#because two episodes in and I can tell that the main performance is going to be all anyone talks about with this show

[obserbolisk]

My main takeaway from the murderbot tv adaptation is a sweeping “yay, they changed enough to justify its existence as an adaptation” quickly followed by “damn, they did not make any interesting, novel changes”

[femimation]

Jax and Ragatha are both eachother’s antithesis and parallel.

That is to say: They’re doing the same thing in opposite ways.

In the Jax post I made I mentioned at the end that I think Episode 4’s mask theming goes beyond the main focus of Gangle, specifically that it also applies and is shown through Ragatha and Jax’s storylines.

Let’s dive into that more! The episode literally starts with an interaction between these three.

Obviously Gangle’s comedy mask would have to break to kickstart this episode, and obviously Jax would probably be involved in that, but I still think it’s very deliberate that this scene only contains these 3. They’re the characters the episode is about and that you’re supposed to pay the most attention to. They’re the ones wearing masks, (literal or metaphorical) following the episode’s main theme.

But focusing on Ragatha and Jax, the both have very notable behavior changes in this episode for different reasons. Ragatha acting different because of the stupid sauce and Jax after the training/employee reevaluation/torture thing.

Heeeere’s where I may lose some people: I think their behavior changes are meant to evoke the typical behavior of the other in some subtle ways.

Some specific examples before I generalize: On the stupid sauce, Ragatha essentially repeats a sentiment Jax made earlier in the episode.

She isn’t “acting like Jax,” she says it in a bit of a nicer Ragatha-y like way. She even acknowledges that she was being rude.

On the other hand, once Jax is mellowed out, he asks Pomni how she is. The past three episodes have had Ragatha constantly doting over Pomni and asking her how she’s doing.

Which again, is not to say Jax is “acting like Ragatha” exactly, he’s nowhere near as interested or overbearing as Ragatha typically is.

But that’s all still part of my point, they aren’t mirroring the other one to one, not even close, but their roles are swapped regardless.

Ragatha speaking her mind to everyone however rude it may be: Telling Gangle she’s annoying, Zooble that they’re grouchy, Jax that she hates him, complaining about Pomni’s connection with Gummigoo.

Jax being calm and even downright friendly: Exchanging pleasantries with Pomni, not messing with Ragatha in her… state, (barely even reacting to her) going along with the adventure until it’s over.

Not exactly like the other, but evoking the other. I think this is written purposefully.

Why? Refer to the title of this post. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that these two’s own respective focus episodes are going to be back to back as episode 5 and 6. They’re the same and they’re opposites.

Ragatha’s “mask” is being overbearingly caring, wanting everyone to like her and think of her as nice or even motherly. She will act like this regardless of how she really feels about something.

Jax’s “mask” is being unbearably antagonistic, wanting everyone to think he only cares about his own entertainment and that their wellbeing never even crosses his mind. He will act this way regardless of how he really feels about something.

Their swapped roles in this episode is a display of these masks beginning to slip, making their parallels abundantly clear.

Gangle’s drawing posted on Glitch’s social media really runs this all home for me.

Gangle draws herself with Pomni and Zooble, all happy and talking with eachother. Pomni and Zooble are upfront with the other characters, they aren’t wearing masks. The both make effort throughout the episode to be there for and help Gangle. Therefore, they can be connected with. Their care is always genuine because they’re always honest.

Ragatha and Jax can’t be connected with. Ragatha, despite probably being a genuinely sweet person, is too far behind her mask to reach and tell what of her is genuine and what is a performance. Jax… acts like Jax. Even though he’s probably quite an average person behind the mask.

Jax and Ragatha are both unreachable to the other characters for the same reason, despite their typical behavior being so opposite. Their true selves are both hidden behind opposite masks.

[yuurei20]

Summarized transcript of the Twisted Radio episode with Diasomnia! 🐉🦇⚔️⚡️

Highlights: A very good episode, all the Diasomnia VAs love their characters and each other’s characters and each other and it is very obvious when they interact.

Disclaimer: These are not direct quotes, this is all general summarizations and paraphrasing~

Begins with how they are happy to be all together in one place, for the first time in two years.

The opening talk set by last week: what do you find yourself buying when you travel?

⚡️It seems 🦦-kun wanted to buy a dragon sword… 🐉 I’ve bought one before. 🦇 Why wwww 🐉 In elementary school

On topic: 🐉 I love milk. Every time I go some place I buy milk to drink. A recent musical I was in traveled nationwide and the milk in Hokkaido is different depending upon the area. I was so happy.

🦇I like to get things to remind me of the trip. It doesn’t matter what they are. It doesn’t even have to be related to the area. Just a prize from a Game Center or a gacha toy or anything is fine.

⚔️ Dragons. Apparently they’re growing in popularity. 

He talks about how around high school everyone loses interest, but then you become an adult and are like “actually yeah dragons are great” ww

🦇 We should get on that bandwagon. Officially recognized by Diasomnia ww ⚔️ We have the most noble and beautiful dragon of them all 🦇 Out of all the dragons that there are, he certainly stands out

(Everyone is laughing so much they are having so much fun)

⚡️I like getting fruit or something that was made from things grown in the area, even if it’s temporary, to remember the taste

(⚡️ is the host so it is his job to keep them on subject ww there are a lot of cuts in this episode, they must have talked for so long and needed to cut it down)

Fan letter: I had a dream where I talked about how wonderful Malleus-sama is for ten hours. What strange dreams have you had before?

⚡️I have been seeing the same dream since I was a kid. A kind of horror dream. The same dream where I am being chased by something. 

⚔️ There are dreams I had as a kid that really left an impression on me. I remember them pretty well. Like one where I became a character from a cartoon that could fly. I became one of the main characters. An enemy would appear, someone would say “Let’s go!” and they’d all naturally start to fly. And even though I was a main character, I’d say “Let’s go!” and I was the only one who wouldn’t be able to fly. Everyone else flew off and I couldn’t. I was the main character and they all left me behind. I started crying that I couldn’t fly and then I woke up.

🦇 I’ve had a dream about situation where I could fly, too. Even though I could fly, when I jumped from somewhere high up instead of going straight I would go fly upwards, then think, “Yeah, I can fly,” and that is when I could go forward. I perform safety checks within my dream.

🐉 In a dream I had in university I could fly, but just some light floating. Everyone else travels very quickly, and at first I can as well, but then I get lower and lower, and soon I am floating about 5cm. I’m technically flying, but…I saw that dream a lot.

(This entire story ⚔️ is in the background dying of laughter)

About Malleus

He was very mysterious when he first appeared. ⚡️ says he had the feeling from the start that he was a very good character. 

🦇 He had an atmosphere of someone who is difficult to go near.

⚔️ I like Malleus-sama even more now than I did before. Not just what about him that is firm but his soft side, his warm side, his cold side—we can see so many aspects of his character now, which has made him even more captivating. Because he is so mysterious something even more wonderful than what I had imagined has emerged—that is the impression I have of him now.

🦇 They did a great job with his casting. I didn’t really know anything at first, but doing this for so long, you can tell how perfect 🐉-kun is for this part. 

🐉 I’m so happy :D

🦇 Of course everyone wants to know more in the beginning because of his cool voice, but 🐉-kun has a kindness to him. And that is what I came to understand. They took that into account when they chose him. When I figured that out, I was extremely impressed. This isn’t something that just anyone can do. It’s not enough to just provide a cool character voice. It’s a distinct charm that he has.

⚔️ The character is really packed with substance, but there’s still space left, and you can sense that mysteriousness. Because there is so much going on inside of him there are things for you to grasp at while simultaneously stirring your imagination. I really sense that.

🦇 When you try to think of other seiyuu like that, no one really comes to mind. It has to be 🐉-kun.

🐉 Is it okay if I start to cry?

⚔️ And when he sings…

⚡️ That humming…

⚔️ That was amazing.

🐉 That was so hard to do. They told me, “please hum like you mean it,” and I thought, “what is humming that you mean?” Humming that follows a melody, that becomes a sound. I had never done that before. It was really hard. We tried several different patterns.

⚔️ It was scary. Both an ending and a beginning.

🦇 But as the story continues I find him cute, too. And 🐉-kun is cute, too.

(Everyone is laughing, I think ⚔️ is going to die here)

🦇 No I’m serious, really, really. 

🐉 While portraying Malleus the difficult thing is always not showing too much emotion,.The direction I am always receiving is “you can’t become human.” They’ll say, “that take sounded just like a regular guy.” The balance of how his normal is not normal for a human is always hard to do. And post-overblot Malleus—they’ll tell me, “Sorry, but Malleus sounds kind of scary.” I often get told “can you control the darkness a bit.” But through all that how do I still portray Malleus-ness…

🦇 The more you read for a character the more you come to understand them, but Malleus was last.

🐉 There was a lot of uncertainty in the beginning. I have concluded that he is cute. He’s a child. He’s been alive longer than the others, but his emotional state hasn’t caught up to that. He has so much power, but he lacks the normal concept of common sense. Things that are common sense to him are not so to others. I am always trying to portray that unusual dichotomy.

⚔️ talks about being able to see Malleus grow up in Book 7 through the different milestones were see in the flashbacks. There are places where he has always been the same but parts about him that have evolved. ⚔️ tells 🐉 that it seems like that must have been hard.

🐉 It was so hard.  I think there’s probably a way of interacting with Malleus that's in line with how he understands things, even though I don't fully understand it. When encountering him for the first time, people around him might think, 'Wow, he doesn’t react at all!' But Malleus does react in his own way. I would receive many detailed directions like 'Please be surprised!' or 'Please react!' I didn’t create this performance all by myself, it has come together from the efforts of the staff, and I’m really grateful for that. I tend to lose track of what was the right way to approach things as Malleus. You can get confused between doing events and the main story, so getting back into the right mindset every time is pretty tough.

About Silver

🐉 I thought he was really cool when I saw him the first time.

⚡️ I think it’s cute how he falls asleep—he’ll wake up, apologize, and then immediately sleep again.

🦇 He’s really pretty.

🐉 I thought he had a beautiful face the first time I saw him.

⚔️ My portrayal of him hasn’t really changed since the beginning. We’ve gotten more information and there is more of a backbone now, and of course things change when new things are revealed. Even from the beginning he wasn’t just a cool character, he had a naturalness to him, and not just that he spaces out, but he tries to solve his problems with physical strength. Like in Book 7 with “if I hit it that will fix it.” I think his humanity is being expressed more these days.

🦇 It took a while, yeah?

⚔️ It took so long.

🦇 It took us a while to get to Malleus, too, but he had the impact of his first appearance. Silver didn’t have anything.

Now they’re talking about Lilia’s farewell party and Malleus and Silver crying together and not knowing how to express their emotions. Trying to be mature. 

⚔️ He’s being a big brother to Silver!!

🦇 I figured something was coming soon, after that. And it went in an intense direction.

⚔️ There is so much about them that is a family. Father is Lilia, and Malleus-sama has a big-brother nature to him.

🐉 You really feel their familial relationship.

⚔️ He felt some responsibility. If the little brother starts to cry, the older brother—

🐉 He can’t cry.

⚔️ He’ll get desperate to try and be strong and try to solve the problem.

🐉 Like he has to step up.

🦇 So it was Silver’s fault.

⚡️⚔️🐉wwwwww

⚔️Not all of it. Silver would never say this, but the reason things became so difficult for the two of them is…their love for their father.

🦇 Sebek and Silver are a good combination, too.

⚔️ Such a good combination~~~

🦇 They’re complete opposites but they’re also surprisingly similar.

⚡️They’re both so honest.

🐉 They’re honest and serious and good kids, both of them.

⚡️ They never had the opportunity to show emotion like that until 7. They are both very quick to cry.

🐉 They’re so much alike.

⚡️I guess this is what happens when you’re raised together with someone. I think Silver is the older brother, looking from Sebek’s perspective. There is a moment where Sebek is scolded for the first time. In the moment, when I was reading, ⚔️’s portrayal really is angry. I even said it, “He finally scolded him for the first time.”

About Sebek

⚡️I think he empowers himself by speaking so loudly. Once he decides on doing something, he goes straight for it, true to his unique magic. With how strongly he sticks to his principles it’s like he could overcome any obstacle, like in that scene he had with Silver, but it was very cute that he actually loses there.

⚔️THAT WAS SO CUTE. That was a great part. 

(⚔️ is literally yelling into his mic about how cute Sebek is)

⚡️The fact that he was able to get out the words he really wanted to say after he lost the fight shows that he does want to say what is on his mind but there is a wall that he has to break down, and then he can move forward. That is a moment where you can really understand Sebek-kun’s feelings. And once he lets his emotions out, they’re out w

🐉 He can’t put the lid back on. Everything spills out.

⚔️ (dying in the background)

⚡️talks about how much effort Sebek puts into everything and he reads so much and there is so much he wants people to know, which is why he is so loud.

🦇Sebek and Silver have both had a lot more lines recently. Doesn’t your voice get worn out during recordings?

⚡️It doesn’t! I do stretches and things before recordings. I figured out that I need that kind of physical exercise to prepare.

About Lilia

⚡️ Mom.

🐉 A cute mom.

⚡️There was a lot of gaps* in 7.

