of this. Seems risky, complicated and expensive when aggressive body guard robots are available. I honestly missed the set up here, Matt, can you help me fill in the blanks?

Maybe it’s cheaper to get humans to act as muscle than it is to build and program a bodyguard robot. The robot did seem pretty useless aside from being able to take a beating, not very nimble and not very smart either.

Smuggling and paying humans is definitely not cheaper, but just as useless!

Right off the bat, and throughout the episode, the enforcers had a pretty strong presence. It wasn’t just a Kei and Arata two man show (I mean technically Kei is still suspended so it can’t be). I really like how they are slowly and organically developing the supporting cast. I hope they keep at it, I feel like a strong ensemble can really elevate the series.

I agree, the more they keep building the ensemble cast the tougher it’s going to be when one of them dies (I mean it’s bound to happen sooner or later right?)

We are back in the heat of the political race only this time, it seems it’s Karina’s turn to be worried. After a visit to the late Dr. Tsuchiya’s office, Arata learns Karina’s secret, that she’s been using a hologram AI to help her during public appearances – a bit like lip syncing her campaign, and it seems someone out there wants that secret to be revealed and is not afraid to use underhanded means.

It’s an interesting way to use AI, though you gotta wonder how much of it really had a point, seems like having an AI feeding you a speech through an earpiece would be a lot easier and less open to be discovered and achieve pretty much the same results.

I have to say, I find the AI’s name “Ma-Karina” kind of hilarious. Possibly cause I’m 4 and just started singing the Macarena every time I heard it! Also, the necklace that Karina uses as a switch for Ma-Karina was very pretty. It sort of reminded me of Griffith’s Egg of the King, and considering both their significance in the story, the symbolic parallels are pretty cool.

I laughed at that too, we’re both children, apparently!

With the reveal of Tsuchiya’s personal AI and his involvement with Ma-Karina, we got even more neuroscience speak. Such as the relative metabolic need of the human brain and a short lesson on decision fatigue. Arata even mentions that humans aren’t great at thinking which is not completely false. We do tend to find every shortcut possible to reduce our decision making whenever viable and we fall back a lot on things like pattern recognition. This must affect our hues! It really does seem like season 3 is trying to weave in a bit of neurology through.

I absolutely love it but it’s not for everyone. Matt, you mentioned last week that to you this element felt tacked on and stand offish, do you still feel that way or do you think it was better integrated this week.

It was fine, there was almost too much else going on for me to really focus on it one way or another.

I’m o.k. with Kei’s roguish actions. He comes off a bit like a hard nosed cop trope in an action movie but I kind of like it. Once again, despite his suspension, Kei seems to be in the heart of the action. Going to watch Karina’s speech and calling in a potential disturbance. This means he’s right there when Karina gets kidnapped by…guys… And I mean right there. Like he swoops in to punch a guy out of nowhere when everyone else seemingly disappeared. To me Kei’s presence and interventions this week were just a bit too convenient. Ok Matt, tell me why I’m wrong.

Most of the action in this episode kind of felt a bit flat for me, from the staging to certain conveniences in how our ‘heroes’ were able to be where they were and do the things they do. It almost felt a bit Hollywood action-y, like it was less about the logic and more about the spectacle and even then the spectacle wasn’t that spectacular.

All of this is happening is some large event venue, a stadium of some sort, where the candidates were having a televised debate. Yakusiji got in a fight with one of the abductors and we didn’t see what happened to him while Karine got dragged off into another part of the stadium where the baddies are trying to force her to make a televised confession for the use of Ma-Karina. She refuses and her manager somehow bursts in, closely followed by Kei. Meanwhile the rest of our heroes have arrived and are making their way through the place.

And Yayoi is wearing stilettos! This may seem like petty nit picking but as a girl who wears high heels just about every single day, and pretty high ones at that, I know that you only wear stilettos if you want to look good and not necessarily move at all. In fact not even stand for too long. Those things hurt! Yayoi never ceases to amaze.

If anime has taught me anything it’s that women can wear anything–no matter how impractical–and still pull off amazing feats, make of that statement what you will feminists!

?

Anyways, stuff happens. Karina tries to escape and ends up on some high walkways being chased by this huge thing. Arata finds her somehow, and saves her at the last minute. Also Kei and the enforcers are there. Everyone’s fighting. The big guy turns out to be a robot. Enomiya’s robot bodyguard to be exact and I’m really wondering why they didn’t just use him instead of smuggling people. And then the good guys win, hurray!

Karina is saved and although her secret was in fact revealed she held on to her pride and didn’t make any sort of public confirmation. Meanwhile it turns out Yakusiji is just fine and he knows what’s going on but unfortunately he only told the officers and not the audience.

I believe the plan was to simply discredit Karina by leeking the existance of her AI to the public but I’m not sure why it had to be done via kidnapping during a televised speech. I guess the idea was that she would then lose the election and considering Enomiya’s part in everything and their connection to Heracles I suppose we could imagine they wanted him to win? I’m really not sure about any of this though. It’s mostly assumption. This part was a bit messy to me. I’m sorry Matt, I’m going to need your help again.

… I don’t know either, this entire middle section felt like a lot of things happening where nobody (not even the characters in the show themselves) knew why things were happening or who was really responsible but at the same time they didn’t seem to mind and just kind of got on with their days? It’s entirely possible we both missed something obvious and we’re just big dummies–I’m sure the comments section will tell us…

After the plot gets foiled Enomiya wisely decides it’s time to make themselves scarce and attempts an escape but is stopped by Azusawa. Now the Enomiya has outlived their usefulness, they have become a liability and Azusawa is there to tie up loose ends. I thought this guy was a hacker or something but it seems I’m way off. He’s an inspector so I guess it does make sense that he would be in good shape but I didn’t expect him to just easily beat the all time champion like it was nothing.

Well the impression I got was that Enomiya had been out of the game a while and was just using their status to intimidate people, obviously still capable of throwing down when needing to, but not when faced with someone with considerable strength and dexterity of their own. 

To be honest, I really didn’t bond with Enomiya at all. I just didn’t care about the character at this point so to me this part was a bit long. I would have been happy if they just dealt with it off camera and gave us the jist in some tidy little exposition blast. Maybe have Arata read it off an incident report. I would have preferred to see more of the Division 1 crew instead. Did you like it Matt?

I mean, it was fine, I absolutely understand why this series of scenes was here, we were given enough of an introduction to them in the previous episode that killing them off screen kind of would have been like “then what was the point of all that?” so in that respect I didn’t have any problems with it. But I can understand where you’re coming from, I feel like if this show was 23 minutes instead of double that having it resolved as an incident report would have been fine and a way to save screentime but considering how long these episodes are it felt ~somewhat~ necessary.

I personally disagree. Just because an episode is longer doesn’t mean otherwise irrelevant scenes suddenly become necessary.

And the, the election is over. Just like that. 5 second scene… I was all like whaaaaaa. But…huh…. Karina won by the way. No one cared that she was using a fake brain.

That didn’t bother me either, but I kind of liked how quickly they dealt with it, it’s kind of like how real politics feel all this build-up in the campaign that all ends with some numbers on a screen and someone new being in charge that doesn’t really change all that much in the grand scheme of things. The pointlessness of democracy in a peaceful society.

Obviously Bifrost was actually behind all this but why? Not sure. As far as I can tell it wasn’t to influence the outcome of the election. There were way easier ways to do it and Karina was likely to win anyways so they could have just done nothing. The main and possibly only goal was to not only reveal the existence of Ma-Karina but also show that it didn’t matter. I wonder where this is going. Or am I off track again? Not gonna lie, I had some trouble following this episode.

Bifrost to me is just a bunch of super powerful, super wealthy people pulling the strings on a level so incomprehensible to the layperson that they might as well be gods. Seems like they’re ‘betting’ on the outcomes of various things for their own benefits–and playing with the lives of the people in this city like they are poker chips on a board. It’s intentionally vague and oblique–at least that’s how I take it.

Also Kei isn’t in trouble cause the chief sneaky ended his suspension 5 minutes before he got involved in the case and didn’t tell anyone.

One thing I really did like is that Arata and Kei have very compatibility according to Sybil (and with their background it makes sense) but they decided to partner up anyways. Their relationship really does continue to be the strongest part of the show for me.

Any closing thoughts?

You only went and missed my favourite part of the episode! The conversation between Arata and Karina in the glass ferris wheel was fantastic, small moments like this as supremely smart people–one in a position of newfound power–confines in another about things like their own nature and what politics really means in a world like this was great. I couldn’t help but feel a strong sense of intimacy between these two, which makes sense since in Episode 2 Arata compared her to himself in saying they were so much alike. I’m calling a romance subplot already! Also the colour and lighting in the scene was stunning, hey look Irina I mentioned the colour of a scene in an anime, are you proud of me?!

Yeah – I almost fast forwarded through that. My least favourite part of the show so far. The colours were a good clash to the colour story so far but all in all rather uninteresting. If there is a romance subplot, I’m not sure I’ll stick it out with this show.

I honestly didn’t like this episode much. The action was a touch drawn out, a lot of scenes seemed a bit contrived and the pacing was off, stretching certain moments past my interest and condensing others into confusion. This said, as I mentioned, I did get a bit lost a few times so it really may just be a me problem. I also don’t particularly like the softening of Karina’s character. I thought she was an invigorating antagonist that could have created some fantastic conflict .

I never really saw her as an antagonist really (maybe in the first episode she appeared) she seemed to fall somewhere in between. I thought this episode was great, weakest of the four so far thanks to the middling middle section which stretched credulity and my patience but still you could do far worse so I’m still happy!

This said, I still didn’t find the show too long despite double length and was (and remain) really interested in the overall story and what exactly is going on here. I’m looking forward to next week.

Psycho Pass s3 ep4 – Election These opening paragraphs are always the hardest part for me. Once you get into the review you can weave your thoughts through a recap of the episode and everything falls into place.

[codetrainwreck]

Lelouch of the Re;surrection Summary

This summary is extremely outdated/wrong and only here still for historical purposes. alchimique doesn’t speak Japanese at all so it was bound to be wrong in places.

I made a new, accurate summary after actually seeing the movie myself in Japan which you can view here.

This summary compilation post was sourced from:

My friend alchimique who went to Japan and saw the movie (check out the merchandise and cafe pics on her Twitter!)

An anon from /m/ who also saw the movie and posted the movie pamphlet pictures

Japanese Twitter

touchreceptor’s summary, she also saw the movie!

Australians who saw the movie at the Madman anime festival

Screenshots used are from the existing trailers, review screenshots, KMF lineart, the movie pamphlet, and also the week 6 Japanese theater film strip bonus item. Major spoilers, obviously.

I have 3 disclaimers:

This summary is not perfect

No, I haven’t seen it yet either

I am, and always have been, a Schneizel fangirl only. I don’t ship Lelouch with anyone and I don’t have an agenda here. I have to say this at the start because depending on who/what you ship, this summary is going to make you question reality.

There are more pictures of Eyebrows-kun than other characters because he’s pretty and I’m the person compiling this so enjoy like, all of his appearances lmao.

Onwards!

(If you need a primer to Zilkhstan characters/stuff/lore, check out this post)

Opening scene is the first 5mins from the BD/DVD fan disk that was released before: Tamaki makes a 2nd cafe. Ohgi and Villetta are there with their son, Naoto, named after Kallen’s brother / Ohgi’s friend. We get narration that world is at peace. Nunnally is helping with refugees in the desert area near Zilkhstan. They get ambushed. Shalio is able to “predict” (we’ll get to that later) all of Suzaku’s movements thanks to his sister’s Shamna’s prophecies. There’s a trap set in the desert where Suzaku’s KMF lands. Suzaku and Nunnally get captured.

After Suzaku’s captured, it cuts to a portable TV in back of a truck showing cartoons of a cat and dog on a trampoline and a kid is pointing and giggling at them. The cartoons get interrupted by news about Nunnally and Zero going missing. CC lowers the volume and talks to Jeremiah. It pans to right to reveal a person wearing a tan cloak/poncho and white shirt and pants. And a familiar hat. Hat flutters away. It’s Lelouch. But his eyes are glassy and he’s like an empty husk. (The familiar clothes/hat is the cart driver outfit from the end of the R2 TV anime. However, the cart driver scene doesn’t exist in the recap movie and Re;surrection timeline. Additionally, it’s clear from Lelouch’s mental state that he couldn’t do something like drive a cart w/o CC’s help.)

(If you’d like to know more about how they got Lelouch’s body, check this separate post with an explanation from the movie pamphlet)

Cue “Kono sekai de”.

CC is seen traveling with Lelouch. She’s walking with a giant pack on her back while he walks slowly in front of her wearing a bandana on his head and a white shirt. Then he’s in the back of a truck (no bandana) just sitting around until turbulence causes him to fall over.

CC is seen driving the truck but then it breaks down. She tries to pay a mechanic to fix it but he refuses. They then take a train. Lelouch is seen ambling down the narrow hallway while CC struggles with the pack and she ends up falling and getting stuck while Lelouch doesn’t notice. There’s a nighttime scene at a open air structure and Lelouch is seen sitting on a stone wall in the dark. A spotlight passes over him and CC drags him down out of sight.

Lelouch is seen lagging behind so she nudges him along. Eventually they tag along with other refugees on a truck along a train track. He’s wearing a poncho and is squatting down as she’s making arrangements. He gets up when she puts her pack back on and then follows her quietly.

Then they’re seen going into town and they’re in their hotel. Both are dressed in local clothing. Lelouch is laying on the carpet watching Milly interview Shestal on the news with big blank eyes. CC realizes this while she’s cooking local cuisine (meat buns, naan-like bread, etc) and then switches the program to the same cartoons on the portable TV as before.

On the TV, Milly was talking about “The Puzzlement in Hashvess”. Milly is still a reporter and Rivalz is now her errand boy. There was news about Nunnally and Zero being MIA.

CC puts the food on a middle eastern dining style mat. We see that Lelouch has a Code on his throat. It looks like a shadow there. Lelouch picks up a bun and squeezes it. It starts oozing meat juices (clear at first, then turns red) and THIS FREAKS HIM OUT. He screams a lot and accidentally punches CC in the nose and makes her bleed. She calms him down as he tries to run away.

He’s still glassy-eyed half-dead doll person at this point. CC looks outside and sees a suspicious truck. She hides sleeping Lelouch in his bed behind a curtain and gets READY TO FIGHT. Turns out it’s Kallen. CC asks why she’s there, and Kallen says they (her/Sayoko/Lloyd) were sent to save Nunnally.

But it turns out that The Bad Guys (a squad of assassins led by Kujapat, all from the Geass Cult) followed them. Kujapat shoots CC because if she was a tourist, she wouldn’t be in this particular location. After, Kujapat Geasses Kallen, making him her ally and her real allies her enemies, so Kallen ends up fighting Sayoko and Lloyd cause she sees them both as Kujapat. Sayoko subdues Kallen. CC tries to shoot Kujapat as he escapes but she misses. After, Kallen is released from Kujapat’s Geass and he tries to Geass CC instead, but of course it doesn’t work and him and the bad guys scram.

CC remembers Lelouch is still there. He’s quietly freaking out behind the curtain in a ball. Kallen notices him and goes “O_O” and everyone else is like “Oh. Is that LELOUCH?” The sight of other people makes Zombie Lelouch freak the fuck out. CC explains that this isn’t the same Lelouch they knew before.

Cut to EVIL SCIENCE DEPARTMENT. Suzaku is tied up in his dungeon thing. Shalio wheels up and is like “Sup, Suzaku.” Gets mad at him and whips him a bit. Shalio has a camera that displays different parts of Suzaku’s body zoomed in / CSI enhanced as well. Shalio is then called to do something and leaves Suzaku all alone. Also, Suzaku’s spinkick is such a meme even in-universe that they identified Suzaku was the new Zero because of it.

Cut back to CC and the gang. They’re in Sayoko’s truck now. Lelouch is looking through a kaleidoscope and drinking something at the same time. Liquid dribbles down his chin and someone (CC?) wipes it away. Kallen asks what the hell is going on with Lelouch. CC explains that she revived him in body only, but now she needs to get back into Cs’ World to grab his soul, and an entrance to Cs’ World is under the Great Prison of Sorrow in the Gimsurat Flats. Kallen starts crying and thinks this is all terrible.

They take their truck and drive it to the prison (that one in the rocky place with the bridge) and Sayoko disguises herself as a man while the others disguise selves as prisoners (the white suits). Lloyd stays in the truck. Sayoko leads them in and then she and Kallen kick the shit out of everyone. CC gives the prison key card to one of the prisoners and the prisoners let themselves out and arm themselves.

Lelouch is confused. CC leads them all to the Gate of Alam - this chamber with a door with the Geass signal on it (it’s got softer curves). Kallen tries to Lelouch it’s okay, but she gets upset when Lelouch just stares blankly at her. She starts crying, and Lelouch tries to comfort her and pet her hair (reacting to her sorrow) and she ends up bawling into his shoulder/chest. She doesn’t like it when he looks at her with his zombie vegetable stare. The Gate of Alam is covered by water. CC activates the flood gates, revealing the door and a V-shaped path with a stepping stone in the middle.

CC activates the door and transports herself and Lelouch to Cs world. Sayoko and Kallen (skin under eyes puffy) chat a bit. Meanwhile Lloyd is doing some hacking into the facilities and creeps on Suzaku who is still alone in the dungeon and is like “oh this won’t do~~”. As it conveniently turns out, the door they need is also right under the prison Suzaku is in.

Scenes with most of the new Zilkhstan characters. At the temple in the capital city, Kujapat tells Shamna about CC and teases Shestal. (Supposedly, he teases him for being a pretty face on TV. Poor Shestal. Not his fault he was born super pretty. orz)

Back to Cs’ World, we see beams of light representing Lelouch and CC and they land in a rocky place with that purple orb from the trailer. They approach. Lelouch is still confused as fuck. CC then sees Marianne and Charles inside the orb with a look of disdain. CC remarks that she can’t believe Charles still hasn’t let go of Lelouch after all of this time. They don’t speak but just appear and then disappear. As she touches it, it turns into orange and black ash.

C.C’s shaken by it but tries touching the orb anyways. I think there’s a particle effect that happens (the chaotic stuff we see in the trailer) and Lelouch FREAKS OUT and screams as he stumbles backwards and disappears. (You see the common theme here so far...)

Cut back to Kallen and Sayoko. As it turns out, the “prisoners” that CC freed to use as a distraction are not actually prisoners. They’re hired hands working for Zilkhstan to bamboozle CC and the gang in exchange for KMFs. Sayoko is subdued by a bald skinny dude with a killer beyblade and sticky gunk. Kallen is subdued by Bitool. The ass from the trailer is hers.

Cut back to Cs’ World. CC reaches for him but misses. CC is seen flying/floating about trying to find him. Various silhouettes appear here (such as Euphy). The last silhouette is Charles. The silhouettes all reach out then fall. Then you see a hand reaching for a bright light. Finally, CC wakes up in front of the door. The prisoners are there and have Lloyd/Sayoko/Kallen in burrito things. Then they shoot CC a bunch.

