#i started giffing this for today thinking it was an episode 3 scene from my caps folders

[tinnchan]

PHUTIAN underrated moments:

No. 2: Episode 4- They have a hard time saying goodnight and Phupha leaves a gift for Tian

[not-she-which-burns-in-it]

OFMD and Breathwork Part 2 - The Kiss Scene

Much later than intended but I’m back, as promised, with the part 2 of my breath and voice work thread, this time looking at the kiss scene in Episode 9.

I really thought this was going to be more fun, but turns out it was mostly sad. Oh no. But before we get sad, let's do a part 2 of the basics. If you’re just joining, please read the other thread (https://www.tumblr.com/blog/view/not-she-which-burns-in-it/686892030208638976?source=share) for info on where breath comes from in your body (in an acting sense) and how it affects the tension of the scene. This time we’re gonna focus on the pace of the scene, and when in your breathing cycle you begin speaking, and how that reflects the acting choices you make. 

LET’S DIVE IN!

BREATHING 202 - PACE

Ok, we’re working with my crude drawings this time, I’m so sorry. Here is a line of your breath. Line goes up for breathing in, line goes down for breathing out. Pretty self explanatory.

When you’re awake and talking, the breath cycle isn't really gonna look that smooth. The lower line for instance is more like your deep relaxed breath - breathe in deeply, quick at first and then slowing down as your lungs reach a comfortably full level. Then slowly breathing out in a long tail. As soon as you’re done, you breathe back in, no pause. This really makes more sense when you try it. Try breathing in following the lines, we’re all gonna learn today. 

Now here are some simplified spots where you might start speaking in your breath cycle, meaning how much air is in your lungs when you start making words happen. Let’s take a look at them:

So, we put all this together and we get a map of intentions. Especially when we combine this breathwork with the info from part 1, and all the other pieces of acting - micro expressions, body language, non-fluencies (uhms, ahhs, sighs) - we can glean SO MUCH about the acting choices and storytelling. If I ever get around to a Part 3, I’ll do the intro section on Spicy Breath and Vocal Work, I promise. That’s a whole thing. But for now let’s get to the kiss scene. I looked at the whole scene, not just the kiss itself, because the story demanded it.

THE SCENE BEFORE

Ok, in order to talk about this scene we have to go back to where we last saw Stede. Everything starts going wrong right here in this gif. The music that plays at the top of the kiss scene starts 5 minutes earlier in this moment. The second Stede learns that Mary reported him as dead, the smile falls off his face and this delicate piano music comes in (I quit music school to study theater but I can tell you it’s in a minor key). 

That leads us into the bunk bed scene - that music is still playing - where he’s wondering aloud whether Mary really thinks he’s dead or just reported him dead out of spite. He’s flashing back to his family, the worry for his children starts creeping in. Mary is still coded like an antagonist at this point, but the phrasing “do they really think I’m dead”, tells us he’s worried about his children mourning his death while he’s off being happy and falling in love. The music cuts out the second Ed appears. Ed clears away Stede’s troubled thoughts. Awww. But oh no, it’s doesn’t last. This conversation with Ed doesn’t make him feel any better, it makes him feel worse. Look at his face when Ed says “It’s time to accept our fate”

Stede is so upset he literally runs away. He darts out of the dormitory out toward the water leaving Ed sitting on his bed. And Ed is not oblivious to this, he’s worried. His mouth is tight, his brow is furrowed, and his eyes are casting down and around as if looking for an explanation. He’s upset, why?

Now, Ed isn’t stupid, he can think of a bunch of reasons why Stede might be upset, they’ve been captured and are losing their freedom. Of course, Ed has missed the key element here, which is Stede’s bottomless pit of worthless self-image. So what does Ed gather from this - Ed is ok with his adventurous life being over, but Stede is not. This is a good theory from Ed’s perspective, he is ready to stop being Blackbeard but Stede just got started as the Gentleman Pirate, it makes sense for him to be not find joy in moving on from that life. 

SO. The beach. We start with the same melancholy piano music picking back up. More flashbacks to playing with his children. Look at his body language, he’s curled up staring out at the sea. His knees are pulled up like they were when Ed left him for Calico Jack. His hands are on his knees holding himself together, and his thumbs are gently sweeping back and forth across his kneecaps - trying to sooth himself. Honestly he looks like he’s about to cry, his lips press together and he breathes in deep. There’s no one for him to speak to, he’s alone, the breath is to either tamp down the wave of emotion or let it out. But whatever he’s about to do, Ed immediately derails that plan.

And this takes us into the kiss scene. Stede is wallowing in guilt over his family, and guilt over dragging Edward into all this with him. Ed is looking to convince him to look on the bright side. Now you can “look on the bright side” of loss especially if you’re gaining something else. “Hey you can’t be a fancy pirate, but maybe you can have me” Excellent proposition Ed, well done. Tragically, that’s not the problem. You can’t cheer someone up from guilt and feelings of worthlessness, it will in fact make them feel worse. “Hey you feel bad for being happy while your family is in trouble, what if, we had even more happiness together?”

THE SCENE

“There you are” implying he’s been looking all over for him. And look how close he sits. They don’t appear to be touching, but it’s a couple inches at best between them. Now it’s Ed’s turn to let out a breath. He settles himself with it. It’s not clear whether it’s relaxing, now that he knows Stede is ok, or if it’s a determined breath because he has an idea of how to fix Stede’s sadness and he’s come looking for him to do just that.

He starts with a joke, but this isn’t his boisterous joking voice, it’s not even his normal speaking voice, it’s soft, gentle, and from the throat (check part 1 for what that means) it’s very similar to the way Stede speaks to Ed in the moonlight, or in the bathtub scene. It’s soothing and intimate. Given the sudden breath in and out before he starts, I’m guessing the intention was to start with a “tell me what’s wrong” sort of approach and he chickened out and went for a joke. But his voice is still in the soft “tell me what’s wrong” tone and volume. Adorable. But Stede brushes it off, “Oh come on, stupid idea”. It’s even softer in vocal quality than Ed. But somehow it’s not increasing the intimacy, it’s creating distance. How? Because the lack of volume and vocal support isn’t to draw Ed closer, it’s because Stede isn’t really talking to him, he’s talking to himself. As soon as he says it, Ed looks down and stops smiling. It’s hard to catch because he’s blurry in the foreground, but you can see the concern immediately rush back in oh this isn’t something easily fixed. Here’s where I get sad already. Stede looks at Ed to gauge his reaction before doubling down on the negative self-talk. By the time Stede looks at Ed, Ed is no longer smiling gently at Stede. All Stede sees is a concerned frown. He’s concerned for Stede, but Stede’s never gonna see it that way. The “Oh shut up” response is so quick, it’s reflexive. I’d bet anything it’s a #1 (Speaking before you breathe in) but I can’t tell where he is in his natural breath cycle to say for sure. But instead of engaging with his own emotions, Stede pivots to Ed’s emotional state instead. This is a recurrence in their relationship where Ed is emotionally vulnerable and Stede provides comfort and support. Stede is much less willing to share his own feelings - so much for his “talk it through as a crew” motto. Ed unfortunately (fortunately?) takes the bait.

Stede’s at a normal breath placement (either a #2 or #4), but listen to his emphasis “how are you handling this so well” - compared to Stede handling it very poorly. But again, we’re not saying that outloud.

Listen to Edward’s speech here, this is a great example of using breath to pace a speech where your character is discovering each piece of what he’s saying as he’s saying it. He’s taking small breaths in between each new idea. I’ve added tally marks here to visualize it. “I don’t know [///] It’s kinda nice just to take a load off [//] Just to [/] Just to be [/] Edward [//] I don’t know if I wanna go back to the old days [/] just drinking all day and [/] biting the heads off turtles or [/] making some poor bloke eat his own toes as a laugh [//]” 

Notice how the word “Edward” is completely isolated by breath. It’s HUGE for him to acknowledge Edward’s desires are different from Blackbeard’s. It’s something Izzy seems to have been aware of from the beginning, but Edward really only realized once Stede came into his life. Stede, bless his refined little heart. Takes a full breath in to not respond to the “eat his own toes” comment. Because he’s polite, and loves Ed, and doesn’t want to derail the emotional sharing by over-reacting. But you can see it in the immediate and deep furrow of his brow.

When Ed starts speaking again, he’s a little more hurried to get the thought out. The biggest note is the separation of the word “Ed” again, it’s revelatory to not just recognize the parts of him have different desires but that he should prioritize Edward’s desires and needs over Blackbeard’s. And BOY OH BOY does he act on that realization immediately. Because what Ed wants is 1,000% clear to this man. 

BUT STEDE MISSES THIS DISTINCTION. 

Listen to his emphasis. He matches the structure but he puts the emphasis on happy not on Ed. 

“What makes Ed happy” vs “What makes Ed happy?” It’s a subtle difference but extremely important. Because Stede thinks he’s saying 

“Pirating has made me happy until now, but I guess, since there is no escape, no way back to that life, I want to be as happy as I can…” But in reality he’s saying “Pirating made Blackbeard happy, but for the first time, I want to focus on what makes Ed happy, because I enjoy being Edward…” But let’s finish that thought and really cry. More breath tally marks, because they’re important.

“[//] These past [/] few weeks [//] have been [//] the most fun I’ve had in ages [/] years [/] maybe ever. [///] so [//] so uh [/] I reckon [/] what makes Ed happy [//] is [///] you.” Again, we’re getting breath in between each new thought, or each moment where he needs to gather strength to get these words out. This time instead of “Ed” being isolated by breath, the word is “you”. Stab me in the heart. Confessing your love for someone is hard, oh wow it’s scary, and Ed needs all the breath support he can get. He’s also not speaking very loud. They’re so close to each other, these breaths are tiny little snatches of air. That last phrase though. “What makes Ed happy is you” Why does it sound so breathless if he’s taking so much time to breathe? Let’s Map It Out! (THIS IS THE GOOD SHIT)

Ed getting that last word out with the last bit of air in his body is EVERYTHING. It’s desperate. It’s vulnerable. It’s so unsure of what happens next or if he should be saying it at all. It’s taking a huge chance because this is the moment things between them go from subtext to text. This isn’t just saying “Hey, let’s bang” it’s saying “I have soft squishy feelings for you, and maybe that makes me weak but I don’t care because you make me happy”. And Stede is FLOORED. The Gnossienne No 5 comes in, and everything is good. His whole face lifts up like the simple act of making another person happy is the nicest thing anyone’s ever said to him. Especially since he started out this scene dwelling on how much he’d disappointed his family, his parents, how he’d made this difficult for his crew and Ed, and everyone in his life. For Ed - glorious, wonderful, legendary Ed - to say that Stede is what makes him happy. Holy Shit. That’s groundbreaking for Stede. This is the first and only real smile we get from him in the whole scene. You can see the worries lift off him for a second. And before he can say something stupid: the kiss. 

THE KISS

Ed reaches around to anchor Stede’s opposite shoulder as he presses in - both to angle him properly and to stop him from startling away. Not in a forced manner, his touch is gentle, moreso he’s aware that Stede’s not experienced at this and he’s guiding the moment. So thoughtful. Also, so soft, my god.

Stede responds to the kiss immediately, he’s not just passively being kissed. Eyes closed and lips pressed forward, he’s about it. And he moves his lips on Ed’s to find a better position. As Ed shifts forward more and brings his left hand up to Stede’s shoulder he’s turning his whole body into the kiss, gently stroking his right hand down Stede’s back. The rustle sound you hear is Ed pulling his leg up in the sand to get better leverage turning to Stede. Stede meanwhile sweeps his arm forward toward Ed. I can’t see where his hand lands, but it looks like it’s going for Ed’s knee. 

Ed breathes in before he kisses Stede, (part one call back) but it’s hard to catch because he doesn’t do it until he starts moving. I LOVE this because it implies he didn’t decide to kiss Stede until he was already doing it. It’s a small catch breath, not much air, and certainly not enough for a big romantic kiss. So we hear Ed breath in bigger through his nose as they kiss - breathing is not important enough to stop kissing Stede - right before he starts shifting his body. After he shifts you hear him breathe out, again through his nose because he’s not stopping this kiss for any single reason. But it comes out slow like he’s sighing into the kiss. 

They are both pressing forward, despite the shifting bodies and sweeping hands, their lips don’t part. After they reposition their bodies, Ed turns his head to deepen the kiss just a little and we get that tiny tiny whimper noise from Stede and all my braincells explode into gay glitter. 

I’m not sure Stede is breathing at all here. He might breathe in a bit when they shift, but I’m not sure. I think it’s just internet start-up noises in there. Which might add to his dazed expression and whispered response post-kiss. When Stede opens his eyes he’s looking at Ed’s lips, briefly, before his glance goes back to Ed’s eyes. This moment is pure joy. Even if the guilt comes rushing back in, this moment is golden.

POST KISS 

Stede’s line “You make Stede happy” is in the softest whisper. And they stay at this intimate whispered level until Ed’s plan starts to form. We really hear Ed’s voice come back on “There’s always an escape” while Stede responds in a whisper, not yet bought into this plan.

It’s not until “China” that things start to go wrong. As soon as Stede says China, his glance skitters away and down. He hedges, “That’s quite far away.” Ed interprets this as “Can we get that far” when really Stede means “Maybe we shouldn’t go that far.” But alas, Ed doubles down on the thing Stede is most worried about “Our old lives will be gone, never were.”

Stede looks down again, to the same spot, and the cut away tells us he’s thinking of Mary. And the clip is significant here. It’s both a refutation of Ed’s point “We can start a new life” vs “We only have one life.” And the bits about “We never would have chosen each other.” relay strongly to themes of found family. Because Stede wouldn’t just be abandoning his family in Barbados by running away to China, he’d also be abandoning his Found Family on the Revenge. I genuinely wonder if we would have gotten this anxious guilt reaction if Ed had simply proposed going back to The Revenge. It would have felt less like an abandonment to Stede, and “now or never” in getting closure with Mary and the kids. But. We’ll never know. SO. We’d looked at Ed’s breath in his decision moment, now let’s look at Stede’s. Right before this cut away to Mary, Ed asks “What do you say?” Stede breathes deeply in and out. We come back from the cut away to see him finishing that exhale as he looks out to the ocean. He doesn’t breathe in. He presses his lips into a thin line. He doesn’t breathe in. He swallows nervously and looks back at Ed. He STILL doesn’t breathe in. “Yeah.”

https://youtu.be/cQC_7HAMza4

He’s 100% speaking with no air. He desperately needs to breathe in and feel steady, get support for his words, and think clearly, but no. The word just escapes him in this desperate whisper. It sounds like somebody punched it out of him. I think Ed misses it because he assumes Stede is nervous for the dangerous escape, or just flustered from the kiss. But folks, if you’re asking someone something really important and they say Yes in that tone, and then make THIS face.

Stop and clarify that they’re ok, and that they actually want whatever it is. Because wow, this is a cry for help. Also, listen to the music at this exact moment, it does this discordant little minor trip that just SOUNDS uneasy. Brilliant music design here folks. It trills up when Ed realizes Stede is saying yes, and then comes jarring back down when Stede makes this face. OUCH.

I love the mirroring of breath between Ed’s “...you” and Stede’s “...yeah” - one is so full of hope while the other is so full of despair and yet they are physically executed in the same way. Brilliant, so painful, thank you David Jenkins. It’s also further proof that Stede’s breakdown was not just from Chauncy, but a crash and burn that he was headed to from the moment they got to the island. Ed’s phrasing here also mirror’s the bathtub scene “I was suppose to kill…. you” as many people have pointed out. But here’s the thing, that scene brings them closer together because Ed is being vulnerable and Stede is providing support. Stede is comfortable with that role, because he doesn’t have to examine any of his own feelings and desires. This scene is the opposite. Despite Ed making the love confession, this scene is about providing Stede emotional support. Stede is ZERO percent ok with openly acknowledging what he wants or needs, which again leads to this face. 

I don’t think he was planning on ditching Edward the way he did though. Not based on this physicality. This SCREAMS “maybe if I just keep pushing these bad feelings down they’ll go away.” Thank you Mary Bonnet for shaking that out of him with a well-placed skewer to the ear hole. Therapy for everyone in Season 2!

Part 3??

