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salvatoreschool · 4 years

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Vampire Diaries Universe: The 25 Best Characters, Ranked

For the first time since 2009, we’re entering a fall season devoid of any new offerings from the Vampire Diaries universe. And like Stefan Salvatore without his daily diet of forest friends, we’re insatiable.

Like so many longtime TVD enthusiasts (those of us to whom the word “thesmatos” really means something!), we’ve spent much of quarantine revisiting the weird, wonderful universe — from Mystic Falls to New Orleans and back again. We’re suddenly spending a lot of time with characters we haven’t seen in years. And we’re having a lot of feelings about them.

In celebration of the franchise’s 11th anniversary, TVLine has assembled another totally non-controversial ranking, this time of the 25 best characters from the Vampire Diaries universe — a category that also includes familiar faces from The Originals and Legacies. (In Legacies‘ defense, the franchise’s latest offshoot hasn’t been around as long to endear itself to us, but that didn’t stop four Salvatore School students from making their way onto our list.)

In lieu of new content from the TVD universe this fall, TVLine is looking back at our 25 favorite characters from the entire franchise, including stand-out favorites from its two spinoffs.

SPOILER ALERT: This ranking discusses major plot points from all three shows. If you haven’t finished The Vampire Diaries (Season 1-8), The Originals (Season 1-5) or Legacies (Season 1-2), proceed at your own risk. Don’t say we didn’t warn you!

25. VINCENT GRIFFITH

Thanks to the magic of body swapping, the Mikaelson siblings have inhabited multiple physical vessels throughout the years, but none have remained in the family’s orbit quite like this Southern gentleman. Powerful, thoughtful and downright Shakespearean in his delivery (Yusuf Gatewood, ladies and gentlemen!), Vincent always has the greater good in mind. And as we learned in The Originals’ series finale, he helped Freya and Keelan pass that good along to the next generation.

24. LANDON KIRBY

Even though we’re still getting to know him, there’s already so much to like about this pure-hearted Mystic Falls townie. Not only is he the franchise’s first-ever phoenix, but he also looks like he could pass for Damon and Elena’s offspring — and that’s never a bad thing. We could tell he had a long future in this universe the moment he danced with Hope in The Originals’ final season. (So far, so good!)

23. JENNA SOMMERS

Like so many paved paradises, we didn’t fully appreciate what we had with Jenna until she was gone. Her death marked the end of Elena’s innocence — which is saying a lot, considering she was still mourning her own parents when The Vampire Diaries began. And if we’re being honest, Jenna was the ghost we were most excited to see again in the series finale. (For the record, Joseph Morgan has apologized on Klaus’ behalf for killing Jenna several times.)

22. TYLER LOCKWOOD

The First Son of Mystic Falls was kind of a jerk when we met him in The Vampire Diaries‘ first season. He was arrogant, aggressive and reckless — so it actually made perfect sense when he was revealed to be a werewolf. Fortunately, Michael Trevino’s character developed a little more nuance from that point on, especially via his Romeo and Juliet romance with Caroline. (After everything that’s happened since 2013, can you believe that they were once in a love triangle with Klaus?)

21. JEREMY GILBERT

Elena’s little brother (er, cousin?) went through a number of different, wonderful phases during his tenure in Mystic Falls. We loved him in The Vampire Diaries’ earlier seasons as the human embodiment of all things emo (he literally dated a ghost!), and we… um… appreciated his unexpected evolution into a shirt-ripping, wood-chopping vampire hunter.

20. CAMILLE ‘CAMI’ O’CONNELL

The Clarice Starling to Klaus’ Hannibal Lecter, this brave bartender was able to tap into the show’s darkest, most complicated character’s psyche in ways that no one named Mikaelson (or even Forbes) ever could. She helped him conquer a number of his demons in the few short years they spent together on The Originals, and like most people who play a significant role in Klaus’ life, she suffered the consequences. (Side note: Are we the only ones who really dug Cami as a vampire? Justice for that short-lived story arc.)

19. SHERIFF ELIZABETH FORBES

Of The Vampire Diaries’ many maternal figures, none put us through the emotional ringer quite like Caroline’s mother. We weren’t her biggest fans in the show’s early seasons, given her penchant for hunting the undead (including her own daughter), but hey, what was this show if not an endless series of redemption arcs? Also, if you don’t get a little choked up when Caroline felt her mom’s presence in the series finale, you don’t have a soul.

18. FREYA MIKAELSON

The long-lost fifth Mikaelson sibling was a little rough around the edges when we first encountered her on The Originals, but the poor woman was in the midst of escaping a centuries-long imprisonment, so we cut her a little slack. And we’re glad we did, because Freya has since become one of the strongest, most inspiring and all-around likable characters in the Vampire Diaries canon. #FreelinForever

17. MARCEL GERARD

While it’s easy to get swept up in Marcel’s charm and swagger (we were robbed of a second karaoke number, by the way!), it’s important to remember just how far back his time with the Mikaelson family goes. When you consider that Klaus literally freed Marcel from slavery and raised him to lead New Orleans as his right-hand vampire, it adds a whole other layer of tension to their passionate power struggle on The Originals. Though he’s treated like an unofficial Mikaelson sibling, Marcel often feels like more of a Mikaelson than Kol — and definitely more than Finn.

16. REBEKAH MIKAELSON

Arguably the funniest (and most glamorous) member of the Mikaelson family, the woman Damon once referred to as “Barbie Klaus” never fai to tell it exactly like it was, beginning with her thoughts on then-lovebirds Stefan and Elena. (“Honestly, I don’t get you two as a couple.”) And Bex only became more complex as the years went on, from her desperate desire for humanity to her undeniable love for Marcel. Just don’t call her insane — she prefers “spontaneous.”

15. ALARIC SALTZMAN

In hindsight, Alaric’s journey from hot history teacher to hot headmaster of a supernatural school makes perfect sense. Still, it was impossible to predict back in The Vampire Diaries’ first season just how much of an impact the man formerly known as Warner Huntington III would have on this franchise. A drinking buddy to some, a father figure to others and a literal father to a lucky pair, Alaric has truly woven himself into the fabric of this universe like few others. (That said, we still wouldn’t recommend dating him if you value your life.)

14. SHERIFF MATT DONOVAN

Only one full-blooded human survived all eight seasons of The Vampire Diaries, and you’re looking at him. The pinnacle of mortal goodness, this blue-eyed patriot hasn’t always been on the same page as his vampire brethren, but that’s only because he didn’t want to see any more his friends and family get eaten. And we can sympathize with that!

12-13. LIZZIE AND JOSIE SALTZMAN

Asking us to choose between Jo (by way of Caroline) and Alaric’s daughters is an impossible task, which is ironic, considering the Gemini twins are literally destined for a fight to the death on their 22nd birthday. Besides, these sisters have always felt like a package deal, from the moment we witnessed their birth on The Vampire Diaries to the day we reunited with them as teenagers on Legacies. (They also popped up in The Originals’ penultimate episode, putting them in the prestigious category of characters who have appeared in all three series.) Despite their inherent connection, Lizzie and Josie really have grown into two very different people, a journey we hope will continue for years (and shows) to come.

11. MALACHAI ‘KAI’ PARKER

The fact that this remorseless, pork rind-loving psychopath ranks so high on our list speaks volumes about actor Chris Wood, who brought a refreshingly sassy vibe to The Vampire Diaries’ sixth season. The guy was so likable, fans were even ‘shipping him with Bonnie… as if that poor girl hadn’t been through enough already! You also have to give Kai points for longevity — even after his head got knocked off, he managed to make two encore appearances on TVD (Season 8) and Legacies (Season 2).

10. HOPE MIKAELSON

As we mentioned with Lizzie and Josie earlier, we feel like we’ve watched Hope grow up before our eyes… because we have. Given the epic circumstances surrounding her conception, birth and upbringing, an adult version of this character had a lot of hype to live up to, and Danielle Rose Russell has proven herself more than up to the challenge. Imbued with her parents’ best qualities, Hope’s power and passion make her both a formidable foe and an invaluable ally. Besides, Legacies showed us what the world would be like without Hope, and it was not a good place.

9. HAYLEY MARSHALL

We can’t even think about this fierce, fearless mama wolf without shedding a single tear. Hayley’s story was basically one long tragedy, from her complicated marriage with Jackson to her tumultuous relationship with Elijah. And then there was her untimely demise in The Originals’ final season, which… actually, let’s not talk about that. From the moment she gave birth, Hayley’s heart belonged to Hope, and it was in her most extreme maternal moments that Hayley’s true strength was on display. That’s how we’ll remember her.

8. ELIJAH MIKAELSON

Suits? Pressed. Hair? Immaculate. Vocabulary? Thicc. With his smooth moves and cunning intellect, Klaus’ extremely respectful brother could do it all — well, except keep the people he loved from meeting horrific ends. (Seriously, this guy’s track record for dead lovers is right up there with Alaric’s.)

7. BONNIE BENNETT

Simply put, this is the witch you want in your corner when things go south. Endlessly powerful and selfless to a fault, Kat Graham’s character spent eight agonizing seasons sacrificing herself — often literally, hence her multiple deaths — in order to keep her friends and family safe. No amount of bloody noses or dead boyfriends could stop this badass from crushing her enemies.

6. CAROLINE FORBES

Getting smothered to death was honestly the best thing that could have happened to Caroline, who evolved from a basic, boy-crazy cheerleader into a bad-ass vampire overnight. And that was just the first phase of her franchise-long evolution into the empowered, globe-trotting mother of two she is today. She’s also responsible for all of The Vampire Diaries’ memorable musical moments, from her sweet song for Matt to her devastating performance at Sheriff Forbes’ funeral. (Now if only she’d pay her old pals at Legacies a visit…)

5. ELENA SALVATORE

She may not have Katherine’s chaotic flare, but Elena deserves credit for carrying much of The Vampire Diaries’ dramatic and romantic weight for six years. And for that pink hair she experimented with in Season 4. On top of that, Elena also rolled with the punches better than almost anyone. (You’re vampires? I’m a doppelgänger? Now I’m a vampire? Now I’m human again? Now I’m in a coma? Sure, let’s do this.)

3-4. DAMON AND STEFAN SALVATORE

Two sides of the same brooding coin, these brothers were as proficient at breaking hearts as they were at breaking necks. And while their love triangle with Elena will remain the stuff of TV legend, their relationship as brothers was revealed to be the real heart of The Vampire Diaries in its final two seasons. Honestly, it’s too hard to choose between them, so we’re not going to.

2. KATHERINE PIERCE

Come on, when were you not excited to see this leather-clad lunatic on your screen? Deliciously twisted and infinitely more interesting than her human doppelgänger, Katherine was behind many of The Vampire Diaries’ most jaw-dropping twists, from her iconic encounter with John(’s bloody fingers) to her long-awaited return in the series finale. Honestly, putting Katherine on hell’s throne in Season 8 was merely a formality — she was always a queen.

