#i love in-depth episode breakdowns. you don't see that kind of thing too much these days

[echthr0s]

some new viewers in the tag and yeah you're not going to get nearly the same level of fandom engagement you're used to seeing with new popular shows but the wider internet still has some gems floating around. for example, if you're interested in some guy's like 5k word explorations of every episode, check this out (go to the second page of the search results to start from the first episode, it's in reverse chrono)

[candyskiez]

Favorite The Owl House episode?

tbh, haven't rewatched the show in a long long time so might need to rewatch to be sure. for a while, it was eda's requiem. it means a lot to me and genuinely made me realize shit about myself. as dumb as it sounds it's what made me realize "...oh. if I died, that'd...probably fuck up the people around me." so it has a massively special place in my heart. and also the depth it gives eda! made me reevaluate shit about how I view parents and also just. god. the importance of found family and how important it is to acknowledge that it's just as important as blood family. found family is so often treated as secondary and seeing it portrayed as just as important is so fucking good and god! middle aged characters with depth! middle aged WOMEN with depth! some of the most accurate depression rep I've seen. she feels so real and raw and god, it's really nice to see a middle aged character who gave up learning to get back up again and stop feeling like they missed the best of their life and wasted it, and aaorudhdjd. god. I love eda. the music is beautiful and the duet is haunting, raeda fascinates me, and bard magic will ALWAYS be my favorite magic in toh.

I feel like the grey decaying thing works excellently as a metaphor for depression. it's what made me start going "is this a metaphor for mental illness?" because it FEELS like it. the voice acting is top tier and its so fucking good. it's just,,, man. a middle aged woman having an episode all to herself?? baby mes mind would've been BLOWN. her hatred of the curse wouldn't have hit nearly as hard without this episode, I think. the loneliness and feeling like it makes her Less is shown so well in this episode. it's just,,, man. as someone who's struggled with depression all my life, it resonates. she doesn't even CONSIDER king would still love her. raine saved her fucking life there and I'm still fucked up about it. it handles depression very well and its just. Man. that duet is one of the most memorable scenes in the show. darius abomination form is badass, raine's powers are so cool, the bats have my ENTIRE heart, the fucking MUSIC. brads music bangs. I love his soundtracks and this episode is just. always iconic to me.

that being said, I'm not entirely sure if it's my favorite episode right now? my brain flip flops on these things. right now I think it might be eclipse lake because it's just. SUCH a good episode. it's so gorgeous. the fight choreography, the animation, the lore, but most of all the EMOTION.

it has such excellent abuse rep. showing not only the complicated emotional reality of living with your abuser, of being dependent on your abuser, but also the fact that having an abusive relationship influences how you view ALL relationships. I love that amitys trauma isn't sidelined! what originally comes off as amity being a little TOO excited about having a girlfriend and also dana flipping off disney is shown to be amity being fucking terrified of losing this. she's so desperate to prove herself and since they're foils we gain knowledge as to what odalia and amitys relationship might've been like through hunter and gain insight into how hunter might view other relationships going forward through amity and it's LOVELY.

it also drives me insane that people use this episode as proof amity would hate hunter when. nah. nah, absolutely not. also I love how it shows how fucking KIND amity actually is. this boy's threatened and backstabbed her multiple times and is showing he's willing to do ANYTHING to win, and she still feels so much fucking sympathy for him. because she gets it. he's like her. she would've done this in his shoes. she offers him kindness and shows no sign of holding a grudge??? NONE???? this woman is fucking forgiving. she would have every right to hate his guts and she doesn't. idk what y'all mean when you say she's a jerk shes fucking KIND.

also hunters breakdown is painful to watch. I don't know what I can say about it that hasn't already been said. it's so raw and resonant, it feels like watching a real kid, it has such a realistic depiction of abused kids, what else can I say?

I also love the addressing of the cycle of abuse. hunter isn't a pure innocent baby here. he's manipulative and mean and cutthroat. hes a dick! I love him having anger issues because that's how abused kids often are! and I love amity backsliding! I love amity going tunnel vision! I love how realistic and painful the whole episode is!

they're just kids, man. you can tell the crew wanted this to be realistic and they succeeded.

I don't know which I like more. they're both just so GOOD.

(ask me things!)