(For the longer explanation from the pamphlet about this particular scene in Cs’ World, please see this post)

So she’s just bleeding on the ground and then we see another figure standing in front of the door on this little stone step (there’s a channel of water running to the door; stone steps). And it’s..... LELOUCH.

Lelouch is back. And his mark is RED (sometimes it’s red, sometimes it’s like a scar). He tells all of the fake prisoners to kill themselves, and they do. Lloyd and Sayoko (she wasn’t Geassed in the recap movies) cover their eyes. Lelouch pulls CC out of the water and tells her that he’s back, and that they’ll have something to talk about later. He has both Code and Geass and there’s a new animation effect when he uses his Geass. But when other characters use Geass, the animation effects are the same as during R2.

Cut back to Suzaku. Suzaku is bandaged (very much like in episode 2) and it’s night time. He stirs to see Lelouch sitting on the ledge of a large window. Lelouch has Geassed a guard and a doctor (to patch up Suzaku). Moonlit. Lelouch is chilling and looking at a portable computer from Lloyd, casually talking to Suzaku. Suzaku gets up and staggers towards him and asks, “Is it really you?”

And then Suzaku ever so gently touches Lelouch’s face with his index finger to make sure Lelouch is real. The touch had higher budget than CC flying through Cs’ World. It’s close up of Lelouch’s lips and cheek and you can see how soft his skin is and that he isn’t a ghost.

CC and Kallen chat. CC mentions to Kallen that Lelouch intended to die and what she was doing here is out of her own selfishness.

Suzaku’s very emotional about Lelouch’s return, but Lelouch is just like “cool”. Suzaku asks him how he’s alive, what he’s been doing, etc. Lelouch tells him he’ll accept any punishment, so Suzaku punches him and starts screaming. Part of this scene is semi-graphic. The other part is abstract silhouettes (for some reason it goes white and the figures are blue/white/purple colors). CC has to pull Suzaku back before he beats Lelouch back to death. It’s the part from the trailer where he goes, “CC...” then collapses.

Suzaku takes a fucking chill pill and is now wearing a prisoner outfit too. Then they meet with Lloyd, who’s driving a KMF. It turns out that Bitool is still alive as he wasn’t with the other fake prisoners when Lelouch told them to die. Lelouch and CC are in a control room. Lelouch has that portable computer thing again. CC is there. Kallen runs in and hugs Lelouch. Suzaku comes in in his prisoner outfit and hops into one of the KMFs.

Outside of the prison, Shestal and a group of soldiers have traveled through the desert (following the earlier scene w/the Zilkhstan characters) and surrounded the compound. Lelouch is seen Geassing prisoners as “Lelouch vi Britannia”, reaches out via sound-only to taunt Shestal by insulting his family and calling him a dumbass, then issues commands to Sayoko, “K1″ (Suzaku), and the Geassed prisoners.

A fight breaks out. Because Shestal is in fact a complete dumbass (and also Sunrise hates me), he gets pissed and goes down below to where Suzaku’s room was at and breaks open the window with his KMF, the Jarja Bakah. (They don’t even say the name of his KMF in the movie, so I don’t think we’re ever getting an official romanization for this LOL.)

This is the part from the trailer where he says he’s here to get Zero. Except Lelouch and the gang are long gone and have left a Sakuradite bomb trap behind for Shestal which takes out him + the other floors in the prison. (Given the fate of his Akito character who also died after 5mins, I guess Legendary FGO Space Whale Nobunaga Shimazaki is destined to never live long in Geass stuff. Maybe there’s an eyebrow threading salon in the afterlife. Dude is so pretty but then those eyebrows haunt my dreams.)

Sometime after Shestal dies, Volvona asks for permission to go kick Zero’s ass to avenge his son. Shamna, however, tells him not to do this because of her “prophecy”. (We’ll come back to what actually happened here later.) Nunnally is seen in a tank on Shamna’s ceiling.

Meanwhile, at UFN HQ, Schneizel, Kannon and Rakshata are discussing their options for getting Nunnally and Zero back. Schneizel’s Geass isn’t always on. He only gets red rings in his eyes when he’s talking about Zero. Also there are the Indian teenager engineers working under Rakshata. Schneizel refers to them all as geniuses.

There’s a map during this scene that puts Zilkhstan around current day Pakistan and India.

(Also Schneizel is wearing glasses when he’s at his desk here and he looks really fucking handsome. His wardrobe has changed to be more form fitting and modern and he just looks like he’s everyone’s dad[dy] now. Holy fuck. I’ve spent 13 years drooling over this guy after seeing him flick his bangs around in the opening of the very first episode of the first season and this is just WL;K4L234KFJLK234019284IFSJKKLASFJ14L243JKL23K4324JK43KKLWKLDAKJLDAJKSDKJLAKSLD!!1111 I’M NOT A FUNCTIONAL HUMAN BEING ANYMORE.)

Lelouch suits up into his Zero outfit. This time he’ll taking up the Zero mantle as “Lelouch Lamperouge” rather than “Lelouch vi Britannia”. Suzaku looks on with a frowny face. CC, who has apparently had enough of this fucking movie already, is drinking a martini by the window.

Meanwhile, Shirley is shopping. She tries to call CC on her phone, but she doesn’t answer. After, she meets up with Milly and Rivalz. Milly just got back from Zilkhstan.

Lelouch and the gang meet up with Cornelia and many other returning characters such as Guilford (not blind), Tamaki (wearing a white bancho jacket with a heart on the back w/Zero’s name written on it; JP twitter seemed to really like this lol), and Ohgi. Cornelia has a new outfit and a gun-sword.

Because Cornelia is like the only smart person there at the time, she’s the only person who is remotely hesitant about Lelouch’s return and such. Lelouch takes off his helmet and reveals himself to her. Everyone else chimes in and gets her to help. Tamaki also leans on her gun-sword. She’s upset that Lelouch is alive while Euphy remains dead, but she agrees to help them rescue Nunnally.

Some more people show up, including Jeremiah, Anya, Cecile and Nina. They chill at a local town and Cecile makes a gross drink for Lloyd that almost kills him. Outdoors, Tamaki and Ohgi are being dumb. Ohgi tries to kill himself after thanking Lelouch for Japan, but Lelouch-Jesus stops him from doing it and also forgives him.

Suzaku is talking to Cornelia in the town (she brought him a hot drink) when he notices Lelouch do the collar up signal from their youth for “let’s talk on the roof”. (Reportedly, this gesture is out of focus and only noticeable if you’re a fujoshi.) Up on top of a tower, Lelouch is on his tablet thing again, looking over a memory card full of info from Kaguya.

Lelouch encourages Suzaku to say whatever he needs to say cause Lelouch himself doesn’t understand his resurrection or if it was actually successful or if he’ll roll over and die tomorrow. Suzaku says there’s two things that he wants to say to Lelouch. The first is that he believes Lelouch should become Zero again. He starts to say the second thing, but he stops when he notices that Lelouch is watching Ohgi and Villetta’s wedding video which Kaguya included on the memory card.

The wedding was super duper extra and you also see other characters, like Minami from the Black Knights cutting the cake. Schneizel and Kannon got retconned into being wedding guests. Suzaku tells Lelouch that everyone’s been doing well since he died. Then the wedding video focuses on Nunnally who is happy and having fun. One of them mentions Suzaku’s unspoken line. Suzaku finishes it by saying that he’s happy Lelouch is back and how lonely the world is without him.

Suzaku asks Lelouch what he’ll do after everything is resolved It pans down to Kallen and CC on the lower level, who are having a similar conversation. CC looks kind of sad.

(To give you an idea of the pacing, we have now reached roughly the 1/2 way through the film point.)

We are back with Shamna hanging out on her royal couch with her 6 booby guards. Shamna has Nunnally in a sensory deprivation chamber on her ceiling. Shamna is trying to use the Gate of Alam in her temple to enter Cs’ World to do Evil Villain Things. Shamna uses Nunnally to enter Cs’ World and reaches for an orb, but she fails and is teleported back out.

Seemingly, Nunnally’s connection to both Charles and Lelouch makes her connection to Cs’ World strong.

Lelouch is disguised and goes to an outdoor train platform in desert and Geasses two of the workers and also all of the passengers on the train. By middle of night / early morning, all of the returning cast have new mechs and gear. Lelouch tells Suzaku and Kallen to fight in the desert while everyone else goes to the urban area to rescue Nunnally. They sneak their KMFs onto the trains then jump out of them.

CC gets a new outfit that doesn’t have pants. She gets into 2 seater KMF with Lelouch called the Gekkoi. (If you’ve seen Gundam, it’s reportedly similar to a Zeong.)

Communications are jammed for Lelouch and the gang. Lelouch and CC are isolated. Lelouch starts freaking out. CC asks him if he’s given up. Lelouch has no idea how to win against this enemy. That’s when CC calms him by taking a gun out and putting it against his forehead (but this scene is difficult to take seriously because of her pilot outfit and the way the scene is framed). CC asks him, “Does it feel like despair? Cause that’s been my whole existence.” Lelouch chills after CC outdoes his edginess. He starts writing down theories about what’s going on as he’s talking to CC, who has sensed Shamna’s power. It’s written in English and list is seriously like: “They seem to KNOW EVERYTHING!!1111”

Eventually, Lelouch and CC land in Shamna’s room and shoot the guards all to death while Shamna’s laying in her own Avatar pod chamber thing. Shama’s chamber opens up. Lelouch shoots Shamna with the gun on the KMF. But this is a trap - it triggers her Geass. Her eyes glow and the sigil is yellow.

As it turns out, Shamna’s Geass rewinds time 6 hours back whenever she dies. She doesn’t actually see “prophecies”, she just knows what happens then she shoots herself to force the time rewind and looks like a fucking prophet. In the earlier scene after Shestal dies, she has seemingly allowed Volvona to go after Zero, it doesn’t end very well, then she goes back in time to stop him. (Why doesn’t she just go back in time and prevent Shestal from dying in the fucking first place? Holy shit. Sunrise fucking hates me.)

So, this turns into the Edge of Tomorrow / All You Need is Kill. Shamna retains her memories when time rewinds. Her power hasn’t always been like this, but this change occurred after Lelouch made a request to [God / Cs’ World / the Collective Unconscious / Jupiter] to let time keep ticking.

After going back, she’s now in a large bathing area naked with Shalio. She has her hands on his shoulders behind him and tells him he can leave things to her. The camera pans slowly and reveals she has a Code on her lower belly. Like Lelouch, she has both a Code + Geass.

Reset 1: Lelouch is stopped from reaching Shamna because she’s ready this time around. Shamna tries to get into Cs’ World again, but fails. Schneizel arrives in Zilkhstan with Kannon on a helicopter. Volvona comes to speak with Shamna and says that the Britannians want to talk. Shamna shoots herself in front of Volvona and her guards.

Reset 2: Gino, Tohdoh, Chiba and Hong Gu are attempting [democracy]. (The blonde lady next to Tohdoh is a character from the ending stills of the Miraculous Birthday.) Jeremiah and Anya are in the urban area in Zilkhstan. Jeremiah destroys a power plant with a KMF that shoots orange juice laser beams. With the power out, Shamna has to wait for it come back up. Except Shamna does not have time for this shit, so she shoots herself again.

Reset 3: Lelouch and CC try again. This time around, Shamna sees Jupiter but wakes up in her chamber again and sees her guards on the ground, and assumes they’ve died again. But 2 of them are still alive, and they get up and restrain Lelouch. Buuut, it turns out that Lelouch Geassed the other guards, so the 4 of them them get up and surround Shamna. She asks Lelouch if he’s going to tell her to kill herself, but instead he orders her to sleep so she can’t rewind time again. He then sets a bomb to explode her temple after 10 hours.

In the desert above the city, Kallen has been fighting Bitool and Suzaku has been fighting Shalio.

Kallen kills Bitool. Bitool was piloting a Guard Scorpion mech called the Batalaran Do that can resist the Radiation Wave due to its strong armor. In order to beat him, Kallen has to ditch the new armor on the Guren. Her new Guren armor blows up after she launches out of an energy bubble she was trapped in, and she apologizes to Shanti, one of the Indian teenagers working under Rakshata who made the new gear for the Guren and Lancelot.

Shalio beats Lancelot sIN into the ground (its wings are smoking), causing Suzaku’s live Geass to trigger. Shalio is both stupid strong and screaming about his sister. Like Kallen, Suzaku relies on the old Lancelot gear in order to defeat Shalio - after his new wings are busted, Suzaku uses the old energy wings.

Suzaku lands a critical hit and blows up Shalio. He’s yelling about Shamna cause he can’t feel her presence anymore, and thus can’t get “prophecies” from her anymore. Every loop, Shamna has been getting updates on the battle so she’s been telling Shalio and the others how to adjust plans. There’s a scene full of red and black scribble lines where Shamna screams and dies w/o resetting time. Her Geass can’t save her because No One Fucking Knows Why.

Cornelia and Volvona fight each other (apparently a rematch battle of sorts; they’ve clashed before). Cornelia corners him and thinks he should pursue a peaceful option. However, Volvona orders his troops to fire at both of them so he can sacrifice himself to take out Cornelia. But since the army has quit receiving “prophecies” from Shamna, Volvona is the highest ranking person left and now kinda in charge of the country so the army doesn’t actually want to sacrifice him.

Nina turned into MacGuyver so she kills Kujapat and the other assassins by dropping a wire from a KMF into water and electrocuting them to death. Cecile gets shot but no one covered her wound and people are worried she isn’t gonna make it. It’s clear that Lloyd is more connected to people now. After Cecile gets shot, he’s holding her. (Presumably, he feels bad about not protecting her - him and Nina have Cool Glasses that project Blaze Luminous shields.) Sayoko, Ohgi and Tamaki are in the urban area but it’s revealed after 12-13 years that Ohgi is about as good at running as Lelouch is.

Lelouch and CC go to get Nunnally out of the tank, but she’s in Cs’ World. They use Shamna as a route into Cs’ World. Lelouch finds Nunnally there through the fog laying on the ground. She wakes up and sees him and is shocked. They’re swallowed by black particles in Cs’ World. Lelouch holds her to his chest with the black and white filtering effect. Lelouch starts to Geass the approaching black mass, but then changes his mind, saying that Geass is his sin.

Following, a giant pair of rainbow hands emerges from the darkness, lifting the two up and the scenery turns colorful again with literal rainbows, and they’re safely teleported out of Cs’ World. Lelouch recognizes these hands as the people who helped him earlier when Cs’ World tried to consume him. In the real world, Shamna’s Temple explodes. The towns people of Gralbahd notice it.

While Lelouch is getting Nunnally, CC talks with Shamna as a distraction. It turns out that Lelouch’s Code is from Charles (hence the location of it on his body), but his Code and Shamna’s are both “incomplete” or “corrupted” (these words are the descriptions used by Japanese Twitter, I do not know what an “incomplete Code” is supposed to be). It’s explained here that Shamna’s goal was to use Cs’ World to make the world more fair for Zilkhstan. As a mercenary country, their economy was screwed pretty hard by Zero Requiem. However, she doesn’t want to return to being a mercenary culture, she wants them to be able to have peace too. (So... why not join the UFN?)

The movie pamphlet doesn’t mention fixing Zilkhstan at all, but rather that she’s doing this for Shalio’s sake since he’s disabled, similar to Lelouch’s goal in the anime. These can certainly be the same goal, but the pamphlet explains it differently.

Lelouch wakes up. Nunnally, Suzaku and Kallen are all there. They look outside and see shooting stars. The Ashford gang sees it too. Lelouch fulfilled his promise to see the fireworks with everyone. Lelouch talks with Nunnally. She begs him to be with her now, but she’s grown up now and doesn’t “need” him anymore. She’s sad, but she still smiles as Suzaku looks on. Kallen and Suzaku part ways; Suzaku now in a blue hoodie with the Zero suit in his arms.

The movie pamphlet contains pictures and a piece of the script where everyone parts ways.

CC is packed up already and is about to join a refugee caravan. Kallen comes and gives her the imitation Cheese plush. CC intends to depart. Then we see that Lelouch has run to catch up to her and is out of breath (lol). He says he wants to go with her, she tells him to stay with Nunnally or hit up Shirley, but he says that Nunnally doesn’t need him anymore and it’s too late for him to contact Shirley. CC tries to brush him off by saying she doesn’t even have a name. Lelouch replies that she can call him LL (pronounced L2), for Lelouch Lamperouge. CC starts crying and the 2 hold hands while walking through the refugee caravan together. “Revive” plays here.

During the credits, we see a bunch of pictures:

Cecile recovers while Milly jabs Lloyd. Cecile looks annoyed about it.

Nunnally holding a puppy while hanging out with Kaguya + the Chinese Empress + the assumed EU girl (from the Miraculous Birthday ending stills) and they’ve all got matching outfits

Zerozaku visits the candle place from R2

Arthur is chilling w/another cat (btw, according to a staff member, Arthur is a girl cat)

Kallen with the new Indian engineers who hang out w/Rakshata (see: the Guren manga), Kallen is apologizing to Shanti for blowing up the Guren armor

Jeremiah and Anya are back on the orange farm with Sayoko hidden in a bush

Volvona and Cornelia sign a treaty with odd metallic heart in background while Gino, Kaguya, and the blonde girl’s secretary look on

Shirley gets a phone call

Villetta and Chiba are making food in the kitchen while Tohdoh has a child in a harness (unknown if it’s Villetta and Ohgi’s son or if Tohdoh and Chiba had a kid)

Ohgi reading a doujinshi about Tamaki’s love for Zero

In the post-credits scene, we see Lelouch and CC in front of a pile of bodies. They’re wearing complimentary black outfits that super extra fabulous and blingy. Lelouch has a rose choker. CC has a black transparent veil. Lelouch and CC have gone off to find other Geass users, take the power from those who can’t control it, and find those with the power to control it. The camera is facing Lelouch’s back. We hear him give the speech about how “The power of the King may isolate you”. He turns around to face who he’s talking to - you, the audience.

[wheremytwinwatches]

[Where My Twin Watches]: PMMM Rebellion - Part 5

Alright, after that epic fight it’s time to move on. We left off at Homura being rescued by un-brainwashed Sayaka (thanks Kyoko!), but Mami was getting re-educated by that cutesy little monster Charlotte. Time for both sides to regroup and prepare for the finale fight!

So yeah, Homura snaps to as Sayaka draws her sword to cut the ribbons away or stab the lock on them, yikes. That works too I guess but for a second it looked like you were gonna shank Homura.

Both girls nail the landing, Sayaka looking away as Homura reasonably asks what the heck is going on. Sayaka of all people chides Homura for fighting Mami when, and wow this is a role reversal. In the show it was cool and collected MST Homura who kept telling Sayaka to chill, now Sayaka’s the one bailing Homura out and calling her either “really full of yourself or really dumb.” Hah!