1. KLAUS MIKAELSON

The man, the myth, the legend. To think that the monster who slaughtered poor, defenseless Aunt Jenna on The Vampire Diaries is the same person who gave it all up to save his daughter on The Originals… well, there isn’t a clap slow enough to commend that kind of growth. (Again, Joseph Morgan is very sorry about the whole Jenna thing!) By the time Klaus evaporated on the streets of New Orleans, it felt like we had explored every conceivable nook and cranny of his existence, from his traumatic childhood to his fatal romances — and we relished every second of it.

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fangzeronos · 5 years

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Young Justice Outsiders finale

Ok, guys. Here’s the finale wrap up for Young Justice Outsiders! Massive spoilers under the cut, so read at your own risk.

Episode 24: Into the Breach

Ok, so this picks up just before M’gann’s teams infiltrate the Orphanage from Ep 23 Terminus. The Outsiders, minus Static (who’s been with Black Lightning), and Geo-Force, who was with M’gann’s team, infiltrate Building 16, a props department with no surveillance. Vic’s powers come in hand to get rid of the illusion and find the Apokoliptan tech, leading Granny to show up after putting the Outsiders in the X-Pit’s Ghost Dimension.

Gar and Granny fight, and since when can Gar turn into a Ma’ale’fak? We haven’t seen one of those since M’comm tried to fight M’gann back early on in the season. I know he can turn into things from other planets, like that weird bird thing from Rann, but this was new. I really enjoyed the fight, even yelling “GAR GET YOUR ASS UP!” several times.

Vic, while all this was going on and they were being tortured, worked his technomagic on Overlord and kicked it’s ass, breaking Granny’s hold on the Ghost Dimension and causing them to win the fight. After he and Beetle destroyed the tech he’d found earlier, he boom tubed to the Orphanage and found Violet and Granny, whose two selves (Granny Goodness and her “avatar” Gretchen Goode) fused back together. He blasted the control goggles off of Halo’s head, and y’all this is where it got good!

MY GIRL WENT SUPER SAIYAN! All of her auras, lookin’ like motherfucking Rainbow Brite before laying a hurt on Granny’s candy ass. She cleansed the Anti-Life Equation, freeing her friends before she, Vic, Superman, and Captain Atom blew up the device on the Orphanage. The reunion with Brion was sweet and I’m glad they’re together again, even though I know something bad is about to happen later on.

Connor and M’gann, however, aren’t so kosher. He’s still dealing with her hiding the Anti-Light from him, and who knows how they’re going to end up. I know a lot of people hate SuperMartian as a ship, but we already lost Spitfire and BluePulse isn’t going to happen, so can we please leave at least one ship intact?

Vic officially joined the Outsiders too! Cyborg is now officially born!

Episode 25: Overwhelmed

Ho, boy. Let’s start with the easy and get to the emotional stuff, because that’s where the meat of the episode is.

Connor and Forager go to Geranium City, a city created and inhabited by Genomorphs, the same ones that were under Cadmus’ control back in the early days. Forager’s trying to find his place on Earth since Mantis was arrested at the end of the last episode for helping Granny Goodness, and he’s torn between returning to his home world or staying on Earth. He and Connor have work to do regarding both of them coming to the light, so to speak.

Metron returned long enough to basically kidnap Vic and Violet, and unfortunately little Lian since she was in Violet’s arms at the time. Turns out, since they’re both “children” of MotherBox and FatherBox technology, they’re technically Metron’s grandchildren, which is something I never thought I’d hear. He warns them that they may be the key to stopping Darkseid’s plans if they don’t die in the process.

Gregor Markov is back. He’s with Brion and Tara in Beverly Hills, meeting his siblings in secret. The first time all of them have been together in years. Tara, however, has other plans and tells Deathstroke Gregor’s out of the country, allowing them to put their plan into action in Markovia, allowing their uncle, Baron Bedlam, to stage a coup and take over the country. It’s going to be interesting to see how they pull this off.

And now the emotional stuff. Artemis. After coming home and seeing Will had made dinner and set up candles and shit, the two talk before kissing. She breaks the kiss and apologizes, running off to her room and grabbing the picture of her and Wally and apologizing to it. She called Zatanna and meets with her, M’gann, and Rocket under the willow tree they met Dr. Fate under early on in the season. Zatanna casts some magic (or so we think) and Artemis goes into Limbo, seeing Wally.

She’s only got until sunrise, so she imagines their house, they’re engaged, she’s pregnant, and then ends up with a nameless baby. She knows it’s fake, because the tv in the mindscape has Zatanna saying she’s going to cast a spell to “raise the sun”, and then it turns to an episode of “Hello, Megan!” which should have been a clue as to what the hell was going on.

Wally tells her its time to wake up, step through the door and find someone to love again, saying she deserved a chance. “I already had my chance” fucking hurt. She walks through the door (all that’s left of the house after everything faded from around them) and comes back under the willow, and she walks off with the girls.

Rocket questions what happened, and Zatanna admits she cast a spell, but it was all M’gann’s doing. She created a mindscape in Artemis’ head that let her get the closure she needed to be able to move on after two years. The day Artemis finds out that her best friends did that to her, I can very easily see it blowing up in M’gann and Zatanna’s faces and Artemis either threatening her friends or just outright cutting them out of her life.

Violet got home with Lian who was sound asleep, and she tells Will it was “an average night” before going to lay Lian down. Artemis arrived a minute later, her and Will talking about the kiss and what happened, but they both agree it was wrong and felt wrong the moment it happened. They’re still in-laws, after all.

Side note: Can you please bring Wally back already? The Goode Goggles hallucination for Garfield in ep 12, Dick’s fever dream in ep 23, and now a fake limbo by M’gann in ep 25, I am tired of being teased about my boy. Bring him back or stop fucking with our emotions, you bastards. Seriously!

Episode 26: Nevermore

Other than sharing its name with my favorite Teen Titans episode, let’s dive into the big finish!

Three teams lead the charge into Markovia to deal with Baron Bedlam. Tara, Garfield, Victor, and Brion are one squad, M’gann leading El Dorado, Blue Beetle, Traci 13, Static, Wonder Girl, and a couple of others are a second, and Connor, Artemis, Dick, Forager, and Violet are the last. Connor’s squad faces off with Bedlam who takes off running, Count Vertigo coming in to keep the squad down.

Bedlam runs right into Gar’s team, and he’s confronted by his niece and nephew. Brion knocks him out of the window after Bedlam backhands Tara, and the two fight in the courtyard where it gets publicly broadcast. The fight goes either way, but Brion finally manages to get the upper hand on his uncle. Despite everyone telling him not to, Brion executes his uncle on international television! We find out later it’s the Ambassador using a low-level psychic ability to influence Brion’s actions, but the damage is done. Brion is now king of Markovia, estranged from his sister and broken up with Violet who is horrified at his actions. We see later the Ambassador is now a member of the Light, controlling Brion for a puppet government, along with Dr. Jace back in the picture looking happy to have her “Son” back. I honestly fear that Brion is going to be a season 4 antagonist.

I’m so glad to see that Tara’s not going to end up betraying everyone to Deathstroke and we’re not getting Judas Contract again. IT’s about time to do something new with her character, and where she is now is a good place to give her a new direction.

Nice to see Luthor getting what he deserves. Connor outing himself as a clone created by Luthor was a nice touch, and it’s good that Troia might be getting the big chair.

I’m glad SuperMartian is going to stay together. At least two of my ships continue to sail. I was so worried they were going to split for good at the end of Ep 24, and I’m happy to see them going to last.

Dick outing everything they did to the Team and the League was a nice way to end it. Everyone coming back together, and Black Lightning getting the League chair was great. Dude has had a shit run the entire season and it’s good to see him get a win.

A FUCKING LEGION OF SUPERHEROES RING IN THE END SHOT?! WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK!? Are we getting the Legion in season 4?! That would be so crash!! We almost got Slobo! And Lobo showing up and squashing his clone made from his severed finger was goddamn hilarious.

Overall, this was a great season. There were some slow parts, a few things that could have been expanded on and shortened, but all in all I loved it from the word go. I’m glad we got to see a handful of “one-off” characters in Spoiler, Arrowette, and Orphan, and I hope to see them get more screentime in Season 4. Loved all the new characters, Cyborg was great, Halo was my all time favorite, loved Forager, and up until the end of Ep 26, I enjoyed Brion.

Hats off the all of the voice actors this season, man. Stephanie Lemlin did so good as Artemis still struggling with Wally’s disappearance, and every time she talks about him, you feel the weight and emotion behind each word. Zehra Fazal, if you guys follow my twitter, you know how I feel about this woman. She voiced like a dozen characters, and she did such a damn good job in each scene she was in, and you felt the weight she was carrying trying to discover who and what she was. Zeno Robinson had some big shoes to fill as Cyborg, but MY GOD did the due kill it! From either of the spectrum, Zeno quickly rose up in the ranks of my favorite VA’s.

I’m sad to see the season end, but let’s look forward to Season 4!!

#Young Justice Outsiders #Young Justice Outsiders Spoilers

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snkpolls · 6 years

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SnK Season 3, Part 1 Poll Results (Manga Reader Version)

The poll closed with 240 responses. Thank you to everyone who participated!

Please note that this is the results of the manga reader poll. Anime only watchers are suggested not to read if you do not wish to be spoiled about certain events! Anime only viewers, click here to view your poll results!

RATE THE FIRST COUR 231 Responses

Overall, respondents had a positive experience with the anime’s retelling of the Uprising arc with a 4 being the most popular ranking. It seems most believe there was room for improvement, but that it was overall enjoyable!

Good shit man, good shit. Next arc is gonna wring my heart dry of every last feel in existence, but so far I am satisfied.

This season was poor. I hoped for better. The scenes I loved it the manga were removed. Lots of character development was gone. But my biggest pain is anime version of Kenny. I will be honest - I am disappointed.

I liked it but the manga version will always hold a special place in my heart

I thought it was amazing, despite all the new things and things taken out. I still love the series way too much to really criticize choices they or Isayama make. I know I'm still gonna watch it and love it.

FAVORITE ANIMATED COUR SO FAR? 235 Responses

Nearly half of voters favor the Clash of the Titans arc’s adaptation the most so far, but the Uprising arc came at a surprisingly strong second overall!

Well done, WIT Studio! Although some of my favorite chapters became my least favorite and vice versa (sadly), this was over all the best arc in my opinion.

It was a good story, but they cut out way too many scenes I loved making it not the best adaptation when it comes to comparing it with the manga. Season 3 is still my favorite season though.

FAVORITE EPISODE(S) FROM THIS COUR? 231 Responses

“Friends” was the most well-liked episode of the first half of the season, but overall the last four episodes performed the strongest. This is likely due to their more faithful adaptation of the manga material than than the earlier episodes. On that note, “Pain” did pretty well in regards to the earlier episodes.

