#i skipped some minor moments from s1

[homunculusalphonse]

[Multiple IDs: different screenshots of Lars in near death situations, and his actual death.

Lars being enveloped by the moss Rose planted (Lars and the Cool Kids);

Lars terrified of the invisible gem monster that was lurking in the island Steven took him and Sadie to (Island Adventure);

Ronaldo about to sacrifice Lars to the gem possessed lighthouse (Horror Club);

Lars sweating, unable to move while Sadie is calling for help (I Am My Mom);

Steven moves away a piece of Blue Diamond's destroyed palanquin, while Lars is sitting down, in pain but mostly fine (Off Colors);

Finally, Lars as he's thrown to the pillar behind him, instantly killed (also from Off Colors). /End IDs]

Steven is not the only one who needs therapy around here

[d999666]

Galactik football S1 ep6 review - (5/5)

Nork : I know something about that magnificent images aren't they warren you must watch them again and again and a loop that.

Warren : Doesn't interest me only the future is the future.

Nork : that's just what we're interested in today the upcoming galactik football cup which everuone is waiting for. so let's skip right to the random drawing to the groups in the qualifying phase but first a brief word from our sponsor.

>>Comment :

This is Warren, the previous year's GFC winner.

One of my favorite characters in GF.

I think the group draw is traditionally conducted by the captain of the winning team of the previous year.

Thran : if they put us in Lightnings's team group. I changed my name and drop off the face of the earth.

Mice : Please Put us in the Lightnings's team group Plz. Put us in the Lightnings's team group Plz….

Thran : VERY FUNNY

>>Comment :

I really think the way Thran, Ahito, D'jok and Micro-ice tease each other is funny.

Nork : This is a crucial moment to the competition and it looks like Warren is wondering the same thing as you the viewers at home who is gonna play against to hear the group a the Rykers, the Pirates, the Shadows and finally the snowkids!

Thran : Sorry micro-ice. I think I'll stay. Mice : too bad I'll have to live with it.

Nork : well here's a group that will give our chance to once again meet up with his old partner in Nexus. who's just been recruited as coach of the Shadows.

and, this isn't the shadows only new recruits because the team now includes former snowkids player...Sinedd!!

Clamp : I know what you're thinking Aarch, History is repeating…

Aarch : itself Artego has never stopped trying to corrupt everything around him. but Sinedd's just a kid

>> Comment: Artego brought Sinedd to the shadows team. Sinedd went to Shadows.... (it's my headcanon....I think Artego adopted sinedd, just to make it easier to manage team transfers, because sinedd is a minor who needs legal guardianship.) If Aarch had reported to the police that Sinedd had disappeared, no one would have been surprised. Aarch is an adult and should be responsible for the safety of the underage players. You should have known Sinedd's whereabouts. I should have called the police and heard from the police, "Oh, the boy followed another guardian to another team." You don't listen to it through the news like this.

If you knew Sinedd was a kid, why didn't you treat him well? Aarch hasn't spoken to Sinedd since. You're also responsible for this.

Clamp's room

General Bleylock caught Clamp.

>> Comment: Clamp really needs to strengthen the security of the academy.

Clamp : Who are you?

Bleylock : this should help you remember

In Clamp's head, memories of his past as a professor pass by. Probably, it's from the Metaflux experiment. The other missing professor is next to Clamp. The subject of their experiment, I guess, is 'a project that allows robots to use Flux by installing artificial flux on Android'.

However, a huge weapon has been created that should not have been made. (It's not long since the space war ended, and it seems that there is still a small war in some parts of the universe.) Another missing professor, I'son, runs away with Metaflux.

Then, General Bleylock, who was after him, hurt I'son, dropped metaflux from I'son's hands... and it landed on Akylan's planet. That led to the arrival of the Ice Age on the planet Akillan.

Bleylock : So, Labnor, how does it feel to regain part of your memory. you rest assured that this isn't finished things will start coming back to you little by little that…

Clamp : That…That explosion the glaciation of Akillian. What's that? what's that my fault?

Bleylock : Don't worry Labnor, no one will ever know no one will ever know as long as you do exactly what I ask.

>>Comment: Think about it. Calmp lost his memory. And while traveling with the memory lost, he met Aarch. The two became close. And Aarch created a new football team. But what if your past mistakes caused an ice age? What if so many people died?

What if so many people lost their homes? What if it was Metaflux that made you frustrate your best friend's dream? Clamp will feel guilty. Maybe, I just wanted to cover up the whole truth and move on.

[rotblut]

Likes and dislikes about Sweet Home S2? Saw you gave it 1 star on MDL (agree☠️) and I luv reading your opinions!

.

ok, first s2 was useless. in my humble opinion, at least 80% of the storyline was a waste of time and money. it felt more like filler scenes to me overall. the new minor side characters were flat, generic, annoying, and overall unlikeable and felt out of place? and it's not the actor's fault because all the actors that they got for the side characters are good fucking actors that know how to act and deliver a charming performance but the writing was annoying af for them all. like the first 3 eps span a time of a few days right? in ep4 there was a 3-year-ish timejump. you'd think that the people adapted to the change of lifestyle yet they acted so useless. THE NEW CHARS DIDN'T EVEN HAVE COOL ASS WEAPONS OR FIGHTING STYLES????????? BORING!!!!!!!!!!!!!! especially the female chars (not wanting to call it sexism but calling it like that) in that residence whatever that was were dumb bishes. instant skip. military homoeroticism subplot??????????? don't care. should have been left in the drafts. the whole science doctor subplot?????????? generic shit that's overused in that kind of drama. who carers about the scientific reason and how to get a cure or whatever they tried to find like??????????????? NO ONE GIVES A SINGLE FUCKING FUCK for the scientific side and they always push that side into the narrative fuck. it was an instant skip for me even tho i like oh jung se as well but that shit wasn't interesting enough or different to make me care and keep my attention focused. the fucking rapist istg instant skip was pissed off that he had all the scenes with song kang like i had to skip and when he died he came back ???????????? fuck was that for????????????? can he stay dead irl and in that drama?????? fuck

also didn't help that cha hyun soo's char for the majority of the season felt isolated and different. couldn't really connect with him because, in the first part, he had the most scenes with the rapist and was in that basement doing weird shit and being handcuffed. 2nd half definitely felt better with him being with other characters and especially with eunyoo and he was back to the guy we knew and cared about.

also lmaooooooooooooo the way they tried to include some key moments from the webtoon into season 2 but it felt flat because it made no sense and was confusing. like tthe whole title *sweet home* makes no sense anymore since the apartment complex they lived in was destroyed by the end of s1. never cared for drama jisu and webtoon jisu was a million times better but them killing drama jisu off in ep3 just like that was so underwhelming and anti-climatic and boring. it was expected ngl i knew she would be killed off but like YIKES. why even kill chars when the most annoying ass chars always come back???????????

firefighter woman and her story with renesmee????????? MESS. in a few minutes growing her belly and giving birth on top of a frozen lake, falling into that lake, idk how she pushed out that abomination and stayed alive after all that but lmaooooooo and her not giving a fuck about her daughter so daddy hyun soo had to step up and raise her only for her to want to be with her daughter again just to abuse and treat her horribly?????? ARE WE FRFR RIGHT NOW?? and i should feel some kind of love and care for her and that relationship?????? nah not on my watch. also i normally love the characters that kim shi ah plays in any drama or movie but the daughter character felt so generic and flat that i didn't give a fuck.

also the weird ass old grandpa guy with that young molester girl that was drugging chan young and pushing into his personal space???????? disliked them soooooooooo much. they were just a cheap and rude version of yuri and her old guy from s1.

more or less the writing really reused all the character tropes and relationship formats from season 1 in season 2.

perfect example was eunyoo and her subplot with park chan young (the warm and soft-hearted military guy that had million heart eyes for her). 90% of his scenes with eunyoo parallel the scenes that she had with eunhyuk in s1. literally will make a compilation set in the next few days. and don't get me wrong i kinda can see some form of *poetic parallelism* to that specific choice but it makes his character more of a eunhyuk replacement (even tho both characters are 100% different from each other when it comes to their personalities and the only common thing they have is wanting to protect eunyoo). but i still kinda wished that they went into a different way and made their scenes more original and not just a copy of her and eunhyuk's scenes from s1. but i did enjoy their dynamic compared to the other shit we got but the sparks were missing for most of their scenes. it was nice and the 2 of them together definitely carried the season overall. he was such a babygirl it was def cute the way he was just willing to support her even tho she pushed him a way all of the time. ngl i would have loved for her to have more flashbacks from s1 with her and eunhyuk or her alone in this season and that we haven't seen before. because I'm sure when they filmed s1 they filmed some more scenes that didn't make it. I feel like cha hyun soo was underused and he hardly showed up at all in a lot of the episodes. minshi definitely had the most screen time and i think was the true main character of this season because her goal and arc were consistent from start to finish whereas the other character arcs changed or stopped completely and felt flat.

also, i don't even complain about the cgi because for me that's just the aesthetic and vibe at this point and i feel like they embrace the tacky-looking cgi and honestly it was giving camp and really funny to me. the lil baby monster was cute i hope it shows up in s3. all the other monsters were whatever tho like wasn't really interested in them. and since people complained about the lack of monsters in s1 the director included a bunch just so people wouldn't complain this time around and tick it off from the list. the background ost was also better this time around i think. idk what else to write but yeah that's it for now.

ngl I'll be sat for summer 2024 and s3 just so i'll get full-time eunyoo+eunhyuk back on the menu. we're so fucking back!

tell me what was pissing you off as well and what you liked

[s1mpa1]

I just wanna talk about Anime!

2. Clannad

How I came to find Clannad

Long story short, I came across a YouTube video ( forgot from who ) that talked about sad animes. And guess what? Yes. Clannad was there.

I watched Clannad on YouTube, but was only able to find up to episode 10 for some reason, and I was IN LOVE. So I did what any anime lover would do….ask my parents to buy it for me. There’s an anime store where I live, and surprise! They had it!

65 dollars! (/ _ ; ) I got it for Christmas!

64 dollars again when I found out there was a season 2…got it for my birthday.

BOY DO THEY PUNCH. My feelings. I’ll never be able to see Dangos the same. EVER.

MINOR SPOILERS! (Mainly for S1) You have been warned!

Characters who made me stay :

Akio Furukawa

Husband goals tbh. This man raised my husband expectations way too high, that I know damn well I’ll be single forever. I blame him. I blame it ALL ON HIM.

He’s just such a good dad! (*꒦ິ⌓꒦ີ) Knowing he gave up his dream of being an actor, for Nagisa. And him yelling at Nagisa, that it wasn’t her fault. That he did it because he loves her, and- UUUHHGGG my heart! He just loves his daughter so much, and is always down to joke around. He’s funny, and to what we see, is so in love with Sanae. The fact that they both do their dramatic “quarreling”, where Sanae runs off “crying” and Akio runs after her, just to bring some joy to their daughter??? Like???? That’s beautiful??!! I’m in tears.

Oh, and him being like a dad/ bestie with Tomoya- *chefs kiss* makes me ugly cry.

Youhei Sunohara

One of the funniest characters out there, I swear this boy never failed to make me laugh.

Seeing his friendship with Tomoya, was honestly so fun to watch. Both are good people, who are just a little lost at this moment of their lives.

While he may have come across as annoying at times, and always getting in some sort of problem, I would have liked to see more of him and his personal life. We mainly got a few glimpses of his personal life, and how he cares for his sister. Aside from that, I still very much enjoyed his presence in the first season of Clannad.

( I know it’s kinda blurry, but I just love this moment. Just two bros being bros)

Tomoya Okisaki

Our protagonist all throughout the anime.

Honestly, I wasn’t expecting him to be the protagonist, I thought it was Nagisa, but I didn’t complain. I was interested to see where his life would go, and how he would grow.

I found it sweet that he wasn’t some Highschool perv, or a cold asshole towards the woman kind. His interactions with the girls, all seemed friendly and genuine to me. With Kotomi, he’s like an older brother. With Fuko, he was mainly just playful and teasing with her. Treating her like a little kid, and never overstepping any boundaries. He didn’t really overstep any boundaries with any of the girls. Respectful boi.

