#could've had another two episodes for that finale though

[respectthepetty]

And to think that all the events in Dead Friend Forever's current timeline happened in less than 36 hours.

They got dropped off in the afternoon

Partied

Tried to reshoot the film that night

Went their separate ways to play around

Por was stabbed

Stayed awake trying to figure out what was happening

Top was attacked in the morning in the bathroom

They fought about the tape

Uncle Dang came around noon

Tee and Top ran off but came back

Top and Tan took the bike

Tan came back without Top

Tee, Tan, Phee, and Jin went to look for Top while Fluke and White stayed at the house

The boys were attacked and separated

Phee and Jin were stuck in the building

Fluke took the gun from White

Top made his way back to the house and finished Por

Tee and Tan finally made it back to the house

Fluke cancelled the uber before its 10-ish pm arrival time

Jin and Phee showed back up at the house

Everyone died

They held those secrets for three years, but were destroyed by them in less than two days.

[cityzenshark]

Earthspark AU

I've been planning to write an AU canon rewrite titled "Firsts to Grow Up" but there hadn't been time, so I want to share some of the story points here.

Story points are not in order.

Robby and Mo are 14 year old twins to reflect Twitch and Thrash.

Dorothy is hesitant on taking the Terrans in.

Alex juggles supporting Dot, protecting his kids, and indulging his own interest in understanding the Terrans scientifically.

Exploring the Terrans' nature, and them learning nearly everything.

GHOST is a visibly international ops unit (to me, they feel like wannabe supernova locals rather than what they're described to be).

S1 finale is "Home", meanwhile the Bot Brawl is a seperate episode.

The triplets are more intelligent than the twins due to Alex's presence when they were born.

Exploring Witwicky town and its local legends that connects to Terratronus.

The Terrans' teachers only consists of: the parents (soft skills & history), Bee (self defence), Elita (alt mode), Megatron (responsibilty), and Wheeljack (biology). No Dad-2.

Megatron and Elita make presence whereas Optimus is often on GHOST mainbase that is elsewhere.

The story and cast will make as though Meridian and Mandroid are two different persons up until the revealation in "Home".

Mandroid and Tarantulas both observe the Terrans in secret. Tarantulas stopped after his near mistake with Nightshade, prompting suspiscion when he admits to the family that it wasn't him who leaves behind energon snacks for them.

In "Mooo-ving In", Bee is being a bad guest; not the kids and family being terrible hosts. [if I were Bee in that episode, I'd leave]

Dot gets a new friend who also fell victim to GHOST's tricks for a park ranger job. He is a veteran medic who's experienced in energon-related ailments on humans. He makes appearences to check on the cybersleeves.

Mo's cybersleeve grants healing because she's emotionally closer to the Terrans than Robby, who prefers his own space and hanging out with his friends online.

Robby's sickness is gradual from the start of the story due to wound infection he got from the fall that lead him and Mo to the Emberstone cave, The cybersleeve covered the hurt arm but did not heal him, instead it's poisoning him bit by bit.

Robby, being an internet addicted teenager, thinks Dot's fear of Cybertronians is unfounded because she's buddies with Megs and had someone like Alex for husband.

After moving to Witwicky, Robby and Dot's relationship are strained due to Robby's hardheadedness and Dorothy's sour mood upon discovering her dream job being a lie.

The Maltos keep the Autobot friendly fire a secret from the Terrans so they won't regard their teachers the wrong way.

Mo is happier in Witwicky because she loves nature and has real friends at school. Robby meanwhile prefers the city life and his old school, hence his bitterness towards his new environment.

The parents dislike talking about the "Autobot friendly fire" because Alex could've been one of the victims if he hadn't visited Dot in the hospital.

Alex teaches the Terrans self defence with Filipino martial arts since they don't have offensive weapons except Twitch.

To be continued in another post...

[triviallytrue]

so yeah i finished NGE

What a show! Can honestly say that I liked it more than I was expecting to. Usually it takes me a couple months to fully decide how I feel about something though.

Let's start with the ending. I had to google some things to tie up loose ends, but once I did I was pretty impressed by how well everything tied together. There were a lot of hidden details that I had missed during the first watch, and the supplementary material cleared a lot of things up for me.

I don't really see how the show's ending and the movie can be reconciled with one another, but it seems like a lot of people regard them as two separate possible endings.

I think the show's ending was unacceptable as a stand-alone, but after watching the movie I appreciate it as a more upbeat end to Shinji's journey. The movie is a lot more complete, but it's also a huge bummer - everyone loses! Instrumentality fails so Seele loses, Gendoh dies and doesn't reunite with his wife, so he loses, the angels all get defeated, and the Third Impact does happen and devastates the planet, so humanity loses. Maybe if Shinji knew how badly the world had been devastated he would've decided instrumentality was the lesser evil.

Or maybe that's too realism-brained and I'm supposed to be thinking about it more metaphorically. Meh.

In retrospect, I find myself unimpressed with Gendoh. He seems to have managed to fail upward by harnessing/exploiting more talented people than himself, all to fail at achieving a selfish and uninspiring final end.

Misato... well. I think I misjudged her initially due to a mixture of internet rep and those early jokes about Shinji being her boyfriend - I don't really think she had any grooming intentions toward Shinji. I think she found herself in the rare "what if a white person had to say the n word to defuse an atomic bomb" scenario. She was dying, she was out of options and faced with the extinction of humanity, and she took what she thought was her best shot. It wasn't pretty, but neither was the Third Impact, and if Shinji had gotten out there before Asuka was beaten, maybe it could've been avoided.

Various parts of the show felt rushed to me. Ritsuko's relationship with Gendoh (how does this man pull this hard? inexplicable), Suzuharu not dying but then essentially being treated as dead the rest of the show, various aspects of Rei's arc, Kaworu only being there for a little over an episode - there's so much to this show, and I think it would've been better if they had more episodes to tease some of the knots out.

I'll talk about Rei, Asuka, and their respective relationships with Shinji on a different post.

[fruitwaterz]

JFabe/AbeFK: The Ultimate Queerbaiting (short essay n rant)

(Clone High Season 3 spoilers,,, beware!!!)

Hey everyone it's fruit/juno/nova aka MTVyaoi BACK with another banger essay

So if you guys didn't know already (but I'm pretty sure everyone in the Clone High community does), season three of Clone High, also known as season 2 of the Clone High reboot just premiered yesterday. Thanks to a mutual handing me over their Max account, I was able to watch the episodes in one day, and it's safe to say that it was WAY more better than season 2, despite its ups and downs.

Of course, the reboot boosted some ships into popularity, such as JoanFK (rip), Kahlopatra (rip), Tophabe, but one ship that never really came around to being popular was Jfabe, the relationship between JFK and Abe in the Clone High series.

In the very last episode of season 2, many speculated that JFK and Abe would somehow possibly get together in season 3 (while others just,,, thought they would remain friends). I made an analysis about JFK himself, and in the end, I included a bit of some Jfabe speculation. And during the time the reboot had ended, Jfabe shippers and Tophabe shippers were technically at war. But in the very end, no one was really happy, I would say.

With the new season out, and especially episode 3…yeah, there are some things that need to be discussed. Because let me tell you, I am actually. so mad

Many of the Jfabe shippers collected context clues, hints, and everything that could've hinted at the two becoming canon, only for those to be contradicted really quickly when it came to the Mary episode and the finale. Hell, when the trailer came out, most of us feared the idea of Abe not getting with JFK (actually, this would be most Abe shippers worst nightmare) and getting with someone who we never even knew.

Before I actually do get into the Mary episode, however, I wanted to bring up my favorite episode out of the series, and that is Bible Humpers: A Much Needed Praycation.

Season 3 Episode 3:

Bible Humpers introduces a subplot in which JFK gets tired of partying and having a concerning amount of sex with girls, reminders that…this is during his 17th birthday (from what I could remember), and that's sort of why he was feeling like that. From there on, he decides to become catholic and join The Prayer Pals club, hosted by Lady Godiva, a new character. However, Abe is upset about this because he believed that JFK would change so much that he would eventually forget about Abe. Abe was planning a 6th month Boy-nniversary for the two, and due to JFK being too busy with his newfound hobby, Abe steps in to stop things.

Now, this episode is agreeably, one out of the three Jfabe episodes to exist, the others being Clone Alone and Litter Kills: Literally (The reason why I count Clone Alone as a Jfabe episode, is mainly because of the scene where JFK and Abe become friends…a duo of bros that'll remain friends for the rest of their lives, more on that later, though).

Something about the episode was suspiciously fruity, with Abe being worried about JFK, giving him a new wristband to match his, pulling him really close, offering to let him take his virginity, and even went out of his way to bake a giant cake for him. Hell, at the very end of the episode, he leaves a box with the purity ring in it on JFK's doorstep, and we could even see JFK's soft smile when he read his note.

(Also pspspsp we could see two doves in the sky all while Abe is walking to JFK's house. Two doves represent love.)

(thanks to my mutual)

Next, the Mary episode. In the middle of the episode, JFK offers to have sex with Abe, even taking his shirt off and still asking Abe if he wants to go through with it. Stuff like this was mentioned in the beginning of episode 1. Not gonna go into the sex too much, because they're just teenagers.

It seems that the dynamic between these two are quite literally back and forth, they could be friends, and they could go back to arguing. Abe wants to make JFK happy, JFK cares for Abe, but either gets too riled up or feels like Abe’s ruining things for him.

So with all of this build up and hints, Jfabe was surely gonna become canon one way or another, right?

Well…I wouldn't exactly say that. Because during the finale, Abe suddenly catches feelings for Joan again, and JFK randomly ends up with Harriet, despite the fact that they both established that they didn't feel much for each other! And this was back in season 2 episode 6, where they both kiss again in a classroom, but come to the realization that they actually don't like each other at all. I like the idea of JFK x Harriet, but it just happened way too fast, and I really wish I could ignore that.

Which brings me to my argument: we were queerbaited.

(And if random jfabe dislikers come and tell me that it was bound to happen, I'm gonna lose my mind.)

We are sitting here, begging for some sort of MLM relationship. We've already had Kahlopatra, which is a same-sex female relationship (Good day for sapphics, I love that ship to bits and was disappointed in the fact that they broke up). So it wouldn't have hurt to at least have two of the main male characters date each other. But oh, yeah, let's have them being suspiciously fruity to each other as humor and nothing but humor, because in the end, it was basically just watered down to that.

It even makes me confused in a way, because what was the point of “Duo of bros who'll remain friends for the rest of our lives?” What was the reason? Did they hint at something, only to throw this away at the very last minute? Seriously, we could see background male characters get into relationships, yet not have two of the main characters get together. It's odd, yet not surprising.

Clone High has this tendency of making up random relationships, Harriet x Toussaint, Joan x Confucius (which I like however, don't come for me), Mary x Abe, just fuck all. And now, it's JFK x Harriet. Yet, it seems as if it would hurt them to make a hinted at relationship…canon. It confuses me. Are they gonna make them date in season 4? Are we even gonna get a season 4? Because the show has to get renewed in order for that to happen.

I am not mad at the writers for not making them canon because of the ship dynamic itself, I'm angry because there were so many hints, so much build up only for them to go nowhere with this. Because personally, I think it would've made the show a bit more interesting. To have two of the main male characters date. That's all I asked for, and we got nothing out of it.

You could say I'm seething over a cartoon, but I don't care!!! Cartoon or not, the ship is really important to me and most Jfabe shippers, so seeing their relationship go nowhere and the two randomly getting into M/F relationships sort of hurts. And I'm saying that as someone who isn't even a veteran Jfabe shipper, I shipped them days after season 2 ended. Both the original JFK and Abraham Lincoln (theoretically) were bisexual, so it just makes me even more puzzled.

I'm not exactly making this essay to cancel Clone High just for a silly ship, this is really just a healthy way to take out my sadness and disappointment. A vent essay, if you will. And it really is just what happened, so many interactions that could be taken as romantic, only for them not to get with each other.

Honestly, if the show writers didn't intend to queerbait us, I can only ask…“How?”

Anyway that's the end of my short essay about me screaming and crying about a ship between two white boys, subscribe and hit that notification button for more screaming and crying about a ship between two white boys. fruit signing out

[earthpleasures]

BUTTERFLY'S QUARREL WITH THE GALAXY !

Prologue | butterfly's quarrel with the galaxy

Summary: After being saved by Cedric, you two made a list of hope for you.

Warnings: swearing, suicide attempt, mention of scars.

Word Count: 1.7k

dividers by @benkeibear

Y/n once read in a holy book, though she didn't remember which one was, it said: “On the Day of Judgment, the stars will fall upon the earth.”

In her dreams, stars fell upon her, coating her in light and dusts of hope. Maybe that was why they were called mere delusions, real life was much more cruel than dreams.

Y/n've been witness of many things, endured endless torture of her so-called family to the point there were nothing but Annie left inside her brain.

Do it for your sister.

How can you be so selfish?

What about Annie's reputation?

Everything lead her to this moment, a final decision on attaining peace.

She looked down at the foothills of Hogwarts from astronomy tower, sharp rocks stared back at her. There would be no return from this fall, one slip and every agony of this unfair fate is gone. Cold air was crushing her lungs as she took deep breaths to give herself at least a sliver of courage.

No one would care even if she was gone, only upsetting thing would be absence of a slave for her sister. The role crafted for her was tiring enough not to consider any possibility of leaving someone behind.

Her hands trembled when they reached for the railings. Metal was icy as it was biting her skin. Nibbling at her lower lip, she set one of her feet on the other side of railings. Harsh wind blew her hair to her face, blocking her view partially.

Initially, she reconsidered her decision. Maybe life would give her another chance to get her mind and youth back. However her sister's words and parents’ abuse played non-stop like a record in her brain. They had no intention of setting her free.

“Hey, what are you doing?”

A soft voice interrupted her inner debate on jumping down or stepping back to safe borders of tower. Cedric Diggory's worry filled green eyes scanned where she stood. He cautiously took a step forward to prevent her from panicking.

“What does it look like, genius?” Y/n spat while her grip on railings unconsciously tightened. A part of her didn't wanna die. A part of her wanted to walk on a way flooded with happiness.

“Does it really worth, Y/n?” He was almost halfway through the distance between them. She didn't even realize him getting closer as her eyes focused on his handsome face. It was strange, golden boy of Hogwarts knowing who she was, a meek girl like her.

“Oh you have no idea how much it will worth.” She laughed in pain, something about taking a second shoot on her conclusions was quite scary and unsettling. Thinking more meant to calculating more, which would lead her to eventually regret even coming here.

“C'mon, we can talk about it. I can listen to you and your troubles.” He slowly raised his hand to hold her arm. His action triggered her ready-to-activate panic. She recoiled, her hand accidentally letting go of what she was holding onto. Horror flashed through her face. She was really going to die.

Cedric's breath choked up in his throat as he launched forward. His fingers wrapped around her wrist before she fell backwards. He pulled her as hard as he can to himself. Their bodies collided, meeting with hard floor of tower while tangled to each other.

Her chest heaved with reality of what was about to happen if Cedric wasn't fast enough. She could've been there, body thorn to pieces. At that moment it didn't matter how foreign she was to him. She buried her face to his chest as tears wet his sweater. Cedric sighed with relief after closing his eyes.

His fingers gently fidgled on her hair, waiting for girl to calm down. She was literally having a histeric episode by the way her shoulders shook and hiccups teared her throat. He first propped on his elbows to fix their position, then he completely straightened his back.

Y/n sobbed, she didn't care what Cedric thought about her crying in his arms or her clinging to a boy she barely knew by his name.

“It's okay, I am here. Just let everything bothers you out.”