Someday I’ll make a part 3, I’m not making any promises of when this time - I’ve learned! But I really want to look at Ed’s physicality around Calico Jack vs his physicality around Stede because it’s fucking fascinating. As I said at the top the intro lesson will be on intimacy work because SPICY.

Anyway I’ve written like 3,000 words at this point and I have to stop. Likes and comments really make my day - thank you all for the interaction from part one (which is here if you need it:

https://www.tumblr.com/blog/view/not-she-which-burns-in-it/686892030208638976?source=share

)  And come follow me on Twitter @/shewhich that’s where most of my brainrot content lives these days.

[bronx-bomber87]

Happy Weekend all :) Watched this ep last night wrote down my thoughts and thought kick off Saturday with a review. Another really good ep ahead. S2 adds onto the base built in S1 in the best way. Off we go.

2x02 The Night General

We catch our first glimpse of our fine duo at the end of roll call. Grey has a new book for Tim to read for his Sergeant's exam. Tim doesn’t look excited in the least. Lucy calls out the book for its dated title. Grey explains to Lucy it's from the 60s. Lovely. Tim asks how this book is relevant with 21st century policing? Grey tells him 'Ours is not to reason why' LOL Basically saying he has to read it whether he wants to or not Poor Tim.

They're not in the shop two seconds before Tim hands her the book to read to him. Of course Lucy is going to give him some push back. She wouldn’t be her if she didn’t. Would you love her Timothy if she was anything but who she is? haha This is how they're going to spend their shift whether Lucy wants to or not.

Lucy suggests just to let her drive so he can read it while they work. That doesn’t fly with Tim baha Lucy doesn’t understand (yet) why he can’t just read it himself. Thinks Tim is just making her do it for him just cause he can. You'll find out soon enough my dear. Lucy knows when to pick her battles at this point. So she decides not to fight Tim on this one. Gives in and cracks this old fossil open and begins to read to him.

Mini marriage scene going on right here. It's their back and forth that I love so much about them. A comfortability has settled between the two of them and it shows. Instantly Lucy is being smug and sassy about the material. One of my fav things she does with him. Pushes his buttons like only she can. Instead of being immediately grumpy he dishes it right back. Oh how they’ve grown. Giving him crap with the book saying he shouldn’t generate fear but respect.

Tim is snarky as well firing back of course she would like this book...We all know she has thrived under his leadership. She's not really taking shots at him so much as using it to mess with him. She can't help herself. Lucy is taking full advantage of this scenario. Tim is painfully aware she is using reading this book to punish him. I mean it's only fair since he's forcing her to read it between calls.

I love her face in the gif above. She’s enjoying herself far too much for Tim’s liking haha He tells her to just keep reading LOL Like Lucy wasn't going to read this book without running commentary. Come on Timothy you know better than that hehe Lucy continues on and you can see him trying so hard to absorb it as she speaks.

Lucy ends up on another quote she likes. Of course its about patrol officers having value. So she chooses this one to have him parrot back to her. She is agitating the crap out of him and knows it. Telling him he needs to repeat it in order to memorize it. Using her psych degree to justify it. He begrudgingly does it and she asks him to do it again lmao Lucy is pushing her boundaries today and is fine with it haha

They get a call interrupting her and Tim is so relieved. Lucy responds to dispatch then says 'Ok 3 min out more reading.' LMAO She is relentless and begins up again. Tim's face above I’m dying. LOL He looks like he’s being endlessly tortured by her studying methods. This episode is absolute gold start to finish. He is at her mercy with this and knows it.

We rejoin them in the shop after their call. Lucy has moved onto chapter 3. ‘The Healthy Habits Of Command’ She goes on to read out loud ‘Delegation is the key to leading men in times of stress.’ Which leads to the line above. She follows it up with That’s so true don’t you think? Tim snaps back it’s hard enough to listen to this stuff without her editorializing haha Honestly Tim what did you expect from her? She tells him she’s happy to stop anytime and get back to her paper work.

Lucy goes on to tell him that he’s going to have to re-read all this again anyways to memorize it. You see the panic in Tim’s face. It’s here Lucy finds out he learns best when he’s hears it. That response immediately gets the wheels in Lucy’s head churning with her response of Really? He then asks what? Why? She tells him nothing…. Doesn’t take Tim long to figure out she’s holding something back from him. He says ‘Boot...’

Lucy tries to mumble her reply at first. Telling him he has a learning difference under her breath. It’s kinda funny how she tries to hide her answer. She knows he’s going to take it the wrong way. Tim makes her speak up and Lucy bites the bullet. Then try’s to soften the blow by saying he’s just wired differently. That he just processes information differently than others. She is digging herself a hole and knows it. Tim is bristly af as she tries explain this to him. He tells her he doesn’t have a learning disability. Flat out refuses to accept it.

Lucy digs her hole even further when she brings up Isabel. Tim has grown but that continues to be a sore subject for him. Lucy is trying so hard for him not to take this as a bad thing. Minute she brings Isabel up and their time at the academy he shuts down. Tells her they’re not talking about this. Lucy looks crushed she’s offended him. That comfortability and banter from earlier gone. You can see how much she wants to fix it. Unfortunately they get a call before she can rectify the situation. It's about a suspicious mini van casing a house. She tries to fix it as they drive to the call but he is shut off completely. Lucy is defeated and says never mind….

They pull up and its an old colleague of Tim's. He is a bounty hunter now. Lucy is assertive right off the bat saying they've received multiple 911 calls about him. Rex bites back calling her boot and to watch her tone. Tim steps in right away. No one calls her ‘boot’ but Tim good sir. So sexy when he tells Rex she’s the police now. Even though he’s grumpy about the studying he still has her back on this 100%. Such growth Tim. I love me some protective/supportive Tim. Lucy doesn't let Rex's behavior shake her. Lets this surly grump of a man know that. It’s like she has experience with them or something heh

Tim's face when Rex says 'You let her talk to you like that?' It’s a 'Watch it...' We all know Tim likes it when Lucy talks to him like that. It’s that assertive confidence that attracts him to her. One of many reasons But It’s far too early to delve into that fully haha We all know it’s true though. Lucy tells him his bounty Nico is a very dangerous person. Rex tries to rattle her one more time. Saying how he’s been dealing with dangerous men since she was in diapers. Lucy tells him these days you have to call law enforcement for this stuff. She cracks me up and says maybe he should read Tim’s book LMAO

Lucy tries the next day to mend fences with Tim. Asking him if he'd like her to read to him? Trying to offer up a olive branch. He instantly shuts her down. Says no. Lucy tries to implore him to let her. That he needs to learn it. He grumpily replies ‘I can do that on my own.' Oof she really hit a nerve with this one. Before Lucy can fight him some more they pull back up to Rex’s van. Tim is wanting to do a welfare check on him. He didn't report his bounty last night. Lucy calls him out for it and Tim says he wouldn’t put it that way to Rex though. But he's being a softie and she knows it.

They find blood and broken glass and call it in. Rex has been assaulted and Tim sees red. He takes off once Rex says Nico is headed to his aunt's. Lucy calls after him saying they need a warrant. Tim doesn’t listen as he takes off and Rex tells Lucy go with Tim.

Tim busts in raging says blood on the door enough reason for them to search. Lucy takes control of the situation quickly. Makes the aunt call Nico. Says they’ll arrest for aiding and abetting if she doesn’t. Does this to calm Tim down a bit. She’s so good at that. Not the first time she's taken charge to rein him a bit. The aunt calls it doesn't take long to find him in the house Then comes this bad ass fight scene. Last episode I said they’re like poetry in motion in the field. This gif is the definition of that. Look how well they work together to take Niko down. It’s a thing of beauty really.

First off let’s enjoy the fact we’re getting Tim all sweaty and guns out to play shall we? Ovary explosion for me. It's a very nice visual for me to start this scene. *fans self* Never get over how fine this man is honestly. Now let’s move onto the beautiful moment that’s about to commence. Lucy finds Tim working out. Ask's if he's training for his next re-match with Nico haha She hands him the little Audio book he looks so confused as to what this might be. His confusion continues after she explain its the audiobook version of his book.

Lucy looks so proud of herself when she explains she recorded it for him. She should be. You know she spent whatever free time she had off shift doing that for him. That is no small feat. Also the fact that she reached out to Isabel for him. I can’t imagine that conversation wasn’t a little awkward for her. But guess what? She did it anyways to help him. Even when he’s obstinate af with her she is driven to help him no matter what.

That psych degree comes in handy when she’s deciphering Tim. Why he acts the way he does. He lashed out cause he was embarrassed by the fact that he learns through listening. This is why Lucy does this for him. So he feels better about the way he learns. Doesn’t feel shame about it. He is much more receptive to her explanation this time around. You can see it in his face in that second gif above. She is so kind and gentle while she does it. Letting him know hey it's ok you learn this way. Nothing is wrong with it or you.

I can totally relate to Tim too btw. I am a Kinesthetic learner as well. I absorb audio books far more than sitting down and reading. I have to be moving while I listen or I’m instantly bored and disengage. If it’s a fic I’m fine for most part if it’s a one shot. But anything I have to read at massive length? I gotta be moving. So I get it Tim I’m same way my love.

She ends her explanation by complimenting him in the best way she can. By letting him know that the way he learns is why he’s such an excellent cop. Building him up and letting him know its why he excels the way he does at his job. Reinforcing his way of learning isn’t a bad thing at all but a strength for him. You can see it in his face he finally accepts this about himself. He replies 'Yeah.' with a small smile of gratitude. Like she's just taught him something about himself and he's not mad about it. Tim can't help but let that Lucy light of hers in.

Lucy says she will see him tomorrow. Wants to let him get back to his work out. You can tell Tim wants to say something before she goes. He builds up the courage to say 'Thanks' as she’s leaving ❤️ It's such a loaded Thanks for him. The absolute gratitude he has for her in this moment. I’ve said it many times and I’ll continue to say it. Eric says so damn much with just a look. If her recording an audio book isn’t an act of service and love to him I don’t know what is. The look on this man’s face as he says 'Thanks.' He is blown away she took the time to do this for him. Has to make sure Lucy knows how grateful he is before she leaves. Because she saw he had a need and fulfilled it for him. Put him first and took care of him in best way she could think of.

Lucy’s smile Is everything after he says this. It's the most honest and genuine 'Thanks ' she's ever received from him. She almost can't handle it. Why she nervously smiles back instead of replying. She is adorable. Gah no one gets through like Lucy does for him. Makes me wanna cry honestly. They’re written so damn well it makes me happy. Truly just make one another better in the best way.

That little smile of his when he hears Lucy’s intro. My damn heart. She truly is the best rookie he’s ever trained. Damn straight. If you weren’t shipping them before, this scene has to get you hook, line and sinker. She recorded an old outdated book for him in her personal time, built him up, made him feel better about how he learns, and reached out to his ex for clarification in order to help him better.