For the first season, he mainly started to change his “delinquent” ways, for Nagisa. Cute start, yes. But in Season Two???? My god, this poor boy can’t catch a break. Like- why man? WHY!? Why was life like that to him!?

For a high schooler who saw the world as only monotone, he grew so much. Honestly, he reminds me of my brother. Maybe that’s why I felt some instant attachment to him. My brother too, during Highschool, was lost. Skipping, getting into trouble, not caring about much, but seeing him change when he’s surrounded by people who genuinely love and care for him, he’s a good person. And Tomoya just reminded me of him.

Clannad : After Story

What can I say? I haven’t seen such a perfect second season in any romance anime- ever.

Clannad Season 1, was just the appetizer. Season 2! Is the MAIN COURSE!

Everything that went down in S2, broke me. Tore me to shreds, put a bandaid over me, and then continued to stomp on me!

I honestly don’t want to spoil much of what happened, because Clannad is one of those Animes that I ALWAYS recommend, so I didn’t want to go too deep into it. With Season 1, I’m fine spilling a few things here and there, but Season 2? My lips are sealed. 🤐

Just know…

It’s worth watching. Please, believe me! It’s truly a life changing anime.

[harvey-guillen]

Hi Liz! I finally caught up on s3 of sanditon. So much happened!! What are your thoughts on it?

ty for asking!!! lengthy observations here and under the cut

yesss! so my favorite observation someone had (on fb iirc) was that is was kind of a regency "love actually"? so many love stories, big and small, grand and humble. i love that. i think the absolute highlights was the montrose kids (harry + arthur too), georgiana and her mother, lady susan and samuel. tbh i like heybourne, they are cute, but they didn't intrigue me as much as the other couples. i do get chills at both cliffside scenes but the writing on colbourne was somewhat up and down for me. however, rewatching s1, i realize sidney pinged dramatically between extremely angry and being in love. he had great moments, "my truest self," the boat conversation, and really, really bad moments (ep 1 ballroom yelling, i think he yelled at charlotte aggressively in the boarding house where g lives, being a brothel patron [yike]). colbourne had great moments, cliffside confessions, trying to get her back in s2, developing into a more patient father, and bad moments, yelling at her after the garden party, being cold to his child and ward, etc. so i can't be an unalloyed devotee to either leading man. samuel, however, has never done anything wrong in his life ever!!!! that man has humor, wit, education, a career, but knows how to party down and flirt artfully with a high ranking courtier.

other highlights of the season:

miss hankins romcom heroine era is NOW

lady montrose was a FANTASTIC gentrified mrs bennet

the use of "gallows" to convey the risks of same sex love at the time was fantastic, they did not beat us over the head with it like some shows (fucking downton abbey). harry was so wonderful and charming and i was surprised because the preview pictures of the montroses didn't encourage me. i hate when shows introduce new characters but don't integrate them well or support them with good writing, but they were a fantastic contribution to existing characters and plots.

edwarddddd. ok augward is... yike. and him using wentworth's "you pierce my soul" was slightly yike. but jack fox is my legit show crush and i could watch him play anything, but villain-heroine is everything. eloise was INCREDIBLE during the scene where edward broke her heart, what a talent that young woman is!

lady denham romcom era!!! i love mr pryce, i also noted he tried to woo her with buggy rides which i HOPE is a throwback to esther and babbington with carriage rides

tom's trumpesque ruthless developer era was a lot but i know the narrative framework needs a 'villain' in every storyline. my only regret is it wasn't revealed mary was faking her illness to troll tom.

the interior set of g's party was EXQUISITE

some folks on fb wanted lockhart redeemed. hard no for me due to the racism, so i was glad to see him go full villainy, and his entrance was serving cruella (plus the fun little dandy cane was menacing until it was shown he didn't need it by skipping down the steps)

lady susan!!!!!! sophie winkleman being both minor british royalty AND a consummate actress is so charming to me. i was so glad to see that character developed instead of retaining the fairy godmother quality from s1 that didn't really show WHY she was drawn to charlotte.

the end was serving pure sense & sensibility with the confusion over engagements. the s&s ending is one of my faves of all time.

very interesting cinematography this season -- many beautiful shots from the floor up at g entering a room, behind people's heads

i loved to see the tea room feature heavily again, i love a good tea room

the show was kinda bold this season in a few ways: frank portrayal of racist and misogynist tropes of black women as hypersexual, seducing white men etc; the sidney slander during the trial dflkshfh; charlotte kissing colbourne whilst engaged

OTIS HEA. i liked him in s1 and thought they clearly showed his heart was true but behavior foolhardy. the actor looked so young in s1 but hottttt in s3.

so the homages. i was less a fan of the overt line borrowings ("you have bewitched me") and more a fan of storylines being borrowed (colbourne rescuing georgiana a la darcy rescuing lydia). i am not mad about it but it did take me out of the scenes somewhat, although i recognize it was fully intentional and meant to be a valentine to period drama devotess.

i take some issue with edward's storyline in s3 after going SO dark in s2. but i'm willing to have selective memory because i'm the jack fox fan of all time

ok last thing - i bought a sanditon prop from a dealer/collector. he has a whole box of them and i'm gonna help him index them and make sure real fans (instead of resellers) are able to have a chance at getting one. it's a prize ribbon from the sandcastle contest in s1 held by tom (kris marshall). i framed it with my pop's help. :)

ty for asking and sorry for writing so much!

[cassierobinsons]

it's no worries! i'm delighted you're answering my asks at all lmao. i really think you and i are on the same wavelength about this show, you're really cool, and you have really good and thoughtful takes.

i blocked that kitsune episode from my memory ugh. it really shouldn't have been a surprise what dabb ended up doing to billie even when she was his character considering how consistently racism creeps into his work.

i'm very sorry you're having to experience season 9, you're very brave to not just skip it. 10 i think is slightly better mainly because it introduces rowena who's a lot of fun and gets some depth as the show goes on (being a hot milf witch also helps a lot) but also mark of cain is not a good time. 12 is a trainwreck in terms of like. watching it as a form of television but the dean and mary scenes hit super hard and feel like they belong on an earlier season that would give them a real resolution.

"like i do not like s8 sam at all but at least there was something going on there! he was a hayes code homophobe and had the haircut of a premade sim but it was something!"

he was soooooo wack about benny lmao. i think it was meant to be portrayed as him projecting his own experiences with ruby but benny literally never did anything wrong so it just made sam look like a dick. which i prefer, i think sam being initially weird about dean being bi as something he never considered is more IC than ex-gsa member sam.

very much agreed on gamble-genuinely interesting ideas but not great execution. i can't think about what happened with lisa without wanting to bite. maybe it's for the best he wasn't paired with cassie instead post swan song because i can't imagine the awful shit they'd pull with her.

(following on from this ask THIS CHAIN IS GETTING LONG LMFAO)

aw thanks anon 😊 i'm enjoying the chance to longform chat about this terrible show.

dabb's racism is easily his worst quality. he's a dean anti and his writing is often mean-spirited but WOW does his racism dwarf everything else.

i've been stuck on s9 since early december and plan on going back to it once i've made some progress catching up on the shows i'm watching rn (namely search party s5, the expanse s5, hacks, AND yellowjackets) so like. realistically i'm not going back until feb lmfao. even then i don't give a shit about the plot rn so i'll only watch eps for cas or when minor characters pop up. i've said this before but the decision to kill kevin off reaaaally weighs on me as being spn's nadir, a real No Melanin Allowed moment. jeremy carver can meet me in the pit, idgaf.

yeah the mark of cain plotline sounds so 😒 and i know what i'm about to say sounds WILD considering the last 3-4 days of dean apologism but ultimately. i am a casgirl who loves dean but not a deangirl so while i love s4 dean's noxious era the prospect of a season and a half of it bores me to tears. toxicity? from a man? groundbreaking. i am looking forward to meeting rowena though. she sounds so cool as a character it's genuinely baffling that a show like spn came up with her.

12 is a trainwreck in terms of like. watching it as a form of television but the dean and mary scenes hit super hard and feel like they belong on an earlier season that would give them a real resolution.

there are a plethora of moments i hear about in the later seasons have me like. damn. this would've been Masterpiece Theatre if it happened 5 years earlier. still, i'm looking forward to watching some of the motws in s12. regarding dean will probably revive brainworms that have lain dormant since my s1-2 deangirl days.

sam was so fucking terrible about benny jdsfdjkfjs and i get that they were trying to parallel it with ruby and especially amy but man. the whole point of the slice girls is that sam killing emma is meant to cancel out the amy thing like pemdas. and it's an evil and wrong point! but it's a point. so having sam get pissy over benny makes him look so bad because bro you literally put a bullet in his daughter, you DO NOT get to be precious about this. but it does lend credence to my personal theory that it's hard for sam to draw from his supposedly deep well of empathy for other supernatural creatures if he cannot directly project his issues onto them 🤭

i've posted briefly about the queer subtext in citizen fang (bonus commentary by @softbrah) and yeah, it is strong evidence that sam has no fucking clue dean desires men carnally. in the secret good s9 that exists in my head dean & human!cas start fucking after like 3 weeks in the bunker and sam is sent into a tailspin.

the lisa&ben thing was gamble being at a 10 when she should've been at a 2. or like a 6 tops. you can tragically bury dean's dreams of being a dad without having him do this horrible thing to his exgf and her son i promise! you don't have to make a writing choice this evil! makes me extremely glad that he didn't go to cassie in canon because gamble handling a black female character is the stuff of nightmares. i do want more deancassie in fic though, stat!

[stop-breaking-my-heart-telltale]

Top 5 Reasons Lee was the Best

Lee Everett is one of my favorite playable protagonists in any game I’ve played. Weirdly enough, I feel like he is somehow super loved yet under appreciated?? because sure, everyone says that they love Lee and talk about how he was just the best but like.... most times, they rarely go into details of why they love him and think he’s the best. 

Well, with today’s list, I wanna go into details about why I think Lee was the best. I tried to stick to more non-determinant things, but plenty slipped through, soo... it’s fine. I just wanna talk about Lee and why I like him so much.  

Also just wanna say thanks to @pi-creates​ for helping me out with these Top 5′s once again! We discussed a lot of these points and it was a huge help! :D

5. Lee is just... so funny sometimes. 

Not gonna spend too much time on this one because it’s more of a minor reason why I think he’s the best compared to the others but...

Lee is hilarious.

Like, even from the beginning, Lee knows how to make me laugh with his little “I’d fill that teacup with some bourbon if I could” line, and the fact that he is constantly falling down. The poor guy has to have at least three concussions by the end of ep1 alone. 

Also, his flirting skills...? Amazing. I’ll never get over, “You’re small.” 

He just has such a strange sense of humor about him that feels very dad-like... which makes perfect sense, but y’know. But even when he isn’t even trying, he still manages to get a laugh outta me for being such a weirdo.

Who goes up to a fence, looks at it, and is just like, “Hmmmm. Pointy.” 

Even after he’s bit, he manages to get a few painful laughs outta me when talking with Ben... though that laughter quickly dies when we reach then end of ep5 but..... y’know. 

4. His willingness to help those who have wronged him. 

Larry is a garbage man-- I think the mass majority of us would agree to that. From the moment we meet him, he’s all huffy and puffy, accusing Duck of being bitten and wanting to throw him out while taunting Kenny. 

But, no matter what, Lee is always the one to help Lilly break into the pharmacy to get Larry his medication. Because really, Lee could’ve said “Nope, not doin’ any of this, someone else help the asshole,” but he doesn’t. 

This is just a bigger example of Lee going out of his way to help people, even if they shitheads like Larry. Hell, even after Lee gets them the pills, Larry gives him a big thank you by punching him in the face and leaving him for death. Lee can hold a grudge about this, or he can let it go and do his best to get along with Larry for the better of the group. 

Another example with trying to help Larry despite him being the worst is, of course-- the meat locker. Now, this is determinant, but I feel bringing it up is important. 

Lee choosing to help Larry, even though Larry was just taunting him minutes before and Kenny’s being a real shitbird, says a lot about him as a person. 

Another example of Lee willing to help others he may not get along with would be Kenny, depending on your choices. When Kenny’s going through the hardest day of his life, Lee can take it upon himself to take care of Duck and comfort Kenny. 