*I can’t figure out a good way to say this in English. It is the difference between what you expect and what something really is.

🐉 Too many gaps, it was so surprising.

🦇 I had heard nothing about any of that.

⚡️ I had an image of him as someone who is gentle and cute and a senpai who enjoys pranks and looks out for others…

🦇 He used to be completely different.

⚡️And there was egg-sama.

🐉 Egg-sama w

⚡️⚔️It’s not inaccurate.

🦇 I have done a lot of crying scenes before. When you first look at the script it hits you, and when you think about how you have to portray what you just read so that the people listening to your performance feel the same emotion—there is a pressure to that. I can’t be the only one crying. I have to make others cry.

⚔️ Something that 🦇-san said (during the special talk show that 🦇 and 🐉 did together last year talking about Book 7 just the two of them) that I really liked and wanted to ask about: You and Baul’s VA Koyasu-san (🐊) have been performing together a lot over the years. And you came back together for the first time in a while for this. You said that you didn’t want to give him the impression of “So this is what 🦇 is like these days.” So there was that pressure, you didn’t want to give an embarrassing performance in front of him, and I realized that you have a passionate spirit that you don’t really show, in my opinion—but it’s there! I got really excited about that.

🐉 I was surprised, too, that even 🦇-san has those same thoughts.

⚡️Same!

🦇 Of course I do. The pressure was intense. I am glad that we were able to record together, but…

And with the Chapter 13 release announcement they say they have permission to share this information:

🦇 and 🐉 were able to record together!

🐉 It was amazing. It was truly an amazing time for me.

🦇 It was our first time performing together.

Upcoming calendar review~ and done!

[commsroom]

circumstances surrounding the “leaked” documents about eiffel’s sentencing in need to know, as i understand them:

one of the very first things kepler does is offer eiffel, minkowski, and lovelace a drink. in true “at any given moment, kepler has about eighteen ulterior motives” spirit, it is, among other things, “hospitality”, sure, a test for eiffel, definitely, but… i think the main reaction he was checking for was minkowski’s. will she look at eiffel, or react to his reaction? how much does she know? how much does he trust her?

in don’t poke the bear, jacobi and maxwell stop lovelace from breaking into kepler’s server by pretending to be in on it with her: “she’s very good. it might turn into a problem.” / “i’ll run it by kepler.” two episodes later, files from kepler’s very secure server are “leaked.”

(the words "need to know" are spoken offhandedly by eiffel in the episode itself, but it also calls back to the excuse maxwell gives lovelace: "colonel kepler practically lives by the words 'need to know.' and, apparently, nothing i can say will ever convince him that i 'need to know' everything that's in our databanks.")

need to know opens with minkowski finishing an eleven hour shift, and then finding out kepler moved that shift to, well. now. she’s already frustrated and sleep deprived.

minkowski complains to kepler. jacobi and maxwell, on cue, barge in and complain to kepler. kepler assigns minkowski, jacobi, maxwell, and lovelace to punishment detail, taking eiffel out of the group because “you’re the only one who hasn’t wasted my time with pointless whining.” lovelace says: “um, i don’t think that i did any complaining either, so…” but that doesn’t matter. it’s just an excuse to remove eiffel from the group; he could just as easily have been singled out for special punishment. either way, it was going to happen.

hilbert isn’t there. not the most significant factor, since he’s already been effectively sidelined by kepler, but remember he already knows about eiffel’s sentencing, doesn’t care (about eiffel’s history OR about anyone else’s personal drama), and will later respond to minkowski asking by telling her to grow up and get back to work. it simplifies things to not factor him in.

consider the files themselves: we know from happy holidays that maxwell not talking to her family is common knowledge, but jacobi reacts like it’s news. we know from hera’s performance review flashback in memoria that kepler and jacobi were aware of “multiple attempted crew member homicides” in her record. the file about hera’s bentham directory was on kepler’s server. if there’s one person who would’ve been briefed on everything there was to know about hera, it would’ve been maxwell; her shock is entirely feigned. in fact, almost every reaction from jacobi and maxwell here is feigned. they’re black ops specialists who arrived prepared with divide-and-conquer tactics. there’s no reason they wouldn’t know these things. also note that none of the “leaks” reveal anything about the mission they didn’t already know, and that nothing about the si-5 is incriminating - if anything, it’s mostly silly and even humanizing. and, yes, all of that contextualizes maxwell’s reaction to “skiing?!”

eiffel’s file comes through last, once they’re already worn out. kepler sends eiffel to check on them at the same time so that he’ll walk in. jacobi shows minkowski the file. he lurks around waiting to see how her not-confrontation with eiffel goes, and then cements the thought in her head: what about you? are you going to care?

it’s true that there are aspects of the mission only kepler knows, but as far as information on the hephaestus crew goes (barring one very particular detail about lovelace)? that’s part of the job they were chosen for. when they kill the plant monster, kepler says: “you think we didn’t know about that thing? please. we listened to every log that you beamed down to canaveral.” kepler’s entire foundation is shaken when jacobi turns on him because this is how they operate: “have one person take the blame, say the mean things. meanwhile, the poor, betrayed little guy gets a bit more leeway - just enough to sneak up and hit you from behind.” the show is not subtle about any of this. you can pick apart any early-s3 interaction between two hephaestus crew members and an si-5 agent and see the same divide-and-conquer tactics at play. jacobi and maxwell are always - in morals, loyalty, job description - closer to kepler than they are to the hephaestus crew, and to even sort of believe otherwise is falling for that facade. it’s worth remembering that the hephaestus crew are prisoners. some of them were aware of it from the start, and some of them were lied to, but none of them were meant to leave. the si-5, on the other hand, went up there with a unified goal, and the knowing intention they would be, among other things, prison guards.

[blackbullet99]

Why I HATE “Momtara”

(and Dadko)

I’m not really sure how to start this. I’ve been re-watching A:TLA, I was watching The Library and The Desert, or “The Fury of Aang” which is what both episodes were promoted as on Nickelodeon when they first aired, like one big movie. 

Great episodes, really shows how well written Avatar is. I love the world building in the former episode, and the latter is a great insight into Aang, it’s one that really challenges him, shows how far his anger and grief can take him, without it feeling forced.

It’s also a great Katara story, really emphasizes how she’s the heart of the group, who keeps everyone together when the others are either depressed, physically incapable of navigating the terrain, or high as kite. 

Then I remembered the Anti Aang fandom sucks or something, because we can’t have nice things, so… 

Many stupid people will say “Aang never supports Katara” or “Aang makes Katara perform eMoTiOnAl LaBoUr” and that’s simple not true.

One of the main I love Kataang is because of what Aang gives to Katara, when he first shows up he brings a sense of fun, joy and whimsy to her life. He values and respects her, not just as a friend, but also as a waterbender, Katara can be openly vulnerable around Aang, both have lost a great deal in life, he can comfort her just by letting her know he’s there for her, Aang will go above and beyond for Katara in any way he can, both will risk everything to save one another if in danger, and in the first darn episode he offers to take her to the North Pole so she can learn Waterbending kicking off the series.

Unfortunately many people will hyper focus on the rare moments of negativity or just vulnerability to frame Katara as a 30 year old woman who needs to hold up Aang’s head as if he were a 6 month old baby. As show here…

Right off the bat OPs yapping about “Momtara” crap. This point more than any other, is a stupid one to bring up. Both Katara and Sokka are concerned with telling Aang that his homeland was invaded because there’s no easy way to say it. You can’t blame Aang for crashing out once he eventually discovers the truth. OP also acts like Katara comforting Aang over this while he’s in the Avatar State is also somehow a bad thing that happens all the time. When if anything it shows Katara’s strength as a character, she isn’t deterred, put off, or judgmental about Aang’s rage, she instead emphasizes with Aang and just understands that he needs a friend. There TWO, count ‘em TWO instances where Katara brings Aang out of the Avatar State. 

Does OP not realize that both Sokka and Aang realize that they were wrong for their behavior and both actively apologize to Suki and Katara for being sexist and big-headed respectively, both girls reconcile with them and the boys don’t do anything like this again in the show, having learned their lesson. Heaven forbid characters have flaws they overcome (and this coming from a Zuko stan).

Also Katara was crazy jealous and petty when Aang was getting attention from those other girls, I mean she pretty justified, but it doesn’t paint her as a shining example of maturity.

Okay, now it just seems like OP is bitching about Aang for having realistic human feelings. Some old dude brings up something that Aang is personally ashamed of, he bails and Katara comforts him. Other than she had to find him in a storm (something Aang apologizes for and Katara understands BTW) what’s the issue with Katara just comforting a friend about a sore subject for him.

I like how in the second point OP tries to make Aang sound as problematic as possible by “triggering Katara’s trauma” by leaving. While this definitely upset Katara, and it reminded Katara of when another loved one left. Katara already had issues with her father leaving at the start of the episode, and was already felt hurt and tense with her father long before Aang left.

Speaking of which, I understand Aang leaving in the middle of a storm was wrong, it was something he shouldn’t have done, but, that’s the POINT, it was a misguided attempt to face the Fire Nation on his own to save lives and not put his friends in danger, the he realizes he can rely on his friends for support.

THAT’S THE WHOLE POINT OF A STORY ARC AND A PROTAGONIST LEARNING A LESSON AND GROWING AS A CHARACTER!!

I really hate when ZKs bring up this episode, because they only ever use it to hyper focus on Aang being more angry and irritable than he usually is. I’m not saying Aang’s anger or lashing out at others is justified and he isn’t framed as being justified in lashing out at other trying to help, but his anger is understandable giving he literally lost Appa, the only living thing from his past and his culture. It’s one of the ONLY times in the show Aang actively gets angry and lashes out at others, something that very seldom happens and is no indication of his character overall. (Not to mention he isn’t even blaming Katara for losing Appa in this scene).

Same thing applies with this scene. Aang is conflicted and frustrated over wanting to end the war but he doesn’t want to take a life, and no one seems to have any alternative solutions. Again he shouldn’t yell at Katara, but OP disingenuously tries to frame it as Aang blaming Katara for his problems when that isn’t even what he’s doing, nor is getting angry with Katara even a constant thing with Aang, sometimes friends get angry with each other every once in a while, doesn’t mean they have a toxic relationship.

Hooray, more “Momtara” BS. The thing OP misunderstands about Katara’s character is that Katara is motherly, it’s a role she took up when her mom died, but this doesn’t mean Katara is forced to be everyone’s mom. Her “motherly” traits are more so an extent of her compassion and empathy towards, something she extends to everyone, this doesn’t mean the other members of the Gaang are like her children, they pull their own weight, and most of the time are more than capable of supporting themselves, and she clearly doesn’t view herself as a mom. 

She views Aang as a friend, a peer, not a son, she has a crush on the guy for corn’s sake, she views Toph as peer and a friend too, when they argue, she ain’t afraid to stoop to the latter’s level or lower, with Sokka they have a pretty typical sibling relationship, more often than not Sokka actively looks out for Katara and often he’s the one leading the group, making sure they have everything they need, planning strategies and sticking to schedules.

In short Katara is motherly, many times she is the one who keeps the group together and she has no issue supporting or comforting anyone who needs it,  but she is in NO WAY a substitute for an actual parent, nor does she want to be seen as one.

BUT WAIT! THERE’S MORE!!

“Montara” is stupid, but I get where that comes from. I’ll never understand how and why Zuko is considered a father figure. First off, we see Zuko serve tea for the others once or twice. This doesn’t mean Zuko is the ONLY ONE to help Katara with chores is some BS. We see the other members of the Gaang help consistently in the past, it’s brought up in “The Chase”. We never actively see Zuko and Katara work in tandem taking care of the others. ZKs like their own idea of Zuko and Katara’s relationship more than their actual relationship, but they ain’t ready for this conversation.

ZKs need to understand that maturing the most does not mean most mature. Zuko definitely matures the most in the series, and has a wonderful, genuine redemption arc, but that’s doesn’t mean he’s the most mature of the Gaang. For all OPs bitching about Aang crashing out, so does Zuko, and more frequently, sometimes over trivial things.

At the start of Sozin’s Comet he crashes out and starts burning sh!t because the others (including Katara) are taking a break. It’s hypocritical to hyperfocus on a total of SIX times in over 60 episodes where either rightfully upset, makes a mistake he learns from, or lets his temper get the better of him, while dickriding Zuko and praising him like a god acting as if he’s never done anything like this before. The only reason why Katara wasn’t involved much during Zuko’s crashouts it’s because she wasn’t around as they were enemies (it fell on Uncle Iroh to understandably help Zuko), and because when Zuko did upset, he was more willingly and actively violent as show in “The Chase” and “Sozin’s Comet”.

Zuko and Aang do not have a father/son bond. They’re both equals, foils, both grow together as people, they both go a journey together to learn Firebending for one thing. Zuko training Aang and being concerned for his well being doesn’t make him a father-figure. Toph also trains Aang and at times is concerned for his wellbeing, does that make Toph Aang’s mother-figure?

Ignoring the fact that

Katara hardly acts motherly to Zuko because they only became friends with 5 episode remaining.

The first time Katara shows any compassion to Zuko, her instinct is to heal him like an injured child and her comforting Zuko over him betraying his uncle is hardly different than her comforting Aang in The Storm.

