#don't really have anything to say about the final two episodes because i skipped most of it

[lecoindecachou]

Okay I'm finally done with my Crazy Ex-Girlfriend re-watch and I'll say this, this show really lucked out with its cast, I love everyone in this bar*

*except for s4 Greg's smug fucking face

[animebw]

Short Reflection: Spring 2024 Anime

I feel like 2024 is shaping up to be an unusual year for anime. Most mainstream shonen and isekai are staggering into audience fatigue of some kind or another, two-cours series are making a massive comeback, and big waves are being made from eclectic shows like Apothecary Diaries and Girls Band Cry that would likely be relegated to cult classic status in years prior. There haven't been many clear standouts yet, but there's a lot of fascinating second-tier stuff bubbling just under the surface. It feels like the general anime audience has grown so big at this point that the way we consume shows and the kinds of shows that break through are evolving before our eyes. Never mind movies like Look Back and The Colors Within waiting in the wings to redefine our notions of what animated cinema can be. All this is to say, I don't know what we'll make of 2024 when all is said and done, but it's gonna be a very interesting story. For now, though, let's take stock of spring's roster of shows to pick out the best, the worst, and the worth checking out. Not counting the shows I've already talked about (Hibike Euphonium's final season 9.5/10 and Demon Slayer's training arc 4/10) or MHA's latest foray, which I'm still waiting to see exactly how it shakes out.

Dead Dead Demons' Dededede Destruction: Please Watch/10

I'm putting this one right up front because while it's still very early into airing, there's a good chance a lot of you don't even know it exists. Released initially as a pair of movies earlier this year, this adaptation of Oyasumi Punpun author Inio Asano's bizarre bildungsroman alien invasion manga has been retooled into an 18-episode TV series with (apparently) lots of additional footage to fill out everything the movies had to cut for time. Those production circumstances alone would be interesting enough to merit checking it out (fingers crossed Haikyuu can get the same treatment?), but more importantly, this show is just really damn good, and it deserves better than being dropped on Crunchyroll with almost no fanfare and incomplete English subs that don't translate most of the written text. As someone who kind of loved and hated Punpun in equal measure, Dededede feels like all of Asano's best instincts on full display, a riveting exploration of how modern humanity is forced to struggle through "normal" life in the shadow of the apocalypse, asking how we can still set our sights on our futures when there's a very good chance that future might never come. It's messy and difficult, and yet it brims with love for people and our ability to seek kindness and compassion even in the darkest times. Just do yourself a favor and skip the awful "episode 0" prologue; not only is it leagues worse than the rest of the show, it spoils so many details about the story's endgame that it might just ruin the experience outright if you're not careful. You've been warned.

Mushoku Tensei Season 2 Part 2: 1.5/10

Is the second part of Mushoku Tensei season 2 as apocalyptically awful as the first part? Not quite, no. But that's only because Rudeus doesn't do anything quite as jaw-dropping as buying a child slave or kidnapping and molesting a pair of catgirls with no consequences. I know, the bar is in fucking hell and this garbage fire still barely managed to stumble over it. Otherwise, it remains every bit as vile as always. Here's a fun drinking game you can play: take a shot every time someone this season 1) makes excuses to justify why Rudeus shouldn't feel bad about doing something awful, 2) praises Rudeus to high heaven and calls him the most specialest boy ever, 3) falls head over heels for Rudeus in a matter of seconds. You'll likely pass out before you're halfway through the season, but on the plus side that means you won't have to watch any fucking more. I simply remain baffled that so many people have been fooled into thinking this show is something meaningful and smart, how many people ignore its glaringly obvious awfulness to pretend it's saying things it's not actually saying and exploring ideas it's not actually exploring. All I can do is wait impatiently for Re:Zero's return later this year so it can smack everyone senseless with a reminder of what challenging, subversive isekai storytelling actually looks like. Maybe then we'll finally be able to recognize this steaming pile of misogyny and rape culture for what it is and cast it out without a second thought. We can only hope.

Urusei Yatsura Season 2 (2nd Half): 4.5/10

I think I've given Urusei Yatsura a fair shake. I've done my best to enjoy it through its weaker moments and painfully obvious crows' feet. But now that it's finally over, all I can think is maybe it was better off left in the past. There are infinitely better screwball comedies that have come since, comedies that have been building off the tropes Urusei Yatsura established and finding much more interesting, meaningful things to do with them. This may be a foundational rom-com text, but fifty goddamn years later all its best qualities have been improved upon to the point of obsolescence, and all that's really left is the gross, dated stuff and the fact that every time it tries to be sincere and sentimental it runs into the unavoidable problem that all the romantic relationships its built on really kind of suck. Sorry, but Ataru and Lum are an awful couple and all the worst parts of this show are when it unironically tries to make you root for them despite them being pretty blatantly terrible for each other. I'll stick with Inuyasha, thank you very much.

Wind Breaker: 5/10

Man, why does every promising modern delinquent anime end up driving itself into a ditch before long? First Tokyo Revengers, then Bucchigiri, and now Wind Breaker has completed the trifecta. And this one had so much potential! Casting a shoujo-style blushy tsundere bad boy as the protagonist of an otherwise straightforward tough-guy action brawler is one of the most inspired strokes of genius I've seen in a long time (let alone getting the Kyo Sohma's VA to voice him). What better way to explore the emotional human side of delinquent storytelling than with a main character who's arc is all about accepting other people and learning to love himself despite the world's rejection of him? That plus a slick production full of badass fistfights should've been an easy recipe for success. Unfortunately, it falls victim to the most common of shonen death knells: getting stuck in an overlong, dragged-out arc that consists of nothing but uninteresting fights against half-baked antagonists that loses sight of what made this series unique until its final moments. And double minus points for entirely taking place in a single visually dull location that you're forced to stare at for like 5 episodes straight with occasional flashbacks as your only escape. Seriously, you could cut the Shishitoren arc to half its current length and lose very little of value. I can only hope the upcoming second season won't get similarly bogged down, cause a good version of this show is something I desperately want to believe is possible.

Konosuba Season 3: 5.5/10

So here's the good news first: Despite a seven year gap since the second season and a change in studio, Konosuba's third season is still every bit the same show it was. As for the bad news... well, the bad news is that Konosuba's third season is still every bit the same show it was. Yeah, in the years since I first watched it, I've had to really reckon with all the ways this show fucking sucks, and all of those reasons remain on full display undimmed by the passage of time. It's sexist, it's objectifying, it's violently queerphobic, it thinks sexual assault is the funniest thing ever when Kazuma's the one doing it, it's every bit as misogynistic and masturbatory as the isekai genre it's supposedly satirizing. And it's also still one of the funniest goddamn anime ever made when it wants to be. Seriously, if you just strip away all the godawful incel-pandering that's seemingly endemic to modern isekai, Konosuba's god-tier expression work and pitch-black sarcasm are a blast of laughing gas like nothing else in its vicinity. If it could just focus on telling actual jokes instead of passing off alt-right sexual politics as "comedy" half the time, it would more than deserve its status as a modern classic. But it won't, because it genuinely believes all that garbage is the funniest shit ever. Which is why it'll forever be stuck as a show that you can never admit to enjoying in public without being justifiably judged by everyone around you.

Train to the End of the World: 5.5/10

It's kind of impossible to describe what Train to the End of the World is about without sounding like you're flipping through ten different plot summaries and choosing words at random. But here's as best I can: a freak accident causes the world to morph into a surreal patchwork of bizarre locales, while also seemingly reducing the scope of the world to a single train line in Japan stretching between rural town Agano and Tokyo's metropolitan Ikebukuro district. When Agano high-schooler Shizuru finds evidence that her long-lost friend Yoka might be trapped in Ikebukuro- and also maybe related to the reason everything went insane- she hops on an abandoned train car with a few friends and a dog and starts the long, long journey to reach Ikebukuro through the madness and chaos that defines the new world. The best I can explain it is Gullliver's Travels by way of Alice in Wonderland and Salvador Dali, each episode taking us to another stop on the train line that's morphed into its own flavor of batshit crazy, from mushroom people to horny zombies to a post-canon bad end magical girl world. Unfortunately, any semblance of a point feels buried under a thousand tons of calcified absurdism too thick for anything resembling sincerity to peek through. There are attempts at exploring deeper themes or character moments, but the show's pace is so blisteringly fast and so deeply uninterested with anything beyond what wild ideas it can pull out of its hat that nothing really sticks by the time the train's rolling on to its next destination. If there's anything here beyond a series of wacky Moments(tm) delivered with the rushed breathlessness of a Youtube video on 2X speed, I can't say it made an impression.

Tonari no Youkai-san: 5.5/10

I'm of two minds about Tonari no Yokuai-san. On the one hand, it's a deeply heartfelt iyashikei that uses its fantasy elements to explore grief, loss, love, community, and the reasons we celebrate life even knowing it must one day end. This town of humans and spirits living side-by-side feels so real and warm you wish you could live there yourself, and the characters populating it, from earnest nekomata to old gay cars to prickly fox spirits and everyone in between, burst with inner life so naturally it almost makes you jealous. On the other hand, for some baffling reason, this show keeps trying to shoehorn in action plots and sci-fi elements that gel with the quiet, contemplative tone as well as oil and water. I genuinely don't understand why the author thought they needed time-space bureaus and giant rampaging snakes to liven things up when just the main character going through an existential crisis about how they're going to outlive everyone they love is ten thousand times more gripping than any of that other nonsense. On the bright side, the good stuff is still really good, and considering how few of you likely watched this show already, let this be your reminder this your reminder not to let it slip through the cracks.

Go Go Loser Ranger: 6/10

Is the idea of a dark, edgy twist on tokusatsu where the protagonist is a nameless minion trying to overthrow a fascist cabal of sentai rangers that unique? Not really, no. But god damn if Go Go Loser Ranger doesn't make it work regardless. There's something just inherently fun about watching one of those nameless background mooks that normally exist just to get punted en masse decide "You know what? I'm done being the world's punching bag. I'm gonna become the protagonist of my own story and take these fuckers down." We've all rooted for the underdog at some point, after all. It's only fair the most disposable fodder get a chance in the spotlight. And Go Go Loser Ranger delights in twisting that setup as far as it can get away with, constantly making you second-guess your allegiances to any one side as it quickly becomes clear there are no true heroes to root for in this world, just lots of different people flawed in very different ways, all fighting for their own personal gain. You're never quite sure when someone you're rooting for is going to break your trust with some horrific act, or someone you loathe is going to prove themselves more courageous than they first let on, and it keeps you on the edge of your seat waiting to see when the next shoe's going to fall. Sadly, it also suffers from Wind Breaker's mistake of spending too much time on an overlong arc that's mostly just dull characters fighting in a duller location, but by the end it's shaken off those doldrums and returned to form in a big way. As long as the second season can keep those gears turning, we're in for a good time.

Spice and Wolf Reboot (1st Cours): 6/10

Let's be blunt: there is no point to remaking Spice and Wolf. The original series is still just as good fifteen years later, and despite the source material continuing past the point it ended, it reached such a beautiful conclusion on its own terms that it more than cemented its status as a true eternal anime classic. Sure, it's nice to experience this story again, to re-aquaint myself with Holo and Lawrence's wonderful chemistry and the fascinating ins and outs of Medieval economics that drive their story. There's a reason I fell in love with this show so many years ago, and Reboot Wolf still has plenty of that charm to go around. But this isn't a re-imagining or a Brotherhood/Froobs 2019 style "proper" adaptation. This is just the same show again but a little bit worse in every way. All I can think of, watching this story I know play out again, is how much stiffer and generic the modern art direction and animation is, how it plays things so much safer with its source material while the original wasn't afraid to make strong changes, how Holo's prickly personality has been neutered into a much more docile, Lawrence-dependent character while the original stood so strong on her own two feet. Maybe it works well enough if this is your first taste of Spice and Wolf, but then, the original show is right there! You could just watch that instead and get a much better experience all around!

Yuru Camp Season 3: 6.5/10

Speaking of shows that are probably pointless, was there really any need for Yuru Camp to continue after the one-two satisfying punch of season 2 and the epilogue movie? Those endings put such a beautiful bow on the series that anything else would feel superfluous. Especially with such a massive downgrade in the art direction department, Jesus Christ. I don't know who's running studio 8bit's compositing department these days, but between this and the latest Yama no Susume season, it's so painful to see a studio that once excelled at background art reduced to putting filters over photographs and awkwardly slapping ill-fitting moeblob characters on top. The clash between the characters and the backgrounds this season is legitimately painful at times, and for a vibes-based iyashikei like Yuru Camp, that could so easily be a death knell. Thank the gods, then, that most of this series' charm still comes through in spite of itself, the wonderful characters and delightfully daffy comedy still as strong as ever as it extols the virtues of finding your peace in the great outdoors. But if we're going to get any more, then please figure out how to make this new aesthetic not so physically repellent to look at.

Kaiju No. 8: 7/10

I've said many times that the art of making a Good Enough show is more complicated than most people appreciate. It takes so much skill and talent, so much mastery of the basic building blocks of storytelling, to create something that's just fun to watch plain and simple. And Kaiju No. 8 is yet another example of how impressive it is when one of these shows gets it right. It's a simple, straightforward action show about an over-the-hill sanitation worker getting one last chance to live his dream as a member of the elite kaiju-slaying force that keeps the world safe from the towering monsters that menace it... by accidentally becoming part kaiju himself. The characters are simple but lovable, the emotional stakes are earnest without being overbearing, the action is consistently exciting and well-animated, and the story keeps you on your toes with well-worn tropes executed in novel and exciting ways. I honestly don't think I've seen a shonen action romp so perfectly nail its fundamentals like this since the early days of My Hero Academia. Whether or not this show will also rise to MHA's eventual level of complexity and thematic weight remains to be seen, but for now, it's just plain fun, and an easy recommendation to anyone looking for a good time.

Delicious in Dungeon (2nd Cours): 7.5/10

Well, I asked for Dungeon Meshi to get darker, and by god, that's exactly what it did. Through shocking plot turns and deeply disquieting thematic touches, this silly little fantasy cooking comedy has developed into something much more sinister and unsettling... while still being primarily a silly fantasy comedy about cooking D&D monsters into mouthwatering meals. I'm still not sure if the tonal whiplash entirely works, but my god does it make this a fascinating show to watch. A single episode can take you from some of the most gut-busting deadpan snark this side of Gintama to a skin-crawling contemplation on mortality and consuming life to perpetuate your own without missing a beat. Turns out, Dungeon Meshi has thoughts on the nature of food as a biological, societal and cultural force, and how that force is not always as simple or benign as a meal shared with friends and family. And it explores those ideas with a quiet dread that makes even its silliest moments feel like a tentative breath before things come crashing down. I have no idea how things will shake out in the second season, but if manga fans are to be believed, it's only going to get more twisted and insane from here. I cannot fucking wait. Just, can Falin stay on screen for more than a single episode without being kidnapped again this time? Girl's such a damsel in distress even Princess Peach is giving her concerned looks.

