#idk it just feels like a good culmination of what the series has been

[rassicas]

I think the concept behind Grizz is solid: a Former Bear who inadvertently Ship Of Theseus'd himself into Not Being A Bear Anymore ties neatly into the running theme of Judd and Lil Judd being the Only Mammals left: Mr. Grizz, whatever he is now, no longer counts as a mammal. But in execution... Yeah. They should have focused on the "Ship Of Theseus angle" and the fact that, in his attempts to bring back mammals, he's become more like the organisms that he's trying to destroy.

Ive gotten about a good few dozen comments on YT about this exact thing. but half of them being annoyingly condescending in the process for not bringing up this analysis in my Live (keyword live) reaction of me hating on the bear. i dont think ive really addressed how i feel about this particular thing because of how rude ppl were, but its been a while and youre being nice so long post incoming Anyway yes im very much aware of this 'ship of Theseus angle to grizz, I did see that "in defense of grizz" video. And honestly I do agree it is something about him that has interesting potential if they'd leaned into it more. Much of my distaste with the ending of ROTM is the build up and execution. They made the bear foreshadowing laughably obvious years too early, and then all the poor fools like me who care too much about splatoon's story had faith that "surely the splatoon team, who just made a story as surprising and serious as Octo Expansion, wouldn't handle foreshadowing the identity of their next major villain that badly" took the biggest L. IF the splatoon team had been more blatant that the Judds were the last mammals left throughout the series (the only time it was directly stated that all mammals were extinct before ROTM? in a dev interview. and for years nobody wanted to believe it whenever i tried bringing it up lmao.) if they weren't that on the nose about the bear imagery. if the only solid piece of deception they had about Grizz not being a bear in the entirety of splatoon canon wasn't in a paid artbook... if they were more deceptive about the fact, I'm sure i wouldve been a bit more accepting of the idea of him secretly being a bear from earlier on, and it would've been a cooler reveal. But surface level knowledge should be called into question by looking at the deeper evidence, not the other way around.

The ineffectiveness of the bear reveal is a culmination of Splatoon doing a frankly, bad job at putting whats supposed to be basic, important, worldbuilding knowledge in the game. I think the intended effect of the bear reveal was that the general audience of fans were supposed to have been like "woah, but all mammals are supposed to be all dead holy shit i cant believe hes a bear." and that info was supposed to put a wedge in the bear theories. but when 95% of the player-base anticipating splatoon 3 had no idea that all mammals (except the judds) are supposed to be extinct in the splatoon world and how that's an important part of its worldbuilding up until the announcement of the story mode, if at all...idk man thats pretty bad.

The way the info about mammal extinction was worded in the official news posts sounds like it was supposed to be common knowledge for Splatoon fans, not a surprise like it ended up being.

Anyway back to the execution, it would've been cooler if they'd leaned into that horror element, the fact that he's hardly even a mammal anymore. I think the implication is there. It is cool and fucked up in Splatoon's signature way! But again, I agree it would be better if it was played up or even acknowledged once directly, like in log.exe. Even with all the potential for bear Mr. Grizz to be cool, the years of too-blatant foreshadowing leading to a frustratingly disappointing reveal and the exact annoying plot holes i feared of has permanently soured the concept of him being a bear to me.

[hotwaterandmilk]

So I watched the first episode of the Paripi Koumei/Ya Boy Kongming! drama and it was quite lushly put together and nice, imho. I'm still not that healthy so I've just put together my rando thoughts while watching below.

The obnoxious Joker dancing on the stairs was a nice touch for the post-Halloween party scene.

The show is visually well-composed, a lot of effort has been put into the composition of scenes, the lighting and the cinematography. While I'd say the manga has decent but not spectacular visuals, the drama is well-crafted as an immersive visual and auditory experience.

The scenes set in the past feel heavily influenced by historical dramas and the visuals differ from the present scenes nicely. The heightened sense of reality works well in these moments as they are Kongming's memories/dreams/etc. rather than the present reality.

Mukai Osamu as Kongming sells the entire show. He plays the dramatic scenes with heart but doesn't hesitate to throw all his effort into the humour as well. I don't think you could get much better live action casting for a role as quirky as this series' version of Kongming.

Kobayashi having the full setup of Three Kingdoms miniatures in his desk was honestly a genius touch. It really helped them transition nicely during the culmination of Kongming's strategy at the end of the episode (something I had been unsure they could pull off convincingly in live action).