Alright, Sayaka’s up to speed, she knows Homura was trying to kill the Witch. She remembers everything! And.. wait, what?

[Sayaka]: “Because that’s why I’m here. At any rate, didn’t you think any of this was odd to start with?”

What, are you saying that you figured this stuff out before Homura did? But… yeah you’re right that doesn’t make sense. Why would a Witch make a city-sized Labyrinth, and then just keep them there without harming them or drawing in more victims. I mean, it supports the Cannibal!Witch theory where Charlotte’s using them as meal tickets, but it still feels off. Why was it that Charlotte was the one to pull this off, the “Sweets Witch”?

[Sayaka]: “This Labyrinth isn’t a trap to lure in victims. What the witch controlling this Labyrinth wants is to maintain the status quo in here. In other words, who benefits from the way things are right now?”

Well, Charlotte’s getting fed, so her.

[Sayaka]: “If you work backwards from that, it-”

Wait Homura what are you GAH sudden spin from Sayaka she She just stabbed Homura’s shield Sayaka stopped Homura from stopping time Why No I’d not thought about it There’s another “who benefits from the way things are right now”

[Sayaka]: “Gonna run back into your own little time again? That’s a bad habit of yours.”

nononono How why

It’s not Charlotte. It’s Octavia.

No, not that Octavia. The Witch Octavia.

[Homura]: “So you’re saying the person who wished for this situation is one of us?”

This is bad this is really bad Homura’s facing the jailer she can’t timestop anymore why how i don’t understand how did

[Sayaka]: “Is it really so surprising? Wasn’t Mami just saying earlier that this is the happiest she’s ever been in her life?

Implying that the Witch is Mami, but no. Out of the five of you, you were the one who turned in-

Oh. OH. OH

Madoka, what the FUCK are you thinking?!

Welp. Time to bring back that theory from last episode that I tabled.

The more I think about it, the more obvious it is. Madoka became Madokami (and good grief you guys, did it really take me this long to realize that nickname? I mean, Madoka and Kami? My own friggin username is mashing Ra and Anubis together, that should have been obvious! Ugh, I am clueless), and she made a new world. One free of Witches.

But it wasn’t perfect, they still fought flaws in the form of the Wraiths. And on a more personal note, there was one person who was the least happy: the one who remembered her. Homura lived her life in remembrance of Madoka, carried a bow, did everything in honor of her.

And at some point, it seems Madokami decided that that wasn’t good. So she made a New New World, as perfect as she could manage. Instead of being alone, Mami has a companion in “Bebe”. Instead of pining after Kyosuke, Sayaka gets a second chance at life with her BEST FRIEND Kyoko, who likewise has a better life with Sayaka. And for Homura? Madokami creates a new Madoka, gives Homura a fresh start.

And all it took was to make a Labyrinth for them, and suppress their memories.

Guys? Is this Rebellion actually against Madokami?

Like, Madokami, I get where you’re coming from, I really do. But this isn’t the way.

Just… guys. It’s all coming together. -Madokami creates a city-sized Labyrinth, to give her friends a better world. -Madokami silences the Incubator, keeping the group of five at a set size. -She gives them “Nightmares” to fight, relatively easy foes that they take down together, gives them purpose. -Sayaka, who we know semi-Ascended into Madokami’s afterlife, is her on-site watcher, to make sure everyone stays happy. -This supports “Bebe” too, as a Saved Magical Girl in the show she works for Madokami, keeps up the illusion.

“In other words, who benefits from the way things are right now?”

Everyone in the Madokrew benefits. But in particular, Madokami is happy that her friends are happy.

ResplendentScorpion said:I think the actual problem is that nobody but Madoka sunk anything in "empathy". The rest of them are horrible at comprehending each other as well, it's not just Homura not being able to explain herself. In contrast, Madoka has no problem understanding, feeling for, and emotionally supporting everyone.

Tinkerbell said:I think all the other members of the Magical Girl Team have perfectly normal empathy levels, actually. Madoka's empathy levels, on the other hand, is anything but normal.

Yes! This! Exactly!

Jeebus, Madokami’s actually the instigator of the movie! She’s the one behind everything! Best of intentions, but still.

Just… wow, that’s a thing.

Anyways, time to get proven wrong! Back to the movie.

Sayaka’s asking what Homura will do with the creator of the Labyrinth, once she finds her.

[Homura]: “Well, that… should be obvious.”

But can she? Because we’ve established that the Labyrinth-maker is one of the Madokrew, evidence pointing towards Madoka. Can she really “vanquish” them?

Now Sayaka’s asking if all this is really so bad. They don’t have to fight Witches anymore, they can all live and work together. Is whoever Wished for that so sinful that they need to be punished?

Homura is shocked, shocked I say, that Sayaka is siding with a Witch. (Well, I wouldn’t call her a “Witch” per say…) Sayaka just says that they are the “final form” of magical girls, after all. You can’t help but sympathize.

[Homura]: “I just remembered the most crucial point in all this.”

Mami remembered fighting Wraiths, not Witches. And Kyoko didn’t understand the concept of Labyrinths, not because she forgot about Witches, but because neither she nor Mami “ever knew about them.”

Ok, establishes this post-Madokami for sure. When Madokami remade the universe, it was without Witches. Every MG’s soul is saved before it becomes a Witch. At the sacrifice of the Wisher herself.

[Sayaka]: “I see. So you do remember her.”

Yup. Yup yup yup. There it is. Sayaka remembers Madoka, because she works for Madokami as a Saved Magical Girl.

Homura states that there are three people here who should not exist: -The Witch who created the Labyrinth -Charlotte, who remains in the form of a Witch -And Sayaka, who remembers the existence of Witches

Now… is Homura talking to one of those people, or two?

[Sayaka]: “You make me sad. I’m the same Sayaka Miki you’ve always known… Transfer Student.”

… did you just do a MST backwards head-tilt at Homura? You’re enjoying this, aren’t you-

HOLY CARP HER SHADOW IS OF HER WITCH FORM GAHGAHGAH

Ok, guess we’re doing this now!

Sayaka stabs at Homura’s shield again, but this time Homura pulls Sayaka’s sword away. Not sure how useful that’ll be as she can just summon another, but whatever. Quick stomach-kick to get some distance, shield’s working again so Homura does a timestop.

Ok, let’s recap: You’re in a music-themed alley area, with someone who just attacked you after you worked out that she’s involved with the Labyrinth. You’ve managed to timestop, but seeing as you pulled out a pistol I’m worried that you used up all your serious firepower in that earlier fight. How are you going to get out of this?

Yeah, looks like she used her power just in time, she’s facing an oversized white cape with an image of Octavia in it. Pulling it away, time resumes… to an empty alleyway. Did she withdraw?

[Sayaka]: “You haven’t answered my question yet. Would you really be okay destroying this Mitakihara City? You should think hard on that before you decide. So that you won’t have any regrets.”

So we’ve established that the city is fake, “an idealized world someone dreamed up.” And seeing as she knows that now, we’re in full Labyrinth mode again, creepy children and artistic swans all over the place. Homura’s now on a boat-

Sorry, had to be done. Homura’s on a boat now for some reason, she-

...ok, goodbye Fourth Wall. She’s sailing under an arch that says “Do you enjoy the movie?”

Why yes Urobuchi, I am enjoying this very much. The animation is great, that Homura/Mami fight was glorious, and I’m loving the plot twists that are driving me insane. Thanks for making this!

Now she’s sailing through a tunnel, as paper cuttouts parrot lines by the other MGs.

[Kyoko]: “I came over to help Mami out.” [Mami]: “This is the kind of daily life I used to dream about in the old days.” [Sayaka]: “Tell me, is this really so bad?”

Homura’s thinking about how someone dragged everyone into this “unattainable dream world”. Forsaking the battle against the wraiths? Ah, yeah that’s a good point. If they’re in this Labyrinth living it up, then they aren’t outside fighting the flaws of the world. Maybe Madokami put a few of the Saved MGs on the task while they’re on “vacation”? Homura doesn’t approve, saying MGs must continue to always fight. Thought as she reaches up to a stylized drawing of Madokami.

Hey, Homura? I know it might seem outlandish, given how long you strived to save Madoka, but… maybe you could take a break? You got your miracle, even if it wasn’t by your hand. You don’t have to keep paying for it.

Yikes, “ridiculous farce”. You really don’t appreciate how Madokami tried to make you happy, huh? To be fair, if you don’t think about this as a gift from Madokami, it could be seen this way. Hopefully Homura learns the truth soon.

Creepy Kids throwing tomatoes/pomegranates? Ok then.

Back in the city, hey it’s Madoka! Er, semi-Madoka? Labyrinth Madoka? Eh I’mma just call you Madoka. She’s happy to see Homura, who quickly tries brushing away the last of her headshot damage. Then Madoka jumps down to her, and by the Laws of Anime they end up tumbling into the boat. Daw.

GAH another flash of the Incubator’s eyes, what the heck.

But hey, Madoka! How are… uh oh.

[Madoka]: “Mami is really worried about you. What happened?”

Cripes right Madoka’s part of the Labyrinth, she’s supposed to keep Homura happy. Now she’s saying that Homura shouldn’t go off by herself. Yep, Homura’s back under surveillance. You have to admit, it’s a pretty good one: have the person Homura cares about the most, or at least a copy of her, focus on keeping her happy. And peaceful.

Urgh, enough with the Madoka Guilt Trips! Have mercy!

Homura hey that’s your Meek Homura voice again, not sure if good or bad. Meek Homura is claiming a dream, that Madoka had gone someplace she would never see her again.

More emotional pain! Homura’s saying that as the only one who remembered, she began to doubt her own memories given no-one else remembered. Did she just make it up?

Yep, I’m picturing Madokami checking in on the Earth, thinking “Lah de dah, glad to see that the New World is working well, everyone’s peaceful and- wait, is Homura crying?! THIS. WILL. NOT. DO.”

Madoka gives Homura a hug, agreeing that that’s a terrible dream but assuring her she’d never go away where she would never see them again. Why?

[Madoka]: “You know how wimpy I am. And because I could never bear to do something that would make someone as strong as you cry like this.”

Yep, this… as sweet as this scene is, it’s clear what’s going on: Homura is being brainwashed again. First the voice, now Madoka is starting to braid her hair.

I… honestly don’t know if I should tell Homura to fight this.

Sudden flashback to the Hallway Scene? Homura’s crying, and why is there a dark pulse going through the flowers?

Homura is saying that she understands, that she made a stupid mistake?

[Homura]: “I shouldn’t have allowed that to happen. That no matter what I would’ve had to do, I should have stopped you back then.”

Homura… no. You can’t blame yourself for Madoka’s actions, her choices. This Madoka… she’s not the one you know. She’s part of the Labyrinth.

Um guys the field of flowers is dying I don’t think that’s a good sign

Or just fading? Now they’re dandelions. Did we just see a season change?

Homura’s asserting that Madoka is far kinder and stronger than she knows.

Now her hair is unbraiding. She’s fighting it! She’s saying that Madoka doesn’t remember anything, that she thought she was an illusion or a copy made by someone. But… this is the real Madoka. Hold up is she fighting the brainwashing or not?

Homura thanks Madoka for making her happy. Then says that she’s going, there’s something left she needs to do.

Ok, what is with this movie? I keep coming up with theories, each more outlandish than the last, until now I’m at the point I am actually accusing MADOKAMI of being the Mastermind?! I don’t even…

I can’t put any trust in my speculations, now after how insanely wrong I kept being in the show itself. But I’m looking at all these pieces, and it’s all just fitting together. Am I missing something? Was there a scene I skipped, a line I was too distracted to read? Because as far as I can tell Sayaka showing up with Witch powers means that the person she works for put her there. And that is Madokami.

And I can’t even decide if it’s all that villainous or not! I mean yes Madokami put the three MGs in a Labyrinth and wiped their memories. But like Sayaka said, aren’t they happy? Isn’t this a world where they can live their lives, be safe and enjoy it?

Is anyone really being hurt by all of this? Homura’s biggest complaint was that they weren’t fighting the Wraiths, but surely Madokami put some of her girls on it? And if so, then what’s the harm? I mean besides the wiping of memories thing. But was Homura happier not remembering Madokami, not being driven by the sacrifice of her friend? Wasn’t she at peace?

You guys there’s still an hour left in this friggin movie good grief what more is there?!

[duhragonball]

Dragon Ball GT Retrospective (1/7)

[Note: This was originally written on January 10, 2013.   My leg was broken, and I decided to kill some time watching GT all the way through.]

My leg is still broken.   On the bright side, this gives me time to catch up on crappy anime.   My Tenchi in Tokyo DVD arrived in the mail a while back, and I had already resolved to use my convalescance to watch every episode of Dragon Ball GT.   So now I can have what I like to call a Marathon of Crap.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LyNFxnv78w

I've written about the problems with DBGT before, but now that I've sat through the first fourteen episodes, I feel better informed about them.  I think the experience of GT for any fan basically goes like this: STAGE ONE: You finish watching Dragon Ball Z, and you're hopeful that GT will just be 64 more episodes of awesome, even if everyone else who saw it thinks it sucks.   STAGE TWO: You start watching it, and quickly recognize why everyone hates it.   Nevertheless, you remain hopeful that you'll find some hidden quality that redeems the series in some way.   STAGE THREE: You get to the part where Goku is thwarted by a metal grate in a sewer, even though he's spent the entire series performing superhuman feats of strength.   You wearily accept that this show refuses to adhere to even the simplest level of continuity.   STAGE FOUR: Cool!   Super Saiyan 4 Gogeta!  They can't possibly screw this u--ohhhhh shit they just did. STAGE FIVE: You refuse to recognize GT as anything remotely resembling canon.   STAGE SIX: You buy the DVD box set anyway, because you're a completist and it was on sale.   STAGE SEVEN: You watch the series again, now properly aware that it was never going to be a worthy continuation of DBZ, but it's probably got some decent camp value.   And that's where I am today.  When they rolled out GT for American audiences, Funimation didn't even bother releasing the first twenty or so episodes, because even they knew how lame they were as a followup to DBZ.  Instead, they edited together a single episode which recapped them, then later released the uncut editions as "The Lost Episodes".   So these are the worst of the worst.  Later on, the series evolves into a watered down parody of what Dragon Ball Z had been, and I think that's what most American fans are complaining about when they talk about the show.    But these early episodes are the real crap.   The original premise was that a secret set of "Black Star" Dragon Balls is discovered and accidentally used to de-age Goku into a child.  At first, the goal seems to be getting Goku back to normal, except the Black Star Dragon Balls have an added side effect of blowing up the world one year after they're used to make a wish.   Worse, they scatter all over the universe with each use, so the only hope is a space mission to find them and return to Earth within one year.   

Frankly, this is the stupidest thing ever.   The Dragon Balls are artifacts created by Namekian craftsmen, and they were introduced to Earth when a Namekian skilled in the art came to this planet.   Why would he construct Dragon Balls that blow up the Earth, where he is?  Why would he fashion them so that they scatter into space, when he is essentially stuck on his adopted world with no practical means of searching for them?   One could argue that this was a faulty job, an essay in the craft, abandoned when the Red Star Dragon Balls turned out to be much safer and more convenient to use.   But no one ever says this.  Also, no one ever explains why they can't use one of the other sets of Dragon Balls to retrieve the more volatile Black Star set.   Anyway, the space expedition goes haywire when Goku's granddaughter Pan sneaks aboard and carelessly launches the ship before it's ready.   This leaves only herself, Goku, and Trunks on board to carry out the mission.  For the first leg of the series, these are the main cast of the show.  I'm not sure how they picked that lineup, except that they were clearly trying to echo the dynamic of Goku, Krillin, and Bulma back in the old Dragon Ball series.  The idea was to go back to the adventure concept of the original series, as opposed to the heavy action focus of Dragon Ball Z.   This doesn't work, mainly because the characters are simply too powerful to function as adventure heroes doing Indiana Jones style stories.  Back in the old days Goku and Krillin were superhuman fighters, but they were still inexperienced, and there was room in the world for stronger enemies to menace them.  By DBGT, Goku has repeatedly proven himself to be the most powerful mortal being in his universe, and most of the other characters are right behind him on the Top Twenty.  GT keeps doing episodes where the trio land on a planet, explore the situation a little, then stage a lopsided confrontation with the bad guy.  There's no suspense to it because Goku can blow up the whole planet if he wants to, and the bad guy is usually some tin-dictator who doesn't realize what he's up against.   To compensate, the writers keep employing what fans call "GT logic".   For instance, this one episode had a bad guy called Lord Luud, who's a giant robot shaped like a kewpie doll or something.    Goku and Trunks fight it, but the robot is pretty durable.   Despite the difficulty, they never bother turning into Super Sayians, even though they can both totally do that at any time and it would even the odds.   Luud then steps on the heroes, and then they finally transform, mostly for the big dramatic moment where they have their Superman comeback and toss Luud on his ass.    Then they change back and start beating up on Luud as if he suddenly got easy.   Luud's handler gets desperate, so he adds Pan's to Luud's power supply, giving him a boost.   Pan's weaker than Goku or Trunks, but for some reason Pan+Luud  is way, way stronger than Goku and Trunks put together.   Well, whatever, but the situation is now looking pretty grim, and Goku and Trunks still keep fighting in their base forms.   They never explain this either.   It really doesn't make sense, because the Super Saiyan transformations were one of the most popular elements of the franchise.  I think they wanted to hearken back to the days before the Super Saiyan concept was introduced, but they never bothered to rationalize it.   So they compromised and made the transformations really really brief and infrequent for no reason.    Pan never transforms, although it's not clear if she just doesn't know how, or she just refuses to for the same mysterious reason as everyone else.  I could sort of buy that Goku's younger body is too weak to handle the transformation, or that Trunks is out of practice, but they still do it, just not very much.  It'd be like a whole episode of He-Man where Prince Adam fights Skeletor and has a really hard time, but he only uses his sword when he needs to lift heavy boulders.   The bad guys suck ass.   The first real villain is Lord Don Key.   Get it?   Do you? Because it's a pun.   He's a plutocratic fop, so he hires thugs that know how to use hand energy.  Goku beats them all in like two minutes, but for some reason his team farts around for like four episodes gathering information.  That's really what's wrong with the show.   It wasn't a mortal sin to go for a sillier tone or back off the fighting, but the pacing ruins whatever they were going for.  A lot of these GT plots resemble early episodes of Dragon Ball, except they get stretched out to two or three episodes of GT.   Gags that might have been cute in two minutes get stretched out to six or seven.  The next major bad guy is Master Dolltaki, who turns Pan into a doll while he tries to get Lord Luud operational.  Dolltaki's gimmick is that he's a total perv with toy dolls, and he spends something like three episodes talking or thinking about what a cute doll Pan is and how he can't wait to dress her up in all sorts of adorable little doll clothes.  Remember that scene from Spaceballs where Rick Moranis plays with action figures in his quarters?  It was what?  Two minutes of the movie?   If Toei had made Spaceballs, they would have dragged that out to half an hour, and added a heapin' helpin' of pedophilia just in case it was too subtle.   Admittedly, there wasn't a whole lot of places left to go as far as Dragon Ball villains.  Majin Buu was an indestructible shape-shifter, and how do you top that?  The first credible GT villain was Dr. Myuu, who was basically an outer space version of DBZ's Dr. Gero.   Baby had some potential, but his main advantage was his power to possess Goku's friends.   So he wasn't really a challening bad guy so much as he was a plot device to force the good guys to fight each other.   After that, they just decided to bring back all the old villains by having them stage a mass escape from hell.    Cute, but not very innovative.  The series ends by having the Dragon Balls themselves become the final boss of the franchise.   That was a smart idea, but it was pretty poorly executed.  Ultimately, Goku beats the Evil Dragon using the same move he used to beat Majin Buu at the end of DBZ, so it really forces you to ask if this trip was really necessary.   But by then, I think everyone in Japan had recognized the obvious: Dragon Ball could only be stretched so far.  The franchise still has life in it, but the specials and videogames and other merchandise generally sidestep GT.   I think everyone at Toei understands now that GT was a failed experiment at best.  Of course, the recent Bardock special feels a lot like the same sort of watered down crap that GT was, but at least they were applying the formula to good ol' DBZ lore, instead of going in directions no one wanted to see.