That was what she needed. Just a few words of sympathy instead of being dead. Her vision was blurred with tears as she looked up to him. “I am sorry for burdening you with myself.” He smiled softly.

“Don't be sorry, be happy because you still can say these words.”

About ten minutes passed for her to completely calm down, and her mind to function without mislead of horrible thoughts. Now both of their backs were pressed against the wall beside the door. For the first time in her life, she actually looked at the stars and admired their beauty.

“Family problems?” Cedric's curious voice cut the silence engulfed roof they were sitting on. She pulled her knees against her chest and wrapped her arms around them. The obvious scars left by a sharp object immediately drew his attention to themselves. However, he managed to hold his tongue back and didn't blurt an inappropriate question.

“Is it that evident?” Her voice cracked mid-sentence while she wiped the tears off her cheeks.

“I mean, you don't seem to be type of girl that would throw herself from astronomy tower over a boy or stupid friends. It can't be because of your grades, because if I remember correctly, and I always do, you have quite good grades.”

She arched her eyebrow as he finished his last sentence. “You seem to observe me a little too much for a person who never knew me personally.” He averted his gaze back to navy blue sky.

“Well, I must admit you striked my curiosity even before this… situation.” Y/n let out a half hearted laugh. “How so?”

“Once I sat next to you in one of our classes together. I saw your drawings, and the butterfly shaped birthmark inside your wrist. I really wanted to ask about the drawings, especially the butterfly and girl ones but you seemed to be very tense. Like, one word and you were going to punch me.”

This wasn't the answer she was expecting. Any memory of Cedric Diggory sitting with her didn't even exist in her mind. Mayne her expression was the thing gave away her shock because he narrowed his eyes what seemed to be offense.

“You don't even remember, do you?” She shrugged since she had no answer that would make him happy.

His eyes stayed still on her face for a few seconds, taking deeper into her reckless expression. “How we make a deal?” Y/n stopped peeling concers of her nails and looked back at him. “What deal?” He smirked.

“Let's make a list of ten things to make you happy.”

She grimaced with idea. Her happiness lied with getting away from that nightmare like house. However it was impossible, atleast for now.

“You have to take me out of that hell of family, which is not something you're not capable of.” She murmured last part to herself. At this point, every offer seemed pointless to her.

He sat straight and gathered his legs under himself. “Don't be such a pessimistic. I am sure you have things you wanna do. For example, do you like books? Let's find the thickest book in library.”

She couldn't help but smile. “You're annoyingly optimistic. I think… it's likeable.” He clapped his hands with joy. “Then we do the list.”

“Yeah, whatever.”

He pulled a notebook and pencil from his pocket, it was small enough to find inside his palm. She narrowed her eyes to see patterns on the cover better. “Did you really bring a notebook here?” He answered while flipping the pages. “I always have a little notebook with me. Sometimes I write my random ideas or thoughts.”

She rolled her eyes. “Sounds like a hassle.” He stuck his tongue out to her to make fun of her, causing her to laugh without even noticing. “Maybe we need to get idea of being optimistic to your head first. Anyways. Start with hobbies.”

She tried to filter her hobbies from tons of things she liked to do. “I like… going out to walk in school's garden, exploring Hogwarts, stars, books, practice to smile.” He stopped writing. “Pratice to smile? Interesting hobby, butterfly.”

“Butterfly?”

“Yeah, like the birthmark on your skin. You're a caterpillar now.”

“That's rude.”

“Don't interrupt me, Y/n.”

“Sorry.”

“You're a caterpillar right now, but I will help you to tear your pod out and fly free.”

She snorted. “Are you reading too many philosophy books?” He poked her cheek with back of the pencil. “Try to think metaphorical, it really helps to be creative.”

“Okay, anyways, golden boy. I like lying down in common room of Gryffindor, and lastly, watching people and trying to guess their moods.”

He finished writing, satisfied with the result. Turning the notebook to her, he made sure her to see yellowish paper properly.

“I've made a list regarding your hobbies.”

She snitched the notebook from his hand and began to read his notes and takes on her. His thoughts about her made her smile time to time.

“So, that's the list. When are we starting?” Cedric scratched his chin. “Tomorrow. Do we really wait more than a night?”

Her thumb brushed against little poorly drawn doodles on corner of paper. “No, we don't. I hope we can complete the list.”

“See? That's an optimistic view.”

“Sure it is, though I can't battle with you.”

Cedric pressed his lips together as one more idea crossed his mind. “We should name it.” Y/n raised her eyebrow. “Is it necessary tho?” He furrowed as revised their options. “Of course it it! And I have the perfect name. Butterfly quarrel with the galaxy.”

She almost let out a histeric laugh. “What?” Cedric held her hand tightly as if he was preventing from escaping. “And butterfly is gonna win the quarrel.”

“You're really strange, Diggory. Even more than me.”

“Are you complementing me?”

“No.”

“I will take it as a compliment regardless.”

“Cheeky bastard.”

“And you already begin to like this cheeky bastard.” He smirked knowingly, making her smile to.

That night, moon witnessed a strange pair of two people come together. For better, for worse. Who knows?

@2024 earthpleasures do not repost, copy, translate, modify

[zoe-oneesama]

Hello, Zoe! I can't believe there's only four episodes left of SL. I see you recently finished Frightningale. The next is I believe Malediktator. I would love top hear your thoughts of the episode.

Lord have mercy, this episode wasn't good when it came out and only got worse with hindsight:

There are two big, huge stinkers in this episode. Chloe's "arc", which got covered in even more mold over time, and Adrien.

My thoughts at the time (and I know because I went back and FOUND my thoughts) was that this episode would've been a good START for Chloe's redemption..but it was the Finish. So it sucks.

It had all the elements. Chloe being Chloe:

Pretending to be Ladybug just to sing her own praises as Queen Bee

Making her Important Historical Person Project about herself

Getting insultingly defensive when called out and doubling down despite how obvious her lie is

Focusing on Marinette telling her she's not a hero despite the rest of the class being just as "mean" about her time as Queen Bee

Her over the top demands of a disproportionate punishment for the slight by crying for Daddy to shut down a school and banish Marinette from the city

Having an over the top tantrum when she doesn't get her way by declaring she's leaving the country despite her father being on his knees, begging her not to go

Making an over the top announcement of her departure under the delusion that her going to live in New York will somehow negatively effect her former classmates

Her continuing to lie about the circumstances of the akuma to Ladybug herself, only trickle truthing after being pressed multiple times

And in the conclusion, flaunting her ridiculous wealth to not only her peers who were doing something nice for her, but to her best friend who was genuinely upset at her leaving.

Chloe being Chloe. Chloe being a liar, a bully, a spoiled princess who only cares about what SHE wants.

And in this episode she breaks the one person who was always in her corner, even more than Sabrina - her father. As far as a redemption arc goes, that's probably the best way to start things, because this is the guy who'd drop everything for her, bend heaven and earth for her whims, who abandoned his dreams of being a movie director to instead become Mayor to get the power and money to take care of her (at Audrey's insistence). And she broke him. Left him, just like her mom left them both before.

In another universe, maybe this would be the thing that broke Chloe, that finally made her look inward and realize that the call of toxicity, negativity, and entitlement is coming from inside the house. She is the one who makes people around her miserable, and in turn, herself miserable, because it makes no one want to be with her, it makes no one like her.

Realizing this, vocalizing this, and doing something about this could've been a good start. She can be rewarded for being vulnerable and open and taking responsibility by being given the Bee Miraculous and being allowed to fix things, which could start her wanting to fix things without a Miraculous. Thus, a START of her redemption arc.

But as I noted back then, and as I note now, this isn't the start. It's the finish.

All this vulnerability about not being liked and hurting her daddy's feelings and feeling worthless comes after info-dumping about her Sad Mommy issues which were pretty much resolved as soon as they were brought up THANKS TO HER SWORN ENEMY MARINETTE, and after she picked up a Miraculous and kept it for herself, and after she abused that power to CRASH A TRAIN to try and win herself clout. So I'm sorry that I don't care that Chloe "deserves a second chance" or that "maybe Queen Bee will make her a better Chloe" after she almost killed people to show off for Mommy.

The big finale says "Well Chloe's sad so maybe she could possibly be good, though only when it directly effects her." She can't even muster a goddamn thank you for the party, they didn't even pretend she was going to change.

And that's where hindsight makes this even worse. I clocked this as a failed start when this episode came out, but adding on top of that the next two seasons where she unofficially joins the villain's side makes this even dumber.

The episode does the usual shtick of Somehow Blaming Marinette: she feels bad for telling Chloe she's not a hero, she feels bad for celebrating her leaving, she gives HERSELF partial blame for Andre being akumatized. Well, I don't blame her, show. In fact I'd say she's pretty justified.

For one, what did Chloe do as Queen Bee that was heroic? Try to crash a train to get credit for stopping the crash, which she couldn't even do, and then being akumatized? How about the fact that she found this Miraculous and didn't return it? Or let's look wider and assume Marinette wasn't even talking about just Queen Bee: What has Chloe done that was heroic? Oh one time she kinda helped with Despair Bear - oh wait but she also CAUSED that akuma so it kinda cancels out.

Chloe's not a hero. She could be, she has all the resources, she just isn't because she doesn't want to be.

And why should Marinette feel bad that Chloe's leaving? Adrien says she left angry and upset, but she seemed pretty content when she was throwing out fliers from her helicopter and announcing it to the whole school in one last hurrah. Play me the world's smallest violin. After TWO SEASONS of abuse from this whiny little rich girl, why shouldn't Marinette be happy for herself? Happy that she won't have to worry about her property being vandalized? Or work stolen? Or relative's career sabotaged? That next year she doesn't have to dread going to school because there's no chance Chloe will be in her class? Why WOULDN'T she throw a party over that?

And in what universe is Marinette to blame for the akuma that she didn't even come in contact with? Just because, as usual, Chloe decided to blame Marinette for all the backlash she rightfully got even though Marinette was the last one to say something? Just because her classmates agreed with what Marinette said, and Chloe got weirdly fixated on Marinette, and Chloe took it out on her father, it's somehow Marinette's burden and blame for Maledictator? Sure Jan, that'll hold up in court. The mental gymnastics to even blame a twice removed party...

And all of it is for naught. Marinette sees a vulnerable side of Chloe and gives her a chance as a hero and throws her a party to celebrate her "accomplishment" as Queen Bee because "Being Ladybug made me a better Marinette, maybe being Queen Bee will make her a better Chloe".

Well guess what. It didn't. It inflated her already massive ego and gave her another thing she felt entitled to that she didn't earn and led to the mother of all tantrums when she was told multiple times she wouldn't be getting her way, leading to Marinette losing Fu as an ally. All the self flagellation, all the bowing to Chloe's ego, all the hoops Marinette went through to make Chloe feel better did nothing to help Chloe change into a better person, so all it is is a waste of time and teaching Marinette a lesson that ends up blowing up in her face. It was frustrating back when this episode came out to see how unearned it all was, and now it's extra frustrating because you know how pointless it all was. All the deliberate audience manipulation for a complete non-starter.

SPEAKING of frustrating to watch, I believe I promised you TWO big stinkers in this episode.

Get back here Adrien, I'm barely even started with you. How fucking dare you come in here and lecture anyone about treating Chloe badly? I don't care if Chloe was your friend when no one else is, that doesn't invalidate the happiness everyone - and I mean EVERYONE, including teachers, your classmate, and your own Best Friend - was feeling at her departure. Good for you that she was a warm body to stand next to in your childhood years, but what kind of criteria do you even have Mr. If We Made Eye Contact We're Friends?

Because you haven't shown us that she was a good friend. Hell, you haven't shown us YOU were a good friend! If you were so concerned for her, why didn't you go after her when she left in a huff? Why didn't you text her or try to convince her to stay? Why didn't you stop your class from pointing out her bullshit when she gave her duplicitous presentation? Why NOW is your only move to berate her number one abuse victim (next to Sabrina) and then sulk in the corner like a dark cloud trying to ruin everyone else's good time?

Why aren't you NOW going after her or texting her? Why are you still at this party? Why aren't you lecturing any of your other friends about what they're doing? Why why why?

(Logistically it's so Marinette and Adrien are on the outer rim of the party and don't get hit by Maledictator's command spell to destroy the school, but literally since when has the show cared about logical reasons for the two to get away from a crowd?)

You know what sucks? This episode was fun until Adrien opened his big mouth. Everything was fast paced and melodramatic and over the top and fun - and then party pooper Adrien has to call everyone TeRriBlE despite ALL the terrible things Chloe's done over the course of this series RIGHT IN FRONT OF HIM.

And because the writing is poor and doesn't want to actually challenge Adrien in any way, they have Marinette call Chloe "useless" when that is literally the least of her problems: a bully, a brat, selfish, spoiled, vindictive, manipulative, a liar, self centered, delusional, I don't know, just plain fucking MEAN. If Marinette stuck to any of these things that Adrien couldn't refute, maybe we could've had something INTERESTING here. But instead they gave him a near strawman just so he could refute ONE THING "bad" about Chloe instead of confronting the fact that his childhood friend was and is a shitty person.

Maybe on top of Chloe realizing something about herself, we have Adrien realize the nature of their relationship: that he's so conditioned to accept her and his father's crap that he's even conditioned to be uncomfortable when anyone ELSE challenges their crap. That he's put unrealistic expectations on his other friends just because of his own coping strategy against the people in his life that constantly take advantage of him. That it's unfair of him to expect other's to just shut up and put up with unfair treatment just because shaking the status quo makes him kinda nauseous. Just, you know, if they wanted to do something INTERESTING for once.

Maybe this could've where Adrien realizes that not only do his friends deserve to be treated better, but so does he. That by not invalidating his friend's feelings, he can stop invalidating his own. It could be a first step to him overcoming his people-pleasing nature and begin his own arc about taking charge of his life, maybe eventually leading into him taking control of his portion of the plot, MAYBE leading him into being an actual deuteragonist in this series instead of the semi-damsel love interest.

If Adrien would've been made to actually face the fact that the person he grew up with was a garbage person, maybe he'd take some time to look at his dad differently, or Nathalie, or even his own mother and try to see them from a different point of view. A view where he realizes he deserves better.

But instead he manages to guilt trip the only person in the room who wouldn't have challenged him so badly that she actually gives the cruelest person she's known a freaking Miraculous and throws her a celebration party for doing ONCE the thing she herself does on a daily basis with no accolades. And it was aaaaaaaall worthless.

Or should I say "useless"?

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

Okay so a thing that has bothered me ever since I first watched Chat Blanc was Bunnyx and the general time travel stuff because tghis makes no sense. In the Chat Blanc time line, after Chat Blanc destroyes the universe, everyone is dead. Including adult!Alix aka Bunnyx. So the Bunnyx fron the Chat Blanc timeline doesn'rt exist anymore, meaning that the Bunnyx fron the episode is from a parallel timeline where Chat Blanc didn't destroy the universe. That however raises the question why she would even care about that other timeline. Is her quest to assure victory over Monarch in every single timeline because that sounds exhausting as hell. I also don't understand the deal with her leg disappearing while she witnesses the fight between LB and CB, it has no reason to, because LB defeating CB doesn't have any effect on Bunnyx because, as stated earlier, the Bunnyx from that timeline is already dead! And honestly, the fact that Lb even had to fight CB makes no sense. They could've just went back in time 2 minutes so LB can erase her name from the letter (or just be quicker so Adrien doesn't see her) and CB doesn't happen in the first place!

Like, genuine question, what was the point of the whole thing? I mean other than the concept is cool and the writers wanted to give LB trauma (which never really plays a significant part in the overall story anyway??)

Sorry for rambling so much, I don't know if this makes any sense, the episode was really confusing to me and idk if it's just because the episode actually doesn't make sense or because I just don't understand it bc time travel is really confusing. Would really love to hear your opinion!

