#dunno if it's true but I kinda see some parallels

[before-i-remember]

[sunset-peril]

You know, sometimes I worry...

When I write about Ganondorf. Admittedly, part of it is due to me seeing him as attractive.

However, his association with Demise gives me pause.

I want to treat others' religions with a degree of respect. Not because they are true, nor because I think they are good. But more so, because I view them as expressions of a culture's values.

So, while I know in my heart that they are wrong, I see value in acknowledging their existence. Which is why I don't like it when people try to fit other religions into the shape of Christianity, because, simply put, they aren't Christianity.

And we shouldn't try to treat them as if they are. For one, it's an insult to God.

So, while I can definitely see the Christian overtones in LoZ, at its core, I see it as its own thing. A wonderful story, but still just a story.

At the same time, I suppose that, subconsciously, I want to portray Ganondorf as a person who as been raised astray. But, at the same time, someone who can still be saved. From Demise.

Perhaps, I see it as a symbol of how far redemption can reach? Or, at least, I think that's what I'm going for. Because I don't see Ganondorf as Demise. Not even really, as Demise's hatred reborn.

More so as a man unfortunate enough to act as Demise's pawn.

And maybe I use a tiny amount of elements from my own real-world beliefs, but I don't want this to be an outright... allusion.

Like, if it were, then I think that Ganondorf would already be doomed. Period. End of story.

I guess my problem is that I see the parallels & the implications. Like, even though the closest thing the games have to an actual devil allegory is Demise & I never intend to redeem him, I still sometimes worry that I'm playing a dangerous game.

Perhaps... perhaps I can make it an allegory for Jesus' victory? Subtextually, I mean.

I dunno, I'm struggling because the closer I get to Him, the more I want to live in a way that will do right by Him. But sometimes I look at the things I write & worry a bit about if the things I write are wrong.

Like, obviously, some of the subject matters are wrong, but like I said before, I try to acknowledge that such things are wrong.

Try being the key word, I'm afraid that I don't always succeed.

It's somewhat like the struggle you were having earlier, but with a much more important Judge.

Do you sometimes worry the same?

I'm sorry to put this on you, but I suppose that I've been thinking lately is all.

Or today, at least.

Hmm, that's a tricky one. I'd phone in C.S. Lewis if I could.

Allow my to ramble my rambles and pray they make any sense/are helpful.

Personally I feel like I'm always going to be more inclined to produce that more allegory-like material, so I tend to be real careful with religiously bound figures. Zelda's also an interesting one because the Book of Magic was literally the Bible in the Japanese version and Link to the Past has an official artwork of Link literally praying at a crucifix and it appears that Nintendo America's "no real religions" policy was what threw it into... whatever we have now. So I feel it definitely depends on which game you're directly spitting at. Personally, I've only played the Three "Breath" games, Skyward Sword, and a liiitttlleee of Twilight. And Skyward especially I feel is one of the closest we got to having an allegory like that, with Breath's Gerudo deviating from Hylia to the Heroines (as the old lady mentioned) reminding me of modern times. I've always kinda seen Nayru, Din and Farore/the Triforce as kind of a Holy Trinity reference that they had to split out from Hylia due to the No Real Religions thing, but that could be me being... optimistic might be the word? I know Japan is not a Christian country, but Miyamoto was obviously making a point with the first couple of Zelda games having those very overt themes and so a lot of me wants to believe he's continued to sneak those in.

I've been that way too, recently. I've noticed I've collected a lot of spirits that I'm... not sure if I want to keep in there. Saint-like characters? Sure. But I'm talking more like Egyptian gods kinda thing. Which I definitely don't want. Quite a bit of the Hateno Village stuff is loosely based or inspired off the big ol mess that's called my life so I think I'm more comfortable putting that in there because to me that is redemption. Link's story there, from the tragic story of his parents to him breaking that "curse" of inbreeding by marrying Zelda who is 100% not related to him because all of the 'worldly' ways Link, his family, his tribe, try to fix it just blow up even further, but the journey he (and later Zelda) takes through faith ends up being better than the solution they crafted with their own force (ah let's not cry here).

However, I think it's good to remember that we're sucky little humans who are really good at "Hey, don't do the thing!" *does the thing* (and I can laugh while saying that because my Xanax is still active haha.) That's literally the whole point of Jesus coming here in the first place and while definitely don't discount that or use it as an excuse, it's good to keep in mind.

What I also try to do is I try to always look for my 'why'. Do I want this because its trendy currently? Am I looking for shock value? Do I need to stick my face in cold water and come back to this concept in a week or two when I'm less hormonal? (This happens often when I'm fooling with those darn Wolfbred, I have to be really careful who I bounce ideas off of with them, because their story can very easily tumble into a dumpster fire of Bad if I'm not being very careful, which is why I currently don't permit myself to write any fics where an important part of the main premise is Wolfbred in the Spring because that's been a problem in the past). Usually I require myself to hold new lore for a week so I can take a good long look at it outside of whatever influence I may be under. I have done absolutely 0 holding of lore recently and I have been telling myself off about it for a while because I should be. Especially with those Wolfbred, who I am the worst about holding lore for!

And there's definitely different types of "putting God in the story".

Allow me to quote from this video

There's the Complete Allegory (Aslan - Narnia)

Partial Allegory where some parts of God are represented, but not Him in His entirety (Gandalf's defeat of the Balrog - Lord of the Rings)

Different World/Different Name - Same God; where its very clear that characters worship God simply under a different name (God being named "The Maker" in Wingfeather Saga, and I've actually played with this one before in an original concept where He is called "The Protector" and the major village where His people are located is "Ecclesia" (Named after the Greek city from Ecclesiastes because apparently Past Me is clever)... I think it will work better as a children's book because I cannot think of any coherent young adult/new adult concepts for it. It would also help if I didn't leave myself SUCH CRYPTIC NOTES)

Ahem. Anyways

There's also the Biblical Retelling, self explanatory (a fantasy take on Ruth's story in A Bond of Briar's... or a massive chunk of VeggieTales)

Themes - Biblical messages and values are passed on without God's explicit mention (I throw this one around a lottttt)

