#except...they used to? they did in previous seasons? are we watching the same show???

[semiconducting]

more bitching about td23 season 2 lol

i think the thing that bothers me the most about the recent total drama season is just that there was absolutely zero desire for characters to grow or have a complete arc of any kind. emma got to do nothing, just started the season broken up with chase but didn't really get to form any new relationships (or make up w her bestie from last season.......bowie and emma i miss u) before she left. the cheating in challenges arc between bowie and raj never got solved. priya's entire storyline revolved around caleb and there is no conclusion to be had from their plot, they got together even though caleb is a shitty spineless noncomittal boyfriend to her. caleb Has this issue and nothing comes of it except for like cheap "tension" in the ep where priya gets eliminated. julia has Nothing going for her except that she's Mean and she's Good At The Game and is the reason behind HALF of ALL THE ELIMINATIONS and it all happens OFF!!! SCREEN!!! like heather had mad plot armour in her seasons but god at least she was fun to watch. zee did nothing, not nearly as entertaining as he was last season. they set up a GREAT opportunity for scary girl to come back for Vengeance after being eliminated in the first ep and then do Nothing to follow up. mk is literally glued to julia at the hip and gets no time to shine on her own. BOWIE gets eliminated IMMEDIATELY when the teams merge???? axel and ripper having nothing going for them after they get together and overstay their welcome. DAMIEN! DOESN'T! GET! TO! KEEP! HIS! IMMUNITY! IDOL! and we don't fucking see julia actually take it from him!!!!!!!!!! it's just like they didn't bother with Any interesting plot decisions for any character just to prop up julia who herself doesn't even get to be entertaining. she has some funny lines, sure, but she takes up so much gaddamn screentime and for WHAT.

[myfairstarlight]

I've started to see takes saying Colin deserves better than Penelope, and claiming she "got away with everything", and to that I must say:

Whistledown was never created out of jealousy or anger. It was born from a lonely girl who wished to be part of a society that rejected her, so she wrote about it.

Penelope never pursued Colin. This wasn't some nefarious plan of hers like that take makes it sound like. He's the one who did all the chasing. Penelope was very much planning on distancing herself from him and the Bridgertons after last season. He's the one who couldn't let her go

She literally offers the annulment knowing there might still be people angry at her for Whistledown. That's her taking accountability and absolving the Bridgertons from dealing with her mess. Guess what he does again? He refuses, fully accepting the challenges ahead. Now that's marriage. And standing by his cancelled wife.

She decides to come clean in front of the whole Ton despite everyone around her trying to find an out for her. She could have taken the easy way out, lie to get the rest of the blackmail money needed, but she refused to drag the rest of the Bridgertons into this.

"Penelope faced no consequences" she is wracked with guilt for half the season, her closest loved ones turned away from her, and she got blackmailed. This is also a romance show the queen was NOT going to behead her as punishment, actually, go watch Game of Thrones instead

She was already changing the column to be more uplifting towards women and less confrontational with the Queen (even as the other debutantes talked shit about her, and the Queen threatened her). She was aware that her previous tone in her writing may have led to more problems. She is atoning for her past mistakes already.

Really looking back the only real mistakes she made was with Marina and Eloise. These were exceptions to what she usually writes as she exposed their secrets, not gossip. That's an important distinction to make. One the show itself does not make, actually.

You can add what she wrote about Colin too as an exception, since she was being petty and angry, and she regrets it immediately

She confessed everything to Violet. Granted, we do not see the letter, but she did come clean to the head of the family (since Anthony already left, otherwise I bet she would have told him too)

The one thing I agree with is that we had no closure for the Marina situation, despite her being mentioned several times.

But overall, she was remorseful, and she tried to fix things. She reached out to Eloise several times before they reconcile, she changed her column, and she now wishes to use her column to give a voice to the voiceless, the same way Whistledown helped her find a voice.

And Colin, well, he's only ever wanted Penelope, even after the reveal. Because Penelope remains the only one who truly understood him and supported him for being himself. Meanwhile Penelope is trying to be better. That's the key word, she wants to do better, so no she does not "get away with everything" because there was never malicious intent from her in the first place, but for the damage she did do, she wants to make up for them. And yeah, she's a goddamn mess, but as he said, she is his mess.

However, Colin did deserve better, but in terms of writing and screen time especially in part 2. We were told, more than shown, about his struggles, which is a bit of a shame when compared to Penelope's (and yet people still misunderstand her character, so).

[picturejasper20]

A lot of people in the phandom talk about how Season 3 was when Danny Phantom went downfall, and while i agree with the idea, i believe that the series was starting to show some of these cracks in Season 2 that later collapsed on Season 3.

For starters, we have the Season 2 first episode ¨Memory Blank¨, whose main purpose was to give Danny a logo in his suit so they had to make the portal explode on him again. It is an episode that doesn't much sense in the timeline and it is very confusing. It doesn't change much aside from Danny having a logo.

Later we have episodes like ¨Reign Storm¨ and ¨The Ultimate Enemy¨, considered to be the peak episodes from the series by many for a reason. The issue with these episodes is that they were setting up for pretty interesting things- but they never had a proper paid off. I have talked before about how the Ring of Rage and Crown of Fire never appear again after Reign Storm in spite of how important they were. There isn't any mention of them in the episodes that followed. The same goes to The Ultimate Enemy, a mutual of mine, @pedanticat, pointed out how the special was setting up for Clockwork to be a mentor figure for Danny, which didn't get much followed except for a later episode.

While "The Fright Before Christmas" has some good moments, it is frustrating how Danny has to put up with Jack and Maddie's childish argument that ruins for him and Jazz what should be a special time of the year. It is quite gross that a 14 year old teenager has to deal with something like this and the adults are never called out for it.

I do enjoy "Secret Weapons" a lot but one main issue it has is that it semi rewrites Jazz's character, making her be incompetent at ghost hunting when in previous episodes (My Brother's Keeper and Maternal Instincs) and later ones she isn't seen having this same kind of issue with using fenton gadgets. I believe it was written like this so the status quo wouldn't change much in the show.

From here is where things start to get more messy, with "Beauty Marked" having very cool things but giving a mixed message regarding gender (potraying all girls who like fashion and buy clothes as brainless and Sam being the only girl who is clever). Not terrible since it still fun to watch but questionable in message.

"Masters of All Time": Another dumb alternative plotline episode that doesn't add much to the series and was a whole wasted of opportunity of showing how Jack and Maddie's relationship with Vlad used to be before the proto-portal accident. Pretty insulting to previous characterization established for Vlad as antagonist among of a lot other weird messages and implications. Not much else to add that hasn't been said before in my blog or by some of my DP mutuals.

"Double Cross My Heart": I don't remember a lot of this one but i do know i didn't like the whole idea of Danny stalking Sam + ¨If someone else that isn't Danny likes Sam, it means that they are faking it¨. I do know that as whole this appears to be one of the most disliked episodes from the series.

"Reality Trip": Looking back this episode has a lot of really cool things, specially some exploration of Freakshow's characterization and Jack and Maddie as parents. The GIW being main antagonists is great too. The whole problem that brings this whole special down is that the events that take place don't have any real impact and most of the characters, including Jack and Maddie, lost their memories of learning about Danny's identity as Phantom. This has to be one of the most insulting moves the series did, all because for the sake of keeping the main status quo. It makes me wonder why Kindred Spirits couldn't have been the double part episode instead, since it is related to one of main plotlines (Why Vlad gave Valerie all that gear) and is about one of the main antagonists (Vlad Masters), something that was a lot more important that Freakshow.

As you can see, Season 2 was already starting to show problems that later defined the writing of Season 3. You have things like inconsistent characterization (From Secret Weapons to Masters of All Time), lack of proper continuity ( What i already said of Reign Storm ending and also Valerie not having a major role after Flirting With Disaster) and episodes with weird timeline plotlines that go nowhere and don't have a real impact. (Memory Blank, Masters of All Time and Reality Trip) It is a season that, aside from the first episode, it stays pretty well until the first half, then in the second half it kinda falls apart, with having some episodes that are pretty solid and others that are a mess for different reasons.