First two episodes were meh (way too fast for my liking), then it got slightly better, but the last 4 episodes were amazing

that ending scene in ep 12, what the hell, that scared me so much but it was so well done! also that last scene before the ending song is great for hype lol, Erwin's (japanese) voice actor is a god, my god what a man, SUSUMEEE

RATE THE SOUNDTRACK 236 Responses

It is probably safe to assume that the majority of respondents agree with the sentiment, “OST when!?” The soundtrack was great this season according to voters. Hopefully Sawano treats us soon!

It was so good and I really want the soundtrack to come out, I have 6 months to mentally prepare myself for the return to Shiganshina arc and I still won’t be ready

RATE THE ANIMATION 235 Responses

Overall, reactions to the animation were positive. Although there were some scenes that had room for improvement, ultimately we can’t deny that the hard work done on the action sequences really paid off. Here’s hoping for even more glorious animation in the second half of the season!

HOW DID YOU FEEL ABOUT THE FOLLOWING KEY CHARACTERS BY THE END OF THE COUR?

We’ll let the results speak for themselves on this one. Levi, Historia, Erwin, Hange and Kenny drew the most positive feelings. Rod evoked the most negative feelings.

ARE YOU PLANNING TO WATCH THE NEXT COUR? 237 Responses

We’re happy to see that most of you guys will be around for more!

I feel like this section and onwards are not going to make for very entertaining episodes and are better in manga format, particularly if it's going to keep forcing major changes

HAVE YOU BEEN WATCHING THE DUB? 237 Responses

The majority of respondents have not watched the dub and have no desire to do so. 16% will get around to it eventually and 14% are keeping on up on it.

IF SO, WHAT ARE YOUR OPINIONS OF THE DUB THIS SEASON? 211 Responses

Aside from the 75% who haven’t been watching it, those who have are having an overall positive experience with it this season, regardless if the original Japanese is the preference or not!

This season has been an improvement both in voice acting and script, I've been pretty satisfied with it.

I'm not sure why people think animes need dubs tbh. They never sound good. Kenny's voice actor really butchered the cowboy voice.

I've only seen a few scenes but when Levi shouted ''Nifa!'' it sounded really weird in the dub xD

The very idea of watching dubbed anime is heresy

DO YOU THINK LINKED HORIZON WILL BE INVOLVED IN THE NEXT COUR? 233 Responses

The majority are feeling pretty confident that Linked Horizon will be back again for part 2 with an exciting new opening for us! 16% are sure they will stick around, but we may not see them retake their role as the artist of the opening. A small sliver of respondents think that they will be absent.

OVERALL, DID YOU THINK THE ADAPTATION OF THE UPRISING ARC WAS DONE WELL? 237 Responses

Just over half of respondents believed that the Uprising arc was adapted well overall. 28% felt it was a good story, but not a good adaptation - still enjoyable, but not close enough to the source material. Smaller percentages either preferred the anime’s retelling or, on the opposite end, believe that the adaptation wasn’t good in any way.

Í think a few parts would've been better if they had stuck to the source, but overall it was a good adaptation

It was horrible to be very honest, ehhhhh they ruined it

There were a few cuts and changes that didn't make sense or took away from the story but it wasn't too bad. I love Attack On Titan too much to be ungreatful lol.

At some points it was a better adaptation, with changes I liked, and at some points the attempts to fix some issues created some others. I'd say I find it about even with the manga, the pros and cons balance out.

I enjoyed it, and I loved the action animation in the first few episodes, but I'd still have preferred a more faithful adaptation.

First half was rushed, i like the manga version of it better, but the second half that went more like the manga was excellent

It could've been a teensy bit better, but glad they hit all the marks that were important (except for the hesitation of the 104th squad killing people)

It was a good story, but they cut out way too many scenes I loved making it not the best adaptation when it comes to comparing it with the manga. Season 3 is still my favorite season though.

Although the story was entertaining and was produced well, it missed a lot of key factors present in the manga that really brings it down. At the end you have a feeling of hollowness as opposed to satisfaction

OPINIONS OF THE ARC BEFORE THE ANIME? 238 Responses

Prior to the anime adaptation, the majority of respondents were fond of this arc of the story. A few were indifferent or didn’t enjoy it, however.

I thought this arc was boring when I read it in the manga and it honestly wasn’t any better when it was animated.

AND AFTER? 237 Responses

Opinions stayed about the same after the anime retelling, with just a small bump up in the “liked it” area.

I actually like the Uprising arc. So when the anime came up I expected it to be better. So for me this is a good adaptation. Plus I think half of the budget was spent on making Levi 100 time hotter... My only regret is that they didn't show Levi shirtless.

Uprising arc is my favorite in the manga. So many changes have driven me mad but in the end, I have rather enjoyed this cour. The chara design and the animation are insane. Feel robbed in many ways though, but never mind.

I felt like a lot of details that made the arc good in the manga was lost in the anime

HOW DID YOU FEEL ABOUT THE FOLLOWING MAJOR CHANGES?

While most stances were overall neutral on many of the changes, the most disliked change was taking away Levi forcing Historia to take the crown, thus unraveling subsequent events which eventually lead to the beloved punch/smile scene. The most well received change was including a proper Kenny vs. Levi fight scene in the cave.

I did disapprove of some removals and additions, because I felt that the way the manga structured it made the plot flow easily. For the anime, it felt a tad rushed with the fast stream of information given to the viewers.

Like many manga readers, my biggest and only really significant complaint was the removal of Levi's choking-and-speech moment. It was entirely crucial to both his and Historia's characterisation and future development.

I only liked two of the changes. Everything they did that stuck to the manga was really well done.

The fandom is happy because of the 2nd fight between them in the cave. That was the worst fight IMO: Kenny didn't learn anything from the first battle between them and decided to go against Levi again; he was babbling some nonsense, offended his nephew and as result - he almost got killed. So in other words - Kenny was shown as immature, dumb simpleton who despised his nephew and was pathetic fighter.

while different, i still think it was a good adaptation and none of the changes really bothered me too much.

An additional scene that I'm still upset they didn't include - the conversation between Nile and Erwin before Erwin's arrest, where they discuss their childhood together.

ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS ON THE FIRST COUR?

A shame a bunch of the political parts were ''rushed'', but it was to be expected. Otherwise a good adaptation!

Decent adaptation that skimmed over the boring stuff. Too bad some scenes were hacked away.

"Okay, this is epic." - Ben Shapiro

I don't care that Isayama approved the changes and that the majority of people seemed to have enjoyed this arc more in anime form with the changes. I'm not an idiot, I know how adaptations work and that they're a different medium and that it wouldn't be a 100% panel by panel adaptation nor was I expecting it to be. Neither of the previous seasons were. But they removed and changed SO MUCH of what made the arc great and my favorite personally that I'll never get over that.

After a few fast paced episodes that were slightly Concerning™️ things slowed down and made a lot of sense. I’m glad that isayama got a chance to see uprising play out in the way he would have liked. And as far as changes, some were great, some were not awesome, but we always have the manga. Overall it was amazing and what will I do with my Sundays for the next six months rip

It was pretty calm, right before the storm of the next cour

First sighting of god tier character Floch

I feel like a fair bit of changes were made just to give the main/loved characters far more screentime, and some other changes to be simply dumb and entirely unnecessary

I wish they had just stayed true to the manga. It seems like they wanted to remove some of Levi's darker parts which makes him a less interesting character.

While it could have been better (less CGI!), it was phenomenal overall, and I believe guarantees that the Shiganshina arc is in good hands!

Rod's Titan was so gross. YUCK!

EEEEEEKKKKKK

10/10 there was a brief flashback of Mina Carolina in the Cave.

I'm still salty about some cuts but overall I liked it. Who will say no to Anime SNK?

For Yams story and characters are the most important, for the anime team - it's fun for watchers. That's a bit sad but okay.

Historias new coronation outfit was better than in the manga

I see the anime as an extra, so nothing that happens in the anime will change how I see certain characters or the arc itself. So I really had a problem answering your poll. In my eyes, it a gimmick, a nice animated extra but nothing more.

Despite not being a 1:1 adaptation of the manga, the anime still manages to do a fantastic job of adapting Uprising as well as altering it. The story and characters were still executed very well, and this arc overall had a MUCH better reception than its original counterpart which, in my opinion, says something.

WHERE DO YOU PRIMARILY DISCUSS THE SERIES? 221 Responses

SHOULD THE POLLS CONTINUE/OVERALL POLL FEEDBACK? 226 Responses

We’re happy to see you guys are enjoying the polls! We appreciate all of you! <3

Thanks again to everyone who participated! We’ll see you again in April!

#snk poll #snk spoilers #snk s3 #poll results

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justselfloathingthings-blog · 6 years

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Doki Doki’s Problems, and How to Fix Them

There’s going to be spoilers, so this’ll be under the cut.

So, naturally, the problems begin with Mana. Not just from a character perspective though, but from a narrative perspective. Let’s tackle them one at time.

Character perspective; I honestly don’t mind them moving away from the deeply flawed protagonists of Tsubomi and Hibiki. I really don’t! Shifting back to a protagonist like Love is perfectly fine and keeps the season a bit different from the two that came before it. Part of the problem, though, is that they seemed to think Love had no flaws. But of course she had flaws. She could be stubborn, she could be childish, she could be naive, she could be scared of things like thunderstorms, she could have issues communicating with people like Daisuke, etc.

Now, most of these aren’t dominant issues and only show up every now and again. But they are definite character flaws that pop up several times throughout the series, sometimes the episode revolving around them, sometimes in subtle ways. The point is that they’re absolutely there.

Mana... doesn’t really have them. She’s a bit similar to Love on the surface, but one of the key differences is that she has basically no weaknesses. (Being bad at singing doesn’t count.) Everyone loves her, she pretty much always gets her way, and everything ends up going her way at the end. She is little internal struggle with Mana, or really any conquering deficits to become a better person, like pretty much every single Cure before her.

This is especially frustrating because there are a couple angles that you could take. For instance, have Mana have something of an identity crisis, wondering if her desperate desire to help people isn’t born from some kind of selfishness. This doesn’t need to be true, and won’t be of course, but that level of introspection and internal struggle is exactly what you want in a good Precure character.

Let’s now talk about her from a narrative standpoint.

One thing that’s worth noting is that she hogs the dramatic speeches. Dramatic speeches are actually really important in Precure, because they can be turning points and key moments for a character to show what they’ve learned, where they’ve gotten where they are, and how they’ve become stronger. Now, some seasons can do well without them- Smile is the best example- but typically they’re going to be very useful for characterization.

Mana, though, gets most of them. Even though out of the cast she probably has the weakest character. People talk about a Pink Cure bias but it goes to an EXTREME with Mana. Literally everyone has a crush on her and adores her, including the writers. This, really deprives the other characters of their time to shine.