You're fine and you're not missing a thing. The episode simply doesn't make sense nor am I sure why it even exists. I know a lot of people love it, but I really don't get the hype. It runs off of nonsense logic and makes most of the characters look really bad.

Let's start with the lore.

The canon lore is that Bunnyx only travels through time, not universes, so it makes no freaking sense that an adult Bunnyx would be able to stop Chat Blanc since the existence of Chat Blanc should stop her from existing. It's a total paradox that goes against everything we'd been told about her powers. Of course, she's also supposed to be the hero of last resort, yet we hear about her hanging out with famous historical figures and the season five final sees her acting as a substitute for the horse miraculous even though the people she portals in don't do a thing to help with the final battle, so it's not like Chat Blanc is the only time her powers and role get ignored. Any time I use the rabbit, I have to completely rework its lore because canon is just so bad at time travel. I like Alix and her adult design is awesome, but any time Bunnyx shows up, I expect to be annoyed.

Also, I will never forgive her for just dumping Ladybug back in our time without so much as a word of encouragement or any reassurance that the Chat Blanc stuff was only a maybe. And Ladybug was the one to figure out how to fix time!!! Alix, you suck at your job! Or this is just another case of the writers refusing to let someone other than Marinette save the day even though the poor girl really needs a day off.

As for why this episode exists? I don't even know, dude. It makes no sense. Back when we thought it was going to be a driving force in the season four conflict - an assumption that was backed up by Marinette's nightmare in sentibubbler - the episode kinda made sense in spite of its flaws. But we're two seasons past Chat Blanc and the only person who is apparently traumatized by it is Adrien.

Yes, the writers actually said this. No, you didn't miss an episode where Adrien learned about Chat Blanc. They were talking about the nightmares from the final:

Mélanie says that he "could become Chat Blanc" and the others add that even though he does not remember and has never lived it, Chat Blanc still has an influence on his actions.

Yes, this is embarrassingly bad writing. The character who never saw or even heard of Chat Blanc is somehow the one who is traumatized and effected by it while Marinette's trauma has nothing do to with Chat Blanc or the events of the season four final. Instead, it's random BS that was never even hinted at until season five. I just... what?

In case it wasn't obvious - which I guess it isn't given that professional writers missed this - the logical way to write this to have the season four conflict be about Chat Blanc from Ladybug's side. After the conflict ends, she reveals everything to Chat Noir who becomes terrified of hurting people with his powers. This is only exacerbated by the events of Destruction. But then the show would have had to let Chat Noir have a character arc that didn't revolve around Ladynette and the series seems allergic to that as a concept, so instead Adrien gets magical trauma that keeps him from the final fight. And I thought the Derision retcon was bad!

Other issues with Chat Blanc in no particular order:

It cements Nathalie as just as bad a Gabriel since she's the one who tells him Adrien's secret identity and we then see her do nothing to try to protect Adrien.

It makes Gabriel irredeemable by showing him gleefully hurting his child. Dude punts his son across the city with a smile on his face!

It makes Adrien look slimy since he asks Marinette out without telling her that he knows her secret identity. This one is in a bit of a grey area for me because the secret identity stuff is complicated, but Adrien has never been the one who cared about secret identities AND he's the one who has been directly turned down in hero form. The episode takes none of that into consideration with its writing and it really needed to for Adrien to feel like he had a valid point of view here. As is, he's taking advantage of a situation and putting his Lady love at risk for his own wants.

The pillow sniff scene makes Marinette look unhinged.

It spits in the face of The Power of Love by having Adrien's love fail to be enough to stop him from killing Marinette.

Marinette's parents should have gotten involved after Gabriel threatened her. There is no way in hell that I'd let my kid go over to the Agreste mansion after that. If the writers were once again determined to not let Tom and Sabine parent, then the threat should have come when Marinette was alone.

Why did Ladybug even need to go to the future if Bunnyx could have just gone back in time and stopped Ladybug from leaving the present for Adrien? Why did Chat Blanc even need to be defeated? What did Ladybug's ladybug actually fix when she cast her charm?

This is minor, but it bothers me: Chat Noir should not have been smiling and happy when he was freed from his akuma. That boy should have been in the middle of a breakdown.

I know people forgive some of the above because Chat Blanc is sort of an AU and I'm not going to say that's wrong, I just can't look at it that way because there's nothing that sets Chat Blanc apart from the normal timeline. The Paris special gives us an AU. Chat Blanc (and Ephemeral) are what the writers told us would happen in the canon timeline if Gabriel ever discovered his son's secrets. Canon Gabriel was the one doing those things and would have done them again if given the chance. This is who the writers said he is. Same goes for all the other characters who come across less than stellar here.

There's a reason why I love a good Chat Blanc rewrite. It's an idea with a lot of potential, but canon capitalizes on almost none of it.

[mdhwrites]

Thank you for defending Amphibia S3A!!! You don't know how many times I've had to read people saying that Anne should've had an angst arc like Luz did in TOH over what happened in True Colors. That kind of take completely ignores that a.) Anne is her own character who responds to things differently (by compartmentalizing and trying to fix what she can), b.) Amphibia was trying to preserve its essential Amphibia-ness and not become a dreary angst-fest, and c.) Luz's arc wasn't even good lol so why compare it to that? I think there are a couple story things that could've been streamlined in 3A but overall it is a perfectly good entry into Amphibia canon and it wasn't "filler" or "pointless" by any means. (P.S. I would love to hear your thoughts on Commander Anne since I also think that's a really strong episode!)🦎

Send me another ask about Commander Anne because that is one of the episode fragments in Amphibia actually dense enough for me to talk about on its own. For now, I'm actually carjacking this ask to talk about trauma reaction in fiction using Anne, Sasha, HOP POP and Luz with Hop Pop and Luz being the extremes you need to avoid and then talking about both where Anne falls and why she's so good.

Though with any discussion of this, I do actually just want to quickly mention that I did a whole teaching blog a good long while back about Fantasy Trauma and why Luz's just plain sucks. I'm not going to talk about the event here but more the reaction but I still think it's worth mentioning that fantasy trauma like what happens to these characters is a trope in and of itself.

Also, welcome Amphibia fans, I like to use asks as a way to teach and your show lets me be POSITIVE while teaching for once which is a nice change of pace... But let's start with the bad.

Or let's start with some defining. See whenever you have a major event happen in your story, there's a pendulum of reaction. On both ends of the pendulum, you have equally bad reactions to it but in different ways. Those ends where either:

A: You don't react at all. Despite the fact that the event should have had an effect on you, you're seeming to be mostly fine and yourself. It often can make the character come off as callous or stunted in some way if they just don't even seem to be needing to cope with it in someway. Stuff like Sprig focusing on being a part of the family and Polly focusing on Frobo stop them from quite getting to this extreme because they're more genuinely interacting with the new world they're in and their problems. Hop Pop is the problem one here but we'll get to it.

B: You ONLY react to the ONE event. The rest of the story and your character DON'T MATTER now. You are only your angst arc. This actually works well for VILLAINS because the single minded obsession and refusal of logic is actually usually useful for justifying them going to such extremes. The problem comes when a character should theoretically know better, the level of reaction is unwarranted or you can point out that they're just wangsting (whine/angsting) because they have sunshine and rainbows around them they're blatantly ignoring. This is Luz's side of the problem.

This is technically an Amphibia ask though so let's start with Hop Pop. For some very, very minor proof I'm not a contrarian: Hollywood Hop Pop is easily the worst half episode in S3A. There's something to be said about there being about two episodes before the mid-season finale that are kind of janky. The problem isn't just with Hollywood Hop Pop.

Hop Pop has a lot of internal issues with danger, change and worry. A new world should panic him in some way. This is actually the greatest sin of Hollywood Hop Pop because the lesson from that one feels at best like an over correction to... The majority of S2A's characterization of Hop Pop. Similarly goes to him just enjoying being a house guest. Even if yes, this is his adopted daughter, he should have an episode segment dedicated to being worried about the new world they're in, trying to protect Polly and Spring, etc. like that, especially since his old world just turned inside out. SOME sort of reaction would be warranted... And we don't get it.

Instead we get him being overly trusting and thus getting scammed, his stuff about making the Boonchuys hating him is good but it's entirely disconnected from the trauma you would expect of the character and then he honestly takes the BIGGEST risk of them all, even using his actual name instead of a codename like Sprig does for Spider Sprig.

It genuinely feels like he is treating coming here like a vacation, not helped by that explicitly being a part of one of his episode segments and that's bad.

So what's the good version of this side of the pendulum? Well, if this side represents underselling the reaction to trauma, the good version is subtlety and that's what we get with Anne and it's done really well. It mostly is in the first couple episodes in S3A when the wounds are most fresh which makes sense. As she processes it privately, she can return more and more to who she was.

The biggest thing here is that Anne is overloading herself. She is burning out from the second Andrias stabs Marcy. Not even once she's home, but even by the final trauma having just been overloaded. She's 13 after all. 15 if you want to go off of what seems to have been the original intent for her and the rumors that Disney forced the trio to be younger.

A 13 year old CAN handle death. They CAN'T handle seeing one of their BEST FRIENDS die and the other one likely doing so too, let alone right after she assumed her third best friend also died, even if he didn't. True Colors is a TIME for Anne. Anne is a very simple girl after all. Stakes like these are not what she is capable of even processing at that point. She's never seen anything that bad.

And her trying to recap and summarize it shows it EXPERTLY. Even trying to actually think about what just happened tires her out and has her constantly having to correct herself because she doesn't want to admit that not only is she powerless, it's also too much for her to handle on her own. And that's WITHOUT acknowledging the high probability of her friends being dead, something that was on her mind since her reaction to seeing Sasha is disbelief/relief that she's ALIVE.

Then there's the other elements where Anne is the one pushing research the hardest, the fact that she's brushing other things off to find answers that will make her less powerless, her protectiveness of those around her and then yeah, the one episode segment that has her burnt out and dead tired because she's working herself to the bone.

And this is all in character with Anne's arc. She's grown to do things. To want to help. To not just coast through life and just as she was getting used to the idea of that... She now can't do anything. So we see her doing what she can which is just not a lot.

Alright, let's move on to the other side of the pendulum though. I often talk about Luz in the second half of The Owl House as "In her angst arc" because that's how it feels. She may as well have put on a dark brown hoodie, flattened her hair and declared everything sucked. None of her optimism, none of her enthusiasm, little of her care and complete distrust of EVERYONE.

OH WAIT THEY DID THAT! They made her as close to her BETA design for S3 Ep1 as possible to finish out that miserable attitude for her. And I'm not going to say all of it is unwarranted. Just like Hop Pop caring about being a good house guest is in character, Luz getting more serious to match the stakes of the show is theoretically a good thing. It needed more of a real transition (Hi Commander Anne as a good example of this) but there is a nugget of a good concept in it.

One that's stabbed repeatedly by never letting it end or be affected by anything. Stuff she'll say to Eda and King she will act like will kill her if she tells literally anyone else no matter how much more justified it is for her to be honest to them, she CONSTANTLY lies to the point where she breaks her word several times and part of why Amity theoretically likes her is just GONE and then we get the theoretical conclusion to it which is "I want to be understood."

When the fuck haven't you been? This is the true crime of this side of the pendulum. Part of the reaction requires the character to entirely forget and actively ignore the actions around her. Those friends who have constantly forgiven you and backed you up? Didn't understand. That supposed found family who constantly told you you weren't at fault and to take care of yourself? Didn't understand. Your mom, who supported your interested until you backed her into a corner by accidentally assaulting people, including your principal, with wild animals? Never. Understood. You.

And even then, she still doesn't break out of it after the first TWO times in S3 where she is forgiven and she makes a statement about moving on. She just throws a dreamstate pity party and doubts herself until GOD tells her she has never done anything wrong in her life.

It's too long, the resolutions are too contrite or eye rolling for the amount of time and pain spent with it and they also rarely have anything to actually do with the trauma itself. It feels like the character is reacting to something BAD rather than something SPECIFIC which robs it of its bite just as badly as not reacting to it at all. And that's if it even feels like the character and Luz in the second half of TOH, especially S3, just doesn't feel like Luz. Period.

You know who does feel like herself? Sasha. By the time S3B comes around, she's had to deal with too much to really still be dealing with the trauma (and she still is to some extent with her constantly worrying about her relationship with Anne, obsession with second chances, etc. like that but that's more rounding out her arc to me) so it's really just her one segment in S3A that needs to be examined.

Except we actually have to roll back first. All the way back to Reunion. Sasha's reaction to this all starts with the end of Reunion. That moment when, just for a second, she decides Anne is worth more than herself. That "maybe you'd be better off without me," and letting go. S2 handles the fact that Sasha dying actually made a REALLY bad inner conflict for her, let alone once news of Marcy being fine without her too got to her, but that's the fun of character arcs. They SHOULDN'T be a smooth curve. *coughs at Amity and Hunter*

Keeping on track though, we have Sasha not only facing the end of her at her most powerful but also the potential end of her friendships. She betrayed Anne again and while they fought together, that was for survival, where are they now? Worse yet, Marcy almost died in front of her and she was POWERLESS. All that talk of trying to do things so they all could be happy, that she knew best... It was all ash.

So she at first doesn't know what she's doing. She emotional and ready to lash out but she doesn't know what her target is. She just knows part of it is her fault and unlike in S2, she can't ignore it now. It haunts her until Anne shows Sasha what having been a good friend could have gotten her. What they could have been.

And so now, it's time to make good on her word. To become a protector and try to see a bit more in people than she assumes. This is ALL a reaction to True Colors primarily. It is addressing it all VERY bluntly minus Marcy's lie (I have complicated feelings on Marcy at this point) but it's still working within the frame of the character. This is still Sasha and we know enough about her to genuinely follow her train of thought while also getting to enjoy the character we have grown attached to. She isn't gone... But she's changing and if this side of the pendulum represents replacement as its bad extreme, change and introspection like what Sasha goes through is the good medium ground.

I want to finish this by saying that you CAN use the extremes well. Someone reacting to a teammate's death with indifference can genuinely turn a character who seemed a little cold to being seen as callous or like they believe the ends justify the means, no matter the sacrifice. Someone letting an event consume them can actually be a great start to an arc where the point is to criticize their reaction, instead of trying to invoke sympathy through it. That they are going too far and letting this be too much of who they and they need to find balance. They need to properly introspect. These are not hard rules by any means but there is a spectrum. A pendulum.

And as always, the best thing a writer can do is recognize where on that pendulum they're writing and use it as best as they can.

======+++++======

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

And finally a Twitter you can follow too!

[moaserendipity]

My Top 10 BL's of 2022

I am Back with my BL drama top 10, I might’ve been quiet but I have been actively watching BL dramas. Remember this is my opinion and you might not agree with it but I made up my mind and these are my top-tier BL’s of 2022😎❤️‍🔥

10. Cherry Blossoms after winter 7,8/10

This heartwarming BL was something that I needed when I watched it. I wished it was again longer though because it just didn't feel finished yet and was sometimes a bit rushed. Like I would love to see more about them as high schoolers, especially with that bully storyline, and then the College part was also short or the acceptance of his mom, that could've gone better I feel. But other than that I loved the chemistry between our main leads. The tension was there every time, so that was a big plus, and just their whole relationship, it made me feel warm.

09. To My star 2 8/10

We all know what I am going to say...Again way too short, also I was super confused when I started watching. The sudden jump in time and then back. I was so confused and heartbroken as well. Thankfully everything got clear throughout the other episodes but yeah. This BL definitely did not disappoint as sequel and I can't thank them enough for making it because I feel like we finally got real closure and to see them, in the end, being happy together made me feel so warm and for a change, I didn't feel sad when it ended because they were happy and I felt that happiness. These two actors are definitely amazing together.