I'd say the weakest link link the show thus far is EIKO herself. In this version of the story she lacks a lot of the energy the character has in previous incarnations. I'm also not sure if the additional moment before meeting Kobayashi (which shows her suicide attempt happened after someone busted her guitar) brought anything to her character either.

I'm also not a massive fan of her songs in this first episode? They also lack energy imho. I just kind of sat there thinking "Yeah I'd go listen to someone else too" when she was performing during the episode's climax. Which is a shame, I love EIKO in the manga and anime so I really hope they lift her up a bit more in the drama in subsequent episodes.

I get what they were going for having her be a bit "flat" given how she feels her career has stalled before her encounter with Kongming, but I found her keeping that low energy while performing an odd choice idk.

Watching "I'm Still Alive Today" being performed here you're like yeah, I get why EIKO is entranced by Maria (Avu-chan kills this scene). I didn't feel the same way when Kongming was entranced by EIKO during the Halloween performance though.

I wasn't sure about how much they changed up Kobayashi's appearance to scream yakuza in the drama, but then they showed his stupid hair from behind. Immediately sold, no notes. Kobayashi here seems more intimidating in his new leopard-print attire, as if he'd genuinely kick your ass for EIKO. That then heightens the humour when he brings out his miniatures and is shown to be a total otaku. Good stuff.

Mia's performance and overall vibe was pretty much perfect for who she is when we first meet her in the story. I like how the drama really does replicate these types of performances well with the lighting and the backup dancers, they do feel like real performances.

Speaking of performances. Shoutout to the fact that the episode ended with this bit. Sekiguchi Mandy has incredible thighs. I find it interesting that they're introducing Maezono Keiji in the first episode (given he's from the Summer Sonia arc).

Overall I think there's definitely enough here that's different to warrant a watch if you're a fan of either the manga or anime. From small things like EIKO just bringing Kongming to the back of the B.B. Lounge rather than her apartment, through to significant changes like Keiji being in it from the get-go. I'm keen to see how they pull it all off in 10 episodes.

[stormyoceans]

There's a comment on youtube which said along the lines, 'puen read tun's diary, he must've known about tun's unrequited love for tess, so by saying puen is gonna live tun's life to the fullest could also mean that he is indirectly fulfilling tun's wishes of been with tess too' how come this never crossed mind! Even though puentalay didn't explicitly state to others in that universe they had feelings for each other, pretty sure their friendgroups understood the signs. So to think when Tun comes back and find out that the people in their bodies had loved each other and were happy he must've felt a sort of happiness. Because even though tesstun's situationship related to the first switch between universes, their comeback had very little to do with each other. They switched back solely because of puentalay and them realising they are each other's portkeys. Thoughts monica?

MY THOUGHTS ARE THAT THIS SHOW NEEDS TO STOP BEING SO GOOD IT HAS LITERALLY RUINED ME FOR ANY OTHER SERIES LIKE HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO MOVE ON WHEN NOTHING EVEN COMES CLOSE TO IT AND INSTEAD OF GETTING TIRED OF REWATCHING IT I KEEP FINDING NEW DETAILS THAT MAKE ME GENUINELY FERAL AND IN DESPERATE NEED TO CHAIN MYSELF TO A FENCE LIKE A WEREWOLF DURING A FULL MOON ✋😭

honestly i’ve never thought about puen fulfilling tun’s wish of being with tess specifically (WHICH. SCREAMING BTW), but i did think a lot about puen and talay trying to live tun’s and tess’ life to the fullest and being able to achieve all of their dreams while doing so. it’s hard to say if this was necessary to make them switch back, because im convinced that ultimately that’s due to puen and talay learning the lesson the universe thought they needed, but it’s also not a coincidence that they were given those specific bodies to inhabit, so i feel like they wouldn’t have gotten to that lesson without living those lives to the best of their abilities