Actions speak louder than words they say for a reason. Her actions are screaming right now. Makes you wonder if he listened at night at all? Did he ever fall asleep to her voice during his studying? Maybe he did maybe he didn't. A girl can dream though haha Such a good ep for them start to finish.

~~~~~

Side notes non-chenford

Mmm Tim laying into Jackson about the hole he’s in. Yes please. Defending Angela when Jackson makes a joke if he’s late his dad is gonna light up Lopez. Tim goes on to tell him she’s going to pay the price if he doesn’t get his shit together. That she will be the target of his fathers aggression if he goes belly up halfway through training. That Jackson owes her his career. Whew lord I love me some protective Tim.

Also Lucy and Jackson living together ❤️ such a good friend to take him in like that I love it. First thing he needed to her back on track.

[usergif]

HOW TO: MAKE HIGH-QUALITY GIFS WITHOUT STRAINING YOUR STORAGE

i recently had a problem with one of my drives where i kept all my material and lost all my series and films i kept there - it was on my laptop itself and i’m selling this laptop soon anyway, so i didn’t think it was worth it to redownload over 100GB of gif material. 

however, modern problems require modern solutions, so today i’m going to show you my new method for making gifs that means you do not have to download large files to your hard disk. tutorial under the cut!

i should preface this by saying it’s obviously better to download stuff you’re gonna gif frequently onto your hard disk so it’s easier for you, but if you simply don’t have the space or don’t want to get an external, this is a useful way to gif!

to start off, you’ll need:

a shared drive on google drive. (best practice is to make this shared drive on a throwaway account, too). you can generate one here. shared drives can hold a lot more than the 15GB free limit on your personal drive, but keep in mind that google can nuke these drives at any time, so you might want to keep backups.

google drive for desktop. available for both pc and mac.

a video player that can show thumbnail previews when seeking (like youtube). i use mpc-be on windows, but i don’t know which mac video players have this feature. you CAN get mpv to do this but it requires scripting knowledge and i simply cannot get it to work so i prefer using mpc-be.

handbrake to clip out parts of the video. mpc-be is a fantastic player but it can’t take sequential screencaps effortlessly like mpv, so we’re going to use handbrake.

photoshop to make the actual gif.

with all of that, let’s start!

PART I: GETTING VIDEOS AND OPENING THEM

when you’ve made your shared drive on your google account, you’re going to need to store your video files on there. i’ve joined a bunch of telegram p*racy groups for this and, if you’re in any gifmaker servers on discord, you can probably get links to stuff on google drive from others. if you’re having trouble, feel free to dm me (@shangs) and i can send you a link to a helpful server. 

to copy stuff to your shared drive just press ctrl+c (or the mac equivalent) to copy the videos and ctrl+v to paste it into your drive. for tv shows, you can’t copy folders, so open up the folder and select all the episodes and paste them over in a new folder on your drive - that should work fine!

once you have stuff in your shared drive, we’re going to use google drive for desktop to be able to open it. download the app and log in and you should see your google drive showing up as a separate disk on your computer - “Google Drive (G:).”

open up the “Shared Drives” folder and your shared drive and you should be able to see your video files! 

in MPC-BE, you have to manually check the setting to use thumbnail previews. in preferences, go to Player > Interface and check “Use the preview in the search.” 

[caption: an image of the mpc-be preferences with the needed setting circled.]

this is important because we don’t have these files downloaded, so seeking is going to take just a bit longer than if you had the file all downloaded on your actual hard disk. the google drive app is constantly syncing your progress, so it’s way easier to navigate with the thumbnails than it is just fast-forwarding and haphazardly moving through an episode the way you would on a player like MPV. 

PART 2: COLLECTING YOUR FOOTAGE TO GIF

i’ve started using handbrake for this part because i’d rather just get a video encoded than a bunch of screencaps if i’m not using my player to screencap. if you prefer you can always choose to screencap in mpv with the timestamp of your scene as well.

find the timestamp of your scene’s starting and ending (i generally just do 3-4 seconds after the start) and open up the video in handbrake. 

at the top of the screen you’ll see some options that say Range: and then it goes by Chapters. change this to Seconds and put in your start and end timestamps.

if it’s 1080p, i select the “HQ 1080p30 Surround” Preset and change the framerate to “Same as Source” in the Video tab. i also make the content quality lossless at 0. 

[caption: a picture of the settings described in handbrake.]

if you’re giffing something 4k, you will have to go into Filters and modify the colorspace at the very end, but i’m giffing 1080p here, so there’s no need. i have my settings saved as my own custom preset for both 1080p and 4k.

make sure, on the Summary tab, your video is being saved as an MP4. (it will export as an M4V, but this is the same thing.) photoshop won’t read MKVs. 

set the destination to export and hit Start Encode - your video should appear in the destination folder when it’s done!

PART 3: MAKING YOUR GIF

there are multiple ways to make a gif in photoshop once you have your video from handbrake; you can go to File > Import Video Frames to Layers, or you can do Open > and just open up your video file. i prefer the second option since it opens up in timeline and will have the same framerate as the video so Ii can export directly from timeline as well with no need to go back to frames the way you’ll need to with screencaps.

with your video open, roll the playhead through until you’re at the frame where you want to start the gif, and then press the three dots at the corner of the timeline and click Work Area > Set Start at Playhead. go to the frame you want to end the gif and click Work Area > Set End at Playhead. this will set the boundaries of the gif even if there are extra frames.

that’s the basics of gifmaking covered. now just crop, sharpen, and color to your liking. i won’t go over them in this tutorial because it varies a lot by gifmaker and this tutorial is long enough already. 

export by clicking File > Export > Save for Web or the keyboard shortcut Alt+Shift+Ctrl+S. 

you should have a smooth looking gif like the one in the header above.

if you have any questions, please feel free to ask me on my personal blog @shangs​ or on usergif. happy giffing, and i hope this tutorial helped you out!  

[skloomdumpster]

Youtuber voice: make a gifset with me :)

alright folks, welcome to another episode of Jo talking to the void. Gonna try and do a "follow my process" thing.

It's very- VERY long and image heavy. Under the cut and feel free to send me an ask if you have any questions/want me to elaborate on anything.

Part 1: Grab at any idea that sparks joy. Anything. Today mine is the word "horror", so we'll try and do a horror set.

Part 2: Scene analysis and reference hunting. I'll open a new folder on my pc named "Horror gifset" and dump there all the FTWS scenes I already have and that I think could be fun. Open pinterest and behance and type "horror", see if anything sparks an idea.

This takes me roughly 20 mins, here's what I have:

I try to take a step back and see what is it about these designs that attracted me. Clearly the red & black contrast, Bloom and I actually just like the "police line" because of the amount of storytelling it brings by doing basically nothing. (Don't be fooled, I saved many many pics before narrowing it down)

Part 3: To me this is the hardest one. I want to have a small storyline in my gifset, so time to think of it. I open a notes document and just start typing whatever comes to mind, trying to keep the mood of the previous images.

Here's what I landed on. It's not much, but I can now start the fun part of structuring the gifset.

Part 4: I've really been into layout lately, so now's the time to do math.

The first panel I knew I wanted to have the text centered in the middle and surrounded by the mini-gifs. Here are the two layouts I thought of. I decided to go with the second one because it's more interesting, but I already knew I'd tweak a lot, to resemble an actual police line, etc.

I separated all of the scenes from 2x06. Both when Bloom is arrested and when she's released, considering I could use them in reverse.

When making layouts the only things to keep in mind is that the dashboard optimal width is 540 px and that the space in between every piece of "frame" you put within a gif is 2px. So let's say I was going with the square layout 1. It's 540 px width, BUT I can't just divide 540/3 and make that the size of my layout, because I need to account for the space in between the squares too. So the math is actually 540 - 4 (because I have three columns - two gaps)/3 = 178 px. All the squares in that image are 178 x 178.

On Scene grabbing: I do everything I can to use footage that's high quality. This is the easiest way for your gifs to come out pretty, avoid anything lower than 1080. Especially if you're grabbing a scene that'll need loads of adjustments like a night scene or a period piece with too much yellow, grab even higher quality than 1080.

When I work with Redeeming Love's footage, I work with 4k quality, because I know I'm about to destroy the quality by adjusting it.

I mean look at the amount of yellow.

I t*rrent all my scenes in MKV, then use Avidmux to chop the entire movie/show into smaller sized scenes and convert it into mp4.

Part 5: Back to the set. Once I have the basic layout, I pull in my scenes and check if they make sense. One big tip is to stop thinking of scenes as what you watched, but as what you're seeing.

Scenes meaning are very easily altered by whatever context they're put in. Look for scenes in unexpected places (the romantic scene can absolutely be horror footage) and reverse the order or add in effects to alter their meaning.

Each one of these gifs had it's own peculiarities. So to break it down:

Gif 1: I colored it to bring out the black and added the blue because I knew I wanted to use overwhelming red later and this would pop-out. Shaded the white streaks so they'd appear more like police lines and colored them using a gradient just so it'd be more interesting. I didn't like how Bloom's upper part lined up with the cuffs, so I inverted it and brought out the red

Gif 2: First off, I scavenged my memory to try and find a scene where a character appears with white eyes like Bloom's. This poor fella is from The Covenant (2005). I color matched both Bloom's and his scenes so the green was neutralized and we had more blue and red. Then finally I added the phone where the actual storyline I wrote back up starts to unfold.

Gif 3.1: First off, this gif is 540 width, but not 540 px tall. It's actually 400 px tall, which is a good tip: You don't have to stick to one format when giffing. Sometimes a layout or scene simply won't work in a tall format and that's fine.

For this first part all I did was color Bloom, slap the all red color map and the text. Then I realized I didn't like her swimsuit under blending, so I went back and specifically desaturated the red in the starting layer and made it dark, so it'd show up black. The "20 years" are subtle, but in my head it'd be what the characters are hearing in their nightmare, so it's just a faint whisper in the corner.

Gif 3.2: I colored all scenes to match each other. Sky's was the darkest one, so I knew I'd try and match to his because then I wouldn't have to destroy the quality of his footage to match the others. Musa's scenes was tricky because in the actual scene she's waking up slowly and happy. I chose to speed it up and start the gif already in her movement, so you don't realize she's actually very relaxed in the scene.

Gif 4: I started by coloring Bloom and Riven's footage, reducing the yellow and bringing out the blue and red in both. As you can see there's still a candle behind Riven, that makes it hard to see his face, so what I did was add a black shape under (or you could paint a layer in PS) with black and just blur the edges, so his footage would actually show. Finally there was that big empty spot in the upper left, so I added a note and used it to wrap up the story of the set.

There are two layers of text, both set to multiply: one is the actual text, the second one is in a brighter red and blurred in one direction, so it looks like the text got smeared in a rush. Added the blood and ta-da! We're done.

Exporting:

If you're exporting from After Effects, I've found exporting in MOV works better than trying to export in mp4, since it doesn't compress the file. You'll notice I'm using the format "apple ProRes 444", that's simply because this format keeps the alpha channel (transparent). While I didn't need it in this set, it's an habit.

Once I export from after effects, we're importing in Photoshop.

I import by going File > Import > Video Frame to Layers. Then you select your file and you should have this:

Hit OK.

If you don't have the timeline here, simply go in "Window > Timeline"

You'll end up with something like this. Now here's the most boring part of giffing, but don't give up now!

Go on the 3 lines on the bottom right of the timeline (=) and click on "select all frames". Once they're all selected, click the little down arrow under the little thumbnails to change the timing. I change mine from 0.04 to 0.05

Then I select all my LAYERS (not frames), put them inside a group. And click:

On this little piled up icon to transform into the video timeline. This is so we can sharpen our gifs.

Right Click on top of the group on the layers panel and select "convert to smart object". Then in the upper bar, click Filter > Sharpen> Smart Sharpen and use these settings:

This is what makes gifs look clear and crispy.

FINALLY we're saving. You can do it manually, like a peasant, by going on file > export > save for web (legacy). Or you can play keyboard piano and hit alt+shift+ctrl+s.

These are my export settings.

Things to keep in mind:

"Diffusion" is just one of the types of exporting you can do. TWEAK THIS for every gif. Sometimes very detailed gifs will look better with Pattern. Very colorful ones with Diffusion. It varies a lot.

"Adaptive" is just another way the pixels are laid out. I don't actually see much difference here, but I always tweak on all settings, just to make sure I'm getting the best quality by the smaller size.

On the bottom left you'll see your size. Mine is currently 6.82M. All you have to know is that Tumblr won't allow any gif bigger than 9.8M.

Looping Options: make sure it's in forever, otherwise your gifs won't play.

And then... finally, hit save.

....

Now rinse repeat and do this for 200 other gifsets, because it's a totally fun hobby to have!

[carefulfears]

MM Anon again ^.^

Yes, first time watching through! Though I have been seeing the gifs and pair on my dash for years now...sort of bummed I am so late to the party because this ship is everything, I can see why it is the One-Who-Started-Fandom-Shipping😆

I also just watched Never Again and am loving the back-and-forth dialoging on your dash today on it! Three things that stood out to me from the posts:

1) I really wanted her to keep the tat!

2) Did she actually sleep with Ed? Because he was on the couch in the morning so that confused me (also my romantic brain plays into the idea that they are just so married™ but my brain is weird).

3) And they had so much gold they could have continued to mine which I hope they do in the next few seasons! Get.Her.A.Desk. Or, alternative headcanon, she comes in the next day to his pathetic attempt to make amends by putting a piece of masking tape under the name on his office door and writing "Special Agent Dana Scully" on it xD

Sorry, I just have to gush to anyone who will put up with it!

AHH i'm so excited for you!! i love never again, it's such an insightful exploration of scully's character and so many deeper issues that the show rarely goes into. i know it's off of me to say that an episode written by two men feels very indicative of women's struggles but it's glenmorganjameswong so i'm allowed. they just get these characters, and they get scully, even the parts you only see when no one is around. gillian too, who had asked for a darker scully-centric.

it's like my favorite post on it says, it's about failed liberation, about the failure of feminism in a man's world; whether they intended it that way or not, it's intensely resonant to me.

1/ in my mind she still has the tattoo, there was no reason to have it removed since the traces of ergot weren't high enough to be damaging. i know we don't see it again but continuity on this show is fluid, we can think whatever we want lol.

2/ she did sleep with ed, chris carter removed the scene. some believe this was for the best, some believe it's dismissive and harmful to erase her choices and autonomy. i'm of the latter opinion, i think it's important that there was something physical and bodily and sexual about her "liberation," and the ways in which she was punished for it.

3/ GET HER A DESK! i love your headcanon, anon. there is so much underlying and bubbling up and present in never again. personally, that's what makes the ending hit so hard. that it ends in silence, a trailed off half-sentence, sitting in between the light and the dark. they're both being confronted with so much, and they are about to be confronted with more, and they can't betray how they feel out loud.

gush to me anytime, you gotta keep me updated on your journey!! always good to hear from you.

[aenslem]

aslkjdlasjf THIS GD SHOW, argh. i just finished season one, which i thought was a good idea, you know, finish the season before taking a break. *facepalms* i have those annoying things to do again (stupid household chores, every gd day you gotta do things), so it'll be a few hours before i can watch more, but i should be able to watch at least one or two more episodes today, so HOPEFULLY things will be a bit more resolved by tonight x'D

you were so right, there is so much happening, and i think EVERYONE on that gd ship needs a few years vacation after all this x'D

"married divorced remarried and divorced again and still having feelings for each other" asljdalksjda that is so correct, they are just that x'D

it's so fun, they're like "i don't trust him" pretty much all the time, and then Rush is like "so i had a dream" and Young is like "ok, i'll call General O'Neill" and they keep relying on each other so much right now, it's great, and Young risking the whole gd ship to save Rush, after having tried to kill him, what, twice already? amazing ❤

ah, yes, fanfiction ❤ it's so good at casting light on things from different angles, i love that, seeing characters and their motivations from all kinds of different point of views. though, you gif makers do that too and i love it, it's so great to look at different gif makers in the same fandoms and see how you focus different things.

right now i'm pretty exclusively reading McShep fics, but we'll see how that looks once i'm done with sgu x'D if you have any recs, please feel free to share!