08. Cutie Pie 8,5/10

I wanted to watch this because of Zee and mainly for Zee but when the first episode aired I was hooked. I love Nunew and his chemistry with Zee but not only them, also the friends were amazing. I fell for Syn & Nuer even though I disliked Nuer at first because he was after Kuea but that changed when his attention went to Syn, and from that moment they had my heart. Of course, we can't forget about Nat and Max who are playing Yi and Khondiao because they were brilliant as well. Now I have to admit that I probably said every single episode that I was in love with Zee, which isn't a lie because this man can act, the way Lian looks at Kuea, I think I drowned every single time. The reason I give this an 8,5 is simply because of miscommunication, also the sudden change from hate to love was like huh? like why you tell him you don't love him but the next day you suddenly do. The purposely hurting your lover just because you want to see who he really is? yeah, it didn't sit well with me but that being said it's still a good BL for sure!!

07. Love Mechanics 8,9/10

The BL that I have been waiting for, for what is it 2 years!! Did I maybe overhype it in my head, yes I did. Now I have to say that I think what they did was brilliant because the NC scene in the first episode wasn't forced anymore, because both were under influence, still not completely okay but it's better than before.. I love Yinwar because their chemistry has always been on point but with this 2-year gap it's nice to see how much they grew and the acting was so much better. Now what I didn't like and this is kind of a pet peeve of mine with BL's is the lack of communication and with this BL that was definitely the case, no one wanted to listen to one and another, which left to heartache which wasn't necessary at all and also the Yeehwa involvement which often led to the misunderstandings, was annoying to me but other than that I loved Yinwar portraying Vee and Mark because together they were brilliant.

06. My Only 12% 9,1/10

When I started watching this, I knew I was set up to cry a lot and that was not a lie the first few episodes, I cried a lot. I really have to give it to Earth & Santa because I was completely invested in their relationship. Earth is really a brilliant actor and knows how to make you cry your eyes out! I think the sudden change in character was brilliantly done. the way the roles were reversed in which Cake was now the one that got treated how he treated Eiw first. I loved that a lot. I think Santa was brilliant in expressing the jealousy he felt as Cake for Eiw and I do think it's good that he actually spoke his mind, even though it hurt Eiw. I love how Cake is there for Eiw even in the most difficult part of life. I just loved it. I just really think this was a seriously good BL.

05. The Eclipse 9.3/10

The Eclipse, another GMMTV BL, which is brilliant. Now I only knew Khaotung as a light-hearted goofy character so I was pleasantly surprised to see him being this badass guy who isn't afraid to stand his ground and then he was paired up with First, who played the brainwashed perfect. This is amazing and I love how they change when they are together. Now I must admit that I am not crazy about their school being this crazy ass cult, I just hate Cults and everything surrounding it, it's creepy to me but other than that this is an amazing BL. I love seeing people fight for what they believe in and their rights, and I am totally on board with it. I also have to praise Neo for his character in this BL, I LOVE seeing him play a serious character, it just suits him so so much better and I love that he is paired up with Louis, they have such great chemistry! I do hope we get more projects with Khaotung and First because they are perfect together.

04. Not Me - 9,5/10

Not me was a surprise to me because I had kind of forgotten about it until I suddenly saw the trailer popping up again. I loved this cast and especially, Offgun & First, Fluke, they really were outstanding. The rest of the cast of course! I love how Off finally played a serious character instead of the goofy player kind of person because he can pull it off so well. I was very impressed with every episode. Gun also was outstanding as Black & White, I love it when he plays characters like this, it really suits him, and also he was playing a twin. Then we have the side couple Fluke and First, they were brilliant, I felt their emotions through every scene and when that scene with Yok in the hospital happened I was a sobbing mess. The reason I gave this a 9.5 is that I already knew who put Black in the hospital and also I felt somewhat disappointed with Grams character, I was so convinced that he was in love with Black but then he suddenly wasn't but other than that this was brilliant and refreshing!

03. Semantic Error 9.7/10

Semantic Error, what a fantastic Korean BL this was. I was hooked from the start and loved the dynamics between the two main leads Park Seoham(Jaeyoung) & Park Jaechan(Sangwoo). I cannot express my love for this drama enough. I was obsessed with it and it's now one of my comfort BL's. I love how Sangwoo's hate changed into Love. It was definitely a battle within himself and the way Jaeyoung stayed patient with him, was just amazing. The reason why it has a 9.5 rating is that for me it was too short but this is always the case with Korean BL's, I do have to admit that I was already happy that the episodes were a bit longer this time around but yeah other than that it was a perfect warm BL.

02. KinnPorsche La Forte - 9,9/10

This Bl was THE BL that I had been waiting for, for over a year if not more and it did NOT disappoint. It took me on a real rollercoaster of emotions. I went in for KinnPorsche and I enjoyed them a lot. I laughed a lot because they might have the worst bodyguards, but who cares. The chemistry between Apo and Mile was amazing and I couldn't help but feel flustered at times....like that scene in the bathroom..but yeah they were amazing. I also fell for KimChay. These two cuties, one that loves too much and one who didn't know how to accept that love, very Taylor swift if you ask me but I loved every second of it and I really hope they will give them their own side story! Now Tankhun..This man was brilliant, I never laughed this hard while watching a BL, I applaud Tong for his brilliant acting! Now the couple that took over this BL and that was VegasPete. The way I fell for them was no joke. I was obsessed and still am. The angst between them and the way they fell for each other and then that scene where Vegas got shot. Everything was perfect. Now you are wondering why 9.9. I think they started too late with VegasPete's story and I want more of KimChay!

01. Love In The Air - 10/10

Love in the Air was THE surprise of this year, at least for me. I didn't know much about this BL until I randomly came across it a few weeks before it would air BUT boy did it leave an impression. BossNoeul & FortPeak did terrific jobs, especially since they are new actors. I have never seen a BL Drama where there was so much love and communication. PayuRain didn't really have a plot but this was not something that I missed because I thought their love story was wholesome. everything was perfect. Their Chemistry was top notch and I just loved everything about them! FortPeak also was amazing. The way Peak portrayed Sky was brilliant; you could feel his pain and how Fort showed how Prapai changed for Sky was amazing. The pain Sky had been through and for Pai to be the one that opened his heart again and even saved him, I have been in awe and pain and in love the entire time while watching this BL, so I think it's fair enough that this BL is at the top of my list for 2022. In my eyes, this was the best one!

[quietsamurai98]

So, thoughts on Doctor Who Season 1/14/40 now that it's over... MAJOR SPOILERS WITHIN!

It was... fine? I guess?

I've been doing a Doctor Who rewatch between the releases of the new episodes. Holding up the other seasons next to the new one throws some issues into sharp relief.

First and foremost, probably the root of most of the other issues... The episode count. The season was just way, way too short. Eight episodes (nine, including Church on Ruby Road) is just not enough time to fully flesh out the main characters and their relationship and dynamic, not enough time to build a cohesive storyline, and not enough time to pace the story correctly.

Second... I feel like the characters of the Fifteenth Doctor and Ruby Sunday just weren't explored as thoroughly as they should've been, and definitely not the relationship/dynamic between the two, especially when one episode (Dot and Bubble) has the Doctor and Ruby practically off screen almost all episode, and another (73 Yards) has the Doctor off screen all episode and Ruby basically stripped of all agency. A few more episodes could've done wonders for letting the audience get to know the characters better.

Third... The lack of a cohesive storyline. Yes, there are some recurring things (Susan Twist cameos, the TARDIS growling, the snowing, the pantheon), but it really felt like you could basically take episodes 1 though 6 and shuffle them, with minimal changes made, and it wouldn't make much of a difference. In fact, I'd be willing to bet that something like that happened in production, and that Devil's Chord was originally meant to air significantly later in the season before being moved up for Reasons™.

IMO, the best single season of NuWho was season 10, with Twelve and Bill Potts. God, I loved that season. Bill is probably one of my favorite companions, Twelve was firing on all cylinders,The ongoing mystery of What's in The Vault?, the exploration of Missy's character, and the finale... Actually, let me talk about the finale a bit.

I feel like Empire of Death fell a bit flat for me because it had stakes so comically high that they wrapped right back around to being completely meaningless. If all life in practically the entire universe is ended, there are no stakes left, because you know it'll be undone by the end of the episode. The ending is a forgone conclusion right from the beginning. And I'm sorry, but the twist being "there was no twist! this mythical, extremely important, deeply mysterious character is just some woman!" is just a shitty twist. It's deeply unsatisfying. It's only a twist because people didn't expect the story to be bad. And yes, yes, I get it, "everyone is important, in nine hundred years of time and space and I've never met anybody who wasn't important before, etc", but we've already done that! Twice! Donna Noble and Clara Oswald!

Compare that with the finale of season 10. It had reasonable stakes, stakes that the show could afford to lose without having to retcon everything. It had a satisfying twist with Missy deciding to kill The Master, and then a double twist with The Master killing Missy right back. And then, most importantly, the Doctor loses. He's up against impossible odds, and for once, he actually fails. That's how you do a damn twist in a show that constantly has the Doctor pulling impossible wins out of his back pocket! Of course, that's not the kind of twist you can pull all the time, but still. It's engaging. You're not just sitting there wondering "Oh, how are they going to retcon the apocalypse this time?" So yeah... I'd prefer to see losable stakes in the future. Or at least, stakes that aren't so catastrophically high that the only resolution is "they're gonna have to retcon it within the episode somehow".

For as much complaining as I've done, overall, I have to say that 1/14/40 was fine. It was solid television. A good 7/10. Not an internet 7/10, where anything below an 8 is dogshit, but an actual 7/10. It was better than average, but still pretty middling.

[popculturebuffet]

Scott Pilgrim Takes Off Review: That's How It Could've Happened, But How About This?

WARNING: SPOILERS FOR SCOTT PILGRIM TAKES OFF AHEAD. IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN AT LEAST EPISODE ONE, TURN BACK. SERIOUSLY DUDE. DO IT NOW. IF YOUR COOL WITH SPOILING YOURSELF, ROCK ON.

Hello all you happy scottaholics. I"m back in the saddle again. For those just tuning in i'm Jake, I review stuff.. and a few years back I reviewed the entirety of Brian Lee O'Malley's masterpiece, and the movie as a chaser, having been a fan of Scott Pilgrim since my teens but only having just revisited it at the time I started my retrospective. It was a wonderful journey that made me appricate one of my favorite comics even more and gave me a ton of my best running gags. You can find links to each review HERE in one masterpost.

So naturally when the anime was announced last year, I was entirely on board: I loved this story in all three of it's major forms and was excited to see it again, maybe updated a tad. I was also curious if the story would get a setting update, what would change , and what subplots we'd FINALLY see on screen after the film had to trim a lot thanks to half the series not being finished yet and a tight two hour run time. I was cautiously optimistic when the cast was announced as while I was happy to see the massively talented breakout cast of the film return and get another shot at the characters, I was worried it'd just be the movie but animated.. which thankfully turned out not to be remotely true once trailers came out. Instead they'd simply get a shot at playing the characters again but this time with diffrent characterizations. I coudln't be more stoked.

As it turns out though.. O'Malley had zero intention of telling the same story again. In fact, he almost DIDN'T sign on despite getting the juciest of offer, with the anime's studio, Science Saru, wanting their next project after their breakout hit Devilman Crybaby to be Scott Pilgrim and coming to O'Malley Directly.

The problem wasn't the offer: O'Malley, unsuprisingly, was a fan of Science Saru, who in addition to Devilman had also made Space Dandy and the early pilot shorts for OK KO. The problem was O'Malley.. really didn't want to simply retell scott's story a fourth time. It was a story that was personal, deeply loved and made his career.. but after a movie that everyone knew and love and a video game that was so well loved it was many's holy grail for a rerelease for over a decade after it was delisted, he didn't know how to take the story in a new direction and didn't want to do the story again if it was simply going to be a rehash: people could read the book sometime or watch the movie if they wnated Scott fighting the exes.

Thankfully for us, Brian brought up the offer to his good friend BenDavid Grabinski, a tv and film writer. BenDavid was a huge fan of Scott Pilgrim and thus when the idea came up coudln't help spitballing ideas. And one stuck: What if Scott LOST that first fight. It was naturally just a joke.. but like when Superman died.. it's one that had some heft to it. If Scott were gone what would happen to everyone else? How would Ramona react to his loss? Was Scott really gone? how would his friends go on without him... and what would happen to the exes now they weren't guaranteed to die in a fist fight and the entire problem with Gideon's whole plan was laid bare?

These questions and more are answered as Ramona gets to the bottom of what REALLY happned to scott, who unsurprisingly is not dead and even more unsurprisingly the truth is all kinds of bananas. The story of a human tire fire learning to be a better person and not runa way from his problems... becomes the story of a much more composed tire fire learning she can't run away from her problems after she chases after what might have been, forced to get closure with most of her exes as she tries to hunt down the ex that never was. Along the way there's messy bisexual love triangles, movie rental melee's, Tony Hawk style antics done on swarms of paparazzi ninjas, the greatest musical of all time, the rise of Matthew patel, the fall and re-rise of Gordon Goose, explosions, cameos, and more as Ramona Flowers gets it together while Scott Pilgrim takes off, resulting in one of the best animated series of the 2020's and possibly the best of a very stacked 2023. So take off with me as we press start on a fresh new take on one of my favorite franchises under the cut.

Ramona Flowers Gets It Together

This one's going to be a LOT to unpack, and the best place to start is with our new lead: Ramona Flowers. Ramona has never been unimportant to this franchise: after all it's her exes that make up the fight of the week each volume and who give the franchise it's hook, and in the comics she develops alongside scott: As I said in my reviews, Ramona develops alongside him, having to learn to not keep people at arms length and to not run away, nearly running away from everything before coming back, realizing Scott's worth it. Through each other, they grow stronger.

So with Scott gone... Ramona is forced to grow all on her own. If she wants to date Scott, SHE has to fight this time, and she can't run like she tends to. In the comics, she had to scrap with Envy and Roxy, but all the weight to evolve as a person was put on Scott: Ramona had a stable job, was content in her life even if her friend group was basically "Whoever scott happened to be friends with", she was seemingly all together until the last three volumes slowly chip away at that and reveal she's just as bad at staying and improving instead of noping the fuck out of an intense situation as scott. She has to evolve.. but her getting better isn't the point till the climax of the story. It's a lesson in how while a relationship can HELP you grow, ultimately it's on you to: Scott grows because he stops running and embraces his evil self and thus the memories of all his fuckups, embraces that he could sometimes be shitty so he can learn past it. Ramona has to choose to stand and fight gideon and let go of hte hold he has on her, to let go of running and embrace what she has.

Here without Scott and only the vauge mystery of a guy she dated once, Ramona instead has to confront herself: many a character question her doing this. While it starts simple enough with just Julie questioning it, because Julie hates scott as much as I hate the comics version of her, we get harder questions from Kim, whose dated Scott and knows how insesntive he can be, and Lucas who KNOWS Ramona and knows her style is to run. That a happy ending isn't as easy as finding scott again andmaking out intensely. Ramona has to make her own happy ending.

As a result instead of being the sneaky deutratonist or a prop depending on the version (I Love the movie but man do they not do her well), Ramona has to confront her past on her own, and instead of just getting cathartic punchings, she has to actually.. TALK to her exes and resolve things like an adult. And you can imagine how much she likes the prospect of that.

