#i’m rewatching season 15 and god teddy

[ionlylikemycat]

honestly if i was teddy altman i would leave owen hunt in the bottom-of-the-duck-pond-muck where he belongs and raise my child with tom koracick, a person who isn’t a ridiculously jealous and controlling man who makes piss poor life choices

[popculturebuffet]

Animation Reviews:Star Vs: Mr.Candle Cares

Tom is back! Yeah I know this took about a month, with the pride month reviews and life being kind of chaotic, I put these next two tom reviews on the back burner, even doing another star review in the meantime for Father’s Day. But with Pride Month winding down and our next episode up being gaytatstic, it was time to come back. It’s just a shame it had to be this one.  We’re in Season 2 now, and early in it, with this being only the third episode and the first to not involve the main plot, as the first two dealt with the fallout of the first season finale, and set up some of the main conflicts for the season. I WILL cover those arcs eventually and recap parts of them if necessary but for now they have zero impact on what happens here. That being said just because it dosen’t tie into the main arc with Ludo and Toffee-Wand, dosen’t mean it’s not important, as this episode both marks a major turning point for tom and also digs into the recurring theme for the next two seasons of star grappling with her responsiblities.. in this case future ones. We also get a peak into her mom’s personality. So with not much exposition to cover, I will see you under the cut.. please?

We open at school and it’s career day, something my school didn’t have for whatever reason, but is a common thing as new Gudiance Counsler mr candle has so far been giving everyone really great advice that fits what they want. Star is eager to have her turn and soon does.  Inside the office Star is offered Candy, which she politley refuses before we find out, unsuprisingly, Star thinks he’s a fourtune teller. A great bit. The mood quickly drops deep into the basement when Candle hammers into star that her destiny is to be queen and it’s carved in stone despite what other plans she may have. THen things get.. a bit creepy with Mr.Candle asking if Star’s dating marco and when she says no and that i’d be weird to date given they live together he urges her to start thinking about her future husband.  And yes I’m aware Tom probably wrote his script, and Tom knows about as much about school as star Does or else Mr Candle would’ve been suspended, at least for this, it’s still unnerving to hear a grown man not only before this tell a teenager she has no choice in her future, but then try and set her up with an unstable teenager in the creepiest way possible and somehow not get fired. It’s hard to watch Star leaves depressed and it’s marco’s turn.. and once again Mr.Candle proves to be a pretty terrible minon, suggesting Marco be a janitor on garbage island. Now as probably isn’t a shock to you given most of you have probably seen this ep, and we’ll find out in a minute anyway, Tom is behind this: trying to keep star and marco apart and get her back with him. And while parts of this do stink of Tom’s own lack of understanding of star, more on that later, and hatred of Marco, as well as not getting earth, as we’ve seen Mr.Candle is actually godo at his job and we see a bit of a real session that’s not part of an emo’s poorly thought out scheme that proves it. He could EASILY manipulate both, or at least try to with marco, but instead just goes along with a script written by a teenager that instead makes one of his targets depressed and the other instantly ready to tell him off or , had Candle been less lucky, go to the principal with this. Now granted this level of gross incompence is another day at echo creek, but it just dosen’t work. I don’t buy that tom couldn’t of found someone more competent with the giant amoutns of money he has to throw around. Then again Tom is really bad at evil when you think about it: I mean sure he can throw hands, as we’ll see in later episodes, but his evil schemes are poorly thought out at best and i’m certain if he had stayed a bad guy after this episode, he would’ve dropped to just proposing to star every time he sees her like teddy from brooklyn nine nine. 