Jellyfish Can't Swim in the Night: 7.5/10

There is no feeling quite like being a young artist. You're excited to make your mark, painfully anxious about not measuring up while simultaneously being quite full of yourself, bursting with ideas and not quite sure how to execute them, but above all else, in love with the act of creation. And I don't think I've ever seen an anime that so perfectly embodies that messy, beautiful spirit as Jellyfish Can't Swim in the Night. Four girls from different artistic backgrounds- an artist, a singer, a musician, and a tech wiz- come together as one to give each other the strength they lack on their own, forming the musical group JELEE as they strive to love themselves and their work through the magic they make together. It's an explosion of passion and joy, often times outstripping its ability to measure up to its ambitions and stumbling over itself, but always shining, always dazzling, always wearing its heart firmly on its sleeve as it celebrates the joy of creation in the digital age and the importance of sincerity in a world too afraid of cringe to accept it. It's also a wonderfully capital-P Progressive series; there's a gay kiss, one character is eventually revealed to be nonbinary in a scene so spectacular I wish I could bump my score up another half-point for it alone. Sadly, it only reaches those heights every so often- but when it does, my god is it a sight to behold.

Girls Band Cry: 8/10

I remember back when I watched Love Live Sunshine, I wished there was a girls' music anime where the protagonists sung the kind of badass punk rock usually reserved for the antagonists of idol shows. Well, it looks like writer Jukki Hanada and director Kazuo Sakai heard me, because five years after bidding Sunshine farewell, they're returned with one of the most exhilarating, renegade expressions of punk spirit we've gotten in a long time. Girls Band Cry is a supernova, a soaring firecracker of a show that marries an instantly iconic headbanger soundtrack with Hanada's typically spectacular character writing in this tale of five outcasts forming a band and coming together to spit in the face of the world that tried to grind them into conformity. Nina Iseri's arrogant, self-righteous immaturity is a primal scream for the importance of doing what's right over what's easy, and you feel that scream in your fucking soul. Even the show's scrappy CG animation embodies that non-comformist spirit, charting stunning new avenues for 3D anime with some of the most expressive character models and soaring concert scenes you're likely to see all decade. And while the pacing is definitely rushed at points, the overwhelming emotions bleeding from each and every scene make even the weakest moments go down easy. It's downright criminal Toei fumbled the ball on an official English release, but unless you're completely against sailing the high seas, you owe it to yourself to track it down regardless. So raise your middle fingers to the sky, spill your heart from your chest, and let Togenashi Togeari force you to believe in the power of rock all over again.

Dropped:

-Bartender Drops of God (3 Episodes). Too boring to stick with in a pretty packed season.

-A Condition Called Love (3 Episodes). Creepy possessiveness excused for the sake of romance.

Blue Archive (1 Episode). Do you even need to ask.

-The Many Sides of Voice Actor Radio (2 Episodes). Awful adaptation that butchers what made the manga so great.

-Whisper Me a Love Song (9 Episodes). The production falls completely apart and it skips the main couple's first kiss. Just read the manga, it's really damn good and deserved so much better.

[bcbdrums]

I suffered through it so you don't have to

You can skip the Soul Eater NOT anime. Especially if you've read the Soul Eater manga. If you have read the manga, this anime will make you mad. ***Spoilers for Soul Eater NOT manga, anime, and Soul Eater manga in this post.*** I'm keeping this post vague though because frankly this anime isn't worth very many words. I may have had more positives until the last two episodes but well... No, not after those. If you want to experience NOT, then manga only. Really... I insist.

Things it did well: Overall, it followed its manga's story. Also they had the original Soul Eater voice actors for the canon characters except for Naigus.

Things that were neutral/acceptable: It re-ordered many, nay, most manga scenes, changed a few details, and added a little bit of extra stuff here and there that helped transitions and establishing settings the like, and moved the story forward faster. Nothing terribly wrong with that. None of it was necessary though, so trying to keep manga-canon and now anime-changes straight in one's head was confusing.

They briefly bring up "soul protect" which never came up in the manga, and is an important universe mechanic so it should have been mentioned.

They tried to add a few things to make some moments more emotional/relatable, and in most cases, up until the end it worked decently. But when they needed things to start to get serious and they began changing actual plot things...no, it did not help.

Things that start to go bad: Until about the last three episodes, almost every episode began with some sort of dream sequence (not in the manga; new stuff). This often involved under-aged nudity. None of these dream sequences were needed or valuable. Also, the show was full of under-aged nudity. To the point that the final episode had more under-aged nudity than it had battle against the villain.

Skipping manga scenes that were irrelevant was okay, but some scenes that would have added to the story were left out. And replaced with absolute trash. They had chances to fix some manga missteps, such as Naigus having no emotions over her partner's death, but they didn't.

Basically, almost anything that deviated from the manga in terms of actual plot was a bad decision. We did not need Meme randomly stabbing Sid with an arrow. All the creepy weird stuff with Meme and Shaula was grossly unnecessary. I could go on but... I don't want to remember all of it.

Things that are unforgiveable: The wings thing...from the Soul Eater manga. That is ALL I'm gonna say. That's too upsetting to even discuss. But if you really want me to? Ohhhh I will explain why that was the worst thing they could have possibly done. Ohkubo, if you wanted it in there so bad you should have made an accurate anime for Soul Eater. Not ruin something extremely important by throwing it in NOT in a way that literally cannot make sense with universe mechanics (so why is this even a discussion? it shouldn't be!) and completely undermines any value the thing has in Soul Eater

The final battle? Lasted all of a minute (after much unnecessary nude preamble), they moved it to the academy for no reason instead of having it at the dorm like in the manga, they eliminated Clay and Akane, and...they also eliminated a lot of the actual fighting scenes overall. And I do mean A LOT. They eliminated Lord Death's moment which was the only way to give any possible validity to the girls defeating Shaula, which even then is reaching.

Conclusion: Skip this anime. It took a cute and okay-ish manga and made it bad. It took a thin plot and made it thinner. None of the characters and their development in the first ten episodes mattered in the final two, those were so poorly done. They just used nudity to be edgy in the end and it did not work. The actually good plot points from the manga were undermined by changes and bad execution in the anime.

It's just... It's so bad. Those last two episodes. I can't fathom why they did what they did. EXCEPT... In terms of cutting out most of the battles, I think a lot of it was to avoid complicated animation scenes. Something I've noticed throughout is that, frankly, if it's not the hot girls...the animation is just bad. Stein for example, especially in episode 11, is dreadful. Anatomy went out the window there. And most weapon transformations throughout the show were done so that the weapon came from/vanished to somewhere off-screen and walked back in so they didn't have to animate the transformation actually happening.

And as for the plot changes in the last two episodes... There's no explanation. I think they had to change the plot since they chose to save money on animation. Without those animated battles, there wasn't anything else. So they had to add more stuff.

Oh yeah, and we didn't need the unnecessary boob-anchor weapon on Meme. Didn't see any of the other mind-controlled characters with a boob-anchor weapon...

And the show ends on two boob jokes. Literally, the last lines.

Skip this anime.

Time to purge it from memory with actual Soul Eater, which is brilliant (both canons).

[she-toadmask]

A post where I say random things (including spoilers) about Earthspark Season 2 Part 1

The season started great, I was super here for it. Aftermath is fun and Breakdad is entertaining. Didn't love the part where they had the flashbacks and the photos of Aftermath and Breakdown's faces pasted on stereotypical father/son things. Felt weird.

Not a ton to say on the second episode other than fuck yeah Quintessons and lore!

Hashtag upgrade was really fun and we got some great Con scenes. Ravage finally gets some solo time and Shockwave is here being cool too. This is also the episode where I sent the text "Hhggngnhngng starscream" to my amica. Starscream is fucking amazing in this drop.

Swindle and a human immediately threw me back to TFA, Fairmaestro is voiced by the guy who voiced the villain in The Bad Guys and I had to skip to the credits to make sure I was right because nobody had updated wikis with the new VA info. The butterflies thing was kind of funny but I'm too aroace to enjoy it. Cosmos didn't get enough lines. Still a really fun episode though!

The ending to this episode made me sad. Like ok we got the return of the contaminated energon and new horrors and that's great. Jawbreaker is a sweetheart and he was making a friend and they were cooperating so well! JBAM! They were friends! But then Aftermath just was mean and it was upsetting. I am aware that I am a soft baby.

I liked Spitfire during this episode. She had a fun attitude and I liked her vibe. Her asking if everyone there was old as dirt was great. Obstacle course and a fun fight!

I stopped liking Spitfire and get to the first of two episodes I am unlikely to rewatch even beyond me usually not rewatching stuff. The title says it all, it's an impostor episode and a significant number of characters are frustratingly unobservant. The Decepticons are fun though, this is another example of Starscream getting to be cool and stuff. Also I do not like that they made it seem like Wheeljack could have died and then didn't make it clear that he was fine???? Like I was going OK BUT IS WHEELJACK OKAY for a while. Spitfire going to the Con base with the weapon at the end was great though.

The second episode I'm unlikely to rewatch! It's not as personal as the other one, it's just a flavor of cringe-adjacent comedy (especially the Jawbreaker things - I love him but god the interview bit was not my speed) I don't jam with. The family helping to fix up the trailer was really good though.

The finale! This one I'm like 90% down for. Hashtag wanting to keep exploring is amazing and a mood (yes yall keep going let us see the Lore), TITAN TERRATRONUS, QUINTUS AND QUINTESSON LORE (Mo asking if Quintus was good and Terratronus saying he is a Prime deserving of respect....that's not an answer I'm excite), the fucking fights, Starscream having some really good lines and once again obtaining cosmic powers, STARSCREAM CHANNELING FUCKING HORROR AND STABBING AFTERMATH AND SPITFIRE, THE ENTIRE PART WHERE HE CONTROLS TERRATRONUS, Shockwave going "fuck this" and all the other Cons following him as Starscream does his ego stuff....

I know this is just the end of the first drop, but I really found the ending unsatisfying. Like I was just going 'Terratronus is still there'

And also I don't like that the rest of the Cons were trapped inside the dome with Terratronus and Starscream. If the dome stays up to contain Starscream, that means that none of those Cons can do anything. I want to know what Shockwave's plans were. He talked about returning to Cybertron, he can't work on that from Green Quintus Magic Jail.

The other thing is so many characters got good moments (I didn't go into all of them but most of the Cons got them, Wheeljack got multiple really good things, Megatron and Optimus got some highlights) but there was ZERO sign of Tarantulas. Hardtop even got some good lines! Like if it just means he's getting his own episode again in another drop that's OK ig, but like. We didn't see him at all after his debut. Soundwave in the s1 finale was originally going to be Tarantulas, that's why he's sitting like that. Where is spider.

Cosmos was also underutilized, but maybe he'll come back later on. He's definitely voiced by Weird Al (positive). The lore dump was great, can't wait for more screaming about Quintus Prime and his creations (and there being a Quintesson Judge in one of the lore dump images).

Again, it was a fair drop. I said 7.5 but maybe more of a 7.8 idk. The two episodes i don't vibe with and the way it ended take it down but there's a lot to enjoy. Steve Blum continues to be fucking fantastic as Starscream, one who gets to experience all the cosmic powers TFP didn't. He gets to be cool as fuck and also mildly terrifying

[ivyembracertifiedbitch]

FHJY Finale Thoughts: Episode 19

Disclaimer: I know I've been really negative about the last two episodes but I do actually have real criticisms, and I will try my best to not be just 'I hate this' about everything. No promises though. Also, none of this is hating the IH or Bleem. I respect that they're very fucking tired when shooting this and don't have a week in between episodes to think, and so these criticisms are made with that in mind. Also feel free to debate and discuss, I just wanted to share my opinions and try to pinpoint where the narrative went wrong, or where BLeeM could've made a better DM choice, but I love hearing other people's thoughts!

Bringing back K2: Bringing her back to have a second healer is really smart, but saying that Kristen liked having a sister around doesn't make sense. There was never any moment where Kristen and K2 seemed to get along, and honestly, I think K2 got along more with Fabian and Fig. Show don't tell is actually really good advice.

The short rest (and Ice Feast): Just nope. Nope. Not a fan, solidly don't like it. This is the big finale, and I felt more concern during the dragon fight than here. That's the problem with playing level 14 characters, I'm aware, but like. Not letting them take the short rest, actually having The Rat Grinders be skilled at fighting (If Brennan was lying about them grinding rats, you don't think he was lying about them only doing the killing blow on monsters? Plus, do you really think Porter would have his first worshippers and warriors only know how to do a killing blow?), having Kipperlilly steal the votes, anything man. Ice Feast played a big part in giving them the advantage, and I wasn't cool with that too. Taking away fire damage, making them unable to be stunned, all of that took away like the biggest threats of the fight. (I do think it's really cute that Brennan actually made Ice Feast for his friends, but allowing them to use it before the final battle, on top of the short rest was too much)

Strategy: Rewatching, it's actually fun to see them strategize because they're so good at it! It just sucks that they feel nothing but hate for these kids and we know that doesn't change after everything they've seen. And the narrative's going to reward them for it.

Squeem: Honestly? Also, not my favorite. Like, to have a short rest, and Ice Feast, and several allies on their way? What's the point of even fighting? Just skip to the victory dance. (Was so funny to have the return of hot chocolate with a shot of cortado, and lemonade cortado)

Battle Set: Once again, the art department has fucking slayed. Truly, such a work of art. 10/10, no notes.

Mary Ann: Not getting into it a lot with this episode, but see here for my general thoughts. Also, not happy with the cast's reactions to Mary Ann freaking out over getting her strawberry burned, as that's most likely her having a meltdown.

Ivy: I do appreciate Brennan trying to get the Bad Kids to be nice through the Hangman. Also, if Ivy truly does like looking good, great for her, but the only things we know about her at this time are that she's besties with Oisin, she was into Fabian, she's kinda bitchy, and some of her class stats. So the idea that just because she's a "mean girl" she'd take offense to getting called ugly feels misogynistic, especially coming from a complete stranger/someone literally not in her universe of existence. As for what Fabian said and did to Ivy, in my opinion, part of it is because he rejected Mazey at the party to impress her and feels bad, part of it is because she rejected him, and part of it is because he feels bad that he 'yes and-ed' the racist remark she made about Mazey. Also, the close proximity to the rage stars. I think he was wrong for what he said, and I'm not going to get into the virginity comment now because I still have a whole 'nother episode to get through, but I do want to say this is when Fabian/Mazey stopped being cute to me. Also, Brennan using Ivy's last moments to have her make a mean comment really feels like he's trying to cast her as the mean girl, which again, it's fine if she is. You can't convince me she's not just a kid scared for her life.

Oisin: Smart to get him somewhere he can't counterspell Adaine, and to take him out of the fight first, but why didn't we have anything directed at him? Like, I know that he never really got close enough to Adaine for episode 18 to be a full betrayal, but everything with Ivy and Ruben was so intense, I'd expect something. On behalf of Ivy and Ruben, I'm offended he was mostly left alone. As a general Rat Grinders enjoyer, this does count as a (small) w.

Buddy: So sad that Ally's insight roll on him failed, and I will not tolerate anyone calling him stupid or naive about the plan: see here. I get annoyed that Buddy was played up as a joke villain, but whatever! He's just a dumb southern hick, right?