idk how to explain this in a quick and coherent way because i have way too many opinions about portkeys and fate and choices and identity, but. like, everyone agrees that talay and tess switching back to their respective universe is all thanks to talay’s efforts (because tess literally did NOTHING), but i’ve seen a lot of people wondering if puen and tun switching back is due to one or the other. to me it’s clearly due to puen, not only because it happens at the culmination of his character’s journey (accepting himself and being finally ready to tell his name to talay), but also because tun, while obviously not ruining puen’s life LIKE SOMEONE ELSE DID WITH TALAY’S [SIDE EYES TESS], did not make it better either. when he comes back, puen is still alone. when he goes back, tun has achieved his dream of becoming a famous screenwriter and is in a relationship with tess. by using a stratagem like the travelling between universe, i think the show actually did a great job in showing the different attitudes someone may have towards life, not just your own, but other people’s too: you can live selfishly (tess), you can just survive (tun), or you can live life as best as you can (puen and talay). this is also why i get very annoyed when people watch vice versa and say stuff like ‘the concept was interesting but why they were making a movie rather than explore the fantasy part’, because THE FANTASY PART IS NOT THE POINT!!!!!!!! THE POINT IS WHAT YOU CHOOSE TO DO WITH THE LIFE AND THE TIME YOU’RE GIVEN!!!!!!!!! THAT’S THE MESSAGE OF THE SHOW AND THE GENERAL LESSON THEY ALL HAD TO LEARN BUT THAT ONLY PUEN AND TALAY REALLY UNDERSTOOD!!!!!!!!!!

anyway. not sure where i was going with this or if this makes sense but yeah i have way too many thoughts about this and all of them boils down to VICE VERSA SERIES OF ALL TIME PUEN AND TALAY CHARACTERS OF ALL TIME PUENTALAY RELATIONSHIP OF ALL TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[zukkacore]

Imo the new PJO shows greatest strength is definitely Riordon’s craft maturing since the lightning thief in terms of…. Thematic coherence?

I think PJO has always been fairly thematically coherent & impactful in its messaging but especially at first the books feels much more like fairly lighthearted action adventure road trip narratives that are extremely episodic and more focused on being entertaining than having something To Say. Which, they’re books for middle schoolers, I think an “adventure road trip with some unserious monster slaying” is a perfectly serviceable concept and in execution riordan is admirably gifted in that his writing can be entertaining for both the primary demographic kids but also adults.

But they’re not books that just suddenly decided to half-heartedly have a theme (unlike other kids fantasy from the period I don’t dare namedrop lmao), because of all the foreshadowing and the motivations behind the antagonists (one antagonist in particular), it’s clear he probably had a thematic direction for the series, even if I don’t know how planned the initial 5 book run was. I really do admire what the book has to say abt bad systems that are set up to leave certain folks behind, and what parents owe to their children, & abt how easy it is to fall for charismatic leaders promising for a return to glorious prelapsarian past instead of trying to provide real solutions.

In the series, what I’ve really been enjoying is how every interaction and monster doesn’t just feel episodic, each monster feels like a facet that is part of the central thesis regarding the gods & their relationship to their children. I think the writing strength does a lot of heavy lifting because while overall I think the show is pretty solid, I do have a few critiques.

Mainly one of the frustrating things probably has something to do with budgeting. Scenes that are very thrilling and action driven in the book are truncated & often replaced with a lot of kinda slow oddly paced walk-&-talk scenes. Probably bc that’s much cheaper to shoot. Riordan himself seems to be fairly transparent about the changes he’s made in adaptation due to those limitations.

The effects for tv show cgi are not perfect but pretty impressive (I’ll reiterate, for tv cgi, the bar is on the floor….) but there’s a weird emptiness or sterile quality that makes the world feel not so lived in. Idk I think this was the most apparent to me in the casino episode, which I know riordan hates the movie & we joke abt the poker face scene but I was honestly kinda bewildered at how lifeless and boring they made the intentionally enticing distraction of the lotus casino seem. I get there can’t be gambling, but maybe an arcade? A buffet? Something?

I sound like I’m really going in on the show but I’m really not, I’ve been really enjoying the adaptation so far. The flaws are not show-ruining but I do think they culminate in a result that struggles w pacing & lacks the propulsive energetic quality of the books. Which, adaptations can be different, but to me that quality was always a strength of the series that imo I would’ve prioritized in adaptation. What saves some of the problems for me is that even tho a lot content is kinda delivered in this weird inert way of the actors doing their best to bring life to scenes where people are standing around stiffly and exchanging dialogue, the content itself is really good. His knowledge of his own characters & their dynamics, their desires, their place in the narrative, is so clear. The emphasis placed on Sally Jackson in particular & her influence on Percy & his values is a great additive element to the show. Again, the thematic coherence that has evolved since the lightning thief is in full display. For example, before last nights episode, I was actually saying to my mom that I hoped they would cut the procrustes water bed scene bc that chapter always felt weirdly fillery and goofy in its tone, but it was integrated in such an organic way that I really liked it!