[seefasters]

Hey its been a while. Spektor-anon. Life got kinda crazy which is why i havent reached out to talk about how much i love mash (i love it very muchly) i watched thru the rest of it! Loved it!! Youre right tho, the show punishes hawkeye too much. Like i agree he was a self important self righteous dude who sometimes needed to be taken down a peg, but also hes self righteous and CORRECT. war bad. War bad!!! It rlly took me out when they had an episode where hawk has to like???? Apologize to a general or something for being too disrespectful like NO!!! Mash is supposed to be totally skeptical of the respect ppl thoughtlessly pay the military. Even when margaret started getting character development id always felt that while the show respected her careerism, for the most part the show took her military zeal to be sort of to her detriment. Like her competence and comittment to excellence in a male centered world is commendable but her jingoism and thoughtless obedience to order is a flaw- a flaw they personalize to her bad relationship with her dad. The show comes to the conclusion she needs to learn how to be less starry eyed and to get her self worth somewhere other than her father and i feel like it comes to that conclusion visavis her relationship to the military as well. Love that. So why punish hawkeye is my thing? Feels like a fumble in the antiwar show to shit on the antiwar guy for being too antiwar >:>[.

Also also gfa? Gfa! My beloved gfa!!! Hawkeye has a mental breakdown and no one is equipped to deal with it least of all bj? Exquisite. Ruining music for charles by indelibly associating it with war!! Amazing! (It really figures that he would only be capable of respecting an asian man if that asian man has command over western culture aka mozart, but i still think it deals a blow to his western elitism all the same which i count as a win) also amazing- margaret and charles's send off!!! Klinger and Soon Lee was heart healing. Finally in the very last episode mash gives us a little depth to korean characters. Thank god. I love klinger in love. I love their romance its so compelling. Also also also the mulcahy stuff was so so heart breaking and brilliant and i love it. I love that bj is the only one who knows! No one else knows!!! I love all these missed moments of connection. Mash rlly knows how to make the moments of connection (the mozart. The poetry book. The goodbye note) hit and it does it in part by also giving you moments of missed opportunity in spades (bj cant rlly support hawk the way he needs and he cant be honest. Mulcahy never heards hawks parting words and in turn hawkeye never knows that. And he never knows why. And everyone is parting ways mostly forever. And you as an audience get to know some of the side characters who never got any play before for a brief shining second and then theyre gone and you know they had a full life and perspective that you never got to see and never will aka that one nurse "i think ive had it" line)

Thank you for giving me my favorite show. And thank you for humoring me in your askbox as i talk about it. Very kind and silly and thoughtful of you. Very caring even to a stranger. Very mash xoxoxox

SPEKTOR ANON I MISSED YOU SO MUCH i hope you're doing alright rn

if i'm being fully honest i don't really remember the episode you're talking about - i recall a couple where hawkeye went head to head with a general and was forced to stand down or something like that but i don't think the show ever punished him for his antiwar position? the most its ever done was show him as someone who's swinging at windmills i think

margarets arc in that regard is so good though. far from perfect but still very very good

you're so right about the missed moments and i'm glad you liked gfa vvgfgfhfgh!! mash is so good at creating a sense of bittersweetness, its genuinely one of its best qualities. they're having fun watching a movie but the casualties are inevitably coming etc etc. and charles is just..... i know the music is the literal thing he loses in gfa but i like to interpret it as him losing his sense of self and his place in the world (charles class consciousness era)

also shoutout to bigelow (the "i've had it" nurse) woman of all time

thank you for coming to my askbox for all these months anon! i'm like..... actually emotional, it means so much to me that something i made out of love for mash helped you find it and love it too. i'm so happy it touched you as well.

i hope you come around again! i'm always here to talk about mash and im always happy to see you in my askbox

[convenientalias]

Eve vs. City of Streamer--Who Wore It Better?

Since this year I happened to watch two shows that came out in 2022 about a woman seducing someone in order to avenge herself upon the person's family, I thought it would be fun to make some comparisons and see which show comes out on top. The two shows in question being:

Eve: A 16-episode kdrama. Contemporary thriller genre. The protagonist seduces the son-in-law of the family she's targeting with the aim of learning the family's secrets but also breaking her love interest's relationship with his wife (one of her primary revenge targets), hopefully resulting in a humiliating divorce and mental breakdown for both of them. Except then, oh no, she falls in love for real!

City of Streamer: A 40-episode cdrama. Republican era setting. The protagonist seduces the young master of the family she's targeting, mostly with the aim of maintaining her place in the family (which she joined as a tutor to the young master and the family's two daughters) so she can gather information on them as a spy for someone else who also is after revenge. Except then, oh no, she falls in love for real!

So right off the bat there are some similarities and some obvious differences. Further comparison will be under the cut bc there will be some spoilers ;)

Female Leads

So I'm giving ratings out of ten for each of these sections and I'll just say beforehand that Seo Ye-ji and Jing Tian are both perfect to me so there's no real competition here but the differences are still interesting.