Ruben: Saying there's no loyalty from Ruben is soo arrogant. They never emotionally connected so who would he be loyal to? The friends he's had for three years, or some random girl who had one real conversation with him? Tumblr user @rubenhopclap says it best. Fig's speech to Ruben is just *argh*. Girlie you don't know anything about him! (I do understand Emily's annoyance, because she did spend like at least one roll per downtime session on Ruben! But also... it was Wanda Childa talking to him, not Fig. He didn't have a real person to connect with, so why would he bother?) Like, out of all The Rat Grinders, we have explicit information that he is scared despite all of the rage and yet she just yells in his face? Thought the theme of the season was doubt beats anger, not war conquers rage. I'm also uncomfortable with Fig, who earlier in the season explicitly states that she think she's a monster for ruining one person's stay in hell as opposed to punishing all of them, deciding that just because Ruben was annoying and a waste of time he should be going to hell to be punished.

Kipperlilly: No notes. Literally, girlie was getting w's the entire episode.

Jace and Porter: No notes. Honestly? Their fucked up dynamic carried me through the finale.

The Lava: Just another solid no. With the amount of advantages we already have, it makes no sense to let their 'being immune to fire' translate to 'being immune to magma.' Bringing in some science, magma is literally a fourth state of matter, different from water. That's not going to feel like taking a swim, it's going to feel like getting crushed by cold lava. (Yes, I understand different DM's would allow that and different DM's wouldn't allow that, but with the advantages they already have, I feel like making them roll even for just half damage would be fine. Plus, fucking common sense says 'don't jump in lava, even if you have fire immunity.')

Making fun of Porter: I adore a group of teenagers just absolutely clowning on a 40 year old teacher, but I do wish they had engaged with the themes. We know it's really fucking likely The Rat Grinders have rage stars, and yet they just completely skip the part that Porter can control anyone with a rage star. And it's not like the Academy hasn't failed them before. It's not like Aguefort himself hasn't failed them before. They should be angry about that! Just, the refusal to engage with the themes in a story is irritating.

See Episode 20 thoughts here

[itstaisstuff]

you are SO right about traffic!tango from the things i've heard u say so far. PLEASE talk more about him (only if u want ofc) i would love to hear it

Ah yes, traffic Tango! My little traumatized babygirl! I honestly don't know where to start here. Oh my.

Third life? Let's check. Uh huh. Doesn't trust anyone and plays on all sides of the game? Creates his own game as something that can be remembered for killing people because he can't do that? Actually joins the side of people who killed him because of a silly rule break no one really cared about? Yeah that's a lot going on. Yet he managed to get pretty far. The one thing that actually makes me lose my mind over him is that fact that he didn't run away once it came to the finals. He could have became a coward and run away from the battlefield, yet he saw his best friend dying and decided there's nothing left to lose. Maybe he didn't pay enough attention to notice Impulse had one more life, maybe it wasn't even the case, I'm not the one to tell. But the fact that he tried to revenge Impulse says a lot, actually.

Last life(my favorite one and actually the reason why I liked Tango at first place) is the most fucked up for him. Sticking to another best buddy of your since the start just to completely leave him behind once he turns red? People say Ranchers had so much angst, but Tango and Skizz duo? You guys don't give them enough attention. Building a nice base and calling it home just to abandon it and move in with some freaks you messed with in the first episode sounds... Cool, yeah... The problem is: team BEST was too good from the start. Making presents for each other, being the heroes of the server, just messing around and living their best lifes. They all felt like family. Maybe that's why it hurt so much when Bdubs turned red and tried to kill him in the nether.(yes canonically Tango skipped next session because he was hiding from Bdubs because I said so) and of course Tango wanted to bring him back. But here comes the main problem with him this season: "I'm never a boogie man, I'm just a life dispenser!"©Tango, session 5. No matter how hard he tried to do anything, he was only know for giving away lifes. Even "You bet your life" is a game about Tango giving lifes. He was just a tool this whole season. He knew about it, and he knew he couldn't do anything about it. Once again, he had a chance to avoid his final death, yet, he didn't. Because it didn't matter anymore.

Double life. "That's why we can't have nice things!" Is basically about it. It was probably the worst season for Tango in terms of surviving: he didn't have any stuff, no big plans, no huge alliance problems and basically noone saw his as a threat AT ALL. Of cours, he was still a madman. Trying to bring out a warden to make Scar pay for burning down the only place through all the seasons he could actually call home. Didn't turn out the way he wanted at all, but hey, at least he brought some fun in the overworld. Still no result, everyone wasn't really scared of him bringing out another one. But he was finally happy. He finally had someone on his side who cared and would never betray him. He was finally loved. Jimmy is one of the most loyal players, and finally he gets his perfect pair. Well... He is also cursed. And Tango is cursed with him. They even die on the different sides of the map, without telling each other goodbye. Universe does want Tango to be happy, hmm?

Limited life. If you think about it... It was the best season out of all. No betrayals, actually being the last green, getting two boogie men in a row, finally getting his revenge, just doing great in general. So what was wrong here? It was going too good. He just... Doesn't learn on his past mistakes. Remember how in last life session 5 Tango *checks notes* canonically... Sniffed the Boogie man curse on Bdubs and Etho? My man's got a great intuition. Yet he never trusts it. Which brings another issue: he doesn't trust himself. Even if he knows he's right, he just plays along, no matter what. Because he can't do anything. He doesn't care. So when Martyn offers to team up, Tango feels something is wrong. But he doesn't try to stop anyone from agreeing to that deal. The good thing about team TIES for Tango is that he can may trust his teammates enough to care about them, always be on their side. But he doesn't trust enough to be sure they won't kill him. Even when Skizz, one of his best friends and the most pathetic wet cat on the server turns redTango accidentally ruins his silly spying moment- notice how he puts a shield up? He apologies like crazy, even though it was a joke. He was scared. Or when Impulse reveals he's a boogie man? Tango trusts his alliance, but it doesn't mean he isn't scared of them killing him. Like it happen a few seasons ago. Why? Once again: he's just a life dispenser. He gives his time to Skizz to get the team back together. Doesn't it seem familiar? He doesn't change at all: once again, he died fighting Scar, who didn't really... Fight back. He could run for his life, like he usually does, he just... Didn't.

So let's put it all together: Traffic Tango is a paranoid life dispenser who doesn't trust anyone fully(including himself) who just wants to have fun, but he's so tired of being in constant fear of death so he doesn't listen to his intuition, which always says the right things to him and is basically the reason for most of his deaths because of that, and he knows that nothing good lasts for long. In other words: someone get him to a fucking therapy.

[sepyana]

Noir 2001 Ep. 1-10 Thoughts

I really love her France Shirt dhshbd

I figured stopping at Chloe's introduction would be the best idea. From what I know this should be when the main plot picks up.

First, the bad:

The first episode was really jarring to watch. The cuts were awkward, the music was too loud at parts and certain scenes dragged out for too long. Maybe this is just me, but I didn't realize the music was coming from the watch until the end of the episode, which made things really confusing.

From then onwards isn't like this. Maybe I just got used to it, but the cuts didn't feel jarring and the flow between scenes was smooth enough.

There is a lot of reused animation, which is fine for the most part. It's not as elegant about it as shows like Utena but it's not a big deal.

What annoys me is sometimes the plot will screech to a halt to show you a falshback you have already seen before. Personally, I'm fine if a conversation is just one still frame or made of reused animation. The flashbacks and the occasional training is clearly there for budget reasons and nothing else. That's why it takes me out of the story sometimes.

Kirika and Mireille don't have much going on. They are pretty bland which makes it hard to care for them. The "I will kill you when this is over." thing is the most interesting bit. There is still plenty of time to develop them so I'm not that bothered about it.

The show feels rather empty at times, if that's the word. It feels like onthing is happening. For example: the information we get about the main mystery is not enough to make any conclusions or draw connections, so whenever a new development happens I can only think "Oh, we learned this now". We don't learn anything about what our protagonists are like either. The quiet moments are great for that, but I still feel like I know nothing about them.

I don't mind the censorship but it can be really funny sometimes. Kirika will get hit but her arm will look completely fine, making it impossible to tell how bad she was hurt until she reacts.

When I started episode 7 I genuinely though I skipped an episode. They don't make it even slightly obvious that a time skip happened.

This one is really stupid: I can't seperate Mireille from Misato in my mind. I'm sure Noir fans are annoyed by the comparison by this point but I'm really trying guys (ﾉД`)

Okay,, we can get to the good stuff now:

The atmosphere is great. The backgeound art is lovely and complements the animation well. They definitely achieved the aesthetic they were going for.

The soundtrack is pretty nice. Again, adds to the atmosphere.

Kirika especially can be super clever, making the fights fun to watch (only about 50% of the time though)

The composition of the shots draw your eye to the focus well. It's a good way to make shots interesting with a small budget.

It's fantastically homosexual, while also not being about romance at all. All the notable characters are women. That might add to the yuri vibes I guess.

I liked Silvana. She is one of the few side characters that have anything going on. Her relationship to Mireille is intriguing to me, they have met only once. But it's clear their one interaction has left a big inpression on not only Mireille but also her, especially since they were kids at the time. Her pulling out a knife and cutting the crown off of Mireille when she says she is scared tells us everything we need to know about her.

There is also something to be said about the crowns. Mireille's innocence being destroyed by Silvana. It's important to Silvana that she has control, removing the crown she gave to Mireille is a way fot her to feel superior, I guess. Even at a small age.

Mireille is still scared in their final confrontation, but she fights anyway.

I am very interested in Chloe because clearly, the two maidens who gover death are suppose to be Kirika and Mireille. However, she is insist she is Noir. I imagine things will go south when she realises that's not the case. (I doubt it's the case). The woman we see is most likely using her and Chloe is dependent on her validation. That's what I am guessing.

[picturejasper20]

Cartoon characters you think had the biggest fall off in terms of writing?

Well, can think of a few examples

Vlad Masters from Danny Phantom

This one is quite obvious: He was a pretty interesting villain with unique motivations in the first two seasons and had a specific relationship with Danny that moved his character arc forward. He was a really good foil for Danny in the way their morals clashed.

Then Season 3 comes and sends most of that characterization to the trash, leaving a superficial version of him. He acts more as a generic villain, his motivations seem to change every episode he shows up. He is introduced as main antagonist in the season and barely does anything, with D-Stabilized being the closest you get to that, etc.

I would include Valerie Gray in the spot as well, but honestly i feel like she was more mistreated than her writing ¨fell off¨. She still acts like her usual self in D-Stabilized and it is probably her best episode along with Flirting With Disaster.

2- Marco Diaz from Star vs The Forces of Evil

Marco is a character that was having some pretty solid development in the first two seasons. He even forgave and befriended Star ex-boyfriend who only saw him as a rival. He learned to overcome his own insecurities and date a girl he really liked since he was like 10.

...And around Season 3 he like... started to flirt or date with half of the teenager girl cast. He almost started to gain a harem for all the girls that were into him. Not to mention that he kissed Star when she was dating Tom... after he spent a lot of time trying to be in good terms with him and telling him that he wasn't a thing with Star. That's not to say Star didn't mess it up big but at least she was improving in other areas like helping the monsters.

The writers took a character that was overall likable and turned him into harem dude. It was like they didn't know what to do with him after Season 2 and just matched him with every girl they could think off.

3-Mordecai from Regular Show

This case is well known and self explanatory. He was in general a good character in the first seasons. Then he got tangled in all this romance between Margaret and CJ, he messed it up so badly that CJ never spoke to him again and she didn't appear in the series later on.

The irony is that while Mordecai was getting worse, Rigby was improving in some ways by taking classes and finally graduating from school. He grows into someone more mature and responsible.

And this drama romance in the end didn't seem to have importance later on since Mordecai didn't end up with Margaret, instead he ends up with a bat girl he meets in the time skip montage.

4-Morty Smith from Rick and Morty

This is a bit weird because it isn't that his character got ruined but it feels like in some ways he has regressed to the way he was on Season 1 and Season 2.

I feel like the main issues that many have pointed out is that Rick is allowed to get better, while Morty can't. He can't process his own trauma and the way he is treated by his own family (yes, it isn't only Rick the problem). So he is stuck going back and forth with his evolution as character.

My theory is that, because the show has this thing of trying to keep the status quo, changing Morty too much would mean that the writers have to change his dynamic with Rick and... that would mean the show changing its status quo as well.

5-Charmcaster from the original Ben 10 series

I don't recall that much about her but i do remember she was someone who practiced dark magic and was mistreated by her uncle in the original show. Then in the series that followed she became someone a lot worse?? Like she started killing a lot of people for some reason. It was super weird.

6- Nine from Sonic Prime

I wouldn't call it character assassination. However, he feels like he becomes a very different character from who he was in Season 1 and Season 2.

In Season 1 and 2 he was someone who was looking out for himself. He didn't want to cause harm on purpose and just wished to live in a place he could be safe. He is just a kid who hasn't had the best life and wants someone that can be his friend.

Then in Season 3 he starts putting people in danger intentionally? He actually attacks people and threatens others. There isn't exactly a proper build up to this character change. It just happens.

It doesn't help that he doesn't have that many moments he seems to regret his actions. He just keeps going and going. So when his heel turn comes it feels... cheap, again because there wasn't enough build up to that.

I would include Chloe from Miraculous Ladybug but i haven't watched that series so..

These are the ones that come to my mind at the moment. Maybe there are others that i'm not able to recall at the moment.

[darkmasterofcupcakes]

What are five pros and five cons you would give to Hazbin Hotel?

Gonna start with the cons, because I like to end on a positive note.

The Pacing. This was something I had a feeling was going to be a weakness of the show from the time I saw the trailer and learned that the first season was going to involve the next Extermination, especially when it was confirmed the season was only going to be eight episodes long. The twist in the first episode that the next Extermination was happening in half the time helped a little, but it still meant we skipped over months between episodes, with it being implied important stuff did happen that we just didn't see.

While I think it's better than Helluva Boss in balancing it's main cast (I love that show, but the uneven attention given between all of the main characters is one of the biggest issues it has), it still has some trouble with making all the characters feel fully like "people"? Niffty probably being the biggest example, since I love her, but right now she feels more like a living punchline than a real character.

The tone can sometimes be just a little...off with how it feels like we're supposed to feel. Best example being Sir Pentious death. The characters react to it like it was a serious event, because for them, it was...but the death itself was treated as kind of a joke? And I understand the show is a sort of dark comedy, so to an extent I expect stuff like that. But I think at that moment, the switch from "joke" to "you're supposed to seriously grieve this character" felt a bit too abrupt?

This is a completely personal thing, but as I've mentioned before, I don't love the whole sideplot of Sir Pentious having a crush on Cherri Bomb? It felt like it came out of nowhere, whereas most of the other relationships that seem to be a thing in the show were at least given hints in the Pilot. And it's just another example of the pacing being break-neck, since they had Cherri not show up until episode 6 of 8, and then Pentious dies in the finale, so they had basically two episodes (and not even full ones, just some scenes) to try and convince me of a romance, and, maybe it's just my arospec self, but....I couldn't really get convinced at all.

It's kinda hard for me to really think of issues I really have with the show, so I gotta kinda cheat a bit with this last one, since I can't help but wonder if they would've left the scene out had they known from the start of production that they'd get more seasons, but I personally don't love the whole stinger that reveals Pentious ended up in Heaven after Adam killed him? Not so much because I don't like the idea that he ended up there - I like that part. But I kind of feel like his death would have had a bit more impact if the audience did genuinely think he was gone for good for longer than like...fifteen minutes.