Symbolism - Baby allegory. No one character symbolizes God, but objects or situations reflect Him

~~~

I don't think I've really gotten to the point. I think I've just run my mouth.

But yeah, I think maybe stopping yourself and really getting a look at why you include what you include/why you want to write that specific thing is a nice place to start! Maybe I'm too much of an old stickler for this one but I try not to let myself play with other religions. I've seen a lot of good people get stuck to Greek/Roman/Egyptian gods out of what was originally a good intention of cultural awareness or simply scholarly intrigue. Although I am a former furry/therian so I hold myself to very rigid standards about how I interact with non-Christian materials, especially ones without humans or with extremely humanized animals, and this probably isn't a necessary standard for everyone. (Don't get me started on my conspiracy regarding Warrior Cats and Wings of Fire being a pipeline to this. I'll never go to bed and I have to be awake in 6.5 hours.)

But ooh! Allegories and shenanigans! The Pride Wars is a good read while I'm thinking of Narnia/Lord of the Rings/etc. Anti-Religion-Only-Science Kingdom meets Very Religious Kingdom. Anti-Religion kingdom's heir turns out to be able to tell magic parables/fables. It's got a lot of Hebrew woven in as well, and follows that Different World, Same God setting. (God is named Alayah)

I'm fond of this proverb from the second book (which I still need to finish... I should really just buy them). I think it's a paraphrase of a Bible verse, but if so, the verse it paraphrases escapes me

[starpuncher]

so i've been doing some yaoi archaeology recently regarding mid 2010s homestuck fandom. presumably we've all been there and the audience is still with me.

what's striking to me about perusing these ancient cave drawings is how differently i experience them in the present compared to my impression of them in the past, at 12-15, which i felt at the time was significantly younger than both homestuck's target audience and the fandom population at large. my memory of homestuck fandom is that it was this bottomless cornucopia of incredible fanart; i've said to friends in conversation that i didn't think i would ever see a fandom with artistic output like that again in my lifetime. on reflection, though. on reflection, by which i mean a series of blog crawls through fanart archives going back over a decade, i may have been somewhat mistaken, and also thirteen years old. it turns out that to an untrained eye all fanart is equally incredible; there are pieces i remember as masterpieces that i now view (fondly!) as... kinda bad. this isn't a flex, it's just weird to realize that i surpassed 90% of my 13 year old art idols back in college. even as the eye improves, memory preserves amateur yaoi as comparable to an enlightenment masterpiece. then again, my memory sucks.* modern trigun fandom's output is probably more artistically on par with what i remember homestuck being, and even then not quite there.

due to tumblr's salted earth policy towards tits i can't say how much of the pervert aspect of homestuck fandom was true to my teenage recollection, but what scraps remain aren't super far off. based on limited records it SEEMS to have been both hornier and at once less (broad gesture towards the western slash hentai flavor of nonconsent)(a different beast entirely than yaoi nonconsent trust me there are different artistic movements at play here, influencing one another asymmetrically) than i remember. the layers of secondhand midwestern christianity continue to peel. i wouldn't describe my teenage self as being scared of sex/averse to internet porn as a rule, and yet interpreting what seems to have been a generally sex-positive fanart as notably debauched has a distinctive aroma of that mild psychosis. while the, uh, choices in ships were, hm, certainly more varied (the coward's description), the particulars of the fanart were fairly in line with modern fandom ship content (note: on several blogs, even what's been wiped retains hints in the tags applied to what are now blank images) (additional note: the author is considering the output of twitter fujoshis as constituting a broader slice of 'modern fandom ship content' than may be accurate).

whump, like actual no bullshit whump, is what i most notice as present in past fandom, now extinct beyond its most watered-down subtypes. think diary comics about depression. trigun volume 10 and the fanart it's spawned hurt, yeah, but that's a tragedy. that's a narrative. maybe (MAYBE) it's a positive indicator for the health of the larger organism that i don't see fanart of anime boy self-harm anymore. but i doubt it. i think gore fanartists still exist, in theory? gore as a focus is to me a different category than fanart with gore as an artistic inclusion. guts mean different things spilling out of what is essentially a blank canvas than they do when they belong to, i dunno, that pink bitch from jujutsu kaisen. what the fuck was his name. jujutsu kaisen is one of several recent shounen serializations that reflect a trend towards more overt gore/body horror/aesthetic grimdarkness in the mainstream, occurring parallel to the broader fandom retreat from similar visceral pain (and blood and guts and all that). i'm off topic. gore is itself different from whump, and you can still find gore if you look for it. gore is about flesh (as metaphor, but flesh regardless), whump is about suffering. there is frequently no metaphor to be had, or what is there is diaphanous and possibly accidental. i've seen several posts to the effect of 'we've lost weird sex in fandom' but i've seen what people do to vash's pussy on twitter. i think we've lost something else entirely. the weird sex remains, however cloistered by the architecture of a failing website inherently hostile to search and archival functions. the naked edginess (rawness? (is this a joke about flesh)) of whump is, for better or worse, not really a current part of the fandom ecosystem. i cannot remember the last time i saw an anime boy cut himself.

and again, maybe that's a good thing, but again, i doubt it. shockingly, i would not describe the broader internet populace as 'more mentally and emotionally healthy than 2014'. the word i would use is probably 'worse'. just worse. just like so much worse that any attempt at a similarly overlong retrospective on that sea change would be eligible for a hugo nomination by wordcount. discourse around the state of the very online public's comfort with discomfort focuses primarily on depictions of sexuality (for what i think are valid reasons, see blood knife's epochal 'everyone is beautiful and no one is horny') and, yes, that is often a proxy for other, parallel critiques, but, but, but. but is that the only place where boundaries on acceptable expression have narrowed? or just the one with enough intracommunity disagreement to be notable? there was for a period of time a lot of talk about hostility towards 'ugly' mental illness, the ways it often manifests not as easily-digested inaction but as violence, self-inflicted, omnidirectional, destructive. i don't really see that talk anymore. the parameters of what is acceptable in depictions of mental illness have been quietly agreed on. ask yourself, 'could you put this in a buzzfeed listicle?' and there you go.

returning to modern trigun fandom as a counterexample to heyday homestuck trends, i think of the way vash's near explicit suicidal depression (manifested as alcoholism, avoidance, a tendency to self-sabotage, a general late-series vibe of being unsafe to bring near a bridge) is generally ignored, or alluded to only in contexts where his yaoi wife can kiss it all better. the combination of suicidal depression and physical mutilation leads in a straight line to a door with nothing behind it, a vacuum left unfilled. i think of being 15 and scrolling past an mspaint comic about the minutiae of dave strider's abusive home life, at the time only implicitly canon, through a reading that much of the fandom still rejected as ooc. a picture of bro holding dave as a child, blood on the frame. bruises. straight red lines on #FFFFFF. let me remind the homestuck newcomer that this guy wasn't an explicit abuse victim in 2014. these agonies were whole-cloth inventions. do we still do that? we still invent new shapes for alien dicks (the trigun/homestuck comparison serves me again) and apply questionable interpretations of bdsm dynamics to whatever m/m is in fashion.

zooming out from my adolescent focus on dave fanart (yeah yeah i know i know he was everyone's favorite whaddya want), i wonder if commercialization plays a role, because it always does. that question is never answered in the negative. you weren't allowed to sell homestuck merch at cons. no one was making money off homestuck fandom. is that why it was like that? i don't know. i have laundry that i should be doing.

[betweenlands]

zedaph or martyn inthelittlewood!!

both again

zedaph:

First impression: oh yoooo it’s the other guy that was in minecraft toy box alongside simplysarc! i didn’t know he was a hermit, i wonder what he’s up to?

Impression now: SCIENCE GUY OF ALL TIME. severely underrated hermit. i love him a lot and he deserves to go apeshit. incredibly brilliant redstoner

Favorite moment: idk man like all of s8. The Chamber was brilliant

Unpopular opinion: whoooboy. okay. potential Hot Take: i really, really feel like people tend to infantilize him and/or heavily diminish the role he has in team ZIT, to the point where it feels like some people don’t even really care about him as a character compared to impulse and tango? like for some reason there’s been a big uptick in zedaph content that literally could not be further apart from the way zedaph actually works as a person and hm. don’t like that!

Favorite relationship: uh i’ll be honest i don’t have a favorite dynamic of his rn. they’re all roughly equal in my mind. would love to put him in the same room as grian for longer than just a base swap and shake them a little bit. also obviously the dynamic i have wholesale invented between him and sarc Owns, but that’s because i made it up for myself

Favorite headcanon: @autisticlalna‘s alpha-z au, baybee! i really love the added layer of depth that comes with the implications of “zed is a clone of The Original Original Lalna That Worked At Yoglabs” and i think it adds a fun addition to his sciencey thing. it’s just really unique and also it means he can be little a sinister. as a treat

Idea for a story: uhhhhhh idk what if zedaph invented a new weapon called a gun i’d like to write a sequel to stormwatching the sandbox someday! of course, that relies on simplysarc uploading enough for me to squeeze more lore out of him, but. yeah

martyn:

First impression: oh yooo there’s a yog in this grian series? i didn’t know grian knew any yogscast members! i don’t know much about martyn but i’m excited to see where this goes!

Impression now: i rattle him gently and his one mcc coin falls out of his pocket. every time i watch his teams in mcc they do absolutely awfully and the one time i didn’t watch his team, he won. i’m very sorry martyn. also his lore is alright i guess

Favorite moment: i honestly think his double life series through cleo is hilarious in every possible way and it kinda owns

Unpopular opinion: ...yeah i’m still not a fan of the watchers lol. i tend to justify it with “this is some kind of entity pretending to be the watchers” but i just do not vibe with watcher lore. i feel bad because i know his lore isn’t intentionally the exact same as the fanon watchers i have disliked for so long, but it’s way too close coincidentally for me to be comfortable with it

Favorite relationship: just like with 3rd life ren. its renchanting duo. how could it ever be anything else. however also like i’ve mentioned in previous asks i would go absolutely insane over the thematic implications of a true impulse-martyn day one alliance in a traffic game, you would never get me to shut up

Favorite headcanon: anything bridging third life and yogscast i am SUPER down for. i think @strifesolution is the person i’m thinking of who likes drawing explicit parallels between the sacrifice at black heart altar and whatever the hell parvis and strife are doing in blood and chaos? and i think that OWNS.

Idea for a story: ohhh i dunno this is a hard one. maybe something with hopperhawk martyn, like he gets trapped in the breaker world that is trafficseries and then when he busts out he promptly decides he wants to dimension dive into other dangerous realities? yeah. maybe that

[kinard-buckley]

just finished up my nhie rewatch and I had some thoughts... 

- the parallels!!! Nalini and Dr. Jackson, Eleanor and Oliver/Malcolm/Trent, Kamala and Prashant/Mr. K, Devi and Paxton/Ben....... I’m having some thoughts about the different relationships on the show and how they reflect the main NHIE love triangle but I need to sort them all out. 

- Nalini’s obvious soft spot for Ben (and the parallels between Nalini and Ben... Oof.)

- I loved seeing Paxton’s character growth and the depth they gave him compared to season 1. I didn’t really care much for him in season 1 and was kind of “meh” about him after the first few episodes of season 2, but I came out of this season really liking him. 

- I was surprised they resolved the “will they/won’t they move to India” plot so quickly though I didn’t hate it. I do think things might have felt more...urgent, I guess, if they’d left that to hang over the season as the thing that needs resolution.

More thoughts under the cut

- I enjoyed Nalini’s arc, and her friendship with Dr. Jackson. I hope they bring him back in season 3 (and that when Nalini’s ready to date they revisit it...)

- I loved Kamala’s arc re. her job, and how Devi helps her access her anger. I also loved the growth of Kamala’s and Devi’s relationship into an almost sisterly bond. 

- I didn’t really care for the betrayal/eating disorder storyline. I think it would have been better for the narrative to undercut it by having the rumors turn out not to be true. That could have given us some good material for Devi and Aneesa I think. 

- It feels like a lot of stuff happens to Devi this season, but she’s not really an agent of most of it as much as she’s a bystander.

- Ben felt kind of like an afterthought in many of the episodes. I missed Ben and Devi’s prickly pseudofriendship. I imagine they backed off Ben a bit to give Paxton more space to shine but it felt like they lost a little something that made season 1 work so well.

- I mostly enjoyed Fabiola’s conflict but I’m not completely sold on her and Eve being in it for the long haul yet. I suspect we’re not meant to interrogate it very deeply but I hope some of the issues between the couple get addressed. 

- Eleanor felt a little off to me. I got the sense that she was kind of meant to be a Devi mirror with her boyfriend(s) situation and her treatment of her friendships with Devi and Fabiola, but maybe that was part of the problem? It felt like she wasn’t quite her own character at times.

- What happened to Aneesa’s note cards? Why was that never explained?!

- I thought the lingering shot of the table Paxton built might be foreshadowing for something??? But I guess it was just an excuse for beefcake shots of Darren Barnet? lol

- I found myself comparing Ben driving Devi to Malibu to Paxton showing up at the dance and found the latter lacking as the Big Moment™. I did like that Paxton was able to put aside his ego and insecurity to “step out” in public with Devi as her boyfriend but compared to season 1′s grief arc, I just dunno. I guess I needed something more substantial from Paxton to truly buy into the idea that this was Daxton’s Big Moment™. 

- I was on Team Devi is Single this season so I was kinda disappointed she ended up picking between Paxton and Ben. I’m hoping maybe it’ll be Team Devi in season 3 and they settle on an endgame in season 4 (or beyond). 

- I didn’t really like Ben and Aneesa’s relationship. It felt like it was there purely to make Devi jealous and precipitate some of her reactions/actions, and that’s it. I didn’t get a good sense of why they should even work as a couple besides Aneesa being the interesting new girl. Like, why is Aneesa even into Ben? I would have thought she wouldn’t be interested because of what she said to Devi at the relay. I hope they split up before season 3 starts tbh. 

- This season felt fairly low stakes compared to season one. The big underlying conflict in season 1 was Devi’s grief and there’s a continuation of that in season 2, but the main conflict is Devi’s relationship troubles, which I think pale in comparison to the grief arc. I think it would have worked better for me if the focus had been on the possible move to India, with Nalini eventually changing her mind, Devi and Nalini’s relationship, or the family actually ending up sticking to the plan to move and leaving season 2 off on a major cliffhanger. 

What I would like to see in s3, at least for the main love triangle: 

- Ben and Aneesa being split up before the season starts (but Devi not finding out until midseason because Ben and Aneesa are still really friendly). 

- Devi and Paxton deciding to break up by the end of the school year because Paxton plans to go out of state for college and they both agree long distance would be too hard. They resolve to remain friends and Devi swallows down her hurt and disappointment because this is what Paxton wants. 

- Devi and Aneesa becoming better friends. Maybe they have to work on a major project together. I’d love more insight into Aneesa’s interior life, maybe a little more of her family life, perhaps even her own episode like Ben and Paxton got. 

- Paxton’s graduation and Daxton’s breakup as the looming “villain” of the season. While Devi outwardly professes it’s the right decision for both of them, she’s struggling with it as Paxton will be yet another person she loves who leaves her. I’d like to see her being prompted by this impending loss to confront her depression, anger, and fear of abandonment.

- C-plot about Devi getting her driver’s license (which gets tied to the A-plot, maybe Devi offers to drive Paxton to the airport for his dorm move-in date or something).