I’ve been saying for like a decade that I thought PJO’s monster of the week episodic structure would make a better show than movie, and like. All im saying is that being apollo cursed with the gift of prophecy isn’t always a bad thing

[lispenardst]

3, 12, 14, and 15 for FT asks? :D

Okay so to start with I’m sorry that I took so long to answer this!! Thank you for asking you lovely person and also I’ve been drinking for hours (merry christmas ho ho ho 🎅🏼) so these answers may be a load of unintelligible shit but lol whatever lets go

3. What is your favourite episode and why?

It might be a controversial one but honestly? Episode 1. I just love beginnings. The hope and potential and possibility of a fresh start, the excitement and thrill of the unknown, the electricity of new connections, I’m just a sucker for it. I watched episode 1 when it first aired and honestly felt as though it could’ve existed as a stand alone short film. It was the perfect way to set the scene for the series but also was such a beautifully told story in its own right. Idk if any of you have watched Weekend by Andrew Haigh? Idk if I’m chatting nonsense here but it gave me a similar vibe to that… all the emotion and potential and unspoken truths simmering under the surface, intense feelings manifesting as sexual interplay… all of it culminating in what felt like somewhat repressed and wasted potential. I’ll shut up now lol but it was such a perfect first episode. I could babble about it endlessly.

12. Which song, used in soundtrack, you liked the most?

Ooooh such a good question - are we talking about the score, or are we talking songs that were included? Whatever I’ll do both

Score wise can I just say it is the most fucking gorgeous soundtrack, I am such a slut for a good soundtrack and this one has me in a chokehold I love it. It’s so emotional, I cry just listening to it. Paul Leonard-Morgan I loge you you’re a genius

My favourite piece of music from the score has to be Waiting for Tim, it makes my heart ache. I’d love to say something a bit more eloquent about it but honestly it just makes me want to throw up from emotion ✌️ omg and Forbidden Joy that plays during the game of charades in ep2, that scene makes me feel like someone just scooped out my insides

Aside from the score I loooove anything by Arthur Russell, especially Love Is Overtaking Me. If Its Magic by Stevie Wonder is also amazing, especially as a choice for the opening scene. Also You Turned The Tables On Me by Anita O’Day. And omg Found A Cure by Ashford and Simpson that plays when Tim and Hawk are dancing in the club, so so so good

14. Do you have any unpopular opinions about Fellow Travelers?

Hmm….

I don’t think it’s controversial, but I do think that all the people on TikTok and the like who comment like ‘Fuck Hawk he’s evil and never loved Tim!!!’ must either be emotionally constipated or like 14 years old. Like how can a fully grown adult watch this show and come to that conclusion???? And whyyyy are people so obsessed with good vs bad? ‘Tim is an innocent baby and Hawk is a BAD MAN’ like how is that all you see?? Surely that is the least interesting thing about these characters? The most wonderful thing about this show is that everybody is painfully human, they hurt and hurt others and make mistakes just like we do. How can you boil down an entire human being to being ‘good’ or ‘bad’? It’s boring and I have no interest in it. It’s so telling of the time that we live in, that people immediately want to categorise human beings based on their perceived morality. All the characters in this show are just shades of grey, they are nuanced complicated human beings carrying all the complexity that a human being should carry. The focus should not be on bad vs good. It frustrates me!! That is surely the least interesting thing about these characters!! They have such rich inner worlds and such complex motives and you want to reduce them down to “Hawk is bad man and Tim is innocent baby and Lucy is evil lady” ugh it’s so BORING how is that all you see

15. What is your favourite relationship from the show (could be romantic or platonic)?

Oh this is so easy. Obviously fav romantic is Hawk and Tim - pretty self explanatory, I won’t elaborate or we’ll be here all day

Favourite platonic is Tim and Jackson without a shadow of a doubt, I’ve talked about this quite a lot on here already (I think? Or was that on reddit?) but yeah, I just feel as though they were connected from the moment Jackson was born and, similarly to how infrequent Hawk and Tim’s interactions were, Tim and Jackson remained connected for life, regardless of how much time and distance was placed between them. They were kindred spirits. I feel as though their scenes together were some of the most pure and honest and powerful in the entire show.