And now for the things I loved about Hazbin Hotel

The songs are arguably the biggest highlight of the whole series for me. I don't think there's a single one that I wouldn't happily listen to, whether in or out of context. From what I've seen I apparently don't have as high of an opinion of some songs as others, but I legitimately love all of them. I don't think there's anything I could say about any of the songs in this show that could be considered anything close to a real critique.

All of the characters are an absolute blast to watch. Yes, some of them don't have the most depth so far, but that doesn't change the fact that I just love to watch them whenever they're on screen? And it's not just the main cast, either. Obviously I love all of them, but even with fairly limited screen time, I found myself absolutely adoring whenever I got to see characters like Carmilla Carmine, Zestial, Velvette, and Rosie on screen. And all of the characters are so interesting and fun to imagine in different scenarios. And since I'm a writer, that is one of the biggest pros a series can have.

While the show is arguably more of a comedy, it is actually very good, in my opinion, dealing with some pretty serious topics when it wants to. The biggest example is Angel Dust's struggles with what he goes through thanks to Valentino, but you also have things like Vaggie's past and how her hiding that effected her relationship with Charlie when the truth got revealed. Or the whole thing of how it's implied most of Heaven didn't know about the Exterminations and that being revealed to them caused a lot of tensions, particularly between Emily and Sera. Or even just the whole thing of how Carmilla discovered how to kill Angels...but doesn't want it to be known what she did because she doesn't want to cause a war and lose her daughters, when the whole reason she learned that Angels could be killed was because she wanted to save them.

The character designs are some of the best I've seen in a long time. It really feels like the team took full advantage of the fact that it seems like there's no set rule for how demons can look in their version of hell, and so they went absolutely nuts with it, in the best possible way. Pretty much every single character has an incredibly unique design, and they're all just so fun to see. It makes the whole world feel so much more alive....slightly ironically considering it's the main setting is full of people who are technically all dead.

Outside of the one I mentioned above, I really like how basically all of the relationships in the show are handled, from the romantic to the platonic to the familial. They are all extremely varied and obviously some get more real attention than others, but all are given enough focus and attention that you always get the sense that the characters care for each other very deeply, especially by the end. And because you feel those bonds, you are even more effected by what the characters go through, because you feel like you're part of that group of people who care for one another. And I love that it also applies to the villains, with how Lute was clearly devestated by Adam's death, following the show indicating they were close, but usually showing them in what seemed to be a mostly "professional" relationship.

[emerald-cloud23]

Trying to figure out how much time passes in canon between seasons – according to the show itself (and then making rough guesses)

This is so long– also, doesn't include Dragons Rising

Pre-Pilots & Pilots: I don't remember them saying anything about that, though I imagine that it has been less than a year as they (Cole, Jay, Zane) obviously aren't as close as they'll become later in the show, maybe not even 6 months. I'll settle on 4 months for now

Pilots & Season 1: Once again, I don't remember them stating anything in particular so, once again, it's been less than a year. Maybe even just two or three months. The core four ninja have become closer but we can immediately see how distant they still are with that first mailman scene where it's apparently the first time ever the other three find out that Zane is practically an orphan as well as Cole hiding his true relationship with his father from them. Between the Pilots & S1 I imagine the ninja have encountered Lloyd before (according to their reactions they know him but the viewer doesn't), even telling Wu about him and he decided "No, I'm not gonna look after my brother's son"– sorry, going off-track. I'll go with like 3 months

Season 1 & Season 2: Looking at the end of S1 it has probably only been a few hours or like a day as everyone is fixing Ninjago City from the damage that the finale caused

Season 2 & Season 3: Canon mentions that it has only been a few months since the finale of S2. With Lloyd traveling around the island and accepting awards and stuff as well as Wu & the ninja taking over a school (most likely Darkley's), I'd say it's less than 6 months but I can't exactly decide on anything

Season 3 & Season 4: I don't think anything had been said in the show but with the statue from the finale becoming so dirty, the ninja no longer staying together and Jay apparently recording a 70+ episode tv show with a holiday special??? Another few months– only because I don't know how else Jay would've been able to make his own tv show and much less one with so many episodes and even a contestand that had previously participated. Oh, also it needs time for his fans to, well, start being his fans and viewers. I don't know how much time something like this would take but seeing as even Wu being unaware of why the other three aren't training with Lloyd I'd say they gradually left the team in the span of, probably, 4-6 months. If I didn't take Jay's show into consideration I'd say 1-2 months because that seems more logical with the 'skipping training'-bit

Season 4 & Season 5: Canon doesn't say anything. Buuut I feel like Morro wouldn't have waited much longer than necessary to start his search for the realm crystal. He'd find out what happened to Wu, find out about Lloyd & the others as well as that no one knows where the FSM's tomb is. He seems pretty smart so that would probably take barely any time at all, less than a week probably. However,, Wu has to buy a piece of land (most likely already with the buildings on it because construction can take monthssss), register his store, buy his shop's inventory and new uniforms (both the deepstone suits and the advertisement shirts & hats), also he needs to get the flyers designed, printed and delivered to him. This, unfortunately, takes time, and probably a lot more than just a few days. Despite hating the thought that Morro waited so long since escaping the cursed realm, I'll say that it's probably been a month

Season 5 & Season 6: There's a few things that I need to take into consideration as canon, once again, says nothing. The S5 finale takes place on new years so this is a good starting point. I only know new years as the last day of the year so that's where I'm going with this. S5 ends at the end of december. S6 needs to happen months later for a multitude of reasons: the people of Stiix being pissed at the ninja and rebuilding their city over water with Strangleweed (which S5 mentions not really anyone wanting to do), the ninja becoming famous for the destruction of the cursed realm, the ninja recording a tv show for kids and going on tv shows, being interviewed, getting fans & Nya training her elemental powers and Spinjitzu. So, if I view S5 at the end of the year then S6 feels like it takes place (or would take place if it hadn't been undone) in spring, so like march or april

Season 6 & Day Of The Departed: I remember that DOTD canonically is on like october 30th or 31st (I can't remember this for the life of me) so there's a good time period for the ninja to get their fame under control. Otherwise I don't have much to say

Day Of The Departed & Season 7: I believe canon said it's been a week since Cole became human again, so there you have it. That'd be early november

Season 7 & Season 8: Canon says it's been exactly a year since Wu disappeared in the time stream. There you go, a crystal clear answer to how much time passed since the previous season's finale. Thank you canon

Season 8 & Season 9: It is said that Garmadon ruled over Ninjago City for a week now, that means for 7 days Lloyd, Nya, Pixal, Dareth and Misako thought that Wu and the core four were dead (god, I always forget just how depressing this was for them)

Season 9 & Season 10: And we're back to nothing being said in canon, great. Well, there's the monastery that needs to be rebuild (as well as all of Ninjago City) and the murals being designed and needing to be painted, also there's some shorts on Lego's YouTube channel that still have the murals being painted, so they happen before S10. But all this takes time. But because I don't want Garmadon's warning about the Oni to appear so weak, I'd say a minimum of 6 months needed to pass. Most likely a lot more but, again, I want to keep his warning as something rather fresh and recent to Lloyd so he'd remember it when visiting his father in Kryptarium

Season 10 & Season 11: Canon (or rather Wu) says that it's been some months since their last big victory. In order for Cole going from super ripped in S2 to giving me almost an entire breakdown over being the exact opposite (no, genuinely. My first time seeing him without his super muscular body made me so, so frustrated and I don't even know how to put it into words but mAN–)… Uh, another 6 months? They all became incredibly lazy to the point where Wu eventually had enough, so half a year is the maximum time period I'd give them. Also, as we saw (and as they said) they haven't been in tune with each other as a team when fighting/fleeing. So, if you've spent years with people doing nothing but that I can't imagine you'd become so uncoordinated in a short period of time (but that's just me, a loner)

Aaand now we're entering the time period where it is difficult to make guesses–

Season 11 & Season 12: I would've assumed it's been a few days but because of S13's comment on it having been weeks since the ninja were at the monastery... I'd still like to say S12 happens just days after S11–

Season 12 & Season 13: I just mentioned the comment, sOO– Maybe Prime Empire took weeks in the actual world. I don't know. I can't make sense of this sentence. Like, ily Lloyd, but man. You're not making the time periods of this show easy. Especially because Wu and Pixal were both still at the monastery in S11 and S12 and I can't imagine the two not having taken care of it in that time when the others were gone. I just can't. So, somehow between the start of S11 and the start of S13 it has been weeks in which no one took care of the monastery. Even if they had been on an unmentioned vacation between S12 and S13, I feel like they would've taken care of the trash around the monastery. Though, something like this would explain the amount of leaves in the courtyard and Lloyd trying to urge Cole to stop relaxing on his free day to help with laundry and stuff (their gaming session is adorable btw, they need to interact more in canon pls)

Season 13 & Season 14 (The Island): I don't think anything is mentioned about S13, though they say that last month a bunch of criminals broke out of Kryptarium. So, unless that happened while the ninja were in Shintaro, it's been at least a month. Also, Misako, Wu and Clutch Powers went missing on an expedition they went on. When Cecil from the Explorers Club comes to visit them he mentions that when a member is 'presumed dead or lost at sea' they remove their belongings from the club. Soo, for them to be presumed lost at sea I'd say it would take like 1 week but "just to be safe" the club waits a total of 2 weeks after members set out on expeditions before deciding that it's been too long without hearing from them so they must be dead. But, seeing as Wu was also in Shintaro and he went on this expedition the ninja must've been back a few days before they went on this expedition, which I just assumed they started 2 weeks ago, so it's been maybe like 2.5 weeks to a month between these seasons

Season 14 (The Island) & Season 15 (Seabound): Canon doesn't say anything but I see S14 as setup for S15 so it would probably be like a few days between them

Season 15 (Seabound) & Season 16 (Crystalized): Canon says it's been a year since Nya's sacrifice. Another crystal clear (no pun intended) answer by the show

oKAY, GREAT. THAT'S ALL. If anyone wants to chime in for my rough time period estimations and calculate this whole thing, feel free because I'm not doing it! Like Cole says in Crystalized: "I'm not much of a math guy".

[whatyourusherthinks]

My Adventures With Superman Review Wrap Up

Final Summation

Roan, skip it. We know you think this show is good. You only spent god knows how many paragraphs gushing about every single detail in every single episode, and the only things you complained about were things only people obsessed with Superman would complain about. I now know more about you're opinions on a fictional flying man than I know about my wife's political affiliation. You obviously recommend the show, what more do you even have to say? ...Buggnutz, you make an excellent point. So let's move on to...

Episode Rankings

Season One is in red while Season Two is in blue pppbbblllttt...

Olsen's Eleven

My Adventures With Supergirl

My Adventures With Mad Science

The Death of Clark Kent

Two Lanes Diverge

The Machine Who Would Be Empire

You Will Believe a Man Can Lie

Pierce the Heavens, Superman!

Zero Day: Part Two

Full Metal Scientist

Zero Day: Part One

Kiss Kiss Fall In Portal

Let's Go To Ivo Tower, You Say

Hearts of the Fathers

Adventures With My Girlfriend

Adventures of a Normal Man Pt. 2

Adventures of a Normal Man Pt. 1

More Things in Heaven and Earth

My Interview With Superman

Most Eligible Superman (This placement is all your fault Cat Grant)

What I Want From And For Future Episodes

BEFORE YOU SAY ANYTHING BUGGNUTZ I know this is selfish. I know that this isn't the purpose of reviews, I know that creators shouldn't be hamstrung by the wishes of fans and should do what's best for the story they are making, and I know that just because I'm a big fan doesn't mean that I deserve to have my voice heard in the creative process. I know all of this. But I had some ideas/wishes for things I'd like to see in future episodes and maybe the readers will agree and the creators will take inspiration from. I just wanna have fun and excise some ideas from my head. Okay, anything you want to add? ...You're a massive nerd.

Anyway, the first this I want is for the show to have

Massive. Nerd. Yeah I know. Actually, I don't want a movie necessarily, I actually just want 10+ seasons or however many the creators want. I feel like so many shows that are beloved are cancelled before the creators are ready to end them, and I really don't like it. This is just hoping everyone gets a fair shake in working on this show and telling the story they want to tell.

Second thing: Lex needs to start wearing more green. Oh god, really? Yes! He is a green villain, he should at least accent his clothes with the color! The guy wears green mech suits and has a green trench coat for Rao's sake! Yes, true, he doesn't ALWAYS wear green in the comics, but it's the color most associated with him. I guess they didn't make Alex wear so much green because they wanted the twist to not be more obvious than it was, but he's been revealed now. Seriously, I want this more than I want him to go bald. Why does Lois Lane wear more green than Lex Fucking Luthor? Actually, y'know what would be a funny way to do it? If Lex steals Lois's coat and just starts wearing it to be a petty bitch. That not only would be incredibly funny, but it would perfectly in character with the version they've presented for the show. AND SPEAKING OF DUMB ASS COSTUME CHANGES.

Third, give Clark his shorts back and Ma also makes a skirt for Kara. I am not ride or die on all super heroes having the "underwear on the outside". Batman looks fine without the black shorts, so does Wolverine without the blue, the Fantastic Four, and whoever else got that costume change. That is, except for Superman. Superman needs the red shorts for his costume. His design just isn't complete without it. Not only does it break the main blue coloring of his costume in a way that looks so much better than the quasi-belt every did, but the illusion to circus strongmen is something I think is essential to the character. And if you do it for Clark, you should absolutely do it for Kara. I was so excited in the second episode when Ma makes additions to Clark's costume, but now with the new costumes at the end of the second season, it just feels like fanservice inclusion that the writers forgot about. Well it wasn't to me, and it should be brought back. You don't even have to change anything else about the design. I've seen some artists draw mock-ups of the new costume with the shorts/skirt added, and it looks great. If the first scene of the third season isn't Clark and Kara standing awkwardly at the farm while Ma takes their measurements for additions to their costumes, I might actually throw something at the screen. Calm down dingus. NO THIS IS IMPORTANT.

Fourth thing, since the Newskid Legion are a major supporting characters, I want an episode with the Guardian. Hell, Cadmus was also introduced in the first season, and how badass would it be if Monsieur Mallah and the Brain met the Newskid Legion? I can totally see Mallah getting concerned about these kids getting into dangerous Superman situations by themselves and coming to the conclusion that what they need is a genetically modified clone to hang around and protect them. Besides, this is probably the closest we could get to having one of the best versions of Superman teaming up with Captain America (who also happens to be one of my favorite superheroes), and that would be awesome. Unlike my other wishes here though, I don't really need the Guardian to be a reoccurring character, I guess, I dunno I would like it but if they just wanted to make him a one-off that's fine too. But it would be awesome.