So naturally Marco and Star talk about this with Star really depressed about seemingly being trapped becoming queen, while Marco gushes about how great being queen would be from his perspective... including never having to pick out clothes, fair enough, and never having people not like you, which is depressing. Poor boy. I missed this Marco: Awkward, insecure, but likeable. and also very much possibly gender fluid. Why they threw that out i’ll never know, but it’s canon for me now at least.  Anyways, Marco decides to confront candle int he bathroom because why not. It’s not any more awkward than Candle trying to convince star to make out with tom without saying tom’s name. But yeah as I let out of the bag early above, Marco finds Candle talking to tom via the toilet, and tom is livid he didn’t mention his name, while Candle insists he’s working on it and that Starco, and he uses that word exactly to Marco’s confusion and my delight as I do like when writers latch on to fan terms and poke a bit of fun at them, is platonic. Tom tells him to be sure and Mr Candle dismises him. Before tom can get too mad about this, Candle reveals i’ts becaue he has to pee and tom insists he flushes first. A really great gag.  So to try and compete with tom and candle for dumbest person this episode, Marco has his own stupid plan: Brag about being “smooch buddiess” with star to piss him off.  I assume the next two steps are ???? and profit. I”d also like to note for those unaware that this clip was used in the promo and assumed it was a love spell or some sort of altered mind thing, as it was way too early in the series for them to get together, and smacked of “let’s bait the shippers and hope they don’t get too pissed”. Given I did ship them at the time, it was massively annoying knowing this was obviously out of context, but it’s better than when I watched avatar first run and any hint of kataang was played up and an entire fucking episode was dedicated to fucking with shippers heads. I really need to rewatch avatar on netflix I have NOOOO excuse. Anyways naturlaly the obvious happened; A pissed off tom, who Need I remind you last time nearly killed marco and only didn’t because star used freeze dry and it was super effective, who drags marco away to a tourture wheel. Meanwhile, Star goes to her mom for support. So I get to talk about Moon: Star’s distant mother who’s her exact oppsite: strict, stone faced and in control at all times. And she does LOVE her daughter and get some development later on, but it still dosen’t change her core and she still has real issues actually listening to star that, like some of star’s own issues, she never really grows past. So natrually this goes about as well as trying to get a cat to do anything: She confirms star is kinda stuck inherting the throne before , in an oddly sad moment.. being genuinely confused when Star asks if she’s happy. It’s... a really good character moment to be honest, and sets up her character well now she’s being fleshed out better this season: Moon just.. really dosen’t care about herself or her own hapiness. I mean her marriage is , paradoxically, one of the only marriages in the mewni queenship that not only lasted but is very healthy, but otherwise she just dosen’t care. The kingdom comes first... and to me it comes from the later revlation she was orphaned around 15. She just spent most of her life putting the kingdom FIRST, just like she figured her mother would’ve and probably did, and putting her heart and soul intot hat. And thus she can’t really fahtom someone being SCARED of all that responsiblity and drudgery when for her, it was just a fact she had to accept at star’s age. She probably woudl never be happy but the kingdom’s what important. The thing is A) that’s deeply unhealthyt o begin with and B) it’s easier to accept something like that when you’ve lost your mom, your dad’s never been around and you have only one other person in your life supporting you. Star has LOTS Of other things to her life: friends, hobbies things moon never had a shot at. Not only that but Star’s lived her life iwth a mother who, rather than be supremley happy and beloved like moon’s own mother, seemd miserable, strict and a workaholic.. things star wants to avoid being. Their very strained relationshp probably isn’t helping this. Moon quickly leaves the conversation, but it instead just makes Star spiral further and decide to do something.. drastic.  Meanwhile in hell. 

Okay not that bad. Let’s try this agian meanwhile in hell. 

I said not THAT bad. Jesus. 

Close enough. So in hell, specifically Tom’s room. Marco admits he was just getting tom’s goat, which his goat skull objects to, and while Tom is oddly mad Marco lied marco actually gets to tom by countering he lied to star... which is true not just this time but last episode too. Tom relases marco from his pain wheel. 