btw, i've been trying to remember why i followed you from the start, and i'm pretty sure it's Star Trek, and specifically Spones, which, ALL MY LOVE! but i also want to mention how much i love following someone who gifs a lot of women, i love having more women on my dash! i never finished OUaT back in the days, but all your Regina and Swan Queen gifs are making me want to, and your Michelle Gomez gifs, waah, i do not want to watch CAoS! 😭 but you are kicking me in the butt about finishing Doctor Who too with your gifs of her (i sadly miss most of them though since i have it blacklisted for spoilers), i had no idea she was in it but man did that make me want to watch it when i found out!

okay, sorry that this got so long, even when i'm trying to keep things brief i end up being very wordy. so many things to say!

anyway, i'm gonna go do the things now, the sooner i get them done the sooner i can watch more sgu =D oh, wait, no, you posted something from 1x18 last night! i didn't look at it since i hadn't watched it yet, so i'm gonna go do that first! =D ❤

/Rodney anon

Oh don't be sorry , you can get wordy in my inbox whenever you like :3

You're fast! but why am I surprised, I finished 7 seasons of OUaT in a month lmao.

Well, imagine how it was for those who were watching sgu when it was actually airing, they did not have a chance to go and watch s2 right after s1, and you can :D so other things are not as bad as break between seasons of the show, but yeah, there's always things to do, sucks

askjhdaksjhd 'i just had a very interesting dream' scene is so good, and it so much better when you take it out of context lmao

well, they have to work together, they don't have a choice. you know how things were when he left rush on that planet, eli is smart, and eli was also right

but eli is still not good enough to do all the work, so no matter how much they don't trust each other, they have to work things out and work together and then finally going towards trust and comradery

well, at least they will try lmao

SPONES!!!!!!! SPOOOONEES! they are everything to me!!!!!

well, if you finish ouat and start caos... I am so sorry in advance lmao

I am not sure I can even explain what mess of the shows are those two, I have similar feelings towards both shows, I love the cast, I love some characters, I love women there, I hate the writers :D

Michelle is stunning in caos, there's also Miranda Otto, and they are like my moms, I love them, this show is worth watching just to look at them, but there's also... the rest of the show and plot asjkhdakjdh

same goes for ouat tbh, some characters are great and actors are doing such a good job and then there's whatever was happening in the show, but it;s still fun if you don't take it all seriously.

you will facepalm a lot and you will have an urge to rip your hair out sometimes, but if you try caos, I will give you two good reasons for it

that's it, think about it

okay, but you definitely need to watch doctor who, WATCH DOCTOR WHO!

[likea-black-widow-baby]

One thing I loved about MoM is that Wanda is allowed to be messy.

Full analysis under the cut

The MCU's treatment of Wanda has changed dramatically from AoU to MoM. Today we'll be tracing her journey from a standard postfeminist Strong Female Character to the more layered, messy, human version of her we see now.

Wanda doesn't get to look messy in the early MCU. Her first on-screen breakdown after Pietro's death is a perfect example of postfeminist objectification.

She gets to be powerful, but she tears through Ultron bots the same way that the only woman in a spy movie struts out of an explosion in a torn tank top carrying a single giant machine gun while all the men wear practical fighting gear. Wanda gets to be powerful as long as her titties are out and she's totally unscathed.

Elizabeth Olsen commented on the stigmatization of looking messy in an Age of Ultron promo interview: “Usually facial expressions aren’t great in slo-mo, because sometimes we’ll do super slo-mo moves, and, you know, you’re trying to do effort…But what I did just then, in slo-mo, is quite literally the most unattractive thing you could ever see anyone do. It’s so weird. And Joss [Whedon] would always remind me to use a calm face because that is okay to watch.”

The result being that Wanda looks dead-eyed in the movie where she's supposed to be the youngest and least experienced. So not only was she treated poorly in terms of over-sexualization, but media's (and Joss Whedon's) obsession with the picture-perfect woman prevented Elizabeth Olsen from portraying a human-feeling superhero in a franchise about humans trying to be superheroes.

The MCU starts moving away from this in Wandavision, exemplified when Wanda has her existential crisis and spends episode 8 in sweats.

She looks messy-- not yet violent-messy, but casual. She's allowed to be a mess in a very human way-- arguably the first time we see a woman coming apart mentally without her struggle being played for laughs (see, Pepper in Iron Man 2 and 3).

Side note-- I think this kind of breakdown is different from the ways we've seen Natasha weak because Natasha is permitted weakness in a very dramatic "look how pretty and sad and hot she is" kind of way. Pepper was always cast as hysterical for fretting over Tony and, while her concerns may be vindicated by the plot later, she is brushed off in the moment like one might pat a child having a tantrum on the head.

Anyway, Wanda is allowed to be an everyday coming-apart-at-the-seams messy in a manner not previously permitted to women in the MCU. But she's still immaculate in the final fight scene.

Agatha drains her power and it briefly gives her a haunted look, but it's still fantasy-messy. No real person is looking that much like a zombie, and even if Wanda briefly looks less than flawless, it's in an unrealistic way.

Which brings us to Multiverse. At the beginning of the movie, especially during her siege on Kamar Taj, I was fearful that it was going to be another repeat of AoU, CA:CW, or IW where Wanda gets to go a little crazy but remain the immaculate-looking Strong Female Character. Here's the scene that disproved my fears.

One might argue that it's just another instance of fantasy-messy, but what makes it different is how real her bones snapping back into place is portrayed. We can hear it. We watch her body twist back into its normal shape like a puppet seized by the strings, complete with ugly cracking noises that make her body seem real and breakable. It's a move a director like J*ss Wh*don wouldn't allow because it's gross and unsexy. Like people can be sometimes.

Gif credit: @lokihiddleston

Here's where all of this has been leading. Seven years and five directors later, Wanda gets to look like a human being. Cracked lips, tired eyes, greasy hair, face blotchy. It doesn't get more real than that. I hope Elizabeth Olsen enjoyed looking like this on screen, because I sure loved watching it.

P.S.

While searching for Elizabeth's quote, I found this very well-written article on postfeminism in Hollywood and the problematic handling of Black Widow, Scarlet Witch, and Mystique.

[greyias]

I posted 1,641 times in 2022

That's 280 more posts than 2021!

277 posts created (17%)

1,364 posts reblogged (83%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@storyknitter

@commander-krios

@queen-scribbles

@greyias

@aearyn

I tagged 1,041 of my posts in 2022

Only 37% of my posts had no tags

#dracula daily - 75 posts

#gif - 70 posts

#lmao - 56 posts

#theron shan x jedi knight - 46 posts

#twitch stream - 33 posts

#going live - 29 posts

#grey's silly swtor tag - 27 posts

#swtor spoilers - 26 posts

#oc: greyias highwind - 26 posts

#signal boost - 25 posts

Longest Tag: 139 characters

#i'm convinced this is a budgetary decision and they just mix for surround sound and say 'screw it' to the 90% of devices listening in stere

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Pictured: a dog that has never been fed ever in his whole life

109 notes - Posted April 20, 2022

#4

The Twitterpocalypse: A Summary

(as of today 11/18/22)

143 notes - Posted November 18, 2022

#3

I absolutely adore @caffeinatedrogue's art, and was so lucky to be able to snag a commission slot and get this gorgeous piece of art of Theron Shan and my Jedi Knight. Thank you so much!

244 notes - Posted August 28, 2022

#2

🐦 Afternoon Update: Idiot Unplugs Things

How foolish of me, to think that the frenetic pace of things would somehow slow down. If you haven’t already backed up your account/data at Twitter. Um. You should. If that is indeed still functioning behind the scenes.

Because like, apparently the moment I hit post this morning, our local genius who wants to start a colony on Mars, who knows all things in the universe, does what any smart person would do, made this announcement.

See the full post

402 notes - Posted November 14, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Twitterpocalypse -- The Final Countdown(?)

*cracks knuckles*

All right. I had thought we were done. I had thought about retiring these, as the last one got a bit out of hand. I had planned on doing other things tonight, but it appears, my people need me.

And this genuinely might be the last one (at least from me). So let's see if I can sum up what's happened since our last episode, and see how many screenshots I can artfully arrange together before Tumblr breaks.

On Tuesday, things were already starting to break.

Wednesday:

Twitter 1.0 is dead. Long live Twitter 2.0!

It's just like the nineties, because it's EXTREMEly HARDCORE

See the full post

3,680 notes - Posted November 17, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[1-deadgirlwalking-1]

3/24/2024

i fell asleep around 6:30 am, mom woke me up at 10 am to walk the dog. it was cold as heck outside even though it was super sunny and logically spring weather should be starting right now, global warming has changed the weather patterns and i’m not used to the changes yet. sigh.

anyway then i went inside after a little bit and drank two energy drinks. for breakfast we had eggs, bacon, and biscuits n gravy. i watched some rottmnt with my uncle and family friend, and they could pay better attention this time because there was no loud background noise. my uncle laughed at a lot of the jokes which also made me very happy!! :D he likes when i point out details and easter eggs (like when we were watching Bullhop and i pointed out that DIGG was playing at big mama’s party) and he doesn’t mind when i pause the show to rant to him about something either, i told him the plot to one of the episodes of my rottmnt au and he said it was good and he likes it. yay!

like literally yesterday i recommended blue eye samurai to my friend and today he texted me saying he finished season 1, so i think he turned it on and then watched the entire show in one sitting. which is exactly what i did when i watched the show the first time so… relatable. he rated it an 8/10 ('very good' on his rating system) and gave some commentary on it, which i enjoy.

my little cousin came to visit today and i swung on the swings outside with her. i memorized and learned all k sounds in hiragana and katakana, then my sister took us out to go get snow cones. (which she apparently doesn’t call them, and she doesn’t call them shaved ice either. she calls them snow balls. it’s weird that i live and grow up with someone my whole life and we somehow have slightly different vernacular.)

but sadly pelicans was closed when we got there, so we went to dollar general and got snacks instead. then we went home and watched big time rush with her, but i left to go to my room after the first episode to focus on my japanese.

i realized today when a BTR song played on the radio and my sister was like “i love this episode” and then recounted the plot of the episode / movie that the song was in, that big time rush is to my sister what rottmnt and voltron is to me. sometimes my friends will send me a screenshot or gif from either show and i’ll be able to tell them the exact scene of the exact episode it's from (and then they call me a nerd), honestly it’s weird when i’m NOT able to do that.

i forget that neurodivergence is hereditary and most of my family members also some kind of disorder or disability. LOL.

anyway that’s everything i did today. toodles!

[triflesandparsnips]

A brief follow-up re: this shit right here

Am I using another gif of the exact same scene just so I can watch it again from a slightly different artistic perspective? Yes, absolutely.

Since posting my feral feels regarding this scene in OFMD, I've seen rather a lot of reactions, and to be absolutely clear holy shit I love everyone in this bar & grill.

I would like to break down the reactions, though, and provide some additional commentary because it turns out I have EVEN MORE FEELINGS.

1. "My heart, my eyes, I'm screaming, I'm gnawing wood" and variations thereof

Amazing, no notes.

2. "Now that Stede knows he loves Ed, his Game will become Too Powerful"

I feel it's important to state that the beauty of this moment is only possible because

"On-Purpose Queer-Coded Language To Identify Each Other Safely"

and

"I'm Gonna Be Real Careful With My Wording Because I Like Pretty Things But I Don't Need Broken Ribs Today"

are often indistinguishable in the moment. To Ed? Stede has just done an elegant bit of coded communication. (THERE WAS A HANKY FOR FUCKS' SAKE.) It's part of why he goes in for a kiss-- and then promptly does a quick slide into a homosocially acceptable bro-punch when Stede doesn't immediately lean in too. Ed's still doing safety checks, and he'll continue doing them for several more episodes, but he's definitely added at least one tick mark -- possibly the first tick mark -- in his mental "does Stede do ~dalliances" tally sheet.

To Stede, though? He got to Be Himself and he did it Right so Hooray he didn't get his Face Caved In. While my dude needs to take some time to consider why it's so important to him that he Be Himself around This Particular Guy in This Particular Way, he is definitely not reading from the same set of notes as Ed. His mental tally sheet? Is still labeled "is this a Friend y/n." Because in Stede's past even trying to form friendships ended up with verbal abuse and weirdly sexualized violence so, like, Stede has a VERY different starting point than Ed on this one.

(And tbh, I think @kohlrabisabi's reply to the original post really hits a lot of this well. Stede is absolutely just… doing an extension of his own learned "safe" behavior and it HAPPENS to correspond with what Ed "knows" safe behavior like that "means." From a queer narrative point of view it doesn't particularly matter that Stede does in fact turn out to be in love with Ed-- he still betrayed the shared language that was supposed to finally make it safe for Ed to believe there was an Understanding between them, and therefore the fact that Stede didn't show up at the dock isn't just heartbreaking, it's an actively traumatic experience for Ed as a queer man.)

(The flip side of this is that it's not particularly fair of Ed to depend entirely on The Secret Code of Gay to interpret Stede's full thoughts on this extremely life altering situation, and perhaps spending five goddamn minutes just talking openly and making sure everyone's on the same page would've saved us all a lot of toes, okay.)

ALL THIS TO SAY: Lol no, if Stede tries to woo Ed now, it's going to be awkward straight-guy courtship outta manuals because that's what he thinks you're supposed to do, it'll be amazingly awful and I cannot fucking wait. We'll only see our slow and coded queer seduction vibes when Stede is, once again, trying not to get stabbed by Blackbeard.

3. "How does a television show do this, how is All This Meaning done by thirty people in a clown car driven by HBO"

The queer experience is nonetheless the human experience; we've been humans for a long time and our stories tend to repeat a lot. Also, all art is collaborative, and the audience is doing the bulk of the heavy lifting when engaging with any work of art -- therefore it's not thirty people in a clown car, it's millions of people collectively recognizing a shared/lived experience as accurate within our own contexts and imbuing it with yet further meaning because our ability to do so has neither directly nor indirectly been contradicted by the narrative.

tl;dr: Magic.

[pennyserenade]

tags: nameless female oc x javier peña, nameless female oc x javier pena rating: t ( teen )  warnings: language, a smidge of angst  word count: 1.5k+ summary: a scenario in which javier finds peace at home notes: this is apart of the scenes universe, but just not in the main timeline. it’s set after the events in colombia, taking place at about the same time season 3, episode one does. this was created because i needed to see javier happy -- isn’t that wild ? gif by: @pascalsky​

A PEACE OF MIND AND A SLICE OF HOME 

The boy’s hair is light, so blonde it’s nearly white, and Javi’s in the middle of being teased about it for the umpteenth time. He grins, looking at the boy on his lap, telling his family to kindly--in the most kid appropriate way--fuck off. They ask about the mailmen in Colombia in between fits of laughter, or whether that partner of his had the same shade of hair—anything to get Javi going.

“Yeah, he did,” Javi replies, looking back at them, “But he didn’t have that nose,” he nods towards the kid. “That’s my nose.”

“Javi, don’t let them get you going—that kid has more than just your nose,” his tía says, inserting herself in the conversation. She’d been skirting closer and closer all night, but she’d been too focused on hosting to fully make her way over. It seems she’s freed herself now. “That wife of yours pushed out another little Javi.”

She puts her hands outwards and the boy reaches up, anticipating being picked up. Javi grins, letting him go. He had been worried about the way the boy would respond to the family at first, being that he’d not really had anyone in Colombia besides Steve and the two of them, but he enjoys the attention. Everyone is more than happy to give it to him, too.

“Will you watch him while I go find her?” Javi nods towards the house, “I think someone in there must be holding her up in conversation, and I think its Dad. It always is.”

She nods her head. “Go on.”

Javi kisses her cheek before making a beeline to the door. Surprisingly, no one tries to stop him and ask questions, but then again, he’s tried to walk quick enough so they’d know not to.

The house is relatively empty, with a few people scattered in the kitchen and a couple of women sitting at the couch. Javi checks multiple rooms, quiet in case there happens to be any sleeping children in any of them. Just as he thought, he finds his father and his wife in a room talking with their backs to the door. He doesn’t make a sudden intrusion. In fact, he doesn’t make one at all, lingering behind the threshold when he hears them talking.

“This was Javier when he was little,” his father tells her. He watches a photo pass between them.

“Who’s that woman?” she points to the photo, “Is that his mother?”

His father nods. “Yeah.”

She grins. “The baby looks so much like Javi did here. He’s so cute,” she laughs. She passes the photo back to his father. “Javi never really talks about his childhood and he didn’t have any photos like this in Colombia, so this is the first time I’ve seen any of this.”

His father shrugs. “Javi’s a bit odd about talking about this place. He always wanted to get away, and now that he has, I think he’s trying hard to forget it.”