My fifth thing, and honestly I'm surprised I want this, is I want Krypto and Streaky to make an appearance. See, here's the thing with all the Kryptonians in the comics. It diminishes Clark's status as the last Kryptonian if every other decade they introduce more of them. The comics pull this a lot, and it honestly is kinda dumb. MAWS right now has only Clark and Kara, and they hammer it in the second season that there is not a single other Kryptonian left and that they just have each other. I'd bet dollars over donuts that Zod and his posse will show up if the series continues past season three, so do we really want to just keep saying "Oh... uh... more rockets left Krypton or that other Krytonians were just off planet." or whatever? Not really. But Superboy is getting introduced next season. And it's clearly supposed to be Conner Kent (or Kon-El), the clone made from Clark and Lex's DNA. He's even got the leather jacket and the shades like from the 90s comics, I can't wait to see what they do with him. So here's my proposal. Lex has to test his cloning experiments, and before he moves on to attempting to clone a human, he tries to clone a dog and a cat. And that dog and cat happen to have superpowers just like Superman. The writers could even be cute about it and have a horse and a monkey be previous attempts too. And then at the end of that episode Clark gets a puppy and Kara gets a cat. You can probably already see the potential. This Clark would be adorable with a dog, and there is such an easy b-plot to have Jimmy or Lois or whoever have to pet sit for Kara and deal with an asshole cat with super powers. Yeah you could stick with the comic's origin for Streaky and expand that to Krypto, but that would involve expanding Kryptonite to including a bunch of different types and that's another kinda stupid thing the comics do. Also, if Lex is cloning Superman, Bizarro better show up. I'm dead fucking serious. (Actually how funny would it be if all of next season is just Lex making a bunch of superman clones in various to try to kill him and they all go out of control in various ways. You already got Hank Henshaw as a pre-existing character who already hates Superman. This could be like Reign of Supermen but with the intention of killing Superman before replacing him.)

Sixth, and hear me out on this one. I already mentioned Conner Kent/Kon-El Superboy will make an appearance next season. Outside of the comics, most people know this Superboy from Young Justice, and in that show he is dating (or was, I stopped watching after the second season) Miss Martian. But, she's kinda got her own baggage that would be a bit to hard to bring into a show that's exclusively based in the Superman mythos, so here's my pitch instead. After Superboy eventually gets redeemed and joins Clark and the team, he should meet and fall in love with... Martian Manhunter HEAR ME OUT! Out of every DC hero that I would consider to be their own property (i.e. not other Superpeople like Supergirl or Steel) Martian Manhunter is probably the easiest to incorporate into the show. The comics and other animated properties constantly draw parallels between J'onn's and Clark's situation, and there is so many interesting directions you could take this in this particular show. Clark's constant emotional journey is about acceptance on his adopted planet and while Kara being around is great and I'm sure we'll get some great drama and introspection from both characters in the next season, he still considers earth his home. He doesn't remember anything from planet of origin. J'onn does. That's always been a point of contention between the two and it leads to some really interesting drama if the right writers utilize it. Can't you totally see a Clark who, in future seasons, feels more secure in his place on Earth having to help a new alien with a similar but way worse situation with the same problems he had at the beginning of the show? Now I can hear what you're saying... Martian Manhunter has always been a fairly asexual character, and a major part of his backstory is that he has PTSD about his wife and kid. Thank you Buggnutz, and you're right! But MAWS changes every character to fit better with the storyline, and I think the changes are always for the better. So do the same with J'onn. Age him down. Instead of him being rescued as an middle aged adult by a random scientist who then dies immediately, maybe this is teenager or young adult J'onn is accidently rescued by Star Labs, or the Brain and Mallah, or Lex Luthor, or whoever, and his PTSD comes from losing his parents instead of his wife and kid. You can still keep his personality the same, just adjust the anime knob a tad. Everyone already lost their minds with twunk Slade Wilson, can you imagine the pop-off for emo twink J'onn J'onzz? And then he can meet Conner and they can have a meet cute and it can be the new relationship to hope for after Kara and Jimmy inevitably hook up. Plus, DC already changes the sexuality of pre-existing characters, including Superboy (kinda sorta), in the comics so this wouldn't be the first time they've done something like this. And while the show is already a huge diversity win in general, if it's raining why not let it pour hm? This is the only outside hero I want added to the show by the way. No Batman, no Wonder Woman, none of that. Keep it to obscure easter eggs and references. Let the Superman show be about Superman please.

And for sure don't bring in the Doom Patrol. Or, at least, not every member of the Doom Patrol. Who the hell are the Doom Patrol? They are my favorite superhero team. They've changed a lot over the years, but the basic gist is that they are a team of regular people who got into horrible accidents which gave them powers, but also made them freaks in the eyes of society. They've been everything from black ops earth defenders to psychedelic dimensional travellers. Heck, their most recent series makes them a metahuman government support network. The reason I bring them up is that the Brain and Mallah are frequent enemies of the Doom Patrol, so if they were to bring them into the show, they'd probably make them enemies of the crew. I don't wanna see my boy Robotman be evil, aight? However, there is one member of the Doom Patrol that could possibly work as a one-shot antagonist, if they really wanted to do it. That is the Doom Patrol typical defacto leader, the Chief. Nile Caulder, a.k.a. the Chief, is a super smart guy in a wheelchair. Yeah that's it. His big thing in the comics is he usually engineers the accidents that give the various members of the Doom Patrol their powers, as a sort of sociopathic experiment. So he's already evil, canonically. It would be an easy thing to turn into "oh he's a scientist for Task Force X and he specifically wants Brain and Mallah because history or maybe ego" but eh... They're is probably too much history in the comics for it to fit. I'm just asking that the writers not make the Doom Patrol evil.

One final thing... Darkseid is gonna show up eventually, right? There was the lasers in flashback during 'More Things in Heaven and Earth', so there has to be plans way down the line for the New Gods. Right? Well if they do, I hope for two things. One) Mister Miracle is involved somehow. Even if it is in a limited capacity, I'd just want to see him. Mister Miracle is awesome. And two) Only give us sparing glimpses of the big man, at least until the finale of his storyline. Here's the thing, Darkseid is a big deal. He's literally the god of everything evil, and a character like that loses his gravatas if you keep bringing him back. So save him for like the final fight. Which isn't to say never show him or mention him. Darkseid is a force of evil, he has armies of minions on his literal beck and call, and Desaad is just his hype man. Darkseid shouldn't tussle with wannabe heroes unless they attack him first. Darkseid is greater than these lesser being. Darkseid is Omega. Omega is Antilife! ANTILIFE IS DARKSEID! DARKSEID IS-

[my-name-is-siduri]

Sid's GenLoss thoughts, or, how Vinny is the key to all this

gif by hackerling

As I mentioned in my last post, I really don't know who anyone in GenLoss is outside of Jerma and Vinny. But I was immediately invested when I saw it was filled with lore.

I haven't seen too many people talk about gl!Vinny, so I figured I'd make my contribution by talking him in particular. (Spoilers, obviously.)

The carousel.

Vinny is an outlier in episode 2, both in his actions and how others react to him. We see this as soon as Ranboo first enters the carousel room. While there is urgency in Vinny's voice, he doesn't seem nearly as panicked as the others. Compare and contrast how everyone else acts while the carousel is turning:

To how Vinny acts:

For most of the carousel sequence, Vinny is quiet and distant. He doesn't address or even look at the camera when he passes by it on the carousel. The most we get after Ranboo first arrives is as he leaves, but in both instances Vinny's shouts are almost half-hearted.

Then there's his introduction.

The title on this clip upload is inaccurate. Unlike all the others, Vinny makes no attempt to beg for his life. He doesn't beg to be freed or try to escape. Vinny just tells us he's useful because he's a hoarder and spends the rest of the time listing the things he's hoarded. Even after becoming 'the taken', Sneeg still mentioned that looks forward to the chance of staying alive.

But Vinny doesn't do any of that, nor does he does it appear that he wants to. He just wants to talk about something else. Plug and plays. Wooden ducks. Anything other than surviving and escaping.

Vinny doesn't speak much while chat solves the pipe puzzle, but there is one thing he says that stands out: "I welcome death at this point."

Vinny's reaction to death, and the candy room.

As Vinny climbs out of the tunnel and stands up, he pauses and looks at Niki's body.

See clip here.

Although he's not as animated or dramatic as the others, Vinny is clearly shocked that she's dead. He questions why Ranboo and Sneeg are so focused on candy and Mouse Trap while Niki is dead on the floor. Of course, both Ranboo and Sneeg have been heavily brainwashed at this point, while Vinny likely hasn't. Curiously, after they brush off Niki's body, Vinny seems to brush it off too. While it may be that self-awareness only comes in bits and spirts, I think it's more likely (as we'll see later on) that Vinny was still aware and decided it was best to play along.

The other two moments in the candy room are interesting as well. Vinny takes Sneeg's suggestion and tastes a piece of candy, only to spit it out with disgust. "You're eating this stuff?" As others have pointed out, the candy is definitely not candy, but we don't know what it really is. All we know is that it didn't taste good.

And finally, Vinny makes one more comment before they leave the candy room: "What am I even doing in here?" To which, Ranboo can't give an answer.

From this point on, I'm going to skip ahead to Vinny's death and work my way backwards.

Reaction to Vinny's Death, and the laser room.

One of the few times we see Ranboo and Sneeg react to what's happening around them is moments before Vinny's dummy hits the ceiling.

It's curious that they have such a strong reaction. They did nothing as Niki screamed for help and let her die. When Ethan dies later on, they give no reaction. And Ranboo simply moves on when Austin and Sneeg are crushed to death.

But here they are, screaming at him hitting the ceiling. And when Vinny dies, they flinch at the sight. It was a subdued reaction, yes, but it was more than could be said for the others, except for maybe Slimetowel. Even afterwards, when they pass by Vinny's body, they're still uncomfortable by the sight.

Whatever really happened to Vinny was so shocking that pierced through all of their mind-control and scared them.

(By the way, this doesn't quite tie into the bigger theory I'm getting at here, I just thought it was interesting.)

"Goddamnit."

Out of all the on-screen deaths, Vinny is the calmest about his.

Niki cries after she's shot and completely breaks down before being shot again. Ethan screams at whatever it is that happened to him behind the fake wall. Austin and even Sneeg scream as they're crushed by the wall.

But Vinny? Sure, he does yell as he flies through the air and hits his head against the ceiling, but it hardly compares to the sheer horror the others experienced. When he realizes that he's about to die, all he does is lean his head back, says "Goddamnit", and lets the comically tiny anvil crush his head.

If anything, Ranboo and Sneeg have more of a reaction than Vinny does. Vinny is resigned and accepts his fate. Hell, he smiles just before they throw him. And those things he said before: "I welcome death at this point." "What am I even doing in here?"

How is Vinny so apathetic to what's happening without being forced to? Well…

"Guys, don't worry about it. I got this. I've done it before."

When presented with the laser room, Ranboo and Sneeg are at a loss (haha) on how to solve the puzzle. Vinny confidently tells them he's done it before. Ranboo tries to ask what he means by that, but Vinny doesn't elaborate and simply tells them that they need to throw him across the room. (I'll be fully honest, the reason I think that line is important and intentional is because it sounded like he was reciting a script word for word rather than him naturally speaking LOL)

He might be implying that this has happened during one of his funny stories like whatever happened at the wooden duck factory…but I think it's a lot more literal than that.

Repetition is a theme in GenLoss. In fact, it's what 'generation loss' means in the first place: repetition until degradation. Several people seem to have gone through trials before they happen, such as Slimesicle having a part of the Mouse Trap puzzle inside his 'slime.' And wait…didn't Slimesicle and Sneeg die on Day 1?

Everyone being held captive by Showfall has done this before. They've been trapped, put through puzzles, failed to escape, and died.

For whatever reason, Vinny remembers this. He knows the puzzles' solutions. He knows when he's not supposed to be on-screen. He knows that they've failed to escape before, and he's just biding his time until his next death.

But what if he's just being mind-controlled the way Sneeg is, you ask? He's not. Things aren't completely censored for him. He was shocked when he saw Niki dead. He found the not-candy to be revolting. He's still aware of the horrors going on around him. He's just desensitized because he's gone through it before, and he'll probably go through it again.

For a brief moment, however, something different happened. He got through the lasers farther than he ever has before. It's different than before. He smiles. "I made it!"

"Goddamnit."

[mdhwrites]

You know what's so frustrating about the ending to me? It's the time skip. I was mad enough about the lack of planning, interaction, development from the characters that I knew I would never get.

The time skip just puts salt on the wound, some of the cast don't feel like the same cast from the two episodes prior (I don't take growing up as an excuse) I want to SEE IT ALL, not just the beginning and the end, I need the middle. How Hunter learned to carve palismen, what has been Boscha doing after all this, when did Lilith master harpy mode???

I would've been fine without the time skip really, but nope, they just had to copypaste Amphibia at the end for the lack of ideas.

If they expect me to hate disney after hitting me with a "this is what we could've have with more time" because of the shortening for the hundredth time, no. And that excuse is getting old already.

So there's a lot of nice elements to a time skip ending. It allows you to move past the wreckage of a high action climax, it lets you let the audience know with 100% certainty that the characters will be okay and it allows enough time to pass that small shifts in who people are from the show can blossom into glorious flowers of development.

Not to say TOH succeeded in those strengths for the most part but there's a reason a lot of media uses it. The big thing I want to talk about though is... This isn't a fair criticism. I am willing to talk shit about TOH all day long, don't get me wrong, but this is simply unfair. TOH is an adventure comedy after all (as a note, I get that from its listing meaning it places itself in those genres. That's not me ascribing anything to it). That genre necessitates certain elements to its formatting, such as fight scenes, gags, etc. like that. This isn't The Ghost and Molly Mcgee. That show is a comedy, yes, but its half sized episodes and slice of life focus would have absolutely made character exploration like you wanted possible, even after a big climax like the one TOH had for its finale. But TOH can't do that. Unless there were plans to have the archivists eventually show up (which... No. Just no. Don't go and try to rip off Steven Universe even harder from my understanding because the people of the Isles just can't fight those beings properly. There's already enough bullshit to making it so that Belos can beat The Collector.) then Belos is the fantasy, action climax. You can't go beyond that. And even that one was poorly setup because of the show's lack of focus. So an episode of Hunter talking to Dell, facing his insecurities, exploring what palismen mean and especially mean to Hunter until he makes his new palisman? That simply wasn't going to happen. And that's also more than okay. One of the problems with TOH is not being willing to cut any idea out. To have no focus and that's not the job of a professional piece of media. A good story knows as much what it isn't as it knows what it is after all. A story like Hunter becoming a carver simply isn't what TOH's style, tone or focus wants. And that's what fanfiction is for. You want that story? See if a writer takes requests or commissions. Or take a crack at it yourself. I honestly tried for the past couple days after first properly reading this ask to do something of my own to pimp my capabilities but a mix of sickness and depression stopped me. I also want to add that I do complain a lot about TOH not exploring certain elements of itself. The difference between that and complaining about wanting something like development on Boscha, a character who has NEVER mattered, is that I try to target elements that it claims are important to itself. The Boiling Isles, Luz's magic, magic in general, the character arcs that aren't properly done or explored, etc. like that. Again, I can shit talk TOH all day if given an excuse to. But we shouldn't hold it against a show for not covering what we want covered. Not if it never gave us a reason to expect those moments in the first place. It's unfair and it's how you get a series that goes on for ten seasons when it really only had five seasons worth of material. And TOH's writers struggled with keeping any sort of consistent quality for three so do you REALLY want to see how they fucked up giving Lilith, a character turned into mostly a gag post S1 for no reason, her harpy form? Because I don't think I do.

