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destiny-smasher · 5 years

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I used to be close friends with one of the composers for Steven Universe. I watched them rise from a YouTube remixer living in a cramped bedroom in a shared apartment with nothing but a mattress on the floor and a keyboard beside it to owning a house, happily married with a whole backyard garden and a cat because they found success working on one of the biggest cartoon shows I’ve known. But they broke off that friendship earlier this year and it’s made my biased love for Steven Universe become very difficult to grasp with. Understanding how and why we weren’t friends anymore was likewise difficult to grasp, even after hours of us trying to hash things out and resolve it. And while we DID resolve things amicably (I hope) and peacefully, it wasn’t until Steven Universe: The Movie that I was really able to feel like I could see the forest from the trees and ‘get’ what happened. This will be a kind of review of the movie, but mostly it became more of a personal ramble relating my real life experiences with Aivi to those of characters within SU, especially the antagonist of the Movie. This is lifted from this Twitter thread, so it was originally written stream of consciousness and I’m sharing it here to keep it more readable and archived. This is a bit of a read so tucking it behind a ‘read more.’

"You keep on turning pages for people who don't care about you And still it takes you ages to see that no one's there Everyone's gone on without you"

Time to finally talk about the #StevenUniverse Movie. Strap in 'cause this gon' get personal.

It should go without saying BUT I am gonna be talking about the movie! Dunno how in detail per se but I can't properly say what I wanna say without diving into some of the important plotty stuff. So yea.

Don't read this thread if ya don't want #spoilers #sumovie

First off, I wanna talk about what this movie does well. Going in, I had heard it was framed like a musical. And I wasn't sure how I felt about that idea, though it wasn't surprising. After all, the 'musical' style episodes tend to resonate quite a lot.

I think they work great when it's one song in a 10 minute episode, but an hour and a half of songs? I wasn't sure how well that would go. Turns out, pretty well. This is due to many factors but primarily the variety of song styles and art styles used throughout. Basically every scene has a primary song that drives it home, and basically all of them have a different genre/tone as well as visual presentation style. A lot of work went into getting it all to work together and feel cohesive. TBH for me personally the main highlight of the movie was honestly the animation. Average TV goers might just see "yup sure looks like a cartoon" but on the whole, on average, the movie is CLEARLY animated and framed with much more dynamism and detail than the majority of SU. Getting to see these characters we've gotten to know over the past few years a couple years in the future, generally at peace with things, but animated with more detail than ever, THAT is the true highlight of the film for me. Naturally, there was a lot of bits of comedy, often relying on knowledge of what the characters have been through, and I felt a lot of bittersweet smiles throughout as this felt like a good send off for Steven and his Space Moms. It managed to work in cameos from basically everyone you'd expect, some of which...didn't work out as well as others (specifically, the Diamonds bookending the movie was a bit forced and weird IMO but they ARE important to the lore even if I find them boring tbh) It was nice getting to 'catch up' with everyone, and the plot itself uses a generic 'gotta save the world again' thing (bleh) in a creative way, at least -- it all becomes an excuse to "re-live" the four primary heroes' stories through song. Cool enough. Something the movie inadvertently highlights, however, is the fact that SU as a series really started spinning its wheels a lot for its second half, in particular. Much has been said about how and why and why or not this doesn't matter, etc. etc. I was just along for the ride. I've repeatedly expressed my personal bias in the series' favor for a long time, and now? I kinda don't really have that personal bias anymore. I still love the show, I still think it's one of the best cartoons I've ever seen. But those rose-tinted glasses are off now. Taking said glasses off and actually listening to and looking up what critics of the show had to say kind of unearthed a bunch of things I had kept sweeping under the rug for the sake of personal bias/support of someone I loved and cared for a lot. We'll get back to that. I say all of this because the movie ironically failed to do much of anything NEW, something the series itself kind of struggled with for a while until it finally got around to the conclusion of Steven's story arc. The film ultimately kind of ends with "yeah Steven can change!" Which, um yea? Obviously. He's a completely different person than he was in S1. But he's kiiiiinda been the same person for....some while now. The weird irony of SU as a series is that about halfway through the narrative, the protag has essentially grown up, done. The last half or third or so of SU's narrative was basically Steven having to cheer everyone around him up and help them deal with their shit, and...kinda just going about that essentially the same way every time. The power of love, the friends we made along the way, etc. To be clear, there's nothing BAD about this, and in fact it's what sets Steven apart from most every other narrative of this type. The protag is almost always forced to change in ways they don't want, do things they don't want to do, etc. But when you put it side by side with something like Avatar or Gravity Falls, those series saw everyone growing alongside each other. There are clear arcs for everyone, almost all of which get resolved in ways fitting each character. It's imperfect but it's varied. SU has a tendency to just...hammer everyone's character flaws and arcs with ONE option: just love yourself and be nice, and everyyyyyyythinggggg 'll work out in the end! Which is fine, but when a story does it for so long, over and over, always the same, it gets a bit weird. I specifically LIKED in the film, at the end, that Steven actually does have to fight, because THAT is what Spinel needed to do. She needed to let out all of that anger, and that violence was her own way of doing it. 'you can't just sing a song to make everything go away' etc. It's typical, perhaps, for protagonists to have to tackle problems in different ways because that's LIFE. The fact is, Steven's approach will NOT save everyone. Lapis stilllll kinda stands as an example of this but an as of yet unresolved one. I liked that at the end of things, Spinel still doesn't come into the same fold as everyone else. Basically "sorry, I already fucked this up too much, I can't really deal with this," and that is IMPORTANT and I really liked it. Before really digging into the personal angle, I want to bring up how fascinating it is that the movie essentially had a real BUDGET and so they deliberately seemed to design an antagonist that would take full advantage of that animation budget. EASILY, by far, Spinel is the most interesting-to-watch antag in the whole series imo, in terms of how she moves and fights, etc. They really just wanted to flex and they did it, but like any SU antag there's (somewhat predictable) motives. This gets back at what I was saying before -- how the series spins its wheels a lot -- but Spinel's motivation/back story isssss kiiiinnndaaaa a lot like many many characters' issues and, like, I get it. We get it. Steven's Mom was Not The Best does that have to be the basis behind kinda EVERYONE who goes against Steven? Or the Gems? Lapis, Bismuth, and Peridot all offered more varied motivations, and even THEN, Bismuth was still essentially in the same boat? Anyway, I digress. I DO appreciate the way the series set up Rose as this wondrous lovely lady and has severely dissected and broken that down to the point where I really do not like Rose, in any of her ID's, as a character or a fictional person, and it did so gradually. A lot of what the movie did was kind of expected. Right? Songs, singing, check. Steven going about things the same way, check. Re-living/celebrating how far he and his moms have come, check. What I didn't expect was -- OK, well, there WAS that one fusion...which, um