Eve: Lee Ra-el is highly melodramatic. Her character single-handedly gives the show its kind of dark and sexy vibe. She is obsessed with revenge, loves (and needs) the tango, has self-destructive tendencies (including a tendency to self-harm, but also a general lack of self preservation instinct), and wants not only to destroy her targets financially but break their very souls. Kind of a disaster. Her love interests would like to protect her. Good luck with that, guys. I would like to say her soft spot is children but frankly I'm not even sure that's not an act on her part (and sometimes it pretty clearly is). Incredible fake smile. 10/10.

City of Streamer: The first word I associate with Feng Shizhen is "calm" and the second is "competent". Feng Shizhen wants revenge, but given that the incident she's avenging had a somewhat lesser impact on her life, she's pretty clear-headed about it and it's not the only thing she cares about. She still has a family, and sometimes gets invested in the lives and troubles of the Rong family too. Her revenge target is Rong Dingkun--well, also his business, but mostly just Rong Dingkun, head of the family she's infiltrated. She has an excellent poker face but can also play a pretty good wounded gazelle when called upon. Watching her, you have a sense of confidence she can solve whatever predicament she's landed in. Her love interests would probably like her to step on them and honestly same. 10/10.

Male Leads

No one here is going to live up to the female leads' energy but do they try??

Eve: Kang Yoon-kyeom is the most boring part of this show. Okay, I don't hate the guy. He's clearly in an abusive relationship with a controlling, manipulative, and homicidal woman. But you just don't get to see much emotional depth in him until towards the end of the show--until then it's kind of a "just trust me, he's deep" kind of situation. I have limits with how much stoicism I can enjoy. That said once he and Ra-el are together he does get more fun and I enjoy his eventual breakdown but not his ending. Since I'm only giving moderate spoilers here I won't get into that but seriously what the fuck. 4/10, I didn't hate him? I just think Ra-el has more chemistry with. Basically everyone.

City of Streamer: I actually expected to dislike Rong Jiashang based on prior experiences with the actor, but Rong Jiashang's actually pretty fun. It's all about the journey from stoic to simp in this kind of show and Jiashang really devolved pretty fast. That said, he has things going on outside his romantic life. He has conflicted feelings on his family and the family business and works to make changes based on his moral qualms. He loves his sisters. He has actual friends. He has dreams of becoming a pilot and collects model airplanes. Generally more of a three-dimensional human being than Kang Yoon-kyeom and a pretty good character. 7/10.

Did We Get Second Male Lead Syndrome?

Eve: Seo Eun-pyeong IS cooler than Kang Yoon-kyeom but that isn't really saying that much. He blocks a knife at one point! He tells Ra-el she can count on him! He's also a politician with possibilities of becoming the future president but the instant Ra-el shows up she is his Number One Priority, to the extent that he's willing to compromise all his idealistic politics (or at least put them on hold) for the sake of helping her with her revenge plans. I'm ambivalent on this--yes we love obsessive love but we also love a dude with other things going on. I honestly would have preferred if Eun-pyeong's attraction to Ra-el remained ambiguous or if they stayed platonic tbh, bc they met when she was still a teenager and I kind of preferred his initial protective and almost parental vibe towards her. Like he once watched her dancing the tango and the music playing in the background was just kind of heartwarming and calm. That's the unsexy relationship I was enjoying between the two of them but I wouldn't be against shipping them except that being the case I would prefer her to actually like him back. His unrequited love does very little for me. 6/10 I still liked the dude but I wanted either "selfless protective (possibly platonic) love" or "actual relationship" from them and it's not what I got.

City of Streamer: Meng Xu'an is UNHINGED. A complete delight. When you first meet him, you're like, "huh this dude is kind of shady, but he's Feng Shizhen's boss so of course he must be working for the greater good." Later on you're like, "Oh hm. His methods can be a little immoral and he seems VERY smug about the chaos going down here (which is also affecting innocents) but it DOES look sexy on him and there's no serious harm done so?? good for him I guess." and slowly you roll downhill towards the realization that this man is absolutely down for murdering innocents if it will help him achieve his revenge plans and is much more deeply invested in this revenge than our actual protagonist, and you know what? It's still sexy. Did I ship him with Feng Shizhen? Yes and no. They have a great vibe and yes it is hot when they scheme together AND when they yell at each other and throw things but I have a hard time seeing Feng Shizhen be into him. But in a sense that doesn't matter. The important thing is I liked what I got. 10/10, this dude drives at least half the action of the whole show.