His wife shakes her head. “No,” she assures. “Javi remembers this place. He’s just got a way about him, you know? Always too distracted by the future to bother with the past or the present.” She shrugs. “At least, he was. I think he’s a little more present these days.”

Javi knows he shouldn’t do this, stand here in the doorway and ease drop, but he can’t help it. The scene before him is an oddly intimate one and he doesn’t want to ruin it, but at the very same time, he can’t tear himself away from listening. He didn’t know either of them felt that way, and he didn’t even consider that they could bond over him.

“I know you probably don’t need me to tell you this, but I know you make him happy,” Chucho tells her. She smiles, and Javi can’t help but smile too. His is more bittersweet though. “He hasn’t been like this since...” His father thinks. “Since his mother passed, maybe. Maybe even a little before—maybe before she got sick.”

“What was she like?”

Javi knocks on the door. They both shift their eyes over to him. “Mijo,” his father says, “How’s the family treating you out there?”

“Oh, you know, brutally as always,” Javi says nonchalantly, looking over at his wife. “I’ve come to get her back, though.”

“You’ve had her for long enough to yourself,” Chucho quips. She laughs from beside him.

She points to the photos scattered in front of them. “He was showing me pictures of you as a baby.”

“That’s what I feared.” Javi enters the room finally.

She scrunches her nose. “Don’t be like that,” she teases. “Mira,” she holds up the photo her father had just shown her. “Pequeño bebé Javi.”

He glimpses at the photo, but not for too long. Something tightens in his chest at the sight of his mother, something he’s not ready to unpack just yet.

“You think you’ll be ready to head out soon?” Javi asks. “I think he’s gonna start getting fussy if we stay any longer.”

“I don’t think so—“ she begins, but then she sees the look in Javi’s eyes. That silent pleading. She gives him a look back, one that tells him she’s not so thrilled about the way he’s acting. He’s stubborn though.

“Maybe, actually,” she gives in. She hands the photo back to his dad. “Thank you for showing me these. I’ll have to come back sometime without Javi and the baby.”

Javi’s dad nods, but he knows. He’s kind enough to let it go though, and Javi’s ever more grateful for his wife’s presence.

“I’ll walk you out.”

Javi leads the way, slowly his pace so he can say his goodbyes on the way out. Everyone in the house wants hugs, but the people outside are too busy clutching drinks and children, or in the midst of conversation to do so. It takes longer than Javi likes, but after ten minutes or so, they find their way back to his tía. She smiles at them.

“Ah, you were the one holding her hostage,” she tells Chucho. “Javi was right.”

The baby reaches out towards his wife. She smiles at him before taking him in her arms and kissing his cheeks. “Hola, mi amor,” she coos. He nestles against her, and Javi smiles, reaching up to scratch his back before looking back at his aunt. “We’re about to head out. He’s gonna start getting fussy if we don’t go soon.”

Javi watches his father and aunt exchange looks quickly and his dare to twitch. His wife puts an arm around his back, though, pulling him close—grounding him.

His dad circles around to the baby, and Javi’s tía returns her attention back to him.

“Come back tomorrow?” she asks, leaning closer to him. “Your father needs help but he’s too stubborn to ask for it; you two are too similar in that sense.”

She affectionately grips his chin and he smiles at her. “Yeah okay, pero no big event like tonight, okay?” he requests. “I love them but I can’t stand another question about Colombia.”

“I promise,” she says. “Don’t be afraid to bring them around too.” She looks over at his wife and child. Chucho is in the middle of kissing the boy’s head and his wife is grinning wide. Javi can’t help but note how genuine it is, the smile, or the way she looks so at ease, as if this was her hometown and not his own.

He doesn’t say anything more, because the two of them know he won’t be getting out of the house without his wife and child; she’s fond of this place, and though he doesn’t love the trip down memory lane he feels as though he owes her that much. His Pop, too, bless him. Javi knows he’s too unkind, knows that the man only wants the best for him, but he can’t help but meet that with indifference.

After Chucho is done saying goodbye to his wife and child, Javi eases his way out of his wife’s hold. He leans forward, and, taking himself and his father by surprise, he embraces the older man in a hug.

Despite the way he slightly towers over his father, Javi cannot help the way he feels so small in his father’s arms. Chucho holds him tight and firm, and Javi welcomes it, closing his eyes for a minute. When they pull back, Chucho holds his face and places his forehead on Javi’s.

“I love you, mijo,” he says, “Now that you’re a father I’m sure you can understand just how much.”

Javi puts a hand over one of his dad’s. He nods. “I love you too, Pop. I’ll be back in the morning, okay?”

Chucho smiles. Javi sees the single dimple he has reflected in his father’s features. “Drive safe,” he tells Javi and his wife collectively. “I’ll see you in the morning.”

Javi looks down at his wife and the baby, and he does it—he understands the way his father loves him, and what’s more, he gets why this town is a place the man hasn’t ever left. In the cracks and crevices of this town are the memories of a life they had led before, Javi and him and his mother. For all the good and the bad that they had experienced here, it would always serve as a reminder that it had happened—that life had been lived and love had been had. This was his father’s Colombia.

One day Javi will tell him this, that he understands. Today he lets it end with an affectionate pat on the man’s cheek, though, some echo of the sort of thing the man would have done to him when he was a boy.

Maybe Laredo isn’t half bad, Javi decides. Not like this, anyways. 

forever/everything tag list : @astroboots , @frannyzooey , @wyn-dixie , @rosiefridayrogersunday , @melaniermblt , @theorganasolo , @amneris21 , @honestly-shite , @over300books​

javi tag list : @wyn-dixie , @rosiefridayrogersunday , @disgruntledspacedad , @melaniermblt , @walt-breslin , @theorganasolo , @amneris21 , @hb8301 , @penajavier , @darnitdraco , @over300books , @dobbyjen​

scenes tags: @gravegoth​​ , @sarahjkl82-blog​​ , @cmonkeepmoving​​

[you-cant-spell-subtext-without]

so get this. I was gonna roll around in Tombstone related fluff today - but no, no - this post came across my dash so Now We Are Gonna Discuss the Carnal Consumption of Meat as it appears on That Show Supernatural.  YEAH BUDDIES!

(also my sincere apologies to OP of the inspiration post who innocently tagged it with “lunch date!”  because I am about to go Elsewhere, cursedly).

Let’s all go meat man, after the cut!

This analysis centers primarily on 5x14 Bloody Valentine.  The title of course is a semi-homage to a 3D Slasher Film Jensen starred in circa 2009. 

Which I will be renting soon I guess.  ,[<- parasocial panda GET BACK IN YOUR ENCLOSURE]

Also Its Really Fun that the trailer for Said Cinema ends with “nothing says date movie like a 3-D ride to hell” [are you also thinking of Cas pulling Dean out of hell, or are you normal?]  ***unironically the teaser for 5x14 is -

EXT. SIDEWALK - IN FRONT OF ALICE'S APARTMENT BUILDING

RUSSEL 

First date.

They then eat each other.  Literally they eat each others flesh.  They also do it while dirty talking about it.  SPN IS A SHOW 

ALICE Ugh! I've been so alone. So empty...

RUSSEL I know. Me too.

ALICE I want you, Russel---All of you... inside me...

[they both take bites out of each other, Alice chewing on a piece of Russel's flesh]

****Remember this detail, as it is important.

ANYWAY, it’s truly Cursed that not only are we doing an homage to this 3-D Jensen Horror Date Flick but also this episode is specifically centered on Valentine’s Day.  The day honoring romance and love Now Coopted by Hallmark, everyone, that is the day spn writers chose to introduce us to 

Sir Horseman of THE Biblical Apocalypse Famine. 

Canonically, we are aware that the show is drawing from the book of Revelations in its depiction of the Four Horsemen.  Here’s what it says about Famine -

"When He broke the third seal, I heard the third living creature saying, "Come." I looked, and behold, a black horse; and he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand.”

-Revelations 6:5

Famine holds scales (used to weigh out grain in times of food scarcity).  Spn’s depiction is represented as hunger, a bottomless pit of need.  It consumes souls (demon and human alike).  

Cas describes Famine a little more poetically:

CASTIEL 

"And then will come Famine riding on a black steed. He will ride into the land of plenty... "

"... and great will be the Horseman's hunger, for he is hunger. "

"His hunger will seep out and poison the air. "

***Consider a prior season in which we are introduced to the Seven Deadly Sins.  Which are the sins associated with hunger?

Gluttony

and Lust.

***this is also important

Back to the episode.  Case cold open, and we find out that Alice was a Nice Girl.  In that she didnt drink, smoke or

have premarital sex.

***So Alice’s hunger for the sin of Lust caused her to succumb to it; and her demise was presented as Gluttony (literally eating her partner’s flesh). HMM

Famine’s presence is affecting the town, and Cas is not immune.

DEAN 

And when did you start eating?

CASTIEL 

Exactly. My hunger-- it's a clue, actually.

***They lay it out a little more in case you missed it ->

SAM 

I thought famine meant starvation, like as in, you know, food.

CASTIEL 

Yes. Absolutely. But not just food. I mean, everyone seems to be starving for something--Sex, attention, drugs, love...

***this is so important.  but of course because its spn and our textual narrators are generally unreliable (even in a Ben Edlund episode, yes I know)

we get a red herring

CASTIEL 

Right. The cherub made them crave love, and then Famine came, and made them rabid for it.

***but that’s not accurate.  they didn’t get married or become obsessed with each other (remember the cursed coin in 4x08 Wishful Thinking and the unconditional love wish? not what happened here). they had premarital sex.  they did the thing Alice considers wrong, and dark, and sinful.  and then they ate each others’ flesh.

DEAN 

Okay, but what about you? I mean, since when do angels secretly hunger for White Castle?

CASTIEL 

It's my vessel-- Jimmy. His, uh, appetite for red meat has been touched by Famine's effect

***mad lad Jimmy Novak’s hunger is for...red meat?  He is starving for red meat?  You are telling me that the Novaks, red blooded conservative religious midwestern Novaks, ate RED MEAT SO SPARINGLY that Jimmy Novak was LITERALLY starving for it?!?!  No way.  Absolutely no way.  This is a man who was such a religious zealot he STUCK HIS HAND IN BOILING WATER and accepted an angel of the lord into his own body but his secret hunger was for fucking ground beef?

give me a damn break.

to me this is an absolute coverup.  Because Cas’s burger consumption is not related one iota to his vessel Jimmy Novak.

it is a representation of Cas falling.  Cas’s cravings for meat represent his growing (and very much prohibited) feelings for...humanity (Dean Winchester), and they are presenting as Gluttony in the form of his downing more and more copious amounts of red meat.  

SERIOUSLY, consider this - at one point the depiction is so desperately carnal that he is eating raw ground beef with his bare hands. It is fucking uncomfortable.  and it is SUPPOSED to be.  Famine stirs up hunger for the prohibited.  For the sinful. That which we are starving for but do not believe we can ever have, so we lust and we lust and we LUST after it, but should we allow ourselves even just a taste of what we have been ravenously craving, we binge it until we ourselves disappear into the oblivion of our own sinful, dark desires.

Since You Want More Examples of why this cant possibly be hunger for Cheeseburgers and Cheeseburgers alone, Consider Famine’s effect on Dean.  Remember his doctor kink?

**when its revealed that Doctor Corman has succumbed to Famine’s poison by drinking himself to death, Dean - very uncharacteristically by the way - reacts by saying out loud

DEAN Thanks. Crap! I really kind of liked this guy.

***please note that Doctor Corman says the following to Dean in the prior scene they have together -

DR. CORMAN [to Dean]

Agent Marley, you just can't stay away.

****was that a flirtation?

***Also, Dean doesn’t want to go out and chase tail for Valentines Day.   

SAM

I mean, what do you always call it-- Uh, unattached drifter Christmas?

DEAN 

Oh, yeah. Well... be that as it may...I don't know. Guess I'm not feeling it this year.

SAM 

So you're not into bars full of lonely women?

DEAN 

Nah, I guess not. [takes a sip of his beer] Ahh. What?

SAM 

That's when a dog doesn't eat-- That's when you know something's really wrong.

***oh look we are relating things to eating again.  sex/lust to gluttony.  hmmm hmmm hmmm

ANYHOW -  *takes deep breath*

 this is also the Episode Where This Scene Lives

****JACKTING JOICES

oh and speaking of jacting joices, this is also the Dean Notices Cupids Crotch Episode.

frAckles, I am once again asking why you only permit celestial beings to hug you from behi-[gunshots]

but Dean isn’t hungry.  Why? Famine has the explanation, and we get it after Dean immediately runs inside after Cas heads in to complete his portion of their plan barely giving him any time to do so because he misses him that much.

FAMINE 

I disagree. [Famine moves closer to Dean and touches him] Yes. I see. That's one deep, dark nothing you got there, Dean. Can't fill it, can you? Not with food or drink. Not even with sex.

DEAN 

Oh, you're so full of crap.

FAMINE 

Oh, you can smirk and joke and lie to your brother, lie to yourself, but not to me! 

***not Dean making all of those homophobic/homoerotic jokes every time he’s in danger or feeing uncomfortable; not that, that can’t possibly be what Famine is referencing, right?

I can see inside you, Dean. I can see how broken you are, how defeated. 

***not THIS parallel:

AMARA:

You're a mystery. I can see inside your heart. Feel the love you feel, except… It's cloaked in shame

You can't win, and you know it. But you just keep fighting. Just... keep going through the motions. 

***not the motions of performative heterosexuality!!

***Dean’s not hungry because in his heart he truly believes that he can’t actually have what he hungers for.  That Thing Which This Episode Overtly but Also Very Clearly Made Obvious.  It’s an angel riding shotgun [I did Do That and I am Not Sorry], eating a burger in the front seat of the impala.  But, I’ve deviated from the meat of this essay [gunshots] [this time just for the bad joke].

BONUS

there’s Exists another episode in which a man ravenously consumes red meat; eventually succumbing to eating raw beef with his bare hands in the season prior to this one.  

Yes Supernatural the Show That Brought Us Not One But Two Scenes of Persons Carnally Consuming Red Meat With Their Bare Hands.  

This episode is a MOTW - the man in question is a rougaru - a monster that starts out as human but due to some specific genetic disorder (hmmm hmmm hmm crack in THE chassis hmmm hmmm) soon begins to be extremely hungry - “for everything, but eventually long pig.” AKA human flesh. 

Wanna know the kicker?  

Episode’s called Metamorphosis.

(GIF by jackttwist)

I’ll see myself out.

[DOUBLE BONUS for extra credit:

if you really wanna wild out, go watch the scene of Jack the rougaru looking at himself in the mirror in 4x04 - and then meander on over to 7x01 and check out God!stiel looking in the mirror as the leviathans writhe inside him over there. It’s worth the walk.]

***oh and @lilac-void​ im tagging you in this one because in exchange for your KIND creator content nomination I guess I will respond by cursing you with an Honorary tag in this, a Meat Meta.  you’re welcome slash I'm sorry XO [but seriously thank you again for your kindness and appreciation; it really motivated me to sit down and get moving on making more content <3]

[momentsatmydesk]

'Mr. Queen’ Taught Me “Be You. The World Will Adjust.”

I have no shame in proclaiming this so early into this year but… 'Mr. Queen' or ‘Queen Cheorin’ is my favorite drama watch of 2021.

Quite honestly, I don't know where to start with this show. There is so much happening in it, right from the very first scene and yet, it doesn't overwhelm or addle you (well done, team TVN).

A time-travel story, prominent Korean chef Jang-Bong Hwan's spirit suddenly transports back to the Joseon Dynasty and settles into Queen Kim So-Yong's body. Strangely, it is exactly at the same time when the Queen decides to jump into a palatial lake.

So what does a man from the 21st century do trapped in a woman's body from a couple of 100 years ago? Of course, he tries every possible trick in the book to swap back to his own physical being.

But the deities have other plans and we then see how Bong Hwan's spirit decides to own his role as a Queen until the heavens deem it right for him to return to present times.

I shall pause here and applaud the absolute brilliancy of actress Shin Hye-Sun who's done such a fantastic job portraying a narcissistic male spirit in a feminine form. She's a complete rock-star, our Queen Cheorin. She has zero hoots to give, she damns patriarchy in the face, she teaches the king a thing or two about how to run a goddamn country, she leads the creation of ramen as we know it today, she's bold, selfish and hellish funny.

King Cheoljung is another interesting entity. Sporting a façade as a 'puppet king', he's actually the mastermind behind the revolt brewing up among the masses. He was never really into Kim So-Yong because his heart is already tied to Jo Hwa-Jin. His marriage to So-Yong is nothing but an extension of court politics and this infuriates our very handsome but clearly-a-bit-twisted second lead, Kim Byeong-in.

In Byeong-in's defense, he's loved So-Yong ever since they were children and he's aware of her being despondent in finding no comfort or companionship in Cheoljong.

We then have two classic bitches-of-the-first-order in Queen Sunwon (great grandmother-in-law) and Queen Dowager Jo (mother-in-law). The former is supported by the slyest villain in the history of Joseon dynasty Kim Jwa-Guen and is evil enough on her own, mind you. Topped up with Queen Dowager's crappy antiques, the trio deserve an ovation for the amount of times they can piss you off.

The story follows the survival of Jang-Bong Hwan as Kim So-Yong amidst political intrigues and secrets that compose the palace and its people.

The show is hilarious. The comic timing, is absolutely woot-worthy and it just keeps wanting you to sit your ass down and move on to the next episode and then the next. Even through the darkest moments of storytelling, the show finds a way to make you laugh. And this, more than anything else (exception: Shin-Hye Sun's stellar performance) is the reason why I simply LOVE and adore the show.

I cannot not talk about Court Lady Choi-Hwa, a sensational, traditional mother-figure who's about to lose her shit thanks to the baffling antiques of our Mr. Queen. From walking with her skirt held up to her knees, from burping in your face, from taking over the Royal Kitchen and to dancing in the rain, So-Yong's sudden change of character causes Lady Choi to almost faint.

So-Yong, Lady Choi and Hong Yeon's femme bonding is one of my favorite parts of this entire tale, hands down.