Preparing the provisions they need ain’t worth diddly-squat, not only is it something people like Sokka and Aang have done, but it’s the most bare minimum thing and isn’t indicative of Zuko and Katara’s relationship. 

Also Katara and Aang are literally equal partners throughout the whole f*cking show! The two interact and work together as friends, peers, equals!! Katara never looks down on Aang or sees him as beneath her!!! They are two years apart!!!! Will you braindead ZK dickriders stop adultifying this 14 year old dark skinned girl and trying to making Aang and Katara’s relationship Oedipus II, this legit pisses me off!!!!!

Sorry.

Actually, no I’m not, this whole post sucks eggs. Bunch of idiotic nonsense made by a ZK obsessed fake-fan who doesn’t understand A:TLA. OP should just read a fanfic and quit their whining.

[kradogsrats]

How Does Your Garden Grow: Terry's s4-s7 Slow-Build Arc

So, Terry. A character who could be objectively called the goodest among the main cast. We've been waiting through four seasons to really figure him out... or I have, at least. Maybe everyone else got him from the start.

Anyway, Terry's arc is a very slow burn that only comes becomes clear in s7, because it's revealed primarily through two sequences of scenes that echo each other—the first in s4, and the second when s7 finally comes back to tuck that s4 sequence into bed and kiss it gently on the forehead. This means that in order to really grasp how Terry develops, we need to examine and compare those sequences, both to each other and in the context of what we see of Terry in the intervening time.

God's Most Plant-Based Clown...

Fun fact: Aaron Ehasz apparently named Terry as his favorite character at SDCC 2019, during the s3 hype tour [citation vague]. He probably didn't expect that it would take another two and a half years of real time for us to actually meet Terry, but them's the breaks.

We don't really know a lot about Terry for the first few episodes of s4, where he's suddenly thrown in as a new main character alongside all the ones we had already known and loved for years. We can see he's a little anxious and awkward, but he lights up with confidence in his dynamic with Claudia to the point that he'll discuss the smell of his own farts in front of her dad. He has an incredible amount of compassion for Viren, repeatedly offering up deep emotional vulnerability even though Viren radiates nothing but aloof dislike for him. He seems to have no problem with Claudia's dark magic, such as the pufferbat breathing spell, even when the credits go out of their way to remind the audience that hey, those pufferbats had families, too.

He's obviously good for Claudia, which (as intended) immediately makes us turn around and question whether Claudia is good for him. He is, after all, an elf, and she's a dark mage. She has already done, by her own admission, things she "never imagined [she] would be able to do"—and this from the girl who once killed a baby deer with her bare hands. Does Terry not know about these deeds? Is she using him? Is he secretly a nihilistic sadist beneath his perky, easygoing exterior?

He's just a mystery wrapped in an enigma rolled up around a chewy marshmallow center, then dipped in crushed-up pretzels (since nuts are an allergy risk).

However Dangerous

But Terry does reach what we can clearly see is a crossroads of development fairly early in s4, when he kills Ibis to protect Claudia. This is a Big Deal—he immediately breaks down crying, to the point that despite being injured, Claudia prioritizes comforting him. Later, he's unable to sleep, instead crying over both Ibis and himself... or rather, what he had no choice but to do.

Viren, perhaps seeing a tiny sliver of his teenage self in Terry, offers him some advice regarding how to make peace with doing what you have to for those you love:

VIREN: But there is an aching pain mixed with love that you feel in these moments. In the name of love, you may perform acts so unforgivable... you will never forgive yourself. TERRY: Please, how do I live with this? How do I deal with these feelings? VIREN: I will tell you how. TERRY: Yes! Please, I need to know.

Of course, he's still Viren. Fatherly advice isn't exactly his strong suit. He also technically hasn't had a full night's sleep in two years.

Now, the writers could have left it at that. It's a good scene. It's a good character interaction. It sets up like 90% of Viren's remaining arc—as the first appearances of both "I had no choice" and "however dangerous, however vile"—and a not insignificant part of the entirety of arc 2, itself.

But they don't, and that's where it really becomes about Terry, because the next time he and Viren are hanging out (in s4e7, titled "Beneath the Surface" in an example of having zero chill), he brings it up again. He respectfully tells Viren that he's given it a lot of thought, and what Viren proposed isn't what he wants to do. He doesn't even say Viren is wrong, just that it isn't right for him:

I think what you're trying to say is... Is that I should stop having feelings. Well, I'm not going to do that. No way, I-I'm gonna be strong enough to do whatever I need to do and have feelings.

This is, in a way, Terry affirming his true heart—he's not going to give that up, even if letting go of the compassion that made killing so devastating to him (and probably narrowing his understanding of who and what is worthy of it) would make things easier. He's going to be strong enough to not have to do that.

It's not a coincidence that the very next scene for them includes Terry coming out, because both are about Terry's chosen identity.

This isn't only about Terry being trans—what he's saying here is essentially, "I know who I am, and I am who I choose to be. I won't change for your or anyone else's approval."

Viren's response, which I previously always found kind of baffling, is actually perfect:

Like, as responses to someone coming out... it's not awful, and it definitely sounds like something Viren would say. But just like Terry is affirming more than just his trans identity, what Viren is actually doing here is acknowledging the strength in who Terry has chosen to be—someone who is (I remind you) strong enough to "have all the feelings." Someone who can both act on his love for individuals he's close to, and retain his deep compassion for everyone else. Viren isn't going to try to change him, or convince him that he'll be happier another way—both because he's very, very tired and has no investment in Terry being one way versus another, and because I genuinely think some very small part of him is like, "god, I wish that were me."

Of course, what's being ignored here is whether what Terry wants to be is even possible.

... Fighting His Vegan-est Battles

So about that. As s4 winds down and we progress through s5, we obviously see a lot more of Terry, and we get a much better grip on exactly what his deal is in the dynamic between him and Claudia and dark magic:

This scene shows us several things. First, the compassion of Terry's true heart: he feels for Rayla's grief, despite the fact that she was, by all appearances, 100% prepared to cut his throat a full... ten seconds ago. Second, that Terry is at least superficially okay with Claudia's dark magic because he believes in her reasons: the only times he calls her out on her actions are when he feels they don't have her love for her father driving them—namely her tormenting Rayla and later the water dragon. And third, that Terry actually disconnects himself from Claudia's choices at the most basic level: he doesn't suggest she go back and correct her behavior, though he's presumably glad that she does. He's very much a bystander to all of her actions.

Like, he very obviously loves Claudia. We see this in his quiet, consistent care for her—anticipating her needs, focusing on her wellness when she disregards it, calming her down and/or cheering her up, even just carrying her shit around. (Like, her staffs! Both of them!) For him, it's entirely about her as a person, and a person who is fundamentally good, as all people are. She's a girl so full of love that she'd tear herself apart for it, if Terry wasn't there to pick up the pieces. He spends all of s5 making sure she doesn't have some kind of exhaustion-driven breakdown.

Then we hit s6, which is a series of crucial turning points for Claudia, that Terry... also unconditionally supports her through.

Which would be beautiful, except that Claudia's turning points tend to include thing like straight-up murdering what was, if not a child, then at least the equivalent of the family's weird but beloved dog.

Now, I don't think chewing her out over that would have been the right (or productive) thing to do. Really Terry handles her breakdown in probably the best way possible, all things considered. But after that, he treats her questioning everything she's ever believed with a degree of passivity that like... I guess would be good for a therapist, but not necessarily someone you love and have watched hurt themself with their own choices for two years straight.

CLAUDIA: Please, Terry. Tell me what to do. TERRY: Claudia, I can't. Only you can see your own deep truth. Only you can decide the path you're going to walk. You won't be alone. I'll clear out the thorny brambles if I see them, I'll hold your hand as we trudge through wet, mucky leaves. But... you have to choose the way.

Again, he's not strictly wrong, and it's a beautiful sentiment... but he offers no input whatsoever when she's weighing things like "When my dad left, I thought he lost his mind" versus "He seemed so strangely hopeful. So certain." He has no problem claiming Viren obviously found peace in s7, so it's not that he doesn't have an opinion. He just seems to not want to influence her on principle.

Maybe that's because he knows Claudia is so easily influenced and pins her identity entirely to external things or people, and he doesn't want to be another one of those. Which is valid. However, taking this position (or lack thereof) also conveniently absolves him of any responsibility for the choices she subsequently makes—they're her choices, after all. If she winds up hurting people, it's not like he could have stopped her. He'll hold her hand, as if doing so leaves no blood on his own.

This is something that starts to change at the end of s6 and into s7, mostly because suddenly Terry isn't the only influence on Claudia—if he wants her to be making her own choices in a vacuum, he has to balance out Aaravos, who has zero qualms about manipulating her when she's extremely vulnerable. Terry gets a bit more assertive to combat that manipulation, especially when Aaravos is being extremely obvious about it...

But really, by then it's too late.

However Vile

Finally, in s7, we reach the denouement of everything that has subtly been building around Terry. We find out that he has a true heart, a feature everyone is born with but most eventually lose:

More on that, and Ezran, in my eventual true heart meta.

Aaravos then sets Terry up in a very specific way—he sends Terry to find two feathers from a shimmercrow, one large and one very small. Terry happily complies, relieved that the request wasn't something "weird or creepy." However, as always with Aaravos, the task is half straightforward and half a manipulation. He uses the large shimmercrow feather to give the half-completed primal stone flight for its journey around the world, but the small feather...

Aaravos has Terry bring him to where the feathers were found, where he knows there will be both an adult crow and chicks. He brutally murders the mother crow in front of Terry, while calmly explaining how they will use her dying fear and pain to open the In-Between. It's only a key. A tool.

In the ensuing confrontation, he also drives home to Terry that a) it's too late to easily sway Claudia away from him, and b) it doesn't matter, because Claudia is also like this. Claudia uses him. Claudia tells him half-truths, ostensibly to "protect" him, but really to protect herself from him deciding to leave her.

Aaravos has a definite agenda here—he needs Terry's influence, the influence that makes Claudia question whether it's right to hide things from him, removed from her. Either Terry's true heart has to go, or he does. It's time for him to, shall we say... "get a grip":

The true heart is a gift of childhood. For a few wonder-filled years, we each have innocent eyes to experience the world's beauty in a simple way. I have seen generations of humans and elves accept the darkness that lurks in all of us beside the light. There is no black or white, only shades of gray. We must all carry complexity. But please believe me that there is beauty in this burden. Your heart will be a little heavier. But now, there will be no more half-truths, Terrestrius.

Just like in s4, it has been suggested to Terry that he let go of the identity he has chosen. The identity where he's committed to having all the feelings—crying for Ibis, pitying Rayla, mourning Sir Sparklepuff. Doing "what must be done" is positioned as now being incompatible with who he is.

And again, Terry is not going to give up who he is:

Not for anyone. He knows where the lines he has drawn are, and he won't move them just because it's Claudia who has crossed them.

So Terry leaves—but there's one thing that Aaravos has done that goes unstated, and while it's maybe not a major factor (compared to all the other major factors) in Terry leaving, it is the critical factor in his growth:

He has made Terry complicit. Without Terry, Aaravos would not have found and killed the mother bird... and he has been complicit all along. He couldn't stop Aaravos this time, but how many similar tragedies could he have stopped when it was just him and Claudia?

And so here, for the first time, he goes back to make things right. He didn't go back for Ibis, or for Rayla, or anyone else Claudia hurt in the name of love, or who he, also in the name of love, allowed her to hurt. But he goes back for the baby shimmercrows, to comfort and care for them now that their mother is gone, and he goes back to people who (rightfully) consider him an enemy, to help them stop Aaravos.

Just to make sure we really get it, they even have him say it out loud:

Should Bloom a Week or Two Early

Anyway, I think they did something really beautiful and complex with Terry, in that there's no question he loves Claudia—they took three entire seasons to show us how much he loves her, at her highest and lowest points, selflessly and unconditionally. With Callum and Rayla slowly easing back into their peak perfect romance during the same period, his love for Claudia is also not treated as less real or important. We all knew it was probably more than a little doomed, but he's not foolish or wrong to love her.

He doesn't even stop loving her, or decide she's no longer good enough for him to love. He leaves because in order to keep loving her, he has to also love himself. He won't change who he is to stay with her, because he's fought too hard to become that person. With Callum willing to give up everything he is for Rayla at a moment's notice—something that really works only because Rayla would never ask him to, and in fact is staunchly against it—Terry having a solid identity and refusing to compromise it is a reflecting alternate perspective on love.

He's also the most emotionally mature and objectively good person in the cast, but ultimately his arc shows that neither of those exempt him from doing harm passively or even actively—and growth, from that point, is acknowledging that harm and working to heal it. In a story where most of the beloved characters have done wildly questionable things or are defined by their maladaptive coping mechanisms for deep personal trauma, Terry being so generally stable and (all things considered) normal, but still able to develop and grow is actually pretty special.

And, of course, now that he's grown... he's ready for a road trip even wackier than "my girlfriend and I hauling around her dad's formerly-dead body on our way to break a fallen god out of prison."