[releasemefromthevoid]

MY ATLA LIVE ACTION S1E8 THOUGHTS

EP7

Alright guys, this is the end of it. Not gonna lie, I thought this was a little… underwhelming. They’re focusing a lot on the aftermath of a battle, which could be cool if done correctly. I wasn’t that into it.

At the very least, this episode, the visuals went crazy! We had the red color grading when Tui was captured, and the monochrome gray with the specific highlights when she was dead. La’s possession of the Avatar looked incredible as well. They sold it as a fairly awe-inspiring moment, but I think this moment was undermined a little in other ways.

I think there are a lot of little inconsistencies throughout the show that really culminated here. Some of my worries were resolved, but some of them really weren’t. 

In any case, I think this was fine for a season finale. It fit the tone of the show and went harder than the other episodes to end things off. 

I’ll write a full series review tomorrow, I’m trying to go to sleep.

Live reactions under the cut

well i do love seeing strategy sokka

disappointed by the lack of catapults on the ships so aang couldn’t creatively use them to destroy the ship

did iroh just tell zuko to swim in freezing waters? lol

wait we already did koh, so what’s up with tui and la? how are we gonna figure out where they are? are we even gonna see the spirit oasis? 

oh so. we’re introducing the war balloons now? early for the fire nation? with a vague reference to the mechanist? how’d they even get the plans? sure do wish we’d seen more about those before, besides just making them. maybe used one to take down the firebenders invading the northern air temple? maybe a fire nation soldier could’ve found the remains of a balloon. just a thought

the. ice moon?

AND YET THEY INTRODUCE THE CONCEPT OF LION TURTLES NOW!! this is BAFFLING to me

so tui and la only take physical form once a year in this version? huh

and he’s gonna kill tui with KURUK’s spirit knife. interesting macguffin

THEY ALMOST KILLED OFF MOMO????!!! JAIL

okay so there is the spirit oasis. and they’re using it to bring back momo

sorry that was actually genuinely deeply upsetting. they just did something illegal i swear to god. don’t fuck with the animals

i am Not believing that katara is skilled enough to fight zuko. sorry but it’s not happening. she hasn’t even been trained. “you found a master haven’t you”. no zuko, she hasn’t. NO ONE HAS TRAINED HER. “yes, you’re looking at her.” katara, someone called you a master once, girl, that doesn’t mean you Are one

good lord that’s so red. i like that they kept that visual cue though

tui: dea. the color grading on this is still good too. the only colors we really see are the flashes of yellow and red with the fire balls being thrown around. theoretically, everything else should be grayscale/monotone, with the exception of yue’s blue eyes (which i don’t believe are blue in this adaptation). i don’t really have complaints about the look of things

okay la, your turn

do we need a “reality of war” moment again? tbh i feel nothing for these people. 

oh yue’s eyes ARE blue. chill

hey what do you mean “you’ll be lost forever”. something something killed in the avatar state killed forever can’t reincarnate

okay la possession looks cool as hell. obsessed with these visuals

though idk if it’s just me, but people are really trying to get the “avatar is gone”, “there’s no more avatar”, “you’ll be lost forever” thing across huh. i feel like that kind of undersells the moment when seemingly everyone knows what’s going on. 

zuko’s gonna fight zhao now why? purely so zhao can give zuko a moment of realization, got it

and then he tries to kill zhao. i still think zuko would never.

and now zhao is almost certainly dead, because iroh pushed him off. and zuko didn’t have that moment of offering mercy, and zhao didn’t have the moment of rejecting that mercy. this IS a downgrade

woahhh hahn dead confirmed. wish i could celebrate, but he’s nice now

so pakku is NOT becoming katara and sokka’s grandfather in this one. i bet we won’t even learn the significance of katara’s necklace