What also deprives them of their time to shine is focus episodes. I did the math for Doki Doki and here is what I found. It’s worth noting that the numbers aren’t going to add up exactly because there were various episodes that out of charity I put “misc” since they didn’t have a clear focus, and clearly split episodes I added to each character.

Mana: 16/50 (32%) Rikka: 6 (12%) Alice: 5 (10%) Makoto: 7 (14%) Aguri: 9 (18%)

I want you to look at that ratio. If you take the two other highest characters in terms of character focus, you manage to only reach par with Mana. While characters have had that high a ratio before (Passion has 35%), the skew alone is ridiculous; while Miki and Buki are heavily neglected, Love is still in the 30s.

Another issue is the lag. Alice and Makoto should in no way have significantly less episodes than Aguri, who shows up first in episode 22, for crying out loud. The issue is that after roughly the 20 episode mark, Makoto and Alice just... stop getting any screentime, and if anything Rikka has it worse. The complete imbalance in the plot by having Aguri enter so late manages to also deprive three characters (Makoto being the best in the series) of any real narrative focus after they appear.

It doesn’t help that there are episodes like 6, which is supposed to be about Cure Sword becoming part of the team, that instead heavily become about how awesome Mana is. Episode 14 is nearly robbed from Rikka, the focus being split to the point that it feels like both party’s resolve is almost equally required to defeat the monster. She can’t help but even intrude on decent character episodes because the show needs to be all about her.

Secondly, there’s been arguments that Aguri needs more focus. I completely disagree, as you might guess from my calculations above. But what I do agree with is that she needs to show up earlier. Episode 22 is freaking insane and I don’t recall any Cure that appears that late except maybe Cure Muse, and it was a mistake when they did that too. Regina has a similar problem; she only shows up in Episode 12.

This might not be AS bad if she wasn’t brainwashed in... well, episode 22. I think you could maybe argue that there is room for a fakeout with this trope, but you both need to make Aguri a better character (I’m totally not bitter that she basically has the exact same narrative purpose as Makoto but more efficient, not at all...) and you need to allow the audience to have further attachment to her. Eas shows up in Episode 1. Siren shows up in episode 1. Splash Star and Futari Wa do their own thing, but those characters also have far more room to interact more or less every episode with the Cures than the other three characters do.

My point is that the audience doesn’t really have much reason to be attached to Regina. Unlike Siren and Eas, they don’t really have enough of a human element to them for you to really connect with, and the relationship with Mana is ridiculously rushed. Instead of cutting it so close with roughly 7 episodes, put her in the beginning. Put Aguri in there too, though more as brief cameos. If you want to keep the “switch sides” thing, make it a fake-out. It’s a facade she’s put on for various reasons- she can’t let go of selfishness, she wants to make her father proud, whatever you want. Then you can have that twist on the formula you want without the brainwashing plotline, and she doesn’t have to disappear for over a dozen episodes and can instead be going through character growth.

Also, though I love her, I’d change Makoto’s arc. The transition from “Loner” to “Teammate” is simply too rushed. If you want to make her a loner Precure, do something similar to Muse or Moonlight. Don’t have it take dozens of episodes of course, but have regular interactions to cause her to warm up to the girls, and then officially join in 10 or so. You have a good balance, and have had plenty of episodes to focus on her. Because, seriously, the fact that she has less than somebody that joined nearly 20 episodes later is criminal.

Also, I mentioned this earlier, but Makoto and Aguri simply shouldn’t have the same narrative focus. They shouldn’t. It’s lazy, and it completely robs one character of importance and leaves her out in the cold for the rest of the story. Have Makoto or Aguri’s gig be something else, or make them complimentary, or something. Having one dominate over the other narratively makes it feel more like Aguri’s character was made up on the fly, and they stole Sword’s conceit last minute.

This is a slightly less important point, but still kind of important to me, the characters who aren’t Cures need to be given more screentime. I really like Smile, but it suffers from what I call the “Dead World Problem”. So many of the episodes are focused on the Cures, and just the Cures, and any supporting characters are basically cast aside. Some of the best written seasons manage to balance the two, having episodes about other characters that also manage to say something about the Cures in question; Heartcatch is quite good at that, as are Futari wa and Splash Star, and Fresh to a lesser extent.

You don’t see that here. The fairies are even left aside compared to their usual treatment, with only 2 out of 5 being relevant. Charles and Raquel got one episode each and Lance didn’t even get that. The parents were also mostly forgotten. Then again this is the only season where all the girls are single children and without parents (except Mana!), so whatever.

Aside from the Cures and their very few family members, the villains and almost no other character ever got focus. Aside from arguably Regina, the villains often felt pretty dull because there wasn’t enough emphasis on giving them memorable personalities. Other series would have non-Cure friends who would get the occasional episode, or focus on some other minor character, or just have some regular humans do something. Reina, Eru and Jun are nice but that’s just three of them, and more importantly they barely do a thing aside from their focus episodes. Having Cures interact with people who aren’t their families, fairies, villains or other Cures won’t kill them; in fact it could really fit well with the concept of Mana helping others. The Heartcatch girls sure cared more for the people they helped than HER, for one.

I may find more things I like when I watch it again (will try to!) or find that my criticisms don’t really apply. But it’s how I feel right now.

#doki doki precure #effort post #criticism

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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Ranking The Jeopardy! Guest Hosts

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When Jeopardy! GOAT contestant Brad Rutter spoke to Den of Geek earlier this year, he shared his opinion that there is only one perfect Jeopardy! host to replace the departed Alex Trebek.

“Alex,” Rutter said. “But we can’t do it, unfortunately. That’s one of the terrible things about it. I can’t even really imagine what it’s going to be like.”

Alex Trebek was about as irreplaceable as a TV personality can be. As the host and quiz master of Jeopardy! for 37 years, the Canadian entertainer was the perfect combination of studious, professional, and playful. Following Trebek’s death from pancreatic cancer in November 2020, Jeopardy!’s producers realized there was no point in replacing the TV giant with only one host. That’s why they ultimately decided to go with a roster of multiple guest hosts for the show’s 37th season.

This was, in part, to pay tribute to Trebek’s genius but also to audition his replacement…or so they said. For, as we all know now, the open tryout seemed to be a little more close-ended than viewers were initially led to believe. Executive producer Mike Richards ultimately won the top job (with Mayim Bialik getting some primetime Jeopardy! gigs as well), which immediately called into question how fair the competition was. Richards maintained that he had no part in the selection process, but journalist and Jeopardy! expert Clair McNear with The Ringer confirmed that Richards was in charge of selecting the episodes to send to focus groups for each host including himself.

Matt Amodio is the Real Jeopardy! Story Right Now

By Alec Bojalad

Then there were the podcasts…oh the podcasts. Through 41 episodes of Richards’ “The Randumb Show” podcast, the erstwhile host said some decidedly offensive and spicy things. Eventually Trebek’s replacement resigned after having filmed the first five episodes for season 38.

Like we said: it was a whole thing. But while Jeopardy!‘s guest hosting experiment was underway, it was certainly fun to take in. So much fun in fact that we decided to rank all 16 guest host in realtime. Granted, some of these picks haven’t aged particularly well. Still, it’s fun to look back on a simpler time when we all entertained the notion it was possible to replace Alex Trebek because clearly it’s not.

Jeopardy! will begin a new guest hosting process soon. In the meantime, here are our picks for round 1 of the saga.

16. Dr. Mehmet Oz

Show Air Dates: March 22, 2021 – April 2, 2021

No.

15. Robin Roberts

Show Air Dates: July 19, 2021 – July 23, 2021

ABC’s Good Morning America host Robin Roberts’ stint as Jeopardy! host wasn’t a disaster. The games began and concluded largely without a hitch. The studio did not catch on fire. No one was injured. And yet, her relatively poor performance underlies what a sensitive beast the Jeopardy! hosting position is.

Robin Roberts quite simply did too much. She was a bit too chatty and discursive at the top of the episodes and during the interview segments. She interjected a bit too frequently amid answers. All in all, she hosted Jeopardy! the way I suspect that I myself would host Jeopardy! – as someone completely jazzed to be there and unable to stop remarking on the surreal joy of it all. That’s fine, and ultimately endearing to Roberts as a person. But this show requires a sturdier hand than that.

14. Anderson Cooper

Show Air Dates: April 19, 2021 – April 30, 2021

Anderson Cooper is a good journalist and compelling TV presence. When it comes to Jeopardy!, however, he’s definitely not the right man for the job. Cooper is somewhat fortunate that human trainwreck Dr. Oz hosted first and gobbled up the lion’s share of bad Jeopardy! host press. Otherwise people may have noticed that Cooper did fairly poorly in his two-week stint.

Cooper seemingly didn’t prepare as intensely as Trebek or the other guest hosts as there would frequently be awkward pauses following contestants’ answers while the host checked if they were right. As a result, the number of Jeopardy! rounds not completed under Cooper’s tenure was unusually high. It’s a small issue, but an impactful one.

13. Savannah Guthrie

Show Air Dates: June 14, 2021 – June 25, 2021

Savannah Guthrie is an amiable and professional TV presence in her day job as the co-anchor of NBC’s Today. In her time as a Jeopardy! host, however, she came off as essentially filler. As is the case with most of the entrants on this list (save for the quack above), Guthrie was perfectly fine as Jeopardy! host. But while she got the job done, she did so without any particular distinction.

Guthrie also interjected a bit too frequently after contestant’s answers. Though that’s an admirable attempt to interject some of her sunny personality into the proceedings, the role of Jeopardy! host often calls for less rather than more. As such her two-week run as host is likely to be the end of the line for her hosting quest.

12. Katie Couric

Show Air Dates: March 8, 2021- March 19, 2021

Couric’s tenure as Jeopardy! host was the victim of bad timing. She had the tough act of following two guest hosts who were extremely steeped in the show’s history in culture in official Greatest of All Time Ken Jennings and executive producer Mike Richards.

The longtime media personality ultimately did a fair job as host, with her only major flaw being interjecting a bit too frequently during rounds. Unfortunately, she doesn’t stack up well to the pros that preceded her.

11. Joe Buck

Show Air Dates: August 9, 2021 – August 13, 2021

As legendary sports broadcaster Joe Buck began his weeklong guest hosting tryout, recent Jeopardy! superstar James Holzhauer engaged in some classic Holzhauerian ball-busting.

Jeopardy says whoever hosts full time will have to quit their other job, so I’m crossing my fingers it’s Joe Buck

— James Holzhauer (@James_Holzhauer) August 9, 2021

Holzhauer is joking (or maybe not, it’s hard to tell with him) about how many sports fans despise Joe Buck as a broadcaster. Some combination of Buck’s voice, face, and dalliances in nepotism (his father was equally legendary sports broadcaster Jack Buck) rub people the wrong way. That’s all perfectly understandable. But it’s also wrong. Joe Buck is pretty great at his job!