[hothammies]

an analysis of clothes in st (part i) - the meaning of yellow within the party

so, this analysis is one that has been in the making since before s4 came out - i literally had to dig through old discord messages to look for what i was talking about two years ago. i'm hoping to make this into a series because i loved analyzing the outfits back then and i wanted to share what i thought about them! the costume designers put so much thought and effort into all the clothes and i'd love to try to understand why they chose what they did for specific moments. heads up! - this analysis series will mainly cover the party members. outfits are important within the entire context of the show as well, so i may include other group members from time to time. however, my primary focus on st has always been the party members, so i'm gonna be giving them the main focus in all of the posts.

--

let's start with my favorite meaning for the clothes: yellow.

when party members wear yellow, they tend to be in situations where they are trying to fit in or act normal, typically when regarding relationships, but could also be within society, a situation, or in general. i have four examples of yellow being used as a signal that these characters are put in situations where they're trying to fit in / act normal - one of max, one of the entire party, and two of mike. let's start with max!

------

example one: in s2e3, we watch max trying her best to fit in with the boys when dustin is showing them dart. despite her attitude when they first meet her, she obviously does want to be friends with these guys regardless. in this episode, max wears a yellow hoodie while all the boys wear variants of the same neutral grays/whites, dark blues and reds, showing the difference between max and the other party members. she has not "earned" her keep yet, and she's trying to fit in but she is not yet in the know of the upside down.

even el is wearing similar colors to the rest of the boys, another clear sign that she is "in" the party too, despite being away from them. they did something similar in the previous episode as well, where the boys + el wore matching costumes (boys were ghostbusters and el was a ghost), while max wore a costume that didn't have her fit in (michael myers).

all of the current party members have the colors gray, red and/or blue that tie them all together in that scene, so max's yellow hoodie makes her stick out like a sore thumb. a side note is that mike and will are the only members to have all three colors on them, and matching color outfits between couples tend to be common in the show.

--

example two: in s3e1, the opposite happens. everyone in the party except dustin is wearing a combination of blue and/or yellow. dustin is wearing primarily green, which i will explain the meaning of in another post. all i'll say about it now is that the color green most likely has to do with being comfortable or confident in your own identity.

will, however, is a special case, because he was actually not wearing yellow in that scene, only blue and a stripe of red. personally, i thought it was to set up how will's growth that season wasn't completely about societal expectations regarding romantic relationships like the rest of his season group. his character arc was much more about having to grow up and understand change when he doesn't want to because of the trauma he'd experienced the previous seasons. this is actually also reflected in his clothes - will is the only one that season to not wear any new colors (he only wears the three primary colors -> red, blue and yellow) while the rest of the party got to wear both secondary and primary colors (mike wore teal, el and max wore many different colors, lucas wore purple, and dustin wore green + orange).

back to the party - in that scene, the couples also match each others outfits. mike and el's have the same color scheme, being mainly blues with a small hint of yellow, and lumax having the perfect blend of yellow and blue together. this may be a stretch, but its a possible hint to show that lumax fit together, while mike and el don't.

the party members that were dating each other wearing yellow that season was to show their attempts to act normal via relationships. season 3 was also the one that the duffers kept referencing as the summer of love, despite all the couples that season being dysfunctional.

--

examples three and four: now, we're at the section of mike wheeler, my favorite closet case. he is the main reason as to why i noticed that there was a small pattern with the color yellow being used in the party's wardrobe.

i think we've all noticed that mike has a tendency to act very... straight when he's wearing the color yellow as his main color. this can be seen in both s3 and s4, especially during the episodes where mike is hyperfocused on his relationship with el.

when mike was wearing the first outfit in s3, he was searching for a way to make it up to el because he lied to her. though he was trying to act normal or learn to be normal for their relationship, he wasn't doing a great job of it. during that entire section, mike was going through the motions of learning how a straight man is supposed to act, with lucas by his side giving constant straight man advice. he was also not getting it.

now, onto what is possibly my favorite outfit in the entire series - mike's s4e2 outfit. first of all, he's wearing a yellow shirt over a purple undershirt, presumably for el because that's her favorite colors apparently. obviously, mike is not himself in this outfit, but he's trying to fit into this california tourist look for his girlfriend.

in this outfit, mike was trying extremely hard to only focus on being el's boyfriend and not will's best friend. we know how that went, and this outfit helped us realize how badly mike was doing trying to follow that mindset.

before s4, we were never given any indication that mike's style would be like this. michael wheeler should not be wearing an outfit that has a yellow hawaiian shirt, the color purple, a visor and sunglasses, and flip flops to top it all off. it doesn't fit his normal style that he's normally been shown wearing throughout the show, being button ups, polos, and for that season, black jeans and chuck taylors.

he was intentionally put in an outfit that did not follow his true identity. the shirt, thus the outfit and the het identity that mike was attempting to fit into, was literally called a "shitty knockoff" by argyle.

------

i'm positive there are way more examples that can be used, but these are the ones that stuck out to me the most. i'll leave off with some ending thoughts:

we as bylers have always considered will's main color to be yellow, but from what i've noticed in each season, the majority of his outfits have blue, same as mike (matching couple's colors)! in fact, s4 was the first time where the majority of the season had will wearing yellow, probably because of how he was dealing with his crush on mike at the time. i'd like to point out that the main colors that lucas and max wear are also the same, being red.

i'd love to do another one of these, the next one probably being about the color green because i think i have a grasp on the reasoning behind that color. other than that, i still really need to analyze the colors of their outfits again because i think the party's clothes specifically are most indicative of their behavior. since they are the youngest group, they are the ones who are the most volatile and it's reflected in everything, especially their clothes!

[emerald-cloud23]

Genuinely hate what they did with the Serpentine Lore in s4 if I can be honest and ramble my frustrations here? (I go and talk about other Serpentine too)

The Anacondrai, both the dead tribe and the cultists, have very obviously a different shade of purple scales and a severe lack of black/yellow markings and crystals that Pythor has as well as the very different neck and head shape which are all very valid reasons to be disappointed in their designs, I am too. But it gets worse.

S1 shows us how Scales became the Hypnobrai general- he got different markings, got a tail and was the only one who held the staff. There was a second in command (which was Scales' previous rank in the tribe) and each member of the tribe that wasn't the general had legs. Plus, there's about four to five different designs per tribe (depends if you count the leader/general with their clearly shown special markings and tail). There is only one general per tribe.

The s4 Anacondrai lack all of that. All of them have a tail, even Garmadon and Skylor recieve snake tails despite clearly not being the Anacondrai general. This season mentions there's multiple generals in the Anacondrai tribe, yet we're only shown Anacondrai with the tail. Not a single one with legs or distinct designs. The lack of a resemblance to Pythor's markings, colors and head/neck shape is enraging enough but the absolute lack of diversity in their designs is so painful to watch as someone who literally has a degree in media design. They make it look like Pythor, even pre-bleach, like a completely different type of Serpentine while all the others are the same bland carbon copies of each other. They're literally my least favorite tribe because of this and I don't even have any Serpentine minifigures yet (except Crystalized Aspheera, but I'm getting to her later anyway) but even if I did, I wouldn't want to display them. I'd willingly display any Serpentine tribe except the Anacondrai. And that's saying something for someone who finds the designs of the Vermillion reminiscent of guts and thus dislikes them.

On the topic of the Vermillion, why not briefly discuss why there's not a single one of those with a Serpentine tail? Easy: they're the tiny baby snakes that just somehow through Ninjago logic can form human-sized Serpentine that can talk and do everything perfectly. They're basically just the little baby snakes though, and last I checked babies can't take over leadership positions.