But the actual thing that really latched onto me was how much I conncted with Spinel. As is the case with any story that has well presented characters, you can attach to SOME part of just about all of them. I associate most closely with Pearl overall but can relate with just about anyone prominent. I see parts of me and Jenny in Steven/Connie, in Ruby/Sapphire, in Peridot/Lapis. I see what kind of woman I might've become in Amethyst (and sometimes am). Spinel, though, is a really weird case because I see my adolescent self in her SO MUCH and yet fairly recent events in my life -- directly tied TO the show itself, mind you -- make that connection weirdly poignant and present. For some context, I used to be good friends with Aivi, one of the musicians who works on the series with their husband. Spring 2018, Aivi and I vocalized to each other that we considered one another one of the closest friends in each other's lives. We're no longer friends. To make sure this is clear, I think Aivi is a wonderful person, and our breaking apart wasn't violent or dramatic or anything, Aivi just...decided they weren't interested in the relationship anymore. And neglected to tell me this until like a year later. The context is of course not at ALL as severe or dramatic as Spinel/Pink, so please don't assume there's some one-to-one there. But OOF are there some harsh similarities and it really made Spinel's backstory sting in a very confusing way. I say 'confusing' because, as I mentioned, I see my adolescent self in Spinel. The way I was going about making friends matches her 'happy' self. The way I acted in my senior year of college matches her 'angry' self. There was no single person that created any of that, though. In high school, I was like Starfire, in college, I tried to nurture that, play to my strengths. I failed miserably. And what I feel is a big part of why is inherently tied to my transitioning (which is, still, something I feel I am failing miserably at). By the end of college I was more like Raven, and there I remained through the duration of my first long-term romance, into a very weird and atypical marriage and breakup, and then I moved to CA and started changing. Fittingly, my current self can't quite ID with any single Teen Titan. I'm not a teen anymore, after all. Throughout a lot of my friendship with Aivi, they really seemed to fixate on comparing me to Pearl. It sometimes made me uncomfortable the particular ways they did, though. I strongly identified with Pearl's flaws and strengths in personality (though we're obviously different people), and so seeing Pearl go through redemption via self-love and self-acceptance meant a lot to me. "It's Over, Isn't It?" I was IN THE ROOM listening to Aivi and their husband work on the chorus to that song. Obviously they couldn't talk about it but I knew damn well what it was about, and anticipated that piece for a long time. Now it's even more weirdly painful. I met Aivi because they made Mario arrangements they put on YouTube and they happened to live a few blocks away when I was subletting my first summer in CA. They seemed very kind and caring and eager to Be Nice and at the time I really needed that at a very vulnerable and fragile time in my life so I latched onto that. -In The Garden- The week when the LiS terfs freaked out on me and that Bad Spinel side of me lashed back, and I found myself suffering from being gaslit and facing the fact that the worst part of myself that Trigon in Raven's mind that Angry Spinel was still THERE was still ME It was too much For the first (and thankfully, only) time in my life, I experienced suicidal thoughts. And Aivi REACTED to that shit. Strongly. In a way no one ever had for me before, ever. They drove across the Bay to my house, picked me up, had me over, and helped me process it. And in the months to come, as I was healing and coming to terms with how That Worst Part of Me That I Wanted to BE RID OF was still THERE and apparently could just fucking show up, through all of that, Aivi helped me work through things, and we really bonded. In retrospect, though, it's SO damned hard for me to tell if Aivi and I became so close because of mutual respect or pity or just conditioned behavior to Be Nice and Keep Up Appearances. I dunno. What I know NOW is that apparently Cost More than I would've thought. I'm not Aivi so I don't want to really dig into 'dirt' (again, Aivi is a great person who works very hard and that's WHY their work is so good) but looking back, it's wild to see their progression into SUCCESS and fame while I just stood by, floundering The thing is, Aivi was a super busy person. We barely got to spend time together -- when we DID, it was a multi-hour affair and apart from like, Jenny, Aivi is prolly the person I've had the deepest, most vulnerable conversations with. They were next to me when I realized 'oh huh I'm maybe trans??' because they were there when I was at one of the lowest points in my life. I never ASKED them to be there, to Be So Nice and as it turns out, Being So Nice is harder than it looks. So to kind of loop this back to the movie, I wasn't some Skullgirls Peacock Cuphead grinny goof or anything like that but I AM WILLING to bet that from Aivi's POV the way Happy Spinel acts toward Steven is prolly how I felt in Aivi's life at points, at the least. The irony is that we would go weeks, months, barely interacting. But looking back, the way Aivi talked about things, the