And this flip in how the story works.. is brilliant: It allows us to get to know Ramona: We're seeing things from her perspective instead of Scotts so we see her way more vunerable, genuinely shaken by Scott's "Death", obssesed with solving his kidnapping, and forced to confront her past. Granted like the books we also get to see the lighter side: Ramona is still the straight man to a lot of the cast especially her exes. She and Kim are the sanest one's here and Kim is often out of focus, leaving Ramona one of the few rational people in a sea of gloriously goofy nonsense. Yet we also see her own intrests: she's a columbo fan, turns out to be a natural for stunt work, and has a meticulous routine for her hair dye. We also find out she's a blonde which is only TECHNICALLY cannon to this version.. but fits too well as her hair color to work.

We get to see Ramona not as some ideal to chase slowly turned into a person but just.. a person. Funny, aloof, kind, easily baffled... this is easily my favorite verison of her. Granted it's not exactly ac ontest: The comic's version is great and this simply takes the best of that and fleshes her out, the video game is a 16 bit brawler, and the movie... well look I like the movie, but the film version is a nigh emotionless prop that barely gave Mary Elizabeth Winstead anything to work wtih forgetting ramona HAS emotions who instead of simply having her emotoins amplified is outright brainwashed. I used to think Kim got the shortest end of the stick but doing this review.. no it was Ramona. Ramona got screentime but had any personality stripped. Thankfully both Ramona and Mary Elizabeth get a second shot on the screen here.

Mary Elizabeth's performanc ecan't be overstated: she nicely ballances Ramona's stocisim, something key to her charcter as her main problem is distance, that she puts up and that she creates by running away, with the emotoin peeking up just underneath to say hello. IT's a truly great performance and I hope she'll consider doing more voice acting, she's an natural.

And this is great as Ramona's quest eventually leads her back to scott.. and to an ending that's both profound.. and pokes some holes in the series itself.

The Adventures of Scott and Scott

So turns out Scott was kindapped by of ALL characters, Robot 01, the Katanagi Twin's robot minion who shows up for one fight in the comics and video game and then explodes real good. Here he's their little robot son.. and how Scott got kidnapped.

But thankfully the culrprit isn't the Twins. I would've liked for them to get more to do, more on that later. THeir involved, having leant their robot boy to a friend since , as a robot who can't eat, Robot 01 has never had meat and has no human limits and thus is the strongest robot vegan who ever existed.

God I love this stupid reveal. Anyways, turns out Scott's kidnapper.. is SCOTT. Specifically a version of him who did the usual story, won, had a happy ten years with Ramona, then it fell apart after an argument which he assumed ended in divorce.

This is another twist that was brilliant.. I thought Scott's kidnapper was another scott, but I assumed a clone situation. I never thought FUTURE Scott but it's such a brilliant move. We see a Scott who won.. but who simply didn't let the lessons he learned stick. It's easy to learn something about you sucks, I have many a time.. it's harder to make the changes stick. I can't tell you how many ephnaiinies i've had only to end up back where I started. Some change has stuck with effort, but it's not easy. You have to constantly work at it, to grow. And it's easy enough to backslide.. and thus sadly easy to buy that this verison of Scott , when hit with his relationship not working, spiralied instead of working at it , not helped by Old Ramona, their words not mine, ghosting him.

He's a ghost of Scott future, every bad thing about the guy amplified: he's oblivious, thinking his newest band is going anywhere with his gloriously crappy music video, and refusing to accept it was his fault, throwing a tantrum when Young Scott states the obvious solution: just tell his younger self some of his fuckups and hopefully that'll right the relationship. Instead Future Scott goes for the solution that's easiest and laziest: use time travel to undo his relationship. And naturally this being Scott he got this stupid idea from taking a joke Wallace told him seriously. I love Wallace's "Buddy I was kidding".

I also love the performance here. Rather than use Michael Cera , Future Scott is voiced by voice acting, comedy and beard legend Will Forte. Forte's goofy nature, penchant for playing man children blind to their own flaws, and deadpan deliveries make Future Scott work. He's deeplys ad, but also deeply hilarious, sharing some of Scott's weird intricates like assuming because Future Wallace's husband works for nintendo he gets all the video games for free and making a virtual boy scrapbook of his relationship.

He's still throughly Scott.. just one who can't get past himself, requiring Scott and Future Wallace to go to Future Ramona for help. Shockingly.. she's more than willing too: While she still has Ramona's own problem of running away at the first sign of trouble, she does still LOVE this idiot, she just dosen't know how to fix it and knows she can't talk him out of this, so she sends scott back to be with his ramona... well rides him back leading to some awkward selfies.

But naturally for this tale, Scott coming back.. dosen't fix things. And not just because his older self put anti kissing nanites in him.

Scott has grown some from seeing what he could be: He apologizes to Knives, in a scene that I truly love.. mostly for this line "Apparently a 23 year old dating a high schooler is frowned upon by society".

And I have to stop for a minute to give ALL the props to Michael Cera. He already had done plenty awesome this year as the boy of the year

He didn't need to go for two but he did. Cera wasn't at all bad as Scott the first go round: the character was different, a bit less goofy but still awkward as hell and oblivious to his own flaws: the core was there. Here .. Cera is playing the character as on page, if slightly amped up: Goofy, excitable, trying to ignore his painful past and flaws, charming.. all the good and bad of scott is bubbling around this guy. And the line deliveries my god: we have instant classics like "I'm using the world wide web" "The place where they make the video games", the instantly memetic sonic scene (Which would be me trying to flirt with a girl, ngl), and the above frowned upon line. Cera just bubbles in this roll, sliding into who scott is: Loveable but a total mess who needs to get his shit together and has made some grave mistakes.

Granted they also take steps to make sure Scott's relationship with Knives as judging from interviews, O'Malley is kinda tried of the take that scott pilgrim is a bastard man. I mean he is, but it's less that Scott has some shit to work out and need to be better and more that everyone acts like this is a new discovery. As the author himself said it's there on the first page and a good chunk of chapter one is the people who know him best asking what the hell is wrong with him.

Granted this is mixed with Stephen hooting and hollering as much as he can with his stoic personality, Neil being in awe and asking if they'd "done it yet" and Wallace being tempted with the idea of a high schooler himself, though I get the impression he never seriously considered it. So it is muddled slightly.. but not NEARLY enough.

I do get it with the movie: the movie.. outright portrays Knives as a legit love interest, and while it ages Scott down, it's not enough to make that not blehhhh and the game has Knives end up with Kim, which younger me didn't get was still pedophilia. So I do get it as while the comics make it clear this is messed up, it got muddled.. but it's also still a pretty weak gotcha when the source material has always said "This is wrong" They even bring up trainspotting for fucks sake, which I haven't seen but is a pretty good indication O'Malley knew what he was doing.

So here they make it clearer that while Scott's still stringing this poor baby girl angel baby along, he dosen't really consider it a relationship, or just dosen't want to and after seeing what he easily could be even with Ramona, apologizes way sooner. So they did make strides to make things a bit clearer here if only so another version didn't miss the point.

So one rant later while Scott and Ramona think things are wrapped up.. it's just not that easy. You can get closure, we'll get into the exes more shortly, but it dosen't mean your done or done growing... or that the past is done with you. Or future in this case. Like I said, Old Scott/Future Scott put nanintes in scott and after figuring out the exes aren't involved, the two get kidnapped along with the exes , knives, pretty much anyone who can throw a punch.

The kidnapper is naturally Old Scott.. EVEN OLDER SCOTT.

I love his look: he still has his old jacket, his iconic x-men one, but laso looks like Ryu from Street Fighter 5, just with a giant beard and crazy eyes, being a mix of that ryu and devil ryu.. and nega scott. Old Scott wasn't a great person but still had the potetial to turn it around if he got his finger out of his ass. Even Older Scott is every horrible thing Scott Could've been.. and this is something the comics foreshadowed was possible.

And the thing is while Ramona was being dickish in her own right there, not getting that while Scott cheated on Knives with Ramona he had changed since then, she's not WRONG. Scott was VERY close to giving up on change entirely if Kim hadn't turned him away. Hell had Ramona not come along Scott might've become Old Scott sooner just by dating a teenager. The potential to, like the exes, sink into his resintment and worst self was always there... this is just a Scott that did. A Scott who when faced with the fact change is hard would rather hull up, get buff and plan to kill everyone he cares about just to avoid changing. This is the Scott he almost became.. and sadly at least one scott did become.

He's also horrifying for more than just the implications of seeing this guy who while a dickhead, CAN be better if he puts in the effort and does change and grow in both main versions as his worst self. It's sad to see that.. but we also quickly see just how dangerous an evil ex scott would be: After all Scott beats all the evil exes... I mean original timeline scott beat Lucas and Todd via Indigo League style technicalities, but still. While Scott was still beatable, it took multiple rounds, a feint, and ramona's help to put down the last four exes, he was still fairly strong.. so give him 24 years more of experince with ten of those spent JUST training and specifically preparing to counter the exes , ramona and his past self.. and you have an unstoppable monster that NOTHING can stop and everyone else is very lucky they get sent back. They all put in a good offense.. but the league is out of their league.

Even Older Scott is a brick wall.. and one that smacks straight into Scott and Ramona trying to run from their problems. Scott is forced to face the fact that even getting better might not last even if he dosen't become this guy and Ramona's forced to face the hide this guy is right. Our heroes are up against the wall, their relationship almost over...

Enter Even Older Ramona. Turns out Even Older Scott just.. ghosted her. But her presence finally gives present Ramona the wakeup call she needs as finding our her older self just.. ran away each time her and scott had issues.. gives her a needed ephinay the same way Older Scott being a dumpster fire on cocaine gave this Scott one and Scott in the comics got one from seeing a dark mirror in gideon: Ramona Flowers.. always run. Lucas outright said as much and with the series fleshing out the exes more, almost there just give me a minute, we find out she just.. bounced on each relationship. Matt isn't a suprise, his backstory is the same as it ever was, and in some cases she was ENTIRELY justified in her assholery: Todd was an obnoxious prick she left another, far better guy for, the Twins were recontexculazed as serial predators who preyed on new freshman with Ramona dating them both being a way to get even on both of them, so while she still did a bad it was on legitly bad people, and Gideon.. is still Gideon. He may get more development here and have his own backstory.. but the series makes it VERY clear he was every bit as shitty to ramona as previous versions, he just hadn't got to using the glow or mind control chips levels of creep yet.

But as i'll get into more in a bit... she legitly hurt everyone else: While Matt didn't get into supervilanny till high school, it's hard not to think that being used as a weapon to keep other boys away didn't lead him down the tryhard path he now walks, Lucas was left devistated and became a xerox of a xerox of the kind of guy Ramona left him for, and Roxy was left genuinely devistated thinking she was nothing. All Ramona has done is run and deny people closure and the series reckons with that.. and like the comics forces Ramona to stand and fight, recognizing that her relationship with Scott could end badly.. but it's worth having.

It's a neat metaphor: our heroes see exactly how badly things could end... and that's how relationships can be. You worry about how badly things are going to go or how you'll fuck up. But the only way it can go forward.. is if you try. Risk the hurt for the good. present/past/whatever Scott made a valid point when trying to talk to his Older Self before seeing that was a lost cause: There had to be good times too? While Old Scott and even Older Scott bury them in self pity, a relationship, even if it fails.. has something to add. Something to help you grow. And given Brian himself had been through a divorce after a ten year marriage it's hard not to see the subtext, to see that idea of "would you talk yourself out of a relationship if you knew it'd end". And the answer he and Ramona have.. is no. It's worth the risk, worth the pain, and worth the possiblity that someone else can do it better.

Granted this being scott pilgrim doing it better involves the ramona's fusing and Even Older Ramona, while done with Scott (He ate up his second chance a LONG TIME AGO) gives both Scott's another chance. As she puts it "This one's just an idiot kid... and this one's a real mess" (When told to kick his ass) "It's never too late to clean up a mess.. " Despite it all.. part of her loves him.. and gives him another chance. Not with her, Oh lord no, but to be better. That .. we can always be better, no matter if your 23 or 47, you can become better. As Super Ramona says "What you've done in the past dosen't define you, hell me keep remembering that". It's a beautiful message: you can screw up, there is no happily ever after.. but you can always be better even if you stumble. And as our heroes face a new future together once again.. it feels a bit brighter this time, like these two kids will make it you know?

Not That Evil

One big pull of doing the story this way for Brian and BenDavid was the exes. Brian admitted in interviews he wrote the books by the seat of his pants and as a naive 20 something who didn't know how skaters or musicians worked except via magazines. Moving to LA among other stuff gave him more perspective, and he wanted to add that to the story, flesh the Exes out as people and use the bits he didn't have time for in the original.

As such 5/7 go from sometimes one dimension, sometimes wholly evil bastards for Scott to punch.. and Lucas, to 5 very flawed , very intresting people we get to see way more of and who all get something resembling a happy ending. Also Kyle and Ken are there. Getting them out of the way once again the adaptation barely uses them, as their more a plot device/backup so we can hear Will Forte sing the theme to Bubblegum Crisis. You know when Brian hinted at that scene in interviews pre show I expected to here Kirean Culkin, Bree Larson, maybe even Micheal Cera. I didn't expect Will Freakin Forte and god bless Brian for that.

So yeah the Twins are.. fine here and I love the anti climax: they don't get closure with ramona.. but are cool with Scott since they'll be buddies eventually. I also like that out of ALL the exes for Scott to befriend after they respawned it's these two guys.

Thankfully everyone else gets way more and no where is that more apparent than with MATTHEW PATEL, the first evil ex.. and the one who naturally gets the most to work with, going from the biggest jobber who ever jobbed, to the guy who killed scott pilgrim

Satya Bhabha gets to have a fucking feast here and I hope this leads to more rolls, voice acting or otherwise. While he was already one of the highlights of the film, easily, taking what was implied to be a music number and making it into this glorious thing.

The series takes it to new heights.. mostly by giving Matt his best life. Granted.. this life naturally dosen't include Ramona who walks out pissed off and Matt is befuddled "Wait we DON'T get her automatically if we win?"

So he does what you'd expect from an egocentric theater kid who realizes he was just played and this whole evil exes setup is a sham... call a meeting in GIDEON"S OWN LAIR to dramatically reveal it all. And punch the head off a good soft robot boy because he's a prick and a half. A loveable prick and a half but still.

It's something I just.. never thought about with the league. I assumed it was simply a "If I can't have you" situation as that was GIdeon's whole goal.. and to put her in his girlfriend freezer which i'm sure Matt released. Gideon and Roxy seemed like the only ones who wanted her back. But given the weird logic of this unvierse even if some of them DIDN'T want her, I like the idea they'd still like to keep that option open by unaliving someone. It's fucked up as it is sensical for a group that all gathered to keep their ex from moving the fuck on.

It makes equal sense that this was all a ponzi scheme, Gideon , being an entiled dick, just.. assumed he got her if anyone won. That the exes wouldn't object or, more likely, they simply woudln't make it far enough. They were just patsies so he could swoop in and score her on the rebound, also not getting that would never work and sh'ed just hammer his nuts so far in they'd be impacted.

What threw me after this.. was Matt's Challenge to gideon. Not him challenging Gideon, I expected that easily: Matt gets all of Gideon's empire if he wins, Matt dies if he looses. I figured Gideon would kill Matt, again, and would do some sort of cordinated strike. But as before Scott Pilgrim Takes off Decides

Instead we get an absolutely gorgeous, awesome fight scenes. one of the best i've seen in animation and one of the best of the year, which given Invincible came back, is saying something. Gideon, while not having his pixel or glow powers, fights well with swords, a harness and pure skill while Matt is consistently forced to push his powers in new and creative ways. While we get the ones he got to show off against scott, fireballs and demon hipster chicks, we also get to see a lot of cool new shit as he manifests arms ala the Hindu god shiva, with all his powers seeming to tie into Hindu mythology instead of "magic stuff I guess" like the originals. It's a tense fight I assumed would end one way.. but instead... Matthew Patel FUCKING WINS and wins Gideon's emppire, only leaving him alive as a brag

Yeah I assumed from this when first watching that this was some sort of Buffy "Superstar" situation, that Matt had altereted reality to make it better for him. Instead.. nope. This just happened organically. Turns out Matt is badass as fuck, Scott simply had the power of friendship and punches. No power scaling here bitches.