The Central ~Seduction~ Dynamic

Eve: High melodrama to match Ra-el's melodramatic energy. Ra-el's INITIAL APPROACH is contriving to have Yoon-kyeom accidentally see her and her husband (yes, there's a lot of infidelity in this show) having sex in a dressing room. Then she tells him they must be "twin flames", something akin to soulmates/fated lovers. It's all very intense but I have a hard time buying it bc her tactics are so blunt and forceful all the time; it's not surprising Yoon-kyeom is initially suspicious. Equally I have a hard time buying that Ra-el would actually fall in love with Yoon-kyeom bc behind all that passion, where's a core of honest affection? The show offers a couple moments of ~vulnerability~ between the two, but... Idk. 4/10.

City of Streamer: Feng Shizhen doesn't initially plan to seduce Rong Jiashang at all; it's mostly something she stumbles into in order to keep him under control while she does her spywork, and then uses so that she can keep his love for her as her in with the Rong family. Her tactics are very bait-and-switch. First she'll praise Jiashang's skills as his tutor and offer him some very hands-on lessons, and then she'll go cold and say there's nothing between them if he tries to approach their mutual attraction directly. I have an easy time believing Jiashang would fall for it, and I can also believe she would fall for him, mostly bc he's actually a pretty nice and likeable guy. But sometimes she can go a little far--while Ra-el will declare love at first sight, Feng Shizhen strings Rong Jiashang along for so long it can get very frustrating. 7/10.

My ratings for these relationships are almost the same as my feelings on the male leads, I guess!

Fashion

It's important to look good while getting revenge. You have to look good while your enemies are suffering, basically. At least that's how I feel about it.

Eve: Impeccable. Ra-el in particular is just look after look. Showing up at her enemy's daughter's birthday party in a dress that looks like a green rose. Wearing a simple black and white suit during some final confrontations as the truth boils closer to the surface. Never going anywhere without stiletto heels. Ra-el's fashion is part of her mask, part of what allows her to infiltrate high society and entrance those in it--not only Yoon-kyeom but Han So-ra as well, and many others. 10/10.

City of Streamer: The fashion is very generic. I try to remember outfits from this show and I can't. I just looked at a bunch of pictures from it and my main takeaway was, I can see why I forgot them. Lots of solids, lots of simple dresses. They suit Feng Shizhen's calm and simple image but they do not appeal. Now, Republican era fashion is not my favorite in general but I've watched shows set in this era that still had some memorable outfits. Winter Begonia has most of its characters in generic suits but the MCs still had their own distinctive look--Shang Xirui's being uniformly bland to contrast his look on stage, Cheng Fengtai's distinguished with a little flamboyance. Granting You a Dreamlike Life has Luo Fusheng, whose outfits are all over the place but always enjoyable and noticeable. City of Streamer just is not doing it for me. 2/10. I tried looking at Meng Xu'an's outfits bc I figured they might be more interesting and they're basically just suits :( Two points bc I do like the hair. If you want to see Jing Tian in a show with showier and more interesting fashion, watch Rattan.

Homoeroticism

It's all very well to have sexual tension with the guy you're seducing but what about having homoerotic tension with some random other character???? I think we have to keep this in mind.

Eve: I loved Ra-el and So-ra's dynamic. It's terrible, of course. It starts out with a kind of high society mean girl and henchwoman dynamic that would be catnip to me already and eventually transitions into archnemeses-going-off-the-deep-end territory. Deceptive friendship to blatant, outright loathing. I need more f/f ships like this in my media. 10/10, I only wish Ra-el had actually seduced So-ra instead of Yoon-kyeom but I guess that would just be a different story entirely.

City of Streamer: I'm gonna be real with you, guys, there is not much here. Feng Shizhen does have some nice friendships with various women, especially one woman who she helps escape the Rong household early in the show, but... there's no real tension there imo. There are two other female characters I love in this show (one being Jiashang's fiancee, the other being one of Rong Dingkun's concubines), and neither really gets to know Shizhen--their primary relationships are also with men. I don't really see any great m/m ships here either tbh. Personally I would OT3 Shizhen/Jiashang/Xu'an, but there's no real basis for this, I just think the chaos would be interesting. 2/10, I can imagine it but there's nothing really there.

DID THEY GET REVENGE THOUGH?

The most important question.

Eve: Yes. Can't say they didn't. I do wish the court case that the show built up to had been more important but it played its role, and the mind games playing a larger role in the final denouement makes sense given the kind of overall game Ra-el is playing. 9/10 for revenge bc I personally wish the fallout had been different but it was very revengey.