- Some emotional, heartwrenching Daxton breakup scene in the airport parking lot. Maybe before that there’s a little will-they-won’t-they about the breakup before they do end up going through with it. 

- Devi watching Paxton board the plane before having a mini-breakdown in an airport bathroom (if they wanted to get cute about it they could give a cameo to A Big Name™ here, like I’ll be honest I was envisioning Mindy Kaling popping up and giving Devi a Kleenex lol).

- Devi drives back by herself but finds herself making a detour to Ben’s house to see if he’s there. They hang out at his pool and just talk about things. Maybe anticipation toward senior year and the schools they’ve applied to. 

- I think most of the Benvi interaction this season would be reestablishing the rivalry-friendship that felt kind of lacking in s2 (for me at least). I’d like to see them just grow as friends, first and foremost (with that unresolved romantic tension of course).

- I’m not totally sure about this but the season ends with Devi either telling Ben she’s decided to take a gap year/not go to Princeton (maybe she's decided to follow Paxton to the school he chose in an attempt to rekindle their romance) OR Ben reveals to Devi he applied to Princeton too.

idk I might cobble these together in a fic just to get them out of my brain. 

[skullvins]

*crashes into ur inbox* HI HELLO

THE 'HIVE AS A CHARACTER IS BASED ON GOGGLES'

GIMME THE RAMBLE IVE ALSO HAD A SIMILAR THOUGHT AND I WANNA HEAR UR THOUGHTS

okay, this is MUCH more of a 'theory' than analysis like my last ask about this kinda thing. first I gotta explain some other shit:

Theory: who in the manga is based off other characters in the manga

obvious one: vin's based off skull. talked about this before, they parallel a LOT of times, character design wise this just makes sense

rider's based off goggles: this ALSO makes sense, imo, as goggles's 'rival' - there's lots about them that opposes in their designs and colour schemes. Yeah, orange would be the TRUE opposite to blue, but I think the yellow green works fine here and orange is defo more suited to army (also the first six teams use the base splat 1 colours, honestly coroika character design is great when considering the splatoon universe I love it)

prince is based off emperor: not gonna count this one. They were introduced at the same time and it's kinda obvious they would have similarities cos they're brothers and their whole arc is about this

skull is based off goggles: okay HEAR ME OUT I know this one is weird but like. if rider is 'rival' goggles, skull is like, 'dark future if everything goes wrong' goggles, ish. he's got that slightly darker ink colour (even tho it's actually rendered lighter but come on. purple is the creepier blue), I love how hinodeya flicks his hair up to give it an intimidating difference, I love how his gear indirectly implies his strength, it's amazing. this is a very loose link tbh but while the rest of the S4 are based on a gimmick, skull often comes across as just 'yeah he's real strong' because he's more complex and requires more nuance to defeat as an antag. even if he's not like, really intentionally based off goggles, the way goggles works as a character got explored here a LOT and skull's based off that, ish. Anyway.

HIVEMIND'S BASED OFF GOGGLES: honestly I'm unsure of how to fully condense my thoughts into concrete points on this one, but considering I've seen people do aus where hive is goggles from the future, I don't think it's completely out of left field. Will say I think it's interesting that hive has the topknot, when he could have had literally any splatoon 2 hairstyle (I could see him with the same hair as gloves, for example), and I'm gonna put this down to 'it's the same hairstyle as goggles'. Goggles is the main rep for chaos in this arc, and hive is the rep for order - they're direct enemies for this arc (yes I kno fierce is here, that's different). The goggles/glasses eyewear thing was always gonna happen but then I think it makes sense to intentionally lean into it. Something something final fest end of an era. I dunno how to word it well BUT

anyway, if anyone has any more cohesive thoughts than I do about this, lmk!! I wanna see y'all's analysis

[inkdemonapologist]

XD I appreciate all this theorizing, y'all are great. I guess my question is why would Sammy be a good candidate to be Boris? Because he plays instruments? -suspiciously eyes the banjo in the safehouse- I'm not sure if that's enough for me. That's my thing with the toons, some of the choices for who turns into what are weird, like why would Tom be Boris, other than to annoy him? What does Joey see there that could possibly guarantee him a desirable Boris? The angels I get, that makes sense, but if you really want a perfect Boris, besides Buddy, we'd need Henry to fill that void.

Think about it, Boris' portrayal in the cartoons shows him as being kind of careless in how he treats Bendy, a good parallel for Joey feeling betrayed since Henry left. When we get to the comics, Boris is always doing the right thing, be it becoming super or mentoring the triplets, and the big thing I noticed is that he goes along with Bendy's plans without question in the beginning, but he shifts the longer they go on to doing his own thing. That sounds like Henry to me, and given how Joey called Buddy "Henry" "by accident," I wouldn't be surprised if they have a lot in common that equates to being good Boris traits. At the very least, Henry gets along with Boris, and it's logical that he designed him given TIOL and his secret tape.

Either way, Joey really sucks at shape puzzles. You can't fit a square in the circle spot Drew!

“why would sammy be a good candidate for Boris?” I mean, I think you kinda have the answer in bringing up Tom -- he isn’t. Sammy has almost nothing in common with Boris, but… neither does Thomas*, yet Thomas turned out pRETTY SUCCESSFUL as far as looks go (better than Susie did her first time through!). Are we... completely sure that the souls have to be a good match, personality-wise? Is Joey sure of that, has Joey always been sure of that? Or does Joey just figure that as long as the transformation takes, the cartoon personality will take over and they’ll eventually behave correctly?

[some rambling about souls and Joey's intentions for henry and buddy under the cut]

It seems, from the way Joey starts talking to Buddy, that he expects Boris’ personality to be more dominant once he’s squared away in his new body, like that’s the way Joey thinks it’ll work, that he can just tempt him with food and he’ll chill out. So it’s not hard to imagine Sammy turning into this raving bendy-worshipping fool, and Joey deciding he’s useless in that form and they might as well overwrite him with something useful. IIRC, Joey even mentions that he was hoping to be able to use some of the souls from Sammy’s victims -- prior to Buddy, I don’t know if Joey was really looking for a Personality Match so much as Free Souls?

Joey also tells Buddy that he didn’t actually know what Buddy’s true purpose was until the very end. Take with a grain of salt since Joey said it, but like, that checks out with the way he describes his mindset in TIOL -- that he’s kind of following his instincts but he’s waiting for that spark when things click, and he doesn’t really have a plan until he finds what he’s Meant To Do, when he sees an opportunity and attributes it retroactively to being the reason he was here all along. I don’t get the impression that Buddy was initially intended to be Boris or chosen for it (After reading TIOL, I’m not even sure Buddy was meant to be like Henry…), I just think that moment where Buddy was gonna die, Joey saw his opportunity and just went for it.

The idea of Henry putting some of himself in Boris is cute, (thinks about “Boris was special, Alice was complicated” again) but, I dunno, I’m torn! Boris is still portrayed, like, positively after Henry leaves, so I think Joey would’ve HAD to have divorced Boris from Henry in his mind on some level in order to still feel really positive about Boris, even if it’s just “Boris is a better version who is loyal.” I’d believe that Henry would like, be a good Boris candidate, but looking around at Alice’s Big Lake O’ Borises, (or the fact that the hard-working Buddy was apparently a "perfect" match for the sorta lackadaisical wolf...) I’m not sure that’s a very high bar, lmao. And, like, in canon it’s sorta a moot point -- I’d find it hard to believe that Joey called Henry back just to run him through the machine and make a perfect toon. Like??? Why???? At this point??? And why go through all the BatIM rigamarole if he just wanted Another Boris? The studio is closed, what would he even DO with an additional perfect Boris???

* though I have also pondered the idea that Tom being a Boris when nothing about him seems like a good fit for a Boris is potentially evidence that Turning Them Into Cartoons wasn't Joey Drew's goal there, so, LOTS OF POSSIBLE DIRECTIONS TO GO, REALLY,

[murasaki-murasame]

Thoughts on Higurashi Sotsu Ep13

The true mystery of this show is trying to figure out how to even talk about each episode without just repeating myself or talking about other parts of the franchise, lmao.

Anyway, thoughts under the cut. Plus probably spoilers for both Umineko and Ciconia.

I’m not even sure where to begin talking about the fundamental issues this show has at this point, lol. It’s easy to just say that Sotsu on it’s own is bad, but I feel like it’s highlighting the fact that right from day one there were problems with the show’s structure and it’s intentions that have just become more and more of an issue as time’s gone on.

At the very least, I think that it was a huge mistake for them to have the gun cliffhanger happen midway through Gou, and to then spend so much time on backstory stuff and answer arcs. That just cast a negative shadow over all of those arcs because everyone was just impatient to get back to the cliffhanger. At this point I think they shouldn’t have even had Nekodamashi be in Gou to begin with. If they transitioned straight from Tataridamashi to Satokowashi then you could keep the general cliffhanger of revealing that Satoko’s the culprit without making people so impatient to go back to it and see what happens afterward.

But there’s also the issues like how Satokowashi revealed everything we needed to know about the howdunnit of the mystery, or how the whole gimmick of reusing the same scenarios as the VN in order to play both sides and make it technically accessible to new fans really wrote them into a corner and forced them to spend more time on the answer arcs than they needed to.

If we at least assume that the whole story ends in this arc, I think you easily could have condensed it all into one 2-cour season if they’d just committed to aiming this at old fans.

I guess there’s still a chance we’ll get some sort of continuation, but at this point I feel like the only way to get that much more content is if it ends up mostly retreading Satokowashi from a different perspective, which might actually drive me insane, lol.

In general it just feels like we’re already at the climax of the story one way or another, and there’s not many ways to keep it going for much longer without it seeming super forced. Like, Eua and Hanyuu are having their big confrontation with each other, and now Rika and Satoko are both on the same page, so they’re going to basically be stuck in a stalemate until one of them gives up. There isn’t really any mystery left to answer aside from giving more info about what’s going on between Eua and Hanyuu, so I’d rather they just cut to the chase and not drag this out.

We also know from TV listings that a different show is going to taking over Sotsu’s time slot next season, so unless it changes time slot for some reason, we’d probably have to wait until at least January to get a continuation, and I just dunno if that’d even be worth it.

I’ve already gone over my general ideas for how I think this will end, but I still think it’s entirely possible to wrap things up in just two more episodes. At the very least, if we get another full cour out of this then that’d probably just end up only having a few more episodes of actually new content, so my point still stands, lol.

I don’t think this episode did much to change my mind about where this is going, but it did at least clarify a couple of things. Like how Eua explicitly calls Hanyuu a ‘part of her’, which means that I’m probably right about my interpretation of them being two halves of the same being. There’s still a lot of different ways they could explain it, but at this point it’d basically still just boil down to the same idea of them being two parts of the same person.

It’s also more clear now that Rika more or less didn’t really know about Satoko being the culprit until the last minute, and was starting to get flashbacks to the end of Tataridamashi. I’m not entirely sure how to feel about that. It’s kinda hard to believe that Rika wasn’t at least suspecting Satoko by that point, but I do like the implication that Rika wasn’t fully dead when Satoko arrived, since that at least feels like pay-off for Satoko being so cocky and openly monologuing about how evil she is when she thinks Rika’s dead and can’t hear her.

I guess this episode also shows that there wasn’t anything particularly special going on with how Takano decided to confess to Rika in this one specific loop, which is also kinda underwhelming. Basically it seems like it just boils down to her feeling guilty about all of the stuff she remembers doing, but it’s still kinda weird that she didn’t confess to her in any previous loops. One of the weird issues with Gou/Sotsu’s storytelling is that Rika seemingly put no real effort into trying to investigate Takano even though she remembered her being the culprit, and I think that could have been really easily resolved if there was a scene like this in Onidamashi where Takano confesses her sins to Rika and leaves the village, since that would at least give a reason for her to not try and investigate them, and to assume that somebody else is behind these new loops. They could have even just had that happen off-screen and only be shown in Oniakashi if they didn’t want to spoil new fans. It just seems like a really easy change to make that would have made Rika’s passivity and hopelessness in this series way more understandable.

I think we’re also meant to assume that Satoko reacting to the box in this episode was just her faking it, since there’s no real indication that her conscience has returned or anything. But I’m not really sure why Satoko would go out of her way to fake that, when the trap box hadn’t even come up in that timeline. Maybe it would have made more sense if we saw her inner thoughts in that scene, but it kinda feels like they had to come up with some sort of scenario where Satoko would accidentally display knowledge that only a looper would know. Compared to how she’s been almost overpowered and hyper-competent in this series compared to Rika, it has a weird vibe of her being stupid because the plot demands it, lol. Either way it just seems kinda weird and contrived.

We also ended this episode on the gun cliffhanger again, which I saw coming, but it still kinda stings, lol. Hopefully the payoff is worth it. Realistically I think Satoko will just immediately shoot Rika, and we’ll cut to them having a proper confrontation in the meta world. With how they compared it to the ‘miracle’ scene with Takano in Matsuribayashi, it’s possible that they’ll somehow stop Satoko from shooting her, but I dunno. The stuff Hanyuu said about how this ‘isn’t the world that Rika fought for’ makes me think we’re probably not gonna stick with this loop for very long anyway, so I’d rather they just cut to the chase and get to the part where the two of them fight it out in the fragment world once and for all. Which at least seems to be what that one part of the OP is teasing at.

On that note, the only other mysterious part of the OP [and the key visual] left is the older club members in new outfits, which still feels like a bit of a loose thread, but it’s entirely possible that it doesn’t really mean much. For one thing, it could be as simple as it being related to an epilogue scene back in the Matsuribayashi timeline where they’re in different outfits to the ones we saw them wear last time we saw them. Either way I don’t really think the other club members are going to be super relevant to how this all ends, so one way or another whatever that stuff is related to could still just come up in the next two episodes.

Basically the question is just how exactly the big conflicts are gonna get resolved, and what note we’ll end things on. Which also ties into the larger question of whether or not this is genuinely meant to tie into Umineko [and maybe Ciconia] like they’re indicating, or if that’s some kind of elaborate troll.

I know i’m biased, but I think all the Umineko and Ciconia stuff is totally sincere, and Ryukishi really is using this as a way to start tying the wider WTC-verse together in a more concrete way, so that’s what I’m basing my theories off of.

With that in mind, I still think this will end with Rika and Satoko officially abandoning their humanity and becoming witches together, with the sword maybe being an in-universe plot device to depict that process. And with the reveal that Eua and Hanyuu are for all intents and purposes two parts of the same person, I feel like their side of things will probably end with them merging together in a way that creates Featherine, which would at least explain why Featherine’s personality is more mild than Eua’s, and also why Bernkastel is her miko, and why Featherine’s whole name is a giant pun about Hanyuu. It’d also fit with the whole religious motif that Hanyuu has going on if she basically ‘sacrifices’ herself to neutralize Eua. It’s at least the closest I think we’ll get to seeing Eua be ‘defeated’.