Shit, what about Lilly? After she kills Carley/Doug right in front of everyone, he can still take pity on her and not leave her at the side of the road. 

I think because I have a really hard time helping those who have wronged me, I can look at this as an admirable trait that I wish came easier to me, y’know? 

3. Mourning the deaths of people he barely knew/didn’t know at all. 

This is an interesting one that Pi brought up, but there are several points within S1 where Lee will take small moments to mourn the deaths of those he either barely knew, or didn’t know at all, showing he has it in him to be really empathetic to other people's struggles and sufferings. 

Like, think about the woman at the motor-inn, the one you can give the gun to. Lee will stay behind no matter what to be with her, and you can see it on his face. He didn’t know her, didn’t get her name or anything. 

In Jolene’s camp in ep2, when Lee looks into the tent, he can find a stuffed animal and a picture of Jolene and her daughter and again, you can see it all on his face. He gives a sigh, and a moment of silence for them. 

Oh, the woman that Kenny wants to leave alone while they’re on a run to the drug store? This one is determinant, but if Lee chooses to shoot her, he does so to put her out of her misery-- he doesn’t want her to suffer anymore than she has to just so that they can grab an extra candy bar or two. 

Another big one would be the boy in the attic. Y’know, that chilling scene of the boy who starved to death/died of dehydration, became a walker, and then couldn’t even walk because he was so weak? Yeah, that one-- Lee carries that boy out to the yard and gives him a proper burial. He didn’t have to, but he did. 

Hell, he even mourns Brie when talking to Vernon in ep4, and that Anna woman that you see on the tapes after it’s revealed that she’s pregnant and has to give up her baby. 

Oh, and Chuck in the sewers? That one you can’t skip, and no matter what, Lee will stop and tell Chuck that he deserved better. 

Last example, but the dead couple in ep5-- this is one that everyone stands around in silence because it really is a chilling sight. 

This to me just shows a lot about Lee, especially in a setting where it’s easy for these characters to gloss over the deaths of those they didn’t know or to let others hurt for their benefit [y’know... Kenny with the bitten woman]. I’m sure there are even more examples, but I do have three other things to cover.

2. Taking responsibility for Clementine.

Okay, these last two are to be expected, but we’re gonna talk about them anyway. 

Listen, when Lee found Clementine alone at her house after she saved him from walker Sandra, he didn’t have to take her with him. He could’ve left her behind so that she didn’t “weigh him down” or “become a burden” since y’know, having a child in your care isn’t easy. 

But Lee didn’t do that. She saved his life, and he knows her parents are dead and not coming back. There wasn’t even a doubt in his mind-- he was taking this girl with him to ensure her safety. If he hadn’t, she could’ve ended up just like the boy in the attic, or worse. 

I also love that moment when they’re leaving the house and Clementine takes his hand. It’s sweet and shows us that they’re in this together now, and when Clementine shares her fears of leaving, he reassures her that he won’t leave her alone. 

Lee does his absolute best to care for her and give her what she needs. Hell, you can play as Scumbag Lee and most times, that doesn’t even matter-- he still expresses his care for her. 

Like... I don’t think game would work if the relationship between Lee and Clementine didn’t work, y’know? It’s strong and one of my favorite parts of S1 when I go back to it. I love seeing them grow from Lee being Clementine’s protector to Lee teaching her to survive and protect herself. 

Again, he didn’t have to do any of that. He could’ve pawned her off onto to anyone at the motor inn and called it a day, but he didn’t, and I love that about him. 

Lee goes through so much for a child that isn’t even his blood, but considers family nonetheless... which brings us to #1... 

1. Saving Clementine from the Stranger despite being bitten by a walker. 

Sigh.

Okay. I’m sure you’re tired of me saying this but... after Clementine is kidnapped by the Stranger and bitten by a walker, he could’ve given up. He didn’t have to go after Clementine-- he’s bit, he’s dying... he’s not gonna survive this, so why bother?

Because even though Lee knows he’s not going to survive the bite, he’s going to use the last of his time and energy to ensure that Clementine is safe. He’s gonna do whatever it takes to get Clementine the away from that madman who took her, make sure she remembers everything he taught her, make sure she’s armed, and make sure she knows where to go after he dies. 

Again, Lee didn’t have to go through this. He fought like hell and suffered plenty in making it to her. His last moments were agony for him, I’m sure. 

But he did it and you can tell he has no regrets because Clementine’s alive and going to make it. 

And y’know... that last damn scene in ep5 is just... a lot. 

I love it but I also hate it, and I believe I’ve mentioned this before but I’ve come to really love the ending where Clementine leaves Lee to turn. I know everyone gets upset because that means Lee will become a walker and [?] Everyone HATED that... but, I dunno... it shows something about Lee when you pick that choice. He’s more concerned about her than himself, y’know? Don’t waste the bullet, don’t risk the noise, don’t force her to physically kill him, let her walk away so she can remember her for what he was and not what he’s going to turn into... it’s reeeeal bittersweet. 

Then, of course, you can do the other choice and have Clementine shoot Lee which is just as great at making me cry, soo... thanks. 

Lee just goes through so much during this game-- he gets a second chance and everything he did, he did to ensure Clementine and his group’s survival and just... what a man. 

Lee Everett, you are the best and I love you. 

---

Honorable Mentions

-Not dropping Ben. Again, determinant, but I love a Lee who doesn’t drop children to their death because the mustache said so.  -Struggles with doors. Relatable.  -Is voiced by Dave Fennoy who gives a fantastic performance.  -Awkward flirt. Again, relatable. 

---

So what do you think? Do you agree with these reasons, or do you have any to add? Lemme know, it’s always fun to have character discussions. 

Have any suggestions for future T5F’s? Feel free to send ‘em in! :D

Next week’s T5F Top 5 GOOD Things About Season Two

[bluefirecas]

Hi! Rewatch/watch for the first time anon here!

So I had finished the series (I forgot where I was when I sent my last ask, so I've been skipping a few episodes thanks to Liz's Giant Supernatural Skip/Watch List which I highly recommend to see if you're wanting to do a rewatch, especially post s5 cause I'm a s1-5 purist and the episodes after s5 can be a bit dotty).

From the guidance of that watch list, and disagree or agree with me, but I feel like s15 wasn't so great to watch live? (please I skipped a few episodes, so your opinion would be really good) Like maybe it started off strongly but it had a bit of out of character stuff e.g. I feel like Cas, Dean and Sam getting overpowered by demons is a bit out of character especially when Cas is an angel of thee lord. Like I know they didn't know Rowena was there, but it would have made more sense maybe if they appeared at the throne where Rowena was or like maybe Rowena discovered them idk....I can't think of anything, I just feel like they could have written their meet up a little better?

Then 15x18 my beloved, I actually watched the confession in Spanish that way it was more textual rather than subtextual that Dean loved him back (I say textual because Dean said as do I Cas, where as it was more implied that Dean loved him back when he said don't do this Cas and the part where he was crying and couldn't answer the phone - Dean loved Cas back and no one will convince me otherwise OKAY). I may have cried, laughed and puked in my mouth a little (do you get that reference), I did love seeing Rachel Minor back in the show but again it was the empty and not THEE Meg (my favourite demon next to Crowley).

I think overall it was interesting to rewatch s1-10, there were some really good moments (especially cause I skipped the crappy episodes) and interesting as a first time viewer to watch s11-15. I DID however watch deancasnatural so I had some context as to what was going on post s10 beforehand, I don't think I'll watch spn for a while now, just because I have second hand sadness in that you as a fandom deserved a narratively better finale. However its onwards and upwards from here, Jensen will be in the boys and probably have some other fantastical new roles/release new music and such and Misha will be doing more stuff as well and in the end Cas did win cause he got to tell Dean he loved him. I'll say it again but supernatural will always be known as having the gay angel, and god bless Misha for giving us that legacy, the show would literally have been dead 10 years ago had he not stayed on. At least we have thousands upon thousands of deancas fanfics and I follow a few amazing tumblrs such as yourself who I love interacting about supernatural with :)

hola mishamigo! glad you enjoyed your watch and rewatch!!!!

i can't skip episodes its a curse, my one fatal flaw gfhdjhdkjk but thank you for reccing <3

tbh, watching s15 live was amazing because 1) we knew it was THEE END and 2) it actually was crazy? and 3) my mind was trying to connect all the dots and it seemed like they were connecting the same dots as me, you know?

though i do agree, the season got boring in the middle there, post ep 9/10 i'd say. but then it caught up until the dreadful finale ruined every single thing. ugh.

also, getting overpowered by demons - especially cas - IS A PLOT CONVENIENCE rather than character continuity smh. remember season 14 episode 1 ???? cas getting beaten and bound by demons like that? garbage. DISAGREE. spn committed many sins but the biggest one was their treatment of cas.

yes I got your meg reference! haha! was great to see rachel back <3

YOU HAD THE ULTIMATE 15x18 EXPERIENCE BESTIE CONGRATULATIONS, wish that were me </3

I have second hand sadness in that you as a fandom deserved a narratively better finale

I will cry again. THEY KILLED DEAN TOO.

and the last part of your ask - so true bestie! also, yep. stay away from spn for sometime. watch ANNE WITH AN E if its your genre! I adore that show!!! I keep reccing it to everyone hoping someone would watch it XDD let me know if you do!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

kiss kiss!

[m6p2s5gziax8]

Deconstructing Season 3 Jim Hopper

Note1 - I wrote this before the 2020.02.14 "Stranger Things 4 | From Russia with love" teaser. I'm glad they didn't try to drag out the "is Hopper really dead" question - he's 100% back! Note2 - Ok, now that so many of us are inside and ST4 is delayed, I'm going to finally post this and hope some folks find it interesting. Note3 - 6+ months later, I'm finally posting this for real, enjoy! :)

Please Read * !!! MASSIVE S3 SPOILERS !!! * I am a huge fan of Stranger Things and Jim Hopper. * This is a critical analysis of season 3 Jim Hopper, aka s3-Hop. * I would never want to sour anyone's enjoyment of the show or s3-Hop. * Please skip this essay if you enjoy s3-Hop! * If you viewed season 3 and thought "Hopper sure was different" or "Hopper wasn't enjoyable like in s1 and s2" then please read on!

uber-TL;DR * s3-Hopper was unbelievably and (for me) unenjoyably different from s1/s2 * for s4, my hope is this extreme character shift is acknowledged by Hopper to Mike, Eleven, and Joyce

longer-TL;DR There were many changes in Stranger Things with season 3: the mall, the bright color pallet, the love-quadrangle pitting El/Max vs Mike/Lucas, Dustin splitting off from the boys to join the Scoops Troop, and the campy, Scooby-Doo-esque Russian base plot. I can accept these changes and enjoy many of their elements.

But s3 brought one massive change that was not a new character, location, nemesis, or team combo: I felt Jim Hopper's character change was simply unbelievable and unenjoyable.

Sadly, I may be in a tiny minority that does not speak up or that critical comments about a beloved show get "black holed" by show boosters on social media. Many ST fans were sad and angry that Hopper appears to have died and the letter reading at the end of s3 was very dramatic and moving. So analysis, and especially criticism, of s3-Hop is frequently down-voted or not liked and thus not socialized.

This is an attempt to collect the thoughts of one very unhappy s1/s2-Hopper fan about s3-Hop. I hope readers will enjoy the long detailed analysis (sorry it is so long!) and I look forward to any comments and feedback.

FWIW, I'm a big Stranger Things fan and David Harbour is a great actor (even in s3) and a Good person IRL. I loved s1/s2 Jim Hopper and how he was written in the official book Darkness on the Edge of Town.

Here are some collected and reformatted writings I've done on Hopper and his s3 change. My fave ST character is Eleven so s3-Hop becoming so different and unenjoyable is particularly jarring for me.

s3-Hop was so different from s1/s2-Hop as to make it seem like he is a new character. Not only that, but I did not enjoy this new character who acts: * anxious * whiny * selfish * sarcastic * self-entitled * super-violent

Recall Hopper's pre-s3 history from s1, s2, and the official book Darkness on the Edge of Town: * volunteered for the military at 18 (not drafted) * 3 years combat in Vietnam, awarded Bronze Star * 2 years as a Hawkins policemen, marries, has a daughter * 6 years in New York City as a homicide detective * after his daughter dies, hits the bottle/pills, gets divorced * back in Hawkins as Chief of Police and dating women * goes into the Upside Down and literally brings Will back to life with Joyce * takes Eleven in, she runs away, they each apologize * Hop protects Eleven while she unloads at maximum to fend off the Mind Flayer and close the Gate * El goes to the Snow Ball dance and Mike comes over for 6 months to be with her (and smooch!)