He’s not great, however, at hosting Jeopardy! Buck seems like we would make for a good Jeopardy! host. He’s polished, well-read, and very comfortable on camera. Something about the experience just felt off though – like using a hammer on a screw. A hammer is a perfectly fine tool, but it probably shouldn’t be applied to everything.

So there you have it – Joe Buck: a perfectly fine tool.

10. George Stephanopoulos

Show Air Dates: July 12, 2021 – July 16, 2021

George Stephanopoulos faces a bit of an uphill battle on this list for a similar reason to Dr. Oz. Simply put: I just don’t like the guy. George’s case differs from Oz’s though. For while I’m morally opposed to Oz and his snake oil shenanigans, I just find George to be merely bad at his job as Chief Anchor ABC News.

Having said all that, it turns out that Stephanopoulos is quite good as a Jeopardy! host. While other guests got to enjoy a full two weeks to catch their stride, the Good Morning America anchor only had a week and used it quite well. Stephanopoulos was polished from the get-go, interjecting very little, and running some good, clean games. Ultimately, my personal distaste for Stephanopoulos’s journalistic performance keeps him lower on this list, but he performed well enough to rank even higher.

9. LeVar Burton

Show Air Dates: July 26, 2021 – July 30, 2021

Like many other millennials, my choice for Alex Trebek’s replacement before this whole guest host thing even started was LeVar Burton. Thanks to his work on as an educator on Reading Rainbow, Burton is one of the few TV presences with a level of learned gravitas approaching Trebek’s. He was a natural choice to get a guest host stint to try his hand at replacing the Canadian legend. How did he do? Well, it would appear there’s a reason Jeopardy! is opting for tryouts in the first place.

There’s really no way around it: Burton was fairly rough and unpolished as a Jeopardy! host compared to the top options on this list. While he did a superb job of respecting the format and not interjecting too much, there were several times in which he left the contestants hanging and forgot to prompt them to choose another category. It turns out that Jeopardy! contestants are helpless children when there isn’t a firm hand to guide them through the game.

Ultimately, errors like that are fixable and Burton’s warm, authoritative presence translated well to the Jeopardy! hosting format. As such, I still believe he would be a fine choice to succeed Alex Trebek. But in the spirit of judging these hosts on solely their performance, Burton lies near the middle of the pack.

8. Aaron Rodgers

Show Air Dates: April 5, 2021 – April 16, 2021

While the presence of a NFL star may seem like a desperate ratings grab from Jeopardy!, Green Bay Packers quarterback and former Celebrity Jeopardy! champ Aaron Rodgers is apparently dead serious about wanting the full-time hosting job, telling The Ringer that he could easily fit the show’s shooting schedule into his NFL obligations.

Rodgers’ eagerness was evident over the first week and led to him coming across as a bit too excitable. He really settled into the role in his second week though and projected the correct balance of expertise and personability.

7. Dr. Sanjay Gupta

Show Air Dates: June 28, 2021 – July 9, 2021

Perhaps this is a simple observation, but it’s really something to see how natural and poised TV veterans are on television. As CNN’s chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta has plenty of experience in front of a camera. And that experience absolutely came through in his two-week stint as Jeopardy! host.

Gupta did little to distinguish himself from the favorites to take over hosting job later on this list, but there were absolutely no hiccups during his tenure – just two weeks of excellent Jeopardy! that also happened to feature the season’s most fearsome contestant yet in seven-time winner Courtney Shah.

6. Bill Whitaker

Show Air Dates: May 3, 2021 – May 14, 2021

In contrast to Aaron Rodgers, Bill Whitaker apparently has no interest in holding down the full-time Jeopardy! job, telling The Philadelphia Tribune that he enjoys his current gig as a CBS journalist. That’s a shame as Whitaker came off as quite a natural during his two-week stint.

Soft-spoken and consistent, Whitaker was such a steadying presence in his time as host to the point that the novelty of there even being a guest host began to wear off. Ultimately he might be a little too one-note for a full-time Jeopardy! host but his time on the dais was well spent.

5. Ken Jennings

Show Air Dates: January 4, 2021 – February 19, 2021

In the Jeopardy! canon Ken Jennings is the only figure that approaches the quiz show sainthood of Alex Trebek himself. Jennings is the most impressive and successful Jeopardy! contestant of all time, winning 74 consecutive games, amassing over $4 million in earnings, and taking home the title of Jeopardy! GOAT in 2020. When he was brought aboard as a consulting producer on Jeopardy! last year, many naturally assumed he was being groomed for the hosting role.

Sure enough, Jennings was announced as the first guest host of 2021 and got the year started on the right track with over a month of excellent hosting. Jennings has said that part of the key to Trebek’s success with Jeopardy! was his intuitive understanding that the star of the show wasn’t any host or contestant, but rather the show itself. Jennings put that understanding to good use, using his wealth of experience to make the game show feel both friendly and satisfyingly competitive.

Jennings would be a fine choice for Jeopardy! host. Perhaps his only real weakness, however, is…the tweeting, as it always seems to be. Jennings has tweeted jokes that toe the line between bad taste and offensive in the past, something that he apologized for last year. The issue with Jennings on Twitter though isn’t the risk of future offensive tweets but rather his continued use of Twitter at all along with the rest of us plebs.

Jeopardy! seemingly exists outside of time itself. Save for improved graphics and Trebek’s graying hair, the show has remained largely the same since it premiered. The Platonic ideal of a Jeopardy! host would seem like he or she was spawned from the set itself, returning backstage to sit on their trivia throne and contemplate the mysteries of life between tapings.

4. David Faber

Show Air Dates: August 2, 2021 – August 6, 2021

David Faber’s brief hosting stint on Jeopardy! provides compelling evidence that Alex Trebek’s replacement really should be a “nobody.” No disrespect intended for Mr. Faber, who is clearly somebody, but in terms of audience recognition the CNBC number cruncher is not particularly well-known.

And yet, Faber turned in a really compelling and fun week of guest hosting. Like any good Jeopardy! host, this former Celebrity Jeopardy! champion just sort of blended into the background and let the show be the real star. In place of flashiness, Faber offered up solid articulation of answers, clean games, and a steady presence. Based on his positioning in the guest host parade, Faber is unlikely to get the real Jeopardy! job. But should he grow bored of analyzing the markets at CNBC, he should consider hosting his own quiz show.

3. Mayim Bialik

Show Air Dates: May 31, 2021 – June 11, 2021

Mayim Bialik was a real pleasant surprise in her stint as host. In fact, she’s the best Jeopardy! guest host yet who was not previously affiliated with the show. Bialik leaned more toward the friendly end of the familiar/authoritative Jeopardy! hosting ratio, which is particularly impressive given her academic background as a literal neuroscientist. She kept up that energy throughout but was able to establish a nice balance in her second week.

As a longtime Big Bang Theory cast member, Bialik certainly doesn’t need the Jeopardy! hosting gig to pay the bills. But her experience in front of a live-studio audience and a clear passion for learning could prove useful in the position.

2. Buzzy Cohen

Show Air Dates: May 17, 2021 – May 28, 2021

On the flip side of Bill Whitaker, Buzzy Cohen may at first seem like too dynamic of a personality to work as a Jeopardy! guest host. His fun nickname, distinctive eyewear, and trendy haircut are at odds with such an ancient and venerated TV institution.

As host of Jeopardy!’s Tournament of Champions, however, Cohen was consistently great. Due to his time as a Jeopardy! champion himself, Cohen empathizes with contestants easily and keeps things going at a rapidly appropriate pace for the competitive tournament known as “The Nerd Super Bowl.”

Could Cohen still succeed in shepherding the game show when played by its more “normal” contestants? He certainly deserves some consideration to do so.

1. Mike Richards

Show Air Dates: February 22, 2021- March 5, 2021

Alex Trebek would occasionally be asked in interviews who he’d like to replace him. It was not a question he frequently answered because who would want to speculate about an event that would presumably only occur after their death. He often joked that Betty White should because she was a close friend. But in the few instances he did consider the question seriously, he offered up Los Angeles Kings play-by-play announcer Alex Faust, Turner Classic Movies host Ben Makiewicz, and CNN legal analyst Laura Coates. Ultimately, Trebek told journalists at the Television Critics Association press tour that he “would leave it up to the people in charge.”

As we now know, the “people in charge” royally botched that decision. Jeopardy!‘s producers inability to properly vet their candidates led to an ugly situation for a harmless, syndicated show that has no business being involved in ugly situations.

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It must be said, however, that all that ugliness aside: Richards’ two-week tenure as guest host was great. Despite the stuffy connotation associated with the job “executive producer”, Richards was the most outwardly bubbly and joyful guest host yet. He still projected an air of authority and trivia mastery, likely due to his comfort and experience with the format. Richards was also an attentive interviewer, and well-researched – his shows were among the smoothest this season thus far.

Now some of those good qualities seem slightly more sinister in context. Richards would obviously not be our (nor anyone else’s) choice to replace Trebek today but you don’t get a chance to change your Final Jeopardy! wager once the answer is in.

The post Ranking The Jeopardy! Guest Hosts appeared first on Den of Geek.

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#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

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hawkland · 8 years

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for the in depth fandom questions: svu

@adarafaelbarbas also asked for my SVU thoughts, so here you both go!

And it got long, so I’m putting it all behind cut….

Top 5 favourite characters: Top 2 are no surprise to anyone: John Munch & Fin Tutuola of course. After that? At the moment I’d probably have to say Casey Novak, George Huang, and Don Cragen. But that can vary a bit depending on which episodes/seasons I’ve been watching recently.

Other characters you like: Hmm, well, I’d say I “like” most of the regulars through the years, or else I wouldn’t be a fan in the first place, would I? If I had to pick say five more to round out my top 10, though, I’d probably go with Melinda Warner, Alex Cabot, Olivia Benson of the early seasons, Nick Amaro, and Rafael Barba.

Least favourite characters: Chester Lake, any of the ever-changing ADAs from seasons 10-12, Dale Stuckey (you bastard you killed O’Halloran!), Elliot Stabler from about season 6 onward, Olivia Benson from at least season 16 onward (though she started annoying me at times far before that, especially in her attitude toward Rollins and Amaro in Season 13).

Otps: Munch/Fin, of course, before any others! I also ship Cabenson pretty hard; it was probably my first ship when I was watching the show originally.

Notps: Eeeeeh, I always sort of tread lightly around declaring NOTPs because there are a lot of ships I don’t particularly care for, but my reasons can be weird/personal and I don’t like stirring up wank talking about them or the reasons why. But I will say that I definitely never liked E/O as a romantic ship, only as friends. And I have a personal squick for shipping Fin with anyone but Munch because I just want them to be together (and yet I’ll ship Munch with pretty much anyone else, though maybe not as an endgame ship, so I’m kind of a hypocrite that way? IDK…) I didn’t care for Tuckson, and Barisi…I just honestly don’t really see it, and while I’ve tried reading it in fic I’ve rarely found a story that convinced me or felt in character to my mind. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Favourite friendships: Munch/Cragen, Fin/Amanda, Munch/Amaro, Munch/Benson, Bensler (early seasons before it all got fucked up)

Favourite family: I guess I’ll say Fin, because as messed-up as it may be, I do enjoy the episodes featuring Ken & I love the idea of Fin becoming a grandfather. I also really really want Ken & Alejandro to be together and be happy!