And on that note, I don’t really think this will end with anyone like Eua or Satoko being used as a villain who everyone else defeats so they can go back to their happy ending, since that’s the exact sort of thing that Ryuukishi regrets doing originally, and is why we’ve gotten so many redemption arcs for people in Gou/Sotsu. So I think at most we’ll see Eua get turned into Featherine so she’s less actively hostile towards everyone else, but I think this will ultimately end with Rika and Satoko reconciling and mending their relationship.

Over on the Matsuribayashi timeline side of things, I feel like this is gonna end up paralleling Nekodamashi a bit, and we’ll find out that Satoko ended up planning to kill herself in the Saiguden, but Rika and the club will show up at the last minute and she’ll choose not to. Then we’ll probably see her and Rika talk things out properly, and maybe Satoko will find out that Satoshi woke up from his coma or whatever, and that way they’ll all still get their happy ending, while also simultaneously we can still have Rika and Satoko split off their witch selves into separate entities that become the Bern and Lambda we know in Umineko.

It’s possible they’ll do something with the idea of Satoko losing her game and being sent to a world without Rika, but that also might just not happen at all. So who knows.

If they really lean into the idea of this directly setting up for Umineko, then it’d be neat if we also see Satoko and Rika meet Ikuko in the future of the Matsuribayashi timeline.

There’s also the Ciconia teases to think about, but they seem to be going in the direction of Ciconia taking place before all this even happened, so I think that’ll be kept kinda nebulous and unexplored until Ciconia itself finishes. Ryukishi might announce a release date for phase 2 after Sotsu ends, but I think it’s way too early for anything like an anime adaptation of it. I’d rather they wait until at least after it’s finished before they do something like that.

On the other hand, Umineko’s been over for like ten years, so it’d be much easier to do something like a remake for it after this. I have a lot of thoughts about how that might go if they do that, but I’m gonna wait until Sotsu ends and then make a separate post about it.

Anyway I guess now I just have to wait and see what happens next week, lol.

[ae0nx]

FRUITS BASKET S3 EPISODE 1 + 2 RECAP!

Yayyy! Season 3! Finally! I’m hoping this season will make me understand/sympathise with Akito and maybe even Shigure a little bit more because... honestly? My opinions on episode 2?... I might get some flack for my opinions on them...  😬

But, first: I’d like to appreciate how on the Funimation app we got a little interview/message from a few of the english dub VAs! Specifically Colleen Clinkenbeard, Jerry Jewell, Eric Vale, Ian Sinclair and Brina Palencia (Akito, Kyo, Yuki, Kureno and Isuzu). And it was nice seeing some of their opinions of the characters they play and how much they’re emotionally invested in the story. (Ian’s such a nerd ‘I wanna see giant mechs later this season’ 😂 - I lowkey stan him lol)

You should definitely check it out if you’re interested in what they would have to say!

ANYWAYS, let’s get into it...

---------------------------------------------------------------

EPISODE 1

I really love this depiction of the original zodiac and how you can just tell from the tone of the scene how desperately the God of the Zodiac was clinging on to these connections that they had with the participants in the banquet. How much they clung on to and loved the cat... Also, interesting how Tohru’s narrating this scene... almost like she can relate to the desperation of wanting to keep things the same... but we’ll get to that later. But also, Tohru is a God

This new opening is beautiful, I love the way that camera moves around the still illustrations and how the general tone just hammers down that... this season is gonna be some real shit lol (which makes me nervous for the opening for the second half 😳). It’s so warped and the general blue, grey and black tone that follows around every Akito scene we get in the anime has bled into every scene in this opening concerning the rest of the zodiac. Almost... like something is decaying. It’s great, it’s just very sad lol. I love the song tho, issa bop.

One of my favourite things in stories is when we get a bigger villain than the ‘pronounced’ villain of the story. Ren’s introduction through a manicured outstretched hand towards Kureno and Hatori is so weirdly gross in what it insinuates (especially when you apply her connection with Shigure) but again... I wanna know why she’s such an asshole to Akito specifically besides the bad mental health management within the Sohma compound. I have an inkling of what it is through memory of the manga, but like Akito and Shigure... I just wanna understand why.

Also, Ren is gorgeous and I’m sorry for simping. 

I mean... she’s kinda got a point? She just didn’t need to be so mean about it lol. It’s pretty clear that the connection the zodiac have to each other is real and something they cannot control. BUT, wouldn’t it be easier if this connection wasn’t perpetuated by outer circles of the family and if Akito herself wasn’t so cruel about it? But, I guess Akito - through her relationship with her mother - kinda doesn’t know how to genuinely show love and affection. (Which brings me into my thoughts of how the manga ends and how I kinda... have a few problems with it which I will get to... when that comes lol)

Lol - weeeeeeeee! (flashes back to Tohru being yeeted into the river). Is this a part of Akito’s god-like powers?!

Again. She’s got a point! They’ve both got a point. But, they’re both the source of the problem. It’s really painful to see two mentally ill people duke it out. This whole institution is just rotten.

- I am super curious about what Akira’s relationship was like with the zodiac and if it was just as dark. I’m gonna assume it slightly already was, as the exclusion and degradation of the cat curse is already dark in itself but maybe the rest of the zodiac were just fine with how things were? I dunno if we actually will get the full backstory of Akira and his zodiac but I’m definitely intrigued

Ok, but if four crying children came up to me after I’d just consummated with my partner to reach out at my stomach chanting ‘we’ve been waiting for you’. That would disturb me and scar me for a while too so... 😂. I know it’s supposed to be ethereal and spiritual but... dude, wtf lol

...I don’t like how much I’m into Ren being such a Villain™  😅

- Akito being seen as a crying child by the older zodiac members has always been interesting to me because yes, they could see her as that through mainly the age gap, general empathy and the way she sometimes irrationally acts out. But, also the depiction of Gods being seen as children having tantrums has being reflected in many different beliefs and myths (especially Greek Mythology) and I just like the fact that this all powerful, all knowing being would be compared to a child. It gives you a different perspective on power.

- Is the paper note in the CD case that Kureno gave back to Tohru an extra addition or was it always there?...

Mannnn... I really wanted Isuzu to fuck shit up after seeing Tohru so upset but... *le sigh* (outfit’s still on point)

But, I’m so glad we get an equal Ethereal Goddess to save Tohru! HANAJIMA! We love her, we stan her. <3

- ‘Tohru will be in my custody’ 🤣 I personally think Hana’s bluntness was a kindness in her conversation with Yuki because if I found Tohru upset? I’d automatically start firing metaphorical shots at everyone in that house

- Shigure fearing Hana makes me sleep better at night <3

Hana’s just like ‘hmm... sounds like someone I know... 👀’ I’m here for this parallel between Tohru and Kureno in the hopes that Tohru doesn’t ever get in as bad a situation as Kureno. Ahhh... Kureno... (Also, Laura Bailey was killing it in this scene as always)

- Hmmm... there’s something terribly poetic about Kyo saving Tohru’s scarf from oncoming traffic... but also, Kyo can’t help himself aha

KWEEEN! I love this look for Uo, it’s very Kyoko. I already said this in Season 1 but I STILL need to get wool-lined jacket. Outfit Appreciation goes to her - 3.5 stars.

<3<3<3 Friendship is magic!

- Megumi is such a good egg as always! From him going to get Uo to him being so wise with his outlook on love and how it takes time to really flourish. The best!

- This whole episode ends really nicely from Tohru’s return home and Kyo washing and returning Tohru’s scarf and Yuki being happy to see Tohru and Shigure being somewhat decent. It was nice to get a bit of relief after the tornado of emotions

Also, this was a nice screencap! Even Kyo is smiling!!! :))))

EPISODE 2

*takes sip of wine* ...ok.

👀... later lol

This scene really highlighted how Tohru is starting to see Shigure and the whole zodiac curse in a new and darker way. For the first time, it felt like Tohru was a little bit more guarded around Shigure and I hope they delve more into this season. Her description of her feeling around the curse being like a ‘dark well with no bottom in sight’ is pretty spot on. Ugh.

Aw! Is this the last we’re getting of Small!Momiji?! I love them :3 (Momiji’s shorts look a little shorter too, like he’s growing out of them ahaha)

- I haven’t found the Yuki fan club funny since their first scene in the anime but their poor disguises made me chuckle

- Yayyy! Kyo has an obsessive fan club too? ...Yay?? 😅 haha

- ‘I won’t kill them but they can go to hell’ why is Kyo speaking like me?! 😂

The fact that we got a scene of Yuki kinda admirably looking at a group of friends (boys and girls) playfully physically interacting and he unconsciously reaches out to Machi almost like he forgot about the curse? Heart eyes... 🥰

Again. Relatable. 😂 God, Yuki. You really are an airhead. Bless your soul. <3

And that look says it all. Damn. Kyo’s sense of hopelessness is heartbreaking but I still stand by it being understandable considering his circumstances.

Kyo freaking out about Tohru being visually upset was super cute but I couldn’t even appreciate the fluff because the whole scene had such a morbid tone to it, despite it being so visually romantic:

KYO’S FACE!!! 💔 Ahhh, my emotions!!!! Also, that shot from Tohru’s perspective under her bangs is great.

- Poor Mitsuru, I’d ask for extra pay just for dealing with Shigure’s ass.

Hahah - what a great metaphor!

- Now that Shigure’s ‘true form’, so to speak, has been fully exposed all his comments that are supposed to be teasing come off so much more awful. Him insinuating Mitsuru wasn’t ‘upper class’ enough for Ritsu was awful

COLLLDDDD. AS. IIIIIIICE. But seriously, Shigure this whole episode was cold in many different ways but I definitely felt this personally since I’ve been told something like this by a family member before... 😕 Also, it’s just gross how both Shigure and Akito are taking their own personal issues and mistrust of each other out on to other people. The curse and the institution behind the curse complicates a lot of feelings for sure, but there’s a difference between wrong and right and I get the general feeling that they both are just using the muddy waters to their advantage. Although, I feel like Shigure is taking more advantage of this than Akito but I’ll get into that in a bit.

- There’s also something about this episode that made me sympathise a lot more with Kureno in a more understandable way. But, it also makes me question the ending of this whole story and the resolutions that happen and what life for the whole Sohma institution/family looks like after the curse has broken.. I guess, I should read ‘Fruits Basket Another’ after this, huh?

😳... Shigure is so petty, man. Really?!

So...

I hate this relationship. I’m sorry. I know there are loads of people who like this relationship. And I’m still giving myself space for the show and the story to convince me why it’s worth it. But... I really don’t like this relationship. It’s so toxic. In so many ways. And in a weird way, this scene made me feel a LITTLE bit more for Akito than Shigure. It feels like Shigure gaslights everyone in his life but none no more than Akito, herself. I hate the fact that he keeps saying he loves her while hurting her or disregarding her. You know, almost like he’s treating her like a child. But on the other hand, I hate the fact that Akito has lowkey gaslighted herself into thinking she can treat people however she wants because she is ‘God’. I understand this is part of the way she was brought up and it seems like life in the Sohma compound has been very isolating for her so there’s been no one really to show her better (or have the confidence to show her better). But, at least I can be a little bit more sympathetic on her side than Shigure’s. I dunno... it’s just all very ugly and toxic and I’m hoping that it’ll turn around somehow.

I just hope it’s not one of those relationships that are ‘so good cos it’s so bad’.

...I’ll briefly talk about the ending theme to end this on a good note lol:

I really like this ending! I dunno if they’re gonna have two endings and two openings for this season but this ending definitely feels like it should’ve gone in the second half as it’s almost spoiler-y? But, then again what anime opening and ending isn’t packed with spoilers lol

All the illustrations are gorgeous, I’m assuming they were drawn by Takaya-sensei herself as it seems very much in her current style of artistry but my favourite illustrations are definitely the ones shown above! <3

---------------------------------------------------------

Ahhh! Fin! Sorry, about this one being super long and you probably having to scroll past a whole lot on your dash 😝 As usual, I had a lot to say. I’m open to hearing from people who actually like Shigure and Akito’s relationship btw, it’s just that everything before and episode 2 just really didn’t sail the ship for me, personally. I do want to understand! Haha

See you soooon!

[dreamylyfe-x]

Reaction: Shameless Hall of Shame: Daddy Issues

Oh man. I watched this off the most questionable, pop-up riddled, super terrible site. I sincerely hope this is actually going to air on my television tonight. But waking up this morning, my dash was like a treasure trove and I could not help but try to seek out any version of the entire episode I could find. 

I’d initially assumed this show was going to be like a lot of the promotional material, so that the new content would be the actors talking about the characters -- which I would have loved. I absolutely love hearing Cam and Noel talk about Mickey and Ian, because they say the most gorgeous things and I fully agree with all of them. Who doesn’t love validation? That said, I am both stunned that they gave us plot and kinda happy with it. Because I had been hungry for some of the stuff that turned up in this episode. 

The most important thing for me about this episode is that it landed to me like a statement of intent from the show. Like “This is How We See Them” -- which makes complete sense to me. They might weigh things a little differently than I do, but I generally liked how they framed things. 

First of all, farewell Ned! It absolutely fits that you should die out of nowhere, probably of something sudden brought on by doing too much of something you shouldn’t. 

Secondly, the text message is the most bizarre way for Ian to find this out and I have decided the only thing that makes sense is that it was Fiona. How does Fiona know? Texting because his dad dies isn’t that crazy a thing for JimmySteve to do. If he could get her number. Or her Facebook or something. And I dunno. It makes way more sense than any other scenario I can come up with. 

I’m just gonna dispense with the stuff I didn’t like much off the top -- and it was very simply this: They were clearly writing to the signposts and sometimes that didn’t feel super organic. Most notably, Mickey not only tossing out the line about the bipolar issue, but doing it in a way like it’s a HOBBY of Ian’s? Like. I know I should be more concerned that he tossed it out in a fight like that, but mostly I just like “you have this line for this reason and this reason only: because they want to do a montage of Manic Ian.” -- Because of that, I find I have trouble taking it seriously as a character beat. Same thing with the weird dancing at the Keg Zone. 

How nice that everyone has an established place to work out now. Where are your masks? 

I have so desperately wanted a moment like the one we got right off the top, where Ian and Mickey are playing a game together -- one that apparently Ian is woefully overmatched at. But I love that. I love them sitting in be together, playing on their phones together, elbowing each other.

This is dicey for me to get into, but as a person who doesn’t have big issues with the blowjob scene from Hope Springs Paternal, I feel like this has some significant parallels. And I enjoyed how there was a lot of the same “you’re so sensitive” vibe in Noel’s choices in that scene. This is Mickey flirting and being very fond. 

I cannot get past the fact that Ian calls Mickey a thug so that we can see Mickey doing thug things, and that Mickey calls Ian bipolar so that we can see him doing manic things, but to endeavour to take it seriously for a second -- I DO buy it as enough of a hit for Ian to say he wished they’d never met, which is also not my favourite beat of the episode. And I also love that we get Mickey acknowledging Ian’s tendency to leave. Because that’s them talking about some stuff and it’s so rare we get that. 

As fights this season have gone, this one is definitely my favourite because it RESOLVED. On camera! I loved that. It’s all I want, really. And I do love the repeated beat they’ve had this season of Mickey and Ian really TRYING with each other. 

It probably IS true that Ian is soft and Mickey is sensitive and I like that they said that. Though we all know Mickey is soft and just much, much less comfortable with that part of himself than Ian. 

Terry is worse than Frank and it’s pushing bounds of believability to me to suggest Ian would argue with Mickey about that. They both suck, sure. but Terry is worse. 

So @gallavictorious​ already made the very important and essential observation that Ian and Mickey are TAKING THE BATH WRONG but I cannot stop myself from ranting on it further. The faucet is in Mickey’s ARMPIT. Ian, this cannot be what you had in mind. This is not two grown men taking a romantic bath. This is how toddlers take baths together and I am angry at the show for doing that to me. Mickey needs to TURN AROUND and his experience of this would improve immensely. 