Now look at s3-Hop - a very brief s3 timeline: * he's anxious, has no gravitas or authority - he gets advice from Joyce on El/Mike * the evening of s3e1, s3-Hop writes about "emotions" and how he's upset about change * Then s3-Hop continues writing wise words about life that are all read in s3e8 * AFTER writing why he's upset and these wise words, s3-Hop proceeds to act like a mega-jerk * he is gleeful when Eleven is upset that Mike is not coming over * s3-Hop bizarrely thinks whining to Joyce will make her like him * WORST OF ALL, s3-Hop does not say "daughter", "kid", "Eleven", or "El" from s3e2-s3e7

Hopper went from a mega-over-protective dad in s2 who was able to legally adopt Eleven right before the Snow Ball to a jarringly different character in s3. I can see s3-Hop making bad judgments and behaving badly but just not in this anxious/silly/immature way. Why not have him be brooding and angry? That would be consistent with s1/s2. I fear the writers wanted a whacky/silly/goofy characterization for s3-Hop so that's what we got instead.

I can not stress this point enough: Hopper went from being El's loving, protective parent to forgetting about her once he broke her and Mike apart.

At the start of s3e2, Hopper watching El being upset and storming into her room because she missed Mike, his smiling while eating cereal, and then gleefully singing while going to work is when I was broke and I thought: This is not my Hopper.

s3 Hopper and Eleven then Hopper forgets Eleven - an episodic timeline:

e1 - Hopper is anxious and unnerved by Mike visiting Eleven daily since it reduces s3-Hop's time with El e1 - Hopper lies to Mike about his Grandma being sick and then frightens him into not coming over

e2 - When Eleven is upset the next day about Mike not appearing, Hopper is joyful e2 - Note, the song played while s3-Hop is gleeful at Eleven's separation from Mike is the same one that was used when s2-Hop took El into his cabin and started cleaning it up. What a terrible ruination of a wonderful, charming moment from s2. When I hear "You Don't Mess Around with Jim" now I just think of how unhappy El was and how uncaring s3-Hop was of her feelings after he chased Mike away.

e3 - Hopper drives home drunk and enters the cabin yelling angrily only to burst in on El and Max with no Mike; s3-Hop is very happy e3 - Note, s3-Hop wrote in his letter the night before that he missed spending time with El so his accepting Max with El at the cabin is inconsistent with what he wrote.

e4 - Hop adventures with Joyce (no mention of Eleven)

e5 - Hop, Joyce, and now Alexei road trip on the way to Illinois e5 - Hop does not mention El but at the gas station Joyce is worried and calls Karen: JOY - Oh, hey, Karen, it's Joyce. Yeah, I... I'm just checking on Will. At the movies?

e6 - Alexei describes how the Russians are re-opening the Gate and Joyce quickly gets up: HOP - Where are you going? JOY - To call our children. e6 - Note, Joyce said "our children" so she is also worried for El while an indifferent Hop drinks vodka with Murray e6 - Hop calls the feds and afterwards sits down and lights a cigarette, then: JOY - So, now what? HOP - Now, we, uh... we wait. JOY - How long do we wait? HOP - As long as it takes. JOY - How can you just sit there being calm? HOP - I am not calm! JOY - Our kids are in danger! HOP - You said they were at the festival! JOY - Which is, like, ten minutes from the gate! HOP - What are you doing? Joyce? HOP - What are you doing? JOY - [she calls the feds again pressing them to hurry] e6 - Note, s3-Hop talks here (and in most of s3) with various combinations of sarcasm, exasperation, indifference, and irritation. Just hearing his tone is so unpleasant and jarringly different from s1/s2-Hop.

e7 - in the car ride home, Hopper sarcastically ridicules Joyce about her being concerned about the kids: HOP - Oh! Wait, that's right! We're on our way to rescue our children from the big, bad Fourth of July celebration! JOY - You know what, if you can't handle this, then just turn around and drop me off first. HOP - What are you gonna do? You gonna walk back to Hawkins? JOY - I will do anything if it gets me away from you!

e8 - FINALLY Hopper arrives at the Mall and holds Eleven while she drinks a soda and rests her wounded leg e8 - Inexplicably, Joyce agrees to go on a date with Hop before the climax when he disappears

Why did the Stranger Things writers change Jim Hopper so much and so negatively in s3?

I think the writers want us to enjoy (or experience in my case) a new, goofy, ha-ha, funny version of Hopper who: * can't parent a teenage girl dating a boy, * is chasing Joyce for a date and then a relationship while she is still grieving the loss of Bob, and * despite acting like a jerk "sacrifices" himself in the end.

Then, to cap the season off, we get gut punched emotionally by Eleven reading s3-Hop's letter.

The writers likely thought the viewers would fall into two groups: * s3-Hop likers who enjoy this new s3-Hop would be upset at his "death" and moved to tears by the letter * s3-Hop dislikers who were annoyed by s3-Hop would flip to likers because of his "sacrifice" and feel guilty so they are also moved to tears by the letter

But remember: the timing of s3-Hop writing the letter about emotions with sagely advice. He wrote it the end of s3e1, after getting advice from Joyce at the store and just before lying to and threatening Mike to break him up with El. I don't think the writers thought viewers would catch this since the letter is so dramatically read (awesome performances by David and Millie) way at the end of the season in s3e8 after s3-Hop disappeared.

Why did s3-Hop act so different from s1/s2 and so badly if he can write so openly and wisely in s3e1 about emotions in the letter?

Why does this dramatic character transition occur? * s1/s2-Hop - bad temper, apathetic, lackadaisical with a good heart and over-protective of Eleven * s3-Hop - anxious, whiny, sarcastic, immature, self-entitled, selfish and mocking of Joyce for worrying about the kids including El

The breaker with s3-Hop for me was his complete turn around regarding Eleven. For s3e1 his only interest was stopping Mike from coming over and taking up El's time which he wanted for himself. Once the breakup was achieved he was very happy despite El's obvious upset.

Note, after breaking up El/Mike we never see s3-Hop make Eggo extravaganzas or watch a western with Eleven like he said he yearned for in the letter. Nor does he mention it to Joyce after breaking El and Mike apart. He read El's note on the fridge and proceeded to adventure with Joyce, all the while whiny to her about wanting a relationship.

Joyce on three occasions showed concerned and called someone about "Will", "our children", and "Our kids" and finally she said to Hop "I will do anything if it gets me away from you" because of his mocking her concern. (That was my favorite line in s3! - Joyce is so awesome)

After breaking up Mike and Eleven, from e4 to e7 Hopper did not show concern or caring about his adopted daughter. It was not until s3e8 in the Mall when Hop is seen holding El while she sips a soda and later he talks to her and is loving and supportive.

Is this Jim Hopper from s2 who was an over-protective, super-loving father to Eleven? Does Mike coming over and using most of El's time turn this decorated Vietnam combat veteran, who was a 6 year NYC homicide detective and current Chief of Police into an anxious, shrill father who can't think straight?

Why not have Hopper react to wanting more time with Eleven and wanting to date Joyce like the normal s1/s2-Hop we know and love?

I blame the writers from wanting s3-Hop to have an arc from nervous/unhinged to "sacrificing himself" and then the letter being read.

I think the s3-Hop character change was done so we'd be gut punched when he "died" and then the letter was read. And there's the additional goal of getting Hopper to fit in with the "summer of love" theme of s3 with him breaking up a love pairing with El/Mike and pursuing his own love with Joyce.

But the timing of when Hop wrote the letter just doesn't make any sense because of how he acted later. Additionally, if s3-Hop can not follow the life advice he wrote down, why does he act badly in such a different way then when he acted badly in s1/s2?

Because of this extreme character change I sadly can not watch s3-Hop anymore without being upset. It's just so unbelievable and unenjoyable.

Did Sarah's death or Mike's dating Eleven or PTSD from Vietnan explain or justify Hopper's s3 change?

These items have been mentioned as possible explanations for s3-Hop being so different from s1/s2. I initially tried to use Mike dating El as an excuse for Hopper's changes but after three s3 viewings I gave up because of everything else I've written in this essay. Here are some reasons while these explanations do not work for me.

1) Sarah's death was wrapped up when Hopper and Joyce saved Will in the upside down. Hopper literally brought Will back to life, something he could not do with Sarah. This was in incredibly moving scene and the end of a powerful arc for Hopper. But the point is it was the end of the arc: Sarah's death still impacts Hopper in s2 dealing with Eleven but Sarah dying isn't a driving force for s3-Hop and how he acts. That arc wrapped up and though it guides s2-Hop, he still acts in a consistent manor. In season 3 there's no mention of Sarah making s3-Hop stressed out so that arc is not in play.

2) Mike dating Eleven and their disrespecting Hopper are certainly stresses for s3-Hop but his reaction to breaking them up is out of character. El and Mike giggle and whisper with each other. Then s3-Hop - an adult, parent, and police chief - cruelly lies to Mike that his grandma is sick and then holds him in the car and threatens him after Mike angrily used profanity. Many commenters call Mike a "little sh|t" and side with tough guy s3-Hop and his approach. It would be consistent and believable for s3-Hop to act like this at night and then the next morning to have shown some remorse or some kind of caring to Eleven. s3-Hop could have said "too bad Mike isn't coming, let's have Eggos tonight and watch a Western." But he did not say anything to El. Instead, he smiled and then happily sang in the car on the way to work.

3) PTSD does not explain s3-Hop's behavior since we never see any evidence in the show that he is having flashbacks or any issues related to Vietnam. Also, writers just can't use PTSD as a do-anything-whenever-you-want-with-a-character excuse. Not only is there no Vietnam PTSD evidence in the episodes, there are many quotes from the official book with Hopper that he does not have PTSD.

3a) In s1, s2, and s3 the words "Vietnam" and "veteran" are never spoken. The only indication of Vietnam is a box under under Hop's cabin floor that Eleven sees when she discovers the trap door. Hopper never speaks of dreams or flashbacks and there is no other indication he has PTSD from Vietnam. His divorce, drinking, and pill abuse are all from Sarah dying based on what we see in the episodes.

3b) From the official book Stranger Things: Darkness on the Edge of Town (published May 28 2019):

1984 DECEMBER 26 - 11 days after the Snow Ball Dance with Jim and El in the cabin: The truth was, Hopper realized, that he didn’t want to talk about Vietnam, not because it was a trauma or a personal demon, but because it was ancient history—but more than that, it felt like part of some other person’s life. Although he hadn’t really stopped to consider it properly, he was aware of how he had compartmentalized his past in his own mind. So, yes, Vietnam had been difficult, and he had come back changed—as most people did, of course—but it just wasn’t relevant, not anymore. That wasn’t him, not now. Because he had come to accept that there were really only two parts to his life. Before Sara. After Sara. And nothing else really mattered. Vietnam included. He just wasn’t quite sure how he was going to explain that to El. “Because,” said Hopper with a smile, “Vietnam was a long time ago. I mean, a really long time ago. And I’m not that person now.” He leaned forward on the table, resting on his elbows. “Look, I’m sorry, really. I can understand that you are curious. And I understand you want to know more about me. I’m your—” He paused. El raised an eyebrow, cocked her chin again, waiting for the response. Hopper sighed, happily. “I’m your dad, now. And yes, there is a lot you don’t know about me. Vietnam included. One day I’ll tell you about it, when you’re older.”

1977 JULY 13 - Homicide Detective Hopper in New York City: This was a support group for veterans of the Vietnam War. Hopper knew such groups existed. He knew full well that such groups were needed. That he’d come out of the war unscathed and with his marbles all where they should be was a blessing. Okay, it had changed him, and he wasn’t going to pretend that it hadn’t been difficult at times. But what the war had done to some people... He’d never felt the need to attend a meeting like this himself, but he was glad they were there for those who did feel that need.

How can Jim Hopper's portrayal recover in season 4?