[dangermousie]

2024 kdrama post

We are already in December and nothing new I am likely to be interested in is gonna drop before the end of the year - and if it does it will run into 2025 so I can address it in my 2025 kdrama post, unless we are all ruled by lizard aliens by then.

Normally I list all the dramas made this year that I watch, thoughts on them, blah blah but this year I disliked most of the kdramas I tried (it was the worst kdrama year for me since 2006 when I first started!) and I don't want to make a giant negative post, so I am going to only mostly talk about the kdramas I enjoyed in some capacity.

From least to most:

Love Your Enemy - I don't really like it tbh, but it's here for nostalgia over JJH.

Tell Me You Love Me - good and quiet but suffers in comparison to the original and that FL actress is just not my cup of tea.

Connection - Ji Sung gives a powerhouse performance in a very solid crime drama; it's not higher because it's just not my genre.

The Midnight Shop - it was nice seeing Joo Won in not a disaster of a drama. It wasn't as engrossing as it could have been but I did like both the mains and rooted for them.

Knight Flower - was I emotionally involved? Nah. Was I entertained? Yeah.

The Judge From Hell - "was I emotionally involved? Nah. Was I entertained? Yeah." Redux.

Queen of Tears - honestly, it should probably be in the below category but I enjoyed myself for the first half so much, I am willing to pretend the nonsense disaster plots and character interactions of second half were not as bad as they were.

My Demon - sucker for supernatural romance fantasy done right (to me it was, I know some people didn't like it.)

Goryeo Khitan War - I put it on my 2023 list too so it's double dipping but whatever. This is just a grand old school sageuk and I adored every moment.

Lovely Runner - normally youth dramas bore me but this one was so sweet, so lovely, so pitch perfect.

Black Out - did not really feel like a kdrama at all, more like a prestige BBC production, but I loved it anyway, as bleak and harrowing as it was.

When the Phone Rings - my current obsession, old school melo the way they haven't made in years.

The sad thing is, a number of these dramas started airing in 2023 and/or beginning of the year. Most of this year has been the Sahara.

Dramas which I enjoyed off the start and then fell off the cliff into what the hell land: Captivating the King (wonderful first 4-5 episodes, OK few following, stupid as hell the rest - solid acting brought down by a ridiculous script), The Story of Park's Marriage Contract (great first two eps and then downhill rapidly with each following episode), Love Song For Illusion (first ep not bad, second ep tolerable, after that with each ep, my ff fingers got twitchier and twitchier.)

OTP of the year: Duh, Baek Sa Eon x Hong Hui Joo, When the Phone Rings, have you seen this tumblr lately?

Trend I wish would die: 8 ep kdramas, 12 ep kdramas. Bring back freaking 16 ep as a minimum standard. Also pls get Disney and Netlfix out of kdrama world while we are on impossible wishes.

Genre I need less of: romcoms; Genre I need more of: proper sageuk.

Worst waste of my eyeballs: The Impossible Heir.

Most boobs per minute: Queen Woo.

Best non-2024 kdrama I watched this year: Beyond Evil. A total masterpiece.

And that's a wrap!

(My cdrama post is gonna be insane in comparison to this.)

[maxie-pallet]

Rodger’s World AU | Rodger’s Detective Agency

Rodger is my favorite Dandy’s World character aside from Connie and I had this idea because of a DIFFERENT universe that me and my moots have. I’ve been working on expanding the main Rodger’s World concept because of that. I may post more about it if people are interested!

Character summaries below the cut

Rodger

“The main character of Rodger’s World. Formed the team that is the Gardenview Detectives. It’s all his fault.”

Rodger is extremely different in this AU from his canon counterpart. His in show personality is much like his canon game personality just with a little bit more enthusiasm, but his toon counterpart is significantly different. Instead of insisting on working alone cause of a sense of confidence, he more wants to work alone because he doesn’t want to drag people into things they aren’t ready for. Instead of being stoic and wise, he’s in-your-face enthusiastic and bubbly to an almost concerning degree. The kids who used to visit Gardenview liked the kinder Rodger, but it unsettled the other mains who knew something wasn’t quite right.

After the center closed, Rodger closed himself off from others but insisted he had a plan to make things right.

Brightney

“A main character of Rodger’s World. Her role in the detective’s agency is to answer and react to calls for help, making sure the crew and any one else that’s needed to help for the case is there when they’re needed. Considering herself a secretary of sorts, she also takes brief notes of everything important mentioned during investigations.”

Brightney, in episodes not focusing on a group mystery, was often paired with the more popular Connie (who in the show, haunts Brightney’s library home). As toons, Brightney and Connie are very close (yes this au is still ghostlight propaganda), but Connie can tell how much it bothers Brightney to be less liked as in other toon & main duos, the main was still more popular. She tries to push down these inferior feelings though, instead trying to focus on helping wherever she can in gardenview.

After the center closed and Rodger began to close himself off more, Brightney was the one to try and motivate the other toons again, pulling together a team to try and solve why Gardenview closed, though only really was effective after the more influential Teagan and Glisten stood with her.

Glisten

“A main character of Rodger’s World. His role in the detective’s agency is to help with crime scene investigation. Glisten has an extreme eye for detail. He’s able to scope out any suspicious objects that would be out of place in the scene thanks to his detail oriented mind.”

Glisten, before joining the detective agency, was a dancer and good friends with Boxten, a composer. Boxten often wrote and performed the music that Glisten would dance to. Even after Glisten left to join the detective agency, the two remained friends and Glisten would perform on nights where he was free. However, this would unintentionally pull Boxten into cases he had no involvement in. As toons this connection remained (the two are essentially Sprout and Cosmo).

Glisten tried to be an emotional crutch for Rodger after Gardenview closed but it didn’t take long for him to realize Rodger still had the stubbornness he was written with and no amount of talking was going to change his mind. So, Glisten gave up and joined Brightney’s plan to figure out why Gardenview closed.

Teagan

“A main character of Rodger’s World. Her role in the detective’s agency is to interview people related to the case. As a former member of rich nobility, Teagan is trained in the art of conversing, able to get information from suspects and witnesses through pleasant chats and formalities.”

Teagan keeps a lot of her motherly qualities in this version, though has more moments reminiscent of Toriel from Undertale, where she’s loving, but can be overbearing, and can be very scary at times too. Her and Rodger were written as pseudo love interests within the show, never explicitly saying they were together or having any flirting, just generally giving the impression that they were a couple (to the point many kids and parents were surprised to hear that they weren’t when visiting Gardenview).

This unfortunately has given them a dynamic similar to an awkwardly divorced couple post-shutdown, where Rodger tries to be overly nice and Teagan is more disgusted than anything. She sees Rodger closing himself off as cowardly and his kindness when he does see people as a facade. She wants to help the rest of the toons but less for their sake and more to show that she’s not second to Rodger.

Tisha

“A main character of Rodger’s World. Her role in the detective’s agency is to keep things neat and tidy around the office and during cases! She always keeps track of the evidence found so that nothing gets overlooked! Without her, things would be in complete chaos!”

Tisha is the least popular of the mains. She’s essentially a janitor or maid in show after all, but she doesn’t mind it as much as Brightney. She has her cult following and that’s enough for her. She finds humans to be extremely unpredictable in a way she doesn’t like, making her seem kind of rude to visitors. She tends to attract kids who are neurodivergent since they relate to various parts of her character, whether it be her need for organization or her more closed off and mellow personality compared to the rest of the mains. It’s made her question whether she was written to be neurodivergent herself.

She wasn’t as panicked as everyone else when Gardenview closed, but as time went on she got more anxious about what it meant for them in the long run, not to mention the change in everyone’s behaviors, and she hopped on very fast when Brightney suggested trying to figure out what happened.

Toodles & Spots

“A main character of Rodger’s World. Her role in the detective’s agency is to… well, she doesn’t actually have a role. She’s more like Rodger’s sidekick, since she isn’t quite old enough to do much work herself! Luckily, she has her Imaginary Friend and stuffed animal Spots by her side! Together, they always end up solving the final piece of the puzzle!”

Toodles had a very comedic role in the show as she was often left behind with her babysitters, Scraps and Goob, and had to find increasingly more creative ways to escape them and go to help with the case. Of course none of this could be possible without the help of Spots, her plush dog. As well as being her plush, Spots was also Toodles’ imaginary friend. Spots sort of was like an audience self insert in a way, where somehow he could figure out things about the case others couldn’t, tell Toodles, and Toodles would tell Rodger to help him solve the cases, always being justified with Toodles having a mind like no other.

Toodles was incredibly distressed after Gardenview closed, as it wasn’t only the visitors that stopped appearing, but Toodles lost spots around the same time and couldn’t see him in her imagination without the physical toy there. All the other mains tried to comfort her as best as possible, but what hurt the most was the distance that her father figure, Rodger, was taking from everyone. Though he always reassured her everything would be ok, that they would find spots and everything would go back to normal, Toodles was smart enough to know that wasn’t going to happen.

Shortly after Brightney’s search team is formed, Toodles disappears.

[bad-holmes-impression]

would sell one-third of my soul for season 1 of tts but for 14+.

-diving into rapunzel’s guilt over touching the rocks as she tries to do that typical “filler” stuff, so the audience isn’t wondering why the problem isn’t being addressed, but rather, wondering how much longer until she breaks and addresses it.

-more character focus (honestly, i want this for the whole show). cassandra had some good development in season 1, but i’d love it if it delved into eugene struggling to reconcile his past with the fact that he lives in a castle now. with. you know. the guy that almost had him hanged.

-more eugene and lance flashbacks, particularly lance-focused stuff.

-more time with varian (particularly the varian-rapunzel and varian-eugene dynamics). really integrating him into the faces we think of when we think of the main cast, even if he isn’t necessarily their friend. or, heck, actually making him their friend.

-the destruction of old corona in real time. maybe making it the image shown during the credits! like, we see the normal village, and then, with each passing episode, the rocks overtake it further, pushing themselves into the picture as the sky gradually darkens.

-a varian pov episode with the masked men outside his house as he battles lingering sickness from the storm. we can even combine this with “the quest for varian” as rapunzel investigates his abandoned, cobweb-covered lab.

-would. would it be too ridiculously angsty of me to ask for varian to inject ruddiger with the growth serum onscreen. because i kind of want that.

-blood during the finale. be it cass’, the rocks causing eugene an injury, or a spike plunging through the automaton and across the side of varian’s face, leaving a scar that lasts forever and the very obvious symbolism going hand-in-hand with it.

HONESTLY THIS GOES FOR S2 AS WELL.

-cass actually struggling with her rotted hand.

-rapunzel making excuses to herself that no, she’s not just ignoring her problems all over again, because she’s traveling! she’s figuring out how to stop the black rocks! it’s fine!

-treating lance being poisoned with way more depth, because. like. that shouldn’t be made into a funny scene. we can let lance not be the comedic black best friend once. i’m begging you.

-flashbacks to corona and varian’s prison breakout, along with his internal redemption and andrew manipulating him.

-cass’ transformation into moon cass visibly making her look more gaunt, like how the flower healed gothel but in reverse. also having her be possessed by zhan tiri, at least for part of her arc.

okay fine we’re going into season three because this post is spiraling out of control

-letting varian sacrifice himself for corona, except there’s obviously some magic thing that still saves him. but that really should have been his redemption moment. the climax. *”there was room for two on that door, rose” voice* there was room for two inside that hair shield, rapunzel!

-either making quirin actually dead or at least doing some kind of fakeout.

-king edmund showing more signs of mental illness.

-multiple episodes where lance is at least featured with angry & cat. slowly but surely maturing enough to adopt them.

-varian’s voice getting more strained in “nothing left to lose” after being hit with the rocks. (jeremy jordan is an insane-level performer— i know he could’ve sold that so well and i’m baffled why they didn’t tell him to.)

-zhan tiri being much, much creepier.

-cass deteriorating more physically than just being pale, causing people to naturally show sympathy for her instead of. you know. a sadistic grin as she wields a sword effortlessly.

-the moonstone not healing cass’ disability.

-varian either getting to freak out inside that rock cage, or us seeing him consciously force his panic down. he’s still human even though he’s a genius, and he was confined hundreds of feet above the ground for about a day.

-not recreating the new dream moments in the finale, but giving us some original cass stuff that means just as much. this also comes with seeing what killed cass.

-making it clear that varian chose the role of royal engineer. also that he got to bring hot running water to his village first, the way he wanted to.

-depending on how cass’ arc is handled, either letting her be captain of the guard or exiling her with a hint that she’ll return to rapunzel in secret.

[jinnie-ret]

could we maybe get a part two to fallen Angel? Maybe it could have her healing process, like her physical therapy process, and the fan reaction? I just love reading your work :3

fallen angel pt 2

Stray Kids x Ninth Member!reader (Platonic)

content warnings: mentions of injuries (ankle, rib)

genre: fluff, angst

word count: 2.2k

after suffering a nasty fall in a Kingdom performance, Y/N is eager to get back on her feet, only to feel downhearted when she receives some less than motivating news. it's a good thing she has the boys there to support her.

Thank you so much @mynameisnotlaura for this request!! I hope you enjoy! :)

As always, if you enjoy please like and reblog! And my asks are open so be sure to leave in some requests if there's anything you'd like to see!