SHE IS NOT A MASTER STOP SAYING THAT. SHE LEARNED OFF OF ONE (1) WATERBENDING SCROLL WITH ZERO SUPERVISION

sorry are you relying on bumi for earthbending training? you haven’t even started waterbending. this bumi is barely reliable from your interactions with him

oop there goes omashu. weird that we’re seeing the takeover

okay. sozin’s comet. i thought you were taking that out? was that just a lie then? shouldn’t aang know about that? might actually make him learn waterbending. considering the series just ended. and he HASN’T EVEN LEARNED WATERBENDING YET

liked: the visuals went so hard, no kataang romance

worried about for potential season 2: zuko's arc

disliked: zuko and zhao's fight, katara "mastering" waterbending despite never having trained with a master, aang literally not even once showing that he was the avatar outside of the avatar state (not learning ANY waterbending)

[hellsbellschime]

(potential hotd spoilers) I've seen a couple people propose the battle of the Gullet as the season 2 finale, which I think is super plausible, so if that is indeed the case, that would mean that Rhaenys, Jace, little prince Jaehaerys, and little prince Viserys would be the major casualties of that season (except technically Viserys since he's actually still alive, but since everyone thinks he's dead until the war is over, I'm counting him here). I feel like that's a pretty decent chunk of the story to make 10 episodes out of.

I also heavily hope that they delay the Blood & Cheese thing until at least the mid-point of the season instead of putting it at the beginning. First because I think we need to spend some actual time with and knowing who Helaena's and Aegon's kids are before one of them dies. Second because imo Helaena has the least development of Alicent's kids that we've seen so far (rip Daeron), and considering that she actually has a lot of influence on the story later on (her death triggers the riots against Rhaenyra and causes her to flee KL) I feel like it's important to establish who she really is and how she feels before she falls into depression. And I feel like they can afford to delay B&C instead of just having it immediately happen after Luke's death like in the book. They can give it a slower build-up with Daemon and Mysaria finding each other and plotting it out, while in the meantime further establishing the Greens' dynamics that we didn't get time to see in S1, then having B&C culminate in an explosive mid-season event that shakes up the Green dynamic even further, kinda like how Rhaenyra's and Laenor's wedding was the super big mid-season event. Idk, that's what I feel is the best option given the pacing of the show so far.

Yeah I really can't see them doing B&C immediately, like Aegon and Helaena's children have barely been acknowledged so if they want the audience to actually care about what's happening then they're going to have to develop them as a relevant part of the story. It's a tough situation though because B&C is really the biggest moment in the entire story for a lot of readers, so the fact that it happens relatively quickly in the books makes placing it in a good spot in the TV series difficult.

[loganhowlctt]

Anniebanannie I just want to tell you (yet AGAIN) how much of a blessing your gifs are on my dash, on my life, on my entire existenceee! I've been quite disappointed with Mando this season (do share your thoughts if you have time to spare, I'd love to hear them!) but seeing your gifs just make it all the better! Sending you tons of love 🤍🤍🤍

man idk what else to say but thank you?? i always feel so blessed seeing a message from you in my inbox 🥺🥺

yeah honestly this season of mando is not it i can't believe we waited 2 years for this 😭😭 where did my space western go?? why is din a side character now?? like literally in s1 and s2 i had an abundance of din moments i could gif, and in some episodes this season it was like searching for scraps 🥲

episode 1 was alright but it was just kinda downhill from there, though i do feel like they're kinda picking it up again with ep 7. but i still don't like how much it focuses on bo-katan (who i've never been a huge fan of and because of this season even less so). i am so very scared with what will happen to din in the finale, i've seen many different theories going around and none of them predict anything good. and i really don't like this "marvel-fication" of star wars, with almost all the shows weaving into eachother and what will seem to culminate in a movie what will basically be star wars: endgame. like i don't care about thrawn mentions leave that for the ahsoka series and give me back my father and son show 😠

i just get very upset and frustrated when media has so much wasted potential. what i would've loved to see is din being separated from grogu from an entire season, and get some character growth from both of them. does din really want to go back to his bounty hunting days like nothing happend? does he really want to redeem himself in the living waters, or does he want to live by his own ways and be able to show his face to his son? maybe we see grogu struggling more with his training because he can't let go of his attachment to din, so it would make more sense for him to choose din in the end because he would never be able to be a full jedi.

i'm very curious to see what the finale will be and how it will set up season 4, just let din be alright i don't care about anything else 😭

[remedyxtragedy]

Another average day gone by, though I did find that I was more tired than usual during class, so much so I could hardly keep my eyes open half the damn time, but I know my horrible sleep schedule is 100% to blame. More importantly, today I just thought I'd shed some light on the underlying significance of my other big story and work-in-progress, John's Sweven, which will ultimately foster a premise and theme that pertains a lot to me as an individual and my ever growing desire to, well, die. I'm not sugercoating it. Yet at the same time I have this unwavering impulsion to live and see what beauty lives beyond the veil of my dark perceptions, it feels almost innate like no matter how downtrodden and hollow I get there's someone beckoning me to keep going. But then again, all at the same time, it feels like there's someone beckoning me to do just the opposite with equal fervor--to give up and succumb. There's this constant juxtaposition and ambivalence existing in my heart, clashing ceaselessly and threatening to override, so much so it can almost tear me in twain.