same phrase keeps dominating my mind: Aivi got bored of me. I wasn't 'useful' to them anymore. Aivi said that day in spring 2018 was like 'the climax' of our friendship, or something like that. Way they talked about it was like...the finale of a season of TV. Our character arc together was over. Even though we TALKED about it, came to mutual understandimng of The Logic behind Aivi's decision to cut ties, I don't think it ever REALLY made sense to me, how Aivi must've felt about our friendship, until Spinel. By spring of 2019, my role in Aivi's life -- from what they have told me, from what I can perceive -- was more like I existed in a separate space from the rest of their life. I was that one interesting person always waiting in The Garden for them to visit when they felt like it Because while Aivi had gotten BIG, gotten MARRIED, gotten a HOUSE, found legitimate SUCCESS in their creative field I was still poor still stuck in retail still unable to find an audience still unable to understand the pressures of Success And OOOOFFF in those last couple years, interacting became more and more strained for both of us, from opposite ends of things. Aivi had responsibilities, PEOPLE vying for their attention, people wanting to hire them, projects to complete, a house, a spouse, etc etc My life was (and kiiiinda still is?) nothing like that, and as our Mutual Creatives Struggling to MAKE THINGS and Get By transforming into Yep I Am Still Here but you are SUCCESSFUL I think that really put a lot of strain on things I never accepted until Spinel. After Aivi hit it big with SU, in particular, they gradually started...acting differently. Acting in ways that made less and less sense to me. They were a Diamond now. And I was still just what I was. When drawing comparisons to characters on the show, Aivi persistently compared me to Pearl. A fact I once took pride in. They repeatedly compared themself to Garnet. Which...always kind of didn't make sense to me. Aivi wasn't really like Garnet. They are more NOW, though? In the sense of how they act, I suppose. Specifically, one of the last things Aivi said to me was that trying to be friends with me had started feeling like Pearl trying to force Garnet to fuse with her. This was problematic because from my POV nothing of the sort was happening. All I was looking for was occasionally hanging out a few times a year. Like. Ya know. Actually a lot less than what I was looking for with basically all of my other friends. And that was still Too Much? But when I start looking at things like Pink Diamond and Spinel instead of Pearl and Garnet, somehow things make a lot more sense. I was probably too clingy, too exciteable, and what amusement or relief I could provide eventually stopped being useful. Aivi eventually didn't even want to spend time with friends to just...spend time with them. Everything had to have some kind of practical Purpose to it, it had to be contributing to a Goal. I still don't get that, tbh. But I'm also not A Diamond. I'm not Successful. The most responsibility I have right now is fucking hanging up the laundry to dry. I have college loans that have and continue to feel pointless to try and repay. I have severe dental problems I haven't been able to fix. My body fell out of shape because of retail hell, and what energy I’ve had to spare from that always ends up going into the people I love, and trying to keep Making Things. Let's not forget The Complications of coming out and wanting to transition but not possessing the resources to do so. (Aivi was actually super supportive of this btw and was the first person to make me feel comfortable wearing feminine things so yea) Anyway, the point I'm trying to make is that MY LIFE is not together. My personality is? I feel like I am finally Myself in terms of mental/emotional stability. And that is largely because Jenny helped me get there. But Aivi helped a lot with that, too. But I think Aivi got to a point where Success was more of a measure of how Grown Up and Healthy one was because despite my behavior, my personality, my mood, what I was asking for, and what I was giving, all changing DRASTICALLY after being with Jenny, I think Aivi still...looked at me the way Pink Diamond looked at Spinel during that song. Like, "yeeeaaaa ok kiddo it's time for me to go now, kinda done here" This is what's so confusing about all of this metaphor/etc. I'm not...like Spinel anymore? My current, post-coming-out self doesn't really relate with Happy OR Angry Spinel. It's almost like Aivi couldn't see me for who I became, and could only see me for who I had been. And maybe that's like why Spinel can't be friends with Steven at the end. It's too painful. I used to take pride in being associated with Pearl because "I'm enough" and "being strong in the REAL way" but now it's more like "oh you just think I'm still hung up and needy and clingy?" which uh don't feel so great a comparison. I can't help but wonder if while working on the movie, Aivi saw some of themself in Pink. Because I'm not the only person who apparently wasn't 'useful' to them anymore. And I'm not saying we should've kept forcing something that wasn't working. Not at all. What we had was good for both us, but it also entailed a lot of patience on my part and effort on theirs. And unlike any of my other long term friends, I often ended up waiting weeks, months, "Happily wondering night after night, Is this how it works? Am I doing it right?"