MAIN MASTERLIST

Stray Kids' Fans in Uproar as Second Member is Removed from Kingdom: Legendary War

With just a few more weeks until the finale of the competition between six boy groups, a second member of the group Stray Kids has been removed from the show.

MNET have released an official statement saying:

"Due to faulty equipment that had not been properly authenticated by outside distributors, Y/N of Stray Kids sustained an injury that has prevented her from continuing in the competition. This is a very unfortunate situation and we wish her a speedy recovery."

However some fans have speculated that it was actually MNET's fault and that they should have checked the equipment themselves.

What do you think? Let us know down below:

Comments:

First Hyunjin, and now Y/N, this is so sad to see our group of 9 go down to 7...

It's clearly MNET's fault! You could tell Chan was angry about something before making sure Jeongin was ok

I wouldn't be surprised if Bang Chan went off at the staff, we all saw how annoyed he was in that one vlive...

Our poor maknaes, I hope they're both doing ok! Jeongin, Y/N, fighting!

I hope the rest of the boys are doing ok, now that they're down two members...

The way you can see the moment things go wrong in the performance and Y/N still manages to keep a calm face!

Okay but you wouldn't have been able to tell that Y/N got injured until they showed it after the performance.

Y/N put her phone down sighing. She was glad there was no nasty comments from what she read but she still didn't feel all too optimistic. MNET had blamed someone else for her injuries, and had also denied her requests of participating in the competition once more. Sure, she wasn't fully healed yet, but they could have let her be a part of it somehow without her dancing too strenuously. And no, she wasn't going to accept their request to just sit backstage and watch. In any other world she wouldn't mind doing so, but she knew that MNET would manipulate their footage and craft a vision that reflected badly on her own part.

It had been a couple of weeks since they filmed that performance, and a week since the episode was released, and Y/N was still on bed rest. Anytime a member saw her hobbling about they'd immediately do the thing she wanted for her, or escort her back to her room. Cutting a long story short, she felt like she was in a hell of some kind. Y/N longed for her independence, which added on top of the reasons why she was feeling so angry and upset and just... jumbled at the moment. It wasn't even like she could hang out with Hyunjin, because when the members left for practice, not before checking up on her of course, she would be left alone in the dorms. Hyunjin was spending his hiatus at home at the moment, but she was excited to see him soon after filming for Kingdom was finished.

Shuffling out of bed, and letting out a harsh breath at the pain that hit her mid section, Y/N slowly stood, now having to hobble across her bedroom floor with crutches, careful not to further distress her sprained ankle. Some say she was lucky it was only a sprain, but really it was a pretty severe one that was she lucky it didn't do any permanent damage.

"You should be in bed," Lee Know sternly said, back turned to her as she entered the kitchen.

"How did you know it was me?" Y/N pouted, letting out a groan as she leant against the kitchen counter.

"Here let me, careful, careful," Han gently supported her weight momentarily, helping her into a seat and offering a smile at her.

"Thanks, Hannie," Y/N smiled at her squirrel like member, turning back to Lee Know.

"Not hard to distinguish the difference between crutches and hobbling, to normal footsteps. Plus you normally run in for my breakfasts but you can't do that at the moment," Lee Know tapped Y/N on the nose as he put a plate of pancakes in front of her.

"Hey... don't remind me," Y/N said, shoulders feeling tense as her irritation was evident on her face.

"Yeah, you'd normally be the first one in here," Seungmin chuckled.

"Stop," Y/N slammed her fork down against the table, feeling bad for suddenly lashing out but she also felt so annoyed at the fact she currently couldn't do less.

"Sorry, sorry, we won't mention it no more, unless you want to, okay?" Felix calmed her down, one hand on her shoulder as the other ran through her hair.

"No, it's okay, I'm sorry, it's just... It's really annoying, I've ranted enough about it, you guys already know what I think about it all," Y/N waved her hand dismissively after her apology.

"Doesn't mean we don't want to hear it," Changbin reminded her, as he always did, being the great listener he is.

"Yeah, plus you know you've got our support and the fans' too, right?" Jeongin quietly pitched in, still not fully awake himself.

"I know, I know," Y/N nodded, taking a bite of her pancakes, humming in delight.

"Good?" Lee Know rose an eyebrow from across the table at her, a satisfied smile appearing on his face when she nodded enthusiastically.

Bang Chan emerged from his room just a everyone was finishing breakfast.

"Come on, time to go!"

"You missed breakfast," Changbin tutted at him, Chan only able to respond with a sheepish smile.

"You have to go so soon?" Y/N asked quietly. She could already predict how her day was going to go. Lay down, watch Netflix, sleep, repeat.

"Sorry sweetheart, got a lot of recordings to do today and we need to practice for collab stages on the show," Chan felt bad for his dongsaeng, he could tell she was feeling lonely, but they all tried their best to keep her in the loop.

"I can't even sing on the tracks?" Y/N asked hopefully, but even she knew that the answer would be...

"No, I'm sorry, you know it could make your ribs feel worse if you do. And you know you've got a physio session today, right? Seojun hyung will come round to pick you up and take you there," Chan reminded her, as she let out a groan.

"Ugh, I forgot about that. At least it gets me out of the dorms for an hour or so," she tried to see the positive side.

"See, not too bad!" Jeongin tried to encourage her, but it fell on deaf ears, knowing no one else would want to be in her position right now.

"Can someone help me to the sofa before you guys head out?" Y/N asked awkwardly. She always was awkward when doing so, feeling a guilt of some sorts that crept up on her in these types of situations.

"If we must," Seungmin playfully rolled his eyes, but was gentle nonetheless as he and Felix supported her onto the sofa.

"You comfy?" Felix double checked, shoving a pillow underneath her lower back to help with the healing of her ribs.

Y/N nodded as she took in some deep breaths, the short walk from the kitchen to the lounge leaving her a bit breathless.

"Are you sure you'll be okay, Y/Nnie?" Han bit the top of his thumb worriedly.

"I'm fine, I've got Netflix to keep me company for now, I'll see you guys later," Y/N didn't even look at them as they left, turning the TV on and hoping to block out her jealousy and irritation.

There was a knock on the door before it was unlocked and Y/N couldn't believe that she had already watched 6 episodes of Modern Family.

"Hi Seojun oppa," Y/N greeted him as he helped her stand and grabbed her crutches.

"Hi, Y/Nnie, how are you feeling today? Ready for your physio?" Seojun said warmly.

"I'm never ready, you know that," she laughed as he helped her out of the dorms and took her to the physio session.

On the way there they listened to some music, and Y/N fought deep within herself to not put her all into singing along. She couldn't make things worse. She wanted to recover as soon as possible.

Throughout the session Y/N herself felt like she was making good progress. Seojun and her physiotherapist, Soyeon, praised her as she did her exercises.

"So, only 2 more weeks left, yeah? Then it's been 4 weeks like you said and I can start working again," Y/N said with a big smile on her face. She was in a good mood from how the session went, which was soon to disappear.

"Yes, I did say 4 weeks, but I also said 4-6 weeks. Unfortunately it seems like your body is taking longer to heal than we initially expected, which isn't anything to worry about but I believe your healing process will be more in the 6 weeks," Soyeon informed Y/N, feeling bad for the younger girl.

"Right, okay, yeah, that's fine... thank you as always, Soyeon," Y/N said with a tight lipped smile and turned to Seojun with a look that said 'I want to go home now'.

And he complied. The manager felt bad, hearing the sniffles Y/N tried to hide during the journey back to the dorms. But knowing the girl, he didn't want to make a big deal of it, and simply passed her a tissue, knowing she would be thankful.

He helped her back into the dorms and took her to bed, letting her rest and feeling slightly reluctant to leave, he eventually did, sending a text to the other Stray Kids members to let them know how she was doing.

'Y/N isn't feeling too cheery. Not a good result to the session today, she's back home now. Could do with some comfort I think.'

And with that, the boys rushed home as soon as they could, not wanting their fellow member to be feeling upset. They knew she was angry, but they hadn't really seen her sadness or tears since the day her injury happened.

"Y/N?" there was a tentative knock on the door.

But Y/N didn't answer, she was too busy being curled up warmly under her duvet, her own sobs sounding muffled to her as she listened to some sad music through her airpods.

"Y/Nnie, hey sweetheart," Chan said softly, brushing her hair out of her face and removing her airpods.

"Adele? Damn she is going through it," Seungmin muttered to himself as he put the listening device to his ear, wincing lightly when Changbin heard and smacked him on the back of the head.

"Go away," Y/N tried to pull the duvet over her head not wanting the boys to see her upset but failed.

"Hey, hey, none of that, what happened at the physio appointment today?" Chan asked worriedly, thumbs swiping away the tears that ran down her face.

"Was it something serious?" Jeongin asked frowning, hoping that it wouldn't be.

Felix sat around the other side of Y/N cuddling her behind gently, for comfort.

"I've got 4 more weeks of this. 4 more weeks of doing nothing," Y/N sniffled, Felix rubbing her stomach in circles with his hand that was draped lightly across her midriff.

"I thought it was 2 more weeks?" Lee Know wondered out loud.

"Me too, but now I'm stuck here like this for even longer. Something about not healing as they expected," Y/N hiccuped on her sobs.

"Calm down, you're working yourself up, it'll be ok, those weeks will fly by," Changbin soothed her as he patted her head.

"I just hate doing nothing. I feel like I'm making you guys do all the work and making you babysit me when I should be pulling my own weight," Y/N confessed after calming herself down a bit.

"It's not like that at all. Plus, we love babysitting our maknae," Han let her know, patting her leg from where he was perched on the bed.

"Speak for yourself," Seungmin joked, making Y/N laugh, and then stop from the pain in her ribs.

"Here, silly, take these," Lee Know handed her some paracetamol to take, shaking his head fondly at her.

"I'm not silly," Y/N sleepily muttered after taking the tablets, leaning back into Felix's arms.

"You are for thinking you're making us do all the work," Chan sighed, still smiling at the girl.

"Yeah, don't worry, there's plenty for you to do when you're up and about," Lee Know said with a devilish smirk.

"That's fine by me," Y/N yawned, eyes fluttering shut.

"She's the only person I know that can sleep so comfortably at the idea of having lots of work to do," Jeongin shook his head with wide eyes.

"Told you, works like a charm," Lee Know laughed quietly at his shocked face.

They all stayed until she fell asleep, leaving just her and Felix in the room in peace.

tagged: @oo-li

[mliter]

Zenless Zone Zero.

This is the third game to come out of post-2020 Hoyoverse.

This game spent a lot of time being teased and marketed before it's release. With me, a game to really grab my attention is character design. This company already puts out solid stuff, but it's the aesthetic that doesn't get me. Star Rail and Genshin Impact's detailed lean into fantasy, while executed well, doesn't really get me.

You're put in the shoes of two siblings, Wise and Belle, on their journey to uncover what happened in the past, and clear a loved one's name. That's so freaking cool! They're even doing illegal shit on the down-low! That's so freaking cool!

Then comes along ZZZ. It's setting allowed for more of a grindfiction (i hope i used that word right) look. I saw people describing this as Jet Set Genshin Impact, hilariously.

For one, this game's character designs are top notch. They're not quite as busy as the previous two games I mentioned. They're fun and relatively simple. Clean color schemes, big shapes, differing species and unique silhouettes can be found across the roster. (Still no black people though. At this point, I shouldn't expect it.)

Continuing on with the characters, like any gacha game, they're the stars of the show. The team puts special care into each of them.

There's a serious sense of community between a large chunk of the cast. Everybody knows somebody, somehow. Either through a shared interest, a job together, school, or childhood. Everybody's got their own thing going on, and the writers show each of them the love they deserve. Thanks to this, it is very exciting to see two characters we know well meet for the first time.

While having their own presence in the world and lore, they can also be the main character of an update, out of the blue. Either through the main story, a special episode, an event, or an agent story. What's an agent story? An agent story is a story made for that specific character. They're usually released by the update. Everything that happens within them are canon, and they flesh out the character to a satisfying degree. (most of the time.) characters grow from the point that they were before the agent story, like Anby wearing her silver squad uniform in the most recent story chapter.

So what's this one about? Surprising most people today, this is a post apocalyptic story. This takes place in a earth where 90% of humanity has been wiped out by a mysterious force that produces monsters. A majority of the game takes place in New Eridu.

The more you read into the story, the more you learn this event's effect on society, and the drastic measures that have been taken because of it. Through the lenses of two siblings, you learn that It's everywhere. In the storytelling, in the characters, and in the environment.

ZZZ's gameplay is modeled after action games. Fast paced, flashy and exciting. You can tell that the developers grew up on titles like Tekken, Street Fighter, DMC and so on There's an attack button, a special button, a dodge button, and an ultimate button. Each character has their own passive system that can be activated through any of these buttons, keeping gameplay unique. Some of them aren't even activated by these buttons, they just work in the back!

There's a lot of things the player can do to maximize unit performance. W-Engines, disks, stat watching... It's pretty well made actually. It's just that in my case, it makes my head spin. Much to both my friends & followers's dismay. Luckily i have them to help me out with the number crunching and basic common sense.