Now, a brief look at Aspheera because people don't like that she has the ghost tail in sets instead of the Serpentine tail. And that's also really easy to answer: she's not a general, she's a sorceress. Not a general. Yes, she has a tail in the show but she has a completely different rank from the other Hypnobrai of her time that we know of (btw, I love that Char is in the flashbacks with her (except when she frees Wu and Garmadon), that's so cute imo). Speaking of Hypnobrai, did you pay attention to her in the flashbacks vs. her when she's released from the pyramid? When she's young she has Hypnobrai markings on her head but when she is free she doesn't. Why? I'd say it's like the earlier mention of markings, like how the general has their own distinct markings for whoever takes that spot & that exiled Serpentine (remember, she was to be magically entombed for her crime of overthrowing the king) just lose their markings altogether so you can easier identify those that are no longer a part of the tribe. There, problem solved. And for the question on how she could absorb fire and crystal powers? Simple: sorceress. She ccould've probably used Nya's water in crystalized too, if not for the New Ninja and police coming to lock the ninja up.

Also.. The pyro vipers? They're mummies. I assume they've been long dead even before Aspheera and the pyramids lava 'ignited'/revived them. I've no guess what tribe they could've been from but I definitely doubt that it would be a fire-related one. However, the Hypnobrai evolved physically and changed into the type that we've known since 2012 some time after Aspheera got locked in the pyramid. I also like that we got to see the Hypnobrai no longer being purely blue/grey with some yellow but that there's also some pink and purple ones now. That is, what I would say, a result of the four Serpentine tribes being locked under Ninjago city and uniting in more ways than just "we're all friends now".

[vennyvenadito]

I watched Derision and….oh God, it’s a mess

I hated it

Everything was so lame

Everyone was so out of character in this episode

And I gonna ask this, when Mari was akumatized, we see her memories right?, alright, now can some please tell….why the heck we could also see other characters point of view???!!! Isn’t this sequence is in Mari’s POV?? Like, someone explain that

And please, look me in the eye and try to tell me this backstory make sense, come, try

Because none of this make fucking sense!

And before you go to tell me otherwise, I’m saying this as some who was in the fandom since season 1, like, when everyone where trying to figure out who Hawkmoth is, that old I am, so no, no try to tell me I don’t know anything about the show and the characters because I know them perfectly

So yeah I can tell, Chloe wasn’t this type of ““eViL””” in previous seasons back then, Marinette wasn’t even scared of her, she was just annoyed by her, even before Alya came she wasn’t really afraid of her, she was like “ugh, this bitch”

And tell me Mari, if you where so traumatized about falling in love with someone, than why didn’t you do the same thing with Luka and Chat Noir huh?, Please explain yourself young lady?

In fact, why are you panicking in front Kim??, you always acted normal around him!!

And for last, I just loveee the doble standard in this show

Marinette can be excused of her stalking behavior towards Adrien, every bad thing she does was just because she is traumatize, so please don’t be harsh on her, after all, she is young, and kids do stupid thing

But nooo, no no, Chloe shouldn’t be excused, forget the fact her mom is a abusive bitch, forget about the fact she openly say to Ladybug she feels useless, forget the fact she was only Adrien’s best friend back then and did care about him (watch “Collector episode 1, season 2), forget the fact she has Andre as a pathetic excuse of father

Because every teen can be forgiven except Chloe

She is evil, she always will be, she can’t change, because Thomas say so, and if you not agree than you are an abusive person, your evil as well

And Mylene…shut up, please

When Thomas would release that not everyone reacts the same way on trauma?

Back to Mari’s panic attacks, everything go to fast to me!, there’s no time no analysis what the hell is going on, also, didn’t she used to be in the public pool before this episode?, like, Mr Pigeon 72 never happen I guess

Also, this episode make her look worse because back in season 3 in Animaestro, she fucking team up with Chloe, Chloe, her bully, the person who made her life back then a living hell, to humiliate Kagami in front Adrien

What the hell Mari!?

And Chat….sweety, honey, I love you, and I insist your deserve better but….please don’t do that, this isn’t you, your not like that, your better than this

Anyway this episode is trash, is literally every salt fic in one episode, every single cliche of a generic backstory perfect for a Wattpad’s fanfic

And please, instead of trying to tell me every episode that Chloe is evil and I should hate her, what not you guys try to focus in more interesting lore instead? Please, like, kwamis, Gabriel and Emilie? (Representation doesn’t count)

And even then, why show this episode in season 5, you literally have a lot of seasons to show this, and you decided this was the right moment??

Ok, that’s all I wanted to say

Se ya folks

[ravenadottir]

i started playing season 6, and i've got shit to say for the half of dozen people that are still following me in this cobweb infested blog (i apologize, i'll be explaining what's happening on a different post)

i'm only on day 2 of the season, right when it's announced that roberto is coming (which is so disappointing to me that he isn't brazilian but portuguese, like... WHEN ARE WE GETTING A GOOD BRAZILIAN CHARACTER????)

anyway, here are my thoughts:

WRITING:

i actually didn't see much of a problem with it so far. it feels on par with similar conversations we had in the past, except this time we're getting to know them a little deeper than, say, season 3.

knowing bella's family situation or roberto's is kind of refreshing because we barely learned bobby had a sister on a throwaway scene on s2, so... yeah, it's ok.

i like how they express themselves because as an litg player, i'm used to some eloquence, but as someone who sometimes watches the show i HAVE to suspend my disbelief since i know islanders from the show are just... NOT GOOD AT EXPRESSING THEMSELVES, to say the least.

i like the conversations we had so far, it felt fluid and fun, but then again i've only coupled up with jamal, because obviousoly i did, who would i go for, fucking ryan? WAKE UP.

the challenges piled up but because of how many dialogues we had in this little time i think it worked pretty well.

CHARACTERS:

grace - girl, it's been a day and ozzy is not even that hot. HAVE YOU SEEN YOURSELF? he's punching, not you. chill. (and i hate they're giving the intensity they gave hope here, feels bitterly familiar and they better fucking knock it off).

bella - FINALLY a girl i like who's available and slutty (affectionate) since the beginning. i absolutely think bella might be right there with talia when it comes to arc as an LI, but we'll see. if anyone dares stealing her or if fusebox even make the slight suggestion of a slowburn i'm burning their HQ idc

ivy - alright i see you bootleg marisol, but i don't give a shit, you're annoying, die in a hole.

amelia - i think she's putting a front and deflecting the negative attention to ivy but that's just me. also, the twist of the public choosing who she should couple up with before she could tell us is extremely dumb and unnecessary, but also a reason for her to say a different name later, maintaining her image of good sister. i don't trust her, i WILL step on her head to the finale, die in a pit you're also annoying.

jamal - i like the attention but everything with moderation gives me way more tingles than a crybaby that can't stop talking about how he wants to be with me again. we were coupled up for a few hours and only had one conversation, chill bitch. it's giving ted mosby and every himym fan knows how bad that is. i'm not sure if every guy that the public chooses to be with amelia on night 1 acts the same, but i'm slightly turned off. it's too much boy, calm down, i'm here to be a slut, calm down.

ryan - get a haircut or let it grow because looking twelve and the coolest lesbian at the same time is not the look for you. its giving hipster with a chemistry kit at the local café.. also, either you're the douchey musician or a bad poet, you can't be both, PICK A STRUGGLE.

lewie - the impersonation of being stuck in traffic. i don't care for you, die in the same hole as ivy and amelia.

ozzy - fucking pulling the noah, man. i've seen this before and i'm not interested. stop being such a coward and tell grace how you feel. i know for a fact you're gonna be drama and it's because you refuse to be honest. it's so embarrassing, bestie.

roberto - HOT. i only saw the preview but i'm excited.

PACING

it's great. i think it was kind of weird how fast and furious it was with some previous seasons (remember the last season i played was 3 and half of 4 {it was soooo tedious i gave up half way through}) but i think so far it's ok. it definitely has better cliffhangers than other times when they thought they tried their darnedest.