Favourite episodes: With so many seasons it’s hard to narrow it down to even a top 10. But some of the ones I will always rewatch when they’re on include Remorse, Nocturne, Legacy, Manhunt, Countdown, Denial, Careless, Painless, Haunted, Scavenger, Parts, Raw, Screwed, Alternate, Cold, Authority, Zebras, Anchor… ie, most of the very Fin and/or Munch-centric ones.

Favourite season/book/movie: Seasons 2 and 5 are my favorites—2 for the way the team really came together and so many of the cases/episodes featured ALL of the detectives working as a unit. 5 for some of the most interesting cases and the whole loss of Alex/introduction of Casey storyline.

Favourite quotes: Ah, so many but a few off the top of my head:

“If you don’t question authority, you lose your humanity.”

“I just know stuff.”

“That’s my Jew.”

“Once god gives you a uterus, then I’ll listen to your sermon.”

“Even a turd can float.”

Best musical moment: The final montage in Screwed set to Mark Isham’s “Sense of Touch”. The music is perfect and the ending of that episode always gets me emotional.

Moment that made you fangirl/boy the hardest: How do I even narrow it down?!?! Munch and Fin sharing a motel room in Manhunt, maybe, and finally having a bit of a heart-to-heart. That or when Ken has dinner with John to introduce Alejandro because I still insist there is no possible heterosexual context to that scene whatsoever.

When it really disappointed you: Oh so so many times but, probably one of the biggest disappointments for me was last year, all the hype about “Munch returns” when he ended up having all of about 2 minutes screen time—and really didn’t get to have any good interactions with anyone other than Benson & Noah.

Saddest moment: Munch’s retirement. You know, I still cannot watch that episode in its entirety? I’m not ready for the emotional gut-punch.

Most well done character death: Mmm…I might go with Sonya Paxton on that, because it was emotional and sad and yet she also was able to at least, in her death, provide evidence to catch her (and others) killer. Unlike Sister Peg and O’Halloran’s deaths which just felt cheap and unnecessary…and I won’t even go into how I feel about how they killed Mike Dodds (that’s why @ladyzootie and I are working on a story to set THAT right!)

Favourite guest star: Robin Williams in Authority, though I also loved Jeremy Irons, especially in his second appearance in Totem. As much as I love Huang, I would have enjoyed seeing more of Dr. Jackson as well; Irons was perfect in that role and brought a lot to the show with his character.

Favourite cast member: Don’t make me choose between the Belz and Ice-T! I love them both too much to pick a favorite.

Character you wish was still alive: Mike. Dodds.

One thing you hope really happens: That the show either brings on a new full-time detective for the unit or starts using more supporting characters again: show the detectives going to the morgue, working with TARU, working with a psychiatrist instead of having Benson diagnosing and doing everything herself. But, I’m not holding out great hope for that.

Most shocking twist: Shocking in a not-good way: Tuckson. Sorry, I never bought it, I don’t see all this so-called evidence that the writers were “setting it up” for seasons before it happened. Total WTF??!?! for me.

When did you start watching/reading?: I actually vividly remember watching the pilot episode when it first aired in 1999. I’ve pretty much followed it on and off since then, watching regularly at least on thru Season 9 or so and I think that’s about when I lost at least some of my interest. But that said, I was mostly a casual fan until about 2 years ago when I really fell hard into it in a “fannish” way, after rewatching old episodes in reruns.

Best animal/creature: THE MONKEY IN THE BASKETBALL

Favourite location: The original squad room.

Trope you wish they would stop using: SAINT BENSON IS THE ONLY PERSON WHO CAN DO EVERYTHING IN THE SQUAD. ENOUGH ALREADY.

One thing this show/book/film does better than others: Errrr…hmm. These days I can’t think of anything it does better than other shows besides bore and/or annoy me, sorry. In the earlier seasons I’d say it was unique in the way it tackled messy, painful, and often controversial issues of sexuality and “sexually based offenses”. It wasn’t always perfectly PC but it did a good job of presenting complexity and showcasing how societal ideas were changing and being challenged—without just feeling like a soapbox.

Funniest moments: All of Wildlife is pretty hysterically bad but in an entertaining way. In fact Mr. Hawkland just saw it for the first time this weekend and was laughing hysterically at some of the lines in it. But also Countdown, for having such a dark plot, is one of my favorites for all of the great one-liners and funny scenes ( “I’m not tipping all of you”, Munch and the empty coffee can, etc.)

Couple you would like to see: Ha ha ha ha, well of course Munch & Fin, but I know that will never happen. And honestly, even if it did I wouldn’t want it to be acknowledged as canon until the very last episode. Because the writers would surely fuck it up otherwise the way they do every other romance on this show. Otherwise I do kind of like Rollisi, not in an OMG I LOVE THEM sort of way but I do see potential for chemistry, and that Carisi could be a good kind of stabilizing influence on her with her crazy family life. But, would she in turn be good for him? That I’m not so sure about.

Actor/Actress you want to join the cast: I would SO love to see more of Bayard Ellis. His character was great and such a good foil to Benson. I’d love to see Andre Braugher return to the role.

Favourite outfit: Any of Fin’s suits in season 2.

Favourite item: Fin having a picture of Spartacus and Maximus (Ice’s dogs) on his desk (which I never noticed until @sammael77 caught it!)

Do you own anything related to this show/book/film?: A few fan-produced t-shirts, magnets and other odds and ends, my MunchFin iPhone case, and seasons 1-15 on DVD

What house/team/group/friendship group/family/race etc would you be in?: My “squad goals” would be the team from seasons 5-8: Munch, Fin, Benson, Stabler, Cragen, Novak, Warner, Huang. That’s my all-time favorite team.

Most boring plotline: Anything involving the Stabler family.

Most laughably bad moment: “Redchannit”

Best flashback/flashfoward if any: Eh, I think the few times they’ve done as much haven’t been very good. I know I really disliked the way they repurposed season 1 footage for Manhattan Vigil to change what those scenes were initially about.

Most layered character: All right so it’s maybe my bias talking, but Munch! Especially because I “cheat” and include all of his Homicide characterization too. But honestly…Munch really is a lot more than a sarcastic conspiracy theorist. I think where I really love the complexities of his character coming through are his struggles with issues like suicide and assisted suicide, which came through not just in Painless but also Mercy. On one hand he’s such a strong personal choice advocate and on the other, he knows first-hand how difficult it is for family members when a loved one commits suicide. And what about protecting those who are not being given the choice to end their life or live?

But also, I love that he’s one of the few (main) characters the show ever allowed to remain childfree, yet he was also shown to be incredibly caring and good with children (illustrating that not all childfree people hate or are bad with kids; they just know they aren’t meant to raise one full-time.) He has complicated feelings about women, sometimes (especially early on) seeming incredibly bitter and cynical but deep down he is a lonely romantic.

Most one dimensional character: Honestly, at this point, St. Benson the Holy Redeemer of All Rape Victims.

Scariest moment: Hmmm…I’m having a hard time pinpointing this or narrowing it down to a single “scariest” scene. In general I get freaked out any time they show a serial killer’s “work den”, like in Manhunt or Signature. Because thinking about what those victims had to go through before being killed just makes me really feel sick to my stomach and horrified.

Grossest moment: Hyena vomit

Best looking male: Dammit, don’t make me pick between Munch or Fin because I can’t.

Best looking female: Casey Novak

Who you’re crushing on (if any): Of the current cast, only Fin, who just seems to be getting hotter with every passing year. Of all years, of course Munch, but I also crush on Casey and early season baby!butch Benson.

Favourite cast moment: I think I’ll just say all of the episode Countdown, because to me that was ensemble perfection.

Favourite transportation: Eh, doesn’t really seem to apply here to this canon, does it?

Most beautiful scene (scenery/shot wise): Still gonna go with the end of Screwed, because I love that final scene with Fin, Ken and Darius on the courtroom steps.

Unanswered question/continuity issue/plot error that bugs you:

Hahahahahahahah so many so many….

Continuity/plot error: It still bugs the crap out of me (especially as a fic writer who is anal about canon facts) that in Season 2 they messed with Munch’s background from Homicide, and tried to make it sound like he grew up in New York. THAT IS WRONG WRONG WRONG. I’m not going to throw away the family/childhood details we got in Homicide just because the SVU writers were lazy. And it really pains me because it comes up in two of my otherwise favorite episodes (Legacy and Manhunt), so when I’m writing anything where that might come up I have to go through mental gymnastics to explain why he might lie. Or just ignore SVU’s “canon” on that

Unanswered question: WHATEVER HAPPENED TO KEN & ALEJANDRO’S BABY? THAT POOR SURROGATE HAS BEEN PREGNANT FOREVER. Unless that’s just something they’ve completely forgotten about and we’re just to assume Fin is a grandfather now and never talks about it at work while everything and anything Olivia or Amanda does has to relate to them being mothers.

Best promo: Well, I really liked USA Network’s recent “Fin-a-thon” promo…especially for Ice talking about Fin & Munch.

At what point did you fall in love with this show/book: I’ve mentioned this before, but the funny moment when I went from being a casual viewer to developing my current obsession was in Spousal Privilege when Fin said to Amanda: “ I learned two things in my 15 years here at SVU. One: you can’t take this job home to you. Two: you can’t take anyone from this job home with you.” I hadn’t been watching regularly for a number of years so immediately I was like, “WAIT A MINUTE DID HE JUST ACKNOWLEDGE HAVING A THING WITH MUNCH?!” It’s weird the things that set my shippy brain off. Suddenly I wanted to catch up on everything I missed, and that made me then want to rewatch EVERY episode, and mild fannishness became a total obsession.

#snaafu #thanks for the ask #svu #svu thinky thoughts #wow this got long #like a goddamned essay

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vrmbles12 · 8 years

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Total Drama First Generation Cast Ranking

My Choice- I’m just using seasons 1-3. I haven’t re-watched 5 since it aired, but I don’t think it affected these standings. Ridonculous Race didn’t affect these either

1- Duncan- Duncan has been my love since episode one. So he was definitely getting a top three spot. We got so much characterization from him though, making the merge every season. Of course characterization is how I like you or not. Plus I just loved his bad boy but secretly good side, it was a fun line to see throughout the seasons.

2- Noah- I love his sarcasm. He’s been my favorite for about five years or so, whenever I started becoming really sarcastic.