As a result... the League falls apart. Matt is TECHNICALLY leader.. but in practice the exes all go off to do whatever, with Ramona instead encountering them organically. Matt spends the season as a highly paid CEO, mostly showing up once in a while to shut down a whole movie production because it makes him look bad, pathetically hit on ramona.. then get scared when he finds out Scott is alive. My faviorite bit of that is his very timid "Is he mad at me?" like he's a second grader and Ramona's understandably irritated "I dont' know dude" as a response.

Granted this dosen't stop his dreams as Knives and Stephen are able to pitch him a Scott Pilgrim Musical, one of the most gloriously batshit subplots in the history of this franchise. Which really can be said for.. most of this fucking show, but I digress. Despite seemingly hvaing no talent, the prospect of finally getting his broadway dreams back after his dad crushed them is enough for him to level up again, do a performance everyone loves and become a broadway icon. I assume the last part. Hamilton move over, your new compettiion's in town.

(Sidebar to that refrence, I think Hidgens and Matt would be besties. THeir both weirdly violent and obessed with musical theater).

Hell Matt.. dosen't even get upstaged by Gideon. When Gideon tries a looney tunes plan to bomb the theater, the Demon Hipster Chicks just.. disarm it and Matt.. gives Gideon his company back. Turns out being a CEO is hard yo. He's already lost billions. So Matt has his career, his musical, the only thing he didn't want to give up and Gideon could care less about anyway, and a new evil bestie. Life is good.

And naturally it sucks to be Gideon Graves as a result, or rather Gordon Goose. I liked giving Gideon a backstory, aging him down to be julie's old peer who used to wear no fear shirts every day and got shot down hard. Huh I never knew the guy I knew in high school who gave every girl he knew an invitation asking them out in high school became a super villian.

So Gideon spends most of the series in a depressed daze secretly plotting revenge and watching anime. Why is every guy I knew in high school compressed into one sad canadian?

Where he's crashing though was a nice twist: Julie. For those who read my reviews of the comics, you'll recall I didn't exactly like Julie very much. And for good reason: she's the worst. Here she still is.. but Brian found the secret to having a character whose human garbage around without making the audience pull their hair out. You have to make them entertaing. Julie is still a high school alpha bitch all grown up here, but instead of just constantly talking about how Scott sucks, she gets to be funny. She swears constantly, taking a great gag from the film and escalating it, slacks off at her job, and snarks to Ramona about her taste in men.

She also.. gets redeeming qualities. Something I never thought any verison of Julie could possibly have, but here we are. Instead of just seeming to know Ramona and only claming to be her friend because Julie Powers is a starfucker, she's GENUINELY a good friend to Ramona, giving her the info she needs and being contrite when Ramona catches her with Gideon. Julie here feels more like a person and less like a blob of all the worlds sins congealed into that bitch.

And yes she ends up with Gideon, a ship I never thought of in my darkest day but somehow works perfectly. Their both awful in a way that's made for each other and Julie taking in Gordon at his lowest is genuinely sweet.

We get to see Gideon not as G-Man.. but as a nerd whose lost everything.. and gets the greatest and most wholesome montage ever with Lucas Lee. Seriously Lucas and Gideon fucking around Julie's house like two teenage boys is one of the greatest thigns ever put to film, even greater knowing it was somehow only 90 fucking minutes. It's fucking adorable.

What helps though is that while Gideon is a touch more sympathetic and pathetic... he's still not let off the hook for how he treated Ramona. He's not putting the glow in her and stuff, but he was still the same controlling manipulative asshat. I mean he still made the league just to win her back. It's just without the league or the trappings of power... he's a less charming scott, something the books largely hinted at. Ramona DOES get him to be a better partner to Julie, calling him out for leaning on her hard and taking advantage of her, and as a result instead of leeching off her they become equal partners in villianny with vauge never to be elaborated on plans at the end. And it's honestly.. sweet. It's nice their evil together. Sure they'll probably be meancing our heroes with a super mario bros 3 airship eventually, i'm sure, but at least their better. And matt freed his frozen kidnapped wives so we're good.

So moving right along fun and fancy free we have Gordon's best bro, Lucas. Lucas Lee takes more after the film, something Brian admitted was unavoidable for some things: after the movie made some versions of the characters more iconic he really coudlnt' go back. It's why getting the movie cast was so important: While this was going to be it's own thing, having them added a layer and frankly he didn't think anyone else could do it as well. I do think someone could've, there's tones of great voice actors, but i'm still glad he got the all star cast back as their just.. giving it their fucking best. God bless Michael Cera for reviving that email chains.

And you can feel the enthusiasm in most performances, but especially Chris Evans, who responded back within 20 minutes of being asked and hams it up. This Lucas is a bro whose on the verge of being cancelled and who is delightfully try hard, saying let's party as every other line in his films, throwing parties, and generally being axe bodyspray made into a person. He also tony hawks a lot, and you can tell BenDavid loves skater culture.

Lucas is fun to watch, being arrogant and an asshole, but one whose hilarious epsecially squeezed into Scott's t-shirt playing him in young neil's movie. It's a great visual. And his downfall being dating a 30 year old who happens to LOOK like a high schooler is both a brilliant meta joke on ellen wong, and just.. fucking great.

The show also, like all the exes, fleshes him out: It takes what we knew ,that Ramona cheated on him in high school, and fleshes it out: Ramona was his everything, helping a skinny skater kid get by, fixing his boards and generally being sweet.. then aburbtly left him for a fuck boy, with Lucas deciding to become the KING of all fuck boys in revenge.

Lucas isn't super deep, but I love that he's not just the dudebro party massacre we see on the surface: he does actually read the script, has genuine insight into ramona pointing out how unlikely the regular ending of the story is .. simply because she always runs. He also willingly skates into a cloud of ninja paparazzi to cover for her.

And the skating scene.. is one of my favorites in the show. Granted I like me some tony hawk even if I suck eggs at it, so that helps, but the animation is gorgeous. Granted this whole damn cartoon is gorgeous: Science Saru put their heart and soul into every frame and everything looks stunning, having a very early 2000's look with it's frayed edges on the characters, and capturing Brian's style perfectly.

The Skating Segment shows this off, with fluid motion, some great set pieces and some impressive jokes like the alien. It's fucking great.

So Lucas ends up not even able to afford a first class ticket back home.. but finds happiness as a barita. and Stacey finds happiness starring at his ass. Everyone wins. I kinda low key ship those two.. I mean Stacey's a bit younger, yes, but it's not knives level of age gap, and Lucas could use someone with their head mostly on their shoulders. They do try teasing him and kim.. but she'd eat him alive. It'd be fun but she would. So speaking of Kim and the evil exes, let's roll on to my faviorite, Roxie. Roxie is a fucking delight this time, with Mae Whitman, unsuprisingly, bringing her best. It's fun to get to see her cut loose and just play a horny lesbian ninja gremlin like she deserves, with Roxy hamming it up. She spends the evil Ex meeting dunking on everyone else ("Act like you've been here todd!"), and already being the best. She comes off as a combo of her two versions: she has the manic gremlin energy of her film counterpart, being as bi-furious as ever, but has the snarky energy of her book counterpart, being willing to take shots at people and question them... it's just spread to all of the exes since Scott isn't around to be the sole obstacle in her way of ramona.

She's then the first ex Ramona has to deal with herself on her investigation, and it perfectly fits her character: In the film she tried to jump the line, but got a cup of accidental boob punch instead, and while she did wait for Todd to get headbutted out of existence in the books, she also started her attack with some ninja poster clones of Canadian hillary duff in the excellent Free Scott Pilgrim one shot (The very comic that got me into the series), and tried the same sneak attack that ended up in boob punch city. No matter the version Roxy is an impatient little cave goblin and of course the second she realized Ramona was free and the others had stopped giving a shit she'd be the one to show up at her door.

She's also the only one Ramona has to fight instead of just having an adult conversation. And while Takes Off changes a lot by design.. it dosen't deny giving us another excellent Roxie vs Ramona fight, something that I didn't realize was a tradition till this one. Still they saved the best for possibly last as the two's video store dustup is one of the best fights of the series, only topped by the final battle with Even Older Scott and even THEN it's a very close call.

Starting with a furious one on one in No Account Video, one of my faviorite settings from the books i'm glad to see get fully fleshed out and used here, even if it gets wrecked and then shut down as a result, with sprinkler's going off, discount tapes being bodied and Hollie deciding fuck this i'm clocking out, we then get a fun take on an old trope as a stack of tapes fall on them, leading to the two getting stuck in video land. We get westerns, film noir, samurai flicks, Hollie griping about them ruining her faviorite movie but watching anyway, it's a gorgeous fight and the video tape grain just adds to it.

We also get at least one fun bit using the medium as when Ramona gets sucker punched, Kim simply rewinds to help her new bestie out.. and Roxie takes it like a champ and... exits the tape JUST to stomp the remote. Fucking amazing.

The best part though, like a lot of SPTO, isn't the punching, though it's glorious but the payoff. With both exhausted, Roxie lashs out in a brutally painful way, blood down her cheek. It wasn't just that Ramona left, it's that she left.. without saying anything: we get an actual sense of their relationship this time and rather than be the "phase" Ramona cruelly brushed it off as the last two times, we see the two slowly fall in love, a really cute shot of ramona throwing a blanket over the two of them.. and then Ramona moving out, almost saying something but not wanting to, leaving Roxie devistated. It's easy to see WHY she has this bubbling anger at Ramona: every time they've fought, she's made her feel like nothing, something she vocalizes here. It takes what was an extremley dated bit that made Ramona come off like a giant asshole in the previous versions, it's fine if she realized she's not bisexual (which any scene with her and kim in both the comic and this very anime proves is just.. factually false), but it's a face punching way to put it, and puts it in the context of really hurting someone. Ramona realizes she done fucked up, genuinely apologizes and the two.. just collapse. Their friends now.

I also love Roxie hitting on Kim. I could honestly see those two working out.. I mean yes there were no sparks but Kim was kinda put on the spot there and Roxie was on the rebound. Give em some time. Plus I think Kim would work well with a feral gremlin she has to reign in. She's done it before. Roxie also asking about hollie right after before cheerfully leaving.. it's the best. Mae Whitman's the best and I could see her headlining a spinoff easily. Give me more of my feral cave gremlin daughter comma you cowards.

Finally we have Todd. Unlike the others, Todd.. isn't really fleshed out more and is given an entreily new personality from the comics swaggering egotistical rockstar jackass (Since Lucas very much had that niche filled), and the film's errrr...

Brandon Routh done good with the cleaning lady bit, but he wasn't given much to work with. Here... he makes Todd into a gloriously dumb and horny slab of moron. The guy can't go ONE SCENE without nearly fucking envy, which is one of the funniest bits in the show, capped off with the glorious wolf whistling, then fucks Wallace about ten diffrent times that we see over three days, then gets an adorable wallace sailor tatoo.

Todd.. really isn't changed. He was a fucklord in high school and he's a horny cheating mess now. He's an excus efor an already rediculous show to take it up to 11.

So let's unpack the show's sense of humor since I hadn't got to yet: Scott Pilgrim Takes Off takes an already ridiculous franchise with psychic vegans, bollywood hindu sorcerers and literal one ups, and decides to take it to the next level with film fights, lucas lee pro paparazi ninja skater 3, future renditions of Konya Wa No Hurricane by will forte, the montage from stepbrothers: Canadian edition, stunt double fights, and Matthew Patel: The Main Character. This is a series that takes it's emotinal consequences seriously and not much else. And I love it: I love weird shit, I Love balls to the wall humor, and the humor still feels very much scott pilgrim just taken up a notch.

And episode 5 is where it hits it's what the fuck is this peak as Ramona infiltrates the set of the Scott Pilgrim movie. The episode feels like one long shit post and i'm entirely in favor of it. We have Wallace fucking todd and casually dumping him, Envy and Wallace siccing their stunt doubles on each other, an Edgar Wright stand in voiced by Kevin Mcdonald for some reason and Young Neil, who in this series is entirely shit post and i'm here for it. IT's glorious chaos and only the ending is really at all emotional on some level. I mean I feel for Todd, even if he was a cheating bastard, but it's hard to take his grief or envy's seriously when Envy is a carcature of herself in this series and Todd's depression is eating a KFC bucket of poutine and sadly recounting every place he and Wallace made out. Todd isn't given extra depth.. but even as a villian he never really had depth to begin with. He had a disapproving dad and a massive ego. It's fine if he's a giant goofy blushy man who's soul wallace destroys. Brendon Routh does a phenomenal job with that.

Overall the expansion of the exes is part of what makes this adaptation so fantastic. With the exception of the twins they all get to live their best lives, and we get to see more of them. It's fun to see them implicitly join scot'ts friend group, and i've already written little chats about that, as it's fun as hell now their full characters in the world instead of respawning back probably not having learned much except not to punch scott in the face.

And the Rest

So with everything upside down, how do the rest of the people in Scott's Precious Little Life fare when the main character their built to support is gone? It's another hook of this series: if scott's gone, even just temporarily, what happens to everyone else.

Sex Bomb-Omb naturally gets impacted the most, and the versions here are superb.

The standout of course is Knives who deals with Scott's death by discovering a new love: playing music. While Knives had always been a huge fangirl in past versions, it was in the way more teens find music: by glomming on to the first band or two that makes them feel something and guarding that new faviorite thing like a cat with a ski chalet

See? Despite letting these characters live rent free in my head for the past decade, I never once thought of this idea, letting Neil join shatterband, sex bomb omb's followup as it crumbles to dust in the comics, instead.

In hindsight this idea is the most obvious thing: Knives loves music, it's an easy excuse for her parents that eases them into the fact her friends are all 20 year olds, so she can stay with the group easier, and as for why Stephen and Kim would let it happen... both have always liked her. Kim's annoyance is more worrying about Scott scarring her for life, and Stephen an dher get really close towards the end of the series, with him becoming a big brother towards her. The two becoming big siblings to her and letting her join makes sense.

It's especially nice to see with Kim. Kim interacted with Knives a BIT in the books, being the only one on Team Sex Bomb-Omb (The band plus knives and young neil), to take scott to task for the Knives thing to his face, at worst getting annoyed Knives is copying her. Granted like most of the Team, Kim still fucks up with her, most notably.. this

Which at the time I, and apparently the devleopers of the game, saw as a shippable moment but nowadays I see as NOPE PLEASE STOP, PLEASE STOP.. PLEASE NEVER AGAIN. AGE GAP'S STILL AS WEIRD AS WITH SCOTT. PLEASE DONT' TRAUMTIZE THIS CHILD MORE. Kim gets more of a pass than her band mates and neil because she was drunk at the time and clearly regrets it, but it's still something entirely fucked up I wish hadn't happened and feel bad for all involved. This is not how you should find out your bisexual.

The series wisely avoids this as they've realized "This is also statutory". and instead nicely has Kim take up the big sis roll to Knives, being the only one to really look after her after her boyfriend allgedly exploded and was found to have been cheating on her.

Hence we get one of the the best scenes in the series, the drum session. Which I know some did interpret romantically but first off...