OBSERVATIONS WITH SCREENSHOTS:

there's no fucking way they thought these were worth diamonds. and 22 diamonds for that frufru purple shit??? it looks like something who doesn't sew would put together with a hot glue gun, stop.

ivy i might kill you like they kill one of those vampires at the end of the twilight saga, by opening your mouth so wide it cracks off your skull. SHUT - UP.

and amelia... you're irrelevant, get out.

BUDDY, YOU'RE THE MOUTHPIECE OF THE GROUP NOW, HOLY SHIT. grace has me on my knees, i can't.-

bitch, we did! i kissed you in the challenge. EXCUSE YOUR BEAUTIFUL SELF! (also, for the breasts appreciators, i feel you, boobs are great, really! but like, those... two... lines... coming out of the bikini???? yeah, that is actually what gets me. you didn't need to know but i told you anyway, because i'm happy bella is hot and cool and i don't know how to shut up when i'm love, leave me alone!) whoever designed her knew EXACTLY what they were doing.

I LOVE GRACE. I JUST DO.

i'll give ryan some cool points because 1, he burned ivy in front of everyone, and 2, he admitted and owned up to it. good for you, bestie, good luck when you take a trip to the hair salon and get rid of that... hair. also, STOP SKIPPING LEG DAY BUDDY. from the waist up it's giving "abs, hot, i go to the gym", from the waist down is giving "i'm twelve and there's a reason i go to the beach in pants".

bella and grace looking naked and glamorous but feeling threatened by this ugly ass dress is the funniest joke in the writing so far. truly. i've had mermaid costumes at 4 years of age less embarrassing than this atrocity. stop lying, bella and grace, YOU'RE BOTH NAKED AND PERFECT.

and that's what i have to say so far. i'll continue playing this season until they inevitably fuck up. i'm not being pessimistic, i'm just... well, i guess i am. but i have no reason to believe otherwise.

also, i keep forgetting ozzy is here even though it's been a day. idk why.

anyways, i'll come back with more litg brain rot in a bit.

[drunkkenobi]

Oh boy oh boy, here we go.

I waited until this week to do a Ghost Files spreadsheet update because I wanted to do it the same week that I record the older videos. (I have two spreadsheets, one that I only record once a month and one that I do every week) I wanted to see overall what a difference GF has made to Watcher’s shows and views. But first!

All of these videos blow the previous “fastest to one million” Watcher records out of the water. Every Ghost Files episode has hit it in 29 hours or less.

Trending continues to baffle me. As you can see, St. Ignatius did not trend, but had the best opening weekend of them all. I will not and do not understand trending.

The Debriefs are doing about on par that the PostMortems did, with these actually doing better than the most recent PMs did in 2021. They are also quite meatier episode lengths.

You can’t really compare GF to anything else on Watcher’s slate because it’s so doing so far and above everything else. So I’ve been comparing it to the final few seasons of BFU. It’s right on track with those videos, which is pretty amazing considering GF is under a completely different name and channel. I know those of us Watcher fans who have been here since the beginning find the fact that so many people didn’t know it existed baffling, but the algorithm is bizarre and cruel, so I think it’s a huge accomplishment for Ryan and the crew to be right on track with its predecessor.

Also, it is very sweet to me that right now, the top 3 Watcher videos are all from a different Watcher founder. Waverly Hills at #1, Simu’s Dish Granted at #2, and Puppet History’s Dancing Plague at #3. Aw.

One of things I’ve been most excited about with tracking these numbers is how other Watcher series are doing now that Ghost Files is out and so big. This will probably get long, so under a cut.

A lot of Watcher series are up right now, but only the Ryan and Shane shows. Unfortunately, none of Steven or other creators’ shows have gotten a boost from GF. The two exceptions to this are two recent DG episodes. The Uncle Roger episode continues to perform very well (at 908k and counting, twice as much as any other episode from this season) and bless his heart, Zach Kornfeld’s episode got a mini-boost after all the Try Guys drama broke. None of the other Watcher videos featuring Keith or Zach had notable boosts, though. (thank god they never had Ned on, am I right?)

The newest season of TMS has gained an average of 69k (nice) views since GF premiered. Compared to a 4 week run in August, they gained a total of 26k views. The other seasons also got some mild boosts, except the most recent holiday one for whatever reason.

Newest season of AYS averaged new ~14k views over a 4 week period before GF. Now it has averaged ~49k views. Older seasons also got a bit of a boost, although interestingly again, not the second most recent one as much. Maybe people started the playlists at the beginning after watching most recent seasons and didn’t get to the second most recent ones yet?

Most recent season of Puppet History is up to 50k new views per episode since GF, compared to ~28k in the same time period. Older Puppet Histories are also doing very well across the board. Will be interested to see how much this continues with the new season on deck next.

And finally, our dearly beloved Weird and/or Wonderful World. It is not up across the board, but a few episodes have gotten boosts in the past month. Solvang is up 24k, Roller Derby was up 21k, Pop Pals 52k, and Pie Shop 29k. Not sure why only these got boosted, but I will take it. Watcher, please, give this show another chance.

Oh also Tourist Trapped is up 50k.

As of today, October 17, 2022, Watcher has 209,373,478 views across 221 videos. This averages out to 947,391 views per video. This is up from 887k per video that I recorded a month ago. Jesus fucking Christ.

I also subtracted every video that’s premiered since 9/19 to see how the average changes without Ghost Files numbers (or that one off AYS). The average for the 213 videos that premiered before GF is 913k, which is still up quite a bit.

Watcher has gained ~200k new subscribers (at 2.26m) to the channel during this time as well. Their patreon has also gone completely bananas in terms of members. They’re at 6300(!!!!) right now, which again, completely bananas. I know a lot of these folks will probably dip after GF ends for the season, but all of this support only means good things for Watcher. They’ve got more wiggle room now to travel again and try new things and give new creators more shots. After everything we’ve watched this channel go through over the past two and a half years, I could not be prouder. 

As always, thanks y’all for reading! I very much appreciate all the love and nice comments and tags I see on these posts. Glad we are all numbers nerds that are overinvested in Watcher. 

[otakween]

Digimon Frontier - Episode 50 (Finale!)

Yay, it's over! (lol). I'm sorry, but this ending didn't do much for me. We barely got to see the real world at all and the epilogue amounted to a boring slide show (aside from Koji reuniting with his birth mom, that was sweet). In the end, these characters just didn't feel as fleshed out as those in previous seasons and the digimon connection was lackluster too (it's hard to see the spirits as separate characters). Oh well, I don't mind watching some bland anime now and then...

Notes:

Seriously, compared to previous seasons, this goodbye was so blah. They just get yeeted back to the human world immediately after the final battle and miss their chance to say goodbye to the digimon. Bokomon gets the longest goodbye monologue, but I never liked him so...yeah. (Remember when Adventure gave us sentimental goodbyes between each human-digimon pairing that were indicative of their distinct, defined personalities? Yeah...I miss that).

The spirits showing up and even striking the final blow was...okay I guess. The "bad guy" spirits were just silent and in the background again. There's just no emotional connection because we haven't seen the main spirits as characters before (aside from silently nodding from the digivice from time to time).

Neemon snapping his own pants was a funny gag. The slapstick between Bokomon and Neemon did grow on me. (Funny how Neemon never served a single purpose...)

The Susanoomon thing was weird. In the previous episode Susanoomon was created by combining all 10 spirits but only Takuya and Koji were "inside" him, but in this episode all the kids go "inside." Either way it's still 10 spirits. They should have just made him be a combo of all the kids from the start! So clunky...

Lucemon Satan Mode gave major Millenniumon vibes in his lil grubby form. I'm not sure if "fall down mode" or "Satan mode" is a dumber name.

Seeing the digicode flow out of Lucemon/the digivices and reform the digital world was nice. (Hopefully the moons came back too lol). I wonder if everyone's going to start from zero as a digiegg?

Lol sure, they just let a bunch of kids barge into an emergency room. Hospital security apparently sucks in Japan! I was a little confused what exactly revived Koichi. Was it Koji's love or something from the digivices? Well, either way it was pretty silly.