That brings us to maybe my most controversial opinion about this or any other show... I have never cared much about a mutual I Love You. I will defend Han Solo’s “I know” to my dying breath. I will never have a problem with Mickey not talking about loving Ian at the border. I think responding to “I love you” with “what does that even mean?” is how people who really, truly love each other talk all the time. Because they aren’t saying “I love you” to HEAR “I love you” -- they are saying it to BE heard. They are saying it because they want the other person to know. KNOW you are loved. KNOW that you are important to me. So on that note, the fact that we didn’t get a mutual I Love You until season 10 will never be a thing I care about a lot. Because -- stealing from Han -- THEY KNOW. 

That said, that was an excellent mutual “I Love You” and I will treasure it. The flat out JOY in Mickey when he said it. How much they’re still into each other. How much didn’t really seem to care about the stupid bath, really, because they actually do love each other in that way where they just like each other and have fun together and think each other is hot AF. 

I never doubted it, but I appreciate the show just flat out telling us “they aren’t going to get divorced.” 

Ok, the bloopers at the end. My favourite moment was 100% Noel saying he couldn’t remember the rest of his euphemisms for Ian’s mouth. But then the line-burring kiss. I love this. It reminds me so much of that Skam outtake where there’s confusion about whether the cameras are rolling. Obviously they did that on purpose in this case, but it’s still sweet as hell and it’s a little bit Ian and Mickey, but a little bit Cam and Noel having PLAYED these characters for so long and being so comfortable with the story and each other and it’s just NICE. It’s a nice thing they let us have. 

I like nice things. 

[vulpes-incendium]

I made this long time ago, but I thought it's a good time to share it here for @aphasiaweek!

I chose 《Hoi Sam☆Nice Guy》over 《Maji Kandou☆Hong Kong Night》because there are more stuff about HK in it. So let's see if the lyrics are accurate in a native's point of view!

Spoiler alert: it's very accurate

Hoi Sam = Happy (in Cantonese)

Guy = sounds like street in Cantonese (gaai1)

“Yooooo, so since there’s a song… while I’m at it I kinda put some effort into my costume… I think I’ve got like, serious swag Pardon? You can’t see me…for real? Woah!!!!”

FASHION: yes, HKers love to be trendy, always want to be on top trends! Trends come and go very very quickly, it's seriously really hard to follow trends in HK.

MIXING ENGLISH WITH CANTONESE: yup, we do that a lot, we almost couldn't finish a sentence without English, some words just sound "uncool" in Chinese lol (it’s always about being cool in HK lol), but we don't really say “pardon” unless we are speaking English

Sup-sup-sup-sup-sup-super mobile (snap snap) It’s my hobby to take pics and collect them (I guess) Not gonna lie, everyone’s got a mobile phone, penetration rate (highest in the world) Yeah! If you’re going sightseeing then Nathan Road! (Fuu~!)

TAKING PICS WITH SMARTPHONE: Aph HK loves taking (embarrassing) photos (of China lol), but in real life HKers do love taking pictures, or videos too (it's dangerous if you misbehave, people would film you and post on Youtube or Facebook)

MOBILE PHONE PENETRATION RATE: I couldn't find data for HK, but I think I heard on average, each HKer carries at least 2 cellphones! So this could be true!

NATHAN ROAD: It's the longest street in HK and there's so many things, good food, good shopping places and yup sightseeing! (A lot of our streets are named after the Governors during the colonial time, this street is named after Sir Matthew Nathan for example)

Welcome this makes me kinda happy (Check it out!) Learned this from England - tea in the afternoon (high tea) Welcome, this is kinda fun (Shake it up!) Yum cha, Hong Kong milk tea, cha-cha Nice culture (frivolous)!

AFTERNOON TEA: Yes, it's still a tradition for us to have tea time, we call it 3:15, workplaces would have tea breaks, restaurants do tea time menu during 2-5pm, it's really cool and cheap! We usually drink HK milk tea (evolved from British milk tea) during tea time and there are so many delicious snacks like French toast, pineapple bun and of course egg tart!

YUM CHA: It literally means “drink tea”, but Chinese tea this time. It's a tradition for us to go Yum Cha every Sunday with our family! Dim sum is part of Yum Cha! We just eat and catch up with each others for HOURS!

Oh. My. God. “LOHAS LOHAS” Oh. My. Mind. “Gonna take a pic~” Take away “Is this delivery service for real?” Like, seriously, even if it’s way out of the way, no problem man

LOHAS: I didn't know what this refers to for a long time, I finally found the answer. This refers to LOHAS park, an eco-friendly residential area newly built few years ago. But what's so special about it? Is it famous in Japan?!

DELIVERY SERVICE: Well delivery service in Asia are generally good anyway, but I guess we are good and fast?! (but I think Korea too!)

Super Feeling unlucky? If it’s getting to you, go villain hitting at Ngo Keng Kiu A medium will perform an exorcism, and hit a paper doll with a shoe For fortune telling, go draw fortune sticks, or get a divine answer by throwing moon blocks at the temples… at Wong Tai Sin, light the fire of your incense! If you’re feeling tired, maybe you can give Feng Shui a try or something? A spiritual site in Lantau Island The Wisdom Path…is super Awesome for meditation, but there aren’t any toilets, so watch out Gold fish, bring me luck! (In money!)

NGO KENG KIU: Generally HKers are not THAT superstitious, but the culture still lives within us. I have never known anyone who did the villain hitting, but it's still quite a thing (and a great tourist spot). It's mainly for people who backstab you (we call them "small people" siu yan), but I guess evil spirit too.

WONG TAI SIN: Again, it's more for older generation who are still a bit superstitious. People like to go to Wong Tai Sin Temple during Lunar New Year to wish for luck in the new year. It's still quite popular!

See I told you we have natural landscape (source)

WISDOM PATH: I've never been there lol. Apparently it's a "path lined with 38 wooden monuments inscribed with the Heart Sutra prayer". In general, HK has a lot of nice hiking trail, our landscape is actually amazing, it's just we focus too much on making money...

P-Pe-Pe-Pearl of the Orient is me! (I guess?) Got completely wasted? Ended up in a dress (totes sick) Not gonna lie, population density is highest in the world in Ap Lei Chau Yeah! If you’re going sightseeing then Hong Kong Island! (Yeah~!!)

PEARL OF THE ORIENT: It's the nickname of HK, the Philippines is Pearl of the Orient SEAS

(Ending up in a dress refers to this comic, thanks parallel France!)

POPULATION DENSITY: Yea, that's what we are famous for really, small place lots of people (HK is a very hilly city, surprise, surprise), we have the most expensive estate price in the world 🤦‍♀️, not sure if Ap Lei Chau is particularly population-densed, but the whole HK is like that!

Good luck in everything this makes me kinda happy (Check it out!) Learned this from England - how to be a gentleman (ladies first) I wish you good health, this is kinda fun (Shake it up!) Typhoon, Kung Fu, WA-TAHH Supplements, Chinese herbal medicine (healthy~!)

LUCK: The newer generations are less superstitious now, but luck is still kind of important for us? It's more like a tradition than a belief, we do them just in case (like Feng Shui).

TYPHOON: As a coastal city, we get typhoons a lot in summer, but they are not as strong in comparison to the Philippines or Indonesia.

KUNG FU: We are known for our Kung Fu films, as the actors are all trained martial artists! Bruce Lee (WA-TAH was his catchphrase), Jackie Chan and Donnie Yen are great examples! Because of the wars and Cultural Revolution, many people fled China to HK, resulting the influx of high quality martial artists (eg. Ip Man).

HERBAL MEDICINE: As western as we are, we still believe in Chinese Medicine, but more in a preventative way.

Oh. My. God. “Air conditioning in full blast!” Oh. My. Mind. “That’s not eco-friendly…” Oh well “The air will become cleaner, I think?” Seriously a Mistake, but, no problem man

STRONG AIR-CONDITIONING: This line had me laugh die (Imao in Cantonese)! It's so accurate! You can catch a cold from the airconditioning in HK! And that's why we always carry a jacket even in summer! It's not very eco-friendly and our government is trying resolve that.

AIR POLLUTION: Yes we have smog (smoke + fog), it is becoming quite the problem really. The root of the problem is that Shenzhen, the city next to HK, is developing rapidly and a lot of factories moved there, so the smoke is blown towards HK (we don't really have many factories left, it's too expensive here).

Awesome Riding on a roofless bus, cruising through the neon streets If you want to, like, go shopping… at Ladies Market There are stalls with cute stuff, souvenirs (lots and lots of them) Talk the price down! Haggling is what really counts For some more miscellaneous and deep junk, more for the adult and thrilling The street where mystery thickens… Temple Street Would you like to try some cheap eats at the street stalls? Absolutely delicious! Asian food is the best!

NEON LIGHTS: You've all seen the stereotypical HK streets full of neon lights, but it's actually decreasing, because there's no newcomers to the industry (the lights are handmade).

LADIES MARKET: You can find so many stuff there indeed, for a cheap price! Branded stuff, fake stuff (we don't make them but yea you can find a lot of them), food and goldfish. Yes, there's a goldfish street. Why? I dunno, for luck I guess?!

TEMPLE STREET: Similar to ladies market, it's also great for shopping. This street is also known for (illegal) prostitution and triad, but it's still safe to visit, never in my life have I encountered any of them.

“Yoooooo, Mister, so I kinda sang this song, but seriously, rapping is surprisingly, like, tough?” “It’s also a shame that no one can see what I’m wearing, I’ve got serious swag, y'know.” “Phew… I kinda want to go home already… I mean, the peach buns are gonna be sold out.” “…can we go now?” “…can’t we go yet?” “Haah…” “Okay fine, like, whatever.”

One, two, three!*

PEACH BUN: They are actually eaten on birthdays, for longevity (that's what peach represents in Chinese culture).

*this line was spoken in Mandarin in the song, which would be the only critism I'd give. Yes a lot of people may understand Mandarin, but Cantonese and English are preferred and they are our official languages. One, two, three in Cantonese would be "yaat, yi, sam".

Oh. My. God. “The rent is really expensive…” Oh. My. Mind. “It’s not easy…” Why oh why? “It’s like, the highest in the world” We have serious inflation, but, whatever

EXPENSIVE RENT: We are the most expensive in the world, thanks to the high population density (and foreign buyers 😶), it's really not easy to afford a flat in HK, that’s why most HKers live with their parents until they get married (it’s also a cultural thing).

INFLATION: Stuff are still relatively cheap, but they are getting more expensive really quickly, mainly because of the rent of the shops.

Super they’re so adorable it hurts, the perfect balance of black and white pandas that bring you happiness… we sell them, sort of So fluffy and cute, such big round eyes The kinda? Make you Happy! Uh-huh

PANDAS: We actually only have 2 pandas here like everyone else, in Ocean Park (it's like an amusement park and zoo). They finally successfully mated recently, probably because of Corona shutdown lol!

There are over 100 of them, Tin Hau Temple, so super Before I head there, I seriously wanna eat… mango pudding! So many gods, like, one in every street Pay homage at the temple, light the fire of your incense!

TEMPLES: We still have the temples built before the colonial time! Hopefully, we are able to keep them too...

MANGO PUDDING: It's so good yes! Our dessert culture is just the best seriously! We have so many restaurants just for desserts! They are great places to hang out with friends after work or school!

The air conditioning at its max, the fire burning strong A steaming hot pot made with a carefully chosen soup base If you want to detox, have a Chinese herbal hot pot Absolutely delicious! Asian food is the best! Riding on a roofless bus, cruising through the neon streets If you want to, like, go shopping… at Ladies Market There are stalls with cute stuff, souvenirs, lots and lots of them Talk the price down! Haggling is what really counts Absolutely delicious! Asian food is the best! Every minute Happy☆Nice Town (Guy)

HOT POT: We love it! We basically love when a lot of people sit together, talking, sharing food (like Yum Cha), it's the harmony and atmosphere that we like so much! And yes, there are a lot of different soup base you can choose from!

BARGAINING: Yes do it, especially if you're in places like Ladies' Market and you're a foreigner, they do price things up if you don't look like a local.

***

Shout out to Takagi Motoki, the voice actor of HK, his voice fits the character perfectly! (and please get a new va for the new season please funimation) And how can he speak so fast?!

[moonlightreal]

Fate episode 6

When last we left Elemental Academy, I was seeing doomful parallels to every Bad Ending arc in Higurashi.  And sadly, I like the three adults and my genre-savvy tells me they won’t all make it through this last episode.

How much of a downer will the ending be?  Who will end up screwing everything up? (my money’s on Bloom.)  Who’s for the chop?  (my guess is Silva and one out of Dane, Riven or Beatrix.)  Will we finally learn the red truth of what happened at Aster Dell?  Will we ever get the skinny on what the heck Burned Ones are?  Will the show finally give me the lowdown on changelings that I’ve been whining about since episode one?  Will we get the full story on Bloom’s destiny? (My money’s on no to at least three of the four.)  

And I suppose we’ll finally answer the question we started with: Good, bad or irredeemable?  

One last time, let’s dive in!

We pick up right where we left off, Bloom having a mental chat with Rosalind!  Rosalind says, ‘Do you have any idea how special you are?”

...waitwaitwait, is there gonna be a prophecy?  There’s always a prophecy!  A prophecy that the Chosen one would be born in Aster Dell and that’s the real reason Rosalind nuked the place.  Only she didn’t know which of the babies it was, she guessed Beatrix and she guessed wrong.

Am I right?  Sorry, I barely let the episode start, let’s get back.

Rosalind encourages Bloom to bust her out.  Bloom flames her eyes up.

Aaaaand we cut back to the girls in the corridor.  Terra wonders what they could be talking about and Stella teases that she once heard Terra talk about dirt for two hours.  I’m liking friendly Stella, but she faceturned faster than Tinx at the end of WoW!  

Terra’s also worried Beatrix may recover from being frozen and come after them.  Sensible, Terra!  But no, Beatrix will be gone when you get back, off getting the mysterious “him.”  I know how these shows work!

Ahahahaha! I’m right!  Beatrix is gone!  I swear I type these things while I watch, all guesses are genuine!

And then Dowling, Harvey and Aisha bust in.  Yeah girls, you might’ve not done this during a Burned One attack!  Harvey says “Not another word!” which nobody listening is why y’all gonna get the bad ending, and the girls follow him.  Stella resurrects her inner witch to tell Aisha, ‘Hope the brownie points you get from this will keep you company when you’ve got no friends.”  simmer down Stell, she was trying to protect people’s lives…  Aisha goes with the girls leaving Dowling to go after Bloom alone.

Rosalind is coaching Bloom on how to burn through the barrier.  Bloom’s grinning, because magic feels hot and dangerous and you just want more.  Then the barrier goes down and Bloom has a moment of worry about what she’s done before she… has a very caring moment, she grabs Rosalind assuming the older fairy will need water and food after being trapped for so long.  That is really sweet, Bloom.  But Rosalind says, ‘No.  I need magic.”

And here comes Dowling!  I assumed Rosalind would steal Dowling’s magic, but when the headmistress gets there everybody’s gone.

Opening!

Bloom and Rosalind come out a door in the graveyard out in the forest. Secret passage!  Dowling doesn’t know about it.  Dowling doesn’t know about lots of things, according to Rosalind.  Bloom really should be having second thoughts here.  Rosalind has an evil face!

Harvey reads the girls the riot act.  He’s wearing his army coat, the same kind Rosalind wears, from their soldier days.  He’s horrified about all the girls have done.  He turns to go.

And Terra jumps up, “You lied again!  About Rosalind, about everything, and you’re angry with ME?  You can’t punish me for not knowing something you didn’t tell me!”

Yes! Get ‘em Terra!  

Stella and Musa tennis-match look from daughter to father.

Harvey just says, “I suggest you all cool down!” and leaves without facing his daughter’s very sensible argument.  And he magics the doors locked.

Terra: ‘I’ve caught him in a logic trap and he’s used his magic to ground us.’

Stella: “That means you won.”

Then aisha heads for her room to “deescalate the situation by removing myself from it” and Stella calls her a rat of a teacher’s pet and Musa asks for a brief pause so she can get her headphones.  She flees into her room as Stella and Aisha get into it.

There’s Sam!  Hiding in Musa and Terra’s room!

Stella says everyone over five knows not to snitch, even terra knows not to snitch, and Terra gives her a look.  Aisha brings the logic: burned Ones, outside!  Bloom, kinda single minded!  Rosalind, an extra problem we don’t need right now!

Dowling checks the stone circle.  Nobody there.