[mr-geargrinder]

Star Trek Rewatch Thoughts

Finished my rewatch of DS9, Voyager, and TNG. I've lost count of how many times I've rewatched TNG and DS9, but this was only my second time going through Voyager, because it just didn't click with me the first time through. Anyways, here's some thoughts.

TNG is fascinating to me because you can see them assembling the show as they go. They change plans pretty drastically, remove and bring back characters, and try to salvage others with a few last minute episodes. That left a permanent mark on the way I think about storytelling.

TNG is a pretty goofy show, but it takes itself seriously and there's a lot to be said about how dedication to the bit and some really charming actors doing their best can totally overshadow cheap sets and silly technobabble... and even when it doesn't, those goofy moments are still very charming too.

I only skipped a handful of episodes and most of them were Troi or Wesley episodes, for obvious reasons. Troi got a lot of bad episodes and Wesley is... Wesley. Someone who kind of embodied all the worst parts of Gene Roddenberry's silly utopian wish fulfillment fantasies. One of the things that I never noticed before was how the last season was filled with so many bad episodes, followed by one of the best series finales ever made.

Voyager was less bad than I remember. I found myself liking certain characters a lot more and hating others much more intensely. Janeway, Tuvok, and Neelix really clicked with me this time. I recall Neelix being hated for being the silly comic relief character, but he's got some depth! He's a sincerely, genuinely good person who is trying his hardest for the people around him and that really resonated with me this time around. Especially his interactions with Tuvok (minus the Tuvix episode).

Tom Paris ended up being the guy I liked the least because his three traits are "pilot", being a general shithead, and reminding Harry about every single time he messed up romantically in a list, over and over, and none of that really helped them sell him as a roguish hotshot with a heart of gold, or whatever. He's just a shithead.

Skipping episodes helped me to enjoy Voyage a lot more. Almost anything to do with Chakotay was skipped immediately. His bullshit tribal mysticism, literally made up by a con-artist who convinced Hollywood he was a Native American and an expert cultural consultant, did not endear him to me in any way. Robert Beltran did his best to portray the character with dignity and wisdom, but Chakotay just suuuuucks. The inclusion of the Maquis subplot was also a pretty big waste of effort, but the fact that it gets ignored for most of the series makes it easy for me to ignore.

Anything to do with the Kazon got skipped too. They're just lamer, dumber, more irrational Klingons and they have nothing of value to add to any story they're featured in. That also meant skipping a lot of the Seska plot, which was Chakotay heavy anyways, and I don't regret that. Seska was not compelling at all.

Likewise, the Vidiians got skipped without hesitation. Not only do I hate the body horror aspect, but they were an attempt to create a sympathetic monster faction in Trek, but they're just.... irredeemably bad. There's no reason for anyone to allow the Vidiians to keep living. Not because of their disease, but because they are organ stealing monsters who hack random people to bits to extend their lifespans a tiny bit, so they can keep stealing more organs. No thank you. Fuck off. Go away. There's a reason no one talks about you.

DS9 remains my favorite Star Trek. It's got some rough episodes, and it struggles at time between being a planet/anomaly/random-space-threat of the week and a smaller scale, single-location focused kind of story, but the entire cast does a fantastic job of switching between the two without skipping a beat.

I don't think there's a single character on DS9 that I can say I dislike and the few I could complain about are mostly ones who were there for a single episode or just didn't have the benefit of a few more seasons to develop them as much as we got with characters like Jake and Nog. Speaking of which, Jake and Nog are such a perfect example of how you can have kid characters in a trek show and have them work and develop naturally and feel like a natural part of the story.

One of the things that struck me that never occurred to me before is that DS9 is a show that is very, very much about the concept of "home" and all the complex ways the character interpret and grapple with that concept. Quark and Garak have a fantastic scene towards the end of the series where they both commiserate about how their home planets are changing rapidly and how they'll never be able to return to the planets they once knew. It's kinda there in nearly every character and plot and it's really fascinating.

I think the only episodes I skipped were a few of the "It's time to make O'Brien suffer!" episodes, and that one specific episode where they meet that insane lady who forces her anti-technology beliefs on everyone by lying to them and abusing them, and the moral of the story is "actual this is good and she's right!" -- Fuck that episode. I'd rather watch the board game episode.

The last stretch of the Dominion War is a little uneven, but it's still a strong arc overall. Could've maybe done without the Pah-Wraith stuff, and the Ezri and Bashir subplot is a little weak, but those are nitpicks.

Anyways, go watch Star Trek.

[immortalled]

hi! i’m so sorry if this is strange, i’m just working on a story and i’d love a second opinion ^^’ no pressure to answer this at all! it’s very hard to explain without proper context so bare with me

i was wondering how you think nathan would react upon finding out he’s the only person who can kill a creature that’s been plaguing him and his friends for a while, in a sort of IT inspired way? most of his friends would be dead at this point, so it’d be like a heroic attempt to make up for their losses by strapping himself with explosives lmao

he’d be around the age he appears in the show but in a tiny rural town setting with no powers

it’s a little up in the air for me on whether he would do it and what could happen afterwards, i’ve kept this quite vague mostly because it is just a loose storyline i’ve strung together while listening to a song, but if it sparks anything for you i’d love to hear!

Hi, Nonnie! Not strange at all! I love talking to people. ♥ (And apologies in advance, this got long because I started analyzing him LOL. Please feel free to skip the analysis under the cut if that doesn't interest you.)

Okay, so first off, I'm flattered you're asking me, and secondly, this sounds like a really fun fanfiction. If you're comfortable, I'd love to read it! If you ever post it on Ao3, please feel free to drop me a link! I'll subscribe!! c:

As for your question... Of course, please do always play with him however you want! I'm far from any kind of... idk, definitive authority on his character LOL, and fancreations are your own sandbox, so I'd never want anyone to change what they want to do based on my or anyone else's personal interpretation of a character. But! My personal two cents is that whether or not Nathan would sacrifice himself like that is really down to how strong his connection with his friends has grown and if he thinks there is anything to gain or save by doing so!

Nathan Young is a character who loves living. He's the embodiment of the early 2010s YOLO motto and that particular brand of unapologetic, teenagery/young adult joie de vivre attitude is why I think the storm gave him immortality as a super power. The rooftop scene in the S1 finale is a great example of this and his entire speech about going crazy while you're young, even if it's dangerous, is actually a really solid look into Nathan's worldview and what seems to drive his impulses. In fact, I think rewatching that entire episode might help you get a better perspective on Nathan and how he might handle the situation in your fanfic!

So, that is to say, I don't think mortal!Nathan is the kind of person to sacrifice his life for anything without very good reason. In fact, I'd argue that he wouldn't at all without immortality as a safety net. He's kind of a coward at times and tends to dodge anything painful or unpleasant, be it emotional or physical. But let's look at the times he sacrificed or almost sacrificed himself in canon!

S1E6 - Falling from the Wertham Community Centre. Nathan does not know he's immortal here and he almost doesn't go back for his friends at all. He only decides to try stopping Virtue because he's been pushed to the edge and realizes how much his weird little ASBO family means to him. Without them, he's totally alone again, and Nathan hates being alone. Although, in fairness, I also do not think Nathan believed there was a possibility of dying in this scenario. Rachel was mind-controlling people, not murdering them, and he clearly did not account for the fact that either of them would lose their balance. I am unsure that he would have done any of this had he known he might not make it out alive... maybe if he had exhausted all other options? Either way, the key here is that he did take risks because he thought he could still save his friends.

S2E2 - Trying to save Jamie. Nathan doesn't think before running toward the burning car to save his half-brother. He could have died here because the ecstasy he took reversed his power, but it's unclear whether or not he heard Simon's warning or if it would have made a difference. Considering how blind the reaction looked, I don't think being immortal or mortal would have mattered. But, still, he was acting on the hope that he could save Jamie.

S2E4 - Almost lets Tim gut him. In order to keep his friends from being killed by Tim the Crazy GTA NPC, Nathan agrees to be killed in their stead. However, he has to be pressured into it by his friends despite knowing he will come back to life. I think Nathan would have deeply regretted it if he had let Tim kill them, but in that moment he was far more afraid of the pain of death than anything else.

S2E6 - Suicide for fame and going toe-to-toe with the Murderous Milkman. This is one of the best examples of Nathan's growth and how he has begun to cope with his power in an extremely unhealthy way. In this episode, we see him toy with the idea of allowing himself to be killed for fame (albeit not without a little bit of peer pressure from his manager), which he does on-camera. We also see him try to legitimately fight someone for the first time when he seeks out Brian specifically for revenge after learning Brian murdered Kelly. In both instances, Nathan knows he will or could die, but he's willing to go through with it anyway because he's immortal. Dying hurts, it sucks, but he's learning to see it as something unimportant when he's able to come back to life. Obviously, he wouldn't kill himself on camera without immortality, but I think it's fair to question whether or not he'd attack someone out of revenge for a dead friend. Maybe? I don't personally think so, but it might be worth watching this episode again and analyzing the scene for yourself.

S2E7 / The "Christmas Special" - Blocking a gunman from shooting his friends. I admittedly have some beef with the characterization and overall writing of this episode, but I don't think that this particular scene is OOC. In this episode, an armed gunman bursts into the bar where Curtis works and is about to shoot. Nathan wastes no time getting in front of the gun and telling him to shoot, who cares, he's immortal. It's all very badass until he's reminded uh oh! he sold his power and is actually mortal now. Realizing that, Badass Hero Nathan vanishes and he flings himself out of the way to avoid being shot (which gets Nikki killed in the process). Now, obviously, this scene is set up entirely just to fridge Nikki and you could argue that Nathan isn't as close to Nikki as his other friends, but I don't think that would have mattered. If Nathan, mortal, had the choice between jumping between his friends and a bullet or hiding... I really do think he'd hide.

Don't get me wrong, Nathan can be selfless and heroic. The fact that he's immortal does not cheapen the fact that he was willing to endure the pain of death and what appears to be a very unpleasant resurrection process for the sake of potentially saving or avenging his friends. Nathan's an ass, and he's regularly selfish, but he is not a bad guy and he sticks his neck out for people he loves way more often than any of them give him credit for. But I also just do not think that he'd be willing to sacrifice or get himself hurt if he had no supernatural "take-backs". If he sacrificed himself, I think it would have to be accidental, as with running to save Jamie; some great, fatal risk that he does not consider fatal because he's too wrapped up in an emotion greater than his fear of dying.

For your story, I think you would have to either push him to the point of not being able to think past a greater fear, or you would have to remove all other options from him. Friends gone, family gone, way of living, maybe even the rest of the world, gone. Or perhaps he's trapped, somehow, in a place where he can't return to the rest of the world? Maybe he's stuck in a place where it will forever be just him and the monster that's been hounding them. I think that he would have to sit with that revelation for a while, wear down, and then maybe he would seriously consider destroying himself to destroy the creature, if the alternative is too suffocating and grim to bear. Whatever the reason, without his friends to save, the catalyst for his decision would need to be something that directly affects Nathan, not people who are no longer alive.

Anyway, that's just my very long two cents. Again, fictional characters are up to interpretation and I think most any character can be pushed and changed to do whatever you want in the right circumstances, especially AUs. So don't let my opinions stop you if you want to take his character a different direction! The most important thing is to have fun and write the story you want to tell. c:

If you have any more thoughts or want to brainstorm some ideas, though, I'm happy to bat around some stuff with you and see what sticks! I read IT several years ago and loved it, so seeing the Misfits gang thrown into a similar situation sounds like a ton of fun.

[douglysium]

Episode 10 TMP Quick Thoughts

Housekeeping and Prologue

Hello, this is Douglysium and you might not know me as that guy who wrote over 100 pages of analysis on the Eye (which can be read on Tumblr here (https://douglysium.tumblr.com/post/735599414228484097/the-relationships-between-the-dread-powers-the) or Google Docs here (The Relationships Between the Dread Powers: The Eye- Knowledge is Fear and Ignorance is Bliss)) or as that guy who wrote an article on the Extinction (which can be read on Tumblr here(https://douglysium.tumblr.com/post/717929126195003392/what-would-avatars-of-the-extinction-be-like-a) and Google Docs here(​What would Avatars of the Extinction be like?: A TMA Speculation)). Suffice to say I might be a bit of a TMA fan. Also, spoilers for TMP up until episode 10. You can read my ramblings on the last episode here (Episode 9 TMP Quick Thoughts).

However, Protocol offers a very unique opportunity and experience for me because I didn’t actually get into TMA until after it was over and I binged all of it. So this is my first time experiencing something even remotely similar to what the original TMA fans probably experienced when waiting for each episode week by week and slowly having to put everything together with the limited information they had. So I decided to throw my hat into the ring since this might be my only chance to do something similar. However, I’m working on some longer form TMA content so I can’t spend as much time on these articles giving a bunch of super detailed thoughts. I will try to keep these short and that inevitably might mean some could have questions about why I think or predict certain things and in those cases I would probably recommend you read at least some of the two articles I mentioned above to get a better idea of where I’m coming from. This also means I won’t be giving you a play-by-play of every single thing that happens in the episode so I encourage you to listen to or read them yourselves and feel free to comment if you feel something is important.

These reviews are probably going to end up focusing mostly on the Entities and their manifestations as they are what I have thought about the most and spent the most time interpreting and there’s been a lot of… interesting theories floating around about how the Entities are manifesting that I want to go over.

Finally, I’m just going to say it right now, spoiler warning for all of The Magnus Archives. I know that Jon and co said one could start with Protocol and be fine, and while that’s probably true, media like this tends to be made in conversation with or take into consideration what came before it in the irl chronology in order to connect them. While I’m sure you could skip The Magnus Archives, I don't really see the point of skipping over it when we are already getting characters from TMA showing up in TMP in Protocol. So to me it’s pretty clear that if we want to understand the full picture of TMP and all the things it is trying to say then we can’t just try to pretend TMA doesn’t exist or scrub it away. Just because you could understand what’s happening without the context in broad strokes doesn’t mean you're getting all the nuances.

These articles are meant to be quick and short so sorry if there’s typos and if I don’t address every possible question or possibility. I don’t want to repeat myself too much in this series outside of the prologue so be sure to skim some of my other articles.

Episode 10 “Saturday Night”

This starts off with a TV interview hosted by Geraldine Hardy featuring Nigel Dickerson about ““Mr. Bonzo’s On His Way” which topped charts for over 11 weeks.” Well, actually 12 weeks according to Nigel. To which Geraldine adds “12 weeks, smashing the record for TV tie-in music and launching a merchandise empire.” So Mr. Bonzo’s On His Way is a pretty big deal and I can see why Gwen might have been surprised Lena didn’t seem to know anything about Nigel or his work in the last episode.

It’s implied that Nigel hasn’t been on TV recently when we get

NIGEL 

“It’s an absolute pleasure to be here Geraldine. Nice to be on TV again.”

GERALDINE 

“It has been a while, hasn’t it?”

NIGEL 

“I’ve kept busy.”