And secondly.. really dosen't given the context: Kim sees the band needs a bassist.. but more importantly sees Knives is trying really hard to learn and is clearly spiraling after Scott's death. So she invites her to play since Neil is busy with his screenplay and Stephen, as usual is handeling this sudden loss with all the grace and dignity he's known for

IT's a beautiful scene as two people simply bond as they jam, and both heal a bit from what they've lost. And we find out Knives is a musical progidy who mastered the Bass in only four hours, and masters a keyboard later in less.

This gives Knives her first real plot in the series that isn't tethered to Scott in some way, something that was jarring to realize, but easy to see why: the books are centered around Scott's life, his friends, his love intrest, etc. Their there as needed for his story. Knives has one of the most detailed and intresting character arcs of the main cast.. but it's still thorughly tethered to Scott: his dumping her sends her on a journey of spiraling depression and growth, eventually going from someone who puts scott on such a pedestal that she attacks his new girlfriend instead of seeing the obvious, to accepting Scott wasn't perfect, he cheated and that while he opend her world up, they were really bad together and it was never an equal paring. Even the fun subplot with her dad as the mystery swordsman in book 4.. is because he thought she was still dating Scott and thus attacked him for dating his daugther. The movie makes this worse by trying to make the relationhsip seem legit missing the point entirely. While Knives has a friend in Tamara an da passle of high school drama she gleefully tells scott about, neither are important to the narrative. We only meet her parents because her mom was there when Knives met Scott and her dad tries to run him through.

Here while Scott certainly is part of her story, why she met sex bomb-omb and why she wears his jacket for most of the series, and his death certainly had an impact, she moves on quickly here not because she forgot Scott like it seems a chunk of the cast do or she's TRYING to avoid thinking about him like Kim and Wallace seem to be, she just found a healthy creative outlet, something to put her pain into in a healthy way instead of getting highlights and trying to murder Ramona or dating a guy who looks close enough to Scott. Knives moves on faster here, taking what's implied to be maybe a month at most to move on versus a year.. because she's not isolated in her pain. Scott's friends dont' dump her because it's awkward now and then awkwardly let her stay around post neil because they feel bad. Kim invites her in and after hearing she can wail, Stephen warmly welcomes her into the band, and the two become besties. So we have to talk about Stephen really quick as his plot dovetails into Knives, with the two being a duo for half the series. Stephen is based more on his movie self.

Yeahhh while I love the books on re-read, Book Stephen sucks. He just.. sucks. If your wondering some of the lowlights i'm glad you asked, here's an expertly crafted montage.

And that's just what I could fit into a montage: he also cheats on Julie for most of volume 4, focuses on his affair with joseph to the point he refuses gigs when it's clear playing live is something Kim LIKES doing and helps her relax, and never even informs Scott the band's broken up. The last one's .. iffy because Scott was in a waking depression coma after loosing Ramona, so he coudl've told him and forgot, but out of Scott's friend group he's the most consistently dickish, with Kim's grumpy nature mostly being a wall. It's partly the writing as , again given this is scott centric, we dont' peel back the layers on him the way we do with say Ramona, Knives or Kim. We don't see why he thought it was easier to cheat like we do with Scott and Knives, which wouldnt' make it okay but would make him less punchable. we don't know WHY he stays with Julie. Stephen is just an enigma and as such comes off immesnely annoying when most of his major endevors screw up everyone elses life in some way. And as one final coda to this rant, i'm not saying telling knives about Scott's two timing is bad... i'm saying he's the wrong person to tell her as not only did HE cheat on his partner, and as the last panel shows, KNOWS it's wrong Ramona clearly dosen't know half a year into the relationship, but won't tell her anyway for a friendship he REALLY dosen't seem to remotely care about.

So yeah a hammy constantly anxious relatable stephen was better, and Mark Webber was a delight by contrast. We didn't get to know movie Stephen.. but I didn't want to punch him either. So having Anime Stephen be more like the one who isn't punchable was smart: He's still panicky, crying more over the fact Scott leaves them baseless than over the fact his friend's dead (Which is mildly douchey but as we learned with Julie, if it's for a joke it's fine), and still obessed with making music his career while his band mates are like "Yeah fine whatever", so he's not really changed hard from the core of the character, but he is a delight and him and Knives becoming best friends in a far less hypocritical sense is adorable.

I also REALLY love their pet project: After Young Neil's movie falls through, more on him shortly, they make Scott Pilgrim, the original timeline, into a MUSICAL, complete with a bread makes you fat music number. I do like the ocasional nod here and there: O'Malley and Grabinski conciously didn't want to just.. repeat a gag because it was expected, but threw a few of the more iconic bits in as long as they could remix the joke. It's why the pee bar and the shoe tying making cameos, as their in new contexts, while there just wasn't room for the l-word or scott going out a window.

This whole subplot is gold from Stephens aying "as a creative to another creative" a hundred times, something I relate to since i say as a critic way more than I probably should, to it paying off.

And this is where Knives asceneds. By the end she not only gets closure with scott, admitting she's glad he's back but is glad he died, as the relationship wasn't healthy and she could grow into a hit songwriter, but she has a huge career with an award winning (Probably) musical, a new best friend and mentor, and writing songs for her fav envy.

And most nicely for me.. .I get a reality where Sex Bomb Omb dosen't fall to pieces in some way or form. Yeah without Stephen's drama or callousness depending on the version and with Knives creative vision the band not only stays together, but has a real shot at being something, giving everyone in it a bright future. Knives Chau really got to take off.

Kim is as usual the meaning in my life and the inspriation, with Allison Pill getting to do more with the character since she's not shunted to the background to say one or two lines. I mean she's still IN the background sadly: She gets a major roll in episode 3 and then just shows up when Sex Bomb Omb's together, not even getting that involved in the musical. I really wished after the film Kim got a big beefy roll. She could've been Ramona's sidekick or something like that, the two been clue buddies together. But I suppose the raw sexual tension would've left Scott out. Still she plays of Ramona well and it woudl've been nice ot have Kim around to response to the madness of episodess 4 and 5 with ramona. Still she gets a better shake than the movie: Episode 3 highlights how this version is actually over him, but encourages Ramona's attraction to him, simply warning her of what he's like, is a good friend to Rammy, and gets that moment with Roxie. I love how sh'es just like "I'm not... oh alright". And I think given another chance there would be sparks. Kim is sadly not given MUCH but it's still more kim pine, and i'm always in favor of that.

Finally we have my newly adopted son Young Neil. Unlike with Stephen, they didn't really take from the previous neil, whose super excited, and goofy and better than the graphic novel version whose alright. They go back to the Graphic Novel's glass eyed, barely emotive werido.. yet STILL make him something new rather than just adapt that version.

The result is a neil whose spacey, barely emotive.. but also REALLY dumb and really weird. Naturally I love him and relate immensely. Neil is somehow CRITICAL to the plot this time and entirely unaware of what is going on. He's season 1 todd chavez and it's wonderful.

This Neil gets most of the best bits, with Johnny Simmons having perfect timing. A good chunk of this series weird shit comes form Neil, who takes Scott's death as as sign he should persue his passion for screenwriting and get's his big break when in a half assed wel lmeaning plan, ramona adapts his book into a screenplay and sends it to him. Neil sees a mysteriously cloaked future ramona writing the script.. then assumes it's his sleep paralysis demon and he's a scripting genius.

We then get two glorious episodes of Neil at a movie set not remotely qulaified to be there as he assumes Americans and then the japanese call golf carts mario karts, gets a perscription but somehow winds up with sunglasses, and barely registers Matthew shutting his expesnive nightmare of a film down becuase he can't drive golf carts anymore. It even takes a lengthy and fucking glorious scene with sex bomb omb for him to realize "oh maybe my sleep paralysis demon didn't write this". Just the casual way he says it while everyone else is baffled, and how Kim and Knives have to slowly explain reality to him is great. Neil is comic relief incarnate and I love him, easily the best version. I'm also happy that like most of the cast, he gets a happy ending, as he apparently got a job at the studio after Gideon reopened it driving his cart around. Nick Frost is right, Young Neil really is off the chain.

So onto the one charcter who over FOUR DIFFRENT MEDIUMS has never really talked to anyone I just talked about but knives, we have Wallace. First off: yes i'm still disapointed he never really talked to Sex Bomb Omb. I got it vibe wise: everyone has friends who just.. don't know each other, but the intro got my hopes up they'd actually.. hang out at some point. But just like everything else, the intro isn't remotely indicative of what happened in the anime. The comics sure. And it's a true banger.

Seriously the colors are vibrant, the song is vibrant and fits scott perfectly, with Necry Talkie really nailing him down, and it's a perfect intro. Even if it ends up being nothing like the series , I still love it. One of my faviorite anime intros of all time. Love that cute falling shot of scott and ramona and the bit showcasing the exes. So good.

What was I on about? Oh yeah Wallace. Wallace here is a mixed bag. As with the film Kirean Culkin is perfect as Wallace: he gets the dry tone down, his drunken antics down and the whole sarcastic vibes perfectly. He was the best performance of the film, and while the compettition's too steep here for him to win again, he's still amazing.

That said Wallace.. is a bit more of a dick here. He comes off more.. tolerating scott instead of having a genuine friendship with him, and the only hint we get of him mourning his best friend is just how plastered he is.. and even then he threatens to change the locks. If Ramona reminded him to. I get the two weren't going to be as focused on, but it's still sad.

I also wish his friendship with Ramona stayed. While it makes sense they don't bond, Scott isn't around to link them, it was one of the funnest parts of the books.

Really this Wallace shows why he needs Scott and what he might be like when his bestie isn't around: Just because Wallace is more put together.. dosen't make him not an asshole. While I admi the's more dickish here with reflection.. I have to say it's not out of character. He's still giving us killer bits from wanting to see a notriously straight actor play him, to his smug acceptance of becoming an actor, to his deadpan acceptance that todd's in love with him, he's still the wallace we love... it's just we're seeing the side of him that dosent look better with a dumpster fire constantly ned tot him.

The biggest douchery is of course stealing Todd from Envy.. but besides it taking two to cheat, Wallace stealing someone's boyfriend.. isn't new behavoir. I laughed at how out of left field the PARING was.. but Wallace is Jimmy's bi or gay or pan, whatever he is, awkaneing in the book and film, and Stacey's reaction in both makes it clear he steals her boyfriends CONSTANTLY. So him stealing Todd and then explaining it was just a fling to him.. is entirely in the realm of Wallac'es douchebagery. He's not a terrible person.. but like everyone else in the cast he's a mess. HIs abuse of his stunt doubles was a bit over the line, but is so over the top it works. And this wallace also sings us complicated. So while I wish we got to see more of the Wallace we don't in the books... what we do get is still great.

Envy.. gets the shortest end of the stick here next to the twins, as she at least had a fairly comepelling arc in the book, being the focus of volume 3 and a major part of volume 6. Here while Brie Larson is once again great there really.. isn't much for Envy here. Even the film, which basically squoozer her in at the last second, still gave us an awesome version of the phone call she gives scott and the iconic black sheep sequence. Here while Envy gets another all timer scene in her funeral concert, the second most obnoxiously awesome crashing of a funeral behind flintheart glomgold

Envy DID at least get to dance on his casket. Or a stage above his casket. still counts.

Envy.. is left at the face value we meet her at the start of volume 3: queen biatch, queen of all the chaos, queen of all you love and adore. She's still a lot of fun from the above horny antics with todd to her yanking Ramona out of a talking head interview to fight her battles for her, but there's .. nothing really to her and it stand sout in a series that gives everyone else but the twins something new.

Okay ALMOST everyone as Stacey is once again out of focus like the comics. The movie gave her a bit more, but here she's scott's sister who calls people. That's it. It makes sense, Ramona has no real reason to talk to her, but it's a waste of your Anna Kendrick to not find more antics for her, especially since they found wallace and Neil great subplots. That said she does live her best life at the end starring at lucas' butt.

I also want to note the presence of Hollie, kim's roomate, best friend and co-worker. She does little, Shannon Woodward does a fine job, but I like that she's in here at all: Hollie was a character I liked in the comics.. who went on to steal kim's boyfriend for plot convience. So having a verison of her that dosen't do that shit and is just Kim's snarky foil and friend again works for me.

Finally we have a bunch of cameos, the bulk of them legendary. We get Simon Pegg and Nick Frost as security guards, Weird Al as the intro narator for the doc on the failed Scott Pilgrim film, comedy and voice acting legend MIcheal Mcdonald as Edgar Wrong, Bowen Yang as a tv gossip, kal Pen as matt's lawyers and Kirby HOwell Baptiste as Lucas Lee's agent. All fun one or two off bits, all fantastic.

Finishing off the character stuff we have a missed opportunity too: Joseph and Lisa get to cameo.. but are once again left out, to my annoyance. I get not being able to fit them in and Lisa has less of a point without Scott around.. but it'd still be nice to get a scene or something, especially since I was far from the only person asking for Lisa Miller to get a proper apperance.

So with that we close the book on Scott Pilgrim Takes Off.. and it was phenominal. While I would've loved a new adaptation, this.. is even better: a spirtual sequel that expands the characters, is not afraid to go full nonsense, let's a lot of the cast from the film fully shine, and has a bitching soundtrack once again. Not a ton of original songs sadly, but I Feel Fine and Orange Shirt are bangers, and we get Will Forte singing an anime theme song. If the last part dosen't appeal to you, I don't know how you got this far in the review. Takes Off is one of the best entries in this franchise and leaves me hopeful we'll return to this world again. Maybe not on screen but hey, even with the mountain of work it took to get this cast together again, tthis adaptatoin has proven anything is posisble.

Thanks for reading.

[cardiac-agreste]

Tell me, how would you feel if the season 5 ending got undone by time travel or another wish or something? I'm not sure how likely that is, but that might be the only way to restore some fans faith in the show.

Thank you for the question! I love sharing my opinions about everything, so you're doing me a real solid!

I'd be pretty annoyed if they undid things like that! It makes everything that happens in the show pointless if you can spam Ctrl-Z all the time. (That was one of the biggest criticisms of Ephemeral, right?)

And to be frank, I am unperturbed about former fans having lost faith in the show. Their dislike of the show has zero effect on me, a person who thought the finale was great.

That's a them-problem, not a me-problem!

(Though I do care if my MLB friends are happy with the direction of the show, but it's because I like my friends to be happy not because I need "fixes.")

Honestly, Alya never apologizing to Marinette for her Lila loyalty is wayyyyyy more upsetting than Chat Noir not fighting in the final battle.

(I also think there's no way they ever could've had him fight in the finale, because it would've meant a children's show ending the season on a close-up of a depressed, suicidal Adrien. There's no way he could've found out his father was HM and that he's senti in the final two episodes and there be any outcome besides intense existential dread and then a year or more of no new episodes)

[alitgblog]

finale thoughts!!

I knew fusebox had to drop the ball at some point it just happened a lot slower than I was expecting 🤣

first off, now that I've fully rejected Theo it feels like he's missing in action again, hilariously. said it before, but they said he's like the dad of the group initially and I wish we'd have more platonic interactions with him to see that.

Hari and Hazel having Oakley and Emel esque drama God damn we should've just kept Oakley and Emel. That would actually be more interesting to me bc in character makes sense, they're always fighting but something about their last argument was the last straw and then they tearfully announce finale morning that though they care for each other they decide to break up and won't join everyone in the final to be true to themselves (basically I stole this from love island USA S4 with Nadjah and Jeff lol)

also bc I liked Hari and Hazel together I wish they could've just made it. Like they make more sense to me than Bea and Logan.