First off, there is no doubt that David Harbour is returning to play Jim Hopper in season 4 (and s5 if there is one). This is David's big, career making role that is getting him award nominations/wins (the most for any adult ST actor), and he just got a huge raise (80k to 350k per episode). And, most importantly, he loves doing the show and the people in it (especially Millie).

Since what's done is done with s3-Hop, what can happen with Hopper in s4 to bring him back into a believable and enjoyable form for huge ST fans who miss s1/s2 Jim Hopper?

I am very much hoping that Hopper will dial back or eliminate his new s3 qualities, like being whiny, selfish, complaining constantly, etc. Please bring back some of his old s1/s2 strength and empathy under a grumpy exterior.

And I hope Hopper does a reset with three people:

1) Mike - Hopper needs to do more to make up to Mike than just saying "Mike, Be careful" like he did in s3e8 at the Mall. Hop should clearly say that he accepts Mike as El's boyfriend and that he knows he'll do everything possible to keep her safe. Which is actually what Mike did for all of s3 while s3-Hop was adventuring with Joyce.

2) Eleven - While the Letter explains why Hop was feeling upset (change, less time with El, etc), it does not justify how s3-Hop acted afterward when he lied and threatened Mike breaking them up. Hop needs to clearly apologize to Eleven for being selfish, immature, and inconsiderate.

3) Joyce - I hope that Hopper admits to Joyce that he acted like a jerk towards her and that he promises to be a better person in general and especially better with her. That's the only way I can make any sense out of Joyce and Hopper being any kind of couple: Hop has to own up to his terrible behavior towards Joyce and promise to be better.

The End! Sort of... :)

Well, you've read or skimmed or skipped all the way to the almost end and I thank you for taking time to look at my thoughts about Jim Hopper's portrayal in season 3. I still love Hop and think David does an incredible acting job with him in each season. I've been 100% sure he's coming back since the Duffers have bluntly said: no body = no death. So while I'm a little scared at how Hopper will be characterized in season 4, I'm also very excited to see it! Word is that season 4 will have more episodes (10, 11, 12?) than normal. Plus, the Duffers just signed a big deal with Netflix so I'm wondering if season 4 will be a semi-finale for the series and give the Duffers and the stars a break to do other stuff and then come back for a movie or a season after more ideas have percolated in the Duffers' creative minds.

So, here's looking forward to season 4 when we can see Jim Hopper evolve along with all the other great Stranger Things characters.

[lliaq]

okay, now that I’ve slept on it I’m actually gonna try to put down my thoughts on the season, so obvious TUA season 2 spoilers below and it’s probably going to get really long

Just to preface this, I haven’t read any of the comics, so I can’t speak to how the show compares to them.

Guess I’m gonna start with the positives, and I think what I enjoyed most about the season where just little moments between the siblings. Obvious standouts being Ben getting to talk to Vanya and Diego. I think those were the only two scenes that acutally made me tear up a bit. It was just really nice seeing him get that opportunity, and something that I’ve wanted to see since S1. It would have been even nicer if he got a moment with all his siblings, but hey, I’ll take what I can get. Another one was at the very end with Vanya and Diego just sitting on the stairs together. Just a nice little moment, even if it was short.

Luther apologizing to Vanya was a pleasant surprise and showed that he actually used his time alone to reflect and have a bit of character growth, so that was another plus.

I overall liked Allison and Ray’s relationship, and I was okay with the way it ended. It was kind of bittersweet, but it made sense and felt in character.

On that note, I also liked that Allison learned to achieve things without her powers, because never having to do that was kind of a big note of her character in S1. Not necessarily sure it had to be done by taking her voice away, I think if anything it would have been even better if she did it by choice, but I’ll get back to that.

I enjoyed the whole old Five vs “young” Five thing. Not much more to add to that, really.

And lastly, I enjoyed Reginal a lot more than I thought I would. It was interesting to see a bit of a different side of him when he was with Grace, felt like it gave his character a bit more depth, and I mean the actor is just fantastic. Like, I fucking despise Reginald, but it’s a joy to watch his performance. The way he went in on Diego at the dinner was fucking brutal, man. That was heartbreaking to watch, and the fact that none of the others stood up for him sucked, but honestly I think it just shows that despite them bonding a little, they still have a ways to go in terms of being a functional family. S1 didn’t span all that much time, and they were separated for most of their time in the 60s, so it makes sense that they’re still learning in that department. Them getting into the car with Vanya showed that they’re getting there though. Also, to get back to Reginald, I think they’ve made it pretty clear now that he’s an alien, so there’s that too. No more confusion about that.

Now on to the so-so stuff. Things that were neither all good nor all bad.

Vanya & Sissy - oh boy man. I mean first of all: give me that lesbian farm life, hell yes. I was rooting for them from the start, and I just really loved all their interactions. Also, idk if that was intentional on Ellen’s part or not, but her chemistry with Sissy was leagues above whatever the fuck was going on with Leonard. That being said- I’m personally not a fan of cheating storylines, just in general. I get why, in this case, but yeah. And unlike with Ray, I really wish they would have taken Sissy and Harlan with them to 2019. Because, for one: can we at least have one happy gay couple on this show? And second: They both deserved to have a life where they’re not constantly judged for who they are. From a character standpoint I get that going to the future would be really scary and shit, but just imagine man. Vanya and Sissy could have been together without having to hide, and Harlan could have vastly benefited from the better understanding of autism we have now. Not that either of those aspects are perfect in 2019, but they’re a long way from the 60s.

Diego and Lila’s relationship I honestly didn’t care much about. It felt like they just completely dismissed Patch and the impact her death had, by not even so much as giving her a mention. And I also just didn’t really feel it man. I mean they spent some time together in the asylum, but it seemed like they weren’t even friends really - and then by the end of the season they love each other, like girl, it’s been less than a week. Relax.

Lila on her own, I did kind of like, but I feel like she could have used a bit more development, and a little less ‘I had sex with this guy once like five days ago and now I love him more than anything’

Ben. Ben Ben Ben. I was kind of up and down on his arc. I actually liked that he was just so done with Klaus’ shit, even if calling Dave a fling might have crossed the line a bit for me. Some of the posession stuff was weird (though I’m glad they at least had the ground rules talk), but at the same time getting to see him experience the most basic sensations like air on his face and dirt under his feet was nice. He did also save the world through the power of communication and love, so you know- good job, Ben. And then they killed him (again). Ngl, I was pissed at that- but I figured they would probably find a way to bring him back somehow, so I held off judgement on that until the end, and I was right. Still not entirely happy, and whether or not that’s going to change will likely depend on what happens with S3.

Klaus’ cult story line was kind of eh. I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t really like it either. His attempts to save Dave were more interesting, even if they ultimately didn’t work. Other than that, he didn’t really go through any growth this season. It did piss me off that Allison enabled his drinking after he relapsed. Fuck that.

I’m glad we got to see a little bit of how Allison losing her voice affected her, but I think they could have done more there. Idk, it just felt a bit lackluster for something so huge. Like I mentioned earlier, her living a life of never actually having to work for anything was something that shaped her character and personality in S1, and I‘m glad she’s had that realization. That being said, I think it would have been even more impactful if she worked for what she wanted w/o using her powers by choice, showing that she was was willing to put in the effort to grow and change, rather than being forced into it by circumstance. But you know, sometimes life works like that, and people don’t change unless they’re forced into a situation where they have no other option.

And, somewhat related, I think the last point for this section is Allison and Vanyas relationship. While I’m glad that they’re closer now, I wish they would have at least adressed Vanya slitting her throat. I understand that Allison doesn’t blame her, we already saw that at the end of S1, but c’mon. At least have a short conversation about it, because that was a big thing. It feels like they just used that to fuel the ‘Allison needs to learn how to do things without her powers’ storyline, and then it just got dropped, never to be mentioned again. The show tends to do that a lot, and it completely diminishes the impact of these big moments.

Okay, now to the purely negatives, here we go.

Luther moping over Allison. For the love of god. Listen, Luther did grow on me this season, compared to S1 - but I was so fed up with his moping around. Can we just not do the incest thing anymore, please. I already went through that shit with Shadowhunters (except there it at least wasn’t actually incest), I don’t wanna do it again.

Harlan. I honestly did not care for him at all. That being said, I usually don’t care about child characters, so that’s not a big surprise and not necessarily the show’s fault. But also, the fuck even was that storyline. I’m sorry, but it just made no sense. Which actually leads me right to the next point

Inconsistently written powers. Diego doing the thingy with the bullets like since when tf can he do that? I understand that the show already changed his powers from the comics, but up until that point it was strictly about knives. We never see him curve or manipulate (or whatever it is he actually does) any other objects, so this just felt so random and out of nowhere, and like they just wanted to give him a ‘badass powers moment’. If they wanted to indicate that his powers were more than what we’ve seen in S1, literally all they had to do was have him use them on something that’s not a knife at any point in the season. A 2 second shot, done. And then you don’t get to the finale and are suddenly like “the fuck”. But, boy, Vanya was even worse. Sounds. That’s what we learn her powers are in S1. Sounds, she manipulates sounds and sound waves. So how in the everliving fuck does she a) bring someone back to life, b) tranfser part of her powers to that person and create a magical connection, and c) take that part of her powers back? None of that makes any sense whatsover. The stuff in S1 where she’s sucking the life out of her siblings was already a stretch, but they’ve just made it worse this season. And this is just a minor gripe with the VFX, but her floating out of the barn looked so bad. I know it’s hard to make floating/flying people look good and natural, but other shows and movies have done it, so it’s not like it’s impossible.

And lastly: The villains. They were terrible, period.

I don’t like the Handler that much, she’s just so...plain and boring and really the only thing she has going for her are the outfits. Nice outfits don’t make a good story though. But the Swedes were even worse. Just every scene they were in felt like it dragged and I just wanted to skip past it. And then they have the fucking funeral scene with swedish Adele like are you kidding me? Am I supposed to feel bad for these pieces of white toast with zero personality or development? ??? Honestly, they could have cut them out completely and replaced them with more development for Lila and I would have been perfectly happy with that. Or replaced them with literally anything else. I don’t think I would have felt like I was missing anything important. Also, AJ? What was up with that? Again, haven’t read the comics so idk if he’s a big deal or not in them, but I really thought he would play a bigger role. That felt like such a waste of a character and like what even was the point?

I really feel like AoS (esp. S1-4) raised my bar for well written and developed villains. Admittedly, a 22 episode season allows for a lot more time to actually do that than a 10 episode season, but still. If you have less time to develop characters, then you need tighter writing and TUA completely dropped the ball on that one.

Okay. I think that’s it. I mean, I probably forgot a bunch of stuff, but these were the things most prominently on my mind after letting everything sink in for a bit. Overall I’m pretty meh about the season as a whole. I’ll probably watch S3 (if they renew it, that is), but I’m not super hyped about it or anything. The only thing keeping me interested are sibling interactions and the Ben reveal (even though his emo hair is an atrocity. I’m sorry Ben, I love you, but no.)

[murasaki-murasame]

With Gala Leif almost certainly being on the horizon, and the skill share system also coming out soon and presenting all sorts of interesting implications about how characters will be built from now on, I’m gonna just go ahead and post my current hopes and predictions for what Leif’s kit might look like when he comes out.

Firstly, I think the chapter 13 interlude makes it super obvious that alt-Zethia is going to be our new story unit from chapter 14, which leaves this month’s gala spot open for Leif, so I’m just gonna go ahead and continue to assume it’ll be him even though we technically don’t know for sure, lol.

Anyway, if we just assume Gala Leif is gonna be a thing that exists in the first place, it’s pretty obvious he’ll be a sword unit, and honestly I want him to be a flame sword. Which is weird to say, but we already have gala sword units for wind, light, and shadow, and he really doesn’t look like a water unit, so that just leaves flame. Also we’re right about to get mVolk so it’d be nice to get a new gala flame unit to use in it.

On the one hand we have way too many flame swords in general, but honestly the main issue with them is just the fact that they’re pretty much all DPS units who overlap with each other too much. But I think Gala Leif is very likely to be some kind of support unit, going by his whole character type, and the fact that I’m pretty sure he used a team defense buff in the chapter 9 battle we had with him. And if he’s a support unit, then he’d at least serve a different role than the other flame swords we have.