There are so many sensational and cute side characters in the show but I'm going to list down some key learnings I picked up:

1. Have the courage to love yourself first.

Often, it is easier to love another before loving ourselves first. But to sit down with yourself and give yourself the love you crave for is a no-bargain deal, even if it means not having the space to love others.

2. Celebrate your weird, your crazy and your wild.

Life's really, really rather short to be anything but the whole of you. I love that about So-Yong: her ability to be radically herself and celebrate it.

3. You are only defeated when you think yourself to be.

No matter what life throws at you or if time has your back or not, you cannot be defeated until you allow yourself to be. I think this is one of my favorite qualities of King Cheoljung.

I'd like to rewatch this drama, at a slower pace, with large bowls of chili popcorn, now that the suspense is over and I know how it ends. My last words: So-Yong eating ramen. ❤

.

.

GIF Credits: GIF 1 & 13 - Tumbex | GIF 2: Choi Jin-Hyuk y Dramas, Tumblr | GIF 3: @labelledejour​ | GIF 4: Aghasewatchtv | GIF 5: MyDramaList | GIF 5: Kenh 14 a | GIF 11: Dramabeans | GIF 12: Bitches Over Dramas | GIF 14: Tenor | GIF 15: @thingskateknows​ | 

[bustyasianbeautiespod]

Episode 3 Transcript: Why Won't They Let Sam Do Anything???

[intro guitar music]

G: Hello! My name is Grey.

C: And my name is Crystal.

G: And this is Busty Asian Beauties, a Supernatural commentary podcast where I, someone who has seen the show several times…

C: And I, someone who only knows the show through social media, discuss every single episode of Supernatural from start to finish. Also, we are both Asian.

G: We are both Asian!

-

G: So for today's episode, we will be discussing Season 1 Episode 3, “Dead in the Water.” So, Crystal.

C: Yes.

G: Before you watched this episode, what were your expectations?

C: Okay, so the things that I knew from social media: There is a child involved who draws pictures who Dean is nice to, and Dean tells him about how after he witnessed his mom die, he didn't speak for a few months, I think, and was sort of just bonding with the kid. I also knew that there was an evil lake with dark water involved, and also that Dean at some point jumps into the lake and saves the child… I think that's about all I knew about the episode because that's the only part that the Deangirls were giffing.

G: Yeah, the jumping into the water part really is the kicker of this episode. Like, it's the iconic shot.

C: Yeah, yeah, where he resurfaces holding the child.

-

G: Okay, let's start with the episode. So episode three, we start in Lake Manitoc, Wisconsin, and there is a girl—her name is Sophie—and she's walking around the house preparing for her workout. She says goodbye to her dad and does a bit of a bantery goodbye with her brother where her brother says—

C: “Guys don't like buff girls”—

G: Yes, and she says, well, “Girls don't like guys who still live at home.” Which, it's just, it's, I guess it's a very American…

C: I mean like I guess I'm not the most American American, so maybe this is something that happens between sisters and brothers…

G: I was talking specifically about living at home being an insult.

C: Oh yeah.

G: That's a very American thing. Or like, I guess Western. Just Western world, I guess.

C: Yeah, yeah, no, like a lot of families in China have like three generations all living together—

G: Yeah, exactly, right? I mean here at home, you stay with your family until you get married, and even after that. So, I was like, “Oh man, this is an American show.” But like the brother was also an asshole, so it's fine.

C: Yeah, no, the brother was such an asshole. And also, I don't have conversations with my sister about desirability. It just felt like a very- it just was a very weird line. I feel like if your sister is a varsity swimmer and has gone for workouts every single day for years and years, do you even need to bring that up anymore? And if you are bringing it up, why?

G: Anyway, so she goes to the lake to swim, and there are some interesting shots in this scene, very Jaws-like. So I noticed that, but I have never seen Jaws so I might be wrong.

C: I also haven't seen Jaws. Are you just talking about the high contrast between the water and the reflection?

G: No, I think I'm talking about the shots where it's from under the water and it's looking up at her, and I was like, “Oh, this looks like something from Jaws in my imaginary world where I have seen Jaws and know what it looks like.” So she spins around some more and then she gets grabbed by something down the lake, and we see bubbling in the water showing that she's breathing underwater, I guess, and the bubbling stops, and the lake is clear. And there's a terrible slow motion effect going on. It's so bad! What's going on?

C: It’s terrible.

G: They forgot to film at 60 fps for this scene.

C: Yeah, exactly their film camera acted up, and that's why the water looked so weird earlier too.

-

C: Right, so now we're at a restaurant where Sam and Dean are eating. Dean is looking through a newspaper for cases and finds the news about Sophie, who we just saw drown. Then, we see a waitress that Dean’s being all flirty with. Oh, we get the shot- that I didn't know was from this episode- of him grinning and chewing on a pen that the Deangirls are really into.

G: It's a very famous shot.

C: Right. And Sam comes and interrupts the flirting, and Dean says, “You know, Sam, we are allowed to have fun once in a while,” and then he points to Wendy, the waitress, and says, “That's fun,” which I think is Dean misogyny count number 8. Do you agree?

G: Because, okay, I was gonna bring up something here about like flirtatious waiters, right? Because the waiter was flirting with him, or at least we are supposed to think that the waiter is flirting with him.

C: Yeah.

G: I don't think—like, flirting with each other shouldn't count as a misogyny moment.

C: Oh, I don't have an issue with Dean flirting. I have an issue with him saying “that's fun” about a person. Like “that” is not something that you use to refer to a person. It's quite dehumanizing, in my opinion.

G: Uh, okay, I get what you mean. Yeah. I don't know if we should count it as a misogyny moment. Maybe like a 0.5?

C: Alright, alright. So Dean misogyny's at a 7.5.

-

C: Dean tells Sam about the Sophie case and mentions that they had a funeral where they buried an empty coffin because they couldn't find the body, but it was for closure. Sam says, “Closure? What closure. People don't just disappear, Dean; other people just stop looking for them.” And Dean's like, “Oh, I see. Something's up.” And Sam's like, “Yeah, no, I'm upset that we're not just actively trying to look for our dad right now and are working cases.” And then Dean gets quite up in his space with “You know what? I'm sick of this attitude. You don't think I want to find Dad as much as you do?” And then he has a moment where he's quite angry. Yeah, he says “I'm the one who has been with him every single day for the past two years while you've been off to college going to pep rallies. We will find Dad, but until then, we're gonna kill everything bad between here and there, okay?”

G: Okay.

C: Um, yeah. What are your thoughts?

G: Okay, in this podcast I'm starting to feel like it's becoming my job to defend Dean.

C: It seems to be! Yeah, okay, hit me with it.

G: Because I am a younger sibling, right, so, to be fair, I, as a younger sibling, would never speak like that to my elder siblings.

C: Okay, yeah.

G: Like the very rude way where Sam was like, passive-aggressive, right? So I was like well, yeah, I mean if that was my sibling, they would get mad as well. But I was beginning to think about it, and I was like, “But I won't do it out of respect. Like I’d do it because I think it's pointless, because, you know, this person has authority over me, and they'll think they're right, so I'll just shut up.” So maybe, like Sam- it was good for Sam to speak up for himself, but personally I wouldn't do it just because my sister's gonna think they're right anyway.

C: Right, okay. I mean, yeah, I think Sam probably should have communicated more openly rather than being passive-aggressive, but once Sam did communicate what his problem was, Dean got, I think, too upset? Like “I'm sick of this attitude” is such a parent authority figure thing to say, when I feel like, in the US, siblings are supposed to be sort of on an equal level regardless of their age relative to each other. I understand that Dean's bitter about Sam leaving, but I think saying like, “Oh, you've been off to college going to pep rallies” is not very kind, especially when Sam's college girlfriend just died.

G: Yeah, that is true.

C: And also, Dean ending his whole thing with “Okay?” like he's giving Sam an order… I didn't like that. That made me- got my hackles up.

G: Because I've been spoken to like that, so I'm like, “It's fine.”

C: Yeah, I mean, I feel like as an eldest sibling who's often ordered around by my younger sibling, Dean doesn't make much sense to me.

G: Ah, yeah, well I guess it's because of the age gap as well. Because their age gap is a bit weird because it's not too big but it's also not too small.

C: Right, yeah.

G: They like- at certain moments they feel like miles away from each other in terms of age. like the authority is so overwhelming. And then occasionally there's also the feeling of like, “they're just same age buddies!” you know?

C: Yeah, yeah. Well I think if Dean feels comfortable hitting on Jess, who is Sam's age, then he should feel comfortable seeing Sam as an equal, but also Dean doesn't see women as equals so… [both laugh] Anyway…

G: Anyway, so—

-

C: Anyway, so they agree to go to the case. That’s the end of that scene.

G: Yes, they agree to go to the case, and we have a drive sequence over rock music, and—

C: Of course.

G: So they arrive at the house and they introduce themselves as Agent Ford and Hamill which is so… like how did someone not notice that?

C: Sure, yeah no one’s ever watched Star Wars before, and they'll never see through your epic, epic aliases.

G: Yes. And they introduce themselves as US Wildlife Service. So they talk to the brother, and the brother reveals that Sophie was a varsity swimmer, so she shouldn't have drowned because she's very good at swimming. Sam and Dean start asking details like, “are there tracks in the mud? were there any shadows?” etc etc, and the brother says no, like it was just a normal day. And then Dean went on to start leaving, but Sam stays behind and asks the brother if they can talk to the dad, which the brother then turns down.

C: Yeah. Very suspicious. Next they go to the police station where they talk to a local sheriff about the drowning, and the sheriff's like, “well there are like no carnivores that live in the lake, there's nothing there,” and then makes a Loch Ness monster joke, and Dean—

G: Okay, the Loch Ness monster joke, right? Like he looks at Sam funny.

C: Right.

G: What was that look supposed to mean? Because it can either mean that the Loch Ness is real—

C: I think it's just like- I think it’s like, yeah, either they're pretty sure the Loch Ness is real, or, in general, it's sort of just like-

G: A myth, right?

C:- “ah, this silly little man doesn't think monsters are real, but we know they are.”

G: Yeah. I was like, I was like, so is Nessie real or not? And I wanted to know because they mentioned Loch Ness once again a little bit later, and there was no clarification, and I was like “Goddammit! I wanted to know if Loch Ness monster is real in this universe!”

C: And then we find out the sheriff did a sonar sweep over the lake and didn't find Sophie's body or any of the previous bodies. And then he mentions that there is a dam that is falling apart, that they're opening up, so that the lake is going to be drained away, I believe.

G: It's weird because later on, they say that the lake would be dry, right but here they say…

C: Yeah, at first it seemed like the lake was going to overflow and flood the town, like that’s what I got?

G: Yeah that's the implication here. But later on, they were like, “it’s gonna dry up.”

C: Later they're like, “the lake will be dry,” yeah, um.

G: So I was like, “okay, sure.”

C: Yeah. And then we meet Andrea Barr, who's there to be very pretty, and she's the sheriff's daughter. Dean sort of tries to flirt with her straight up, and then they also meet her son, Lucas, who seems very gloomy and doesn't speak to them. Sam asks if the kid's okay, and the sheriff says that he and the family have been through a lot. After that, Dean—continuing his attempt at flirtation with Andrea—asks her about a place to stay, and then asks if she will walk them there even though it's only two blocks away. Andrea is amused, but ends up agreeing, and then they head out after she says goodbye to Lucas.

G: Is this a misogyny moment?

C: I… I'm not sure. I'm not sure. Like I feel like it-

G: It made me uncomfortable, but I’m not sure.

C: It definitely made me uncomfortable, but I don't know… Yeah, like I feel like, like I feel like it is definitely a level of flirting that I would be greatly uncomfortable with, but I feel like it wasn't- I feel like he didn't put her in a position where she couldn't back out.

G: Say no.

C: Right, so, I think she- I feel like she was safe in the moment, and Dean wasn't a threatening figure, so I wouldn't necessarily count it as a misogyny moment. I just think it's more of a “the audacity! Her dad's right there!” kind of moment.

G: I know.

Anyway, so on the street, Dean is still keeping up with the flirting with Andrea.

C: Attempting to.

G: And he's saying shit like, “Cute kid! Oh, your kid is so cute! Kids are the best, huh!” Deaaan… [laughing] And then they show up at the motel, which is, as she said, two blocks away, and then she quips. She does a little quip where she says, “Oh, you must be- must be terrible for you with your sense of direction, never finding your way to a decent pickup line.” And then she leaves, and then Dean is just standing there like a bit, um, I don't know what the word is. A bit flustered, but like, negatively?

C: Right. yeah. I can't- flummoxed, maybe?

G: Flummoxed. Wow, big word! [both laugh] Sorry for being Deancoded. Okay, so he's just standing there, and Sam berates Dean for his attempts at flirting, and then asks Dean to name three children he even knows. Which is so weird, like that's not how it works, Sam! That's not how you know you like children! But also it was quite funny, so it's fine.

-

C: So, now they're in the motel, and Sam's doing some research on other drownings in the lake, and sees that there were three this year and then six spread out over the last 35 years, so there's been an increase in death rates. And Sam says that he finds the lake monster theory not very realistic because there haven't been many eyewitness accounts of a creature cuz it seems like everyone that's ever seen this creature has died. Then they find out that one of the previous victims was Christopher Barr, which is Andrea's husband and Lucas's dad, and that Lucas was there when Christopher was taken and saw the whole thing. So they decide to go out and ask him about it. And also Dean says, “No wonder that kid was so freaked out. Watching one of your parents die isn't something you just get over,” ‘cause I guess they need to bring up Dean's Mary trauma every episode, which is fair, so yeah.

G: Okay, I have a question. The article with Lucas’s face plastered on it, is that or is that not irresponsible journalism?

C: Right. It does- it feels like you usually wouldn't put a picture of a child on there without- maybe with parental permission? Yaybe with parental permission you would but yeah, it's-

G: It's just weird, like this kid, his father… I guess like when you're in a smaller town where it’s more tight knit-

C: Yeah, I was thinking, it's like a local newspaper, so yeah, there's probably- it's probably like everyone knows everyone, so it's okay. But I guess apparently-

G: It's still weird!

C: It's on the internet too…

-

G: So they go to the park, right, and they go to Andrea. And Andrea is sitting there like, “oh, I'm here with my son so, don't bother me,” and Dean's like, “Okay, I'll talk to your son!” And Dean goes to talk to Lucas. So they're sitting down in a park bench, and Lucas is drawing with crayons on the bench with a bunch of toy soldiers beside him, which Dean plays with for a bit and he's like, “Oh, I used to love these things!” and he does a little mime thing where he plays with it, and I was like “aww”—

C: And I was like “boo.”

G: And I was like, “Sweet man!”

C: Booo.

G: Do you know the lore with the toy soldier?

C: Um… oh. In “Swan Song,” doesn't Sam have a flashback of him playing with them with Dean in the Impala, and that's what gets him to break Lucifer’s control?

G: Yeah, so like in the Impala, there are some toy soldiers—

C: Oh, like wedged—

G: Stuck in the vents or something. So I was like. “oh, that’s a- is that a callback? What is that?” But you know I was like, “aww,” in retrospect, it's very sweet to him be like, “oh, I played with these!” and then you see it later in the show. I am enamored by Dean in this episode, mostly because he's wearing the leather jacket.

C: Okay. I'm very angry at Dean and Andrea's writing in this episode.

G: Andrea's writing… I think it was like a writer misogyny moment, like we discussed last time, so like, I’m not-

C: Yeah, it was a writer misogyny moment. We can discuss it later, I guess.

G: We can- we will discuss it later.

C: We absolutely shall.

G: We can, must, and should discuss it later. But he was wearing the leather jacket, and I was like-

C: Boooo.

G: Because earlier this week, I bought a leather jacket-

C: Yeah. Yes you did.

G: -that looked- the color looks very similar to his, and I was like, “Look! it's my cosplay!”

-

G: So… he goes to Lucas again because Lucas is ignoring him, and he goes, “So crayons, huh? That's okay, chicks dig artists” or something like that.

C: Can I add a point? Can I add a point? Can I add a point? Can I add a point?

G: I was like, “You weirdo!” Okay, you can add a point.

C: Okay, yeah!

G: Dean, you fucking weirdo.

C: This kid is like five! Like this is not one of this child’s—

G: The kid is not five.

C: Okay, the kid’s like, I don’t- 8? 10? How old are children?

G: Yeah, maybe, maybe 8.

C: The kid's like 8. This is not a priority right now, especially when he's very busy being traumatized.

G: [laughing] Yeah.

C: Also it's like- it's just weird, like Dean shows up and he's like. “I have to connect with this boy child. First, I will pretend to do war. Next, I will talk about seducing women. These are the ways in which I will connect to the boy child.” Like, what's wrong with you, Dean?

G: Yeah, well, Dean is, you know, as we know, a fucked-up little man.

C: Yeah.

G: So he looks at the drawings that Lucas are making, and they're mostly spirals and bikes, and Dean says like, “oh, these are pretty good drawings!” Which I was like, “They are not good drawings.” This kid is fully 8 years old.

C: We see Dean’s drawing later, and the kid’s better, though, so.

G: [laughing] Well, that's true, but still, I was like, “why would you say like, ‘oh, this is pretty good!’ to like, an eight-year-old kid? I have a five-year-old sister and she draws better than this kid.”

C: [laughing] He’s just trying to get into the good graces of Lucas.

G: Yeah. And also, okay, I'm gonna bring it up now, but like I was supposed to bring it up later. But… he keeps on saying “when I was your age” when he's talking about Mary, right?