Years and years of broken friendships, one after the other, most lasting merely 6 months, MAYBE a year at most, with a handful that have lasted since middle school (but which are so much harder to maintain) took a toll on my Adult Self until Jenny, anyway. For quite a long time - the majority of my life, currently - I assumed I just was Too Different and that was why my friendships didn't seem to last, didn't seem to extend to the depths I was looking for. That's perhaps one critical difference between Spinel and I: she's looking for FUN, for smiling faces, for attention, for creating smiles, I just want some fucking consistency. At this point, I'm not even sure WHY I still reach out to people. I don't NEED friendships in that desperate way I used to, back in the Happy/Angry Spinel times. And I've come to terms with that Other Max part of myself and integrated it, accepted it. My worst parts are still me and instead of suppressing them (often by relying on bids of deep friendship with others) I just have to let them EXIST and let them do their thing once in a while. This is ALL why Celeste hit me as hard as it did. Because even if I'm not actually much like Spinel anymore, and Aivi's not really like Pink Diamond, even if I don't actually share much in common with Madeline (other than the subtle 'I drink sometimes to deal with my problems' thing, which I don't anymore) I still comprehend and resonate so much with that concept of just needing to accept the worst parts of yourself and work with them rather than trying to keep them caged up and then they escape and rampage every 5-10 years or so and ruin your life As I felt myself coming to all of these Good Feelings I FINALLY felt like I could help Aivi in the ways they had helped me. That I finally had something to offer I didn't before. Turns out, I didn't, apparently. Aivi had More Important Things to do than visit me in The Garden. And I couldn't blame them. Not a bit. Especially if they had gotten bored of visiting me. I didn't like feeling like a burden on them, either. Can't really argue with that. During the last time we talked, Aivi didn't use the WORDS, didn't literally say them, but I finally could see it: I wasn't Useful anymore. I couldn't Understand, either, because I wasn't Successful. Our friendship was rewarding, but because it required effort. And that effort was still worth it to me, but no longer to them. I was no longer worth it. And despite that, despite starting to feel those hunches, I spent those final months -- as had been the case before, they were afraid to hurt me so avoided actually confronting the problem -- I remained "Happy to listen, Happy to stay Happily watching her drift away" I have no idea if any aspect of our friendship impacted anything Aivi had worked on creatively. TBH Aivi seemed to approach even relationships themselves with more of a logical, pragmatic style -- it was entirely unique compared to anyone I had ever connected with. But if you've read @lis-allwounds then it might not surprise you to know that a lot of what I expressed through Stella and Max, as well as Other Max and Another Stella, channels a lot of these things. I even quoted Aivi directly in the story's end (perhaps foolishly optimistic) And yes, that epilogue moment of sorts is gonna be entirely different if I ever do finish the visual novel. The fact is that we were ALWAYS very different people and our friendship was weird and complicated and hard for one or both of us throughout its, what, 8 year duration? Ironically, I think I took away the opposite 'Character Arc Lesson' they did from all this. But that's just the thing, nothing is permanent for a Human Being. We aren't Gems, we don't actually fuse, we can't just change our appearances when we feel like it, or project ourselves to look how we want to look, or exist for thousands of years. But we DO all have different needs, different ways of understanding those needs, and different ways of needing to adjust or change ourselves or our environments in order to pursue what we want to pursue with the limited time we have here. We tried, hard, and it lasted long enough. If I'm not useful, I'm not useful, I guess? I don't have any ill will toward Aivi, I loved them as a friend and I know they loved me, too, and were better at showing it than most any friends I ever have had. If I'd been better at reciprocating in ways that were actually useful, that would've been good -- but then maybe we wouldn't have become friends in the first place if I hadn't needed 'saving' in the first place, I don't fuckin' know. And I hope my saying all of these things doesn't make anyone think any less of Aivi because your relationship with them is, very likely, not at all personal like mine is. And you know as well as I do how good they are at what they do. Aivi took the time to ease me out of things. Aivi did NOT suddenly up and vanish for thousands of years. While the dynamics of the situation might bare sharp points of similarity, Aivi is not like Pink Diamond and I'm not like Spinel -- not in the present, anyway. Stories help us because they share THREADS with reality but it's always important to recognize those threads for what they are and not confuse them for ropes. And me ranting and tossing all of this out there is something part of me has wanted to do for months but needed to take the time to grieve and process and accept. And maybe it's selfish to be posting all of this, I don't know. But it helps me accept myself and them a lot more. "Finally something finally news about how the story ends" Aivi likely has brand new friends, better ones than me, and I'm willing to bet some of them worked on this movie. And it turned out pretty good, all things considered, probably in part because Aivi was able to focus on it That person I became friends with, she doesn't exist anymore. Just like how who I used to be when Aivi first me, he doesn't exist anymore, either. We both changed, and grew in opposite directions, I guess. We've found happiness and growth and relief in different ways. In the end the Movie helped me come to terms with all of this in a way Angry Spinel younger me couldn't have still hurts yo