I don't know why I didn't even think about the human/digital world time difference. I thought when Takuya returned to the human world in that previous episode that everyone would be worried about him, but they have the nice "no time has passed actually" loop hole.

Now that I think about it, it kind of feels like they all had the same arc. The epilogue was all about the kids having learned how to get along better with others (except maybe Tomoki who learned to "not be weak," but even that had to do with how he treats others!) Instead of just seeing them hang out with their one-dimensional families and classmates, I think I would have just preferred an epilogue of them hanging out in the human world and getting pizza or something. Or maybe they could be supporting Junpei at a magic show! (Maybe what I really need is fanfic lol).

Bring back parents!! The kids' parents in Adventure and Tamers were a big presence and it made them feel more like real, relatable people. Here they're mostly just in the background. Also, maybe if I got to know Koji's dad more I wouldn't think he was such a weirdo for lying to his son! >:/ I wanted to hear his side!!

Digimon Frontier was...my least favorite season so far for sure. It's not like it was a total loss, there were some cool digimon designs and I liked the digivolution sequences. The characters were charming enough, but not super memorable. I think this series' shortcomings really highlight what made previous seasons work better. IDK much about how it was received back in the day, but hopefully they learned from these mistakes. Onto the next! (After a brief gaming interlude).

[mik0is0bored]

I'm actually kind of pissed that Haibara didn't get very much screen time.

He had so much potential, he was a good character, despite only being a side character plus not appearing in the show accept for the opening (hidden inventory/premature death arcs) along with four other scenes.

I'll explain each scene Haibara was in as a reminder<3

This was in the same episode that Gojo, Geto, Amanai, and Kuroi went to the beach. This was also the first scene Haibara and Nanami were introduced other than the opening for the first time. This scene took place in an airport(?) And Haibara was excited that Nanami and him were helping out their upperclassmen.

Scene two was after Amanai's death, in episode five of season two. Geto was clearly not doing so well, making thst obvious by the dark circles under his eyes. Haibara talked with Geto shortly before Yuki was introduced afterwards when she talked with Geto.

The third scene was also in the fifth episode of season two, but this time Geto, and Nanami were in the mortuary for jujutsu sorcerers, with Haibara dead on one of the tabels(?)

The fourth and final scene he was in was episode eighteen (which I recently watched), which is the same episode Nanami dies. This scene is after Nanami fought the onslaught of curses, even after the first time in Dagons domain, and after Jogo set him and Maki on fire, and before Mahito took the final blow and killing him. Nanami was talking to himself mentally when he saw Haibara standing infront kf him, and the interesting thing about this scene is that out of the previous three, Haibara looked different.

This brings me to believe that the reason Haibara looked different was that it was on purpose. Due to the fact Nanami hadn't seen Haibara in over ten years, he was bound to forget small details about Haibara's appearance, same way when you haven't seen someone in awhile you forget what they look like.

Another thing is that due to the fact Nanami never talked about Haibara to anyone, neither did Gojo nor Shoko, Haibara is pretty much a distant memory, and no one except them will know or remember who he was. Same thing with Amanai. No one will ever know who either of them were.

Aswell as this, we never got to know or it was never confirmed what Haibara's curse technique was. All we knew about him was the little information Akutami gave us in his character profile.

Plus, the information when Akutami does the q&a, someone mentions Haibara, and Akutami responds with "that's bananas."

Personally I would've loved and appreciated more time with Haibara alive, or just more information at that.

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Here's the link to each scene if you want to watch the scenes>>>

Scene one: Nanami and Haibara in Okinawa (episode three)

Scene two: Geto and Haibara's conversation (episode five)

Scene three: Haibara's death (episode five)

Scene four: Nanami sees Haibara (episode eighteen)

[the-hilda-librarians-wife]

so howd you like it what are your thoughts

Anon, I hope you don't mind it but I'm going to use this ask as an excuse to do my Full On Rambling post about my honest thoughts. I'll try to keep is as coherent as possible, but I can't actually guarantee it :')

Also putting it under a cut because some of it is going to sound negative (as I said, I want to exorcise any critiques I have so I can go back to Vibing asap) and I know many people (undestandibly!!) won't want to read that, and I don't want to burst anyone's happy bubble :) . And also because of s3 spoilers. Bear in mind that it's not a rant post, I still had tons of fun with the season. But since I'm going to be talking about the things I enjoyed forevermore and gonna try to keep all my 'didn't really like this :/'s contained in this post, it may come out sounding like I enjoyed it less than I truly did. Here we go, get ready for some Thoughts

-> Content

Okay, listen. This season was fun. I had a nice time watching the newest shenanigans. New characters (with one notable exception) were a joy to watch (yes, even the thing. We're in a toxic situationship) and I was greatly amused by their adventures; most of them kept me on the edge of my seat.

(ok, here's where the negativity begins. Please don't take me for someone who wanted everything to be done for Their Specific Standards or who thinks they know more than the professional and extremely skilled team that was behind the series. I'm just throwing around thoughts about how I feel, but in the end, the only thing that matters is that Luke Pearson and the team got to tell the story they wanted to. If that was achieved, I'm happy regardless)

However, I couldn't help but think that some of it felt... like it was "thrown" at us, in a way? To be fair, I think most of the negative points I'll discuss in this post are a consequence of this season being 6 epsidoes short of what the writers originally planned because, as I've mentioned before, I do think the show's writing is great and that the team puts their heart and soul into making this the best cartoon possible. Anyway, what I mean is that at times I thought the episodes seemed so worried with delivering all the information they could that a lot was left behind and some stuff didn't really tie together with the rest.

For example; I still cannot understand why aunt Astrid and Anders had to be these big surprises that had never been mentioned before if Hilda, the character who we see this world through, already knew about them? Don't misunderstand me, I am well aware that these nitpicks of mine are subjective and only my personal opinions that may very well simply be a consequence of not understanding what the writers were trying to achieve. I just feel like Johanna's family and Hilda's father are topics that have been discussed so at lenght in the fandom, precisely because they'd been so carefully skirted around in the previous seasons, that the reveal that nothing really dramatic had happened (between Johanna/Astrid and Johanna/Anders, at least) feels anticlimatic to me. It just feels (again, to me, personal opinion) that if this was going to be the case all along they could have mentioned these characters before, and it would have made the narrative make a little more sense.

(This is especially true to me in Anders' case. Bc it felt to me like they had been trying to highlight how irrelevant Hilda's dad was to the story in the first seasons by not bringing him up at all, by not even pointing out his abscence. But I can't really see the point in that if you're gonna bring out the man either way)

Ironically, at the same time I felt like some of the arcs were a tad overachieving, especially the Johanna's parents one. I just felt like it was Too Much Too Quickly, which once again is likely because of the season having been shortened. I feel like if they really wanted to do that arc, and that way, it would have been helpful to cut some other storylines so they could begin fleshing out this one earlier. They way it was done I just personally (can you tell I'm terrified of being taken as a hater?) felt like there was no time at all to get either used to the idea of Johanna being half faerie nor to get attatched to her parents. Like. I know the episode was the season's emotional peak, but it just didn't hit me the way I know it should.

Not sure if this was a me problem, but I felt like the audience wasn't given enough time to process what had even happened when they got stuck in the fairie island, nor to even consider that they'd truly be stuck there forever, much less to fully process the sacrifice Johanna was making when she left it with Hilda. I didn't get to get attached to Johanna's parents or to the dynamic they have with their daughter. I didn't suffer the way I wanted to when I saw them having to part ways, because I couldn't become invested in their bond when I was still trying to wrap my head around what their backstory even was and pay attention to the action heavy scenes that were to come.

What I'm gonna say here is way meaner than the people behind the show's writing deserve and I know, I can absolutely tell it isn't the case because you can see some of the foreshadowing once you have the benefit of hindsight, but it felt to me like some of Johanna's backstory was written for shock value alone. Which, considering the previous components of the season that I have already mentioned felt underwhelming, was even more jarring.