You see, often nowadays I'm torn between wanting to give this world my all and see humanity flourish, and just wanting to watch it crash and burn and see humanity fall to their own design. John Cromwell and John Crawford are representative of these halves to a tee. In the story of John's Sweven, just as a brief run through beyond what I've already shared--there are two Pastor Johns, both cursed to simultaneously see how Heaven fails as Hell prospers, both haunted by visions and nightmares of humanity's inevitable tragic downfall, and both also visited by angels just as they were about to take their own lives who informed them of the destinies they absolutely must fulfill lest they wish to damn innocent lives to the carnage and death that will soon rupture the earth. Exactly, why is this the outcome if they don't do as is fated of them? Well, this is owed to a series of regrettable decisions made by two warring families not long before the birth of Cromwell and Crawford, which may explain why Armageddon is all of a sudden right around the corner and why the two Pastors are even wrapped up in this whole conundrum to begin with, but I needn't expand on that right now.

More importantly, I want to explore this formula through the perspectives of one man who is supposed to show humanity a grace he wholeheartedly believes he doesn't have in him but still nonetheless thinks they deserve, and another who is supposed to show a grace he's confident he has but wholeheartedly believes humanity is undeserving of. The end all be all of these characters is the very different paths they are led down as a result of their very different perceptions of their purposes in this world and how their actions ultimately culminate to the same subjectively good or bad resolution in response to the absurdity that surrounds them. Whether this ending is tragic or worthwhile is up to the person whose lenses have long since have been warped by knowledge to decide. If that makes sense. Idk my brain is kinda fuzzy today

5/21/24

[tellthatbrokebitch]

can i be real a second, for just a millisecond, let down my guard and tell the people how i feel a second

i'm gonna do a personal ramble under a cut bc i just need to

so i'm going to a pt facility tomorrow. for anyone reading this who doesn't know, a year ago i injured my foot and due to a series of mistakes, miscalculations, and just generally unfortunate events, i haven't been able to walk since, and haven't been able to see a doctor to examine the problem, so i don't even exactly know what the problem IS. only in the last five or so months have i been able to talk with a doctor via video call, and eventually it's all culminated in finally being able to seek help for my issue

it's been a really rough fucking year, and i've tried to stay positive but it's difficult. i've also been trying not to talk too much about it, or vent too often on here, bc that's not why people follow me and i don't like putting that negativity out there. it's why i mostly talk about my writing, or my silly text posts posts, and the only time i really speak about my mental health is when it's really bad

this is a good thing. it's a great thing, bc even if i go into this facility and for some reason or other i can't walk again, at least i'll know, you know? it's been an entire year of not knowing, and being cooped up in my room, and not even being able to see half of my family, even though we live in the same fucking house. either way, tomorrow i get to see and hug my mom for the first time in a year, so at least i have that to look forward to

but i'm also really scared that the original injury i sustained never actually healed, and that this entire year has been for naught, or that i fucked something up because i'm a fucking idiot, or any number of things that have gone wrong or might go wrong in the future. i'm scared that i'm never gonna walk again, and i'm going to be a burden on my family indefinitely, and that i screwed everything up. i'm worried about my financials, bc i spent two years building my credit up and diligently making my payments, only for the last year to completely fuck it all up bc i'm not making any money and fuck the us credit system anyway, bc i was perfectly content before but you have to have a decent credit score to do anything in this fucking country, so now i'm like 2k in debt with no way to pay it off bc i had to use them to buy fucking food so i don't fucking starve

i'm getting heated lol anyway i'm also just really stressed bc i haven't left my room in roughly a year except to go across the hall to the bathroom, and now tomorrow i get to humiliate myself in front of strangers, and i have to leave my family and my dog and my cat and go to a strange place and sleep in a strange bed and i'm bringing my notebooks so i can write and my phone so i can post but it's not the same and my anxiety is already through the roof and i just know i'm going to spend so much time fucking crying bc i'm doing it right now just typing all of this

idk i'm just... idk don't read all of this okay i'm a fucking mess. i just needed to vent