"Isn't that lovely?

Isn't that cool?

Isn't that cruel?

And aren't I a fool

to have happily listened,

happy to stay,

happily watching her drift away"

#Steven Universe The Movie #Spinel #Personal #SU #SU Spinel

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themanicgalaxy · 4 years

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SPN 1X17 Hell House

one episode this time around let’s see where this goes

so many of these start with people going where they aRE NOT ALLOWED

WHY

GUYS AT LEAST DO IT IN THE MORNING OR SOMETHING WHY GO AT NIGHT

yes go be macho there’s nothing that can go wrong here

also i meant to say this last episode but Dean’s machismo+self-sacrifice for his dad someone please give him a hug p le a s e

at least they don’t die

Sam being passed out completely backwards bahahahaha

Dean takes picture because yes, sibling prerogative

Damn and Dean’s having his fun with the music and the pranks

NAIR IN THE SHAMPOO DEAN WHAT THE FUCK

Sam using the word “misogynistic” in like 2005 threw me, damn this kid rly did go to a College didn’t he

this little montage of everyone having a different story? good perfect shit, good vibes

“hot...in a dead sort of way” “hoh..k” pfft

Lmfao and his name is Craig

DEAN IS HOLDING A KANSAS VINYL HES HOLDING THE VINYL

“only kills women” well good thing they’re both MEN absolutely NO conflict here

god I wish this show had a woman goddamn

leftover note: god i wish some of the actually cool female characters showed up again and not like...just the demon

the ghost hunterssssss

lmao Dean’s disgust at the business card

AMATEURS AHAHAHAHAHAHA

“emf?” Sam buddy oh my god

This is like that one scene in criminal minds where the girls pretend they don’t work at the fbi

does...does it erase people? whatever the monster is

PFFT PRANK WAR

I’m sure this won’t come back to bit them no sir

Jill going for the ghost instead of the pasty-ass gross motherfucker fine ok at least you have some sense

Not a lot because ur gonna get fucking murdered, ur not white or a male, sorry them’s the rules

this show....like i expected this but

I feel like the non-plot episodes are more pure Vibe, and the plot episodes aren’t as fun, but they have examination i guess?