Another thing is that I feel like a lot was sacrificed in order to do these overachieving arcs. This maaay just be the side character lover and change hater in me, but I do feel like in order to present to us all these new concepts that would be necessary for the backstory to make sense, we were deprived of some elements in Hilda The Series that are arguably what the show does best. It felt like they all but scratched all of their previous stories, characters and components to switch them up for new ones. Pikablob has said it better than me, tbh.

However. I do feel like saying that none of the fears I had for the season came true. No character feels ooc, no one was left with an incomplete arc, and though I can't see how Anders contributes to the story, if he had to be there I feel like the way that was it done was the right one.

-> Pacing

Frenetic. Run for the hills kind of thing sometimes. Which, once again, I can't bring myself to believe was the writers' fault, not when they had other 6 episodes planned that they didn't get to do. I absolutely understand that they had to condense everything they wanted to show us into half the runtime. But it did become an issue (to me) when instead of the trademark Hilda Idyllic Tranquility I usually feel while watching (even plot and action heavy content like TMK), I felt like I was watching a completely different cartoon. Carmen Sandiego, or something like that (please note that I do also love Carmen Sandiego). Many times it just felt like there was no breathing space, which isn't necessarily bad when done well, but I hadn't gone into the season prepared for that.

It wasn't a problem that was all around present, though. I do want to point out that imo "The Giant Slayer", "The Laughing Merman", "Strange Frequencies" and even "The Forgotten Lake" still felt like Hilda to me. Which is where I realize what the main issue I had with the season was. That a lot of it just felt like a different show.

-> ~ vibes ~

I am bringing back the disclaimer that if the team told the story they wanted to, then good for them, I'm pleased as can be. I do enjoy that the series played with some different concepts. The musicality and colours in The Laughing Merman, for example, were absolutely delightful to me. Seriously, I want an entire Hilda musical now.

But some things I just couldn't help but feel were so disconnected from the previous feel of the show that it felt to me like they didn't belong. You can sum the rest of this post up by saying that season 3 would have been one of my favourite ever cartoons if it had been its own thing. But it's not, so I can't help but compare it and try to understand how all of the installments work when together.

The faeries, for example. I was so excited when I saw the trailer and knew it was going to be one of the plots, because I thought it was going to be another adventure of the day type of thing that would span over three episodes max. And listen, I've talked about how much I love Celtic folklore, and maybe this is just my consistency loving brain being annoying, but it felt a bit... clashing? that this season was based on tales and creatures and treaditions that weren't the scandinavian ones that inspired the rest of the series. It just felt like a major shift in tone that I don't really understand (once again, me problem, may very well be a skill issue on my part & I'm not saying they shouldn't have ventured so far just bc I didn't quite vibe with it). It just feels a bit off to me, knowing that Johanna's backstory was likely planned from the start, that there wasn't any celtic lore at all in previous seasons to make this sudden detachment from nordic folklore feel less out of the blue.

You know that joke that Disney movies like Aladdin and Raya take concepts from different cultures and smash them together like they're not completely different? I felt to some extent (bc OF COURSE Hilda is much better researched and has a lot better quality than that /gen) like they did that this season. But with white people. Which, fair, I can appreciate the irony.

Back to the topic of bold storylines, I understand what the Hilda team did with all the Johanna backstory. I understand that it's something that everyone wanted to see soo bad and they wanted it to be great (and it was). The thing I got stuck on is just that it ended up changing the vibe of the show to me. Whereas previous seasons feel like "slice of life in a magical place", I felt like this time I was watching a magic centered fantasy. Especially when they got into trying to explain the origin of magic and everything. Which is ironic, because I enjoyed the concept a lot and will explore it in the future, but it still felt like something that I wouldn't have expected Hilda the Series to tackle. Like there was a giant shift from folkloric to fantastic that isn't bad, but it is different and I hadn't been prepared for that lol.

God, I feel like I just wrote all of that and just to be A Bitch. I just wanted to get these thoughts out but I don't expect you guys to agree or anything. I genuinely liked watching this season, and I will continue to reiterate this in the future. And even if it doesn't beat s1 or s2 in my heart, I'm still grateful we got a final season at all, and everyone who was involved in it deserves all the praise <3

[kit-middleton]

I just watched Teen Wolf 3.08 and I loved the way it used the unreliable narrator trope.

My random thoughts:

The casting for babyDerek and babyPeter doesn’t work. I couldn’t remember why I already loved Paige, then realized she played Ian Tracey’s daughter on Supernatural. Small world.

I loved babyDerek having the same (reasonable) reaction any adult watching this show has had: someone should really call security or report this older teen/young man who keeps hanging around the high school looking sketchy as hell in his leather jacket.

Oh good, Gerard has a Lucille.

Love how we’re pretending the adults are way younger by having the actors shave. That appears to be the only change made to their appearance.

I was puzzled by Peter using the exact line Stiles used on Lydia the previous season, then remembered he was in her head at the time, so: well done writers! (Or maybe it was a slogan from a Reese’s ad? I dunno.)

I barely had time to mentally respond to Stiles’ “how do you know that?” by “ew, he was watching the children have sex” before it cut to… babyPeter watching the children make out. He’s such a perv.

What was Peter’s plan, exactly? Maybe I’m too used to him only doing things that benefit him in some way to imagine there was ever a time when he was different, but… suggesting Derek get some rando, violent werewolf non-consensually turn his girlfriend? That seems like a no-win situation. (Maybe he learned his lesson and that’s why he asked for Stiles’ consent in season 1 then didn’t do it when Stiles said no?)

I have to say that’s a lot of rape-y tropes for one teen show. Yikes.

How did Chris grow up with those fucking psychos and become the man we’ve got to know? I judged him for violently pulling Scott from the car window and threatening to kill him, but from what I’ve seen in this episode that was gentle by comparison. He’s a kitten compared to those people. (Kit the kitten. Sorry.)

I love, love, love how my boy Stiles saw right through Peter’s edited version of the story.

Scott!!! It took only 3.5 seasons but he finally did something that impressed me. He saw through Colonel Tigh’s lies *and* threatened to kill him. Now if only he followed through…

That was fun.

Btw I get the Peter/Stiles shippers, but when do we get Peter/Chris scenes? (Except for the movie. And the homoerotic impaling. I saw those gif sets.) Those have way too many shippers for the fact I don’t think they’ve met yet.

I love Peter. Even (especially) when he’s being creepy and/or manipulative.

[taraljc]

holy shit, I just figured out how I would break season 2 if I were in charge of Lockwood & Co.

SPOILERS FOR ALL OF THE EVERYTHING I REALLY MEAN IT for The Hollow Boy and The Creeping Shadow ahoy

(I continue to hate that you cannot add a read more link using the stupid app)

So two of the things that had been bugging me. the first thing was that Lucy voluntarily went home to visit her family which clearly telly!Lucy would not do. However, I found a fix for that. The second thing is how do you show the time cut between book three and book four if you are doing book three and book four in the same season? Got a fix for that, too!

So here is how I would do it.

You open season 2 episode 1 with Lucy in her own apartment with Skull getting the knock at the door and it's Lockwood saying 'I need to hire you'.

Then you have the chyron 'six months ago' and we jump back to the middle of Lavender Lodge and its aftermath of the three of them completely knackered and Portland Row is a mess and they are in dire need of more manpower--but then Lucy gets a call from Mrs White that Norrie is awake.

So she rushes back to her hometown where her friend is miraculously ghost-locked no more! except that no-one knows how or why. and it's not every ghost locked person in the country it's just Norrie.

Lucy makes Norrie promise when she is up for it to come down to London so she can meet Lockwood & Co. and because I'm evil you have a flashback in the middle of the flashback of what happened with Lockwood taking George and Lucy into Jessica's bedroom at the end of season 1, and Lucy telling Norrie all about what little they know about Jessica (which includes what she heard when she was Listening after finding the newspaper clipping).

She goes back a day early to discover Lockwood and George have hired Holly, who is the complete stranger who answers the door when Lucy is fitting her key into the lock to come home. Possibly wearing Lockwood's dressing gown just to fuck with everyone.