[mysticdragon3md3]

reactions to Demon Slayer KNY ep8-14

12:15 PM 9/21/2020 Demon Slayer Kimetsu no Yaiba ep8

Wow.  Tanjiro actually called out to Kibutsuji Muzan, since he had to let him get away!  O.O  I was hoping he'd do that, but usually that doesn't happen.  

So his alias is Tsukihiko?

Aw, demons who are moved by Tanjiro's empathy for the guy was who transformed!  ;u;

Oh, interesting!  A simultaneous reason for why Tanjiro's family was attacked in the middle of nowhere and why his father was gone.

I've often daydreamed of my OC's blood effecting people with such instantaneous infection that all their cells melt simultaneously, but I've never seen a series fulfill my daydream before.  

Tamayo and Yushiro.

When did Tamayo learn that Nezuko was asleep for 2 years?  We wern't even told she was asleep for 2 years.  O.o?  

Is this Yushiro character indicative of the type of humor this manga-ka injects into all his non-action scenes?  I hope it doesn't get too annoying.  But if it does, it would explain why my brother doesn't like Zenitsu(?).   . . .

------------------------------------------- 12:48 PM 9/21/2020 Demon Slayer Kimetsu no Yaiba ep9

I know they wanted Yushiro's beheading to be shocking, but he's a demon and we've seen demons regenerate quickly throughout the series.  

I like that Nezuko and Tanjiro are fighting like a team now, as a given, even when they haven't been forced into a last resort.

Why are they recapping this deal to retrieve blood?  I know in a weekly manga, a recap like that is necessary, but is teh manga just trying to buy time/filler?  

Suzumaru sucks at close quarters combat.

I still don't like the idea of Nezuko being hypnotized to see other people as her family.  If the imagery was overlapping her family onto people, without Kurokodaki's hypnosis explaination, then that imagery would be used to understand what Nezuko is thinking/feeling, even though she can't talk anymore.  It would be touching that she gets reminded of the family she lot and of wanting to protect people as deeply as her own family, to prevent a repetition of her family's tragedy.  There would be so much emotion throughout all of it, in thinking about Nezuko's motivations through everything.  But with that Kurokodaki hypnosis explaination, it takes away her agency and all the emotions behind the possible motivations.  ;_;  

Time to kick some dush into those eyes.  

But if he got the neck, won't the whole body disappear before they can get a blood sample? I wonder if the previously chopped off arms from Suzumaru still have blood samples in them? Or did they disappear?  

Wait.  Is her name Suzumaru or Susamaru?

If Yahaba an Suzumaru only just met but they fight so in sync, does that mean the blood from Kibutsuji Muzan inside them makes them sync up?   . . .

7:27 PM 9/24/2020 Demon Slayer Kimetsu no Yaiba

Going to leave ep9 playing, while I go get food, since I've seen this ep before.

The animation in the fights is really good, and I'm very glad for Tanjiro when he fights well, because I don't want him to die.  But suddenly shouting these moves, that we've never specifically seen before, then instantly winning, sometimes feels like a "magic" deus ex machina.  I mean, his training episodes help, but we didn't see him learning specific moves.  Maybe I'm just too accustomed to older Shonen anime being very specific with its training.  Ranma 1/2, Bleach, etc.  

"Let's practice our teamwork, Nezuko!"  Now I wish Nezuko was awake during Tanjiro's training instead of asleep for 2 years.  I still can't believe it was TWO YEARS.  The series didn't give that sense at all until Tanjiro specifically said how long she was asleep.  It would have been so cool of Nezuko was helping Tanjiro with his training, and essentially training alongside him.  Ah, well.  Their teamwork now is so endearing.   . . .

7:58 PM 9/24/2020 Demon Slayer Kimetsu no Yaiba ep10

REally showing the toll a battle has on TAnjiro.  I always watch movie reviews criticizing modern movies for NOT doing this.  Good to see a good example of it being done, that isn't Die Hard.  

It's good to hear a character say that this power of Nezuko's is "her own".  I'm really stuck on that Kurokodaki hypnosis suggestion taking away a sense of Nezuko's agency/motivations.  But if this series could do more to suggest that Nezuko has her own feelings and motivations to protect people and fight, that would vastly improve things.  I want to forget that Kurokodaki hypnosis thing.

Ack!  He said not to move!  Please don't turn into a trap!  ...Thankfully, it didn't.  Maybe i have that expectation from Western storytelling, since it's so rooted in moralistic religious cultures?  Naw, even the "2 Sons of the Sun" story used that disobeying trope.  Anyway, I really appreciate how often, even after each battle, this series takes the time to show Tanijro showing empathy.  And high levels of empathy too, when he can even risk expressing empathy for an enemy!  *o* This is one of my favorite archetypes/tropes.  ;u;  

Suzumaru asking for her temari...Was she turned into a demon when she was a kid then grew as a demon? "Just like a little kid"?  So is Nezuko after becoming a demon.  And that morphed demon during Tanjiro's exam had childhood memory flashbacks before he died.  Do people's minds just get rebooted when they become demons or something?  They revert to childish mentalities?  

"At first, I didn't like the idea of Nezuko being under a spell, but since it looks like she has a will of her own, I'm glad that---"  I was about to write that even though I don't like the plot device of Kurokodaki's hypnosis on Nezuko, taking away her agency and the sense that she decides her actions and thus still has her own motivations---I was ok with this scene because her being affectionate to Tamayo and Yushiro was just so cute.  But now the scene is burying itself into that hypnosis plot point.  -.-;  Still a very heartfelt scene though!  ;U;!!!

I'm glad Tanjiro took Nezuko's wishes into account.  

Zenitsu is giving me Miroku flashbacks.  How did I put up with Miroku's running gag for so long anyway? Especially considering now that I'm just soooooooo terribly sick of the cliche of "sexual harassment as humor and running gags".  Is it because I worshiped Rumiko Takahashi and was so used to it?  Is it because I could always be confident that perverts in Takahashi series would immediately get pummelled, since Inuyasha had its roots in Takahashi's slapstick sensibilities?  I mean, if since Takahashi series are so slapstick, even when her series got more series, like INuyasha, if a pervert was bieng especially annoying, you could still count on them being punted into the sky or at least beaten until they couldn't move.  Well, usually, they could twitch, but that was about it.  And if they were beaten half to death and left out all night, well, that was common enough to be counted upon when needed.  Because seriously, after Ranma 1/2 and Urusei Yatsura, if there's going to be a pervert, then they sure as hell better be satisfingly beaten half to death.  I guess that slapstick extreme is the only way I'll accept that trope as a running gag.  Though, I still prefer if it didn't happen.  Like, I enjoy seeing Happosai suffering, but I'd prefer to not see him at all.  

8:38 PM 9/24/2020 ep over. I'll take a break from KNY for now because I need to multitask.  

I know I've been writing most of my negative criticism reactions to watching this series so far, but I really am enjoying it.  The animation is beautiful, the protagonists are endearing, the music is so good, I've been listening to the opening theme song on loop, during my daily walks this week.  I gotta write down more of my positive reactions.   . . .

12:51 AM 9/26/2020 Demon Slayer Kimetsu no Yaiba ep11

I think I'm beginning to see why Kuya doesn't like Zenitsu.  

Sometimes I have to wonder about Shonen manga-ka or the Shonen genre, when it seems to always default to using "harassing women", "chasing after disinterested women", and "whining about getting girls" as "humor".  Hell, even Persona 5 used that cliche for their humor thru Ryuji---and I love that character despite that!

Though my brother is probably annoyed by Zenitsu's whining more than by his girl-chasing cliche.  

So Zenitsu's "power" is hearing?  lol  Are all the protagonists in the Demon Slayer Corps going to have "magically unsuual senses"?  lol  

This episode had too many slow downs up until this point, but I will always appreciate the story slowing down to emphasize Tanjiro's emathy.  ^-^  

I'll admit, this series really loves it's funny faces.  But it doesn't fit sometimes.  It's not like Soul Eater, where humor was clearly the manga-ka's forte, and they were forcing themselves to do a Shonen action series.  

Maybe this would be funnier if I didn't already know spoilers about Zenitsu actually being good with a sword.  

Wait.  Inosuke??????  That's his name right?  They all met in this one episode by CHANCE????????????????  I thought they would get assigned to the same headquarters for Demon Slayers or something.

Did this demon not mean to trap humans into his house?  That doesn't sound right...  

Everyone's really in their own little worlds huh?  This demon, Inosuke,...everybody is just parallel talking towards each other.  Odd.   . . .

1:45 PM 9/27/2020 Demon Slayer Kimetsu no Yaiba ep12

All I hear from the fandom is that "Inosuke is a good boy".  So what's with this callous stepping on a kid?

I know Zenitsu's freak-out scenes are meant to be humor and the seiyuu is obviously having fun with it, but these scenes really should be cut SHORTER.  It's not that funny.  Dragging out such a mediocre joke AND as a RUNNING GAG is getting really tiresome.  It's bad enough that it's starting to turn me unsympathetic to someone who is justifyably afraid.  Who was the editor telling the manga-ka or the direction who thought that dragging these jokes out was "soooooooooo funny"??????????  

I can't figure out if I like or dislike this series!  Mou!  Now I know why I initially tried several times to watch this series and wasn't compelled to binge or watch more...until I consciously tried to catch up on it recently...just because it's popular and I like the opening theme and animation.  ~_~;  Previously, I thought that maybe all my reactions to each episode so far had just _seemed_ negative, because I was forgetting to write down the positives.  But now, I'm beginning to think maybe I'm just not having that much fun with this series.  Though it's true that I was compelled to watch it today, I was excited to watch more...now that I actually am, I'm just not having so much fun.  Maybe I just don't like Zenitsu and Inosuke.  So far, at least.  Maybe I only really liked Tanjiro and Nezuko.  Reminds me of Bleach: I thought I loved _the series_; turns out I only liked Rukia and Ichigo, and when the series focused less on them, I got disinterested and dropped the series.  

Well, at least Zenitsu is protective towards the kid. He's selfless...sometimes.  

So...Is he really sleep-fighting?  

Listen.  I know it was probaby someone's idea to really drag out Zenitsu's cowardice to make his excellent sword attack more shocking.  But that joke was not worth it.  ~.~;  

I'm sorry, but exposition only just now, about how much pain Tanjiro is in, just to put more tension into this fight, is not going to cut it. Yeah, there have been a few foreshadowings of Tanjiro being in a lot of pain.  He even straight up told Zenitsu that his leg and rib(s) are still broken.  But "telling, not showing" was just as ineffecitve then as this monologue meant to build tension in this fight's resolutiion, right now.  ~.~;  If Tanjiro's pain and previous injuries were supposed to make this fight tense, the outcome of his victory less certain, then the episodes so far should have been peppering asides of him secretly flinching with pain and secretly trying so hard to put on a brave face UP THROUGH THIS ENTIRE TIME.  It should have been so obvious, that going into this fight with the tsuzumi demon, the audience would have *already known* that this was a worry, even at the start of just going into the fight---even at the NOTION of going into ANY possible fight!  But instead, we get this monologue, with barely any foreshadowing to suppot it beforehand, that's supposed to *suddenly* convince us that this fight has higher risks that any previous fight?  I call sudden editor changes to the manga.  ~.~;;;;;;;;;;  

"YOu're the eldest daughter, but don't just endure it, come talking to me"?  Tanjiro deserves to not just endure it too!  ;o;!  I mean, he's alone right now and does need to endure it, but when Nezuko or anyone else is around he deserves someone to lean on too!  ;o;!!!   . . .

10:44 PM 9/28/2020 Demon Slayer Kimetsu no Yaiba ep13

Well, I like that this series continues to emphasize Tanjiro's empathy, even for demons. Actually kind of reminds me of the yokai genre more than the demon-hunting genre, which is a compliment.  But even that's starting to get forced, just like last episode's last minute tension about Tanjiro's broken bones.  Why would Tanjiro try not to step on the writings/papers?  Why would he suddenly ask for the demon Kyougai's name??  Not that I didn't enjoy it.  But c'mon...

This series is just so cloud so being something great, that every faint failing bothers me.  The production is great, I love the 2 main characters, the character design is good,...Why do I keep finding things to be annoyed with?  I worry that I've just become a grumpy butt.  ~__~;;;  Maybe I just can't enjoy Shonen series anymore???  I did move to almost exclusively watching iyashikei genres...  Ugh.  I don't know.  Because this series totally has objective problems!!!  Not deal-breakers, but everyone has built up this series as warranting fanatasim, and I'm just not feeling it.  

So why is Zenitsu suddenly brave when it comes to protecting Tanjiro's box?  He doesn't know Nezuko's in there yet, right?  

Oh, so Inosuke isn't totally heartless.  HE stopped his sword at Zenitsu's neck.

Oh, that's right.  Zenitsu's "superpower" is his hearing.  He already knows a demon is inside Nezuko's box.  

I dunno.  I just can't buy Zenitsu fighting so hard for Nezuko's box, jsut because he knows Tanjiro is exceptionally gentle.  Zenitsu has spent all this time unwilling to fight demons, even when more was at stake than Tanjiro's box.  It's just so inconsistent, I can't feel the stakes that these scenes want me to feel.  I'm so disassociated and non-immersed.  

Like right now.  Inosuke is so sick of this he's going to skewer both Zenitsu and Nezuko's box simultaneously?  We just saw him unwilling to follow through on that same bluff!

omg  I _WISH_ I was just being too nit-picky!  But lately this series has been proving to me why I asn't compelled to continue this series after the first time I tried it, until maybe the 2nd or 3rd time I gave it a try.  

Maybe I just am fed up with everyone who's not Tanjiro and Nezuko. When the series was just their adventures, I loved it.  Even though it was just repeating old Shonen tropes that I had seen too many times, after all my years---I just didn't care.  Because I liked spending time with Tanjiro and Nezuko SO much.  But now Zenitsu is being annoying, Inosuke is not being the "good boy" I kept hearing he is, and the writing is contradictory, last-minute,...blehhhhh... I WANT TO LIKE THIS SERIES SO MUCH!!!  Why does it have to keep getting in the way of that?   . . .

5:10 PM 10/5/2020 Demon Slayer Kimetsu no Yaiba ep14

I can't stop thinking about all those anitubers who called Inosuke "best boy" and "goodest boy", in contrast to what a bullying asshole he's been so far.  Incidentally, bullies are my biggest pet peeve.  I've dropped SERIES for that reason.  If I can drop HeroAca after giving it 3-4 tries, because any glimpse of Bakugo was enough to piss me off for the rest of my day, don't think you're immune, Kimetsu no Yaiba!  

Is this supposed to be enjoyable?  I know this fight between Inosuke and Tanjiro is animated beautifully and martial arts anime used to be my obsession, but I do not want to see more of this character.  Especially in a fighting scene, a scene that is designed to somehow make him subconsciously look cool.  I know what you're doing.  He's not cool.  He's being an asshole.  This isn't a scene or a character I want to see more of.  This is like in Ironman 2 when the director said in interviews how well the actor who played Hammer oes the "greasy salesman" act---But why do I want to watch more of a greasy salesman!?!  I don't!  A serial killer can do their murders impressively well; doesn't mean I enjoy seeing all these murders happen in front of me!  Inosuke is getting all these "cool" Shonen genre tropes layered onto him, but no.  He's not cool.  

The thing that pisses me off is the idea that Inosuke clearly is being portrayed as those battle-hungry characters who want to become stronger and constantly test their strength.  YA CAN'T ACTUALLY IMPROVE IF YOU TAKE ON WEAK OR UNWILLING OPPONENTS, YA DOOF!!!!!  That's like rule #2 of any martial arts or battle manga/anime!  Why do you think so many anime have the "bad guy who becomes reluctant ally/rival" type?  It's because they're waiting for that proper duel where they've both agreed to fight to their fullest and not hold back.  You can't get that from an unwilling opponent and getitng it from a weak opponent is worthless!  GAwd!  Inosuke is pissing me off more, the longer this duel goes on.  It's such a shame that such good animation has to go to a fight that don't want to see more of.  Cut this short!

My one reprieve is that at least Tanjiro is intensely angry at his bullying, enough to reflect my own anger.  Yet, he keeps his Compassion and True Strength unassuaged by Inosuke's provocations.  

Oh no...I just realized that the way Inosuke is acting in this episode is one of my other highest pet peeves:  Assholes who confuse Power with Strength.  Strength is defined in 2 ways: 1)  A soul pattern that will not assimilate into another's pattern.  In other words, a resolve that won't fall under the influence of someone else's mindset.  The ability to retain one's own will.   2)  The ability to do the hard thing, the difficult thing.   Guess what falls into both categories of Strength?  COMPASSION.  That's why people with True Strength act with decorum.  It's why I love that one of Confucius's 8 virtues is Courtesy.  Having consideration for everyone, at all times, in everything, is the most difficult thing in the world.  And anyone that can keep to that with unfaltering resolve, is The Strongest.  Compassion is not easy for the Weak.  It's difficult.  Only the Strong can demonstrate that level of Compassion.  Only the Strong can risk being Kind, can bear the exposed vulnerabilities of Kindness, and continue to act with Compassion even after being hurt, betrayed, or taken advantage of, for offering Kindness.  That's why jerks who confuse Power with Strength, piss me off.  They're idiots, who don't recognize that attacking is inherently an action of Fear and Weakness.  

Ah, wait.  I see.  When Tanjiro chided Inosuke for aggrivating his rib wounds...  Inosuke is self-destructive.  He's just taking it out on everyone else.  Ugh...  

Huh.  Delayed reaction.  

Wow.  I thought Inosuke's unmasked face was a spoiler for much later in the series.  