3- Lindsay- Honestly, I’ve been re-watching and really love Lindsay. I wanted to bump her up higher, but I love the other two as well but for longer. Though just saying that Lindsay could honestly have made a contest for number 1 (Sorry Noah you were either 2 or 3), if I hadn’t loved Duncan since episode 1. Her TDI elimination deserves it’s own spot.

4- Heather- If you asked me to make this in 2008, now way would Heather have been anywhere but the bottom. Season 3 though with the introduction of Al made it so you wanted Heather to win, at least for me to win. As I rewatch the first season, I do have to respect her playing the game for all the times except for Lindsay’s elimination, because as Duncan said “that’s cold”. I do like her manipulation tactics in the game.

5- Gwen- Gwen I always felt was the sane character of TDI when she was first introduced. Which to childhood me, was not what i thought of for goths. I thought of them as scary (like everyone’s reaction to Ennui and Crimson’s outfits in the air guitar challenge from RR). She just seemed like an honest, relateable character.

6- Al- Al is like Justin 2.0. I felt like Justin disappointed me as a villain (more in his section), but Al improved. Al was able to take his looks and his words to turn himself into a threat. He also knew how to play the game as well as Heather, if not better. He made me start to cheer for Heather, something I used to think impossible. At the same time, I was cheering for him. What can I say, he did his job good.

7- Owen- I loved Owen as the comedic relief. Though sometimes I thought the fart jokes were over used, he provided some other great examples, like Mr. Coconut (The real number one of this list. I forgot to add him and renumbering is too much work). Like Gwen, he seemed like a relateable guy that you might hang out with in real life. I mean I love Duncan, but he’s not the kind you’d hang out with. Owen you would. I also loved to see him in all of the alliances or friendships he had.

8- Cody- I loved Cody season three. He turned into someone I came to love that I was rather indifferent towards earlier. After Duncan got eliminated, I wanted him to be the winner. He’s just a fun, awkward, dork, and who doesn’t love someone like that?

9- Izzy- Can’t deny that Izzy was whack. That’s what made it fun to watch her. She started off as slightly crazy, and even season one had her as on hte RCMP list. I also really love how she was able to cheat the system to come back in season two by competing as E-Scope, not Izzy. My only problem was that you knew she was always going to be eliminated and come back, after the first season. She was never a competitor that I felt you honestly would think would win. She was fun to watch, but because of that fact, it limits her.

10- Leshawna- I loved Leshawna and Heather’s fights, mostly in season one. I felt like that was where they were the strongest. Throwing her off the cliff was great.

11- Geoff- Geoff was a bro, and not like the douchy frat-boy bro. He was the relateable one that you could probably be friends with. I don’t like him as much as the ones above, but he’s nice and relatable, so he’s got to be higher up.

12- Harold- Harold was someone I grew to like over re-runs. I used to like Courtney, so he was disliked for quite a while for eliminating her. I actually like that now, not because of my stance on Courtney. I liked that because it made Harold seem like he could have actually been a threat to others in the competition with doing that. Sadly he gets eliminated the next episode and doesn’t get a chance to act similar to this again. I would’ve loved to see a new direction of him to be an evil dork, but it wasn’t done.

13- Courtney- I know some people will hate this, but Courtney is my middle. She’s not here because I’m indifferent towards her. She’s here because sometimes I like her, like most of TDI, and other times she would get on my last nerve. I’d think about it for the week after the episode. She’s a character that I want to like when I see season one, but in the other seasons I start to lose that interest. So 13 was halfway since she’s either liked or my bottom.

14- DJ- DJ is a fine character. I liked seeing him in the guys’ alliance. Though I did get confused why he’d help or be okay with pulling pranks on Harold then later turned into the ultimate sweetheart. Like it almost seemed out of character, but it’s how it started. It could’ve worked if he saw Momma and she told him she was disappointed with him, thus why he turned more soft. But it sometimes seemed like that edge of him was gone. I mean you can pull a prank but be an over all nice person, but the 2&3 seasons didn’t want that to be for DJ.

15- Sierra- Sierra was an alright character. I mean I understand her obsession with tv characters, but sometimes it got annoying. Since she only appeared in episodes with Cody, we didn’t get much to see her without that. Yeah she’s a X generation basket weaver, but that’s not personality. I know 5 dealt with that more, but I’m not including that here. She’s also middle because she only got one season of the original three to develop her. If she had more, she might have moved positions.

16- Tyler- I loved him with Lindsay, or the time before when he tried to flirt with her. Dumb jock who was a comedic relief when he got the pain. I just felt like he got sent home so early in season 1, and didn’t compete in 2 that it limited his character. He got to grow in 4, but he didn’t get enough.

17- Bridgette- Bridgette I used to really like when I first watched the series, mostly in the time of season one. I lost that attraction as time went on and never gained it back. I don’t hate Bridgette, I’m just not necessarily a fan of hers. She’s nice, but eh, I don’t feel her.

18- Trent- I used to love Trent, especially season one. Well until that Heather kiss. Yes Heather kisses him, but he melds in, no rejection. Had he pushed her away I would’ve liked him longer. I loved that ship as a child. Also season two I didn’t like the whole number nine thing. I think it would’ve been cool if it was executed better. You first see Trent’s obsession and he’s eliminated the next episode later. I felt like it was thrown in last second as a reason to get rid of him. Good idea, execution not so much. Also the fact that he wasn’t cool with Gwen and Duncan being friends. Like yeah I know that was a jump from last season, but that was only two days after the last special. Clearly you would’ve all been at playa des losers, and seen it grow. (You the longest since you were the first eliminated out of the three). Like there wasn’t really much space for them to hide and start anything without you or the cameras. Plus in a house of 22 teens, no one would’ve seen anything (Looking to Tyler at season 3). Had Trent stayed calm like season 1, I would’ve liked him more.

19- Zeke- Zeke I don’t necessarily like. As himself he’s pretty neutral. Yeah I didn’t appreciate the sexist comment, but you do see him realize his mistake by the episode between seasons 1 and 2. He can agree to not be sexist to be part of a team. So he does get growth. Obviously he’s always eliminated first episode so not much characterization is given to him so he can’t be high. I just liked the transformation he got as a fun thing to watch. It brought in fun to the series.

20- Beth- I don’t really have anything for or against Beth. She’s not my favorite but is in no way a bad character. She’s here because everyone else I like more (well except when I don’t for Courtney), and basically everyone below I dislike. Just need some neutral ground here. She’s the bottom here for the ones I’m fine with but don’t hate because I’ve just never got into liking her. Not like dislike form of not liking, I just don’t necessarily care for her one way or another.

21- Eva- Eva actually seems like she could have been a fun character to watch. Never someone I’d probably like, but her anger was fun to watch. Only problem was she basically never appeared in the series, and all she was only ever angry. Katie and Sadie could be dumb but have a fight, but Eva didn’t get the chance. She had potential and didn’t annoy me so she’s up here.

22- Katie- Katie and Sadie are two characters that pretty much equally annoy me. They were tolerable for like the two seconds they were introduced or whatever but not really otherwise. Katie is ranked higher only because from one of the later episodes when she calls Sadie too fat for the bus, it made me laugh. Just gave me one line to like her more so she’s just so slightly higher.

23- Justin- I just never felt anything with Justin except annoyance. I mean season one he doesn’t speak and is a theme song and was tolerable for not lasting long, but season 2 I just remember being annoyed by him. He was someone I was open to liking, but it came off to annoy me. Only because of Katie’s one line making me laugh, thus a moment of not annoyance is why she’s higher.

24- Sadie- Sadie along with Katie, are just frankly annoying and irritating. Sadie had more screen time and failed to impress me in any way, shape, or form.

25- Blaineley- Blaineley’s here because she wasn’t on the show that long. She’s appeared in ten episodes on the series and only spoken in six. Only two of these was she a contestant. I live in America, where we never saw the aftermaths (You had to know they were online and I didn’t. Never saw in reference to being on tv.) So her speaking lines for me were shorter. I just felt like with Celebrity Manhunt she was boring, and I only got two more speaking episodes from her. She didn’t wow me with her words enough to be higher because she didn’t have much of a character, though more than Justin in TDI.

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brotherhood-of-okay-reviews-blog · 8 years