The interesting thing about him potentially being a support unit is that the skill share update would give him [and all support units] a lot of flexibility, and a lot of room to use shared skills to cover up any holes in his kit, so he can get away with not having certain things in his kit if he can just use certain shared skills. Mainly, even if he doesn’t have any healing in his kit, he might still be able to substitute for H-Lowen if he can just use a shared healing skill. So basically there’s a high chance that he’ll at least avoid the awkward situation of missing out on some vital piece of team support utility that makes him basically useless, lol.

There’s not really a whole lot to go on to try and get any concrete guesses about what his kit itself will be like, but in terms of what I want out of him, I basically just want him to be a universal flame support unit, since that’s the part of the flame roster that’s most lacking right now. There’s lots of really strong flame DPS units, but the only viable support units are basically just H-Lowen and maybe Emma. This might change with the skill share update, but I still think we need more options.

So this is just pure theorycrafting, but I’d like to see him be a stance unit like Valerio and co, with two stances based around offensive and defensive support. There’s a lot of ways they could have that play out, but I like the idea of him having an S1 that gives either a 30% strength or 30% defense buff based on his stance, while his S2 gives a team life shield based on around 50% of his HP. This way he’d be able to give different types of buffs without being too offensive or too defensive. I also just think it’d be neat if his S1 was similar to Patia’s, but obviously better since he’d be a gala unit. And I think the idea of him being a flame support unit with a life shield could be really interesting. It’s not a Grace-exclusive mechanic anymore, so it’s not impossible. It might have some unintentionally negative interactions with Volk’s plague mechanic, though, if having a life shield active while at full HP means that heals wouldn’t be able to get rid of your plague, but I don’t really know how that would play out since nobody in flame can use life shields yet.

His first ability, and whatever unique mechanic that gives him, is the hardest thing to speculate about since they could do anything with it, but if we keep going down this whole train of thought, I like the idea of him giving an additional, passive team buff based on what stance he has active. Which mainly could be really interesting if he could, say, provide a passive team health regen effect while in his defensive stance. If that would be enough to cleanse plague even on someone with a life shield on, that could really help him replace H-Lowen in Volk without even having to equip a heal skill. And if it’s along the lines of T-Hope’s team healing doublebuff, or the Odd Sparrows healing doublebuff, then it wouldn’t be very potent healing, but would do enough to handle plague, and hopefully deal with unavoidable damage as well.

And maybe in his ‘offensive stance’, he could provide something like a team skill haste buff. I actually don’t think a passive team strength buff would be ideal, since that’d put everyone one step closer towards maxing out their strength buffs. But a skill haste buff for the team could be interesting, even if it’s pretty minor.

And having these sorts of effects [mainly the heal] tied to different stances, along with his skills, would give you a reason to switch between them, instead of just spending all your time in whatever mode gives you the team strength buff skill. Since you’d need to switch over to the defensive mode to get the health regen effect. And if you wanted to instead just use shared heal skills instead, you’d have to thus opt not to use more offensive shared skills instead. So it’d give you different options to play around with depending on how you want to specialize him, in a way that I think would work nicely with what they seem to be going for with the shared skill system in general, and how it’ll give you more team composition options.

Also as a support unit he’d really benefit from having buff time as an ability or a chain co-ability or something. I don’t really have many ideas for what his regular ability and whatnot will be beyond that, though. Skill prep might be really nice, though, since it’d be useful in both HMS and Volk, and let him avoid using Chocolatiers.

There’s also the option of if they might give him the ability to attack from a ranged distance like Tobias can, maybe tied to one of his stances, but that might make him a bit too similar to Tobias, and I’m not sure if it’d be a big deal for him to be a melee unit instead.

One thing that’s also interesting to think about is the fact that the version update post indirectly confirms that you’ll be able to equip gala character’s skills as shared skills, since they gave the example of OG Ranzal being able to equip a skill from Gala Ranzal. So that puts some limits on what I think they’ll do with Gala Leif’s S1, no matter how they decide to design him in general, since they’d want to avoid making it really overpowered as a shared skill. This is also assuming that either all gala character S1s will be available to use, or none of them will, but it might be on a case by case basis. I guess we’ll see when the update comes out in a few days, lol. But one way or another it makes me think that his S1 won’t be super powerful, or that a lot of it’s utility might be tied to his ability, like with Gala Cleo or Gala Alex. Which is one reason why I think something like a stance system that toggles what his S1 does might be likely, since if you used it as a shared skill you’d only be able to use the ‘default’ effect, so they could do something more powerful as an ‘alternate’ effect for it.

So yeah this is basically my idea of what I want him to be like as a character, with the goal of him being a meaningful addition to the flame meta who fixes some of the holes it has at the moment.

I’m still bracing myself for the curveball possibility of us getting, like, Gala Laxi instead this month, and Leif continuing to never come home, but let’s just hope that doesn’t happen, lmao. I might actually just skip the whole gala out of spite if it’s not Leif, at this point, but hopefully it won’t come to that.

[dingbingbats]

scoring/rating some podcasts i listen to because I have nothing better to do. it’s mostly my opinion

taz: 3.2/5 balance is a 5 (has some minor issues, but greatly makes up for them), amnesty is 1.5 (2 felt too generous and 1 felt too harsh) (the more i think about it, the worse it gets. the beacon does similarly but better), and grad is a 3 so far (seriously mixed bag. it looks to be getting better, but we’ll see )

(wizzard wizzard productions’) the beacon: 4/5 3.5 for season one, 4.5 for season two. the vas and editing are great and the writing is really good at making you sympathize with characters who weren’t likable beforehand (mostly newt, hawk, and lassie), but bee never really gets called out for her some of her manipulative behavior in s1 (while yes, hawk definitely pushed her and she did occasionally apologize, she never really got grew from it)

dark dice: 3/5 the horror elements and concepts are great, but i’ve only been invested in about two of the pcs (Iaus and Fylgia) so the deaths don’t really effect me

dndads: 4/5 it’s very fun and still has a lot of potential, but as it stands only half of the pcs have really had character arcs

fantasy high (freshman year): 3.5 characters are fun, but ultimately lacking in development. besides kristen, i really can’t point to any moments where a character really took something and grew from it. that’s probably what sophomore year is for, but i don’t have dropout so yeah. pure evil villains can be fun, but the lack of screen time after the reveal kinda just makes the bbeg not very interesting or fun. biz glitterdew is honestly more developed. brennan and the cast are absolutely wonderful though and i can’t wait to see sophomore year when it’s available for free

masks and martyrs: 3.5 the characters are fun and well developed, but the finale with spark’s motivations was a bit ehhhhh. in all fairness, i did skip reagan’s backstory paralogue but yeah

middle:below: 3/5 the concept and characters are interesting, but underdeveloped in s1. i look forwards to the next season, though. also huehue funi sans undertale cat

naddpod: 4/5 the bahumia campaign had some very good stuff and the cast has great chemistry, but it can be very hard to listen to multiple episodes because there’s long combat in almost every episode

quest friends!: 4.8/5 good. shit. may very well end up being as close to perfection as a 95% improvised show can be. only thing bogging it down is the first two arcs and crime and courtship not balancing plot and character in the same scene as well as questionable measures did

the roaring trainers: 3.5/5 not quite a 4, above a three. it’s very fun, i love our good good idiot boys, the pokemon are very well handled, the combat is quick and fun, but it’s still early on and has a tone of aspects to hone

[joneswuzhere]

in anticipation of episode 4.14, i watched ‘how to get away with murder’ s1

here’s my thoughts on how rd might be playing out an homage to the show, and on what these parallels might suggest to expect from the whole ‘jughead dies’ plot

below are complete spoilers for ‘how to get away with murder’ s1, a few spoilers for s2 and s3. and also. spoilers for donna tartt’s ‘the secret history.’ cool ok here we go

- first. we’re abbreviating the title to htg

- second. htg’s plot is pretty convoluted and out-of-order, so it’s hard to mention one thing without having to explain four other things. riverdale’s format is so chill in comparison. i apologize for repetition and confusing timeline discussion

- also, maybe u watched this show! or maybe u want to. or maybe ur impatient and just here for riverdale lol. i’m not going to make u scroll through a whole plot summary of htg’s first season. BUT i did write one up here if that’s something u want to read. it will probably make the following easier to understand, but i’ll do my best to make it accessible without that

- third. like i said, my goal here is finding potential parallels and, based on that, speculating on what rd is doing with this plot. i have no conclusions but i do have some thoughts and maybe you do too

- ok the basics of htg:

- this show is the visual inspiration for rd’s flash forward hook, as well as for the murder cover up in the woods.

- the show structure is: a main timeline, intercut occasionally with flash forwards to a murder that happens at the midseason point. similar to rd

- a difference: in rd, the flashes jump to different points over a period of days - burning their clothes, the search party, body identification, then the arrests, the line up, and then back to the ‘death’ scene. in htg, all the flashes jump to different points during one particular night, and only deal with the groups effort to dispose of the body and evidence.

- where was i. oh, but there’s 2 murders in htg. murder #1 happened before the series start point. in the main timeline, the investigation into murder #1 builds up to the midseason climax that results in murder #2 (the one the group is covering up).

- after the timeline has caught up to the midseason murder, then the flash forwards are replaced with flash backs that begin to reveal past details about murder #1.

- so right away, what stands out to me is the possibility that, once the main timeline catches up to whatever happens to jughead in the woods, rd will continue to follow this format. but what would rd flash back to? hang on,

- the genre here is inverted detective story, where instead of finding out someone was killed and following along to find out who did it,, you learn right away who’s doing the murdering and how. the mystery lies in whether they’ll get away with it and/or what led up to that point.

- in htg, murder #1 is a regular mystery, and murder #2 is inverted. in rd, jughead’s death is an inverted mystery, and there’s several other regular mysteries/deaths: chipping’s suspicious suicide, the old generation of the quill & skull society, + the missing kids that jughead and betty are investigating

- so it may transpire that we see flashbacks to those missing students, like moose or the stonewall 5. or maybe context on why chipping jumped, what dupont said to him. or a glimpse into fpj1′s time at stonewall. i’m spitballing

- hm a note on genre here: maybe there’s a conversation to be had about inverted murder mysteries and perfect murders (recall, the theme dupont assigned for the class). like, crime fiction specifically told through the perspective of getting away with it. (a perfect murder is specifically a murder that resists all explanation. no suspects, no evidence)

- ok. the first half of htg s1 is the lead up to the night of murder #2. the second half of the season focuses on how participating in and covering up a murder is affecting the people involved. grief, guilt, anxiety, nightmares. strain and changes in their relationships with each other, friends, and family. again, perhaps we’ll see rd focus on this in a similar way.

- hey btw, does that sound a little familiar to u? it might if you read the secret history. we already know this book is one of the influences behind rd’s s4 plot, but i was surprised at how much overlap is apparent between htg’s plot and the book plot. i made a chart about it lmao. more on that later

- what else fits into a parallel between rd and htg?

- some similarities between characters. htg has a group of law students from privileged backgrounds who are super competitive with each other, similar to the stonewall kids. and there’s the one outsider student who gets into the class last minute, is far less privileged, and who has a tragic past and a head for snooping and investigation.

- there’s a student/teacher affair that gets violent. it goes down pretty much the opposite of in rd; the girl gets pregnant, is totally in love, suggests the affair should be revealed to the teacher’s wife, and then she goes missing and turns up dead (murder #1)

- also, unlike rd where we have only donna’s word, in htg the affair is confirmed, and revealed through a bunch of evidence - dick pics on phones and postmortem pregnancy results, etc

- some other minor details from the show that the rd writers may have reflected upon:

- a window jumper suicide. circumstances very not the same tho

- a blink-and-miss-it scene with a dog named mr. chips, which is the nickname of the film character who rd’s mr. chipping is probably named after (goodbye mr. chips)

- also, ok. the 2 murders story is the show’s long A plot, but each episode also has a short B plot in the form of court cases that annalise and her group of student/interns work on. (btw lead character annalise is a criminal defense lawyer & law professor). details worth mentioning from some of these subplots:

- there’s a case involving cult brainwashing. a former devotee is charged with something terroristic with a bomb she did years ago, idk. annalise has her visit her old cult leader in prison to ask him to help her by testifying that he forced her to participate. this backfires - she falls back under his sway, he escapes custody during the trial, and they run away together, abandoning the family she made after leaving the cult

- in this ep the patty hearst trial is mentioned - the difficulty of trying to legally prove someone acted under duress, or prove they were brainwashed. and how trying to claim both at the same time is a terrible legal defense

- in another case, a woman is charged with murdering her housemaid while sleepwalking. she resists help from annalise bc she feels so guilty. the woman says ‘can u imagine waking up to realize that you killed somebody you loved? that’s what i did.’ except she didn’t; they figure out she was being framed by the real killer, her husband, who was jealous bc he thought he was the only one sleeping with the maid but he found out his teen son was too. yikes

- there is so much cheating in this show smh. anyway,

- these subplots are interesting to compare to rd, but sort of trivial in terms of htg’s overall plot. so what happens in the A plot after murder #2?