AND SHE HAD A FULL RIDE TO UT AND A STRAIGHT A STUDENT COME ON

“Who you gonna call” ha

Sam’s fucking face when they get the ghost hunters, Sam cmon you like this at least a little bit

AT LEAST ADMIT YOU LOVE YOUR BROTHER A LITTLE BIT

WHEN IT SLOWLY CREPT UP BEHIND THEM FUCK

THAT WASN’T EVEN A JUMP SCARE THAT WAS REAL SUSPENSE

the smug face Dean pulled? good, good, liked that

BLUE OYESTER CULT LOGO OF FUCKING COURSE DEAN RECOGNIZED IT

Smug Dean is very funny, good content

...ok yeah I’m starting to see where at least some people started with the wincest thing, however it’s CLEARLY BECAUSE OF THE PRANK I HATE THIS

LMFAO THEY JUST SAID “Here you go Jensen” HAAH

the belief turns into something real oooo

THEOLOGY TEXTBOOK TURNS INTO CONCENTRATED THOUGHT TURNS INTO THE MORDECHAI MYTH THAT KEEPS GETTING SHIFTED THAT IS S O COOL

“how are we supposed to kill an idea” oooo sounds vaguely philosophy like

WHAT WOULD BUFFY DO BAHAHAHA

HEY LOOK A MONSTER HUNTING FEMALE PROTAGONIST WHY DON’T WE HAVE SOME OF THOSE

THEY’RE SO SHORT COMPARED TO THE LITERALLY 6 FOOT TALL MAIN CHARACTERS AHAHAHAHA

MAIN CHARACTERS GET 6 FEET HEIGHT

these fuckers really do put on a double act throughout the midwest

THE VERY SPECIFIC PISTOL FEAR TO HELP THEM KILL IT BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Is...Is dean trying to get Sam to relax and be like...kinda normal? Is that the reason behind the prank war????

ONE NORMAL WAY OF EMOTING IM B E G G IN G YOU

Fuckign glues his hand to his beer ha ha Sam

Did these fuckers just steal the laughing animatronic to lure the cops?? really??

and they nearly fucking shoot the ghost boys hahahahaha

*so anyway I started blasting WITH BOTH FUCKING PISTOLS*

Goes for the Camera

Do the guys?? know what’s up??

the micro expressions in the “great” (smile to quiver to serious mode)? holy hell

Sam you self sacrificial bastard

Dean workshops a fucking flamethrower

ayy he did the axe/baseball swing thing i love that

solution: set house on fire

Excellent, nice job Dean

I mean it works

“how many things survived cuz people believed in them” with the fire house? nice line, I like that line

Sam: calls them and tells them he’s a producer

Dean: puts a dead fish in their backseat

and they both laugh and call truce that makes me happy

hey the prank war thing was just...a prank war. no foreshadowing, just character relationships? that’s new

yippie kayak it’s wrap-up time:

1. Ok, the style and vibe of this episode? so good, so fun, so interesting. Lore is really cool, they leave it open-ended, all good. Like the sheer power of myth and people’s belief? ooo good shit

I have just realized that sounds like vague foreshadowing for the ~future~

however, I think this is built kinda like avatar where you build the characters in terms of a large goal, and tbh, I really like how it’s being done

2. actually speaking of: non-plot episodes, where both get a chance to shine, are fun, interesting, and honestly quite cool, while plot episodes are a bit more heavy, loaded and exposition-y. I hope that changes in the future tbh. The bible river dale energy is quite possibly the thing I’m not as hyped about, although that might be because I thankfully don’t have any religious trauma

the church scares me

3. Sam and Dean? good great, excellent bonding time. You have to wonder if the prank war was just Dean’s way of trying to reach out to his little brother, and tbh, it did kinda work. Anyway, they were both really fun this episode, both got good moments, 10/10 love these characters

4. The fact that they slipped and called Dean jensen makes me wonder how much the budget actually was. Like I saw on pinterest it was 20,000 entirely(which isn’t even minimum wage) and I could not find any kind of sources, so I’m inclined to believe that was very very fake. However, it’s definitely low budget(wikipedia says that no one wanted to take kripke up on this) and the fact that they managed to make something this good is a testament to the skill of the entire team working on this season. I cannot speak for the later seasons tho, as I have obviously not seen them.