So that's the end of episode 1.

episode 2 opens with 'this is Holly isn't she fantastic isn't she wonderful everything is clean and tidy now everything is perfect she knows a lot of really important people and we have a real case with a crazy rich lady now who has a haunted staircase'.

Also the reason she is in Lockwood's dressing gown is perfectly innocent--in reality she had simply showered after doing the big clean and she is waiting for her clothes to be dry and ironed because Lockwood would absolutely be ironing her clothes for her because why not he's used to ironing all of his shirts in the kitchen why not this complete stranger's who he's known for 2 days, that's not weird at all.

Then you do the whole haunted staircase episode where Lucy is feeling completely shut out of what had been her family, ending with Lockwood unconscious and bleeding and it's all her fault.

Episode 3 opens with Lockwood with concussion, and avoiding Lucy because she almost died and the realisation that she almost died on his watch and he almost lost her scared the absolute shit out of him. Which is why he is now pushed her away because he is busy trying to put all of his feelings back in the feelings basement.

So then they get called to the Chelsea outbreak-- which they had been talking about in the previous episode--to finally see it first hand, except they find out DEPRAC hasn't been the one that summoned them. Penelope Fittes did after she heard Mrs Wintergarden's glowing recommendation and she is inviting them to be on the lead parade float with her and Rotwell.

Lockwood is incredibly pissed off but also determined to seize upon this bright and shiny opportunity to get good press for the agency. and then of course the parade happens and they actually earn the good press what with the stopping people from killing people thing. End episode 3.

Ep 4 opens where Ep 3 left off--The Golden Blade, Lockwood and Lucy seeing the cavalry arriving over the bridge, and stop swordfighting. While Lockwood and Lucy deal with being mobbed George continues down to where Flo is working, to ask her about what she seen and maybe possibly flirt a little possibly with either the promise of tasty tasty baked goods or even bringing a biscuit tin with him specifically baked for her. After talking with Flo, George realises the pattern is a wave and DEPRAC and all of the agencies are in fact looking for the center in completely the wrong place.

Meanwhile Lucy talks to Norrie who picks up on her jealousy about all the time Lockwood is spending with Holly and Lucy denies it up one side and down the other because she too is dealing with the feelings basement. Norrie also says that Jacob's got shut down but now there's no agency in town and the ghost activity has started getting more frequent. Lucy begs Norrie to stay safe--she only just got her back she doesn't want to lose her again.

George pinpoints the source of the wave and everybody heads off to the knockoff Harrod's built on top of the remains of King John's prison, where they think The Golden Blade has been fucking around trying to replicate the Bone Mirror (red herring--which they learn when Flo tells them the body of the assassin from the parade washed up and she recognised them as a Rotwells agent--except that never makes the front page of any newspaper).

Lucy realizes she is in love with Lockwood (and it's going to get him killed) therefore completely logically quits the Agency, and then we smash cut back to where we started in episode 1, where Lockwood needs to hire Lucy because of a big case: Lucy's home village is mega-haunted by a giant Creeping Shadow and it's Norrie who hires Lockwood & Co on the condition Lucy is consulting.

End ep 4.

Then Eps 5-8 are a lean, mean version of The Creeping Shadow, with no Ealing Cannibal but the added bonus of Lucy becoming the town hero instead of the person everyone blamed for the disaster at the mill. Also Lockwood and Lucy work out their shit vis-a-vis their respective feelings basements and stunted emotional maturity. They don't admit they're in love with each other of course because that would be sensible and lead to loads of kissing. No, that has to wait for the 3rd season.

Anyway it turns out Norrie waking up is actually linked to Lucy's Talent and Skull somehow--I haven't quite figured out yet how I would do it but I would totally do it because you would have so much more at stake if it were Lucy's hometown instead of a random village.

Also, I would have Kipps joining the team (possibly along with Kat and Bobby) after the Poltergeist in Harrod's. it seems to me Ned Shaw's death would be a turning point for that whole team.

Bobby and George being researched buddies and best friends is creepy and weird and no-one knows how to handle it and so they just don't talk about it. Also Norrie thinks Kipps is really fit, which confuses and horrifies everyone. and we find out that Holly's roommate is actually her girlfriend--Kat Godwin (which actually makes a lot of sense and explains a lot).

ETA: I forgot that Holly's girlfriend works for DEPRAC. God, if Holly were older, I'd absolutely love it to be Sgt Wade. But Wade reads as mid to late 20s to me. I'm wondering now how many former agents end up at DEPRAC after their Talent fades.

Then to lead into series 3, you end episode 8 with Penelope Fittes visiting Portland Row and Skully dropping the bombshell on them about Penelope's true identity.

Anyhow, that's how I would do it if I were in charge. This is my white board, these are my index cards. This is how I would set up the third season which would be all of book 5.

[valkyrieandstrangeridingaragorn]

I thought you might want to check out a video by Nerdrotic on YouTube, Loki Humiliated Yet Again. It's just 8 minutes long, and they go over the pie eating scene in season 2 Ep. 2, and how Loki used to be badass and a formidable presence, and how pitiful and diluted he has become. They also make a good point by pointing out that this is still supposed to be Avengers Loki who just carried out the NY invasion a few days ago? And how he is so nonchalant and blase about it, there's no weight or gravitas to what he's saying. They also bring up another good point that this is proof yet again that the writers and the MCU no longer care about the previous movies or these characters, or the fans of them. They're using these shows to completely trash what came before.

I know you're not watching season 2 (I'm not either), but it's little comforting to know that there are people out there beyond tumblr and fandom that understand how we feel. Thank you!

You're welcome, dear! Video for the lazy:

What can I say, I agree with them. That scene of the shadows kind of reminded me of President Loki in S1. I had been so disappointed during the season, looking at TVA Loki and wondering "who the hell is this guy?", and I vividly remember seeing President for the first time and thinking "OMG That's Loki, there he is!". Like, I genuinely thought the variant we had been seeing was a different Loki and the President was IW Loki, I even expected them to confirm him as such... but they never did, of course.

I don't mind him sitting down and (not) eating pie, it's his way of speech and what he's saying. I have no interest in seeing anything right now that openly laughs and mocks what came before. If we're watching the MCU now is only because we liked what came before and it attracted us enough to come for more. The last thing we want is for these new writers to mock the previous phases, this lack of sincerity is exhausting.

For us, seeing Loki throw Stark off the window is funny? Hell yeah, it is. And Stark's comments were hilarious too. But in-universe is NOT the same. Loki would not and should not be talking about it that way. Where's the guilt if he's truly remorseful? Where's the shame that he failed the invasion? And, this is crucial, he saw in the Time Theatre that that failure meant his death at the hands of Thanos. Why, if in S1E1 he openly laughed at his "glorious purpose" after seeing the scene of his death, is he now talking about the NYC invasion like "yeah well, whatever, I threw Stark off the window, what a time that was". WTF?!

Can you imagine TDW Loki talking about the invasion like that? The scene he has with Odin at the beginning of that movie (that I swear is my favourite Loki moment in the MCU, I like it even more than the relic scene in Thor1) and Loki looking at Odin and speaking this way "Yeah dude, I totally threw him off the window".

I get the feeling there's a misplaced belief in current Marvel (except for James Gunn, bless his soul) that something humorous has to be superficial, edgy and/or as sassy as possible. And I'm blaming the hell out of Ragnarok for that.

That scene (that I hadn't seen until now, holy shit, who is that guy? I don't see Loki there at all) has the feel of a teenager at high school talking to a friend about a TikTok video. He had been mindfucked by Thanos, that alone would mean talking about it would mess with him greatly, especially when Loki always had an issue with the loss of control of his own body (taken by Odin, had his physiology changed against his will, Thanos messing with his head, later imprisoned).

Ugh, I hate it. I miss TDW Loki. And I miss TDW Thor. I just miss the TDW so much.