- a catch-up if u skipped the plot summary: annalise keating, lawyer, professor, is the central character. she’s direct, takes no shit, and puts up an emotionally impervious wall that keeps almost everyone out. but it’s also apparent from ep1 that she’s really suffering - her marriage is falling apart, she’s cheating and finds out her husband, sam, is too. they agree to repair things and sam seems to be making a big effort, but she keeps catching him in lies that point toward murder #1.

- in the latter half of the season, while she’s helping make sure the kids get away with murder #2 (they accidentally kill sam while pursuing him as the murder suspect), annalise’s grieving process is a focus. there’s an emphasis on her appearance as her armor, guarding her complicated grief over the trauma of her loss and the destruction of her trust. her cold exterior is both a protection and, at the same time, a point of suspicion for police, lawyers, and public who wonder how she can be so unaffected. meanwhile, in private, she has a total breakdown.

- this builds from a parallel that’s played with throughout the season - annalise’s control of her image vs hiding or confronting the truth. like, at one point, it’s evening, she wipes off all her makeup and pulls off her wig, then turns barefaced to her husband and asks him bluntly for the truth, why she caught him in a huge lie. and the flip side, later walking around with her whole look in place, as if nothing is wrong, is part of her effort to cover up the murder.

- i bring this up bc it reminds me of something that (the brilliant, the illuminating) @bettycooperoutfitwatch​ talked about in her 4.05 post, regarding That Sweater.

- in this post, at the flash forward arrest scene, she points out ‘it’s betty cooper in disguise as betty cooper.’ which, like. i’m floored by this observation

- the persona betty originally created to conform to her parents’ unattainable expectations of perfection and normality, now (not for the first time) dialed up and re-purposed to try to disperse suspicion???? love this

- annalise and betty are very Not alike as characters. but it seems that betty, like annalise, will be involved in the murder of her loved one. i’m interested to see if rd will follow htg’s emphasis on emotional turmoil and pretense in the aftermath of trying to get away with something horrible

- oh but that reminds me, i promised a chart

- i haven’t read the secret history and i have no desire to, but i foraged enough details to be able to point out some bare bones similarities going on here. it’s important to include this bc, at the moment, it complicates any attempt to figure out which, if either, inverted murder plot rd might be paralleling at any time.

- in other words, all my speculations here about htg parallels might be worthless bc i might be looking at the wrong text. it’s cool, i think that makes it more fun

- book spoilers in here. sorry it’s small, u can try to zoom in here

- please feel free to jump in with corrections or more details if you’ve read the book

- [update as of 2/25: i’m reading the fuckin book after all, so i may make another post with an updated chart at some point. maybe]

- last thing. in htg, the inverted mystery (whether or not the kids get away with it) is resolved by annalise planting evidence that frames someone else (whom she chooses bc she’s confident she can get him safely out of the charges). the bottom line there is: someone innocent is framed for murder #2.

- and then a new development - one kid involved in murder #2 freaks out and may decide to turn the others in - leads to a 3rd death. hm (post s4 update: that’s jonathan i guess)

- actually no, the real last thing. wikipedia says there’s a subplot in htg s2 that involves blackmailing annalise and others with uhhhh creepy surveillance videos of them, some that incriminate them in murder #2.

- and then, in s3, drawn out over another series of flash forwards, there’s a character death reveal... of the guy who’s most in parallel to jughead.... lmao. and speak nothing of s6. so like, there’s definitely potential for more or continuing parallels here

- i kind of hope not though, bc i don’t have it in me to watch more of this show. it’s Very high strung, i can’t deal with it (post s4 update: no i never watched any more of this show but yes, that was all definitely used by rd)

- bonus: wait do u want some of my opinions on the actual show?? favorite characters: annalise, bonnie, and oliver. i liked the fast pace but the constant tension stressed me out. also, not enough lesbians; i kept expecting bonnie and annalise to kiss. the guy who plays wes.... not a very good actor, is he? viola davis though: amazing. that’s all. watch if u like stress. sorry i spoiled everything

[eerna]

ah wait! What kind of changes did the anime make in noragami? I'm one of those ppl who r lazy and just start reading the manga where the anime left off (and I know they changed some things, like that entire plot point at the end of s1, but that's all I think?) Thanks in advance!

Oh boy. I have talked abt this a lot and haven't seen the anime in a loong while, so for more details you can search my blog, but I can do it again in short bc I am really pissed at it.

There are so many non-plot important things in Noragami that they justdecided to skip or change. For starters: they gave Yato a plot where he had to learn shinki were humans and not just tools for him to use to make Yukine more sympathetic I guess. This is outrageously wrong and completely kills Yato as a functional character. Yato is literally the ONLY GOD IN THE SERIES who makes no distinction between them- for him, noras and shinkis are people no matter what. Like, in the anime he forces Yukine to kill that infected girl as Yukine screams and begs for him not to do it. Idk about you, but if I were Yukine, I'd start rebelling against him and not care for him too, so Yukine being a brat is justified now. Then Hiyori has to have a conversation with Yato in which she tells him "Hey Yukine is a teen boy and you should treat him as such" and he acts like he never thought of it that way. In the manga, Hiyori saves Yukine from the infected girl, he cries in her lap, end. In the manga no one understands why would a minor god like Yato have a hafuri who cares so much about him- it's because Yato is a kind soul who withstood all the irrational, hissy crap Yukine has put him through and Yukine understood and decided to be better for him. He saw the boy and decided "I'll be a good dad to him bc neither of us had one", he never had to be told to do it. It is basically what makes Yato redeemable, what shows us that he can learn to love properly and deeply because it's his natural response to seeing a lost boy like Yukine. But in the anime...... that makes no sense bc he was an asshole and deserved what was coming to him for traumatizing a fourteen year old. Thanks

Then comes the issue of Hiyori. As you might have noticed in my previous example, her spotlight gets stolen. The original s1 ending..,. Kills me. Hiyori does get kidnapped later on but she isn't just "kyaaaa Yatoooo ;.;" about it, but she and Kazuma figure out the plan to overthrow Bisha and then stop it while they are captured. In the Underworld Arc, she spent her life savings on going after Yato and lied to her parents, showing a major step away from her usual character, but the anime had her there to be Yukine's motivation or smth. She is just more.... animated in the manga, she is the narrator of the story after all.

Then, the genre change. The anime decided it wanted to be more action/plot than character driven, so they completely messed up the aura. Noragami is written in a way that the comedic events later turn out to be major development points. For example, the one where Yato possesses Hiyori's body is actually a chapter displaying his toxic tendencies learned from his dad. Later on, the famous Hospital Arc shows us how he'd changed and developed, and it wouldn't be as impactful if we didn't have the divine possession one before. But the anime just uses it for a side comedic story, not placed in the timeline the way the lodge OVA can be bc it doesn't impact the plot that much. Besides, plot isn't the o yl thing that should be kept the same: Changing the way something happened can greatly undermine it. For example, Yato finding out Ebisu is dead is ten times worse in the manga- instead of seeing Ebisu die, he wakes up after the great battle convinced he beat his dad, so sure that he managed to destroy his plans. And then baby Ebi walks int the room, and the horror and grief in Yato's expression is..... haunting, man. We already saw characters dying on each other's arms. Why change such a pivotal moment for Yato's development into a been-there-done-that scene.

Et cetera. Basically, the anime is your everyday supernatural action story while the manga is an unique character driven comedy drama. If you wanna experience the Noragami I always talk about, read the manga from the very beginning. Adachitoka's art is worth it anyway

[kingofthewilderwest]

It's anon-whose-dad-looks-like-McGucket again! He hasn't eaten any raccoons... yet... at least that I know of... XD Having fallen into this fandom hole rather aggressively with a lot of time on my hands, I have found the episode commentaries, graphic novel, and shorts. Are there any other behind the scenes or supplementary materials you recommend?

Hey there again! And bless, bless you for falling down the fandom hole.

As far as supplementary materials are concerned, I’m going to list everything I would recommend. I’ll even list things you’ve mentioned above, in case other people reading this post would be interested learning about GF extended materials too! I’ll be listing GF content in order roughly from “most essential” to “not so essential.” Note: this isn’t a comprehensive list of tie-ins. Also note: this list talks about spoilers from the show itself.

Journal #3. If you’ve already found out about the graphic novel and gotten your hands on that, I imagine you know about Journal #3 too - but since you didn’t mention it above, or if you were going to skip it over, I’m bringing it up now! Journal #3 is a *MUST*. I consider this book as essential to the Gravity Falls experience as the show itself. (Probably because the 1980s boys are my soul, life, and feels.) Journal #3 isn’t written to be a dump of monster lore, though there’s paranormal experiences in this book, of course. Journal #3 is a well-done narrative focusing on Ford’s hubris character arc and providing it amazing resolution. It also complexly dives into the relationship between Ford and Fiddleford, and to say that that narrative has ruined me and kept me awake at night would be an understatement. It makes the scenes and events of S2 more meaningful, and just… aughghgh. There’s so much to unpack there and I keep waiting for an excuse to yak about it.It’s also got several moments I wish could have been in the show proper (though I respect the need to cut for time and focus on the Essential Essentials, and think they did a great job prioritizing). If you’ve finished the commentaries (don’t know how far you are), you may remember Alex Hirsch saying they tried to get Dipper’s real name reveal into the show sev’ral timez, but ultimately cut it and left it for Journal #3. That scene definitely reads as “should have been in the show,” and it’s a great moment. Plus, Ford’s final remarks about “trust no one”? Ohhhhhh it’s so good, and makes the resolution to the show’s events all the better.

Journal #3 Blacklight Edition. Unless you can travel back in time to preorder, or have several thousand USD to spend today (no, I’m not joking, go onto eBay and cry), you’re not going to get your paws on the special blacklight edition of Journal #3. But there are people who have photographed important notes! Such as: [1] [2] [3]

Lost Legends. A  graphic novel with several short adventures. They’re all side adventures, but there’s some development on Dipcifica, and Mabel confronting her selfishness, that are nice additions and expansions to people’s characterizations. Wonderfully done, nicely arted, and feels like reading four new short episodes of the show.

The shorts, etc. I know you said you’ve gotten to the shorts, but there are so many shorts and promotional ads that I hope you’re going through the wiki pages and not just DVD menus to unearth everything. I don’t feel like pulling up my DVD to check, but if I remember right, some things like Creepy Letters from Lil’ Gideon didn’t make it to hard copy release?So anyway. I know some of these are easy to find and you’ve probably gone through them, but for the sake of thoroughness:

The Unaired Pilot

Creature in the Closet

Dipper’s Guide to the Unexplained

Mabel’s Guide to Life

Fixin’ It with Soos

TV Shorts 1 and TV Shorts 2

Mabel’s Scrapbook

Mystery Shack: Shop at Home with Mr. Mystery and its Outtakes

Old Man McGucket’s Conspiracy Corner

Creepy Letters from Lil’ Gideon

Gravity Paws

’Pocalypse Preppin’

The deleted scenes. The special edition DVD/Blu-ray provides a ton of S2 footage of the writer’s room, Alex narrating the storyboards, and through that showing us scenes that were cut or altered. There’s AMAZING stuff there, oh my goodness.It’s complicated finding all released deleted scenes materials, though, and honestly, I’m still trying to fish through the interwebs for more. You’ll find some released storyboards online for S1 and S2 that didn’t make animation. There’s a second long animation of Ford and Stan adjusting their glasses at the same time that made trailers but not “A Tale of Two Stans.” Or you’ll find things on Alex’s twitter page, like the now-notorious Dipper-snaps-Dippy-Fresh’s-neck-on-screen moment. And things like Bill’s initial introduction scene have been animated by fans. :)

Shmeb-you-unlocked website. I have fondness for this page because I love learning minor details about characters. This is a hidden website url you can uncover going through Lost Legends. Got some fun stuff on Anti-Mabel, Tate McGucket, and Pacifica, for instance. 