5. Please. A girl character. Something. I’m begging you.

I know damn well it doesn’t happen and that makes me sad

Damn I had some thoughts this time around, that’s pretty fun. till next time~ i guess. Time to go put mom’s bday cake back into the fridge and sleep.

#pawswatchesspn #1x17 Hell House #ok see this was non plot and just everything i like #good good fun shit

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brainwad · 7 years

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Cosplacon 2017 Con Report

Okay, so, I’ve just spent the last few days at Cosplacon. It’s a fairly small event (compared to the likes of Dragoncon, etc), but it is so much fun. Maybe because it’s so small, it has a really great atmosphere. It’s also pretty much the only con in town, as it were, unless you want to make the trip out to either Saint Louis or Kansas City. (Mind you, there were attendees who came from Topeka, which is realy impressive.) This is my third year attending this con (any con, in fact), and the first time I’d stayed for the whole thing.

DAY ONE

Thursday was interesting, because (as some may know) I have been gearing up for a move, and that move took place on Thursday morning. So, I’d spent the first half of the week frantically packing and boxing and getting things ready, and Thursday morning was spent trying to get stuff loaded into the new place so my parents would have less to do when the time came to unpack. (Yes, i live with and help take care of my parents, who are both disabled to one degree or another. They encouraged me to attend the con, because I pretty much spend all my time working either at my job or at home, and need a break to do something for myself.) So, when the time came to leave, I was sweaty and dirty and desperate for a cold shower. (June in Missouri is no fun.) Once I was feeling relatively human again (though still kinda tired) I donned my Rocket grunt costume from last year and joined the festivities.

The con has a Pokemon League (strictly for fun, not an official Pokemon Company thing), and I registered my team for that. It’s pretty cool. The folks running it do it as a labor of love, and it really shows. Not only do they spend their own money printing trainer cards and making gym badges, they created a region with lore and even a *soundtrack*. I tried to do the “story mode” challenge, but got flattened by the Flying-Type leader in my second match, so then it just became trying to get as many badges as possible. I’m not super knowledgable when it comes to competitive play, because I don’t really do much of that sort of thing, but I did put together a pretty solid team. I might do a separate post about that later. Maybe. Meh.

Every year, the con also does a sort of scavenger hunt, with little stuff scattered throughout the hotel. Collect all these “achievements” and you win...something. I think it’s a pass for next year. I probably could have done it this year, but I chose to spend most of my time between specific events hanging out with the Pokemon League crew. Some of the achievements included finding the key to the TARDIS, Facehugger eggs, and the stones from the Fifth Element. (This being the fifth year of the con, there was a Fifth Element theme.)

There weren’t a ton of events that first night, but I did catch the Iron Cosplay competition (teams are given a collection of random pieces out of which to create a costume and character backstory), which was a lot of fun. I kind of wished I could have attended some of the panels hosted by the Egg Sisters on Prosthetics and Make-up, because I think that kind of thing is really fascinating, and they are amazing at it. I didn’t rally go much into the game room, where there were Smash Bros tournaments and things like that. Most of the gaming stuff I did was just playing Pokemon. After Iron Cosplay was the Welcome Party, which was also a lot of fun. After that, I hit the sack. There’s usually some kind of dance party or other kind of late night hootenanny, but I’d been up since 5 am and was exhausted.

Turns out that would be a running theme. Not only were the people in the next room pretty rowdy (I think they were teenagers out on their own for the first time), but my room was directly adjacent to one of the maintenance/cleaning closets, so I got to hear all the banging and thumping of the door and housekeeping carts.

As a sidenote: If a hotel room door is locked, STOP TRYING TO GET IN. Also? Instructions for the damn shower would be nice.

DAY TWO

After waking up WAY too early, I finish up my Janky McCree cosplay (which I should have gotten a picture of before it all fell apart) I headed down to the League and did a bit of battling before leaving for the Q&A with Eric Stuart--the voice actor for James and Brock of Pokemon, among others. It was enjoyable and informational, but I think a lot of us kinda blanked when the opportunity arose to ask questions, and the majority of questions came from the same handful of people. He struck me as a really cool guy, though.

I would have liked to go to the Marvel vs DC Round Table or the panel on samurai swords by Samurai Dan, , but I opted to go to the Q&A instead., That happened a lot. Like, a lot of the events that I wanted to attend were scheduled at the same time, while other times, there were stretches where nothing really jumped out and said COME TO ME. I kinda wanted to go to the Cosplay Runway, which was a non-competitive costume parade of sorts, but I wasn’t too happy with my McCree cosplay and also wanted to keep challenging gym leaders. I definitely wanted to go to the Harry Potter round table, but things with the Pokemon League took longer than expected, and I missed half of it. That was okay, though, because I still had fun. And if you’re enjoying what you’re doing, that’s what’s important, right? Also, it’s important to schedule time for things like food. So you don’t, like, die.