When she leaves, Rosalind and Bloom appear.  So Rosalind is mind/light at least.  Rosalind puts her hands over the center stone and absorbs magic.

Bloom asks what happened at Aster Dell.  Rosalind makes a very evil face. ‘Everything Farah told you is true.  I lied to them.  I told then Aster Dell was evacuated.  It wasn’t.”

Bloom starts to wonder if maybe she released a baddie.

But rosalind has more to say.  ‘One of the fundamental tenets of the Otherworld is that only fairies can do magic.  The settlers of Aster Dell were the exception.  They were humans who drew on sacrifice and death.  Blood witches.”

Gee it’d have been nice to hear that fundamental tenet sometime before the last episode! 9_9  

So Rosalind saw an opportunity to wipe out the totally unforeshadowed witches along with the Burned Ones.  And Bloom was a fairy baby kidnapped by the witches.  Her fairy parents are still unknown. Bloom’s freaking out, but Rosalind just says, ‘You weren’t safe in the Otherworld, the power inside you was too great.  that’s why the witches wanted you, to use your power.”  and the Burned Ones can sense Bloom’s power and want to get rid of it before it’s used on them.

Yikes! Bloom realizes her presence is putting everybody in danger!

Rosalind: ‘Sucks to be special sometimes, doesn’t it.”  But now they can go after the Burned Ones!  And Rosalind has another trick to teach Bloom…

Hmm, so these Burned Ones were just… around?  And gathering because they sensed Bloom’s magic?  I assumed someone summoned them back after not being seen for 16 years.  

We go to the fighters at the barrier.  Remember how last episode Bloom drugged Sky and left him passed out at the stone circle?  Well Aisha found out somehow and told the teachers so Silva is giving Sky the “why did I find this out from Aisha?’ and Sky hits back with, “Why’d I have to find out about Aster dell from Bloom?”  But they’re in the middle of a siege situation here so Silva logically suggests they talk about that later.  

Another few specialists including Riven and a girl named Kat who knows Stella are watching Noura’s last video.  Kat thinks she knows where it was shot.  Silva says, “Let’s go.”  Just him and five students. Riven says, ‘Without fairies?  that’s fucking stupid, there’s six of them!”  and Sky shuts him down; order’s an order.  That’s the most twit-ish thing Sky has done this whole show.

They hear Burned Ones growling… but it’s coming from the direction of the school!  Yikes!  Everyone rushes back!

At Alfea, the lights, that were never bright anyway so we’d remember this is a dark show, flicker out! Terra says the electricity runs on magic and there are energy wells… Sam says he’ll go check it out. He Kitty Prydes it through the door, unbothered my the sealing spell.  So if he can phase, can Terra learn it too?

Spooky empty corridors!  Flickering lights!  Sam all alone!  Y’know Sam probably can’t do that trick Kitty does where an enemy launches at her and goes right through, because he can only phase through earth-y and plant-y stuff.

Yikes! It’s a jump scare!  Burned One right in Sam’s face!  It claws him and he goes down yelling in pain!

But he manages to get back into the girls’ suite to tell them there’s a Burned One loose in the school!

Back with Bloom and Rosalind, Rosalind’s encouraging Bloom to channel lots of magic.  “More!  Let the fire consume you!  Control limits you!”  bloom says she’s scared and Rosalind encourages her to embrace that feeling, to enjoy it!  “And with the right people around you...”

Bloom unflames.  “You mean with you.”  Bloom’s realized it!  “You want me to listen to you and trust you and let you guide me?  I just met you.’  and that’s not all!  Bloom realizes Rosalind left her on earth a danger to everyone around her, to hide her from Dowling. “Without any guidance.”

Rosalind: ‘The guidance you needed was love.  Farah couldn’t give that to you.  Vanessa and Michael could.”  Ugh, so their names are canon. And Rosalind knew about their baby and “gave them a second chance. And I gave you a hiding place from the monsters that wanted you dead.”  And rosalind says she’ll always look out for Bloom, and when this is over they’ll find Bloom’s birth parents.

I dunno Bloom, maybe ask a whole lot more about how she knew about an Earth couple whose baby had a heart defect?

It had occurred to me that Beatrix might be the other half of the changeling swap, if there’s healing magic that can fix things like that.  

But no time for that, Burned Ones are in the school and the girls are stuck in their room!  Bloom has to go help.  She asks Rosalind if she’s charged up enough to help help.  Rosalind says she can’t, “But you don’t need it.  BS, Rosalind, you could totally help. But Bloom runs off leaving the lady with the evil face all alone.

In the suite, Sam is getting worse, they can’t get out, and cel phones are giving up.

Bloom races toward the school.  She hears noises from every side… but there’s Sky!  At least bloom seems relieved he’s ok after she spiked his drink.  He doesn’t seem nearly as upset as he should be over that, but I guess we gotta save the school first!

Inside dark halls there’s Riven and Kat with flashlights.  They hear noises, but it’s just some students led by a male fire fairy with a handful of flames.  Kat goes with them to the “courtyard” which I’ve been calling the cafeteria, I guess it’s outside?  The big set with the arches and walkway overlooking it.

So Riven’s all alone to get the rest of the students from this area! He goes into the greenhouse… and there’s Dane!  And Beatrix lying asleep on a table.  Dane brought Beatrix here but she’s still paralyzed from the spell and Dane doesn’t know how to help her.

Riven just says it sucks for her and she’s not worth it.  Which true we’d be better off without her but also yikes, heartless much Riven?

Dane: “She cares about you and I know you care about her.  Don’t act like you don’t.”

Riven shrugs and turns to go and Dane grabs him.  Riven says fine, he’ll help.  Dunno why they don’t just carry Beatrix to where the students are gathering, that’d be safer for everyone.

Sky and Bloom are having the “you drugged me.” conversation.  And the “I trusted you, I told you things.’ and “you trusted me but you’d still have stopped me.’ and “you were gonna release a murderer and a crazy ex-headmistress.” and Bloom starts realizing everyone had reasons for what they did and Sky wraps it up, ‘just because they’re doing what they thought was right doesn’t mean that it is.”  

Back with the girls, Sam’s getting worse and something is banging on the door!  it’s Sky!  Did he just kick his way through an enspelled door?  Badass.

Sky and Stella look at each other and say hey.

Then we all head for the courtyard and comparative safety!

Dowling is magically sealing the beautiful arched doors with trees in them, she tells the boy fire fairy to get his compatriots to weld them shut, and everyone to start making barricades.  Silva’s handing out armor to fairies who want it.  Harvey has a whole chemistry lab set up with a lunch lady helping him.  Badass Marco is still getting treatment for his injury when the girls bring Sam in for help.  Sam’s in a bad way.  Harvey asks why they didn’t bring him immediately and Terra reminds him they were locked in their room.  Harvey flinches.

Dowling stands on the stage where we saw Luna before, as behind her fire fairies weld the doors.  She tells them the situation: Burned Ones in, power out.  But she got word to Queen Luna and the army’s on the way!  Everyone looks at Stella when she says that.  They’re safe in the courtyard… but if the Burned Ones get through before the army comes, they’ll have to fight.  Dowling does her best to be inspiring, “Let’s show them what it means to be Alfeans!”  But I just feel… the lack of history.  And I know, we have history. Feels like we don’t.  

Sky and Stella have a moment.  Bloom told him Stella ran away from home. Stella: “Home’s on its way here, so that’s fun.”  Sky offers to help her hide but Stella says she’d love to take him up on it but… ‘Breaking up was the right thing to do, we never should’ve gotten back together.  We are codependant at best, toxic at worst. This time I have to deal with it myself.”  yay Stella!  Grow into a better person!  Sky says she sounds just like Bloom and Stella jokes that that’s what he’s into these days.

Meanwhile Bloom is following Dowling trying to convince her not to be mad. ‘Rosalind isn’t the monster you think she is.”

Bloom, you just met her you said it yourself!

“She had a reason to lie.  The settlers of Aster Dell weren’t innocent. They were blood witches.  And my birth parents weren’t even there.”

Dowling just sighs and says “She certainly has a way of winning people over doesn’t she.”  Dangit, I wanted her to just kill the retcon and say, “there’s no such thing as blood witches, Bloom.”

Bloom goes with, ‘is your ego so fragile you can’t even consider for a minute you might be wrong about her?”  Dowling says Rosalind is just manipulating, Bloom says you’re doing that too, and Dowling sensibly points out Dowling could be here defending herself and also defending the school.

Bloom flinches from that logic but says Rosalind is still too weak.  

Dowling says the stone circle is the conduit to the magic of the land.  It supplies everything… like the electricity.  And the barrier.

Yup. Nice job breaking it, hero!  Bloom singlehandedly brings about the bad ending!

Bloom says the Burned Ones are after her, and Dowling had figured that out. Bloom says she knows how to fight them now, but Dowling points out, ‘you’re he reason we’re in this mess, you’ve done enough. Help the other fire fairies weld the doors if you want to.’

And she strides off, pausing to suggest to Aisha that the other water fairies could use her leadership.

Aisha had been coming to talk to bloom I think, but she changes her mind.

In the greenhouse Dane and Riven are making a medicine to revive Beatrix.  Turns out Riven is good at potions because he used to hang out with Terra.  ‘Look, I’ll deny saying this but she’s not the worst.”  

Ok, that makes Riven’s nasty remark to Terra in the first episode way worse.

Riven: “I might’ve led you astray this year...’

Dane: “you didn’t.  Beatrix is special.”

Riven: ‘You are gay, right?  I’m not blind?  I know when someone wants my dick.”

Dane: “I think you’re hot.  She is too, in a different way.”

There’s nothing like a cute threesome!  ...and this is nothing like a cute threesome.  But now the problematic element sits up and says, ‘You made the right choice.  Rosalind will be impressed.  When this is all over, you’re going to want to be on our side.”

Burned Ones growl!  Rosalind pulls magic from the stone circle!

And Sam is in a bad way.  There was a splinter of Burned One claw near his heart.  Dang, I should’ve put him on the list of people for the chop!  Musa tries to use her mind magic to take some of his pain, but it’s too much for her.

Harvey starts falling apart, stuttering that he can’t get the splinter out.  Terra encourages her father, and Harvey manages to pull the claw splinter out.  sam’s alive, but until the Burned One that tagged him is dead it’s only a matter of time!

The fire fairy boy says he heard they have the rest of the night and a whole day before the army comes. Too long for Sam, and if the Burned Ones get through the doors too long for all of them.  Bloom, who’d been watching in horror the results of her bad choices, sets her lips and strides out.

Bustle of students putting up barricades.  Sky is working with Badass Marco, then he turns and there’s Bloom with an apology.  “I should’ve been honest with you like you were honest with me and I’m sorry.” And she reassures him that the kiss was honest, and gives him another one for emphasis!

Sky: “If I still say I don’t believe you, can we do it again?”

Well Sky is the most sane and stable person here, he’ll be good for Bloom!  And immediately her catches Bloom’s glance and says, ‘whatever you’re thinking of doing… I’m here.”

And Aisha knows Bloom’s gonna try something, because Bloom always tries something and this time she thinks it’s her fault.  Stella tries the, ‘If only her friend hadn’t turned on her..” and Aisha feels bad and she’s sorry.  And here’s Bloom, come to get them! It’s the last episode, we all get to go fight!  

Sky’s not with them, he’s with Silva and Silva has a final confession to make.  Because he thinks they’re all gonna die tonight, he wants to tell Sky the truth about what happened at Aster Dell.  Because that was where Sky’s father died.  But Sky thought he died in battle…

Flashback! On the plains.  Silva is yelling that there were still people, the town wasn’t evacuated.  He wants to run and tell Rosalind.  This must be while the magic users are up on the cliff ready to call down lightning.  Silva says his friends think they’re only killing Burned Ones, but Andreas says Rosalind knows the truth.  And he’s going with what Rosalind said.  

Silva says ‘I know Rosalind gave you a sense of purpose, I know you’re indebted to her.” backstory there, but surely Andreas wouldn’t be on side for nuking hundreds of people?!  Silva says, orders or morals?  And Andreas… yep, he’s Team Rosalind.  he’s not gonna let Silva warn the others.

He does not say, “They’re evil blood witches, we’ll show you the evidence and then come back.” which is really the only correct thing to say here.

Punches are thrown!  The two warriors scuffle.  Then Andreas goes for his sword.  Silva draws his own.  And a few swings in, he runs Andreas through.  And races to the top of the bluff to stop his friends being accessories to a massacre.

Oof! What a thing for Sky to learn!  And before that, Silva says, Andreas really was a great hero.  Just… flawed.  As we all are.  That’s not much good and sky snaps, ‘What the fuck am I supposed to do with that?”  But he’ll have to work it out later because now the Burned Ones are breaking in!

Dowling and the specialists move to the front, Dowling saying, ‘Keep your emotions in check.  Runaway fear leads to runaway magic.”

In the clinic Harvey and Terra battle to keep Sam alive.  Terra goes to get help and finds Musa zoned out with headphones.  Terra begs for help and Musa says she can’t bear to feel somebody she cares about die, not again.  This Musa’s mother dies last year, and Musa was with her and felt everything.  Oof!  The two girls hang onto each other and cry for a moment then Terra says, ‘It’s ok.  I’m not gonna let him die.”  And, understanding, leaves Musa to her music. But headphones can’t shut out the sound of the Burned Ones banging on the walls!

In the courtyard terra walks right up past everybody and starts dismanteling the barricade!  ‘We’re hiding when we should be fighting.”  Silva tells her they’re gonna be fighting soon enough and indeed, here comes a Burned One through the roof!  The boy fire fairy blasts it and Kat is ready to skewer the thing when it… passes them?

It’s looking for Bloom!  Who was last seen sneaking out a trapdoor with Stella and Aisha!  The banging stops, and Dowling figures out Bloom has left to draw the enemy away!

The girls emerge from the secret passage in the graveyard.

Harvey calls Terra over as she is clearly headed out to fight, but he says she needs to stay with her brother, to help him hold on until the Burned One is destroyed.  Then Musa appears and takes Sam’s hand. She’ll help him as long as she can.

Outside Stella points out that her mom is on the way with a real live army, but Bloom says there’s no time for that.  Rosalind taught her how to stop the Burned Ones but she has to do big magic and she’s not sure how that’ll work.  She needs help.  Aisha will be there with her water magic in case the forest catches fire, and Stella can hide them.

Bloom: “Rosalind wants me to believe that she’s the person I need to get through this.  But she’s not.

Aisha pulls the water from the pond into a cyclone around Bloom.  Bloon lights up her eyes and lifts off the ground and… transforms. Transforms-ish.  Flames spiral around her arms and legs, and around her body.  Bloom’s clothes don’t change but fiery veined wings open behind her, first very large then dwindling as Bloom lands back on the ground.

The designers definitely could’ve watched PGSM to get this, if they then decided to tone things way down.  And why not change her clothes?  I’m sure they could’ve managed something.  As a live action transformation sequence it’s… ok.  They were trying for something cool and they had some good ideas how to get there, the fie spirals were good, but they needed to really run with it and they didn’t.  So it’s just ok.

And how the night did Rosalind know the long lost secret of how to transform?  

Burned Ones advance and Bloom blasts them with fire one after another.  When the last one is down, her wings go out.  And where the Burned Ones fell are… specialists?  People, anyway.

Dowling arrives and Bloom collapses in her arms, then Aisha and Stella rush over to help.  “We did it.’

Inside Sam suddenly feels much better!  Terra hugs Musa.  The lights come back on.  

In the greenhouse too, where Beatrix and the boys are ready to bring the bad ending!  I still smell a bad ending, because we just had a good ending but there’s twenty minutes more to go!  The boys say they should rejoin their classmates but Beatrix says they should wait to meet Rosalind and her dad, who have a plan.  ‘The two of you can be part of it.  This doesn’t have to end.”

Dane asks if it was her dad who sent her to Alfea and B says he’s technically not her dad… and here’s Rosalind coming in the greenhouse doors.  She and Beatrix recognize each other though they can’t have met.  B says the boys are her friends and Rosalind reads their minds.  I wanna say the boys are wondering what they’ve gotten into but… no, they don’t seem to be seeing anythuing wrong with this at all.

The girls are putting Bloom to bed, talking about the good ending they think they have.  Sam will be fine, Terra’s great at doctoring and she’s sad she missed seeing Bloom’s wings.  Tinkerbell is mentioned and I can just hear my friend cringing as they say Bloom’s wings were cooler than Tinkerbell’s.  Bloom’s parents call and Aisha talks to them, covering for Bloom.  She calls it her ‘one allocated lie of the week” which is weird.  Bloom’s awake and fine, she could talk to her folks.  Aisha says they’ve been having killer exams and the girls giggle.