C: Yeah.

G: And we know that Mary dies when Dean was four.

C: Yeah.

G: So is it implied that Lucas is supposed to be four years old?

C: God, I hope not!

G: I hope not, because that kid is fully 8. And also, I was wondering a while ago, like, are white kids just that much bigger than Asian kids? Like what is going on?

C: Yeah, I really cannot guess child ages at all. Like anyone who's like under 12, I'm like. “you could be 4 to 8.”

G: Dean starts talking about Lucas's dad and how he can relate because, and then he stops short because it's supposed to be a mystery for Lucas, I guess. And the most ham-fisted sad piano starts playing.

C: Yeah! I made a note of that. This whole episode is full of ham-fisted sad piano.

G: It's so… [laughs] Anyway, let's proceed. So Dean draws a family portrait, which aww, good for him! The drawing is so bad, though.

C: It’s awful.

G: It’s so bad. I mean-

C: Right, he's like, “Can I draw with you? I'm not bad myself.” You're bad, Dean.

-

G: Uh, we go back to Sam and Andrea, where it is revealed that Lucas has not talked since the accident. And this is the only thing that is exchanged between Lucas- uh, between Andrea and Sam. Which I was like, “Why?!” Andrea's husband just died, Sam's girlfriend just died…

C: Yeah, no, you’re right!

G: Like they could relate to each other, right?

C: Ugh, right, they could! I guess maybe Sam's not ready to talk about it yet, but I don't know.

G: Yeah but they could have- there could have been an opportunity. I guess they were like trying to dig the husband. Like the husband got fridged, bro! [C laughs] And they won't even acknowledge him.

C: Right, I guess they just didn't want to talk about the husband because it would just seem really weird that Dean was swooping in right on the heels of this tragedy.

G: Yeah, exactly, right? So I was like, maybe she could have talked to Sam because, like, to be honest, Sam doesn’t have much—

C: Yeah I feel like if she was like, “I loved my husband so much, he was so good,” we'd all feel a little weirder about the eye contact with Dean.

G: They could have given Sam something to do. And also most of the time… because in this show, they do this thing where the Sam mirror connects to Sam and the Dean mirror connects to Dean, and for once I wish they could have had a thing where the Dean mirror connects with Sam. You know, like opposite day.

C: Yeah!

G: Because Lucas is like- they really ham-fisted the idea that Lucas is a Dean mirror or something, like witnessed a parent dying, but like they could have made him connect to Sam, and Sam could have understood Dean better or something, you know?

C: Yeah.

G: They keep on doing these like one-to-one connections, and I'm like- like I know this is episode three, but like further down the road, you do get tired of it.

C: Also, I'm just like… I always thought that like season one was a season where Sam is the main character, and then later-

G: I know!

C: -Dean gets favored more and more, but like the three episodes I've watched, I'm like “The writers like Dean more from the beginning. Like Sam's getting nothing in episodes two and three.”

G: He's getting nothing at all in episode- especially this one—

C: Yeah, especially episode three!

G: Like what is he even doing? And it makes me angry because he's the main character!

C: He’s the main character! Who cares about Dean's blah blah blah whatever? Sam also saw his mom die, so, get over it! [G laughs]

-

G: Okay, so they continue talking. Dean shows up, and it's mentioned that the kid has post-traumatic stress; that's why he won't talk. And then Lucas comes up, and in a surprising turn of events, he actually connected with Dean! And he gives Dean a drawing of… a house?

C: Yes.

G: A house. Yes. Slay.

C: Slay.

G: Anyway.

C: Right, next we go to the Carlton's where the dad is sitting in a chair looking at TV being just- very still, and then his son comes over and tells him that he should eat, but there's no response. And then the son, who, as we remember, is Sophie's brother, is using the sink, cutting up a fish, and then we notice that the water coming out of the sink turns brown, and then—

G: Why did he just leave the sink open? Like—

C: I don't know. Maybe it's like- you know how some people leave the sink running when they brush their teeth because they find the sound soothing?

G: Yeah.

C: Maybe he just needs that ASMR while he's cutting the fish up.

G: And then like the sink is also filthy as fuck.

C: Yeah, yeah, the sink is filthy, and then the dark water is filling it up, and then the son—whose name is Will? Yes, whose name is Will—pulls the plug out of the drain in order to get the water to go down, but nothing happens, and then he sticks his arm back in, and then he gets grabbed. He's like thrashing, and he's grabbed into the sink where he drowns, and then the water goes away. Dun-dun-dun!

G: This triggered my disgusting instincts. Like instead of fear, it's really disgust, because the water's so filthy, and the sink is so filthy, and everything looks so like grainy and disgusting…

C: Yeah, like I feel like in the past episodes, I didn't really notice too much that they were shot on film. This episode I was like, “wow, this show was very shot on film.” Like the coloring—

G: Yeah, it's so gritty.

C: Yeah, the coloring's so gritty, it's just- it's not- it's not like pleasant to look at, sanitation-wise.

G: So we go to the motel room the next day of Sam and Dean. It's morning, and Sam walks in, and he mentions that he passed by the Carlton house and discovered that the brother died by drowning in the sink. And he relates this to Dean. So they start speculating some more, “why is the lake upping its body count,” blah blah blah, and they realize, “oh, it's going to be dry? in a few months?” This is the part where I was really confused.

C: Yeah.

G: But yeah, so they're like, “oh, we need to solve this right away, because this lake won't stop until it gets what it wants.”

C: Mm-hmm. Yeah, so they decide- oh they realize that there is a connection to- well they decide that there's a connection to Bill Carlton, who is Sophie and Will's dad, because it killed both of his kids, so they go to the lake to talk to him. They try to ask him some questions, but he refuses to answer. He's very down. He says, “my children are gone. It's worse than dying, go away please.” Sam and Dean leave still suspicious of Mr. Carlton. And then they notice that the Carlton house is the house that Lucas drew, which implies that Lucas maybe knew something was gonna go down there.

G: So they realize they need to talk to Lucas. So they go to Andrea's house and plead to her to let them talk to Lucas. So she eventually says yes, and Dean goes to talk to the kid. He asks how Lucas knew about the house and all that, but Lucas still isn't responding, so Dean tries to comfort Lucas by telling him about his mom. And he says that- aww. He says that “Mom wanted me to be brave, and I think about that every day, and I do my best to be brave.” And he says, “Your dad may want you to be brave, too.” Lucas eventually draws a picture of a house with a church beside it and a kid with a cap on a bike. He hands it to Dean, who says, “thank you, Lucas!” And then we proceed.

C: Yeah, so.

G: So what- how did you feel? Did you feel touched during that scene?

C: It's like- the thing is… I knew it was coming already, so I feel like I wasn't particularly touched. Like I've seen the gifsets. Um… I mean I do think I was- I do think I didn't know about the “I think about that every day.” I was like, “oh, I didn't know that this was such a guiding principle in Dean's life, like the Mary figure really lurks large!” So I guess it was it was interesting in like in a way where I'm interested in the mythology of Mary and how that plays out when she returns in season 12, but like—

G: Yeah, exactly, right?

C: Because I don't care about Dean that much, it didn't like- it didn't matter to me on a Dean level?

G: [laughing] I care about Dean enough for the both of us.

C: Yeah. [laughs]

G: Anyway, I was bringing it up because of the- again, this like really cements in the first season the Mary mythology of like- it was probably- it was probably John who told Dean that “Mary wants you to be brave,” right?

C: Ugh. Boo. Oh god, do you think he told him that on a hunt?

G: Just, knowing that Dean- Yeah.

C: Like- because that would be so bad!

G: If it was told to him during a hunt, like, man, that sucks. Like knowing what Dean went through and having to be- and him having to tell himself that like, “I'm not allowed to be miserable” or “I'm not allowed to be afraid because I need to be brave for my mom.”

C: Yeah.

G: Like that is so sad!

C: It is, it is. And I mean, okay, we'll get to this later, but I know near the end of the episode he asks Lucas to take care of Andrea which like, yeah, he's also very much like a- oh this- “you're really putting a lot of parenting responsibilities on the Dean mirror to parent his parent, huh.”

G: Yeah. We're really seeing a lot of Dean in this episode. Meanwhile, Sam is just a little bit of an asshole.

C: I mean… is Sam an asshole?

G: Why won’t they let Sam do anything???

C: Sam’s not—I don’t think Sam’s an asshole here, I just think he's just he's sort of there.

G: I will bring up the moments where I think he's an asshole a bit later.

C: Okay, okay,

C: But I was like, “I'm still annoyed that they won't let him do shit.”

C: Yeah. I'm also annoyed. Like, he's the main character! He's the main character. Just because Jensen Ackles has longer eyelashes does not mean that you do not owe Sam's some lines.

G: Give Sam lines… what- what year is this?

C: 2005.

G: 2k05. [laughing]

-

C: Right, so now they're in the Impala trying to find the house that Lucas drew, and Dean mentioned that Lucas only started drawing like that after his dad died, and Sam talks about how trauma can sometimes make someone psychic. Dun-dun-dun, foreshadowing? Foreshadowing?!

G: Whaaat?! Dun-dun-dun!

C: [laughing] And then… they're driving around. Dean’s like “there's like a thousand houses that look like this,” and Sam's like, “Well the church is a good clue!” I think it's very stupid that they had Dean not take into account the church at all. It’s like half the drawing!

G: Yeah I was like, it’s literally the first thing you see.

C: It's half the drawing! It's more noticeable than the house. Yeah. Dean says, “oh, college boy thinks he's so smart” in like, a silly little voice that I don't know how to imitate.

G: Yeah, in a smarmy voice. “College boy thinks he's so smart!”

C: Yeah, yeah.

G: That was such a terrible rendition, but let's proceed.

C: The vibes are still correct, even if the tone isn't. Right, and then Sam says, “what you said about Mom, you never told me that before,” you know, because he was watching from the doorway and was having his moment of “oh, right my sibling's a real person” that we all have sometimes. And Dean's like shrugging it off, and says “oh god, we're not gonna have to hug or anything, are we?” And then it just moves on because Mr. No Chick-Flick Moments simply does that.

G: To be fair… Again, I am defending Dean, right? Like, do you hug your siblings?

C: Yeah?

G: Yeah? Well, you live away from your siblings, so like when you come back, you hug them, I suppose.

C: Yeah, okay there's hugging upon reunion, and then I think- I think I'm fairly tactile in general. I mean, usually I think I just hook my chin on top of her head while she's sitting. I mean I don't think a hug would have been appropriate because Dean's driving, but I mean like, the point of Dean's comment—

G: No chick-flick moments.

C: —was just like, “oh my god, you're being like so emotional about this. Like get over it, whatever.” But like, I understand that it's a sensitive topic, and he doesn't want to further talk about it, so being snarky is the way to move on. So I'm not upset at him for it, but it is just the larger trend of Mr. No Chick-Flick Moments.

G: Yeah, well I guess I don't hug my siblings. Like, if my siblings and I hugged, I would crack a joke, like, “Are you dying?”

C: Aw, really?

G: Yeah, yeah, because we're not particularly- like we're tactile; we touch each other in different ways, but not hugs, because hugs are too emotional.

C: Oh.

G: [laughing] Hashtag Deancoded!

C: [laughing] No, no, no, I'm thinking about it now, it's like I think every time I see my sister standing somewhere and I'm bored, I just put my arms out to hug her. Like I think I'm just very huggy.

G: Yeah, maybe so.

C: Yeah, so I might be overly huggy and you may be- you may have the correct metric of amount of hug you should give one’s siblings.

G: Yeah. Also because in the Philippines, right, we're still not doing face-to-face classes, so we're just at home! So why would we hug, you know? Like if we saw each other after a long time, then we'll hug.

C: Yeah.

G: But if we're just hanging out every single day, like in the same house, literally 24/7…

C: Okay, but Sam and Dean have just seen each other for the first time in four years, so…

G: Yeah, and they wrestled! That’s equivalent to a hug!

C: Right, they wrestled. They- that's their man hug.

-

G: Okay. So they find the church and the house. So they go in, they ask around, and they find out that apparently there was a little boy who disappeared years and years and years ago. His name is Peter. And he disappeared after- he was supposed to ride home on his bike after school, but one day he just didn't. And then he just never showed back up again. Then we get the “it's worse than dying” thing line again, and then Dean finds a picture of Peter with the- with Bill Carlton, the guy whose kids just died. So he was like, “oh this is the dot that is being connected right now.”

C: Right.

G: The willingness of people to talk to Sam and Dean is like, unreal.

C: Yeah. Yeah. Like they just showed up at her house, and she was like, “ah, yes, my son who died, perhaps, 35 years ago, I'll tell you all about it!” And at no point was she like, "how do you-"

G: "Who are you guys?"

C: "Who are you and how do you know there was a boy with a baseball cap and a bicycle here at some point? You are like, less than 35 years old. What's wrong?"

Right, so then we cut to the lake where we see Bill Carlton there talking to the lake. And he says “you've taken everything, everyone. I've got nothing left. I didn't understand. I didn't believe. Now, I think I do. I think I finally know what you want.”

G: Spooky! And then back in the Impala, Sam and Dean are discussing the case, and they infer that, you know, Bill Carlton did something to Peter, and they race to the Carlton house. And so they arrive at the house, and towards the lake, we see Bill driving a boat, which like- it looks like it crashes on like an invisible iceberg [C laughs] is what it looks like. And then it flips over and then sinks in the water, and Sam and Dean are just standing there like “oh my god.”

C: Mm-hm. So now they're back at the police station where Andrea and Lucas are. The sheriff is quite suspicious of them and sends Andrea away, and then…

G: Lucas is very scared.

C: Yeah, Lucas is very scared. He grabs Dean's arm, he's like, shaking, Dean's trying to calm him down, and then Andrea and Lucas just walk away. The sheriff's like, “it makes no sense that this guy's boat tipped over and then he got grabbed,” and then he's like “also, I know you're not actually with Wildlife Service. If you don't leave now, I will arrest you.”

G: So they leave!

C: And so they leave.

G: So we go to the- to Andrea's house, so I guess the Barr’s house, right? Oh, where Lucas is frantically drawing spirals, and Andrea is like, “oh, why are you doing that? Let's get you to bed.”

C: Sam and Dean are driving, but Dean seems reluctant to leave, and then he ends up driving back to town. And then we see that Andrea is about to put some water in her bathtub and get in. Uh-oh! And then we're back to Sam and Dean, and Sam's like, “The case should be over because if Bill killed Peter and now Peter got Bill, then Peter should be fine now.” But then Dean says, “I just don't want to leave this town until I know the kid's okay,” which is kind of sweet, it's kind of sweet. Sam says, “Who are you and what have you done with my brother?”

G: Okay, this is the part where I'm like, “Sam, you asshole.”

C: Yeah…

G: Like, what an asshole thing to say. It's such a statement! Like obviously, Dean has a tough guy exterior, but like, one look at him and you know that it's just an exterior.

C: Yeah.

G: Like he is obviously caring and all that shit, right?

C: I guess. I guess I sort of just like- maybe I sort of just saw it as an extension of Sam's previous “Oh, yeah? You love kids? Name three kids you know.” I think maybe it was more of a “it's new that you like kids in particular” rather than a “it's new that you care about people.”

G: Ahh. I saw it as this. Because it's so- from my perspective it's so unnecessarily mean, but it makes sense if back in the day, Dean really was like the asshole that he exteriorly is.

C: Yeah.

G: So like if Dean only started softening after Sam left for college, and Sam is seeing this Dean for the first time, like it makes sense if Sam really doesn't know this Dean, you know. So I was like, “oh like, was 22 and below Dean really an asshole?”

C: Yeah, that's possible. I did note that that line seemed kind of unnatural, but also I think it's probably just a result of the Supernatural writers… like every time either of the main characters show some kind of softness, they require the other one to comment on it in a mean way so they can tell the audience like, “We know this isn't how a real man is supposed to act! We know it's cringe AF! However, it's cool and good.” So like, yeah, I feel like each time one of the brothers is soft, the other one like has to be a stand-in for the writers policing the definition of masculinity. So I think that's- I think poor Sam just got saddled with that task in this scene.

-

G: Okay, so we go back to Andrea, who is disrobing, and she steps into the bathtub that she's filling up. So she, you know, relaxes, closes her eyes…

C: And she doesn't turn off the faucet! Even though the bathtub is full when she gets in!

G: The bathtub is full, yeah.

C: It's going to overflow, girl!

G: And also, like, the way she's like, you know, looking kind of to the side with her eyes closed with a little bit of a smile, I was like, “I never look like this when I'm bathing, I'm positive I don't.”

C: Yeah, no, it's very much like a- an idea of what women look like when they're relaxing and naked-

G: When they’re bathing. So the water turns dirty, she starts drowning, like something is pulling her down the tub, and Lucas is pounding at the door. So Dean- Sam and Dean are at the entrance, and they're like bantering, like, “Oh, should we go in? You think we should? It's very late in the night,” and Dean busts the door, and immediately Lucas swings the door open and starts running up the stairs. Sam busts into the door while Luc- while Dean holds Lucas back. And he lifts Andrea up from the tub, and then gets her out of the tub… while they’re all looking at her naked body.

C: Did it really have to be a bathtub scene? Like there are so many other ways one can interact with water in one's life, but they chose the bathtub for the woman and the sink for the man.

G: She could literally be washing her face, and- but I guess that would be a repeat of the sink thing.

C: Yeah, no, I just feel awkward for the actress, because they were like, “Okay, you're gonna be naked, and then Jared Padalecki is gonna grab you out of the tub. And the whole time, position your arms so that they're covering your nipples, okay?” Like- [laughs]