We are also told that Mr. Bonzo first debuted 25 years ago. Nigel says, with what the transcripts call “odd energy”, “I mean, it started as a joke…” Long story short, Channel Six (which is apparently a part of the BBC’s(British Broadcasting Corporation)) took a gamble and offered Nigel a spot as the host of their Saturday night variety show. Still, ““Nigel Dickerson presents Saturdays on Six” or “Nigel’s SOS” as they started calling it, really took off. I mean, at the end of the day it was still the same sort of variety show that BBC and ITV were running on Saturday primetime: skits, music, interviews, some on-location features. What marked us out though was that we didn’t take ourselves nearly as seriously as them. The whole conceit was that the set was built like an enormous comedy dungeon, and I’d been imprisoned by “Mr. Six.”” 

Mr. Six was a character that acted as the “fictional head of Channel Six” and the joke around the character was that Nigel would have to do a “good show” in order to be released from the fictional dungeon within the show. One of the show’s beats was that Mr. Six would call Nigel and angrily explain that “he’d gotten a complaint from some busybody writing in with a name like Mrs. Sourpucker or Mr. Smallprick” and then Nigel would be told an outlandish rule he needed to follow to much comedic effect. “I’d be told I had to do the whole show without… I don’t know, using the words “up next” or standing on one leg or something and people loved it. They really loved it.”

Then Geraldine asks about Mr. Bonzo, which implies that this topic is what at least Geraldine seems to be most interested in. It could even be what this interview is supposed to be about. “Yes. Mr. Bonzo. Of course. Well, one of our big things was pranks. We had a whole section called “You Got Berried!” where we’d invite on some serious public figure and make them look a bit silly, like, uh, get a famous footballer to do a bunch of kick-ups but we’d weighted the ball, and at the end I’d come out, say “You Got Berried!” (Not to be confused with The Buried) and give them this big golden raspberry trophy. It was all in fun, of course. No guests were hurt.” So then Rich, Nigel’s producer, came up with the idea of “inviting a famous person on, someone really serious, and we tell them we’re going to have them do a segment with a popular children’s entertainer. Now, obviously these folks won’t have any idea about what kids are actually watching, so we could come up with the most horrendous thing, claim kids loved it and see how long it took for the guest to realize that they were the joke. That they’d been “berried”.” So Nigel designs a character that is “this awful clown character – this big bulbous, splotchy suit, running around, screaming his own name and generally being a nightmare.”

Geraldine asks Nigel who came up with this character’s name and Nigel replies “You know, I honestly don’t remember. I know it wasn’t me or Rich, but at some point someone said it and the name just stuck. I don’t really know what else to say about it. His name is Mr. Bonzo.” This is the part where I do what I always do and try to frame the statements or encounters through the lens of Smirke’s 14 (plus The Extinction) to note if there’s any parallels or evidence that these are / aren’t the same Entities from TMA. The fact that Nigel doesn’t remember who came up with the character's name is most likely just a throwaway line and who actually came up with the name doesn’t really matter. But I’m here to give you my thoughts even if they are a bit of a stretch.

As I’ve mentioned in a previous article The Stranger seems to be the Entity tied the most to forgetting things and memory loss. “In MAG 165 (Revolutions) we see Not-Sasha watch over a Domain that takes the form of a merry-go-round with people fighting over faces. People with no faces must fight over the faces of others to rip them off and regain some sense of identity. When they lose their face it is said “And soon enough they will forget they ever even had one, rest assured; it’s best to step the dance and keep your face secured as much as you are able. Just. Keep. Running.” In case there is any debate about what The Stranger embodies in MAG 200 it is stated “And as they learned to know their friends and kin, so too did they learn to fear the unknown figure, the coming of the stranger” and in MAG 092 (Nothing Beside Remains) Jonah tells Jon “We thrive on ceaseless watching, on knowing too much. What we face is the hidden, the uncanny, and the unknown.” while in MAG 111 (Family Business) Jon says “The Stranger is the unknown. The uncanny.” and Gerard doesn’t correct him. Theoretically the fear of the unknown would probably often include the fear of forgetting something as you would no longer know it. The idea that there’s something you once knew but now you don’t, and so it is unknown. This obviously would overlap with The Spiral a lot with the fear of your senses being wrong but that’s a whole thing for another time, and plenty of Entities overlap with stuff all the time. All I’m saying is that there’s a strong precedent for The Stranger making people forget stuff or making things hard to remember.”

However, that alone isn’t very good evidence but Mr. Bonzo is described as being a clown. Which The Stranger has a precedent for manifesting as, probably due to both the idea of the uncanny valley being achieved with a costume or makeup and the idea of a traveling circus full of strangers you don’t know from out of town. Not to mention that Mr. Bonzo is described as a suit, which could very easily connect to an Entity like The Stranger. Firstly, The Stranger tends to have a big emphasis on wearing things like skins and suits. I think the idea behind this is usually that wearing costumes or disguises can actually obscure who is wearing them and thus their true identity is unknown. There’s also the fact that costumes themselves can easily fall into the uncanny valley. Ever since Five Nights at Freddy’s became popular there’s been an uptick in horror media focusing on how creepy and uncanny things like animatronic suits can be. Not that Mr. Bonzo is an animatronic but it is a suit. Also, as others much more well versed in British culture than me have pointed out, Mr. Bonzo is most likely inspired by Mr. Blobby (a real life fictional character). And yeah I could see how such a costume could be uncanny to some or quickly become creepy if you change around some features.

The wiki also says this about Mr. Blobby: “Mr Blobby first appeared in 1992 in the 'Gotcha' segment of the second series of Noel's House Party, in which celebrities were caught out in a Candid Camera style prank. Mr Blobby was presented to the celebrities as if he were a real and established children's television character, in order to record a feature about the guests' professions - in reality, the setup was completely fictitious, and the character of Mr Blobby portrayed by Noel Edmonds focused on acting childishly and unprofessionally, to irritate the celebrities taking part.” This all sounds way too similar to Mr. Bonzo and the role he played on Mr. Bonzo’s On His Way as a character that pranked or messed with celebrities.

Also, after looking through the ARG I found some pictures of Mr. Bonzo (https://rustyquill.com/2023/10/31/the-magnus-protocol-arg-full-summary/)

(There’s also a more distorted creepypasta style picture of Mr. Bonzo (that I imagine the suit we see later looks like), but you can check the link for that).

“I remember the first show we used him. We’d invited Gotard Rimbaeu – the chef. He was very big at the time. Lots of TV appearances, a cooking column in The Times. But I think he was looking to soften his public image after the Mirror ran a story on him, I don’t quite remember…” Once again, Nigel is having trouble recalling something even if Geraldine reminds him. I fully acknowledge I’ve gone full tinfoil and it’s probable that Nigel just genuinely forgot or is a normal human with an imperfect memory.

“...after that he agreed to do a segment on our show teaching children how to cook. He’s 

obviously never seen the show and was completely oblivious to kids’ culture. He was absolutely perfect.” It’s interesting that they are preying on the fact that this chef is oblivious to kids’ culture. Which is another way to say that they were taking advantage of the fact that Gotard didn't know something (which can be very Stranger-esque). 

“When Mr Bonzo emerged out of the pantry, the effect was… incredible. Rimbeau’s face went white and he looked like he was about to scream. I’ll be honest, I’d seen the suit already, but I hadn’t seen it moving, and it was even freaking me out a bit. Rimbeau tried to keep it together, as far as he knew all the kids did love Mr. Bonzo, but when that big rubbery clown started knocking over pans and smashing eggs all over the studio kitchen, “the snooty chef” actually tried to hide behind a shelving unit. And finally, when Mr Bonzo went in for a cuddle, Rimbeau genuinely attacked him with a frying pan. He actually broke the arm of the guy wearing him, which I took as my cue to enter with the Golden Berry. This was on live TV don’t forget.” Surprise is something that a lot of Entities like to use but you could argue it potentially relating to The Stranger here in the sense that Gotard didn’t know any of the stuff regarding Mr. Bonzo was going to happen when he joined the show, nor was he familiar with the character. Also Gotard Rimbeau sounds like a Gordan Ramsey reference. Especially with a title like “BRITAIN’S SNOOTIEST CHEF.”

While someone having his arm broken sounds like a disaster it apparently worked out for Nigel and his crew, since the audience ended up loving it and asking for Mr. Bonzo to return. Of course, “...there was a different man in the suit, of course. There were a few of them over the years. It was very physically demanding and that wasn’t the only injury we had with it. It actually became a sort of ritual: the newest member of the production crew wore Mr. Bonzo until someone else joined.” I mentioned last episode how The Desolation can relate to the fear of things like bad luck. So you could maybe argue some parallels with Entities such as The Desolation depending on how people wearing the suit got hurt, but my money is still currently on The Stranger.

Nigel explains, that the joke couldn’t last forever and the bit started losing its punch as more people became aware of Mr. Bonzo and his skits on Nigel’s show. “The problem with a surprise prank is that doing it on Saturday night primetime means pretty soon everyone knows about it, and the guests knew it was coming. A couple even requested it. So the prank part of it sort of died, and he just became an SOS mascot. One of my many tormentors in the dungeon. By the end we’d even retired Mr. Six, and it was all Bonzo.” Once again, a focus on surprise and I think it’s interesting that Bonzo loses his punch the more people know about and understand him. Bonzo is a character that thrived specifically on the guests not knowing who he was and did. So a potential relationship with the unknown again. “The kids certainly liked him. It turned out they really did think he was hilarious. Well, the ones who didn’t wet themselves, anyway.” So Mr. Bonzo could have been creating fear that fed the Entities unintentionally.

I wonder about Geraldine since at this point they seem to laugh at the suffering or fear of people. When Nigel brings up how people wearing Bonzo’s costume often got hurt Geraldine says “Or until they got hit by a pan!” and laughs while Nigel doesn’t. When Nigel mentions kids wetting themselves Geraldine laughs, but you could argue this is just Geraldine reacting to the joke. If Geraldine was an Avatar, monster, or somehow connected to an Entity this behavior would make sense if she is trying to purposefully scare Nigel, or maybe she just has a different sense of humor. Honestly, Geraldine radiates returning character energy to me. 

Nigel explains that things were looking up for the Bonzo brand despite this dividing line amongst the reception of kids. “Soon it was Bonzomania: merch sales were through the roof; “underserving number one hit single” actually did become a number one hit single and we even started construction on a small Bonzoland theme park at one point. It was… It was a good time.” And then people stopped liking Bonzo after a serial killer named Terrance Menki was caught wearing a Mr. Bonzo costume after murdering 11 people. Nigel says “You know it was only the last one, right? The one where he was caught? The police said there were eleven bodies in total and his wardrobe was full of all sorts of homemade costumes. Who knows what he wore for the rest? But no, because he was caught dressed as Mr. Bonzo, that’s all people remember, the, uh, the-” “Bonzo Butcher” apparently. 

Obviously, Nigel has some strong feelings about this “The Bonzo Butcher! Ridiculous tabloid garbage. It didn’t even look like him! He got the colors backwards! But they still splashed the image all over the front page. Complete overreaction.” Terrance messing up Bonzo’s colors could just be a coincidence but it could relate to The Stranger and the idea of the uncanny. The idea that a character or person who would otherwise be familiar is off in some way. So we get an uncanny Bonzo that doesn’t look quite right.

When Geraldine asks “An overreaction?” Nigel replies with “No, I mean, uh, it was inappropriate. To show to the public I mean.” One could argue that this parallels The Eye thematically with the fear relating to the idea of something being made public or known. Not to mention that Nigel is in front of a live audience right now and is in the middle of an interview. Interviews are something The Eye loves and has a precedent for, the most obvious example of this are the various live statements people like Jon and Gertrude took in TMA as Archivists. After news of the “Bonzo Butcher” went public “Bonzoland halted construction shortly afterwards and the suits decided it was best to “temporarily” halt production on SOS.” and Nigel got death threats even though he felt he had nothing to do with the situation. Public perception of Mr. Bonzo took a turn for the worse but Bonzo did get “some fans. In the, uh, edgier parts of the internet. As a “meme”.” 

Geraldine asks about the Bonzo merchandise still available on Nigel's own website and if its presence makes him uneasy. “About what? The fact that a few sales might be from people trying to be edgy? A man’s got to make a living, Geraldine, and it’s not like I can tell if someone’s buying a t-shirt ironically. Besides, people think of Nigel Dickerson and Mr. Bonzo is never far behind so it’s not like its changing my reputation. In a lot of ways I’m more his prisoner now than I ever was on my show.” Then the interview takes a sharp turn when

GERALDINE 

“And how do you respond to the more recent rumours?”

NIGEL 

“(on guard) Excuse me? “

GERALDINE 

“The witness statements from three murders over the last five years”

NIGEL 

“(speaking over her) I told your producer this wasn’t going to be discussed.”

GERALDINE 

“-that claim a person in a Mr. Bonzo costume was at the scene? Do you think there could be a copycat?’ 

NIGEL 

“(Getting up) This interview is over. Don’t contact us again.”

GERALDINE 

“Us? “

NIGEL 

“(losing it) It was a joke alright!? Mr. Bonzo was meant to be funny, make people laugh! Is that so wrong? Why am I still trapped dealing with all this- this- Why won’t he let me go?! Why”

First off, considering that Gwen encounters Bonzo in Nigel’s house later, when Nigel says “us” he is probably referring to both himself and Mr. Bonzo. One could also argue that this part of the interview parallels The Eye due to Nigel reacting very negatively to prying questions and he refuses to be interviewed again. However, I think that at least Mr. Bonzo is somehow connected to The Stranger. The comment Geraldine makes about the rumors by saying “The witness statements from three murders over the last five years” and “-that claim a person in a Mr. Bonzo costume was at the scene? Do you think there could be a copycat?” implies that more murders have since occurred after the first 11. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to assume that these three murders might be related to whatever we see Bonzo doing later after Gwen gives him the letter. Is Bonzo going off to kill more people, and why is the OIAR involved?

We cut to OIAR via one of the computers to find out that Celia is filling out the forms for this statement. Colin enters the room and makes it clear that he doesn’t want to interrupt Celia’s Job to which she respons “It’s fine, just stuck the kettle on. You want a cup?” Implying that Colin’s mental health leave might have ended. Colin asks where everyone is, as he seems to be looking for Alice, and Celia explains “Gwen’s on “assignment”, whatever that means. Alice and Sam are, uh, following up something from a case.” Unbeknownst to Celia, Gwen’s assignment is delivering a letter to Nigel, and Sam and Alice went to go investigate the ruins of the Magnus Institute. It’s a bit funny that Celia describes what Sam and Alice are doing as “following up something from a case” because that kind of phrase was used to describe what the assistant and other members of the Institute in TMA often did when investigating statements or checking their validity.

Colin talks about his experience with some therapists he talked to on his mental leave.

COLIN 

“(distracted) Right. Shame. Wanted Alice’s thoughts on something. You know anything about computers?” 

CELIA 

“Not really. Weren’t you on leave?’ 