My favorite bit from it is the parry animation. Special care was put into it. A cool camera angle, satisfying sound, and an exciting visual makes for an awesome experience. There is so much love put into this game.

Now that we have that out of the way, presentation. For me, it's the best part of the game. ZZZ takes a specific kind of care in its worldbuilding, aesthetic and character design that rivals Splatoon, actually. From the marketing, to the animation, to the options menu, there’s style to be found all around. Story beats are presented with AAA artwork in the style of an animated comic book. Casual conversations have a stylish transition to another screen where every character has their own animation. Character trailers are AAA productions in the style of... well, anything. They can, and will do anything. I see it as a celebration of creativity and art. There's a lot of professionals out there working in positions that don't let them to get this radical with what they're working on. I'd imagine any creative would enjoy working on a product like this.

Speaking of art, one thing i really like is when hand-drawn art is heavily incorporated in a videogame. ZZZ does this so well. I think my favorite example of this is the mindscape cinema. This works in stages, a piece of art of the character fully clothed. As the player whales out and rolls for more versions of the unit, a greyscale version of that art will be revealed to the player, more and more. Then, a final version of the character missing some articles of clothing is revealed. With how this game goes about suggestive content, you'd expect this to be crazy, but they're actually pretty tact about it. Regardless, it's a really cool display.

Zenless Zone Zero is one of the strongest titles to ever hit the scene for me. From the art direction, to the art itself, to the presentation, to the look, to the art, to the world, to the music, to the characters... I could keep going. Whereas I'm not too good at the game, i get my fun out of it by being lost in the world, the stories told within it, and the characters this story is about.

With a dev team that seems somewhat different from what hoyoverse is given trouble for... I hope more people play this game. It's a serious gem. I'm having so much fun with this game. And i can tell these guys are having just as much fun making it. Maybe even more.

[battlekidx2]

Hazbin Hotel Episodes 5 and 6 Thoughts

Wow. These two episodes of Hazbin Hotel were easily the best out of the series so far. They’re still working at a breakneck pace, but these episodes were so much more focused than the first 4 that it worked significantly better. The A and B plots of both these episodes were cleanly tied together so that no one part felt insignificant.

One of the biggest problems with the first four episodes was the fact that the split focus pulled the episode in different directions and made it so that reveals didn’t get the build up they needed to really feel impactful and pushed the Hazbin Hotel to the background so it felt insignificant in its own show. 

The second biggest problem in those episodes was that Charlie’s wish for her people, for redemption, and attempt to get into heaven to avoid extermination felt like it wasn’t the driving force it should have been. 

But these two episodes really fix that and expand on the characters really well. I’m just going to go through what I loved the most.

Alastor

I absolutely loved what we got from Alastor in episode 5. He really is the highlight of the show for me. There’s just so many layers to his character that the show isn’t rushing to peel back like it is with everyone else and it makes his character so intriguing.

I liked the fact that this episode hints that he truly does care about the hotel and wants it to succeed. It’s not only entertainment like he initially claimed. That moment where he sends Mimzy away was really telling. There isn’t even a hint of sinister subtext, sarcasm, or a joke in his voice or face when he tells her she can’t stay if she isn’t going to take redemption seriously.

The way his eyes twitch when she says he can’t seriously care about the hotel is such a great little detail.

I really like this point. The main theme of the show is redemption and showing that even someone like Alastor can care about the hotel is a direction I wanted the show to go in from the pilot, but something I wasn’t sure we would actually get. But I liked that it’s getting hinted at this early, especially since we now know there’s a season 2 and it can get fleshed out much more and can probably get to the point where he might grow into an actual mentor for Charlie instead of it being performative to spite Lucifer like it was in this episode.

(side note: I like that Charlie defends his actions against her father. She sees it as protecting the hotel, which we learn is the truth. He did do it for pride, but he also cares about the hotel and does want to protect it. I like to see that Charlie’s ability to see the best in people does pay off at least somewhat.)

That little hint of care to his actions with the hotel isn’t all we get to see of Alastor's layers. He is still the infamous Radio Demon after all, so we also get to see his pride at play.

It’s his pride being hurt by Lucifer that causes him to play up his role in Charlie’s life. It’s his pride being hurt that leads him to taking on the loan sharks alone both to remind everyone of his power and to show what else he brings to the hotel.

It’s also what causes him to go off on Husk. Husk is the only character willing to call Alastor out. He knows Alastor better than anyone else at the hotel because of their past and his ability to see through his facade. And he hurts Alastor's pride when he calls him out with the truth: That he's on a leash just like him.

The reveal that Alastor is also on someone’s leash was expected, but well executed.

This episode let Alastor’s mask slip a bit and we got to see more of his real emotions/feelings about things.

Alastor was the character I thought would have the most layers to them. Characters like Charlie, Angel Dust, and Vaggie wear what they feel a bit more openly than a character like Alastor (or at the very least their true feelings come out more frequently). There are motives and mysteries behind Alastor’s actions that aren’t clear with him like they are with everyone else and his demeanor, words, and actions can conflict with his true feelings and that’s what draws me to him so much. His usual (kinda) goofy and cavalier attitude, cold and ruthless demeanor that can come out at the flick of a switch, and infamous past make it so learning about Alastor's true intentions and introducing the idea of him changing and coming to care is very intriguing to me.

I just think that Alastor is the character that is working the best in the show right now because his plotline and development is not going at a breakneck pace. We’ve only gotten hints about why he was gone for seven years, who he sold his soul to, why he appeared to help with the hotel, etc. His character progression is also taking its time. This is the first real hint we get that he does genuinely care about the hotel in his own way and it’s 5 episodes in. This is the kind of pacing and development that the whole show would benefit from. 

This isn’t meant to be a shot at the show. I think it was put into a complicated situation because it was picked up initially for only 8 episodes (this is the type of show and large cast that needs at least twice as many) and was only renewed about halfway through the production of the first season, which I think explains why these episodes felt more coherent and fleshed out than the first four.

I really can’t wait to see where his character heads. He's still a walking question mark as of right now and every time we get a glimpse at his true intentions it's always fascinating because it's never clear cut where he stands.

Side note: I find it hilarious that Alastor created a rivalry between himself and Lucifer. The literal king of hell. Lucifer hurt Alastor’s pride and he immediately decided he would be as petty as possible towards him.

Charlie

I was always in the boat that Charlie was an interesting protagonist. The pilot set up a character that was very intriguing for the setting she was placed into. I didn’t think the three episodes necessarily handled her the best, but I think that was more a result of the rushed pacing and bloated plot. She’s handled significantly better from episode 4 on.

Episode 6 is where I think Charlie really came into her own as the protagonist of this series. The song where she stood up to heaven really sold me on her character. 

“If hell is forever then heaven must be a lie. If angels can do whatever and remain in the sky. The rules are shades gray when you don’t do as you say. And you make the wretched suffer just to kill them again.”

Up until this point Charlie felt a bit limited in her actions. It really amounted to trust exercises and the hotel residents acting out made up situations. She seemed naive and well meaning, but ill equipped to actually address the mental health issues her people had due to the fact her upbringing was so sheltered. There was the potential for more, but it wasn’t given the time I felt it deserved.

But this is where she really got to step up and call out the inequality and hypocrisy of heaven. This is where we got to see her backbone and the true extent of her care for her people. She won’t back down or accept the flimsy excuses they use to persecute the denizens of hell.

I also really liked her belief in Angel Dust. Yeah, he made some mistakes (at least from heaven’s point of view), but Charlie had complete faith in the fact that he would meet their requirements. It’s this characteristic of her’s that is intrinsic to bringing out the best in the residents of the hotel and before this point it was on the periphery (like with Angel Dust in episode 4) or implied. 

Episode 6 showed how important that characteristic is, especially to people who feel like they’re damned. (I like that Charlie is a good judge of character. It’s easy to take someone that’s privileged and naive and make them too trusting, but these two episodes show her belief in the best in the people at the hotel is founded.)

Another point I liked is that she was getting through to some of the angels. It’s a recurring gag that her presentations aren’t great. They’re written in crayon, flowery, and a little basic, but it’s the passion and critical thinking that she expresses in her presentations that shows that she can be a capable leader. 

She effectively poked holes in their argument that the sinners in hell deserve to be there and had their chance.

Her duet with Emily was really good. The way she brought back “Hell is Forever” to call the angels and exorcists out was the best (as you could probably tell from the fact that I quoted it). It also introduces a theme that the next generation will work to change things. Both Emily and Charlie want things to be different and clash with their parents who are both afraid that their child might end up like Lucifer. It’s a very clear parallel that sets up a lot of plot potential.

Charlie really was great in these episodes.

Angel Dust

I will admit I think aspects of Angel’s arc are rushed. Him standing up to Val is a big moment and I like the fact that it happened while Charlie is trying to show heaven that they are wrong about sinners, but I wish that we had gotten more time to build to Angel Dust being able to “stick it to the man” because of how powerful I think his arc is and the themes it deals with.

Episode 4 was the first time we really got to see beneath Angel’s mask and truly see the potential for change that Charlie does. We only really got hints that Angel wanted to change, but was scared to try in the first 3 episodes. We also know that he doesn’t feel safe even when he’s not around Valentino. 

Episode 4 is the turning point for him. When Val was abusing him he asked him not to hurt Charlie. His concern was solely for her in that moment despite the fact he was in the more tenuous position. He even forgives Charlie at the end because he knows her intentions are good. Plus his connection with Husk helped him find understanding so that he could come to feel like he could change. 

It was the real start of his growth and it was well done in my opinion. 

I just wish it had gotten a little more breathing room because while I do really like the plot points that occur in this episode I feel like they happened a bit too soon. (I know that it's been a few months in canon, but we didn't get to see that, so that slow progression doesn't have the impact it should)

I also liked that it called back to the pilot where she told the news that he was their patron and he ended up making them look bad because he was indulging in all his bad habits from before, but now it’s almost the opposite. Yeah, he drinks and does some drugs, but he shows his growth and proves Charlie’s point about sinners and it makes the angels argue among themselves.

Vaggie

The reveal that Vaggie was an ex-exorcist was something a lot of people made theories about. It was one that I wanted to be true because of what it would mean for Charlie and the dynamic of the hotel. I liked how it was revealed to Charlie.

This is another plot point that I think is rushed, but I think the execution is better than a lot of the other reveals that happened earlier in the series.

I feel like this reveal was a bit necessary for Vaggie’s character and the episode’s focus wasn’t split and I think that’s why I’m not as hard on it being rushed as I am on earlier plot points. Vaggie was the member of the hotel I thought suffered the most from the limited time/episode count.

The only focus she got was episode 3 and her arc in that episode was a bit clunky, which wasn’t helped by the fact that the other half of the episode with the overlords of hell was more interesting because it set up what looks like it will be a long term conflict and revealed a major plot point. 

The rest of the hotel residents got slower paced, less cluttered focus. Alastor has been subject to quite a few plot lines and is a slow burn mystery with a lot of potential for growth. Angel Dust is the hotel’s first patron and the character positioned to be the poster boy for redemption, so of course his development is given the spotlight. Husk has a unique dynamic with everyone (Alastor and Angel in particular) and is a foil to Angel Dust which makes him a central figure/mentor in Angel getting himself together. Etc.

I think this creates a lot of potential for her character leading into the last two episodes and gives her depth that I really want to see explored. I don’t really know what to say about the reveal beyond the fact that I’m really excited to see how this shakes Charlie and the hotel. How will this effect the other residents? Will Vaggie take a stand against the angels when they come for the hotel? Will we see her grief/conflict over her past actions now that they’ve been revealed?

There’s so many directions they can take this that I can’t wait for episode 7.

One smaller note is that I wish that the threat of Adam telling Charlie about Vaggie's secret had played more of a part in the episode and Vaggie actually had to choose between standing beside her girlfriend or stopping her. She just excuses herself to the restroom instead of making that choice and it felt like a missed opportunity.

Lucifer

Lucifer is a very interesting character in the limited screen time he’s had so far. The direction they took him is different from most of the other dads in Hazbin Hotel/Helluva Boss. The fact that he does care and was the person that was the original motivation for Charlie to open the Hazbin Hotel is a refreshing direction to take after all the bad dads this series has. 

He’s so afraid that Charlie will end up like him. That she’s putting her faith in the wrong people. That hell’s denizens aren’t capable of redemption. All these fears stem from his own crushed dreams from his fall at the hands of heaven. 

It’s a nice change of pace.

I also love how he’s just as petty as Alastor, taking any shot he can at the Radio Demon to one up him when it comes to their respective relationships to Charlie.

Extra Thoughts

Sir Pentious having a crush on Cherry Bomb, but being absolutely horrible at acting on it was really funny. Sir Pentious is such a fun character.

I love that the theory that Alastor made a deal with Lilith seems more and more plausible with every episode. It certainly would explain the fact that they were both gone for seven years and how Alastor was such a dominant force in hell from the start. I want Alastor’s backstory asap.

I like that Alastor’s overwhelming power among sinners is re-established here. He’s someone that you don’t mess with. And I like that the way that people don’t react to him as much as before is because of his 7 year absence. I did think it was strange that he’s so infamous for brutally toppling powerful overlords, but people don’t go running like you’d expect in the first few episodes.