City of Streamer: Yes? At various points? Feng Shizhen's revenge contributions are at their peak in the first half of the show, I'd say. From there the conflict is driven by other players, while Feng Shizhen's plotline focuses more on the question of whether she and Rong Jiashang could ever be together. Towards the end she steps back into the game, but never quite with the same clear focus, and ultimately, the ending feels a bit random. Still more revenge than many revenge dramas have offered me though. 7/10.

THE GRAND TOTAL:

Eve: 53

City of Streamer: 45

In the end, Eve wins with the power of homoeroticism and fashion! I personally liked City of Streamer better overall and am now wondering if I should have weighted the various categories differently but oh well! It's all part of the game! If we knew how it would end, what would be the point of playing it! Eve really did wear revenge seduction drama better but I do recommend both because they both were really good!

[ctl-yuejie]

ok just finished rewatching ep 14 and 15 SPOILERS for those who haven't watched yet. this is just a long unstructured rambling, i warned you :) when ji ah says to the restaurant owner that her son's death was an accident, she's saying those words to appease her guilt, to convince her to let go of her son, but she knows deep down it's pointless. because she knows her mom's death was an accident, that she didn't mean to kill her but knowing that doesn't make her pain and her guilt go away, and so she's saying those words for her too, and she really wants to believe them, but she just can't. and you can read all those feelings and emotions on jang nara's face. and also shout out to the actress who plays the restaurant owner, she had in me in tears! and you know what's even more beautiful in that scene? in beom knows. he looks at her when she says those words and he knows. the depth of his feelings for her... and i guess her feelings for him too. but they're just not in the right mental space and in the right circumstances to dwell on those feelings. i've seen someone say they couldn't see ji ah and in beom ending the show in a romantic relationship. and i can see how they go to that conclusion. ji ah and in beom have so much history, so much trauma between them that i can't see resolved in just one episode. perhaps they'll have an open ending where they finally can think about how they feel about each other and go "well, what now?" or "why not?". or a time jump, although i'm not sure i'd like that. and then ji ah's breakdown when she realises she's the one, or she might be the one, holding her mother back, when all this time she has been trying to send her away. the way she shouts "oma", you can see her desperation. jang nara gave me goosebumps and made me cry all at the same time in that scene. when she says everything will be over when she disappears... and you can see in beom's heart stop when he hears those words. and yeah, i ramble on about jang nara's acting, because she's amazing and stunning and i love her, but i can't forget jung yong hwa. the way he goes from hearbreak to whole himbo and back to hearbreak again... a rollercoaster ride. especially in the infamous distraction scene where the whole himbo act is just to prevent ji ah from actually disappearing and you can feel his own desperation below the surface. their talk on the swings... the way ji ah's face changed when in beom said not to blame someone innocent, especially if it's herself. can i say how much i love their relationship, i love how in beom always finds the words to reach ji ah, also when he says that she might not be the one holding back her mother, but that they might be worried about each other and that's why mi jin can't leave yet, and to give herself (ji ah) some time. and ji ah listens to him. i also love ji ah and hwa jung's heart to heart. i love that hwa jung shared with ji ah her story. ji ah frantically shouting in beom's name at the explosion scene while checking every stretcher she passes... i don't have much to say about ep 15 really, because all the feels left me without words. did you realise ji ah smiled twice in that episode? and i mean a genuine smile not a smirk? first at hwa jung to reassure her before they left for the building haunted by the egg ghost, and the second time in the car when in beom said he didn't give up because they're partners. also, "noona!" you know what i find even scarier than the egg ghost's lack of face? the rattling, clicking sound it makes. i feel like i've heard a similar sound associated to a monster in another show before, but i can't recall which. dr who maybe? i don't know why that's the one that comes to mind. ji ah's fantasy induced by the egg ghost is another scary moment because she wants to believe in it so hard, you can see her fight her reason which tells her this can't be real, i was really afraid she would slip even if i knew it wasn't possible story-wise. now, my question after these two episodes: where is mi jin? why hasn't she appeared in these two episodes? does it mean

something? thank you for letting me ramble on in your inbox, i hope i made some sense :)

this is really pretty much how I felt watching the episodes. i also think it was somewhat a step forward for ji ah herself to try and persuade the restaurant owner because she might not be ready to be kind to herself but at least she acknowledges that this is a reason why her mother might be stuck and how it IS an option to forgive herself and let go. (the clicking thing is definitely sth I remember from a doctor who episode *shudders*)