And states that he can’t let him go, he knows too much etc etc, and challenges marco to a fight to the death, which marco acccepts.. inping pong. However tom is really great at ping pong and destroys him.  Back with star she’s gotten a great punk makeover. I do wish that star had a permanent outfit change at some point as her temporary looks are always great, and it woudln’t of killed them to do it in season 3 when they had to change over the intro anyway. Alas. She plans to do something drastic.. we’ll find out why in ab it. Back at ping point Marco challenges for double or nothing, despite tom having multiple paddles and him having none and the scorring demon begging him to stop. Tom obliges him, and the two.. actually start to bond. We’ll get way more of that next time. Btu the two bond over how star just tends to cheat, making up rules or changing them to win at the last minute, and how she just does what she wants.. and it’s then.. Marco FINALLY gets through to tom and points out the obvious: Star won’t get back together with him unless it’s what Star wants and Tom gives a face that screams ‘my god what have I done” realizing both how hew’s screwed up and how for now at least, he may never get her back and no amount of scheming will fix it. It’s a great character moment: Tom finally realizes that he can’t just.. MAKE star love him. You can’t MAKE someone love you, they have to want it too. And star dosen’t want him right now and his stalking is only hurting her.  It’s here Tom turns a corner. This episode was his lowest moment for sure, as while the blood moon ball scheme was sleazy, trying to make her love him via a magic moon thing was creepy, it wasn’t horribly intentioned and while I do think tom knew it’dmake her love him again I don’t think he knew the full extent of the moon’s magic or how it’d tear her apart inside if she say loved someone else, as ended up happening since it didn’t let her let go of her feelings for marco while with tom himself. Here he knows what he’s doing is wrong,  as Marco’s comment makes clear, but is so desperate he’s gone with an insane, dumb and really creepy and manipulative scheme. He TRIED being nice, that didns’t work so he probably felt he had to get more creative and more manipulative... i’ts just he didn’t realize while he LOVES being Royalty, star hates it. While Tom’s parents, who we’ll get into more in a review or two, were loving and supportive, even if his dad may not have been at this stage again we’ll get to his parents when they show up, are fully loving and supportive star’s are loving.. but one of them as we saw just dosen’t GET HER. So while to tom the crown is a great thing to star it’s not so mucha nd given he has trouble with empathy, Tom simplyc an’t understand how much he hurt her until marco spells it out for him And it isn’t just in the text either; As I said in the previous tom review, the writers clearly weren’t wure which way to go with tom, so this episode was the turning point: would tom get worse and become star’s enemy fully.. or would he do the unexpected, at the time anyway, and truly try to change and become another loveable member of her inner circle? And honestly.. I feel they made the right decision. Tom really dosen’t fit into the mewman oppresion cycle as neatlya s the other antagonists who are either the opressors or the result of them. He’s a privlaged kid on the outside of it, as , again , i’ll dig into more in the future. And the show kind of.. outgrew recurring antagonists by season 3. They had a few set up this season, but most either faded away or went all the way up to big bad, and I feel the writers realized that tom just.. didn’t work as that and worked better as a kid struggling with being better than as an incel douchebag antagonist. And given he’s one of the two things that helped prop the show up during it’s worse moments in the latter half, it was the right call and the reason i’m doing this arc at all.  Anyways Tom and Marco head back to the diaz house where Star.. has a mermaid and is complteplating chopping off her tail so she can legally never become queen... yeah I meant what I said when I said drastic. Tom however reveals his deception, and .. genuinely apologizes, another sign of growth, letting star go for now. He does get a WELLLLL earned slap, as I said his actions this episode were the lowest he’d sink and still really creeptastic.. but accepts his apology after that, appricating that he at least apologized and grew a bit.  Star, while now not going to disfigure someone to save herself, I mean that sort of thinking did give us the doom patrol but still, is still bummed about being queen when Marco, in a good bit of ship tease back when this ship wasn’t in my nightmares, tells her that yeah she’s stuck being queen.. but tid osen’t mean she has to be miserable. Don’t do it like moon, do it like you. They hug, and Tom, in another great bit of growth, just smiles and heads off, letting them have this moment and letting star go.  We get one final scnee where candle bails on local alpha bitch britney after tom recalls him which sends her into a depressive spiral later in the series. Ha ha... why did they bring this character back for Season 4?  Final Thoughts:  This episode is the queen of mixed bags. Seriously on one hand there IS some really damn good character stuff, with Star confronted with the hard truth of her becoming queen and begining this and next season’s theme of star building up to her future, and Tom going from 1 and a half dimensoinal douchey stalker to the complex and relatable character he’d become in future episodes. However the good is smothered like bad.. just like smokey the bear had to smother his joint before each PSA. Like “Red Action to the Future: over in my OK KO reviews, it feels like wasted potetial: the idea of both Star and Marco rexamining their future and Star being confronted with having a fixed path and trying to avoid becoming queen are great.. it’s just Star ends up being a supporting player in the episode, and I feel it would’ve been better if moon had been forced to deal with the effect of her words on her daughter, as she’s gone after her scene and what she nearly caused star to do never has any effect. And Mr.Candle is just an.. awful character. Incompitent, even if parts of that are on tom, unfunny, kinda creepy.. ther’es just nothing really enjoyable about him and it makes the first  few minutes a slog as he gaslights two teenagers for money and we never learn just what the hell he is or what his deal is. He just drags the episode down.  Really whiel i’ts not TERRIBLE like some of the series worst episodes (Lint Catcher, Stump Day, Marco Jr, Mama Star), it just feels like it could’ve been better paced or made a half hour so star and moon could have more of a plot.  If you enjoyed this you know the dril; like, reblog etc and if there’s a star or other animated show or movie you want me to review , just shoot me a suggestion or comission it outright for 3 bucks! I’ll get back to tom this weekend hopefully with freindenimeis and hopefully get to my last two reviews before pride lets up. Until we meet again, later days. 