Nobody says, ‘ohmigod the secret of wings was lost ages ago, what exactly did you do? help us all learn it!” which seems like a very obvious thing for everybody to be saying.

Also being all happy and going to bed while Rosalind and Beatrix are unaccounted for is a weird choice!

Silva and some specialists are scouting for her.  No luck.  They find Dowling with the bodies of the ex-Burned Ones.

Dowling: “Bloom transformed, Saul.  She spent one night with Rosalind and unlocked ancient fairy magic, magic we thought was lost.  She told Bloom the settlers of Aster dell weren’t civilians, they were blood witches.”

And Silva seems to believe it.  Which of course means he killed his friend for no good reason.  If it’s true.  But if it’s true why didn’t Rosalind and Andreas tell the others, present evidence of the blood witches’ crimes, and make a plan to deal with things aboveboard?  So why does Silva believe it now hearing from Dowling who heard from Bloom who heard from Rosalind well after the fact? But he does believe it and this is his awful moment of guilt.

Sky too is grappling with what he’s just learned, pacing on the lawn outside the school as the night ends.

Bloom finds him as the sun rises and I gotta say, I was not expecting the night to end!  Everyone heard Bloom “went full fairy last night.” Bloom says it was the first time she truly felt like herself.  She says, “I belong here.”  but she realizes Sky is in the same clothes as last night and asks if he’s ok.  He says he’s fine, which he isn’t.

Then Dowling comes looking for Bloom.  The two fairies go into the headmistress’ office.  Bloom’s feeling ok after her big magic, and suddenly she apologizes for all the awful things she’s said to Dowling.  “You found me when I was lost, brought me to a safe place, gave me guaidance.  Surrounded me with amazing people.  And I’ve been...’

Dowling says, ‘It’s forgiven.”  And Bloom hesitantly asks for a hug, or maybe offers one.  Dowling looks like she’s never heard of hugs before, then she stands up and she and Bloom hug.  Dowling totally gets teary-eyed.

Dowling: “When I became headmistress I made a decision.  To become a figurehead.  To project strength.  It’s what students your age need.  Admitting mistakes invites uncertainty...but not admittng them means people you care about have to ask you if you hug.”

Awwww, that was sweet!  Dowling says she should have been more honest and Bloom says she maybe needed time.

...are we maybe NOT having a bad ending?  I mean if Stella confronts her mum that would take up the time and we could end on a good note! Nobody’s dead yet!  But all that bad-ending buildup...

‘Cause suddenly we’re back on Earth and Bloom is going to tell them the truth!  Which, what good will that do them?  And do you even know the truth?  People told you lots of things.  And the rest of the girls are here to hang out over the weekend!  They head upstairs so Bloom can drop the “changeling” bomb in peace.

Music plays, Bloom speaks and her mother cries and looks at a baby book, ultrasounds and a newborn hospital bracelet.  They believe it too, the whole mad story of fairies and magic.  Of course Bloom summoning double handfuls of fire probably does a lot to convince them.

Sweet family montage, Bloom hugging her parents, the girls at the kitchen table, eating pizza.

Back at Alfea, Silva asks Sky where Riven is.  Sky just says he and Dane are probably off getting stoned.  When is this?  Did y’all not do a full headcount after the battle?  Sky is of course not happy with his mentor.  Silva just says, ‘one day I hope you’ll see everything I did was for your benefit Sky.”  Which, if Silva’s parenting produced Sky the paragon of decency and Andreas’ parenting produced Beatrix the occasionally charming also slutty obsessed murderer, good point there!

Here come some doomful black SUVs!  They pull around and out hop a bunch of soldiers who surround the two confused guys.

Queen Luna gets out and… arrests Silva for the attempted murder of Andreas of Eraklyon!

Yow! Poor Silva looks most confused.  But there he is, Andreas gets out of an SUV still wearing his specialist vest thingy.  Sky looks at his resurrected father in shock!

Dowling is looking over some graves.  Rosalind suddenly turns up!  Turns out the Burned Ones are a sort of zombie, they were human once so when Bloom turned them human again and dead Dowling buried them.  I hope she tried to find their next of kin and stuff too.  Rosalind knew about them.

Dowling: “Are there more out there?”

Rosalind: “Shit ton.”

Rosalind must’ve already met Riven, his speech patterns are rubbing off on her!

And then Rosalind delivers the prophecy.  There always is one.  Or in this case, “There’s a legend.  It’s a thousand years old. That’s how old the Burned Ones are, by the way.  They were soldiers from an ancient war.  The legend is about the magic used against them.  It created them.  it’s powerful.  It’s primal.  The Dragon Flame.”

Whaaaaaat? Really?  Come on.

And that’s what Bloom’s got and that’s why she could transform. Rosalind let the Burned Ones into the school to see if Bloom could do it.  Dowling’s upset about the danger to, y’know, everybody.

Rosalind: “there’s a war on the horizon.  The Burned Ones are nothing compared to what’s coming.”

And Rosalind says she’s taking over the school, pretty much.  We go back to the front yard where Silva’s getting hauled away in handcuffs and Queen Luna is giving the ordersy and there’s Beatrix watching and inside someone’s taking down Dowling’s portrait and putting up Rosalind’s.

Soldiers march into the greenhouse and Harvey and Sam smile weakly, smart enough not to try anything against six big dudes.

We learn that Andreas has been in hiding all these years because “I needed someone to raise Beatrix.”  Uh, wow Andreas is one obedient guy!  He also looks a little nutty.  I dunno, the very regal beard… it’s too much somehow.  Next to him Beatrix smiles at Riven and Dane who are I guess her loyal retainers now.

And then, infodump over… Rosalind straight up MURDERIZES Dowling!  Well first she suggests Dowling might want to run away and take some time off, but Dowling is having none of that so Rosalind kills her!  And then angry rock music plays as Dowling’s body sinks into the ground and flowers come up over her, making one more grave.

The girls return from their weekend on earth wearing the awful clothes from the trailer and discover… not the three adults they were expecting!

Well that was… something.  You got the bad ending all right!

So lemme scroll up and see how good my guesses were…

Nobody but Dowling died, so my death guesses were wrong.  And if she’s an earth fairy she might be able to heal herself under the ground or something, I mean weirder things happen in this kind of show.  Bloom did indeed doom the school by releasing Rosalind.  

We learned what I guess is the truth of Aster Dell, but... unforeshadowed blood witches?  Reeeeeally!?  That’s what you’re going with?  And we found out Burned Ones are ancient zombies created by the unforeshadowed Dragon Flame which Bloom has for some reason. You’re supposed to foreshadow the important stuff for the night’s sake!  That’s how things have weight in your story, that’s how you make the world feel real like the parts of it are connected to the other parts of it!  The lack of worldbuilding has been bugging me more and more, can you tell?

Anyway we get a season two.  I’m pleased because I’ve enjoyed plenty of aspects of Fate, but on the other hand… Fate has turned the already weird Winx fandom into a pit of radioactive rage-bees, and I won’t be sad to put that behind us!

So what about the big question?  Good, bad or irredeemable?

I expected to judge how Fate lines up as a Winx Club show, but it… just doesn’t.  At all.  None of the characters are the same, none of the worldbuilding is the same.  It’s apples to oranges.

But as just a show… I think I’d have to go with “bad.”  The way the world feels so flimsy, all the really obvious bits of Otherworldbuilding that just aren’t there until the end, or aren’t there at all.  All the Earth popular culture references.  Beatrix being stuck in a slut stereotype role.  All the drugs.  All the everyone’s lying to everyone about everything, it got really tiresome.  Those things knock the show out of the “good” category.

But there was a lot to like.  I have to say, all the actors did a really good job.  Given the semi-mess they had to work with, they gave it all they had!  Stella was so awful but put across that she’s terrible because she’s terrified.  Sky was a truly good person. Beatrix and Riven are objectively terrible people but both had moments of being so charming it was hard to hate them.  And Dowling, Silva and Harvey managed to hold up this flimsy worldbuilding and almost make it work.  The magic was flimsy but pretty and the castle and the forest are absolutely stunning.

So it’s not good, but there’s something there.  So it’s not irredeemable, though there’s a lot we have to wallpaper over with it.  I’m’a go with “Bad.  The show has charms but is in general bad.”  

At least that’s what I think after a five-hour marathon of the last episode!  We’ll see what occurs to me in days to come!

[mrsgreenworld]

Sen Çal Kapımı Episode 16 aka Mistrust Is In the Air

Last week brought us another light and funny but, unfortunately, also a filler episode. Actually, for me, it turned out to be one of the most conflicting ones. I absolutely loved it while I was watching it live. I guess it's because the Haunting of Bly Manor / the Haunting of Hill House pulled out all of my insides and then ripped them to shreds so watching SCK was such a reprieve. This episode was even funnier and lighter than episode 15 which still had some lingering angst. I can declare episode 16 almost completely angst-free.

After having rewatched the episode with the subs I've got a feeling that the writers are trying to mess with some of my favourite characters and dynamics. I don't appreciate it. Still love the show, the cast, the characters. Just didn't enjoy certain writing decisions in this episode. Let's get down to it.

Now I'm going to break my habit and start with the one thing I hated:

❌☣️❌ Eda and Ceren: what the hell was that scene in the office when Eda spotted Ceren and Ferit talking and then tried to... do what exactly? warn Ceren? give some constructive relationship advice? support her?🤔

the first and the main problem I had with the scene was the energy - I don't know what caused it but it lacked the love and warmth that had always been there between all the girls; no matter what happened - even in that shitty situation with Kaan and when Ceren was the first to find out about the contract or even when Fifi and Melo finally learned about it - there was true girl power, they didn't allow anything or anyone mess up their friendship, they supported each other, tried not to judge and be understanding; so for me to see Eda so cold and kinda detached towards Ceren was a shock; maybe it would have been ok in a conversation with Pırıl or Selin since they're not friends but given that Eda was talking to one of her closest friends the way she spoke with Ceren was just wrong; moreover, Eda came off downright condescending; that's why Ceren's reaction was understandable in a way; I liked how she called Eda out on her lack of support;

if you think that your friend is making a huge mistake it's ok to show concern, it's ok to even say "hey, what the hell are you doing?" but you have to do this with love, you have to make sure that your friend knows - even if they mess up you will be there not with "I told you so" but with silent support; I didn't see that kind of love from Eda;

and while (as I have already mentioned) I partially understand and support Ceren's reaction I think it was a bit too aggressive;

and the way they parted with *itch faces just left a horrible aftertaste in my mouth 🤢 - THE *UCK THE WRITERS ARE DOING MESSING UP WITH MY GANG LIKE THAT???

The things I didn't like / was annoyed with:

❎ Selin: what's her problem with Ceren? have I missed something and Ceren stole her man?👀🤔 nope, don't recall anything like that happening;

Selin's channelling the kind of behaviour I really hate - she didn't give a shit about Ferit when they were together, was ready to dump him at the snap of Serkan's fingers and now when they're not together she's behaving as if Ferit has no right to even as much as talk to another woman; what's even more infuriating is that it's not jealousy because it would require having some sort of feelings and there are none on Selin's side; which brings us back to her ego and unbelievably self-centred persona;

her mistrust in Ceren as a lawyer also seems to stem from a personal dislike and Ceren's interactions with Ferit (at least it looks like that to me);

all in all this tension between Selin and Ceren is messing with the female dynamics because it's brought something the writers managed to avoid in the past - women being petty and bitchy towards each other;

❎ Efe: man, if he was just shady in the past, in this episode he was freaking snaky 🐍👀;

I understand that Serkan's attitude is unpleasant to say the least and there were moments when he was downright rude but in his case it's not being rude for the sake of rudeness; I think Serkan has excellent gut feeling; he didn't trust Efe even for a second from the very first meeting and his rudeness stems from this mistrust; Serkan is not a type of a person who's going to pretend to like someone for the sake of appearances, hypocrisy is not in his nature (which is one of the things I admire about our precious Scanner 😍❤️);

but back to Efe - yes, Serkan's not making it easy for him but he was like that from the very beginning and Efe seemed so nice, so friendly, so open to this partnership; all smiles and down-to-earth attitude; so what happened to his face in this episode? Serkan spat into his coffee?🙈😆🤣

I mean, really, have I imagined it or there was barely contained irritation and something even darker on his face?👀🤔 there was a small moment when he was moving a chair with a little bit more force than necessary 😬

I also don't like him getting so close to Eda; I still don't see anything romantic there but rather his malicious forethought is becoming more obvious;

also - was I the only one to think that a black rose he talked about with Eda was symbolic? here's what I have found about black roses:

"In the language of flowers, roses have many different meanings, with black roses specifically symbolizing ideas such as hatred, death, and despair"👀😳😱

ok, I am not calling him a Horseman of the Apocalypse quite yet but damn, he's gonna bring chaos, I am sure 😱😳😬

❎ Engin and Serkan: okay, these two dummies deserve the titles of the worst boyfriend and male friend respectively🤦

honestly, Engin forgetting about Pırıl's birthday shows him as careless and superficial; a man who claims to have been in love with Pırıl for years and who's also been friends with her for so long would have remembered such a small fact unless he's got a serious head trauma🧠🔨

as for Serkan, a character whose certain qualities have been constructed with remarkable consistency, forgetting about Pırıl's birthday is just ridiculous, unbelievable and completely OOC; sorry but that's just lazy writing🤷

it could have been avoided with just one line: "Yeah, it's Pırıl's birthday. I had Leyla send her flowers in the morning" - BOOM! that's it!

❎ Edser: yeah, I know, it's unprecedented for my babes to make it into this section 😬 but there were certain things I didn't quite enjoy;

1 - while the office scene where Serkan asked Eda whether or not she had accepted Efe's offer was humourous and funny it was also painfully immature; that's a conversation between two pre-schoolers not a conversation between two adults;

2 - Eda's conversation with Leyla where Eda asked about Selin; I smelled some jealousy and, honestly, I think it was completely out of nowhere; and Serkan's reactions to them talking also seemed kinda weird because he normally looks like that when Efe is around Eda; jealous of Leyla now?👀😆🙈

3 - karaoke bar scenes; Serkan's appearance was also kinda out of nowhere; since he was adamant about not going it would have been nice to see what had changed his mind; didn't like him telling Eda something along the lines of "we're broken up but I don't want to see you with Efe" - it's the type of "I wanna eat a cake and have it too" attitude that I cannot stand; I understand that it's hard for Serkan but he's made a decision, he's made this bed so to speak, now he has to sleep in it; moreover, discussing this with a clearly tipsy Eda - not a very smart idea;

a dance scene - while romantic and all it lacked logic and seemed a little bit like Serkan was taking advantage of the situation;

4 - a visual side of the flashbacks; they looked weird, as if I was looking through dim glass;

And finally the things I liked😏:

☑️ Edser: while immature and all I cannot deny that their kindergarten level fights are cute; it's better than them being petty, angry and cruel towards each other;

the beginning of the episode was just GOLD, with disoriented and doped up Eda and her calling Serkan "Aşkım" and his reaction like WTF?👀😳 and how when she said something nice he was like "ok, I should write that down and then remind you of this" - he's such a little shit😏😆;

there was also a moment when Eda cupped his cheek and I swear I saw Serkan melt, he was a breath away from nuzzling into Eda's palm and purring😹😻

them being in that house broken up, trying to maintain distance, avoiding physical contact - such contrast with the flashbacks where they couldn't keep their hands to themselves, where they were practically glued to each other;

I loved how the flashbacks were shown through Eda and Serkan's eyes - wherever they looked they saw ghosts of those happy moments;

the scene where they tried to talk and Eda asked Serkan to tell about a day he hurt someone, then a day he was hurting, then a day he was the happiest - so painful to see both of them clearly hurting; while Eda was openly crying, Serkan's eyes were red-rimmed and I swear I thought he was going to start crying too; it's so freaking hard for him to see Eda in pain 😭💔