Speaking of Bea and Logan, I do think they're such a random couple. I mean, ngl it's not like the love island show always produces four strong couples for the finale each season, but since like S5 of the game it feels like there are no good couples that make sense in the finale except for MC and whoever she's with. Like Amelia and Toby MAYBE just bc they were written for each other, but even then. at least when Angie coupled with Oliver as a last minute love interest for her, there was the story that she couldn't find anyone and that they had a lot in common and actually showed some interest in each other until fusebox threw that out the window and made Angie a lesbian (which I'm not complaining about but then whyd they keep Oliver around)

And since I'm talking about all the couples anyway I guess I will comment on Theo and Claudia being together still for some reason?? said this before but WHY. at least they're a hot couple. if they're still together during the reunion though oml 🙄

anyway hideaway is nice.

I didn't realize your answer with Hazel would determine your final date but that's cute it's in a castle. Also I picked it bc I personally thought that would be interesting, but I totally forgot Jin is also a history nerd so I'm just gonna pretend that the imaginary producers were like oh we have a perfect date for these two hot nerds lol. I wish he had more comments on the castle though, bc yeah he's a history buff! just really shows the dialogue is all merged now so it's very generic.

like I feel like Jin hasn't made any jokes for a while too, which is out of character but that's bc the dialogue has to work for Jin and Oakley and Jack and Tyler too 😭 I guess it doesn't need to be fully custom but a couple lines here and there to remind us of the character they had in the beginning would be nice.

I love Hazel up until this episode now because what do you mean they're fighting over suck and blow now???? I let the card drop bc I want to be an instigator!! let MC kiss Hari again,, cause a big fucking mess 🤭

that did not happen of course

I also think we just didn't need drama the last episode. like there'll be enough emotions with the characters being sad about leaving and talking about the outside, there doesn't need to be more relationship drama. if there MUST be drama: do what I said earlier in the other hari/hazel bullet point where they just have a swift death and self eliminate in the morning/afternoon, or have petty drama between non romantic islanders. like when S2 the girls are arguing over lotion or perfume or whatever or the salt crisps later and bathroom problems later on. These guys have been living in close proximity for some time, they're bound to get agitated over little things that don't result in big shocking revelations and breakups, so just do that.

speeches cringe as always but that's just the nature of those declarations anyway. Hazel though, girl, stop it.. I'm getting the ick for you as a friend

another comment for branching would've been nice: it's weird that Claudia is like omg we're besties when they both sorta cheated on their partners in casa for each other (in my game at least). like she says we have to plan to hang out outside the villa and I'm thinking oh shit,an open relationship with Jin??gotta make sure he's okay with it first 😂😂

Beady eyed Finn is around and he clearly got that post villa plastic surgery

also wtf, seriously Finn!!!!????

like Hamish I don't like and I don't think it makes sense he'd do it S6, but I understand that he's a fan favorite and very silly so that's why he's there. S7, I didn't play but I think it was Ivy and she's not a fan favorite, but I could so see the producers trying to pick anyone who had the free time and wanted to do it and she's the only one who said yes. But Finn??? I'd bet on Eddie coming back before Finn?? And fusebox has access to S4, like they could've picked Bruno, so why Finn??

and of course fusebox does one last begging for gems in exchange for some gossip you can do without 🙄 AND it would be gossip about ex in the villa no thank you

even though we have a few more

[kaythefloppa]

TTS: Zhan Tiri (and by extension Moon!Cass) rewrite.

Ok but I feel like Zhan Tiri could've been way less lame as a villain if she and The Enchanted Girl were separate characters. Their stories, designs, established characters do not mesh up (Zhan Tiri was a girl the whole time despite her closest allies and greatest enemies calling her a dude, and the blizzard was her the whole time when it was originally a spell, and oh yeah her disciples didn't neeed to try and possess Rapunzel when all it took was her and Cass duking it out to free her). It's clear that there had to have been some last min. rewrites which forced this.... really dumb plot point that makes ZT a really pathetic villain who has no agency, scapegoats Cass, whilst diminishing her agency and likeability as well and making the mains' adversary with her feel hollow.

What they could've done (i.e. what I probably would've done/would do in a potential rewrite fic that I'm too lazy to make) is have The Enchanted Girl be another disciple of Zhan Tiri. Maybe have it be where she's ZT's second-in-command, sister, or even daughter (I'd go with the daughter angle, it fits the parenthood theme of the franchise, whilst also putting it on its head with an evil parent AND evil offspring - In any scenario, we'd be able to keep the original storyline of Zhan Tiri being a warlock). Either she's among the spirits who were trapped in and later released from the Demanitus chamber, or she aided ZT in the takeover of the great tree, but was imprisoned by the spell Demanitus used to subdue the tree, and were freed upon Hector and Rapunzel's intervetion (removing the spear that wakes the tree up, and killing it with the decay spell - perhaps the "Setting the spirit free" thing is what gets her out).

She reaches The House of Yesterday's Tomorrow and makes a deal with Tromus that if capturing the Sundrop fails, then they will have a backup plan of capturing the Moonstone, hence Tromus's warning "This isn't over!!" when he gets thanosed. He knows another disciple is out there, ready to strike.

She goes after Cassandra and convinces her to take the Moonstone (though with much better motivations - Like say, stopping the Black Rocks on her own whilst protecting Rapunzel and Eugene) - but to rather to keep the Moonstone away from the Sundrop, as opposed to stopping the Sundrop herself, a clever plan in comparison to her bretheren (the clash of "sun and moon" thing would thus be moot).

Hell, through this, maybe we could even add in the original plotline of Cassandra being possessed by the Moonstone after merging with it, her body becoming a host for the stone's sentience as its black rocks slowly destroy everything in Cass's path against her own will to seek out the Sundrop once again. The Enchanted Girl could use Cassandra as a literal puppet; The destruction that the stone is causing her to make being used as a weapon to separate the Sundrop and Moonstone forever, and bring Corona to its knees as a result, maybe even using the decay spell (combined with Rapunzels, in a clash of the two powers, so we'd still get the epic fight in Cassandra's Revenge) to destroy the quasi-magical prisons Lord Demanitus had set for the disciples, setting their spirts free in order to re-enact the spell they performed that summoned Zhan Tiri millenia ago. So ZT would be reserved until the final episodes where we'd see his motivations, goals, desires, full backstory, and his villainous plans in the ongoing story, and the conflict would be upped with the greater threats. Through this, we would also further explore the plot-thread of Gothel being one of Zhan Tiri’s followers, and her storyline of being Cassandra’s mother would get more development and have a place in the story.

Or have EG manipulating Cass psychologically (keep EG being a disciple/daughter, keep the possession plot-line, and change the motivation for Cass's betrayal) - The ghost girl is her one hope at salvation. She can either obey her and master the Moonstone's power and grant herself and everyone else freedom of its curse, or ignore her warning and play instrument in its destruction of the world. Perhaps after Cassandra's Revenge, when the Moonstone is broken, this gives her a chance to break free of its control and return to Corona ready to redeem herself - Unaware that Zhan Tiri's army have been freed and are ready to enact far more destruction than Cassandra ever could.

But that's just my opinion.

[wackybuddiemewbs]

Okay, another thing that's sending me PLACES:

The fact that Eddie's the one who convinces Buck to hustle his poker family.

It's so much fun to see (and so many hearteyes), but on a more serious note here: How wonderful is this for a guy like him???

Like, we've learned about Eddie that he had to grow up fast and be "the man in the house", while his father was gone. Since last season, we know how deeply that trauma's run for him (and how that affected his marriage and his first interactions with his son, until he decided to break the vicious cycle). In that way, Eddie likely didn't have as much unrestrained fun as children his age were having (and were supposed to have).

That already made my heart melt for him in his interactions with the rest of the 118. They fool around, they play games, they play pranks. And Eddie's a happy participant in all of them.

But the poker thing is the first time (if memory doesn't fail me) that we see Eddie *initiate* the tomfoolery. Like, it could've been that he initiated e.g. pranks on Bobby or Hen before, but we never got to see it. He was simply part of the pranksters. But here, we very clearly see that Buck has no idea why they are getting dressed up and go out.

Like, ever since Eddie started therapy, he's come more into his own. And I love to see how comfortable he feels, particularly with Buck, to "let loose" and have unrestrained fun. More so because he seemingly grasped that he has to find things to do that aren't entirely about Christopher. He's having "another family" he's enjoying adult fun with. They don't talk about his kid. It's not about him being a dad. Eddie is just Eddie, playing poker (and looking hella dapper).

And I do believe that this is so special foremost in his interactions with Buck. Because normally, you'd expect Buck to be like this all the time, with Eddie reigning him in. But here we have Eddie going like: Babe, let's do crime. Whereas Buck just makes Confused Buck Noises™.

Eddie is comfortable with the 118 and especially with Buck in... basically being the version of himself he had to store away for a long time. And I do believe Buck being the way he is actually helped Eddie open up to that side of him. Because Buck is often immature (affectionate). He's the guy who pouts about wanting to do treasure hunts. And Eddie acts all cool until they are among themselves, and then he's a total muppet about it.

Which is a long-ass way of saying:

Just how perfect are they for each other???

Like, Buck's personality helps Eddie reconnect with what I feel is a part he's neglected for a long time. And he's so much more comfortable with it now that he can perceive himself much better as "just Eddie" and not just dad or firefighter.

And to flip that back on its head another time, Eddie's personality matches Buck's in so many ways that it'd deserve a separate post. But two things stand out to me in the current context of the narrative:

1) Eddie seemingly gets Buck out of his own head, by letting him hustle poker with him. Last episode, Buck was very restless until he finally got home to the OTC (One True Couch™). So maybe Eddie wasn't just in for the money (or steaks) but also to be closer to Buck and to offer him a way not get lost in his head. That it's okay to have fun again, after what he just went through, even though he will have to think about his trauma many more times. Which would be very much on-brand for Eddie. And it might be just what Buck needs.

2) Eddie's welcoming Buck into those "secret" or private places and shares them with him. I think it was very purposeful that Eddie was shown to have kept that poker club from Buck, but then invites him into this space (and then drops the 3 minutes and 17 seconds line). It's just a that one sentence, but in that space, Eddie lets Buck catch a glimpse at that horrible moment that lasted 3 minutes and 17 seconds. He invites Buck to spend time with him and Christopher and places it inside Buck's apartment (he's extending his home to include Buck's). He lets him crash on his couch and makes Buck talk about his feelings in his kitchen. That is very much the opposite of what Buck got as a child, as he is more accustomed to radio silence and not being allowed to be part of certain parts of peoples' lives.

And I think that's something this episode highlighted beautifully. How their personalities and ways of going about each other facilitate one another to feel more comfortable being themselves. Be it in reconnecting with a part of their childhood they had to let go of, or giving them a chance to exist without any labels for their various purposes (firefighter, donor, dad, miracle baby (I'm still salty over that one, Margaret!!!), legal guardian, etc.). They are just Eddie and Buck, and they give each other the opportunity and inspire each other to create that room for themselves.

And I think that's just beautiful.

And damn sexy.

I mean.

Look at them:

[mintedwitcher]

It's taken a hot minute but I think I can finally articulate why I dislike Martha Jones as a companion (NOT as a person or as a character independent of the Doctor, but STRICTLY as it pertains to her behaviour/actions around the Doctor himself). (Please keep in mind this is all just my opinion and analysis, I'm open to discussion about it but not discourse.)

Obligate disclaimer, this is not character bashing, I think Martha has a lot of potential that the show flat-out ignored or wrote over or just forgot about, I think she could've definitely been a BETTER character, but by no means is she a Bad one, she's just not my personal favourite when it comes to companions. (At some point I'll probably sit down and make an actual ranking of my favourite companions but not yet.)

Martha is smart, like incredibly smart. She's well educated, she's compassionate, she's brave, she's brilliant. But she's also stubborn to a fault, and she has a sort of entitlement we haven't seen from other companions (until Clara). Not a personal entitlement, where she believes she's owed everything just for existing, but specifically regarding the Doctor; she believes she deserves his life story, his secrets, his memories, because he chose her to travel with him.

A scene that comes immediately to mind is just before they were supposed to leave New Earth, and she planted herself and refused to budge until the Doctor divulged details about Gallifrey to her. Now, the interesting thing there, is that this entitlement actually does the Doctor some good. He's never had someone ask about Gallifrey before, and he hasn't needed to talk about it in any detail yet beyond "my planet's gone." No one's pushed him to talk about it yet. Martha doing that was a benefit, because from that point on, we see the Doctor talk more about Gallifrey and his people.

See, none of Martha's inherent traits are necessarily Bad. Martha also loved the Doctor, but that's never been my problem. My problem with it is the way that she pushes those feelings onto the Doctor and then becomes irate, petulant or just plain catty when the Doctor either doesn't reciprocate, ignores her, or mentions Rose.

An argument could potentially be made from Martha's point of view that the Doctor led her on, but I don't really get that, because he never showed interest. And really, a random kiss in a hospital while under siege by alien police from a man she just met is not interest. Especially when he was insistent beforehand that it was nothing, and that afterwards it was a genetic transfer. She was being used as a distraction. She read into it more than there was, and pinned her hopes on it, and that is what ultimately undermines her as a companion in my eyes.

It's one thing, I think, to be pining. But it's the pressure of expectation that makes me grind my teeth. Nearly every episode, there is some kind of Moment where Martha acts as if this will be the time the Doctor makes a move on her, or where she lets herself think there's more to their interactions than there really is. And that's tolerable, for an episode or two, but for an entire season? You really can't expect me to believe someone as smart as Martha really cannot see the writing on the wall here, which is that the Doctor is not looking for a girlfriend, he's looking for a friend. He isn't ready for another relationship, (as undefined as it was with Rose) he just wants company. And yes, he wants the adoration and validation and the awe that comes with taking a human out into the universe, but he certainly doesn't want to date. And he makes that clear in his actions, as much as he can without bluntly stating it, probably for fear that she'd choose to leave, and maybe that's where it falls apart. He won't communicate clearly, and so she won't pay attention to the obvious cues he's giving out. It's a game of cat and mouse to her, while for him it's a tightrope walk.

It's the expectation, though, that because he took her travelling, that means he has to have some sort of feelings for her. And he does care for her, as a friend, as a companion, but he's still mourning Rose and the relationship he had with her. For Martha to expect a new relationship to bloom under those conditions, it was naive. I've never much been a fan of the whole "date hopping" trope, where a character bounces immediately from one relationship to another without pause, so the expectation of it here irritated me.

(I'll have to make another post about the Doctor's side of this whole thing, because it really is a mess of miscommunication and expectations.)

And then, finally, we come to my least favourite Martha moment of her entire season: her goodbye. Not only did she spend an entire season putting the pressure of reciprocity on the Doctor, putting her feelings on him, lashing out when it falls through again and again, but then when she decides to leave him for good, her initial farewell would've been enough. Should've been enough. But no. No, she went back inside, and she decided to just add guilt to the already unstable emotional state of her friend. She tried to guilt him for not reciprocating, by comparing their relationship to a toxic one that her friend had. It was underhanded, and completely unnecessary.

And in the context of that episode, given everything that happened, it was entirely out of place, and it undermined her decision to leave in the first place. I respected the hell out of her for choosing to stay on Earth with her family after the events on the Valiant, and then she turned around and made it about her unrequited feelings for the Doctor, and it just felt Weak.

The show does that annoyingly often, I've found, especially when it comes to the companions. They get a brief moment to shine and be powerful and be brilliant, and then it's undercut very quickly afterwards by either killing them off, sending them away, or doing something pointless. And this scene was no different in that way.

Compare this to the Martha we saw later in the show, after her time as a companion was over, and look at how she shines there. Brilliant and smart and brave, working for UNIT, happily engaged, healed. She was absolutely fantastic. That was a version of Martha I would've LOVED to watch as a companion. We got the dulled down version of that as a companion, only really coming out on rare occasions, but imagine if we'd had that ALL the time.

Martha after the Doctor is without a doubt one of my favourite characters. Martha with the Doctor makes me want to tear my hair out.