[thesmilingfish]

MAY 4

It’s Monday so it should be chore day but my cousin was working in the yard all weekend so today she’s doing her laundry and it’s throwing me off. I did collect and take out the trash, so that was good. I dusted some stuff that was high up and cleaned out a small closet. I took my plant, Audrey, outside so she could enjoy the spring and summer. (She’ll be back in when the weather turns cold.) She’s got some kind of funky fungus on her that she had a couple of years ago so I made a solution of water, oil and dish soap and dipped cotton balls in it, then gently wiped down every leaf and stem. Hopefully I got it all without letting much if any drop into the soil. I’ve had her for like 20 years so kind of protective of her.

I was finally able to order supplies from USPS so any of the international requests for the ID4 patches will go out as soon as they arrive. (Should be this week.) We’re supposed to see a spike in cases so my cousin is adamant that we stay home. (This doesn’t count the 3 or 4 trips she and her husband made to Lowes this weekend, however.)

I did take Teddy, the dog, for a drive. I needed to start my car and drive it so the battery doesn’t die and I didn’t want to drive around Lake Herman Road alone. Teddy is doing better. He’s eating again and after giving him some pumpkin he’s started to poop more regularly again. I think he just didn’t like the diet canned food and with his troubled tummy it didn’t do well being empty. We’ve started giving him half of his acid reducer pill again so fingers crossed all is well.

While I ate lunch I watched Rogue One (2016) because it’s May the Fourth! (Also kinda ties in with my Hannibal watch-a-rama via Mads. Actually kinda ties in with my Doom Patrol marathon via Tudyk. Huh.)

Hannibal (2013) - Today I watched episodes 3 & 4 from season 1. It’s such a heavy show that I don’t think I can or should watch more than 2 episodes a night. I think I’m going to have to alternate it with another show. Now I just have to figure out which one.

Below the cut are the shows I have that I need to watch.