I love that Tanjiro probably honestly is concerned about Inosuke's rib injuries and totally doesn't think he's being condescending or passive-aggressive to Inosuke.  

So only 1 of the siblings has Marechi blood?  I hope they plant wiseria plants all over their house.  

See that scene of Zenitsu crying and being quickly silenced by Tanjiro?  Most of his grovelling was at a distance and quickly cut off.  That's what we need more of.  For both Zenitsu's supposed "comedy" and Inosuke's bullying.  

Is there a difference between the 3 futons to even fight over???

That "severe" joke was funny though.

I appreciate the faster pace fo this episode, but the jokes are starting to wear down.  

Kindness has a specific scent now.  lol  

I imagine that hearing Zenitsu crying for so long, so often, is how ProfessorThorgi described Spiderman sometimes being written with nothing but quips, and you don't notice how annoying such dialogue is while reading, but when you hear it, it's just grating.  ~.~;;

I've been bitching so much about this series.  Do I even like it?  Why am I watching?  Maybe I should drop it?  But I really like Tanjiro and Nezuko.  The animation production and music themes are beautiful.  And I haven't watched a Shonen action series in so long, and I think I really need one to help get through my depression...

I know this Demon Slayer Corps Academy omake is supposed to be cute, but don't remind me about the whole "dye your hair black" "But this is my real hair color" bullshit.  Fuck Harmony.  Wrong things are wrong!  Sorry, but I'm American, and I'm going to fetishize Justice!  Pretending everything is ok and just going along with the loudest authority, no matter how cruel and inconsidering they are, is what makes the whole of society miserable!  Fuck that shit!  

[ask-svt-hearteu]

soulmate! Jun (pt.2)

Anon requested:  HELLO I REaLLY LOVE YOUR SOULMATE AUS SO CAN I REQUEST A JUN & JEONGHAN PART 2? I LOVE YOUR WRITING SO MUCH OMG ALDJJDKSKS

Genre: fluff

Word Count: 2951

Recap: where your soulmate’s first words are tattooed on your arm (part one)

A/N: AWWW TYSM LOVELY OFC YOU CAN. Jun’s was the first one we did, so both Seri and I love Jun’s soulmate au, it’s our baby, it’s iconic, lol. THANKS FOR REQUESTING AND HOPE YOU ENJOY. (might low key hint about the other part two’s who knows;)

Jun likes to tease you

ever since that rainy night when you finally met him

finally met your soulmate

and everything suddenly fell in place and made sense

he just refuses

to give you back that extra umbrella you gave to him as you spoke the words tattooed on his arm

as often you’re over at the dance studio hanging out with him

or even the occasional times you’re at the dorm just chilling

he never brings up your umbrella, or when he might return it

and that’s fine, you don’t really need it

but he said he’d return it eventually and he hid it for now, which was just driving you crazy

“Jun, this is like the fifth time y/n, has checked the living room for the umbrella.” Minghao says laughing as you turn red and stop your rummaging through the couch cushions

“It’s not that I refuse to give it back- . . . actually no that's exactly what it is” Jun says from the kitchen shooting you a wink

turning even more pink you say

“Wen Junhui, what is your deal with not giving me back my umbrella!?!?”

“It just reminds me of you and how lucky I got that night for having lost rock, paper, scissors.” he says shrugging

which shuts you right up as you stare down at your feet, blushing again

“I’m still here guys, I didn’t need to throw-up my dinner.” Minghao says rolling his eyes

walking out of the kitchen Jun says

“Jealous?” as he wraps an arm around your waist to pull you closer to him

leaving the both of you a giggling mess and blushing like fools

“MINGYU, THEY’RE DOING THAT WEIRD GIGGLNG TOGETHER THING AGAIN!”

Mingyu comes out of the bathroom armed with a broom to shoo you and Jun out of the dorm so you can stop infesting the place with the “love bugs”

as Mingyu calls the two of you

granted, you and Jun have been a couple for a while

he was the first of Svt to meet his soulmate

and wasted no time making it clear to everyone in Seventeen that you two were together

you both were the couple that everyone would have assumed had been dating forever

you might as well have been called that "old married couple"

with your random tickle fights when everyone was trying to enjoy their movie

"Really?!?!? Do the two of you have to do that now?"

"Keep your hands to yourself, guys we get it, you're dating."

"Making skin ship 24/7 is NOT NECESSARY."

going shopping together not only for clothes but for random crap for your apartment or his dorm room

like that vase of fake orchids that now sits on top of your night stand

or this striped dress shirt you called him cute in

you also get asked a lot of relationship questions

since you’ve been dating the longest and you've been around for when all the others found their soulmates

“Do you know where I can get a stuffed animal bunny, y/n?” Joshua asks

“What place has the best flowers?” Vernon asks you

"I want to do something special, what's a good date idea?"

which low key triggers Jun 

“Ok, if any of them come to you for advice with how to deal with their soulmates, tell them to get lost because you’re too busy spending time with me and they need to get their own experience.” Jun says playfully with a pout while sitting next to you on the floor against the practice room’s mirrors

“They really shouldn’t ask me, I probably don’t know any better.” you say with a laugh

“Good, once they realize you’re bad at giving relationship advice, they’ll leave you alone that way I can spend more time with the most beautiful person in the whole universe.” he said cutely giving a small nod of his head

"Yah! My advice is solid!" you say playfully smacking his arm

"Is it really?" he says jokingly earning another smack on the arm from you

dates generally end up him ordering coffee from your café

and the two of you walking around taking pictures

you often have Jun model for you

even though you can't post or use any pictures of him

there was something about the way he held himself when posing in front of the camera

that you just had to capture it in all its glory

Jun himself is art 

he always convinces you to pose a few times too while he takes pictures

of course the selca master

the two of you take a lot of selcas together, you have a whole folder on your phone dedicated to selcas with him, and you're each other's home screens

"Sorry I can't use you for my lock screen, but the other members would  tease us forever, and I'd rather preserve your sanity."

lately though, all of Svt are really busy with their upcoming concerts and activities

and so you just low key try to stay out of their way

you'll be working at the cafe across the street from their studio and catch yourself staring up at the window where you know they're probably rehearsing

and perfect timing

Jun texts a simple "I miss you"

which nearly makes you spill the Americano you were making to smile down at your phone

before your manager asks what you're smiling at, is making coffee funny all of a sudden?

and not seeing Jun everyday was a bit sad

you haven't been feeling all that well either, though you're not sure if it's the stress of making coffee or trying to maintain your grades

since Jun is often busy rehearsing, you both stay up late face-timing

him telling you cute little stories about the members

and you telling him about your day

even if the both of you are exhausted

you don't mind staying up to talk even if the both of you sometimes fall asleep on the phone

you especially like the story of how they burst into the locked bathroom to wish him a happy birthday

but for a college photography major

you need your sleep

and the late night call sessions weren't helping your health

which is probably how you ended up in bed

with a horrible cold

and your brain pounding against your skull

"I welcome death" you groan taking another painkiller before flopping back onto your sofa bed in front of the TV

since money is tight and you like sleeping in the living room anyway

your bed is the sofa bed that folds outward

you fall asleep watching a drama and wake up to 267 messages

"Yah! Y/n! Your manager told me you took the day off? Are you sick?" Jun's contact picture and messages are the ones that stand out the most amongst others

"Noona, are you ok? Jun-hyung is freaking out."

"Yah, y/n pick up so Jun can stop annoying us all with his worrying."

"DID YOU DIE WHY AREN'T YOU PICKING UP?!?!?"

"I'm really sorry if we're being annoying but please come collect your boyfriend."

the struggles of being a soulmate to one of the members of svt?

all 13 of them will get your phone number, and rip if you don't have a good data plan 

you can't help but smile a bit to yourself as you scroll through all your notifications

when an incoming call from Jun lights up your cell

you reeeeeeeaally don't want him to worry, so you start panicking and debating whether to answer

he needs to focus on rehearsing and avoid worrying about you

but you pick up anyway

and hearing his voice was enough to stop the incessant headache thank the lord

"Jun?" curse you and your dead sounding voice, you regret answering and omg he's going to panic so much and

"I'M OUTSIDE YOUR APARTMENT COME OPEN THE DOOR"

"How'd you get here Jun you have rehearsals?!?"

"Your manager said you were sick and so naturally I went to buy you soup, rehearsals ended like ten minutes ago."

"Aw babe, that's nice but HOW DID YOU GET MY ADDRESS?!??"

he chuckles into the phone

"I didn't even ask your manager for it, he says he's seen me before and asked why I wasn't  home taking care of you and why I don't know your address yet even though we're married."

"HE WHAT?"

"He thought we were married." you can hear Jun dying from laughter

"Remind me not to murder my manager, cuz then I wouldn't get paid."

"I mean, I'm ok with him thinking that we're married."

"Yah! Wen Junhui!"

"It's cold hurry open the door!"

you drag yourself up with the five blankets wrapped around your shoulders not caring they drag on the floor to open the door

when you open the door, he stands there thinking you're just the cutest thing ever with your nose red and so many blankets wrapped around you

he's about to hug you

"STOP"

"What why?" he says giving you the cutest little frowny face

"I don't want you to get sick too!"

"I don't care let me take care of you." he pouts cutely, knowing if he acts cute enough he might just get through to you

not toooodaaaaaay

"Wen Junhui we all know you'll cry and blame me for weeks if you so much as sneeze once." you tease him trying to laugh before you sneeze into your elbow

"Ok, yes that might be true, but I went out to buy soup so I have the right to stay."

he looks at you standing barefoot by the door with several blankets wrapped around you, some of it dragging on the floor

holding up the soup, he gives you a cheeky wink

"The soup's hot but I'm hotter."

you groan, rolling your eyes, but smiling as you playfully throw a pillow at his face

"Hey that's violence!"

it misses, Jun's dodge could only be described as elegant

"Hey if I spill soup on the carpet, you have to clean it up not me."

"How is this supposed to make me feel better?" you tease him, sneezing again and settling back down on the sofa bed with your mountain of blankets

"No, clearly I came here to annoy you." he chuckles

you watch as he looks around your kitchen for a bowl

he pours out the soup and sets the steaming bowl at the dinner table

and before you can protest

he picks you up into his arms and carries you over to the table

then he sits down across from you with a smirk on his face noticing the gentle blush creeping up your face

"I know I've been busy lately, so I wanted to do something for you. And aren't boyfriends supposed to take care of their other half when they're sick?" he says hiding his shy smile behind his hand

you sit there, your heart racing from his words

"Hurry and eat! I'm not leaving until you finish."

what a liar

he didn't leave your side at all that night

insisting on carrying you back to bed and snuggling up against you despite your protests he might get sick

you both fell asleep like that

you wrapped around his arms, blankets piled around the two of you

until his phone blasts a loud alarm in the morning

Jun jumps up, almost falling off the sofa bed and you look at the time, before realizing

"JUN WERE YOU HERE ALL NIGHT?!?!"

"I FELL ASLEEP OK?"

"MAN THE OTHERS ARE GOING TO FREAK"

"AT LEAST YOU DON'T LIVE WITH THEM, I'M NEVER GOING TO HEAR THE END OF THIS."

his phone starts buzzing and when he answers the call you can hear people screaming even though Jun's phone isn't on speakers

"WEN JUNHUI I EXPECTED MORE FROM YOU"

"You're not as in innocent as we thought hyung!!!"

"I'll fight you boy, if you did anything to y/n, Junhui."

"WE DIDN'T DO ANYTHING." Jun yells back into the phone while trying not to laugh

you throw another pillow at him

"STOP SMILING IS THIS FUNNY?"

"WAS THAT Y/N PUT HER ON THE PHONE I WANT ANSWERS!"

"I'LL BE BACK IN A BIT!" Jun yells before hanging up and immediately throwing his phone onto the sofa bed

"Ok so on the bright side, doesn't look like they're angry at you, but on the not so bright side I'M DEAD."

"If it makes you feel any better, I don't feel too sick anymore."

"GREAT BUT NOW I FEEL SICK."

Jun laughs and grabs your arm dragging you into a hug

"You can't escape, you have to come explain things to them for me so I can walk around with my head intact pleeeeeeease????"

he wraps you up in his sweatshirt before the two of you head out to go back to the studio

walking into the studio, the both of you grip each other's hands tightly anticipating the worst

"What if they actually kill me, y/n, I've got a lot of things to say to you though." Jun says eyes wide and alert

"So do I Jun, but let's discuss this if we do make it out alive."

you both walk in to the practice room to twelve boys staring into your souls

RIP

an hour of screaming later

though honestly it was mostly them laughing and yelling and poking Jun every once in a while

they let the two of you leave, satisfied with their interrogation

"Jun-hyung, be good while we're gone"

"No anything 19+ in the practice room, we need it for rehearsals."

"Y/n is precious and innocent, if he tries anything, y/n, just give us a call."

"Oh my god just get out!" Jun says flustered and shooing them away

ever since that incident

Jun and you never tell Svt when the two of you are going on a date

"You sure you can't change your number, I'm ok with them not contacting you" Jun says over ramen at the convenience store on the corner looking dead serious

you stir your ramen and laugh

"No unfortunately, some of their soulmates know where I work, I'd never be able to escape."

"Aish, them convincing their soulmates to work on the side of evil."

"They're all really sweet and pretty though, some of us hang out as friends now because of all of you, should we form an idol group too?"

"When would you guys debut?" he laughs

"I was joking, all of us can only take so much Svt craziness you know."

"You love us though."

"True"

"And they're pretty, but you're the prettiest."

"Omo stop Junhui, you'll actually make me laugh."

"Last night, I had to convince Minghao not to tell them I was getting dinner with you because he caught me sneaking out, and now I have to do his laundry for a week."

"Thanks for your noble sacrifice."

"I know right, the things I do for you"

the two of you should be aspiring food critics

you've both been to almost every Chinese restaurant in Seoul

just because you know he likes spicy food

and try everything

him occasionally just staring at you

until you shove more food on his plate to get him to stop

you of course taking pictures of the food to post on SNS

yes, you're that person at restaurants

standing on chairs to get a good shot

with Jun standing behind you, arms ready to catch you if you lose balance

and as the both of you walk back to the studio after a dinner date

it starts raining

and you're silently cursing yourself for not checking the weather forecast when leaving your apartment earlier

but Jun magically pulls out the umbrella you gave him the night you met him and opens it above the both of you

"Oh my god, see, you knew exactly where it was and yet never gave it back."

"Mian, I had to hold onto it."

"Why?"

"It felt like a dream, meeting you. I had to make sure it wasn't a dream, so I kept it as physical proof."

you stop walking and face him as he stops too, still holding the umbrella above the both of you

"That's hecka cheesy." you say grinning

"Yea well, I'm naturally cheesy."

"No, you're cute and sweet and romantic."

"Nah, you're cute."

you both stand staring at each other a little longer, near the dance studio

"Well, I'll give it back tonight."

"Why? Don't need it anymore?"

"Nope, because now I know it wasn't a dream. And every time I need proof, I'll just look for you."

and he lifts your chin up and kisses you softly, the sound of rain pattering around you

it's not cold though, no, the warm feeling from the gentle kiss is enough to keep the cold rainy night's cold away from the both of you

you don't recall how long the both of you stay like that

but when you finally pull away

he gives you a cute smile while tilting his head

and gives you a wink

"OH MY FREAKING GOD FINALLY!"

shocked the two of you turn around to see Svt staring at the two of you from the front doors of the studio

"Children, it's 10 o'clock, way past curfew."

"Mingyu, you owe me ten bucks, I told you he'd kiss her first."

"Man, I really thought she would be the one to do it."

"YAH! YOU'RE ALL DEAD"

"Shi- run!"

and you laugh as Jun and you chase the scattering svt members out into the rain

all thoughts of getting soaked or catching a cold lost in your moment of happiness

The Seventeen Soulmate AU Series:

|| Seungcheol / Pt. 2 || Jeonghan / Pt. 2 || Joshua / Pt.2 || Jun / Pt.2 || Hoshi / Pt.2 || Wonwoo || Woozi / Pt.2 || Seokmin / Pt.2 || Mingyu / Pt.2 || Minghao || Seungkwan || Vernon / Pt.2 || Dino ||

MASTERLIST

[furederiko]

This is the LAST post for December, meaning it's also the FINAL post for the year. Anything special to publish in the conclusive day of 2017? NOPE. Just this... uhmmm, random ramblings. Ahahaha...

My internet went down completely for around 2 weeks since December 13th. The unexpected 'incident' (I apparently has burned my modem *sigh*) made me switched into my creative side and did genuine FUN non-internet related things instead. And I got all caught up by it... that I practically did NOT prepare anything for Tumblr.

Had a Random-News-Digest prepared for mid-December, but ditched it completely because the content would be highly outdated now. Wanted to do my monthly recap-view for "Kamen Rider Build", but haven't finished it so it'll have to wait until next month. The only thing I could pull off was the recap-views for "Uchu Sentai Kyuranger" last 2 episodes of the year. Though to be honest, that amazing show was part of my 'offline fun' as well. So yeah, unlike last year, there is no TOP 10 list this year. Didn't even publish anything for Christmas, because I completely FORGOT about it! LOL... (^^;)

Anyways, to make up for all of that, I've written a rough 'RECAP' of what went through my life this year. Entertainment-wise, of course, and not all but just some of the highlights. In list form! Why? Because I feel like it *grins*. Here goes nothing...

Movies, Oh movies...

- Watched even less movies on the theatre this year, and opted to wait several releases on home video. Only went to see the big guns, thus there isn't any disappointment. - Surprisingly, I loved the live action "Beauty and the Beast" more than the animated original. Dan Stevens' solo number "Evermore" is stuck in my head ever since. - Haven't seen "Coco", and really want to. Here's hoping the home video will be released soon. I guess I should see "Cars 3" first, huh? - "Dunkirk" was magnificent. War movie is usually not my forte, so I'm pleasantly surprised that Christopher Nolan managed to make me enjoy one. Was it the short duration, the all-out jerks of the army, or the non-stop intensity? Don't know. But if there's at least one thing I've gained from it: I disliked Harry Styles ever more now. No kidding. Poor French soldier... - I'm a visual guy so when I saw a disturbing scene, it usually stayed on my head for a good while. That bloody scene after the bomb explosion on "Stronger", for example? *sigh*. I hope Jake Gyllenhall receives an Oscar nomination for his work on this movie. - "Death Note" and "Ghost in the Shell"? Enjoyed the first one more, but both deserved better. - Tom Cruise's "The Mummy" was mediocre, but I'm among the minority who actually want to see more of Universal's Dark Universe. Even if just to see more of Russell Crowe going Jekyll. Charlie Hunnam's "King Arthur: Legend of the Sword" was the movie's kindred spirit, while "Kong: Skull Island" was the opposite. Kong will be meeting Godzilla in the coming years! - Comic book adaptations were generally top notch. Naturally the three Marvel Studios' releases; "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2", "Spider-Man: Homecoming", and "Thor: Ragnarok"; would be my top picks. Don't ask me to choose which one is the best though! All three were amazing and marvelous in their own unique ways, so I'd gladly rank them in the same spot just to be fair. - I admit, "Logan" and "Wonder Woman" were great too, but I didn't like them as much as everyone else on the planet. Not sure why, I guess... none of them was my cup of tea? Let's just say, there were problems on each of them that I couldn't quite tolerate and it reduced my overall impression on them. - Don't ask about "Justice League". I'll wait until I can borrow a copy when it's out on home video. Not wasting my money on a poorly reviewed DC Films. For now, "The LEGO Batman Movie" remains to be the best DC release of the year. - "Kingsman: The Golden Circle" was just NOT as good as the prequel. It was fun, but it felt like it's repetitive yet also missing something and trying too much.