Alastor and Husk have such a complicated dynamic. I really want to learn more about their history. Alastor has no problems tearing overlords that come across him apart, but Husk ended up with a deal to keep his power. Why is that? And while Alastor does own his soul Husk will call him out on things and can read him so much better than anyone else. Alastor lets these slide until he points out that Alastor is also on a leash like him. And Alastor had to have told Husk that he sold his soul because how else would Husk know that. All these things make for one of the most interesting and complicated dynamics of the show.

I do want to make clear that I think Alastor is a character of duality and contradiction. There's a hint that he does care about the hotel and the possibility of him growing to care for the residents, but he's still the sadistic and cruel Radio Demon. There's just a glimpse of change there now.

I really like the parallels between Emily and Charlie. I really like the idea that this seems to set up that the next generation is going to step up and take a stand against the mistakes of the previous generation. This one episode set the groundwork for a really interesting arc for Emily and her potential dynamic with Charlie.

I love Angel Dust. That's it. I just wanted to say that.

[crazyhappygirl]

I could write a whole essay about the fight scene between Pat and Pran in episode 5. And so I will because it is a cinematic masterpiece. This whole episode is just so good and the acting is so great. They really portray the right emotions and you can feel everything through the screen. For Pran the day starts with waking up next to his long time crush and bickering through breakfast. Their relationship is now frenemies even friends who show their love by bickering…and Pat is flirting with him constantly for fun, which he doesn’t really mind. He knows Pat has a crush on a girl, he is disappointed but at least he still has him in this weird frenemy status in his life. MEANWHILE Pat is going through his bi/gay panic/awakening in the span of two days,a whole existential crisis and nothing is the way it used to be for him. And that’s the main difference they portray so well. Pat goes through a very intense,very dynamic two days discovering all the emotions of love,jealousy,he is scared and unsure,a whole emotional roller coaster. He has a whole identity crisis. All that while Pran just goes on with his life like he does every single day, basically just being glad that he can bicker with Pat again. But suddenly Pat is acting all weird,he doesn’t bicker in his usual flirty, playful way. First,he doesn’t think much of it but as time goes by,he is more and more confused. He thought they were on good terms, that they had their own dynamic that he can work with. And now, Pat seems annoyed, hurt, awkward and he is arguing, not bickering. He seems mad at him and Pran has no idea why. Because for him they are still in the kitchen bickering and flirting and Pat still annoys him for smelling great. And then he gets home,Pat waits for him, tells him to “come here”. That “come here” was very personal, it was only meant for him. They are in front of Wai so he has to pretend. He acts cold and ready to fight, while he just wants to avoid conflict. Just like they always do cuz that’s their dynamic. He thinks Pat will play along just like he always does. But he doesn’t. He is not putting on the usual performance. Pat is fighting for real and Pran has no idea why. At one point Pat wants to talk to him like he does when there’s just the two of them, so he steps closer but Pran stops him before he can do anything stupid. That’s when he realises something is wrong and it won’t be their usual pretend fight. He is utterly confused as to why Pat is suddenly acting the way he does. Because the last time he checked they were on good terms and he sang a song they wrote together. He is also terrified Wai will find out about everything and also that Wai will hit Pat. So now he has to stop two of his favourite people from fighting while being hurt,disappointed, confused and mad because his crush is not acting the way he is supposed to act. All while Pat can’t seem to see from jealousy. He is burning up because he is so jealous and he is also mad at himself,at Wai,the whole world and heck,even at Pran! He is hot headed and lost control. While all he wanted to do in the beginning is giving Pran that damn condensed milk and maybe apologise for acting weird.To start where they left off the previous morning. But he is also fed up with all these emotions and having to hide what he has with Pran. Meanwhile poor Pran has to control two men pretty much filled with rage. One, his best friend and the other one is the guy he is in love with. By the end, he is mad, hurt and very disappointed while he still has no idea what just happened, what went wrong and what he did wrong that Pat changed so much. Because for him, their dynamic hasn’t really changed until the very last moment. But for Pat it already changed that last time they were at the instrument store.

[wordsandrobots]

After a run of mecha anime shows that, quite frankly, took themselves way too seriously, it is an indescribable relief to watch something that's going out of its way to be fun.

Star Driver is 80% froth and 20% soul-searingly poignant and no, you cannot pull those two things apart. It works by being at once both unrepentant exaggeration and quiet understatement, such that the most impactful moments are frequently those that occur outside the action sequences, when character motivations finally click together. Above all, it is unabashedly about performance, treating mecha fights as theatre, complete with an audience, and in doing so it successfully swallows the formulaic 'monster of the week' structure of a lot of 'super robot' media with a feral smile on its face.

Well, mostly successfully.

I'm going to start with the reasons you might not like Star Driver, because think they are important to understand going in. It *is* formulaic and uses a lot of stock footage for its episodic fights, of which there are probably a few too many. I'm curious how the movie adaptation compresses things: it certainly reanimates the battles gorgeously, but I would think you'd lose a lot of the character drama beats by focusing on the action more. Because the thing is, in terms of the story, the mecha battles are often very much structure rather than content. They are there because the conceit is that they are, and everything else revolves around them. It is therefore impactful when we finally get an episode without a fight, and when the formula eventually breaks entirely.

But I won't lie and tell you that you aren't going to find them predictable. In many ways, that's the point, yet the pay off for it only comes very late in the game. I can see people getting frustrated by this aspect pretty easily.

The other big turn-off is, as I said when I was watching it, this is a high-school sex comedy from 2010, with all that entails. To be clear, I don't mean it is ever explicitly pornographic. But it is full of busty girls, lovingly rendered, whose sex-appeal is absolutely foregrounded for the sake of a male audience. There's a lot of boobs and butts, a lot of suggestions of sex, and everyone is moderately obsessed with who is dating whom.

By and large, that's the kind of thing I just roll my eyes at, because it's essentially a genre indicator. Star Driver is the kind of show where there is going to be titillation aimed at teenage boys on tap. You either accept that and focus on measuring it by what it does within those trappings, or you bounce off. It certainly doesn't manage to break my personal bar of 'if objectification, ideally equal-opportunities objectification': main character Takuto is frequently in situations where he is stark naked and/or objectified by other characters, but he is really the only boy treated in that manner.

Irrespective of whether the sex-appeal is to your specific taste, this is an *extremely* horny series and that horniness is a general feature of the characters. The whole underlying point is that the mecha ('Cybodies') are fuelled by the pilot's libido, here equated not just to sex drive but to ambition and zest for life as well. The central premise is kind of that bit in Power Rangers were Zordon says they have to recruit teenagers for the correct emotional boost, only turned into an underlying philosophical point about the explosive potential of young people. This naturally leads to a lot of obvious jokes and the aforementioned titillation, which includes, rather notably, the control rig used by the bad guys being a bondage chair that shackles pilots (boys and girls alike) into place and snaps a collar around their neck, complete with a 'stimulating' cascade of electricity.

For the most part, this is all fairly good-natured. The jokes seldom reduce a character down to just being horny - most are given depth and history to make sense of their current actions and desires. The single example that made me go 'ick' is the school nurse lusting after male students. This treats something very unpleasant as a gag and mean-spiritedly takes aim at a certain type of (assumed female) manga/anime fan into the bargain. It also stands as broadly plot irrelevant in comparison to pretty much every other enemy of the week (to be clear, the school nurse is part of the 'evil' secret society and nominally a 'bad guy', but the concept of an adult feeling desire for teenagers under their professional care is not given much moral weight).

Again, whether you can stomach this sort of thing is something you'll have to judge for yourself. At the level of actual story-telling, my main criticism would be that its fairly brisk pace leaves little room to follow up on characters after they've played their part. Even if they hang around in the opening credits, some of them leave the narrative and several outright disappear once things build up momentum towards the finale. I think it works, more or less, regardless of this but it's another thing you have to accept, that some of the players leave the stage for good once their part is done.

[I would also be remiss not to mention the extremely racist caricature of a black kid that appears for about ten seconds in one episode, which is part of a depiction of a child's picture-book, so might in fact be a reproduction of a pre-existing extremely racist caricature? Either way, it's in there and shouldn't be.]

To move on to the good stuff, theatricality is the watch-word. Partly I mean that to describe the style, which I feel is best conveyed by some appropriate gifs. Here is Takuto 'Galactic Pretty Boy' Tsunashi's power-up sequence:

Yeah. When I call Star Driver 'camp', that's a very deliberate choice of words. It embraces excess and being as over the top as possible.

But it's also a story concerned with theatrics. The heroes are the school drama club and their enemies, a secret society formed largely from their classmates who dress up in masks and costumes to go plot in the abandoned mine next door. The club's yearly production is a recurring plot point. Nobody is exactly what they appear; everyone has a part they play in public vs what they are underneath. The overall story boils down to two characters doing long-cons on everybody around them. It is extremely important that so much of the action, while meaningful on one level, is also an exercise in play-acting - a game that does not matter as much as how the participants treat one another off the stage.

Nowhere does this come together better than in the concept of the Cybodies. In the real world, these appear as giant 'puppets' hidden under the island where the story takes place, at the bottom of that abandoned mine. These puppets are plain and static, incapable of actually manifesting as working mecha. This is because they have been magically sealed such that they can only operate in an alternate dimension known as 'Zero Time', accessible by people who have been 'marked' with symbols of power. These marks (glowing letters embedded in the chest) allow one to enter Zero Time where, as the name implies, time is stopped, and to operate a Cybody, which will reconfigure into a functional mecha. This is where the fights take place, in the space between ticks of the clock, isolated from normal reality. Moreover, at least to begin with, only Takuto operates his mecha, Tauburn, from the inside. His enemies use a 'cyber casket' (the bondage chair) to remote control their Cybodies, meaning he can slice them to bits without fear of harming a soul. When destroyed in Zero Time, a Cybody's puppet form darkens from white to grey, put beyond use, and the corresponding mark becomes inactive, removing the owner from the game.

So at first, there are no physical stakes to the combat. Takuto, the only person at risk of being killed, is a league above any of the people trying to take him down. There's no sense of him personally being in any danger.

Now here's the clever part: the secret society, Glittering Star, has the ultimate aim of releasing the seals that keep the Cybodies trapped in Zero Time. Their goal is to bring them into reality and use their power to conquer the world - financially if not literally, since the technology of these machines would net them a fortune even if they refrained from going wild with a bunch of giant, unstoppable robots. The seal is maintained by four 'maidens', a particular kind of Cybody. By destroying each of these in turn and thus neutralising their pilots' marks, Glittering Star bring all the rest closer to the point where they can emerge.

Thus, while each individual fight might have low stakes and a predictable outcome, they're all in the name of working up to breaking the seals and releasing these things into a place where they can do actual harm. It's a fascinating gimmick that works to make diegetic the kind of reset button seen in many a similarly formulaic show while ensuring there is a real, genuine threat looming ever closer over events. A lot of what Glittering Star are doing, as they fail over and over to beat Takuto's defence of the maidens, is mapping the extent of the Cybodies' powers. They are also, whether they realise it or not, is putting on a show to distract everyone from the actual villain's actual plan. Hence why it is important for this to be framed by theatre. I was hit early on by the nagging sense that what I was watching wasn't the actual point, and was delighted by how accurate this assessment turned out to be.

Also, not to put too fine a point on it, the mecha designs in Star Driver are *beautiful*. The Cybodies are wonderful, impossibly exaggerated devices that defy physics in order to look spectacular. They're utterly gorgeous.

Anyway, this show's entire premise is shouting 'polyamory!' with its whole chest.

Belated cut for spoilers on the actual plot.

So the three main characters are Takuto, the lively, somewhat dim, completely good-natured protagonist who swims to the island (the ferry would have taken too long) in order to find and punch the deadbeat dad who abandoned his mum years previously; Wako, one of the maiden pilots maintaining the seal on the Cybodies; and Sugata, heir apparent to the mark controlling the most powerful Cybody, King Samekh.

They meet when Sugata and Wako find Takuto half-drowned on the shore and he rapidly becomes a fixture in their lives, upending an existing, rather stifling environment. You see, as the South Maiden (each corresponds to a compass point), Wako cannot ever leave the island. We find out later exactly how this works, as another girl, previously ignorant of what it meant to be the West Maiden, attempts to board a departing boat only to be time-looped back to the start of the day over and over again. This is depicted as a deeply traumatising experience and while we never see this happen to Wako, we are told it did and that left her with a lot of oppressive feelings about being trapped.

Sugata is similarly compelled to remain: his attendants (two pretty girls his age who (in)explicably dress as maids wearing fake animal ears) are on standing orders to kill him if he tries to leave, since Samekh is so ungodly powerful, nobody is willing to risk its pilot loose in the wild. On top of this, if he attempts to use the peripheral powers granted by his mark, it comes with the nigh-on certainty that he will shortly thereafter fall into a perpetual coma (the show plays with this, having it happen, having him revive, and only later revealing the mechanism by which he is able to subsequently use his power without apparent consequence).

He and Wako share a great deal of sympathy for one another's plight, as well as contending with the additional fact that tradition expects them to marry, since sons from Sugata's family have always taken one of the maiden pilots as their bride. Their bond is very close and very deep and, to outside observers, disrupted by Takuto as another potential love-interest for Wako.