The Almighty Johnsons (2011) - Season 1, 10 episodes

Angel (2004) - Season 5, 22 episodes

Birds of Prey (2002) - 13 episodes

The Blue and the Gray (1982) - 3-part mini-series

Chuck (2007-2012), Seasons 1-5, 91 episodes

Clocking Off (2000) - Season 1, 10 episodes

Colditz (1972) - Seasons 1-2, 28 episodes

Colditz (2005) - 2-part mini-series

Con-Man (2015) - Season 1, 13 episodes

Dollhouse (2009) - Season 1, 13 episodes

Emerald Point, N.A.S. (1983) - 22 episodes

Evergreen (1985) - 3-part mini-series

Fringe (2008-2013) - Season 1-5, 100 episodes

The Handmaid’s Tale (2017) - Season 1, 10 episodes

Hannibal (2013-2015) - Seasons 1-3, 39 episodes

Heroes (2006) - Season 1, 23 episodes

In the Flesh (2014) - Season 2, 6 episodes

The IT Crowd (2006-2008) - Seasons 1-3, 18 episodes

Mad Men (2007) - Season 1, 13 episodes

Metal Hurlant Chronicles (2012) - 12 episodes

The Musketeers (2014-2016) - Seasons 1-3, 30 episodes

Sanditon (2019) - 8 episodes

Sex Traffic (2004) - 2-part mini-series

Shameless UK (2004) - Seasons 1-2, 17 episodes

Slings and Arrows (2006) - Season 3, 6 episodes

Spartacus: Gods of the Arena (2011) - 6 episodes

Star Trek: Discovery (2017) - Season 1, 15 episodes

Titans (2018-2019) - Seasons 1-2, 24 episodes

I did watch one episode of Birds of Prey & Metal Hurlant Chronicles - both the ones that Joe Flanigan is in. Surprise! I watched the first two or three seasons of Chuck, but after my Mom passed away I never watched it again. I figured I should watch it all over again if I’m going to. Should I? How are the last couple of seasons? The same goes for Fringe - I’ve seen most of it but it kinds of needs to be a big watch I think because it’s kinda epic and I can’t remember what I haven’t seen but I know I haven’t seen the end. I’ve seen some of The Musketeers and STD but not all of it so again with the whole rewatch thing. I watched the first two seasons of Slings and Arrows, but the third season came out not long after my Mom died and knowing what it was about I couldn’t do it at the time. Then time just got away from me. I was watching In the Flesh with a friend but she moved and I kept waiting to watch it with her but now I just kinda want to watch it.

[omeliaspirit]

RAMBLE OMELIA VS FRIENDS AND ONE TREE HILL

So after almost 4 months since the 25th season finale, I start to come to peace with the towen finale. My heart is still a little bruised because lets say it, omelia was perfect for each other ( in my opinion of course), but I understand why Shonda write a Towen reunion. Sorry it is very long, I realize that I have a lot of things to say after all. 

Recently I have a little of free time so I began rewatch the complete Friends series, and I can’t help to find a lot of similarities between the Ross/Rachel endless “ I love you, I love you not” “I got pregnant with your baby, but I dont wanna get together with you…..” Ring a bell?  and the Owen/Teddy situation. So many people probably disagree with me about that but I think that these two couples have a lot of similarities. Urggg I have some great difficulties to use the word “couple” associates with Towen, but we better get used to it. 

Let’s say it first, Ross does not stand a chance against Owen even if some people think he made some big mistakes, hell who does not? I think Ross was annoying in Friends (again just my opinion, don’t blame me 😊) but there is a sentence Ross said in Friends to Joey that stung with me. In season 8 when Rachel is pregnant with baby Emma, he said that he always imagined his life with a wife, a kid, Sunday at the park… and he said that he absolutely not envisioned his family life this way, with a kid but in a coparenting way with Rachel. I think Owen like Ross Is a pure family man, and I like that there are not in their twenties. Ross seems to be 32 ou 33 in season 8,and lets not talk about Owen who is in my opinion closer to 45 years of age.

After watching almost 9 seasons of Friends, I can relate to Shonda writing this kind of declaration to Teddy. Also even if I am not a huge fan of Teddy I respected and liked the friendship between Owen and Teddy in season 6 and 7.

I have absolutely nothing against co parenting in life. Hell we are in 2019 for God sakes!!! And I admit that I would have like a co parenting way for Owen and Teddy and not putting them together. It would have been difficult with Leo and Amelia in the mix but I think it would have worked. I appreciate the writers work, I think they are doing an amazing job. I mean all these characters, all this drama, romance and medicals cases? It is simply awesome!!! But that doesn’t mean that I agree with each situations they put characters in. There is something that we cannot forget is the fact that they are their characters not ours, so they are the right to write all they want about them. We are not the owners of them (yeah I wish, and I will always wish that I own them but last time I checked that was not the case).