COLIN 

“For my brain, yeah. Didn’t work. Talked to three therapists. None of them even knew what a logic gate is. What the hell use is that going to be?“ 

A logic gate is “a device that performs a Boolean function, a logical operation performed on one or more binary inputs that produces a single binary output,” which would imply that Colin was asking his therapists about the computers. Colin also says “None. I was just sat their twiddling my thumbs. Best thing for me is figuring this out.”. Colin asks Celia once again if no one is present and then-

COLIN 

“Great. That’ll make things easier. He sits at a desk and starts booting it up.”

COLIN 

“(cont.) Maybe don’t tell them I’ve been on their terminals. They’ll only get the wrong idea.”

CELIA 

“Uh, sure.” 

Colin starts typing on the PC a little breathless. 

CELIA 

“Cool. Well, I think that was the kettle, so I’ll probably leave you to it.”

COLIN 

“Yeah. Oh, and, uh, Celia?”

CELIA 

“Mm?”

COLIN 

“If Lena asks, I wasn’t here.” 

He starts to pull open the active computer, muttering to himself while Celia walks off to the breakroom.

Okay… so maybe Colin’s mental health leave isn’t actually over, and he just wanted to sneak back in to see what was going on with the computers. Once again, I must beat the dead horse of saying that there may be Eye related themes present at the OIAR or the facility. The Eye doesn’t just relate to the fear of being watched but also the fear of knowledge in general, which includes the fear of “seeing too much”, horrible truths, etc.. In MAG 200 The Eye is stated to have been born from the fear of seeing too much, and it also thematically relates to Jonah’s ability to force information into the heads of people like Martin and Melanie. Gertrude at one point even mentions The Eye as relating to the desire to know and understand even if in doing so you get hurt.

I’m not saying Colin is unjustified or unreasonable in his paranoia. But what I am saying is that an Entity like The Eye might purposefully be trying to insight and prey on this behavior (and the OIAR has a lot of parallels with The Eye). Gertude’s comment about hurting yourself in a desire to obtain knowledge could relate to Colin’s increasing levels of stress and degrading mental health as he attempts to unravel the secrets of the computer. Additionally, Colin’s desire to understand what’s happening does technically mirror a character like Rosie, but specifically his desire to understand an outdated system of technology is very similar to an Eye related statement from TMA in MAG 148 (Extended Surveillance) involving a “Security Camera Instruction Manual.” Upon reading the Leitner the victim ends up metaphysically fusing with the camera system the manual is tied to, but that’s not the important part. The important part is what led to Samson Stiller reading the manual in the first place. Specifically, a desire to understand and fix the camera system. In that MAG we get “I remember the smell of dust when Dave went and cracked open the filing cabinet in the back room, before waving his arms in the direction of the drawer and shrugging. I mean, I’d have just left it, obviously, but I think Samson was taking the whole knowing how the system works thing as like – a point of pride? Something he could salvage from the whole situation. Just a way of getting some control over his life, you know?”

Alice has been at the job pretty long, and presumably the longest out of her coworkers with the possible exception of her boss Lena (that’s still up in the air). So I wonder what Colin thinks Alice might know or add. I also wonder if Colin warns Celia not to tell Lena because he just doesn’t want to be caught by his boss at the office during his mental health leave or because he is suspicious of Lena specifically.

We cut to Sam and Alice exploring the ruins of the Institute. The ruins are clearly rotting and decaying and Alice seems to think this situation is dangerous as implied by this later interaction.

ALICE 

“(cont.) Careful…”

SAM 

“(turning) Oh thank goodness you said that otherwise I would’ve jumped up and down the dangerous” 

The floor breaks.

Before all the floor stuff however, Sam rummages through a filing cabinet and manages to find a key.

Alice actually shows herself to be a lot more aware and insightful than I think some fans give her credit for. She correctly identifies that Sam doesn’t actually know what he’s looking for, which he eventually admits outright, and she does try to console him. Although, you could argue it was pretty obvious Sam didn’t know what he was looking for. The fact that Sam doesn’t know what he’s looking for really makes me wonder what caused him to become so interested in the Institute. Why did the Institute test him for their gifted kids program?

I also forgot to mention something very important. When we cut to Sam and Alice the for the second time, even though we were using Sam’s phone the first cut in, the transcripts say this “ EXT. THE MAGNUS INSTITUTE RUINS – NIGHT, THUNDERSTORM (TAPE RECORDER).” So we are hearing what’s happening via a Tape Recorder, just like TMA. It also shows that whatever is listening isn’t just limited to things connected to the internet or anything, but seemingly any form of technology with a microphone. Are the tapes from this Institute or was it one of the tapes that would have been dragged along with the Entities from TMA into this new universe? Also, is it The Web that has been listening this entire time again or is something / someone else also using the tapes? We know that, while rare, artifacts can be tied to one or more Powers (such as the Key of Solomon) so are the tapes still aligned with The Web while something else is using them or is The Web just stepping up its game and using all microphones now because it doesn’t need the tapes specifically for its new plan(s)?

In this scene it’s also clear that Alice really worries about Sam’s safety and you could even argue that she’s mothering him a bit.

ALICE 

“(picking something up) Who do you reckon Archie was?” 

SAM 

“Huh?”

ALICE 

“I found one of those old timey name block things.” 

SAM 

“Uh… Archipelago?’ 

ALICE 

“I’m sorry what?” 

SAM 

“What?” 

ALICE 

“You’re just going to skip straight to “Archipelago”? Not, I don’t know, architect? Archive?” 

The name Archie doesn’t ring familiar to me but the words “architect” and “archive” do. Specifically in relation to, of course, Smirke’s architecture and the Institute’s Archives. In fact in TMA the tunnels under the Institute are Smirkean architecture. Sam also picks up a book that immediately disintegrates in his hand which makes me wonder if there were leitners in the TMP Institute at some point, and if such artifacts will play a role similar to the one they played in TMA.

ALICE 

“Nice chair. I could look real ominous swiveling in that thing.” 

SAM 

“I wouldn’t risk it. Not unless you want woodworms up your butt.”

ALICE 

“Ew. That explains the pattern on the floor.“

SAM 

“Oh yeah… What is that?”

ALICE 

“Worm tracks. Or y’know symbols of ancient otherworldly power. One or the other.”

The comment about the worms seems like a cheeky nod to Jane Prentiss’ attack on the Institute's in TMA. At the moment I think this is just a reference for the audience as opposed to something alluding to the idea that a similar attack also occurred here. Some floor breaks under Sam and the key he tried to use to open a door falls down into the resulting hole. Alice expresses worry as she manages to catch Sam and says “What was that? Because it sounded a lot like, “I’m sorry Alice you were right. We should head back now before I get myself killed falling into a soggy pit. Gosh you’re sexy, here’s a twenty for your trouble.”” Once again, I would like to point to Gertrude’s whole “The Eye is the desire to search for knowledge even if you get hurt in doing so” thing. I think it’s clear Sam is at least kind of desperate for answers since he acknowledges that he doesn’t even really know what he’s looking for. I’m not saying Sam is secretly an Eye Avatar or anything but, like with Colin, I wonder if something like The Eye or someone similar to Jonah is purposefully trying to stoke Sam’s curiosity or take advantage of it.

As far as the Institute’s gifted kids program goes Sam also says this “No, you’re right. I don’t know what I’m looking for. I have… I have memories of weird stuff I saw here, but no context. I want to know what was happening, why they chose us… why they didn’t choose me. Maybe find the bit where everything started to go wrong. But… it’s too late. And now… I’m the only one left who cares.” Which makes me wonder even more about the program. Why were these kids selected? Was it their personalities, their experiences, some supernatural factor? Were they looking for potential Avatars or something?  Wa the TMP Institute working with the government?

“The voices finally disappear, lost to the distance and the rain. There is a long silence as the tape keeps running. The water is gently disturbed below. Then there is a thud on the hidden wooden trapdoor and the rattle of a padlock. There is the distinct sound of a key being dragged across wood then being blindly fumbled in a lock which finally clicks. The trap door opens, the lock falling away and [ERROR] emerges and takes a shuddering breath.. Click.” So something or someone might have just escaped the ruins. Who or what it could be I don’t know. This Institute could have its own set of tunnels like the one in TMA but the Institute in TMA was located in London instead of Manchester after being moved so I can’t really say if this Institute would have a similar system. Was someone / something purposefully trying to get Sam to release whatever / whoever this is from the Institute? Does the being itself somehow have some way of influencing things from a distance?

I actually skipped over a portion of this episode because I felt like it flowed better but let’s rewind to check up on Gwen via a tv apparently. Gwen rings the door and as Nigel unlocks it: “He unbolts the door. There’s a lot of them. Then he opens the heavy wooden doors to find GWEN stood in the porch.”

Nigel is surprised to find someone at this time of night and Gwen explains that she was sent by the OIAR  (Office of Incident Assessment and Response). The name of the OIAR is something I haven’t really thought about but the fact that it has “Response” probably means it’s supposed to take a more active role in dealing with the supernatural than the Institute. In TMA the job of the Institute technically wasn’t to perform investigations or help people but just to note supernatural occurrences and verify / research them. The Institute itself isn’t actually supposed to really do anything to help. The Institute’s motto is literally “Audio. Opperior. Vigilo." which means” I listen. I wait. I watch." and in MAG 28 (Skintight) Jon says to Melanie “We are not ‘paranormal investigators’. We are researchers. Scholars.” They aren’t supposed to solve mysteries, stop monsters, etc. for the sake of closure or helping others. They are just supposed to note what happens and use it for their own research(even if characters like Jon and Gertrude obviously don’t abide by that).

Anyway, Nigel seems to realize what’s happening when Gwen mentions the OIAR and tries to give Nigel the envelope. But there’s a twist, Nigel says “It’s not for me.” and invites Gwen inside. Nigel apologizes before “There is a wet, lumbering step on the staircase. Something is dragging itself down the stairs to meet them.” That “something” is none other than Mr. Bonzo (who can only say his own name, or maybe just chooses to say his own name). Gwen obviously doesn’t die in this encounter but I wonder if Nigel was apologizing because he knew seeing Bonzo can be scary or in case Bonzo decided to kill / hurt Gwen.

Nigel also says “Try not to stare. He doesn’t like it when people stare.” Which could relate to The Stranger. While all the Entities are connected, overlap, and need each other for a ritual bringing them into the world to work, with even seemingly opposing Entities bleeding into each other or having overlapping fears, The Stranger can often have an antagonistic relationship with The Eye and forms of being known. The Stranger tends to thrive off the fear of being unknown so staring at something aligned with The Stranger might make it react negatively. In MAG 092 (Nothing Beside Remains) Jonah tells Jon “We thrive on ceaseless watching, on knowing too much. What we face is the hidden, the uncanny, and the unknown.” In MAG 165 (Revolutions) Not-Sasha says this in regards to The Eye’s Post-Change world “Do you know how it feels? To be – anonymous? And yet known! To have all the sweetest dread I can create tainted by the relentless gaze of that damned Eye. I’ve suffered enough.” So if my theory that Bonzo is tied to something like The Stranger is correct that would explain a potentially negative reaction to being looked at for too long since aspects of The Stranger often don’t like it when people try to figure out what they are.

Nigel introduces Gwen and Bonzo by saying “Mr Bonzo meet… I didn’t actually get your name. Probably for the best.” Which makes me wonder why it’s a good thing he didn’t get her name. Is one of the factors that determine who Bonzo attacks are whether it and / or Nigel knows their name or something? The transcripts go on to say-

NIGEL 

“(urgently) I said don’t stare!”

Gwen does not reply. It is clear she is trying not to hyperventilate.

So Gwen is definitely in shock. Mr. Bonzo begins to become agitated and Nigel says “The name, the address – tell him where to go.” Nigel begins to panic and after telling Gwen to give Bonzo the envelope again “Gwen holds out the envelope and Mr Bonzo snatches it into his 

mouth, audibly chewing it. His teeth are not soft.” and then “Mr. Bonzo excitedly lumbers away, violently throwing open the door and lumbering off into the night.” Nigel notes that this situation almost went very badly and says “Tell the people who sent you “you’re welcome. Again.””

Okay, so what is Mr, Bonzo? I know that sometimes Entities like The Stranger just do weird uncanny stuff but I wonder if the “suit” actually is Mr. Bonzo’s body or if there is something wearing the suit? Or is Mr. Bonzo literally a living suit that is wearing some poor sap and Bonzo needs to find a new wearer / host periodically to wear him or shove inside of him? That could explain why the murders Geraldine mentioned are 3 murders that occured over the course of 5 years. It’s possible that these murders were just the ones that were caught but I wonder if Bonzo is collecting body parts for the inside of his suit or something. Part of the reason I’m thinking about this is because it’s funny that Bonzo eats the letter in order to read it. Maybe Bonzo is just trying to be scary but you have to remember that he is a suit. So by consuming the letter who / whatever is wearing it might be able to then see the letter. Then again presumably Bonzo would have had eye holes in the original costume so this might just be Bonzo or The Stranger being weird again.

Nigel acts like whatever is being done is a favor for the OIAR. Did the government stick Nigel with Mr. Bonzo in an attempt to appease it as much as possible while also offering the occasional sacrifice to calm Mr. Bonzo or is whatever’s on the letter some sort of enemy or threat? Maybe, Mr. Bonzo is being sent to go deal with more problematic or harder to control Monsters / Avatars / threats? I don’t know much other than the fact that it’s probably a favor for the OIAR. Meaning that someone wants this to happen. I don’t know if it’s Lena or her mysterious higher ups. This all also sounds like it might be related to the three Bonzo murders Geraldine mentioned. Is Bonzo being used as a weapon or is he just a threat that the government doesn’t know how to kill? Maybe killing Bonzo would somehow release something worse?

The interaction between Gwen, Nigel and Bonzo in regards to her job leads me to suspect that the OIAR is working with various supernatural factions. I don’t know if they are doing so out of convenience or some other reason but it looks like Gwen’s job involves sending messages and contracts to various supernatural beings at least. I wonder if all the letters are being sent to Mr. Bonzo, a variety of monsters, or just a pool of “agents” connected to the supernatural. Gwen’s new job was stated to have something to do with contracts so did Nigel or even Bonzo himself sign some sort of contract? If we assume the OIAR is connected to some Entity like The Eye we know such beings have a precedent for magically binding contracts (like the one Jonah used). So is something similar happening here but on a larger scale?

It’s kind of funny that when Nigel tells Gwen to leave he says “Now get out of his house.” It’s pretty obvious that The Stranger has a connection to the loss of identity or being unable to identify either yourself or other people. So I wonder if this is supposed to be some weird metaphor for an artist having their identity overtaken by that of their creations? Like people not really knowing who Nigel is outside of “the guy who made Mr. Bonzo.” Nigel even said “Besides, people think of Nigel Dickerson and Mr. Bonzo is never far behind so it’s not like its changing my reputation. In a lot of ways I’m more his prisoner now than I ever was on my show.” Nigel views Bonzo as a core part of his identity which could mirror how sometimes artists stake to much of their value or identity on their own art and creations. The interview we just saw seemed to revolve entirely around Bonzo and it seems to be Nigel’s most famous creation. Bonzo has become the main character and quite literally taken on a life of its own while Nigel is stuck in the side-car as he sits in Bonzo’s shadow.

Conclusion

I’m only becoming more and more curious about the OIAR. Also, what was the thing escaping the Institute’s ruins. Is it somehow related to the gifted program kids?