That even was the cosplay skits. They’re usually good, but this year, they were AWESOME. I tried recording everything, but I did end up missing a couple because I had to run up to my room and grab my phone charger. I did miss a dance number I hope someone recorded and will post to youtube or something, but the other skit, I wasn’t too upset about missing, mostly because the guy doing it was a creep who’d caused problems with the League crew, and wouldn’t have been very entertaining anyway. There were dance numbers, musical performances, short dramatic skits, a HILARIOUS Gothic Lolita presentation (”SQUAT!!! Wigglewigglewigglewiggle! CRRRRRROOOOUUUCH!!!”) and a couple of girls tossing inventive shade at each other, which I kept expecting to turn into a number from Wicked. Normally, the winner of the skit competition wins a pass for next year, but there were so many awesome skits, the judges decided to award one to everybody (including that creepy guy, but they couldn’t very well say “Everyone but you).

Following that was a really fun Avatar: The Last Airbender discussion. I kiiiinda wanted to go to the Fifth Element Ball afterwards, but I was feeling pretty shy about jumping into a dance party, seeing as I dance like a parody of a white guy, so I hung out with the League and got some food.

Then, so friends of mine from work showed up and we wondered about a bit, taking in the sights before deciding to go to the drag show, which was a lot of fun. I did have to explain to my friends what a drag king was. They had an intermission, and I kinda wanted to stay for the rest, and I kinda wanted to go do karaoke, but it was near midnight already and I was bushed. So, I said goodnight and tied again to get some sleep, getting only nominal success.

DAY THREE

I finished up my Guzma costume after getting Not Enough Sleep. By the way, I nearly blinded myself twice putting on eyeliner. There wasn’t a whole lot grabbing my attention as far as morning events, but I did have fun battling with other Pokemon trainers and just walking about taking pictures and even getting my picture taken. I was really bummed, though, that a lot of the attendees who did Team Skull grunt cosplays weren’t doing them that day, because I would have LOVED to get a picture with as many Team Skull peeps as possible. I did attend a need panel on digital art, hosted by the head of the con, Rodney.

After that was a Pokemon Speed Training tournament. basically, each person was traded three random level one pokemon and we were given an hour to train them up as much as possible, before facing each other in 3v3 battles. I ended up with a Klefki, a Corsola and a standard Grimer. i wasn’t too terribly happy, but I figured I would give it a shot. (Again, I’m not a super competitive player, but even I knew Corsola wasn’t super viable for competition.) And I actually managed to get to the final two! Unfortunately, my opponent had a well trained Golem and one-shotted everyone on my team with Earthquake. But I had fun!

Again, not a whole lot scheduled after that which grabbed my attention, so, more hanging out before heading in to the Cosplay Royale. The Cosplay Royal is the big cosplay competition, with professional judges and everything. There were some AWESOME cosplays in this one, though not as many entrants as there were last year, if i’m remembering things correctly. But the quality of the costumes were so good, they added a couple categories.

After that, Eric Stuart gave an acoustic concert, and I got a signed CD. I’m always a little leery when someone says they’re Also A Musician, because a LOT of people are Also A Musician, but he was actually really good. There was one slightly obnoxious guy who tended to talk through the performance, and not super quietly, either. After that, I wanted to go to the Dance Party or even the Cosplay Burlesque, but I reeeally needed food and sleep. Which Brings us to...

DAY FOUR.

Today! I got a little more sleep this morning, despite there being a HUGE thunderstorm crashing around outside. No cosplay today, just dressing comfortably. Everyone was pretty low-energy today compared to the previous few days. I think there were a lot of hangovers, and the accumulative effects of Not Enough Sleep. Even Rodney, the head of the con, aka “The Green Flash”, was subdued. There was the Father’s Day brunch and the Pokemon Carnival, where everyone got the chance to battle the League again, but not a lot else. Most people were gearing up to leave before checkout at 11. I did actually get all eight badges, but didn’t succeed in challenging the elite four. Then came the closing ceremony, after which people basically headed out. The hotel is pretty empty right now, and I enjoyed a nice long nap. I will probably sleep better tonight and be in a pretty good state when I leave tomorrow, which is good, because I still have basically unpack all my crap at the new house.

#cosplacon #cosplacon2017 #cosplacon 2017 #con report #con recap

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