Show Must Go On...

- Just realized that I've seen MORE TV series this year! Both the currently in broadcast, or titles from previouse years like "Westworld". Oh WOW... - Both Marvel's "Iron Fist" and Marvel's "The Defenders" were genuine duds. Both TV series were underwhelming and disappointing, that I have lost any urge to see Marvel's "The Punisher". - Haven't seen Marvel's "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." 5th season as well, because I haven't been feeling it. Though that will change in the near future because I'm itching to see its 5th episode. Hey, my boy Fitz and Hunter are the star of that episode, right? THAT I just have to see! I wonder if seeing that episode would be enough to convince me to watch the previous four episodes... - Currently following Marvel's "Runaways", though this 1st season might be my first and last. Don't know why, but not feeling it either. I think CW's "Riverdale" was a more watchable show, and even that one have been dropped after Season 1. LOL. I guess teenage soap-opera is just NOT my thing. - The 5th and final season of "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" was kind of... all over the place too. This show should've ended with Season 3, if you ask me. It had a bittersweet ending, akin to "Samurai Jack". But it also did not ended gracefully, and far less enjoyable to follow. - "Stranger Things" Season 2 was amazing. It had a somewhat different vibe compared to the 1st one, but equally enjoyable to watch. Poor characters whose name starts with 'B'... - I think the 3rd and 4th Seasons of "Voltron Legendary Defender" were initially meant to be one unit. The show's first two seasons were impressive, but these latter two were... okay? I don't know why, but it felt like it has waned a bit. - "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt" was somewhat similar. I had great time with Season 1 and 2, but Season 3 was a bit... uneven. Many of the jokes didn't quite hit, and some of the story development started feeling like a recycled trick. Still, I would love to see a 4th Season, and hopefully with better improvements. - Was expecting "Big Hero 6: The Series" to be as amazing as the Oscar-winning movie... but alas that didn't seem to be the case. Didn't quite enjoy the 2-episodes premiere as much as I wanted to. A complete opposite to "DuckTales", that hit all the right notes. The sole complaint I have about this reboot/remake, is that Scrooge McDuck's adventure isn't airing new episodes on a weekly basis! Aaaaargggh, the long wait is making me angry. - If you haven't seen "Thunderbirds Are Go", then what are you waiting for? I feel the 2nd Season had more and more amazing moments, to the point that I hope Season 3 will come sooner than later. - Comedies are taking my leisure time now! Have been following Seth McFarlane's "The Orville". It was mediocre to good, and desperately in need of improvements (hopefully in Season 2). Yet I keep going back and see it. Is it the star power of its guest stars? - Adam Scott and Craig Robinson's "Ghosted" is on my top priority watch. Sure, the quality has reduced a bit since the pilot, but the supernatural agents aren't going anytime soon from my house. - The same with Kevin Finn! Great goodness, I have only started watching "Kevin Probably Saves the World" since early this month (the benefit of NOT getting preoccupied by the internet LOL), but I'm already regretting why I didn't start sooner. Now I honestly can't wait to see more! Kevin is such an adorkable, likeable, and surprisingly relatable quirky lead. The kind of guy I would totally love to be best friends with in real life. Really though, the show is infectuous with its acts of kindness, heartwarming with its pleasant vibes, and also surprisingly engaging through its personal conflicts. If you hear me giggling, laughing out loud, or sobbing lately, you can probably thank Kevin, his guardian Angel, family, and friends for that! Seriously...

A Spoonful of Anime and Toku

- Turns out, "Kekkai Sensen & Beyond" wasn't the sequel that I expected to be. It's... 'different' than the first season. But when you get to see what the other members of Libra (even the team's butler) are doing in their daily lives, should one even be complaining? In the end it was indeed as amazing and fun ride as the first season, even if lead protagonist Leonardo Watch took a back seat most of the season. I'm already crossing my fingers to see more adventure of the team. But it likely won't happen in the near future, huh? Bummer... - "Ballroom e Youkoso" was a peculiar dance. I thoroughly enjoyed the first half, but after Tatara changed partner things got... hectic and irritating to follow? It was still good, but a rather uneven show if you ask me for honest impression. At the very least, it wasn't a wasted opportunity like "Kabuki-bu!" was. - "Houseki no Kuni" was of similar situation. Its animation was gorgeous, story was peculiarly engaging, and world building was great. But there were episodes that were undeniably better than the rest, and I didn't quite like how it ended. I guess that finale was teasing for more seasons? Hmmm... - It's been years since I follow a Pretty Cure series, and "Kira Kira Precure A La Mode" wet my appetite and got me back to the game. Unfortunately, while the design was interesting, and the sweets angle was neat, the story was somewhat weak. I have lost my initial enthusiasm after the first half, but I still watch it because it's going to end pretty soon. Not quite expecting a mindblowing finale though, especially if the animation quality is any indication. A common problem of TOEI Animation. Remember "Sekaisuru KADO"? - Dang it, what an impressive year it has been with Super Sentai. "Doubutsu Sentai Zyuohger" was kind of dull and boring last year, but had a great ending this year. And it was quickly followed by something even better. Yes, another show that has dragged me on a pleasant roller coaster ride is none other than TOEI's "Uchu Sentai Kyuranger". Since its premiere run on February, until its Christmas episode that wrapped up its 2017 run, I haven't been disappointed once with the series. Yes, I had an issue with the spin-off series of V-Cinema "Episode of Stinger", but that didn't count as the broadcast lineup. Though it's painful for me to soon say goodbye to this amazing season, I hope its last month will be memorable and a blast. Particularly because I'm currently having second thoughts about the 2018 season... - Just like its weekly storyline, "Kamen Rider Build" is still moving me back and forth. I'm honestly on the verge of dropping it completely, but I guess I'm going to check out several episodes from the next "Kamen Rider Wars" arc. I kind of feel it takes too long to get to this point when it could've been done earlier, but who am I to argue, right?

Name of the Game

- "Nintendo Switch" was a hit! Ever since its release on March 2017, the buzz and hype for this hybrid console only continue to increase. I wonder if I will be able to purchase one next year? Perhaps, just in time for the next Pokemon gen? - Speaking of Pokemon, the addition of Generation III from Hoenn region has made me go out and explore "Pokemon GO" again. The whole Raid Battle system and Niantic's handling of the Legendary Pokemon had disappointed so bad that I was close to give up on this App. Thankfully, now I have a horde of new reason to walk around the neighborhood. Problem is, can the same premise work in the long run? Niantic really need to consider new social features that enables players to engage with one another. - "Street Fighter V" had a weird set of DLC characters this year. The 2nd Season contained mostly new characters, that was a hit or miss with fans. Thankfully, things seem to be picking up next year with the Arcade Edition. Not just because my man Cody Travers is all dandy clean and returning to the game, of course. Question is, will I be able to play the game eventhough I don't have any plans to pick up a PS4? *giggles*. - I also haven't been able to play "Persona 5" due to the exact reason. LOL. Thankfully, "Persona 5 the Animation" has been announced to air next year. Sure, I'm a bit skeptical with the fact that A-1 Pictures and not Production I.G. will be doing the animation, but at least this will be my way of enjoying the game... WITHOUT actually playing it. - LEVEL-5 should do more of that worldwide Puzzle Quest! That was meant to be a prelude or some sort to "Layton's Mystery Journey: Katrielle and The Millionaires' Conspiracy", but I think the game developer should learn by now that it could work as a stand alone project. It made people come together in surprising way, and attracted fans to come back everyday to check out the new worldwide puzzle. Real FUN!

Oookaaay, that went A LOT longer than I expected. And I'm 100% sure that there are items that completely slipped my mind. As of writing this line, it's only just a few hours before the year ends! Aaaaarggggh *grumble*. Gotta publish this one soon then!

With that said, 2017 has been a difficult and challenging year. Particularly to a very discriminative and straight-out evil political atmosphere. One that allowed people to show their true despicable nature and selfishly trampled others for it. Last year I did say that "There's so many reasons to be hopeful about 2017", but reality had spoken differently as it turned out there were plenty more to discourage us throughout the year. Many people have even lost their fate in humanity this year.

But you know what? I'm going to say the same thing this day as well. There are SOOO many reasons to be hopeful about 2018. I don't know if it's because I'm currently caught up in the holiday spirit, or because I've been feeling extra thankful and blessed this month. One thing I can openly attest, is that things DO GET BETTER. So don't ever lose hope, and keep fighting the good fight in the name of just and goodness. I'm being lazy right now, so I'm just going to copy and paste my own words from last year: "Life can sometimes be hard, but all we need to do is stay strong, stay high spirited, and more importantly, keep moving forward! Happiness and blessings will surely find its way, in ways you might not imagine!".

And also this next one... because I'm going to be saying more or less the same kind of statements anyway: "Thanks to those who have been reading my blog all year long. I know I haven't spent much time (or any) to address you one by one, and heck, I might not even know you're there. But please know that I'll always be grateful for your presence, your time, kindness, and more importantly patience to walk through my long and sometimes pointless ramblings. What you've been doing means a lot for me, and I hope what I've been posting has and will somehow benefit back to you in return.". 2017 ends in just a few hours away, so let's enter and stride through 2018 with a hopeful and brave heart, the biggest and earnest smiles, the most sincere love and compassion for others regardless of their religion, race, or skin color. More importantly, let's make 2018 a year that we can be proud of. Where we take a stand for what's right and good! Where we become better human being than we are this year!

SEE YOU TOMORROW IN 2018!!!

[adventure-hearts]

DigiFes 2016 Special Drama - liveblogging & random thoughts

I decided to give the subbed Special Drama a second watch and do a little write up on it, because this may be the funniest thing tri. has given us so far.

If you haven’t watched it yet, please DO IT NOW! It really must be seen to be appreciated fully, as the Voice Actors are fantastic in this and it’s particularly satisfying to hear the audience’s reactions - proving that the running gags in the series are pretty much universal. 

Oh, and a huge thanks to onkei-kun for allowing us to access this gift!

The drama starts with a brief recap video with scenes from Saikai and Ketsui. Yay! Nothing like being reminded of the kids happy, normal lives with their Digimon before all the bad things happened and their lives were wrecked! 

By the way, regarding the timeline: this beach trip actually fits the series. It takes place “in one summer day”, after the trip to the hot springs, but before Mystery Man shows up. Looking at the timeline of Ketsui, this probably happens after the Monday when Taichi & co talk to Nishijima at the school and before the chain of events that starts when  Orgemon appears and culminates with the school festival. This explains why everyone is still so happy-go-lucky. 

TL;DR: it may take some mental gymnastics, but this story fits the main timeline and so, presumably, it could be considered ‘canon’.

There’s something utterly endearing about the voice actors, especially the veteran ladies who are all sorts of adorable. I love how some of them are wearing clothes that reflect their characters - Shigematsu Atori stans particularly hard for Piyomon! Mimi’s actress is wearing a dress with cactuses (cacti?)! 

I only recently found out Tentomon isn’t played by an old man but rather by a very talented and prolific young actor, so he’s automatically my favourite (along with Legend Takeuchi Junko).

Speaking of which, it’s now established that Tentomon is a major enabler in Koushirou’s new-found lewdeness, which is both hilarious and frightening when you think about it. Koushirou stealing his dad’s camera is bad enough, but Tento encouraging him to take bikini pics is a new low.

This one belongs in a “Digimon out of context” blog.

Agumon’s food gags are getting old fast (Tailmon agrees). I still laughed though because THAT VOICE.

Also, it seems Mimi dragged Jou into this mess, which is both expected and admirable.

JouxMimi fans, rejoice!

The point of this trip is to introduce Jou to Meiko, which the movies kind of had to skip over. Can’t blame them for that, but thankfully we get a nice little moment out of this. 

Jou calls her Mochizuki-kun, which is pretty cute!

Jou, the only person who would match Meiko in an apology contest.

I realise tri. has made me incapable of interpreting any of Takeru’s lines in a straight-faced way, but c’mon, this is TOTALLY intentional.

In case you’re wondering, Yamato and Taichi are still on a break.

Describe tri. in three words.

Even Hikari is starting to troll Yamato and Taichi. Takeru is a bad influence.

This applies to cooking, bands, holding grudges, and career options.

You know, asking Agumon to light a fire is not a bad idea considering that it probably saved them from starving plenty of times when they were kids.

Does this grill belong to Hiroaki? Is that why Yamato is so against Agumon destroying it?

Oh, *BURN*.

Someone take the url “Bacon Yamato” since I believe Knife of Ramen is already taken. 

And yes, Agumon, I’m sure he’s delicious.

Takeru quitely slips in an “onii-chan” at this point because he’s the literal worst.

Anyway, Yamato being a barbecue aficionado, expert, and utter perfectionist is one of my favourite new random facts about him. Thank you, tri.

Quick, someone write a AU when Yamato presents the Japanese version of Kitchen Nightmares. I’m sure he and Gordon Ramsey would hit it off.

HAHAHAHHAHAHAH THIS IDIOT

Sidenote, but in addition to a perfect voice, Jou’s VA has the best facial expressions.

Where’s the lie, though.

Koushirou fainting after Mimi poses for him in a swimsuit requires zero animation to land, and it’s AWESOME.

Digimon: doing jokes about teen pervs without actually showing any questionable content. Hooray!

Mimi, HA POWAH

Taichi and Yamato blushing for girls in bikinis is my new aesthetics.

Also, faithful to the spirit of tri., this doesn’t really specify who they’re blushing for. I mean, it’s Sora, but Meiko is also mentioned and Mimi’s around so all your shipping fantasies remain intact! tri. truly is a gift to all fans.

This suave motherfucker.

It’s undeniably canon that Takeru has a weird obsession with Meiko’s cuteness and if it wasn’t for the age difference we’d all be freaking out about this ship.

It’s also undeniably canon that Takeru likes older women and you cannot convince me otherwise.

AGE IS JUST A NUMBER, BITCHES

Takeru immediately compliments the other girls because you would want to keep your options open while showing the other guys how it’s done.

The voice of reason in this mess and probably why Takari never happened.

Mimi’s right. Taichi should learn from Takeru. In fact, everyone should take notes.

I literally went on Merriam Webster to look up “smarty” because I’m adopting that word from now on.

Please, Yamato, spend more time with your brother.

As people have pointed out, this shows that the only reason why Yamato ever got with Sora is because Takeru pulled all the strings and told him what to do at all times.

Exactly, Yamato. Good strategy.

Takeru’s VA is literally Takeru IRL and I’m dying at his perfect expressions.

Feminist Queen Mimi is right as always.

YAS! Drop all the men and steal Taichi’s goggles while you’re at it!

Because he’s smarty AND smart.

Honestly,  the way these Digimon talk about their partners, there’s no way anyone can have self-esteem issues in this team! A Digimon is a girl’s best friend!

“You smell nice” and “It feels good getting hugs from you”. Only Takeru could make these pick up lines work!

“It’s better to be pathetic than to be a pervert” - life lessons from the Digimon Adventure boys. 

I simply imagine Gomamon saying this at random points in Jou’s life.

Obigatory JOOOOOOOOOOO moment! Take a shot!

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH MARRY ME JOU I’m human

Now that compliments have been delivered, we can finally get to the damn barbecue.

No Mimi, you cannot swim AFTER you eat!

RIP Mei! 

And because this is tri, you have to end a comic sketch in a tragic note and eerie foreshadowing! FUN!

In Conclusion: This very short drama has a fantastic script that totally gets the characters, the amazing cast gets to shine, and it’s FUNNY as hell. Please, TOEI, do more of these in the future. We’ll buy it.

Also, can we please have a spin-off series dedicated to Takeru’s life as a professional  troll and fuckboi? Cause I’d watch the shit out of that and I know I’m not alone.

[arthur-recaps]

I apologize for skipping recaps for the last two weeks but I am starting a new job and have been working late to reach out in my network to find my replacement and finish up my projects to make things smoother for my replacement. My new job starts next week and I will hopefully enter my groove again. Just to be safe, I am queuing up another recap to run next Tuesday as well.

Arthur surmises that the world can be divided into things that adults like and things that kids like. He thinks about the time Jane and David took him to see the foreign film Il Straneri, which was apparently about two people who never meet but throw coins in the same fountain. Arthur is confused as to why his parents think it’s such a great movie and I got to tell you Arthur, some day you will be an adult and still not get why other people like things. I think House of Cards is overrated but there’s a bunch of people who want to give that show a bunch of awards.

Similarly, modern art can be hard for kids to understand. All they see is the same scribbles and shit they did back in kindergarten and here’s some 30-year old person getting paid thousands of bucks to do it on a bigger sheet of paper. Arthur is skeptical of the praise Muffy gives to a painting and she admits that she doesn’t like it but her dad does so she wants to give it a try.

Ed announces that he has bought the painting and it will be installed in Muffy’s room. It’s not the ugliest thing in the world but if Ed really liked the style, he could have just gone down to the local Hobby Lobby, picked up some paints and canvas, and let a four year old go to town.

Am I wrong?

It’s morning at Chez Crosswire and Muffy is presented with concert tickets on her plate. She thinks it’s for the Tween Dream concert but Ed explains that the opera is playing his favorite, George Bizet’s Carmen, and he wants Muffy to accompany him. Side note: it’s been very much implied that the Crosswires are “new money”, especially with Ed’s job as a used car salesman but I like that he has “sophisticated” interests like the opera. I totally did not see that coming from a guy who uses car euphemisms when coaching the kids’ soccer team.

Muffy is a little bummed that the tickets aren’t for something that she’d like, but she hints to Ed that she’s going to need an outfit and he promptly hands over fifty bucks. I need Muffy to teach a class on how to become a sugar baby and swindle rich men out of money.

Muffy takes Francine and Prunella to go shopping with her and give opinions on outfits. Prunella declares that opera is nothing more than “people in silly costumes in a language you don’t understand” and Muffy brushes it off, saying that maybe Prunella isn’t sophisticated enough to appreciate it. Prunella snottily replies that she’s actually been to an opera and it was boring as hell, thank you very much. She also bets that Muffy will fall asleep before the overture.

To add insult to injury, Francine tells Muffy that the dress she’s trying on makes her look like a rice pudding.

Well, if your girls won’t tell you the truth, who will?