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Tv Blog

Chris' Tv Blog Timeless Episode 16: The Red Scare As always, if you want to comment, just alert everyone of the potential spoilers that you might be dropping. Thanks. Okay, so we need a second season. And one more is fine. It doesn't need to be 9 seasons or 20. Just one more. Because the writers decided that this is the episode they were going to dump everything on us. Are you ready for this? Because here we go. Plot Summary Flynn is taking the final jump. He's going to eliminate Rittenhouse once and for all. Lucy, Wyatt, Rufus, and Jiya all head back to 1954 to try and stop him. Thoughts (Spoilers) The Red Scare is an episode literally designed to set up the next season. Problem is, there hasn't been any confirmation of a second season being green lit. Which would be a shame because the ending left twists that need to be explained. Let's start small, Rufus lives. I know I mentioned his name in the plot summary but yes, he somehow makes it through being shot. How? Well, let's invite Lucy's fiance into the picture. Now I don't recall his name but it's not that important. He was brought into the show at the end of episode one and he was seen in various episodes throughout. He becomes vital for basically one scene and that's saving Rufus. Because he's a doctor. And that's all I really have to say about him. I mean, the show didn't care too have him around so I don't care to really talk about him. Oh and Lucy dismisses him. She lets him go. So now we don't have to worry about him anymore. Next on the list, Lucy's grandpa was/is gay. Now, obviously he hid it from everyone throughout the years but Lucy meets up with Ethan at a "Man's" club and sees him eyeing up the other men. I don't want to come off as insensitive, because I'm all for gay rights and you should be who you are, but I just don't know what to call the place Ethan was at. Other than that, that was an interesting tidbit that the writers threw in. I'm glad the times have changed and that being gay is becoming more acceptable. It's about time for America to step up and be a leading nation in acceptance. Now Ethan becomes important because he's a part of Rittenhouse. Lucy asks Ethan to become a double agent and get her all the information they need to prosecute Rittenhouse in court. Lucy then shows Ethan that time travel is real and he goes about the years digging up dirt on the organization. Lucy arrives 60 years later and meets with Ethan. He gives her a note of the location where all of the documents are and she goes to obtain it. Which brings us to our first plot twist. Alright, let's start with the first plot twist of sorts, Flynn gets arrested. Lucy meets Flynn at a location and she hands him a flash drive with the names of the people who killed his family. Flynn says that he will go back, finish the mission, and destroy the time machine. Lucy basically says she doesn't care what he does just as long as everything goes back to normal. As they're talking, Agent Christopher has a team surround them and they take Flynn into custody. Lucy says she didn't know and Flynn is mad but he didn't seem to pissed. Okay, before the two were surrounded, Flynn handed Lucy the diary that she wrote. When Lucy asks "How did you get this?" He replies "You give it to me." That's mind blowing because I sort of said, in one of my earlier speculations, that Flynn might be from the future. Now whether or not this proves my theory is still left unanswered but that just makes it even more interesting. The next twist is Jiya seems to have an issue. What exactly? I don't know. But I'll try an explain it. The time machine is supposed to only hold three people. When the trio left, Rufus wasn't in any condition to fly the machine himself. So Jiya jumps in to help. As they land in 1954, Jiya has a blood shot eye and eventually has a seizure. When they get back to the present, Jiya is recovering but she has a lapse where she quickly sees the Golden Gate bridge being built in the 30's. Obviously we don't know what this means but maybe she has time travel powers of her own? Or maybe she is a pyschic of sorts that will play a huge part in the possible upcoming season? I can only speculate but that is an interesting plot thread. Next is that Mason is a good guy. There was a point that showed that he might be with Rittenhouse but I'll be honest, I never thought he was. Mason is looking out for Rufus in every way that he can. So it makes sense that he would do what he could to get on the good side of Rittenhouse as much as he could to protect Rufus and his creation. Is it possible that Mason is still a bad guy? Yes but I don't think that's the case. So if we get a season two, Lucy and Wyatt are probably going to be a thing. And I'm okay with that now. Early on, I was against it because it was too soon and there is nothing wrong with them being just friends. Now that Wyatt is starting to see the light more, he sees it's time to move on from Jessica. And that's where Lucy comes in. The two have a moment before the final few minutes of the episode and they hint around to liking each other and so on. Also, I forgot to mention, when Lucy dismisses her doctor fiance, he points out Wyatt as a possible love interest and Lucy just kind of stuttered in saying no. Again, do I think Wyatt and Lucy will work? Eh. I see that there's some of a connection but I'm still not sure if they would work entirely. Okay, so here's the big twist. The reason season two has to happen. Lucy's mom knows about Rittenhouse. All throughout the show, Lucy's mom has been sort of a mystery. She has been in the shadows for the most part. So this is a bombshell of sorts when she drops the ball on Lucy. It all started when Lucy went home to tell her mom about the time machine and that there was a sister, named Amy, and that she was going to get get back. Lucy's mom goes to hug her and says, "Rittenhouse would never let you get Amy back." Lucy's mom goes on to further explain that Rittenhouse has a secret agent already stealing the mother ship to go back and fix everything. And that agent is Emma. It's okay, my mind was like "What the fuck?" As well. By all indications, we need a season two. There aren't enough answers to go around. But here's some theories for ya in the meantime. Earlier I mentioned Flynn didn't seem that angry about being captured. I may need to watch the scene again to make sure but when he hands Lucy the diary, he says that he doesn't need it anymore. This leads me to thinking of two things. One, Flynn knew he was going to get captured. Because, come on. They met in an open place. Anyone could've seen them. It wasn't like he was trying to hide. And two, Flynn knows it's up to Lucy to take down Rittenhouse and diary has all of the answers. I have to imagine that is why Flynn gave it up so easily. I also have to imagine that Flynn knew that Lucy was going to find out about her mother at some point and Lucy is going to need everything she can get to win this fight. Again, this is just a speculating what I think might happen. I feel that Flynn could be done as a character as well. Because he seems done trying to chase down people through time just as much as everyone else is but I don't know if they would axe one of their better characters like that. He's just so interesting. I hope the writers don't mess with him any. Lastly, if we don't get a second season, I'm okay with this ending. Look, it's not perfect and there are questions that need to be answered but the writers knew they needed to take a risk with the last episode. But they also played it safe. The episode ends with a "What's going to happen next?" But you could also ignore that slightly. And the reason why is because the overall tone of the episode is a feel good sensation. The writers knew there wasn't a certainty that they were coming back so they ended it with some good vibes and one last punch to grab those final ratings too push NBC for a renewal. The final question is, "Will it work?" And the answer to that is "Only time will tell." Next Season/Overall (End Of Spoilers) As a whole, this first season has been a rollercoaster ride that had a lot of flat spots and all of the twists and turns were saved for the very end. The series held its punches and threw a flurry in the final round of the boxing match. But it might have been too little, too late. Now if you, or a friend of yours, haven't been watching any of the show up to this point and you were to ask me "Is Timeless worth watching?" I wouldn't know how to exactly answer that. My issues with the show have been stated very clearly from the start. As we got past episode 12, the show really did pick up but the overall feel felt like the writers were cramming together a 50 page paper that was due the next day. Just a bunch of meandering to fill up the word count till you got to the end and you did your best to make the professor forget that the rest of paper was mediocre. I think the best way to put it is give Timeless a 3 episode try. If you like where it's going, you'll probably enjoy the show. If not, then you really didn't waste that much of your time. Plus, it's time travel. You can't really go wrong with that. If I had to rate this episode, I'd go with a 10/10 (Excellent). It did everything it needed to do and hopefully there is enough uproar for the series to continue. Thank you guys for sticking with me through this. I know it was rough but hopefully you had fun for the most part. As usual, thanks for reading!

#tv #tv blogging #tv reviews #tv recaps #tv series #tv show #timeless

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derpynews · 8 years

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MLP Season Six in Review

(http://mlp.derpynews.com/mlp-season-six-in-review/)

MLP Season 6 In A Nutshell – Complete by dm29

I knew I forgot something! Actually, I didn’t because I had tons of other things going on between the end of “To Where and Back Again” and now. Anyway, admittedly this season was not as stellar as Seasons Four and Five. It was not as mindblowing as Season Four or emotionally pulling as Season Five. It was still an enjoyable season nonetheless. As usual, we go from 24th to 1st. Of course with time, opinions tend to change about certain episodes and indeed, I’ve adjusted the grades of some episodes in Season Six. You’ll find out which ones along the way. So let’s get to it!

24. Newbie Dash: Just too much stuff in this episode was cringeworthy from Dash’s impressions of the rest of the Mane Six to the mixed messages the nicknames the Wonderbolts give each other and their treatment of Dash might send. Both Dash and the Wonderbolts could have been better in this episode.

23. Where the Apple Lies: This episode also had plenty of cringeworthy moments. The lies got more and more numerous where it reminded me of an 80s PSA by the The Church of Latter-Day Saints. It was nice to see AJ and Big Mac as younger, but I felt the former was too easily forgiven in this one.

22. Applejack’s ‘Day’ Off: The biggest problem I had with this episode is that other are pointing out to farmer Applejack more efficient methods of farming after AJ gets through pointing out how inefficient things were at the spa. I would let this ironic echo slide, but it also was close to a lesson in “Applebuck Season” about telling AJ to take a step back in either relaxing to having another set of eyes examine the work.

21. The Cart Before the Ponies: There were two good lessons about adult over-competitiveness and kids having speak up when the adult are going astray—especially when its a contest for kids. There was a painfully plot convenient collision and this wasn’t the most spectacular episode in the season.

20. 28 Pranks Later: This episode was similar to a MLP Tales episode where one pony’s pranks got out of control and the others have to reign her in via a practical joke. Rainbow’s planned prank with the cookies was low. Hopefully unlike the Tales episode, Rainbow will learn his lesson.

19. On Your Marks: This was not the best way to follow up “Crusaders of the Lost Mark”. The episode tended to lose focus at times with the central conflict which was Apple Bloom struggling with what to do next with a touch of mood whiplash.

18. Viva Las Pegasus: It was nice to see Las Pegasus for the first time (though it looked like Chuck E. Cheese at times). Mileage varied most with how you viewed the Flim Flams in this one.

17. The Crystalling: Again, they do different things in the season premiere such as an A-plot and a B-plot, but Sunburst’s story was a bit too similar to Moondancer’s in “Amending Fences” and the rest of the Mane Six were too much on the sidelines in this episode.

16. No Second Prances: The interaction between Starlight, Twilight, and Trixie is actually well played. No pony is totally in the right or the wrong. However, Twilight is forgetting TWO lessons of the past (one from “Griffon the Brush Off” and one from “The Crystalling” in giving Starlight space to learn).

15. PPOV (Pony Point of View): This does give a unique touch to the varying points of view plot. However, the reason as to why the boat capsized simply came too much out of nowhere.

14. Every Little Thing She Does: This was another “magic can’t solve all your problems” episode—this time with Starlight. It still works in a way, but not executed as well as other times where a lesson is being re-learned.

13. Spice Up Your Life: Rarity and Pinkie Pie have a good dynamic between them, but the former’s advice here was in direct conflict with beliefs from earlier episodes such as “Canterlot Boutique” about standing out vs. conforming.

12. Flutter Brutter: This episode had one of the stronger morals of the season and had Fluttershy being more assertive. However, Zephyr does get on your nerves quite a bit here.

11. To Where and Back Again: Again, something completely different compared to previous finales. It was great seeing the interaction between Starlight, Trixie, and Discord and one can wonder where things go with the show from here given the events. However, some plot holes exist with the changelings in the castles.

10. The Gift of the Maud Pie: More comedic gold with Rarity, Pinkie, and Maud. The only problem here is that the lesson is predictable more so than usual once you get to the party cannon trade.

9. Buckball Season: Sports are not covered enough in the show. Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and Snails all have game; but AJ and Dash do not due to their super-competitiveness messing with Pinkie’s and Fluttershy’s confidence.

8. Dungeons and Discords: A very imaginative episode with a RPG-type game made very real thanks to Discord. It was fun to see Discord interact with Spike and Big Mac here and I loved the end scene.

7. Top Bolt: We got to see both Twilight and Rainbow in mentoring roles and how they compare and contrast. It applies well to the friendship problem between two ponies with an interesting back story. Oh, Make-A-Wish pony!

6. Stranger Than Fan Fiction: A thinly-veiled lesson towards the fandom if there ever was one. Patton Oswalt was tremendous as Quibble Pants and who didn’t squee over the convention atmosphere portrayed in this one?

5. The Fault in Our Cutie Marks: This was a better CMC episode post-cutie marks and we got a tremendous new character in Gabby the Griffon. It also gave the CMC an interesting new challenge.

4. Gauntlet of Fire: Another great new character in Ember, but Spike is the real star of this one throughout the episode. It was the best Spike episode of the series until…..

3. The Saddle Row Review: Before we get to that, this episode was simply funny from start to finish. A unique concept with this one and Twilight’s sweep mix is really catchy after the fifth time or when you’re curling.

2. The Times They Are a Changeling: Here is the best Spike episode in the series. The introduction of Thorax and Spike’s eventual acceptance of him are well-played here in the face of doubt from everyone else. You had the feeling it would play a pivotal role in the finale, but that would come more from Starlight when we got there.

1. A Hearth’s Warming Tale: Hooves down the best holiday episode of the series. A musical episode that you can replay every holiday season or outside of it. Again, you have to see this episode to see how wonderful it was.

So that’s the story of Season Six for me. Here are a few quickie lists as well:

Top Songs:

1. A Changeling Can Change

2. The Seeds of the Past

3. Find the Purpose in Your Life

4. Luna’s Future

5. Say Goodbye to the Holiday