Except, right from the start, it is made clear this isn't necessarily how Sugata and Wako see things. For one thing, Wako is quickly having fantasies about Sugata and Takuto making out together, which receive enthusiastic thumbs up from other characters who can - for reasons never entirely explained - see what she's thinking. For another, more plot-relevant thing, Sugata starts prompting Takuto about his feelings towards Wako, very strongly hinting that he is all for them pairing off irrespective of the assumed engagement. Plus, as things develop and Takuto seemingly becomes the only thing standing between Wako and Glittering Star's machinations, Sugata takes it upon himself to train Takuto for the task.

All three are more than they appear. Takuto's naive and affable persona distracts from his having come to this place with full knowledge of the Cybodies and the intention of disrupting Glittering Star's plans. Wako is positioned as the damsel in distress, the prize being sought by the bad guys who needs her knights to defend her, but when the chips are down, she displays reserves of strength in keeping with the importance of her role, going so far as to threaten to slit Takuto's throat when he is possessed by one of their enemies. And Sugata's relationship with both Samekh and Glittering Star turns out to be a lot deeper and more complicated than the enmity originally presented.

But what is not in doubt is that the feelings shared between them are much more in accord than competition. Their being referred to as a trio proves to be an entirely accurate assessment: the show makes it clear that the endgame is the three of them staying together and the drama stems from how they navigate their feelings in order to reach that conclusion.

The two main obstacles are Glittering Star and Sugata's own plans. The secret society turns out to be controlled by the remnants of a previous trio who failed to effectively communicate or commit to their shared desires and were consequently pulled apart by jealousy. This sets up the villain's overall gambit, which I shan't spoil because it's too good a pay-off to the repeated emphasis placed on enjoying the transient intensity of being a teenager.

Meanwhile Sugata is playing the long-game in order to solve the situation through self-sacrifice. He figures that if he can seal himself away alongside Samekh (thus taking his mark with them and meaning Samekh can never be summoned again), it will stop a potential apocalypse and free Wako, with Takuto positioned as Sugata's replacement in their relationship. Which he nearly manages, but fortunately the other two are having none of it.

The very last battle of the series is Takuto tearing Samekh to pieces so the three of them can stay together. I don't mind telling you that he succeeds because there's really never any doubt he will. It's a triumphant moment of shared love conquering all via the power of bisexuality.

Or, well, that's how I'd read it. The show doesn't quite commit to there being attraction between Takuto and Sugata as well as their reciprocal attraction to Wako. It does gives us bisexual characters, as well as gay and lesbian ones, but actual boy-on-boy kissing is reserved for Wako's fantasies. Given where this show seems to be pitched, that's not a surprise. Still, the poly relationship isn't in question and the tension is thick enough to cut with the knife Sugata habitually carries for Wako's protection, so I don't have much doubt what the creators' intentions were.

Indeed much of what Star Driver does well is rooted in an expectation that you are following what it is showing you on top of what it states outright. In some places, this didn't quite work for me - it's never made clear how certain aspects of the main villain's appearance came about, symbolically appropriate as they are. However, overall, I think it's obliqueness is a strength. We are provided the exact shape of the Cybodies' backstory, for example, but it is left to our imagination as to what precise details to fill in. Those are not as important as understanding the kind of history that could repeat if things go wrong. And the finale hinges on the realisation that far from this being a clash between an evil force and a noble hero, almost everyone involved is a teenager with fairly comprehensible desires that only come out as villainous because of the magnified scale. Thus what would be a weakness in another plot - the paper-thin facade between Glittering Star's machinations and everyday school life - becomes pivotal to the resolution.

Ultimately, I know this isn't a show I can recommend to everyone. As explained above, a lot of criticisms can rightly be levelled at the way it is presented and its very gendered content. It's definitely not an especially deep work. I doubt very much it would ever be considered life-changing fiction. But it is undoubtedly well-executed and delightfully clever when it didn't necessarily need to be, which I always appreciate. The animation is superb, the music, great, and it's *fun*. Really, really fun! Daft and mad and knowingly OTT, while never losing track of why things matter to the characters at the centre of events.

It's a story about love and enjoying life, about why playing dress-up is no substitute for human connection, and about how you can absolutely chose both the other points in the love triangle, if you aren't a coward.

[justfandomwritings]

An essay on why I won’t be watching next season.

1. Obviously actors have to promote their shows and hype them up. But the interactions between Nicola and Luke during the press tour were, in retrospect, clearly also acting performances, and it is rare to see acting within the press tour to the degree that those two put on while grossly exaggerating things like how sexy this season would be or how much Polin we would get. I don’t blame them. It’s clearly what they were told to do. And it’s fine to hype a show, but I think a lot of people felt genuinely lied to with the WAY this season was hyped.

2. The casting has been color conscious and inclusive in a way I greatly admire. But they have not been inclusive in other ways. And that’s not to say they should have to be. One show shouldn’t bear the responsibility of being inclusive to everyone and making up for an industries worth of exclusion. But we have exactly one size inclusive character in this whole show, and I’m not even demanding more, but to butcher the season of the only size inclusive person in this show this badly and in these ways sends me a clear message of what the writers thought they could get away with with a curvy actress and how they saw her.

3. The wait times for this season and next season are just too long. The hype dies down too much between seasons such that we care less and less each time we get a new one, especially when you only give eight episodes, regardless of their length. You know who also gave us a season in 2022 and then an eight episode season this year? house of the dragon. And they have to CGI a fuck ton of dragons. Yall were sitting on this season being done filming for over a year and for what? What did you do in post? A bee? And then to have the audacity to do it in two parts? Fuck off.

4. Add to that. The costumes and new sets looked so much cheaper this season than previous seasons. Where did the budget go.

5. The plot is too crowded. Maybe you thought a curvy girl couldn’t carry a season. Maybe it was bad writing. Obviously you needed Cressida and Eloise to have decent amounts of screen time but you also did half of Francesca’s story and set one up for Violet and Benedict that collectively took the majority of the screen time and left us with very little Pen and Colin. Which was a disservice you never gave Anthony or Daphne’s seasons and was why they were good. We got enough crumbs of the others to tell us what was happening but not enough to make them feel like main characters or to make it feel like an ensemble show. There were leads in season 1 and 2. This season it was an ensemble with too many moving parts. But everyone’s said that. It’s not surprising.

6. My biggest problem is the tone. The blame. Admittedly I’m a woman who relates strongly to Penelope so I’m not impartial here. But for a character who spends her entire life being abused by every single person in this show, who is pushed to her absolute breaking point before finally giving her mother and the tonne a taste of their own medicine. For that character to receive no grace, no understanding, no respect, for the vast majority of the season hurt. To not only have zero understanding of her situation but to frame the entire plot of the show around the fact that SHE alone should be sorry. To have minimal to no groveling from Colin over what he said last season, to have no acknowledgment of how he treated her as a safety net, to humanize Cressida who made her life hell with minimal acknowledgment of that fact, to have Eloise get ONE comment from Cressida of all people about her friendship with Penelope but no real reflection from Eloise or acknowledgment on her part or apologies for what a truly SHIT friend she was for DECADES. That hurt. Because the message is that sure, they can push you to your fucking limit, you can break after years of being bullied for your weight and your looks and your status. Your own mother and sisters hands can be filthy with insults and abuse. Your friends can treat you like utter garbage for years. They can befriend your bullies. Your soon to be husband can, very recently, insult you to his friends behind your back. But you owe them the apology for breaking after years of abuse. It’s not that the tonne couldn’t be angry or that they all should’ve fallen at Pen’s feet. It’s that those arguments never happen at all because once again, just like when she was being used and abused by everyone, everything was put on Penelope. And the cycle continues.

7. Colin should’ve groveled more. I know I said that in the previous point but it really ruined things for me so I want to emphasize it. I wanted that man on his knees the whole season, and I should’ve known I wasn’t gonna get that when y’all dropped the list of songs and there wasn’t any of the A List Yearners on the list. But I’m still mad.

8. Actually that’s a good point. Did anyone else think the songs didn’t go as hard this year? Except Pitbull were we excited about any of them?

9. You did the Pride and Prejudice ballroom trick with the dancing alone thing and you didn’t nail it. If you’re gonna do that trick it has to fucking HIT. (And it has to be enemies to lovers.) And you did it half assed. You should be ashamed.

10. There was a two second window there when Cressida asked the maid for help where I thought they were gonna swap lives and the maid would go with her aunt and Cressida would become a maid and I was like “holy fuck is Cressida gonna become Bennys love interest?” and that would’ve been better than what y’all did I think. And it would’ve justified her excessive screen time.

11. I love gender swapping Michaela and making Francesca bi. We love it. But why was Francesca immediately interested. Once again the writers don’t understand pining. Michaela is PINING for Francesca and can do nothing but love her from afar. Francesca loved John completely and whole heartedly. Michaela was a beautiful love story for her but was also a second chance. She loved John completely. She would never have an emotional affair on him. How did you immediately ruin such a beautiful second chance romance?

12. Where was Pen’s friendship with Anthony or Lady Danbury? Why wasn’t Colin proud of Pen the way he was in the book? To make her even more alone? To emphasize that she was alone and at fault and helpless? Fuck off.

I just don’t have it in me to watch this show deteriorate further.

[descendant-of-truth]

A film major would probably be more qualified to talk about this, but I can't help but feel like the whole "live action remake of something that was originally animated" trend is, weirdly enough, kinda disrespectful to the live action medium as well?

Or, well, I don't know if "disrespect" is the right term exactly - the trend only took off because of live action being viewed as the more respectable of the two options. But by viewing live action as the default film medium, it ends up feeling like no one's considering what actually makes it good, or unique, or suitable to a story.

It's not a one-size-fits-all medium, you can't expect to put something like AtLA into live action and make it work just because it used real life martial arts for its inspiration with bending forms. A key part of what made it most suitable to being animated is the way the elements react as extensions of the characters, and that's a lot easier to pull off when you're drawing both the person and the element at the same time.

It's a fantastical magic system, one that's best brought out with snappy, exaggerated movements, not dissimilar to a Smash Bros attack. The main character can use the air around him to lift himself off the ground as if it's the air itself that's choosing to act upon him; that's just going to look smoother in animation.

(The style of comedy they wanted to do is also animation-based of course, but I wanted to talk about the bending more)

That's not to say that you can't do telekinetic stuff in live action and have it look good, it's just... it was conceptualized in animation first. If you're going to change the medium it's in, putting it in a different, more limiting visual medium is not the way to go. Put it in a comic or a book or something.

And you know what? For the most part, I have this opinion about changing something that was live action into something animated, too.

I can't speak on its quality of writing because I haven't watched it, so maybe this is unfairly biased, but Star Trek: the Lower Decks immediately threw me off when I discovered it was a cartoon. And I love cartoons! With all my heart! But that's not what Star Trek was made to be.

Everything about how Star Trek is designed relies on it being live action. The aliens are often so human-like because they need to be played by human actors; putting them in weirdly-shaped suits just to look "more alien" is not conducive to a good acting performance, nor is it practical for a long series. Heck, the fact that they were able to regularly put such elaborate and extensive makeup on the alien cast like Worf and Quark for each episode is an impressive feat unto itself, an art form completely separate from animation that deserves to be appreciated in its own right.

Same goes for the set design, the costume design, etc. Just because you could argue that it could be "done better in animation" doesn't negate how good and worthwhile the craft they went with was.

But by putting Star Trek into an animated context, a lot of its visual design elements that were cool in live action become kind of just... weird. And it feels like it's not using the medium to its advantage, all of a sudden.

You're telling me there's an animated show with a bunch of aliens in the main cast and they kinda just look like normal people?? "Where's the creativity," you would ask the animation team, "where's the biological diversity?" It feels like a waste to put it into a cartoon if you're not going to take advantage of it being a cartoon.

At the same time, though, if you do take advantage of it being a cartoon, you're gonna lose what made it feel like Star Trek to begin with. Do you see how this issue is starting to go both ways?

I mean, just think of all the resources we're putting into these projects that are imitating animated stories, instead of working on something that's made from the ground up to work in live action. The result is that these movies are just not good for anyone, not the fans of the original and not the people being handed a watered-down version of the story.

All this is doing is creating further resentment between live action fans and animation fans. People who already didn't give cartoons much consideration are being given "justification" to do so, because if they can get that same story in their preferred format, why bother with the cartoon? And people who prefer cartoons are now being given "justification" to think that live action is Stupid and Bad because it's being used as a weapon against them instead of the fellow art form it rightfully should be.

But refusing to watch live action stuff is just as closed-minded as refusing to watch animated stuff. The divide this whole "trend" is creating is ridiculous, neither of these mediums are better or more worthwhile than the other. They just have different strengths, weaknesses, and required skillsets.

Honestly, I feel bad for the people who are really into live action stuff, because they are NOT getting what they deserve out of this, either. They're just getting echoes of stories haphazardly trying to be something they're not, made out of disrespect, instead of something that knows exactly what it is, made out of genuine passion for the art. Both "sides" deserve better than this.

(Also if any film majors see this and feel like I've missed something crucial, feel free to add on to it)