Muffy decides that perhaps it would not be a bad idea to listen to some opera before she actually goes to get an idea of what it would be like. She asks Bailey if he knows anything about opera and he responds by singing a selection from Wagner’s Ring Cycle.

Show-off,

Muffy is not impressed by her chauffeur’s Italian singing (Which she should be! How many people can sing like that?!) and does not like the idea of sitting through four hours of that. Then Bailey adds that opera lengths vary; Ring Cycle lasts for sixteen hours.

Muffy’s reaction:

Ed tucks Muffy in for bed and tells her that he can’t wait to go to the opera. Muffy dreams that they are at the opera, watching what the Arthur Wiki tells me is a mishmash of  Rossini’s The Barber of Seville and Wagner’s Die Walküre, which is pretty impressive since Muffy doesn’t know jack about opera. In her dream, Muffy falls asleep during the show and her snoring is so loud that the whole theater, including the singers, stop to look at her. She wakes up and tries to applaud the show, calling, “Bravo!” Then she realizes the show still isn’t over and sits down, embarrassed.

At school, Francine suggests that Muffy just tell her dad that she doesn’t want to go so Muffy can stop worrying about whether she’ll like it or fall asleep. Muffy insists that she can’t because Ed is really looking forward to seeing the show with her. Francine asks what the opera is about and to their surprise, Binky interjects, describing Carmen as “professional wrestling” set to great music. He invites Muffy to come to his house after school to listen to the CD and gives her the basic plot: Don Jose is a soldier who falls in love with gypsy Carmen. He quits the army and leaves his fiance and becomes a bandit to be with her, but then Carmen falls in love with a bullfighter and leaves Don Jose.

As she listens to the music, Muffy pictures herself and her friends as the characters. Now, I know most of these voice actors are kids, but they don’t really have a strong set of pipes. Nevertheless, I like how the writers have reworked most of the plot details of Carmen to be more family-friendly. For example, Prunella and Francine work in a gum factory instead of a cigarette one and the soldiers sing for Muffy to let them take her to the opera, instead of asking her to choose a lover. Muffy sings back that she prefers boy bands and thinks the opera is “for tired old fools” and “soldiers who make minimum wage.”

Ouch.

Still, Binky, in the Don Jose role, literally drags Muffy to the opera against her protests. Then Rodney Gilfrey comes down on a flying bull and encourages Muffy to give opera a chance. Muffy immediately becomes more enthusiastic and runs after Rodney, much to Binky’s anger. He sprinkles sleeping powder on her so she’ll sleep through the show but he overdoes the dosage and she presumably dies.

Side note: I was very surprised to see that Rodney Gilfry is a blonde white dude because his animated version made me think he was black or at least, very tan. Observe:

Anyway, Muffy comes out of her daydream and tells Binky it was amazing. He is surprised because she slept through the whole show and snored.

Muffy worries that she is hopeless.

Muffy is even willing to return the gorgeous dress she bought so she doesn’t have to go the opera. She admits to her mom that she doesn’t like opera but Mary Alice convinces her to give it a chance. She tells Muffy that she didn’t like opera either and now it’s one of her favorite things. Muffy counters that it probably helps that Mary Alice is a grown up so Mary Alice gives her a pair of opera glasses, saying that the opera is more enjoyable when she can see the actors’ expressions.

Muffy is still apprehensive about enjoying the opera when she finally goes but just like Mary Alice predicted, she really likes the show! She even tears up at the end when Carmen dies. I’m not tagging this as spoiler because a 200-year old opera and there was even a version with Beyonce so we should all know what happens by now.

At the end of the episode, she is seen telling Francine over the phone that she is going to see an opera is Crown City and supervising Bailey hang up a framed autographed poster of Rodney Glifry.

It’s lights, camera, and opera for that other shitty painting.

Grade: A (This was very well written and well paced and I liked that the writers took the time to insert so many little details about opera in Muffy’s fantasies. I also like that the lesson here is for kids to take a chance on things they think are too adult and “boring”, but other than that, there really wasn’t anything that set me on fire her. It was a good, strong episode but it wasn’t amazing enough to be an A+. I can tell you that I’m a little divided on the dig Rodney Gilfry sang about Tween Dream being “teeny bopper trash.” I mean, Tween Dream probably is going to go down in the Music Hall of Fame but I don’t really like that whatever girls like, especially very girly girls like Muffy, must be trashy and unsophisticated. I mean, the Spice Girls and *NSYNC and The Backstreet Boys really had a big influence on kids even if they aren’t as artistically complex as The Beatles, who by the way, had a huge teen girl fanbase in their early years. That’s the only problem I had but I swear it’s not what prevented this from being an A+. I think if they wanted to get a +, they could have tried a little harder with the songs in Muffy’s fantasy. The rhymes and singing were really basic and even Rodney Gilfry could only elevate it so much.)

Rating: 79% intense. The opera is intense.

  Will Muffy like the opera? It's not over until the fat lady sings! #ArthurRecap I apologize for skipping recaps for the last two weeks but I am starting a new job and have been working late to reach out in my network to find my replacement and finish up my projects to make things smoother for my replacement.

[idealisticrealism]

Blindspot 2x10 recap

(Aka the one where Patterson suffers more than she ever deserves to, and the team begrudgingly adopts Roman)

So, here I am, back by... well, vague demand... to provide you guys with another overly long and rambly recap. It seems that, regardless of what this show does, I will inevitably have a lot of thoughts and opinions about it-- and surprisingly there's some of you who are actually willing to suffer through reading them haha.

So I hope everyone had a nice hiatus/holiday period, and here goes. 

Okay. Shit. I have to say that this show totally got me here with the whole Borden vs Patterson pistol duel. I was convinced that Borden would be the one who was shot, because who the hell would dare harm our precious Patterson?? The writers, apparently. (Sadists, the lot of them). Also to Borden's credit, he does sound genuinely horrified when he realises he’s shot her, and I do really still believe that he truly cared about her. But sigh, way to sink my ship, show. And then ugh my lil baby slumping against the wall and being all “don’t touch me!” and ugh this is the worsstttt

Ok where did Jane spring this fancy-ass car from? Isn't the usual method to go for something old and nondescript that can be hot-wired, rather than something that probably has like inbuilt GPS or something? But ugh anyway poor Roman looks like a freaking mess. But come on, Jane, bringing him in on your own is a terrible idea. The moment he wakes he'll be like a frightened and cornered animal and just lash out. Aaaaand yep, there he goes, with the head-smashing and the almost-shooting. And then he literally goes, tossing himself out of the car. That was kinda cool, tbh. But sigh, Jane honey, mistrust is practically a part of his DNA, of course he's gonna flip out rn. I feel so sad for her though, she's literally always just trying to help and yet only ends up getting beaten and battered because of it (either physically or emotionally) and then abandoned. Ughhhhhh. 

Naw Readey baby. I'm so glad you're okay. And apparently enjoying the morphine buzz lol. And aww Zapata has been there watching over him and ugh this friendship is everything

Interesting that when Nas recaps the mission and the explosion to Weller, she doesn't mention that Reade suggested aborting when they lost a cell signal and she was the one decided to press on. Honestly rn I can't tell if her guilt over the dead agents is genuine or she's more upset that Shepherd both outsmarted her and got away. But of course Weller reassures her, because he supports his team no matter what. I just wish he hadn't placed his loyalty in her. Also I know Archie is a fantastic actress but I literally cannot stand the slow, pausing, breathy way she makes Nas speak. It just sounds so stilted and makes it difficult to actually focus on the scene. But I'm sure gonna try and focus because Weller has finally pulled his head out of his butt and is actually making protecting Jane a priority. (Hallelujah). Then he tells Nas they need to find her and she's all "I'm not hopeful"-- and yeah, I bet you're not, lady. You're probably hoping Jane DID die, so there's no one around to stop you manipulating Weller. But ugh the tears in Weller's voice... finally, boy, you're realising just how much you cannot lose Jane. And just bc I’m feeling magnanimous, here's a hint for that thick skull-- it's because you LOVE her, you idiot. Gawd. Anyway, Zapata is once again being cast in to the role of Team Anti-Jane, which is kinda freaking repetitive and annoying, but hey, the writers need to put other characters in opposition to Jane just to make Weller's support of her stand out all the stronger, making us ~love how he fights for her~ so we forget all the times this season he was a complete ass towards her. Like don't get me wrong, I love Jeller, and I actually also look forward to the moment that Zapata and Jane come through this with an even stronger friendship, because that's undoubtedly (or at least hopefully) what this is eventually leading to. But sigh, even though I can somewhat justify Zapata's behaviour as a result of her fear and trauma over the explosion and Reade's injury, I just wish her attitude towards Jane could be a little more nuanced and complex than the current GRRRR JANE'S THE VILLAIN HERE GRRRRR. And Nas doesn't bloody help by planting the suggestion that if Jane returns, it could just be to continue spying on them. Thanks, devil-lady. Next time I'll ask if I want your input. But aaaaaaaanyway, I'm gonna move on from that and instead cry a lil bit over "Jane was-- Jane is loyal." Oh, son. Took you long enough, you giant idiot. She just had to almost die for you to get there. And then ugh next thing we know Jane's being dragged into the bullpen and ughhhhhh "Please I just need to see if they're okay" aND UGH SHE LOVES THIS TEAM SO MUCH IT HURTS ME, she loves them even despite how poorly they've treated her lately (yes, they had ~some~ reasons, but seriously). And then ughhhhh Weller is charging over there like an enraged bull and I love that for a moment Jane doesn't know if he's angry at the guards or her but then he demands the cuffs to be taken off her and ughhhh she has a second of relief before she's apologizing over and over and desperately telling him that she didn't know-- bc lbr, from her past experience she would totally expect to be blamed for this, and she's not wrong (lookin' at you, Zapata and Nas). And then Weller PULLS HER IN FOR A HUG and she's all ??????? because whaaaat? Affection and reassurance?? What are these strange things?? But ugh the way her eyes close and she sinks into him for a second ughhhh I JUST WANT JANE TO FEEL SAFE AND LOVED AT ALL TIMES PLEASE. THIS IS ALL I WANT. But lol he tells her that they understand and there's a little camera cut to both Nas and Zapata who are very dubious as to whether they do understand and sigh I can practically read the rest of the season's theme in just this few seconds of footage. But anyway then ugh there’s Jane's distress when she sees that not all the team is there-- the terror that they might have been hurt and just ughhhhhhhhhh. Also thanks for that totally wooden-sounding line about Reade's surgery, Zapata. I’ve decided I'm going to  interpret the stiltedness of Audrey's normally flawless delivery as her not approving of her own character's attitude lol. But anyway Jane drops the Borden bombshell (naww, she says "he doesn't work for us", because she's on their side and always has been and ughhhhh) but anyway everyone has a collective "oh shit" moment as they realise Patterson and Borden are both AWOL. And then Jane brings up Roman and then has to explain what happened to her (that's right, guys, Shepherd planned to make her watch you die because she knew that YOU ARE ALL* (*minus Nas) JANE'S FAMILY AND LOSING YOU WOULD DESTROY HER. CAPICHE???  Ugh. But ugh Jane tells them everything Roman saving her and then about zipping him etc. And sighhh Zapata's got her angry pants and Jane-glare on yet again, but again I'm going to put it down to fear for her friend's life because that's the only way I can justify it without getting annoyed by it lol

Aaaaaahhhhh my baby Patterson. Waking up with your wound apparently fixed by the very man who shot you. Interesting that it seems (from the DWB thing) that he was officially trained in general practice/family medicine, and yet can also apparently do the job of a psychiatrist, AND perform surgery. Amazing. Such skills. Also okay I have to say some things bc I have such an issue with this bullet wound. Like people always seem to get shot in the abdomen in movies and shows (even like Jane did at the start of the season), and it's always all "oh it's okay, the bullet missed vital organs" but like uhhhmmm you know what fills up like the entire abdomen?? Bowel. You know what has a ton of blood supply that bleeds like mad, and also contains bacteria that can easily kill you if it gets into your bloodstream? Bowel. Ugh. And don't even get me started on how unsterile this whole environment is. But aaaanyway, it's tv and therefore she's totally fine and dandy rn, even magically managing to pull the IV from her arm with zero bleeding and disconnect the other end from the bag without it immediately gushing all over the floor. Maaaagic. Still, the fact that she's planning on strangling Borden with an IV line is pretty badass haha. Tbh the tubing would probably snap, but whatever. And then aaaaaaahhhh Shepherd is there and Borden tries to bargain for Patterson's life, even though all it achieves is torture rather than death. Welll.... you tried?

Meanwhile the team's still searching for Roman, and Weller comes into the lab where Zapata and Jane are already running a search, standing on opposite sides of the table. Mmm, symbolic. I wonder if they spoke at all?? Did Jane try yet again to explain herself, to beg forgiveness even though her crimes are long since paid for and now she has nothing at all she needs to be forgiven for? Sigh. But anyway, Zapata used her hacky skills to use Patterson's system to track Roman's phone. And finally he answers and is all ??!!!?????!, which is fair, and ugh my little crazy puppy is more like a little lost puppy at the moment. I kinda wish Jane had told him his name was Ian rather than Roman, tbh. But ah well. Then Roman gives very vague directions for where he is (seriously, man, you could be a lot more specific) and ugh he's just such a mess rn. He's actually literally like a puppy, and can’t concentrate on anything but the most basic of needs and sensations. Naw my baby

Ughhhh poor baby Patterson, suffering though both physical pain and emotional heartbreak. I had such high hopes for you two. And then ugh "everything I did was for my late wife" and lol Patterson and I have the exact same reaction: "just what every girl wants to hear" lol. Ugh, my poor baby. Borden truly seems a little unhinged rn, which is so sad. I miss my beautiful sweet cinammon roll of a man. I miss the Borden from our fics, the sweetheart who is as loyal to the team as any of them, who uses his training to help them and his empathy to support them. That Borden is long gone, now. But omg Patterson "Oh I'm sorry. Your side sounds really cool, so you should just go ahead and untie me, because I'm converted" lolll.  That’s my lil sassmaster. And then in the other room Shepherd’s finding out that Roman's been zipped and wow this show is really enjoying these dramatic sharp-closeup camera shots rn lol

Ugh Roman's exchange with the little girl. Slightly disturbing with the whole fork thing (though lbr I'm not a huge fan of kids messing with my stuff either lol) but kind of sweet in a sad way when he asks if he knows her. He's searching for any connection and is so saaaaad. And then all the 'hunters' (haha, get it? Coz they’re hunting him?) come in and wow that's a lot of practically identical looking dudes haha. It's like a camo print and baseball cap convention in here. And he gets the lady and the kid out but there are other customers in this place, what about them? You can see them in the background briefly but there’s never any screaming from terrified bystanders when the shooting starts lol. But ah well, mere details. Thankfully Jeller arrive in time to be part of the shootout, which ends when Roman stabs the guy who's shooting at them in the neck. Which is a lil vicious, maybe, but let's not forget Jane nearly choked a guy to death on her first day out of the bag. These two seriously have both survival instincts and protective instincts up the wazoo. Granted, him more on the former and her more on the latter, but still. 

Ugh and now Roman's cuffed in the interrogation room and Jane is upset about it and Zapata's like "Reade's injured bc of him" which is not entirely unreasonable since Roman WAS the one that got all the explosives and helped set up the trap, so....  but then Nas, in her usual manipulative way, supports Jane-- bc while she agrees Roman is ‘the enemy’, she still wants to use him and she knows a gentle approach is the best way to do that. Wow, snake-lady, Weller sure picked a winner for his rebound. Well done, my idiot son, I’m surprised she hasn’t bitten your head off during sex yet. But anyway speaking of idiots, now they're all telling Jane she has to lie to Roman about zipping him, because even though they vilified her for lying to them (when she did it to try to PROTECT them), they're suddenly fine and dandy with lying when it serves their own purpose. And yes, I can understand their perspective-- Roman might be their only way to save Patterson. But Jane lying to him now is eventually going to destroy anything she builds with him in the future. And my, my, doesn't this all sound familiar?? Then she goes in there and ugh my poor lil puppy is still so lost. And she promises that the team can help him like they helped her and tbh part of me is kinda dubious about that, especially the whole "they helped make me feel full again", given how they've treated her this season...  but at the same time it is also kinda true bc in S1 they gave her a purpose and a 'family', and at least in S2 so far she has still had the purpose part. Plus, she says 'helped', indicating that they weren't solely responsible for making her feel full again. I think a lot of that she did herself, just with assistance from Weller and the team and a little from Oscar and Roman and Oliver and basically anyone that she connected with even briefly. But still, the fact that she lies to someone she loves because the team made her is upsetting to me...

Speaking of upsetting, Shepherd's getting her torture on. Although honestly, as far as torture goes, this is pretty weak. All talk and no action, really. Like yes, a perforated eardrum hurts. But like Shepherd herself says, it does heal. Which was obviously what the writers were aiming for, because it's Patterson, and you can't permanently injure her or disfigure her since she's a series regular. But dude this torture is actually kind of embarrassing. People can perforate their eardrums just from cleaning their ears. Such a minor injury is hardly effective torture. And reinserting the needle in the same ear, trying to get her to suddenly break and talk? Completely pointless. If she was serious about torturing Patterson, she'd take an eye. Or smash her fingers, like she vaguely threatens to do but doesn’t ever get close to doing. Or if she wanted to keep her hands intact (ie, she wanted to use Patterson for her skills later) she could rip off fingernails or toenails. Cut off toes. Slice a bunch of cuts into her body. Break her legs. Poke her in her wound. There are literally so many ways to inflict pain on someone, and the fact that Shepherd supposedly chose this one only is just too ludicrous for me to believe. I mean c’mon, writers. As much as I would have hated seeing Patterson hurt, YOU chose to put her in that position, so you at least do it right...

Awwwww Roman's in the magic lie detector machine and he looks so sad and worried and Jane's there watching over him and ughhhh he just wants to help her and have her approval and ughhh my puppyyyy. Then Nas just ups and leaves partway through and Jane chases after her but Nas just shuts her down, then basically outright says that it's Jane's fault that they can't find Patterson. At least Weller hears that and very obviously dismisses Nas before reassuring Jane, clearly seeing how much she blames herself. And okay it's out of frame but from the way his body moves he definitely seems to put his hand on her upper arm and ugh FINALLY, BOY. FINALLY SUPPORTING HER IN THE WAY SHE DESERVES. And then as he walks off, Jane's left there all overwhelmed bc of guilt/worry over Patterson, the anger from the others, Kurt suddenly being on her side again (she's forgotten what that felt like, I bet), and also the fact that she now lied to Roman for no reason, since he wasn't able to help them find Patterson anyway. Sigh. I wish she had just gone back to the room and told him the truth right then, explained as best she could and apologised. Maybe it would have worked. 