another heartbreaking moment - a parallel scene when they both talked about their rings; I loved how they used the same, word-for-word reasoning for not taking their rings off; must be the soulmate thing😏😊💞

Serkan's inability to say no to Eda even when they're broken up is my gem; if one day they have a daughter her and Eda will have Serkan completely wrapped around their fingers😂😆🙈

in that last scene when Eda was leaving after her meeting with Aydan, when Serkan asked "Did my mother upset you?" - oh boy, could you maybe be less obvious? your love and concern are right there, on your forehead 🙈😆

☑️ Leyla and Erdem: I dunno I kinda ship them now🚢❤️ 🙈😂

honestly I am so over Erdem's obsession with Fifi; him and Leyla, on the other hand, look really cute together, both a bit cray-cray 🤪

the scene with them hangover in the office, wearing dark glasses - cracked me up; also has anyone noticed Erdem's cup with "Ciao" on it? a nice nod to Italy and maybe a bit of foreshadowing? Italy is not going anywhere; I feel like we're going to get the freaking time jump where Eda leaves to go to Italy 👀😬

loved the "I hate you / Our feelings are mutual" parallel with Edser

☑️ Aydan: this lady has a long way to go until she is in my good graces but I really liked that the writers decided to move her storyline forward;

I think lots of her unlikeable qualities stem from her traumatic experiences and in order to make her character grow and develop those experiences need to be addressed so I am all for this therapy thing; I just hope they are going to continue showing us the progress instead of just turning this into a one-time thing;

I actually liked that she reached out to Eda and asked her for help; while it might seem selfish I think it was clear that Aydan hesitated before calling Eda, she didn't want to trouble her, was embarrassed to ask for such a huge favour - that shows a sort of humility I hadn't detected in Aydan before;

☑️ overall mood and humour + I freaking loved that they addressed Serkan's OCD or maybe it's not really OCD, just a symmetry tick 🙈😆😂 we had snippets of it in other episodes and I have seen people wonder if that's Kerem's acting choice or something he himself does; now it's an official canonical part of Serkan's personality 😁🥳

And... that's pretty much it! Yay!

[astroellipse]

rambling time :)

Hmmm I realize now why Urianger is actually leaving the party at this point. It’s to force Thancred to actually do something concerning Minfilia. He’s served primarily as her emotional support up until now, with Thancred... idk he gave her a headpat a couple of times. His optional dialogue there was “I will talk to her. When the times is right.” You dumbass the time has been right for an eternity.

Oh and now we get death baited again. I was genuinely afraid the first time that they really killed Thancred. He seemingly had enough death flags for it, unlike with Y’shtola whose apparent death came from nowhere. God... and the hiding his very soul stuff... I wonder if that’ll make a return later. Certainly is convenient, not to mention dramatic. But man this really was bait, he just like, turns up fine later. Kinda dumb ngl.

Wtf I’m tearing up about Minfilia prime again... god...

Oh... OHHHH I understand what’s going on in this vision now! G’raha is reading Count Edmont’s book, and this roegadyn man is Bigg’s descendant... Huh, that’s funny. Two of the stories from Heavensward got muddled. A hero rides in astride a white dragon to save a little girl... The WoL riding into Ishgard on Midgardsormr, and Vidofnir saving the little girl. Fun detail.

?? Did Emet-Selch just SMILE at the WoL? His eyes crinkled. Do his eyes crinkle anywhere else??? Nobody else even saw that I think it might’ve been genuine, even if it’s just to see that the WoL hasn’t fallen apart yet. Like, he smiles in other places. There’s the mocking smiles, and the one last genuine but sad one near the end, but I can’t recall seeing one like that.

Ah. I think this is it. He’s explaining the Sundering.

I love this line and the delivery...

His logic makes sense. It IS relative, in this case. It of course doesn’t excuse the killing of millions and whatnot... it’s simply that the Ascians can’t accept things as they are now. A world without Zodiark is wrong. I wonder if they’d ever accept things as they are now if they weren’t tempered.

It’s silly that the game first explains the true nature of Ascians nowadays in some optional dialogue... the unsundered Ancients can raise fragments to become Ascians themselves, presumably anyone... though only fragments of the Convocation of Fourteen can rise to their respective office, through use of those... memory stones, or whatever they were. I’ll get back to that eventually.

Oh. You can also ask about Emet-Selch’s true name here, and there’s foreshadowing that you may one day learn... mannnnnnnnnn why do they have to kill him though??? The Hades fight is cool, though heart breaking. They bring back every other character, even Asahi to an extent for godsakes... The trailer, iirc, had a voice over from him so... maybe... maybe if we get more into the WoL being Azem... I dunno. I want to hope.

Ohhghhg I regret eating right before this bit with Vauthry downing... meol... ugghyhhh the noises this is awful I can feel my stomach turning :( That whole business... it’s not surprising the story moves past it quickly. Still funny though that they never outright acknowledge that all that was literally cannibalism.

Ah. AH!!!! There’s the line!!!!

So... he recognizes Azem even now. Huh. And what follows... he thinks the WoL would have liked it, Amaurot or however you spell it. He’s being... nice. Oh. That is... a sly proposition. He’s suggesting that the WoL just let things happen, that if they survive they’ll become whole. Of course Emet-Selch would want that, to have his friend back...

And now we come to the silliest plot point in the expansion. Really? Just make a giant Talos? Just like that? Even with an entire nation’s people working on it organizing everything and putting together the materials and all should take an eternity.

Duuuude I hate Mt. Gulg. Also this stupid audio effect they have on Vauthry, the echo is too much it hurts to try and understand what he’s saying, even with the text.

Ohhhhhhh myyyyyyyyy gooooooooooood G’raha’s deception is so bad but... it still hurts....... and Urianger... this is the most intense he sounds in the entire game... that “Do not interfere!”. G’raha!!!! You idiot!!!!! Gggghg. OH MY GOD THAT’S HIS RING HAND! HE’S REACHING TOWARDS HIM WITH THE HAND THAT BEARS HAURCHEFANT’S RING.... UNINTENTIONAL BUT GOOD!!!!!!! And finally his hood..... god.... I’m gonna cry again I can nbarely type./.... his inspiratyion...... and HIM EMET-SELCH!!!!!!!! GGGGGGGGGHGFHGH NO. THIS SUCKS SO BAD@!!!!

Ohhhhhh this story is evil. That it should be able to make you feel bad for disappointing Emet-Selch....... I mean it’s true. You weren’t strong enough, and others pay the price.

Seeing all of this... I wonder if Endwalker will attempt to top this level of relevance the WoL has. Suddenly... they are the existential threat. I mean again I suppose they could if they let the WoL take on Hydaelyn’s power as Zenos suggests. I do still hope that happens.

Ah... and again his ring hand to touch Ardbert..... cute... Hey wait why isn’t the WoL allowed to have any real heart to hearts with any of the Scions. Let them be friends :(

... ... wh. Why have they said the same thing? Emet-Selch says to the WoL before they depart, mocking how the world would react to the WoL’s affliction, “There is no hope. We are finished. Mankind is finished.” And. G’raha says this to Urianger once he arrives originally, to convey people’s reaction to the final calamity that befell the Source. I... suppose... Emet-Selch was watching? But that doesn’t make sense, they discuss other information here he doesn’t know. It’s just to draw a parallel, then? Oh. I see. G’raha then expounds on it and makes it something hopeful.

Oh also. It would have made infinitely more sense for it to have been one of Cid’s descendants to assist G’raha in traveling back in time. I can only assume that SE knows their fans well enough to know there would have been a crowd upset at what that implies with Cid, with how much they play around with the rivalry between him and Nero. Very funny thing to notice.

I can’t get out of my head what must have been the WoL’s original plan to reach Emet-Selch... take an Amaro over open water, then just dive in and swim around until the find him.

Ohhggh... I love Urianger his apology is so cute... he’ll stay by the WoL’s side for as along as he is able, if they’re willing to forgive or at least set aside their displeasure... even if they’re a danger to those around them...

Ohh and Alisaie!!!! This is why ShB is so good they actually CARE about the WoL it’s so nice... Oh right, and Urianger actually acknowledges their poorly thought out plan and thinks it’s silly. I don’t remember this from the first time, that swimming that far would probably make them die from exhaustion anyhow.

I saved this as a draft when my internet was being stupid hoping closing firefox would help. It did not. Anyways i came back to close this up and also note. I have been playing GNB terribly wrong for a while now. You’re granted a bonus damage ogcd after every move of your cartridge combo, not just the last one. I’m so stupid I thought it was like, an option of which one to use, but no. GNB is confusing, the combos are like... barely combos you can interrupt them to do whatever and return to them later. I’m looking at the optimal opener and i can feel my brain melting how the hell do I remember this??? I mean I don’t have to yet, I’m not at 80, but jfc. Idk if I’m ever gonna be able to raid like, properly lining up skills during battles sounds too difficult for me. I have a pea brain when actually fighting things case in point that one raid where it makes you do simple addition and division. It made me think 6+4 was 12. It’s hard enough for me as is to not let too many ogcds drift, at least not too bad...

Anyways. going to keep playing but I can wrap this up.

[sothischickshe]

My predictions:

Something goes awry with stan's new crime ring and he calls Beth instead of Ruby and tells her not to tell Ruby and Beth and stan good naturedly squabble like TRUE BEST BROS

Beth tries to seduce rio (and it very much parallels and inverts the beth seducing dean scene) and rio turns her down and I SCREECH because this was like my number one greatest wish for season 3 (paralleled by him several eps later seeing her really gross and being weirdly into her)

Flashback to rio teaching Beth how to shoot - same place same targets as max; he's texting the whole fucking time muttering there there who's a badass wearing ugly earmuffs

Rio is not a genie, he's a werepanther

Ruby facetimes big mike

Mick tells Beth about his hot tub party (it was very gay)

Dean says something else bizarre that implies he's a massive brio shipper

Something with a plane obviously!!!!

We discover mick has been running back to rio to gossip about every tidbit of Beth's side dealing

Dean waffles on about his chekhov's gun some more

Divorce vibes!!!!!!!!

Beth's shit is in a storage unit!!!!! There's an empty bottle of bourbon with it when she goes to collect

Beth makes an insulting comment about rio's nose stud because he's annoyed her; he implies he can't hear her over the sound of her extremely loud vibrator he accidentally stumbled upon when sorting through her things

Amber! I dunno I just got a good feeling

Rio taps Beth on the arm

Annie and Ruby are still like stuck in this van metaphor or whatever a bit but it's kinda more heavily implied that Beth's not capable of trying to kill rio

It is at least implied that Beth spent some time angrily masturbating unaided (maybe as a mulholland drive homage?) after rio jacked all her shit

At least one scene at rio's bar

Annie looks super cute

[toooldforfandom-liveblogs]

Gravity Falls S02E17 - Dipper and Mabel Vs. The Future

I have been told that "Roadtrip Attraction" is the last stinker of the show so I'm hoping that means plot and Bill (only three episodes left!) If that's the case, with that title, I'm expecting... maybe Bill shows the twins a bad future? I kinda doubt Blendin is going to be back, his story seemed to be over but maybe he's going to return as an ally or maybe to reveal what's going to really happen if Bill is successful?

Many possibilities and all sound fun so let's do this!

Wow, this'd be traumatizing.

The most honest pre-teens I have ever seen.

I like how the joke works both ways, if Mabel is actually agreeing or if she's being sarcastic.

Isn't it a bit late for having a mid-life crisis? But I guess he had no time for that with Stanford gone and now with him back he's going through a literal identity crisis.

oh no, no, bad soos, bed crumbles are the worst

they are so cute when they are not misunderstanding each other

you know an episode is going to have plot when it refers to the episode where _everything_ changed

I feel like I have seen that word before. I'm not sure where though. Also, what does Audi have to do with the end of the world?

The twins are being so good to each to other (Mabel would have _totally_ made fun of Dipper here in any episode before The Last Mabelcorn) that I can't decide if the show is finally letting them grow up or if this is the calm before the storm.

If the show wants to complete the parallel with the older twins, there needs to be a big fight, showcasing how different they are by getting over that fight by actually communicating, something Ford and Stan haven't managed to do.

So far it all looks fine, I guess Dipper could end up missing their birthday party by prioritizing helping Ford? Or Mabel could go full Stan analogue and break something important... something that's already cracked. Oh. Oh no.

oh honey, I wish life was more like a musical

This feels like episode-plot-defining-words. Bill doesn't really have the power to change someone's age but maybe he can show Mabel a future where everything that Wendy is saying becomes true?

I keep saying "Bill this" and "Bill that" but that's because I really want Bill to make an appearance sooner rather than later.

Mabel is going to feel abandoned and it's all because of bad reception. ☹️

I dunno, duct tape worked in that other show.

oh god that's an image I didn't want. What's with this show and flying teeth

NAME OF GAME I DON'T WANT TO SPOIL BUT IF YOU HAVE PLAYED IT YOU KNOW

The most depressing statement made in this show. You can get used to anything. Even giant extraterrestrial vessels buried under your town.

Dermatologists hate this one weird trick to seal up your pores.

That's one bit of continuity I never expected to see again. Good for you Grenda, good for you.

This episode is already making me feel bad for Mabel and there's like 15 minutes left.

The whole thing about Gravity Falls being very contained into a summer vacation gives me all the feels. In real life maybe Mabel would never see her friends again, all her experiences just a memory of a wonderful (and very weird) summer. Now I'm wondering how the show is going to handle the ending post whatever thing happens with Bill.

I also hope this is not all some sort of "surprise party" because it's not okay to break Mabel's heart (and mine) just for that.

Aaaah. Dipper is getting everything he thinks he wants while Mabel is discovering the opposite.

noo, stay away with your bad life experiences

Yeah, Dipper's dead. He's just a big sack of anxiety-related adrenaline.

I guess that's one way to write off someone with an expensive VA.

hm

His birth mark always becomes visible when something important is happening but I have no idea if it's going to be actually relevant somehow or not.

that's a mood.

welp.

I thought _something_ would happen to trigger the fight I think is going to happen but I didn't expect it would be _so_ similar to the older Stans. I guess it makes sense since this way there's no way to misinterpret the comparison they are making.

and welp.

yeah, that's Bill

Interesting. I thought Mabel herself was going to break it. The changes from the older twins are interesting. Unlike Stan, Mabel didn't know what the Rift means for Dipper. But also unlike Stan, she's giving it away on purpose.

well, that's going to haunt me

I expected at least one more episode before this happened so... this is going to be fun.

THE PROPHECY SEEMED FAR AWAY

BUT FINALLY WE'VE REACHED THE DAY

GIVE UP THE PAST. EMBRACE THE STRANGE

EVERYTHING YOU CARE ABOUT WILL CHANGE

---

Well.

I know the finale is longer than a normal episode so I thought it'd be all self-contained but the world is already ending and there's three episodes left. Huh.

The episode began so well, with the twins being extremely cute and then it all went to pot. I thought it was all going to culminate in a big fight, with Mabel breaking the Rift by accident, maybe by throwing the backpack or something like that, so she falling for Bill's words is almost a relief. I mean, they fought but I expected something even worse.

I can't blame Mabel, who hasn't wanted time to stop because something that feels magical has happened? And Gravity Falls is _literally_ magic. Bill just knew the right thing to say (and the right person to possess, why was Blendin in the present again?), he's an expert at that. For a second I thought Bill was also possessing Grenda and Candy to manipulate the entire situation but maybe that'd be too much. Anyway, considering Dipper (and his hero, Ford) has fallen for Bill's tricks, I hope the entire thing of who did what blows over instead of pining the responsibility too hard on Mabel next episode.

And I can't blame Dipper for wanting to stay. They are young but studying under someone like Ford is definitely a huge opportunity. I'm not sure it'll actually happen, it feels too isolating of a future for Dipper, but at least it's a good excuse to keep visiting Gravity Falls in the future.

Great episode (especially after the last). After so many weird fights between the twins everything that happened in this one felt wholly justified. Now to deal with the end of the world! Until next time!