I was glad that Owen chose Cristina over Teddy, because I love them as friends. when in season 8 they argue and all I was like “no, I do not want Teddy to leave, because I love their friendship”. I wish they were the older Lucas/ Haley from One tree hill!!! I loved these two. They were always friends and nothing more. In Towen case it is a little more complicated because Owen had been in love with Teddy when they were in the army but neither made the first move. Which leads me to one sentence Owen said to Teddy in his big declaration “  I was always in love with you”, that sentence, I have some hard time to believe because even if I can accept that Owen loves Teddy from now on I cannot bring myself that Teddy was his only love all along. He really loved Cristina to death, he chose her over Teddy, he helped her with her PTSD, he was with her with the abortion and support her the best way he could even if he cheated in the end. (Ahem Ross does it look familiar to you even if in case of Ross and Rachel they were SEPARATED!!!!, ok I’am done with the friend’s parallel).

Since watching the season finale I have done some thinking. The fact that Owen said he was always in love with Teddy and he was afraid of happiness never means for me that he never loved Amelia nor Cristina. He really loved Cristina, and he fell in love with Amelia. Some people said that Amelia was a rebound for Cristina (I plan to write something about it sometimes, if anyone is interested), but I chose to believe that he really move of from Cristina.

Owen is not the king of guy who is with someone if he doesn’t love her even if he had in the past at least one night stand.

When Owen went to Germany to confess his love at Teddy in season 14 ( I must say at that time I stopped watched GA, because real life seems to disagree with that), I was stunned, I mean I know these two always have a friendship which could easily be turned to love and all that mush, but in season 14 their one night together was a shock to me. Because between season 8 and 14 ( I know a GA season is not a normal year, but still) Owen and Teddy seemed to had no contact at all since he fired her at the end of season 8, so they had not seen each other in a couple of years when Teddy came to Grey Sloan in the beginning of season 14. My interpretation is that maybe after seeing Teddy with Megan he thought he was missing something. Teddy/Owen/Nathan/Megan it was the four mouskeeters in their days, they were inseparable until all the Megan’s drama ( helicopter crash, her being declared as dead, fight between Owen and Nathan…) So bringing Teddy back is a sort of remnisniscence of their common past. So seeing Teddy with Megan, he realized that in a way he still have some feelings for her. And the fact that Teddy is getting along with Megan is a plus. Megan always dreamt of having Teddy as her sister in law, so even if she did not dislike Amelia she never loved her as she love Teddy.

So that Owen to says that he is in love with Teddy is logic. Since the beginning of season 15 I have seen it coming. It was obvious that since Teddy’s return, they would eventually be endgame. So when I started to watch the 15th season I was torn between hope for Omelia to finally be happy with each other and fear that Teddy’s return and pregnant with Owen’s baby was really going to mess around my omelia’s babies because lets say it according to Amelia and she was right unfortunately : Towen is inevitable. When Owen “chose” Amelia and their family in 15X10 I knew that Towen will be inevitable at the end of the season, because it is the classical pitch in almost all TV shows. In One tree hill Lucas chose Brooke although he was in love with Peyton all along and the same thing is happening with the Owen/Amelia/Teddy triangle.

One more thing and I’m done : the fact that Owen said he was always in love with Teddy and he was afraid of happiness never means for me that he never loved Amelia nor Cristina. He really loved Cristina, and he fell in love with Amelia. Some people said that Amelia was a rebound for Cristina ( I plan to write something about it sometimes, if anyone interested), but I chose to believe that he really move of from Cristina. The only positive thing about all this mess for me is the fact that people can have several love interests or great loves in a life time. Owen is not the king of guy who is with someone if he doesn’t love her; 

Sorry again for all the rambling about it.