G: Yeah. Well, I mean, yes. But, I don't know. Like, it's a scene!

C: Yeah, I mean I guess it's a more dramatic rescue when there's a bathtub involved because you sort of have to grab the whole person out, but yeah, no, it definitely—

G: Yeah, butt-naked.

C: — there was a tinge of writer misogyny there.

G: Yeah, I would say so too.

-

C: Yeah. Right. So, yay! Andrea's alive! And Sam tries to talk to her about what happened, and Andrea's crying and thinks that she's going crazy. And she tells Sam that she heard a voice that said “come play with me” in the water. And then Dean, who's looking through books in the house, sees that Peter was friends with Bill Carlton and also Andrea's dad, the sheriff, Jake, when he was young, so they put together that perhaps the sheriff and Bill were both involved in Peter's death, so Peter's going after the sheriff's family as well. And then they see that Lucas is looking out the window, and he runs to a spot. Dean and Sam start digging there, and they- within like three inches of the soil [laughing] find that there's a bicycle there.

G: Yeah, they were not digging deep.

C: And then they look up, and the sheriff is there pointing a gun at them, is like, “How did you know that that was there?” Um, because it was like two inches under the dirt, my dude. Dean accuses the sheriff of murdering Peter when they were kids, Andrea sees what's happening and goes outside and sorta tries to stop the sheriff from firing on Sam and Dean. Sam explains that Peter's spirit is gonna kill all of the sheriff's loved ones. Yeah, just general explanations about ghosts.

G: While all this exposition was happening, we go to Lucas, who gets up and out of the house. Andrea is still confronting her dad about what actually happened because she heard Sam and Dean saying that “You killed this kid! And then you just let his body sink to the bottom of the lake" or whatever, and the dad reveals what really happened. Which was that he and Bill Carlton accidentally drowned Peter while they were bullying him.

C: Yep! They held his head under the water. Yikes!

G: For too long, and then he drowned. And they let the body sink.

While all this is happening they discovered that Lucas was actually out of the house and now on the edge of the lake. And then gets grabbed into the lake by a hand.

C: Yeah. I wish they hadn't shown us the hand. Like it was a lot cooler when people were just getting dragged in and drowning, but that little baby hand? I was like, “who cares?”

G: No, I guess because Lucas is a small child, right? So he can't reach the water without really stretching, so they had to have the hand there, but like I wish he was able to reach the water and just get grabbed, you know, like with what's inside the water already. Like that would have been a cooler shot, but [in unison] alas. So Sam and Dean dive into the water. Aww, my heroes!

C: [laughing] Yeah, I mean, they were probably like “well, Peter has no issue with us, so we should go in and Andrea-”

G: Yeah, it was no hesitation at all. I was like, “aww, look at them! They're literally just diving!” And then the police off- uh, so they're going around looking for Lucas in the lake, and the police officer, Jake, starts pleading to the ghost. He goes into the water as well and he starts waddling in the water. Peter hears Jake and takes Jake and drowns him, and then Sam and Dean continue to look for Lucas. And when Sam has given up, there in the far distance, we see Dean holding Lucas. He surfaces from the water while holding Lucas and takes a deep breath. And this was all shot in slow motion, and this one actually looks good.

C: Yeah. Though I still think the high-contrast, low-saturation was especially apparent and kind of bad-looking this episode.

G: It looks exceptionally low-budget in this episode, I’m sorry.

C: Yes. That's what it is. It looks like a very low-budget horror movie, which it basically is, right?

So, now we get to the last scene. So Dean and Sam are ready to leave. Dean's a little down, and Sam says, “Look, we're not going to save everybody” because Dean’s upset about the cop. And Dean says, “I know.” Then, Andrea pulls up. Her father just died, and she found out he was a murderer like within five minutes, but she's dressed very well, has her hair done very well, has makeup on, looks completely cheery and fine. She shows up and says that she and Lucas made them sandwiches for their trip and that Lucas made them himself. And then Lucas speaks for the first time in the episode and says like in a little whispery voice, “Can I give it to them now?” and he does.

G: You know? Especially when you just almost got drowned, and your grandfather just died, that’s when your post-traumatic stress gets resolved.

C: Right, exactly! Like, what? That's when you're getting over PTSD. And to return to the very lake where you got your PTSD, be drowned by the thing that killed your dad, giving you PTSD, and then watch your grandfather be killed by the thing that gave you PTSD, like that's the best time to get over it! [both laughing]

G: Jesus. Anyway.

C: Right. Of course. I knew it was coming, but it still made me so mad.

G: Yeah, like it's kind of expected that the kid's gonna be happy-

C: Right, the kid's gonna talk at the end of the episode.

G: For some reason, Supernatural can't leave a story sad.

C: Yeah.

G: Like it always has to resolve everything.

C: Yeah, it’s like “And then Dean and Sam came around and they fixed everything!” Um, Sam asks Andrea how she's doing, and she's like, “well, it's gonna take a while to process.” Sam says, “I'm sorry,” and Andrea says, “You saved my son. I can't ask for more than that. Dad loved me, he loved Lucas. No matter what he did, I just have to hold onto that.” Which, you know, is totally something you could come up with within like 10 hours? Sure, whatever.

G: Yeah! They are treating this like it's been months since Bill died.

C: Yeah, exactly! It's been a day! She should not be fine! But okay, whatever, I guess she has to be fine for later happenings. [both laugh] Right, so then, yeah, and then we cut to Dean and Lucas, where apparently Dean's been teaching Lucas to say the sentence “Zeppelin rules,” and they high-five, and then Dean has his line where he says, “You take care of your mom. okay?” because, you know, that's the eight-year-old's job? It's the eight-year-old's job. And then we have the worst scene in all of Supernatural, where Andrea—

G: [laughing] Oh my god…

C: —shows up, and she kisses Dean right on the mouth, and says “Thank you.”

G: This was a jump scare for me.

C: Literally.

G: Because the last time I watched this episode was last year, so I knew pretty much the plot beat-for-beat, but for some reason I completely repressed this kissing scene.

C: As you should have. Your brain was protecting you.

G: I know! So like when it happened, I was like, “Oh my god!” I was so shocked. I did not expect it at all.

C: Yeah, I didn't think it was gonna happen. I was like, “surely they will not force this poor woman to go through this after she had to go through everything else!” but, no, like, she is- yeah. She almost drowned by the thing that killed her husband, her son almost drowned, her dad did drown, and now- [together] she found out that her dad was a murderer… and I guess her current priority is macking on Dean.

G: Also, okay, I forgot to bring it up last time because I was trying to defend Dean, but another thing that I was thinking about, because it's quite similar, right?

C: Yeah, Hayley…

G: Like the girl is saved, and then kisses Dean, and then this one too. It's quite the same.

C: Yeah, I was like, “Does Dean get one kiss per episode? Like, is this in his contract? Like what's happening?”

G: This is Jensen Ackles when he entered Supernatural—

C: Yeah, he was like—

G: “I need to get a kiss per episode.”

C: “I will only be on the show if women make out with me once per episode, or else I demand a second trailer.”

G: I was gonna say that like there is something sinister over the fact that it's- the perspective is like, “This is Dean's reward.”

C: Yeah!

G: Like, he saves these women, and then the women are like, “Oh! Uh, because we are saved by this guy, we ought to kiss him!”

C: Right.

G: And like, maybe that's not- like it's fine to be grateful, like I'm not saying that these women were forced to kiss Dean—

C: I mean, but they were. They were written that way.

G: There’s something… They were written to be forced to kiss Dean. But like, uh, like, “Oh, we're only kissing this guy because we're grateful.”

C: Yeah!

G: Because he saved our lives. Like there is a power imbalance there.

C: Absolutely, and also like, especially because both her and Hayley… Like earlier, Dean tries to flirt with them, and they're like, “That's not gonna work on me, buster!”

G: Yeah, no.

C: But then as soon as he saves their lives, they're like, “oh, you've convinced me! Come over here!”

G: Yeah! It's really-

C: It’s bad!

G: It’s not “weird”—I keep on saying weird, but it's bad, is what it is. It tastes foul in the mouth.

C: Yes. Just like Dean's tongue probably tastes foul in her mouth. Ugh, yeah. It’s not realistic!

G: [laughing] There wasn’t—okay to clarify, there wasn’t tongue in the kiss.

C: There wasn’t tongue. I know there wasn't tongue. I'm really glad.

G: Imagine if they started making out! Jesus.

C: It's not realistic. Like, I don’t know. Like, Lucas's emotional journey is prized over Andrea’s this whole episode. She's not a realistic character, she's just there to give information and look pretty. It's just- it's not good.

G: For some behind the scenes [C laughs], like immediately after Crystal watched this episode, they messaged me and were like, “Oh my god, dude, I hate Supernatural! I hate the way they treat their women!” Literally.

C: Yeah. Truly I spent like 10 minutes after watching this episode sitting in my chair, fuming. It's terrible.

-

C: Right, so she says thank you, and Dean doesn't even reply. He doesn't reply! He walks away and says “Sam, move your ass! Let’s leave!”

G: He was a bit flustered.

C: Like, how rude! How absolutely rude! Awful! Yeah, and then they get in the car, and they wave goodbye, and they drive off, and there's music that is, apparently, according to the transcript, “Moving On” by Bad Company, and then that’s that episode.

G: No, never heard of it.

C: Yeah, neither have I.

G: So they drive away, and the episode ends.

C: Yeah. Ugh! It's just- oh wait, something else that annoyed me about this episode… Okay, like, we have the scene where Dean's looking sad and Sam's like, “We can't save everyone!” But the thing is, in episode two, that guy's two camping buddies both got eaten to death, and there was never a moment like that, where it was like, “Oh, like it's sad that his friends got eaten. You can't save everyone!”

G: Yeah.

C: Like for some reason—

G: They're not relevant to the journey.

C: Yeah, like somehow we’re supposed to care about the murderer cop sacrificing his life or whatever, but we're not supposed to care about the two other campers who got eaten in the previous episode? I don't get it. I don't get it. But whatever.

-

G: Okay. It's time for our Best Line/Worst Line segment.

C: Yeah.

G: So what do you think is the best line of the episode?

C: Ugh, okay.

G: There’s not much.

C: Yeah, l… there's not much. Okay. I feel like… I don't like that I'm picking this for best line, but I think I'm gonna go with Andrea's, you know, quippy little “must be hard with your sense of direction, never being able to find your way to a good pickup line.” ‘Cause like, I know it was just the writers being like, “How do we make this woman likable? How do we make her hard-to-get, so she's not a terrible little slut just spreading her legs for Dean right away?” But also, it is funny, and it did work, so… [laughs] So I enjoyed that line.

G: That's actually my worst line.

C: Oh, really?

G: I didn't like it, because I was like, the quip was like so… like. It was like you said, the intention behind it, I didn't like that they were trying to make out this girl as like “oh, she's playing hard-to-get” or whatever they were trying to do. I didn’t like it.

C: Well, whenever people are mean to Dean, I just have to give them points. It's just just how it is.

G: I think the best line in this episode for me is the one that's like, actually related to the main characters, which was the Mary one. Yeah. I thought it was, you know, it was because—uh, to be clear, the line was… um, what was the line?

C: Uh, something, bravery…

G: “Mom told me to be brave. I think about that every day…”

C: “And I do my best to be brave.”

G: “I do my best to be brave.” I think it's, you know, a Dean thesis statement, and also, again it elaborates on Mary as a myth for the Winchester brothers. I think it does a lot of exposition for a very, you know, emotional and short line, so good for it!

C: Yeah, no, I think it was well-written and well-placed, I agree.

G: What's your worst line?

C: [laughing] “Chick dig artists.”

G: Ah, yeah. Yeah. Come on, Dean.

C: He's eight! He's eight!

-

G: Okay, what's your IMDB rating for this episode? What’s your guess?

C: I'm not sure… Okay, I know that this is a very popular episode amongst Deangirls so I would think that it's at least higher-rated than episode two, but I'm not sure how much higher rated. And I think it's probably below the pilot, so I'm going to guess like an 8.3?

G: An 8.3. I was gonna guess an 8.2 for exactly the same reasons that you said.

C: Yeah.

G: Like it's probably higher than last ep but like significantly lower than the pilot, and also like Deangirls like it—

C: Yup.

G: You know how it is. Okay, let's search… Uh, excuse me?

C: What?

G: Oh, no. I was like 4.2 over 10?! No, it's a Dead in the Water movie from 2021, [both laughing] oh my god. I was so shocked.

C: Yeah.

G: Okay, it's 8.1 over ten.

C: Okay, yeah, so you were pretty close.

G: We were near it.

C: Once more, I shot too high. Yeah, yeah.

-

G: Okay, that's it for this episode of Busty Asian Beauties. Next time we will be talking about Season 1 Episode 4: “Phantom Traveler.”

C: Follow us on social media! We are on Twitter at twitter.com/BeautiesPodcast and on Tumblr at bustyasianbeautiespod.tumblr.com.

G: You can email us any feedback, comments, or inquiries at bustyasianbeautiespod@gmail.com. See you guys next time! [both] Bye!

[guitar music]

[theanimeview]

Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!: Worth The Watch For Fans Of Slice Of Life And The Animation Industry

Source: Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! Producer Marketing Material

By: Peggy Sue Wood | @pswediting

Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! or Eizouken ni wa Te wo Dasu na! is a series I overlooked when it first came out a little more than a year ago. I’m not a fan of the art style, and the name didn’t seem all that interesting when I did my usual scroll through MyAnimeList around the release time. I somewhat regret that now. As the saying goes, we can’t always judge things by their cover, right? Let's discuss:

For those of you that haven't seen it yet: Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! is about three high school girls who come together and form a new anime club on their school campus. Rather than just watching anime like the school's current anime club, their goal is to make it. Midori Asakusa, the leading lady of our three primary characters, and Tsubame Mizusaki are the team's artists and animators. They have their respective strong suits, but their artistic styles and goals complement each other well. The last of the three is Sayaka Kanamori, who seems to take care of a lot of odd jobs for the two artists (like procuring paper and getting it prepped) while also acting as the team's administrator and producer (defending their work, promoting it, getting funding, etc.). It was released in the Winter 2020 season and has a total of twelve episodes so far.

To avoid giving too much away, I'll just talk about the first four episodes. (Spoilers ahead!)

Character Order (left to right): Mizusaki, Kanamori, and Asakusa | Image Source: Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!, Episode 2

A lot stood out to me from watching the first few episodes. The first thing to stand out was the characters. Asakusa's nervousness and Kanamori's bluntness, for example, were a definite highlight; and the growing friendship between those two and Mizusaki helped situate the anime as a comedy for me because their dynamic friendship was so much funnier than any jokes or dialogue in the episodes. For example, this scene from Episode 2 (a gif, so no sound):

This scene made the show a must-finish for me because I saw a lot of my high-school self and closest friends (who are still in my life today) in the three of them. To be more specific, I see the way Mizuka and Asakusa interact as very much the way Casea (@coffeewithkrow) and I started getting along after meeting in high school with our mutual friend(s) kind of watching from the side-line in exasperation or resignation at our hype.

It's moments like these that make the series feel more like a slice of life than an adventure story, even though it is more often tagged the latter.

Source: Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!, Episode 2

Another positive for me was the comfortable usage of art and animation terms, as well as the references to older works like Future Boy Conan. It almost felt like an acknowledgment to creators working with this medium—like, ‘hey, we see how much work this takes and that it is a labor of love; thank you!”—while still maintaining accessibility for people that are new to this form of entertainment in a fun, comedic way. Like this line from Episode 4:

As a fan of the medium, I felt like there was a lot here to enjoy for people who watch a lot of anime and have tried to learn more about its creation in the same way that this series seemed to call out to the creators in this field that I mentioned above.

Some things took their liberties. For example, I'm not sure anyone who is brand new to animating on their own could finish the animation they made for their club's presentation to gain funding (Episode 4) in such a short amount of time. I mean, in about 3 weeks, I think, they made a short, almost full-color animation that's several minutes long to present to the student body and council for funding and defending their newly established club with, again, no known experience prior. However, these liberties and exaggerations add to the comedy in ways that make you feel like you really are watching three friends in high school. They tease each other, make jokes, hang out often, and have idiosyncrasies that make the characters feel very familiar, which I think is something everyone can enjoy.

The only notable negative thing I have to say when looking at the series is about the opening credits/title rather than the anime itself. I felt like the opening animation was almost seizure-inducing with the switching between rapid color changes and animation that quickly goes back and forth between too fast and too slow. Though the song was great! Additionally, the animation in the show itself is very clean (and enjoyable).

Overall, I'd give this series a 7/10.

It's clearly made to be fun, and it is just that: fun. It's a good watch for a late night, and nothing in it will make you over-think anything or bog you down too much with details and logistics.

You can watch the series on Crunchyroll for free or stream it via MyAnimeList (which is still the Crunchyroll version, minus the usual advertisements).