Interesting that Weller sent Nas off like a good minute before he headed to the lab, but they both walked in at the same time. Did they have a conversation outside? Did she linger around the corner and listen in on  what he said to Jane? Or idk whatever lol, it’s tv. And so now we find out that Sandstorm has communicated in some kind of code that they need to crack, and one second Nas is all "oh shucks this is very complicated it might take weeks" and then the next she's suddenly like "wait look at that random book in this miraculously appearing photo, that could be the key to a book cypher!" Like wow, writers. You really didn't put much work into that one, did you? Like I understand there are time constraints involved with an episode but seriously that was just embarrassingly convenient. And then the ridiculous way Nas was all "okay so if we convert this and do that, it just might-- oh it worked!" Oh geez. C’mon. Give us a little credit here. On a brighter note, props to the other Laura (gypsyscarfwoman) who I believe noticed the book a few eps ago and commented on its possible significance given that it's the history of Rome and there's been strong Roman themes (hehe) in this season.      

Oh look who it is, Mr Director Man, my initial fave choice for the mole. Still disappointed about that, though lbr he's still being shady enough that he could still be up to something. Also wow is it midlife crisis time or something bc his haircut looks like that of a teenage boy who’s trying to get in with the 'in crowd' lol. But then he basically tells Nas to piss off and I instantly take back anything bad I ever said about him. Forgive me, Pelly. Your hair looks great and your suit is the most dapper of all. You are the bestest and I thank you for freeing me of Nas She-Demon Kamal and also for rightly ascribing (at least partial) blame to her for the deaths of those agents in the explosion. Now, if only Weller would shut up and stop trying to get her to stay, that would be great. Gotta say, it's really not fun to see him trying to protect her, bc it kinda lessens all the times he did the same for Jane. But whatevvvs, I'm terrific at only seeing what I want to see, so consider the Weller parts of this scene zipped from my memory lol

Great, we're back at the useless torture, and clearly Patterson is as impatient with it as I am lol. And daaaamn she's dropping some truth bombs about the lack of loyalty amongst Shepherd’s followers haha. But seriously if Shepherd lets THAT get to her, she's not the terrifying warlord she was made out to be lol

So they've cracked the code, brought in the chick that owns the garage at the listed location, and now they're making a whole lot of impossible threats (Gitmo? Really Tasha?) before she admits she provided a getaway car to Borden. A car that was fortunately VERY distinctive and able to be picked up on traffic cams. So handy.

Lol Shepherd is still in the midst of a tantrum and decides that Patterson has to die. Well, that was several hours wasted for nothing then haha. Borden convinces her to let him kill her, and I'm stunned to see that he's actually about to go ahead with it. Also shaking my head at the fact that the tourniquet is improperly positioned and not tight enough (though it appears to be wrapped around a fake bit of arm so whatever), and the fact that he inserts the wrong type of needle that shouldn't already be attached to a tube, plus he does it without palpating the vein, and seems to think he needs a whole bag of saline to prove that the vein is patent rather than just a quick 5ml flush. Sigh. But anyhow while he’s farting around, Patterson is doing such a good job of talking him out of it, and he admits that part of him loves her (*wails*). And then when he hears the team’s car he holds her hand for a sec and tells her goodbye and ugh dammit you two. We could have had it aaaaaaalllllll 

And so the cavalry has arrived but run into a bit of a bit of a dilemma of their own, the car flipping when they hit a damn landmine. The most shocking bit of the whole thing, though, is that Zapata jumps straight out from the back and runs to Jane's door, frantically asking if she's okay before calling Weller over to help free her. Is this a weirdly written backflip of her attitude or is this her real regard for Jane breaking through the anger that had been masking it? Personally I hope it's the latter, bc I've always liked to think that Zapata does care about Jane, and needs her, because right now she needs an outlet for all her negative emotions and (unhealthy as it is) she knows Jane will bear it, will be that proverbial punching bag for her because JANE knows she needs it (and knows that it isn't actually about her specifically at all). Hopefully it's a situation that doesn't last much longer as Zapata eventually finds better outlets (and apolgises her ass off to Jane). I just really need Zapata and Jane to be buds again. Sigh. But anyway ugh Weller pulls her out and they're clinging to each other for a sec until she sees Borden bolting for the trees and Weller takes off in pursuit. Really, son? It's like a bear trying to run down a cheetah. But sure, knock yourself out. Meanwhile I'm more excited to see the ladies save their other lady friend and ugh my precious babies. Even if Zapata and Jane are at odds rn, they can agree they both love Patterson and would do anything for her. #TeamBlindspotLadies

So somehow Weller caught up to Borden (I suppose it’s true cheetahs aren't great over long distances) and now they're getting into a punch-up, and while I can believe Borden probably got some martial arts training after joining Sandstorm-- possibly from Remi herself-- I still struggle to believe that he would ever win this fight. I did pause it at a hilarious spot just now though where there's just an upside down foot about to smack into Weller's face haha. And then Borden manages to cuff Weller's hand to his ankle, which is amusing but I definitely call bullshit, because anyone that’s been anywhere near handcuffs would know they would definitely not fit around a grown man's leg, especially not over his trousers. Not a chance. But whatever haha. And then ugh he says that Borden can't shoot him and he's all "not yet" and ugh remember when these two were buds?? Guys that would talk about sports during Weller's sessions but then Borden also always listened when he needed to talk about his dad or Taylor or whatever? I am so sad we lost that. Goddammit writers why couldn't you have just listened to me and made Pellington the mole. I guess I have to be thankful that at least it wasn’t Tasha... 

Noooo Pellington stay away from Roman!!! Stop hurting my baby pupppyyyyyy. Ugh and now there's the tears and the yelling and damn I am impressed with Luke Mitchell rn. He's absolutely killing it this ep. And then aaaaahhhhhh Pellington is gonna send him to the CIA to be tortured just like Jane and okay I take back all the nice things I said about you earlier, getting rid of Nas doesn;t make up for hurting my puppy. But ughhh Weller and Jane stand together against him, and then Weller threatens to quit if Roman is taken away (ugh the way Jane looks at him when he says that, just let me die right now). But I wonder if Weller’s threat is just because he knows Pellington doesn't want to have to find a replacement, or if he's starting to suspect that Pellington might have other reasons-- possibly Sandstormy reasons-- for wanting to keep him in that role??? And then ugh he argues to keep Nas, and while that initially bugged me earlier (I'm sure it's rather clear by now that I'm less than a fan of her, and especially of her thing with Weller), his language actually makes it clear that he wants her back because her needs her knowledge of Sandstorm, and doesn't think he can figure them out and catch them without her. And with that lightbulb moment, I'm back to being just a little less displeased with Weller. Not overly happy with how he's suggesting to use Jane and Roman's connection to get info, but then Pellington is pretty ruthless in his methods so Weller probably has to pretend to be that way too, even if he's planning on doing things differently. But dude, he is so setting himself up to be screwed over, and when that inevitably happens (*cough* when Nas betrays the team *cough*) Jane is the one that's gonna be there, picking his ass up off the ground. Because she loves him, and helping others is just what she does. Also ugh Jane with her hand on Roman's shoulder while he looks down at her... I can't even deal with these two.They are my babies and i love them

Firstly, I love Reade's apartment and I want it. Secondly, hmmm, a patient who had major vascular surgery going home the same day as he had his operation? Yeah, nope. Not ever. But again, tv land, so.... *shrugs*. The teasing Reade and sarcastically caring Zapata is so great until bam! the world's most unwanted kiss bursts awkwardly into the scene. Oh Gero. Gero, Gero, Gero. WHATREUDOIN. I seriously hope that this kiss-- and her reaction to it-- was just a way to get the "will they get together?" question completely out of the way by giving it a resounding no. Although lbr I don't trust the writers not to create a scene later where Zapata comes to Reade and is all "I was too scared to admit it to myself but I know now I'm desperately in love with you, let's ride off into the sunset together". Which would be THE WORST. Honestly like 99% of the time I am like YESSSS GIVE ME ALL THE ROMANCE but this has just never been a romantic ship to me. This has always been two people who love each other because they are BEST FRIENDS, regardless of the fact that they have different sets of genitals. And it's not just bc I want Reade and Sarah to find each other again, or to see Zapata fall for the 'forgetful terrorist' that she currently dislikes so much. It's because Zapata and Reade's friendship has always been one of the most beautiful and powerful parts of the show, and to imply that that kind of connection can only be had if you're also getting naked together... well that just pisses me off, because it cheapens the whole thing. So quit it, Gero. This is a ship that should never sail, okay???  Let's hope Zapata sticks to her guns and Reade realises that they never would have worked and they both just agree to forget it ever happened

Ughhhhh Jane bringing Roman food and reassuring him that it's all only temporary and then giving him the coooooin and ugh their haaaaaands and the "we'll figure it out together" and aaahhhhhhhh save meeeeeee

And then ughhh here's my next favourite brother-sister relationship, with Weller bringing sunflowers to Patterson who is talking adorably loudly and ugh he gets choked up as he gives them to her and he tries to encourage her to rest but lets her show him what she found anyway bc he knows she needs it and so she shows him the article about Borden's death-- or rather, Nigel's death (lol Nigel Thornton just makes me think of Nigel Thornberry. Smashing.) But ooooh that was clever by the writers--- this ep is titled "Nor I, Nigel, AKA leg in iron". Which could be interpreted as Nigel having his leg in irons, aka being trapped. Shackled. Like they're implying Borden was kind of 'chained' to Sandstorm, with no chance for freedom. Also she insults Borden's medical school which upon googling doesn't appear to be a real one, so that makes me wonder if Hardyshire is a name or a brand that one of the writers doesn't like or something haha, and it's their own little in-joke lol. Then she talks about the book code and he asks how she knows and she says “come on, I read the notes" which I do not understand? Which notes? And then Weller FINALLY gives her the phone belonging to the Sandstorm contact (still betting it was Remi) and lol after Patterson splutters about having "all of the questions" they easily decrypt it with the book key. And so they immediately find a video file (is there more on the phone or just that one file?? Will we see more next week?? It occurs to me now that I haven’t watched the promo yet lol). But yeah what is this leopard thing???? I always thought her neck seemed strangely uneven by just having the bird on one side. So I assume they scrapped the leopard tatt, right? Like didn't do it at all rather than it being in invisible ink or something. Which means that maybe Sandstorm thought it was somehow too revealing, like it could tie back to them somehow? Or maybe whatever the tatt was about is no longer an issue? Or something???? (also did you notice how well behaved I was just now and didn't make a single comment on Jane's great butt haha) 

So sandstorm is altering Phase 2 but Weller's role in it is still important. BUT WHAT IS ITTTTTT GERO JUST TELL US

Awwww nooo my baby Roman is having his first mempory, but it's an awful one (statistically, I guess that makes sense, given so much of his life has been awful). But ughhhhh idc if he was a terrorist before I just wanna give him a huggggggg

[yoshi4sushi]

(purupurupuru) (purupurupuru) (gocha!) (coo!) (coo!)

 SUPER! SUPER! SUPER SORRY, MINNA-SAN! We are so behind we know. We’ve been a little exhausted lately cause we’ve taking care of some errands, but we deeply apologize for not keeping you updated. To make up our negligence, we have gathered 2 weeks of news so I hope everyone can forgive us. We totally have to keep you informed so let’s get to the point instead of spending our time apologizing over and over. First off, 2 weeks of chapter we didn’t mentioned to be keep it short and simple, Luffy and Zoro are together, but now trouble stirs as Tama has been kidnapped by some hoodlums and we finally see the dreamy Heart captain, Law. Will he be able to stop the boys in time before Kaidou gets a whiff of trouble? Let’s see what happens this week. Now for the anime recap, let’s keep it short and simple. Pedro, the brave jaguar mink has sadly departed from this world as he made his last effort to help Luffy and the others escape. They succeeded until Perospero survived, Big Mom is behind them, and ship fleets are shooting from every direction. At the end, Sunny was able to fly in the sky, and Luffy drags Katakuri & Brulee into mirror world. Next week, the moment everyone has been waiting: Luffy vs Katakuri. It’s a showdown that Luffy must confront alone as he faces the billion bounty man that’s 10 times stronger than Lucci and Doflamingo combined. Will he be able to defeat him?! Cheer as loud as you can! GO LUFFY!!! Now on with the news! First off, look who came to see us at our humble home, Tongari-san! Take it away, my friend. Tell us what’s going on at the tower. Tongari-san says that a “new” mysterious event is going at the tower very very soon. This event is called, “Dazzle.” The whole park will be stage and audience will be part of the show. Story is that a mysterious treasure holds a power and legend says that this mysterious power would give you eternal love. The Straw Hats see the value in this treasure, but evil doers are out to get this treasure to use it for their evil deeds. It is a dance performance performed at night. To join this show, you need to purchase a ticket. The ticket include the dance show aside from the live show and park entry. I’ll leave a link if anyone is interested in going. It will start on Sept.22nd until the 30th. Time slots vary. Next, summer fun is coming to an end very soon, but fall season will be lighting up your spirits. The tower will be selling the September birthday buttons of all the characters. Next, figurines! figurines! First, this week, all arcades will stock this lovely Glitter & Glamour Venus figurine of Nami in her bikini outfit. The arcade also stocked this Wedding style figurine of Vivi in white and blue dress. They also stocked the second part of the Germa 66 figurines of Nami, Sanji, Ussop, Franky, and Brook. For anyone who wants to complete their Straw Hat Germa collection. Next, arcades or Straw Hat stores have stocked this gashapon figurines of Nami, Pudding, and Hancock in their bikinis. Just put them together and it’s complete. Easy and simple. Next, loads of new shopping goods have arrived at the stores. First, these mini swords! They have Zoro’s three swords, and Law’s sword. You can have it in display. It’s also good to open the mail as well. The tower also has it available. Next, these cool nail clippers if you’re into keeping your nails nice and well-cut. They’ll have Luffy, Zoro, Nami, Sanji, and Chopper. Moving on, next month, all stores will be celebrating the 6th anniversary of the Mugiwara stores. News of awesome merch and such will be announced later on, and possibly new Mugi Mugi products. YAY! It’s a little bit late, but might as well let you know if anyone plans to visit the water park, Spa Hawaiians Resort in Fukushima. The limited time Mugiwara store there are selling these limited ed. Hawaiians buttons of the Straw Hats including Sabo, Law, Pudding, and Koala. It was released on the first week, but due to some selfish shoppers who bought more than 60 buttons, it was out of stock w/in 3 days. It took almost a week for the store to get more in stock. The crew and I went there this past weekend, and they still have plenty of it left, but the store can only allow customers to purchase only 10 buttons. You can buy it again, but amt has been limited. They’re pretty and colorful. The event will go on until early Sept. You need to buy the ticket to enter the water park. You can buy it at the Seven Eleven stores or at the park itself. Moving on, stores are selling these cute adorable pocket shirts of Luffy and Chopper. Very adorable! Next, stores are also selling this cool tote purse of Bon-chan as also a birthday product. Has his real name printed on it in pink color. Very stylish! Next, stores are also these awesome pens of the Straw Hats and the marines in blue and white color. Handy writing tool! More stuff! Told ya that were making up the absence. Anyway, the stores are selling these new colorful, stationary goods such as folders, note pads, and pencil boards that has Luffy, Katakuri, Sanji, and Pudding. Next, this new folder of the Straw Hats are in stock. The store ran out of this button set of Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji, but check your local store on their Twitter page to see if they restocked. They’re also selling these cute striped purses in blue and white color that has a mini straw hat at the bottom. Next, the stores are still continuing to sells these very very kawaii hamster plushies of Luffy, Zoro, Sanji, Sabo, and Law. Its like having a real hamster, but in plushie form. Stores are also selling these cool Whole Cake Island goods of the Straw Hats such as folders, towel, and pillow. It has Luffy, Nami, Sanji, Chopper, and Brook. The pillow has a double style in normal and rainbow colors. YOWZA! Next, they’re also selling these stationary package that has folder, a ticket mini folder, a notebook, postcard, and a pencil pouch in it. Jump Stores also have it available too. Next, you’re in the mood for sweets? Stores are selling these boxes of crunch decorated in summer style of the boys, and this yummy banana chocolate bars that comes with a free sticker of either Luffy, Zoro, Sanji, Nami, or Chopper. Store are also selling these cool hats in army print and white color that also has a mini straw hat on it. Next, jewelry store, Tendence, are selling this stylish and pricey log pose watches in blue and silver color. If you purchase it, you will be given a free stylish cloth and colorful box. Moving on, this week, Premico will released a new product. This new traditional Japanese hand-made green leather wallet of Zoro. It has a six pocket card holder and a money pocket holder. It will also include a very beautiful stone charm with Zoro’s jolly roger on it. Very pricey, but it’s stylish. You can order it online, or ask stores for arrival date of when they’ll have it in stock. Next, Singapore will be holding the Hello! One Piece exhibition. The event will start on Nov.27th until New Year’s day.  Moving on, September will have double birthdays. Whose you ask? I’ll give you two hints: one pirate is beautiful, and one is the sand master. You guessed right! It’s none other than Hancock and Crocodile. Their birthdays is on Sept. 2nd and 5th. Stores will be selling their birthday picture frames and buttons. If you purchase goods over 1000 yen, you’ll be given their birthday bromide cards of Hancock writing a love letter to Luffy, and Crocodile shielding a pug from the rain. Next, stores are still selling Bon-chan’s birthday goods such as this towel, folder, and a postcard set. Next, the OP Oto Utage is still on-going, and they have limited edition goods available. They’re selling pamphlet books, a button and folder set of Luffy, Nami, Zoro, Ussopn, & Sanji, a steel water can, a black tote bag with a free limited ed. button of Merry, an egg shaker, t-shirts in black and white colors, towels, a pen set, and colorful printed cookie boxes. All for a limited time until early September. Audience are allow to take pictures at the very end of the show, but not during. Please follow the rules. Next, here’s the new DVD cover of vol.13 of Whole Cake Island that has Sanji carrying the evil side Pudding. It will be released early Sept. Last, but not least, if everyone has seen it, the new cover of vol.90 has been released which is titled Holy Land Mariejois. It has Luffy’s bounty pic with Vivi, Carue, Garp, Rebecca w/ Mansherry, Sabo, Lucci, king Cobra, Shirahoshi, Wapol, Bonney, Kuma, and Leo. The novel wills commence with the gathering of Reviere up to the start of the Wano story. It will be released on Sept.4th. PHEW! Man oh man! I think we covered everything! Well, that’s all the stuff we got so far. Again we apologize for not keeping you updated, but we got everything laid out. Tune in next week for more news and events. Special thanks to Tongari-san. Before we leave, the crew and I posted our pics from our trips from USJ and Hawaiians Resort on our FB page. Search it under the club name, Los Mugiwara. It’s in Spanish, but just go straight to the photo page and you’ll see the titles of the albums. You can’t miss it. Don’t forget to watch the special episode of Skypiea this weekend. A big announce will be shown after the episode! Rumors are going around that a new movie will be green-lit. All right boys, lets’ wrap it up.

 Tower night event: https://onepiecetower.tokyo/sp/onepiece_dazzle/

Wallet: https://iei.jp/premico/