[unofficialadamtaurus]

What’re your full thoughts on season 9? I wasn’t going to watch it—especially after following along with you and other rwde blogs’ feelings on the content as the it aired—but I keep hearing this is the best written rwby season despite that. It’s a mixed bag right now, even within the more critical side of the fandom, and you always have nuanced takes, so, I figured I should ask you 🙂

You don't ask the easy questions, huh. (And I don’t reply to them in a timely manner, huh.)

I think "best written" is accurate from a certain point of view and when you keep in mind that it's being compared to other volumes of the same show. There’s a new framing device with the story, a twist villain that holds together on a second viewing, and emotional beats we’ve wanted to see hit for years. The animation itself is also good. Things are smooth and there’s even attempts at actual fight choreography. Even the voice acting is fairly consistently good.

If you can't tell already, I've said all of that with a massive disclaimer, and that disclaimer is that this volume falls apart when you look at it more closely. To me, this volume is, and I cannot emphasize this enough, frustrating. It's frustrating in a similar way to V8: you can kind of see what the writers are trying to do, but it's all executed in a way that makes you wonder what was going on in the writers' room. The plot beats, messages, and themes are not communicated well, are contradictory, or are otherwise damaging.

Heavy spoilers beyond this point if you managed to not watch it between sending this ask and me responding.

Atlas has fallen. Our heroes failed. This is the belly of the beast moment, the find-your-motivation moment, the break-the-geode-to-see-the-beauty-within moment.

And it falls so, so flat.

Penny’s death, this big moment from the previous volume, comes up a couple times but is never resolved. Jaune never states that he killed her. No one asks. Ruby is sad over her sword a couple times and that’s it.

Jaune is an old man! He’s a little bit out of his mind! Only no, he’s fine, here’s a magic knife that makes him young again.

There’s an interesting framing device! Only no, we’ll stop trying to follow it halfway through, and because the audience never knows how the story goes until the characters experience it or talk about it, there’s no interesting use of the framing device. It’s just there.

The Gods’ origin story! Only…why? Who was asking for this? Why did we need an origin myth for an origin myth? And why did it have to take up so much real estate in the final episode to boot?

To get to the main team:

Weiss’s kingdom, her home, was destroyed. She doesn’t even know the fate of her family beyond the portals. I would expect her to be the most affected by the events of the previous volume: quiet, grieving, grasping for a next step to avoid thinking about it. But no—she’s the comic relief for this volume. In addition to a mouse I personally found annoying most of the time who is also comic relief. Weiss’s trauma is almost entirely ignored except for when she talks about Penny’s death, her comment at the burning market, and one sad face in the Punderstorm. Every scene with her falling down or getting hit by a rock or cheerleading grated on me. It felt so divorced from what she should be feeling that it broke my immersion and was a significant source of frustration.

Blake is an empty character. Her whole role in this volume is two things: person who read fairy tales (that everyone else also read), and person who loves Yang. Her big hero moment is talking about a struggle to bridge humanity and Faunus that we have never seen on screen. If you’ve been bothered by Blake’s lack of agency and character in previous volumes, the former may get marginally better here at the start, but by the end they’ll both be worse than they ever were, and both a significant source of frustration.

Yang is a mess. She starts strong with the “You shouldn’t be here,” but by the end of the volume she’s turning on her sister, blaming her for her distress, and doing nothing while her sister kills herself. She puts Blake over Ruby, hell, she puts Jaune over Ruby. I couldn’t believe what she was doing, and the bees confession scene was cringe-inducing with how it made her love focus on incredibly broad or superficial things about Blake. No mention of shared trauma, or past hurt. Frustrating.

And Ruby. Poor Ruby. This was touted as Ruby's volume. She's going to be the focus, she's going to struggle. The OP hammers this point home with unsubtle imagery of Ruby crying and falling behind while her teammates carry on unbothered. That had me intrigued, because Ruby has been more or less a static character since the end of Volume 3. Her struggles have been momentary, situational, and without lasting impact, so I wanted to see her have that belly of the beast moment in her hero's journey and come out different and stronger for it.

Problems are, they went about her spiral in the most ham-fisted way possible. Ruby is obviously depressed because they have to let the audience know, but it’s to the point that I can’t believe her teammates just let things lie. As a result, her team come off as jerks. Where are the friends from the Beacon days, the ones whose reuniting was a huge moment in V5? Certainly not here, watching adult man Jaune yell at Ruby for a plan he helped create and enact. Certainly not there, slowly walking after a crying and upset Ruby who flew off in a direction Jaune should know is dangerous shortly after Neo attacked, while blaming Ruby for not talking to them when the time Ruby did, Yang brushed her off and compared her to Ironwood.

Her team dismisses her, Neo beats her to a pulp, and she commits suicide. She goes to a tree that’s been established to wipe memories and recreate people.

Is her team upset? No. Worried? No, at least until Yang sees Ruby encased in wood. But it’s all fine, because Ruby sees that her mom wasn’t perfect and that her mom thought she was perfect just the way she was as a child, and that fixes all the the trauma the entire volume hammered into your ears and eyeballs in the span of maybe two minutes.

I will pause briefly to say that Ruby’s brief fight scene is good. Genuine highlight there.

But the main villain who tortured Ruby then gets off without any resentment or frustration from the heroes. And the twist villain, whose motives are far more sympathetic to me than the main villains’, is brutally torn apart.

The dissonance between what the show seems to want its morals to be and what they actually are is staggering.

To sum up:

The status quo for the characters did not change. The status quo for the setting did not change. The status quo for the writing did not change.

If you like the show as it is, if you take it at face value, you’ll be fine, as you’ve been fine for the last several volumes. But if you try to sink your teeth in, you’ll be getting a mouthful of dust—and not even the magical kind. There is little past that other than more frustration.

[imminent-danger-came]

*sets down my folding chair and sits* So, 3x01 of the o/w/l h/ou/se. Fair warning this is a negative rant so I'm putting it under a readmore:

I can not believe the stars were aligned for the PERFECT Hollow Mind parallel, and it DIDN'T HAPPEN. Hunter and Philip trapped in the same body/mind? Hunter fighting for control? Luz coming to terms with the fact that she lead Philip to the collector? Flapjack getting absorbed into Hunter like all those previous palismens were absorbed into Belos? Like that would have been so good it KILLS ME that it didn't happen. Learning how Philip and Caleb found their way to the Boiling Isles would have been way more satisfying coming from Philip himself.

And honestly like...the episode was fine-ish, but I think overall I was disappointed by it. I don't really care for how they handled Hunter and Luz's respective secrets, and I was SUPER disappointed by Luz's reaction to Belos' return. Like there he is, the man who caused about 3/4 of all your trauma, and like....nothing? Like on god running into Belos should have been the culmination of her s2 and 3x01 arc, yet it wasn't.

I also just kinda wish Luz's refusal to tell her friends she helped Phiplip meet the collector was based more in her fear of being a burden rather than the fear of her friends hating her. This isn't to say there weren't good moments in the special, but they were definitely scattered throughout the episode. It all just fell super flat for me. But I guess in general I find The Owl House to be a very mid show.

Since typing this post in my drafts I've also watched 3x02 and honestly, I feel the same way I did watching the first episode. The writers tried to give every character their own new mini arc instead of focusing on what had already been established previously. Which would be fine, except... this is the penultimate episode. We should be building off of everyone's series long arcs (of which Luz only really has, and I guess Hunter too since he was only around for season 2. Kind of Belos? They've just like, abandoned writing him).

Genuinely disappointed they took away all of the fucked-upedness from the Collector and just made him a lonely kid, rather than a child with the powers of a god and no regard for others or morals. His debut in "Hollow Mind" made him out to be someone who truly relished in chaos, and now he's just like...a child playing make-believe. I think an angle like this could have worked with a different approach, but the episode as is isn't really my thing.

Both these specials feel like "these are all the ideas we had for season 3, let's shove them into these specials" rather than effectively using the time they had. Like...the human world and hexside shenanigans are fun, sure, but focusing on the like...everything else you now don't have time to pay off is way more important.