The Episode Commentaries. Seriously, these are the most enjoyable commentaries I think I’ve watched (outside of the LOTR cast commentaries, anyway). They’ve got insight into everything, from talking about character psychology, to storytelling techniques, to storyboard artists’ contributions, to how fans’ responses literally changed how the creative team wrote the show. 

The Special Features for the Special Edition DVD / Blu-ray release. All the special features on the DVDs are cool and enjoyable! Between the Pines, etc.

The Hidden Special Features. The Special Edition DVD / Blu-ray release comes with lots of hidden special features! Grunkle Stan’s hidden commentary for Land Before Swine is treasure. Like, Stan starts rambling about his childhood and embarrassing stories about Ford and stuff… it’s amazing. There’s also a Bill special feature that I love. 

Cipher Hunt! Most of it’s just fun, but it’s wild to consider that Alex staged an international scavenger hunt by choice. I don’t like road trips, but I would be very tempted to travel to see that Bill Cipher statue. Because I have… fandom issues. Haha.

Dipper and Mabel and the Curse of the Time Pirates’ Treasure! Though I’ve entertained myself with this, I don’t recommend this as highly as the other stuff on here. But if you want to keep living Gravity Falls, this is one of the books out there with original non-show content. There’s even a few moments in this book that were taken from the unaired pilot or deleted scenes. It’s a choose-your-own adventure, has nice art, and stuff. While it is written by Rowe, I don’t consider this as necessary of an addition to Gravity Falls fans because the choose-your-own adventure doesn’t (to me) capture the deep heart of the show. It’s more of a light, silly, random what-have-you. It does have a hidden web link to a page with the Axolotl, though, so that’s sort of important?

The Games. Most games are simple online flash games with no informative or lore-adding content to them. You won’t get anything new out of them, so take or leave them. But ya know, they still pass time in non-objectionable ways. If you’re really craving ANYTHING GF, why the fuck not. That’s how I ended up playing them. Some games have enjoyable versions of the main theme… the Weirdmageddon: Take Back the Falls game did not have to go so rocking hard on the music, and yet it did. (I may have recorded the audio to the level select and stuff and added it to my iTunes library.)I know you’ve been watching me play Legend of the Gnome Gemulets on my twitch. The other games that I think are the most entertaining are Rumble’s Revenge and Pinesquest (mostly Pinesquest, but it���s a “sequel” to Rumble’s Revenge). 

And if you haven’t gone clue hunting and decrypting yourself, and don’t want to extend the effort to do so, the cryptograms page on the wiki is a must!

Alex’s old twitter posts have some interesting things too from time to time?

I hope I remembered the main things. And I hope this helps!

[saiangelo999]

2019 T.v. show Tracker

Part 2

Animes

Mo Dao Zu Shi

Finished it. Read the novel. Checking out the Cdrama (The Untamed). Obsessed. Watch it, it’s worth it. 

Currently watching season two! Jing Ling is so precious and all the chibis are SO CUTE!

Dororo

In progress (~episode 20) - Love it so far! Excited to see where it goes!

Update: Dororo was always precious but I just appreciate this child more and more as the episodes continue. I really enjoyed the lighter episode with the opposite village and the swordsmaster. Also, I am glad that Itachi finally died... but tbh I can’t hate him. Dororo is soo forgiving, my precious child. 

Edit: Completed. Enjoyed the story and the way that it was wrapped up.

My Roommate is a Cat

Completed - Loved it! Super cute, fluffy and touching. Fun to watch! Really enjoyed the show and REALLY want more! Please make a season 2!!

Fruits Basket 2019

It’s definitely doing its job of hitting the heartstrings true to Fruits Basket lore (I loved the manga). That opening (1) tho is so depressing really setting the mood for the show I guess... I’m excited for more and aware of the pain that is yet to come. But I am excited (and hopeful) to see them do justice to the plot this time. Update: s1 is almost over and I really enjoyed it! 

One Punch Man

Loved it!! Finished season one! It was way too short... Will watch season two when all the episodes come out! I actually found the show to have a lot of parallels with The Disastrous Life of Saiki which could be the reason that I enjoyed it so much. I really don’t know how all the fans who watched it when it was first released could have waited so long for season two.

Ruroni Kenshin

Randomly started it cuz I was planning on watching it for a while and it was on Netflix so I thought - why not. Liking it so far but I haven’t gotten very far yet so it’s hard to form an opinion atm.

Dramas

Bad Guys

Completed - Good Binge. 

It was very addicting, very interesting premise that captured my attention initially. It’s a good binge, but around episode 10 the show, the show sort of fizzled out for me. The hitman’s storyline (Jung woo) was a bit too melodramatic for my taste and was a bit off-putting, however I absolutely loved the psychopath’s story. That definitely kept me hooked throughout. One huge plus of this show is the action, and it is a lot of fun to watch if you don’t think about the show too much.

Gibo to Musume no Blues

Completed - Loved it!  I’d highly recommend it!

This show was so adorable and so sweet and fun to watch from start to finish. I really enjoyed this slice of life and the warm stepmother and stepdaughter relationship throughout the show. It was very heartwarming to watch. I loved how all the characters were treated with respect and didn’t seem like hollow caricatures, I liked the relationships portrayed in the show and the general warmth that this show had throughout.

I am still not over what happened to Ryoichi :( , but I can say that I absolutely loved every single character in this show. The baker definitely grew on me more and more throughout the later half of the show and he became very lovable. Overall, this was a great drama that I am glad I checked out!

Children of Nobody/ Red Moon Blue Sun

Completed - Loved it! 15/10 would recommend!

This drama was really really gripping. I like how the story didn’t feel very formulaic, and I admit I was quite unsure what was going on in the first 2 or so episodes. But once the plot line was set in motion, I was along for the ride. One huge reason for that is probably the main character Cha Woo Kyung, she won me over very quickly and her backstory was very intriguing. I also really like Yi Kyung’s character as well as his team, though it did take me a while to warm up to him. The children all did a phenomenal job as well - I especially like Ha Na and Si Wan’s acting.Si Wan is another huge factor that kept me watching, the child actor did a great job!

One thing I definitely appreciated with this show was how morally grey all the characters were, it made them more relatable. If I were to compare it to similar mystery/crime kdrama’s I’ve seen, I think so far this would rank the highest - the plot was engaging, the characters were interesting, there was absolutely ZERO focus on developing a romantic relationship and the topic - abuse (child primarily) was handled well.

Her Private Life

Really loving Ryan Gold so far!! He’s actually super considerate and kind? Love it! Quite like the female lead as well. Love her relationship with her best friend, they are absolutely adorable! Not too happy about what I heard about the Eun Gi thing where they did the Reply staple of making the viewers assume that he’s her brother only to find out he’s interested in her romantically and that they aren’t blood-related... why is this trope so popular? This reminds me a lot so far of Reply 1997. 

Update: show is moving on in a very cliche way... extremely predictable so far. Will maybe stick w it bc I love Ryan’s character and the couple are adorable. TBH I didn’t start this for the plot. Another gripe that I have is just why do kdramas always do the thing where the main couple are meant to be and met during their childhood? I don’t get why that’s so popular... But I do respect the fact that Ryan’s real mom did not abandon him and that arc was resolved quickly.

Overall, it was better than a lot of other dramas in this genre and it was done with much less unnecessary drama. I appreciated how the side characters were handled and liked that they were given time to have their own sub-plots. A decent show all in all.

The Fiery Priest

Loved it! I like the mix of the action and comedy that was showcased in the show. I found this show to be very similar in the plot structure, comedy (to an extent) and characterizations to Chief Kim so I enjoyed the show a lot and had a pretty good idea of what to expect from the show. It’s a fun show that keeps you hooked for more, and like Chief Kim don’t expect any romance between characters to really develop.

Angel’s Last Mission: Love

Shin Hye Sun is just gorgeous, omg. She’s also a really good actress. I really liked seeing her in this role coming out of watching Still 17 to see the sheer difference in personality. I am enjoying the contrast. Also, I like her chemistry with Myungsoo. I don’t care for the second lead nor can I bring myself to empathize with him. I also am somewhat disappointed with her family sub-plot because so far it seems pretty cliche so I’m hoping for a plot twist or two. 

DNF. 

Project S The Series: Spike

I FINALLY finished it! Really loved it. Great acting, loved the pace of the show and how realistic it felt. I really liked watching the team come together and grow together. The few female characters were a delight - Jern is so lovable and adorable. Bright is very sweet and does a lot for the team. Puen’s relationship with the entire team was interesting to see - his strong bond with Singha and now Than, his relationship with Jern and ofc his friends. Than’s relationship with his dad was also portrayed realistically right til the end. It’s a good watch, and I’ll definitely re-watch the series. 

Ao to Boku

So addicting, waiting for the last episode to be subbed. Please get subbed!

Update: it was subbed! Finished it! Enjoyed the drama overall. A nice mystery/friendship/slice-of-life one. Be warned that although there is a bit of mystery it is mainly a slice-of-life/friendship drama.

The Untamed

I enjoyed it overall (tho I did end up skipping over some episodes). I thought that it was a faithful adaptation to the novel considering the censorship issues. I love how they took out a lot of the explicit gay but still somehow made parts of the show gayer. Also I LOVE fairy. Fairy is an adorable fluffball that owns my heart <3.

DNF - He is Psychometric

Melo Suits Me/ Be Melodramatic

So... they really made one of the cutest love stories tragic huh. I’m really enjoying the show so far, I love the friendship between the main 4 leads. I am interested about the industry and I like the balance that the drama has with its humour, friendship, love and slice-of-life elements. I really like the actress and her manager couple they are so cute! I kind of wish I have more cute mother-son moments with the kid so hopefully in a future episode.

Update: Finished it! Liked the ending overall, had one minor qualm. I really liked the Director (Yeller) that was introduced. He was an unexpected delight and I love his dynamic with Eun Jung. I did like that they did end up subverting a romantic relationship and left it platonic. That was unexpected.

T.v. shows

Brooklyn Nine-Nine

Season 6 - Finally finished it! Lot of fun, and enjoyed watching yet another season of the show. I really enjoyed their Cinco de Mayo heist this year and thought that was a lot of fun. I personally didn’t really feel Gina’s absence too much though her going away words were cute near the beginning of the season.

Broadchurch

Completed - Completely binged season 3! I love this show! 

I forgot how beautiful the cinematography in the show was! Their little village is gorgeous. It’s a bit jarring to watch it after a year or so because my memory of season 2 of Broadchurch was quite hazy. Nevertheless, I absolutely love this show. This season was very different from the previous ones, and it had a good build up but the final reveal of the culprit was quite... predictable. However, there was a twist that came with the reveal that came completely out of the blue. I liked the way Alec/D.I Hardy and Ellie handled the issue at hand and set an example of how cases of rape should be handled within the police force. It was also really nice to see Beth’s growth, the vicar and what Maggie were up to! I also enjoyed seeing Alec and his daughter’s relationship grow. Too bad its cancelled... here’s hoping that one day they’ll renew it. 

Stranger Things season 3

I personally liked it a lot more than season two because I felt that it had more growth from the characters. I liked Eleven’s character growth and how the dynamic of the relationships changed and seeing the kids grow up. But, I’m definitely getting a bit tired of this show... because although I did enjoy this season, I still feel that in a way it was redundant.

Derry Girls s2

I loved it! So funny. So adorable. Love the characters and the ridiculous situations that they put themselves in (or are put in). Sister Michael is still my fave, her lines are always pure gold.

Anne with an E season 3

Trying to keep track of it as it is airing on CBC. I missed the second episode :( But I watched episode 3 and the foreshadowing for the residential schools omg