[vyvesvi]

2022 music recap (2/3?)

concepts:

this was a good year for good concepts, and i hope it improves even more next year! onlyoneof's "be" series really held it down, with the standout in my opinion going to yoojung's begin. this sounds extremely dumb but the song and the music video are at peak conceptual, thematic, tonal, sonic and lyrical harmony. like the song and mv are explicitly about beginnings, yes, but something about the song also sounds like the start of something new. they're insane for that oml. i am once again asking everyone to watch the be series start to finish once the last installment drops on january 4th. i won't be mad if you mute beat i promise but the mv is still nice.

i feel like i've been raving about lexie liu's album, the happy star, and it's rollout too much but. please watch fortuna and magician (tw death, tw flashing though, be careful!!). i can't fully explain what i liked beyond the story, but i just think the whole thing is really well done. i especially love how the ganma mv is her cleaning up one of the sets from fortuna/magician. it could just be because i love this album dearly but i even love the 3.14159 mv thats just her walking around in interesting sets (kind of a fake one shot style). idk. it makes sense to me.

love dive is my favorite gg mv of the year! i won't spend too much more time on it but yeah. it's impeccable, and i liked the vibe of the teasers too. I hope they bring that energy again for their first album, that's the quality that i'd expect for what's shaping up to be the next huge gg.

albums:

i need to post this and run away tbh, it's to the point where i'm not even fully sure that i agree with myself. i don't have the time/energy/patience/will to go through each album one by one but i would strongly recommend all of the selected songs that i put on the righthand side :)

debuts (in order by rank):

generation was a perfect debut we love to see it! a friend and i were talking about what makes the music video unique despite containing pretty conventional themes and we decided that it felt a bit more true to the "female gaze," which was great to see. i'm so excited to see where they go :)

i don't love ador as a company (that gaslighty statement is still sooooo crazy to me) so i don't really like talking about new jeans very much despite enjoying their music. i'm not sure who paid everyone to say that hype boy is their best song when attention is right there. the girls who get it get it! very solid debut mini. i hope ador is more careful with their concept in the future- ditto seems like a good start. i will be keeping an eye out for them moving forward!

tan dududu - somehow the last hope for men??? it's toooo good even if the bsides are pretty weak. dudududu isnt really a song you listen to and get hooked in my opinion, but it's an instant classic that'll never get old (in part because it takes a lot of inspiration from more classic american (read: black) rnb sounds). this group also has an older average age, which i love to see. their most recent mini, walking on the moon, was also very good, it gives got7/full8loom to me. my two wishes for them are 1.) to define their sound better and 2.) better album art.

fifty fifty's higher was like a sleeper agent and i found myself enjoying it more than anticipated at each listen. i LOVE their main vocal's tone. i need them to never ever ever do a song like log in ever ever again.

i was so impressed with yena! i wasnt an izone stan but i watched her debut on a whim and it really got me (it didn't hurt that her concept felt like the culmination of my "kpop-punk" predictions nearly two years ago at this point). her whole album is incredibly solid, and yueha did a fantastic job figuring out a unique concept that suits her. while i wasn't a fan of smartphone, i will definitely checking out her music!

throwbacks:

i won't say much here, even though it should technically be the biggest section. pado and eat my love (2021) were two of my biggest songs this year, they actually fit right in with new jeans and fifty fifty in my opinion. this year was the year i finally opened my eyes to taemin- i've always liked him, but for a few months in there criminal and advice were on repeatt. i also love the thirsty instrumental!

wayv...what to say about wayv. i'm truly hoping for the best from them but they worry me sometimes. i don't really trust their company to continue to pour into them unfortunately. but hey, at least i still have moonwalk! moonwalk is one of my favorite bg songs of all time and it's likely to stay that way for awhile :)

up next: playlists that defined my year!

[hopelesshawks]

Am I....

Am I about to write subby Dabi?

[crymeariveronceagain]

Any theories on how the kotlc series will end?

Quite a few, actually.

Some of these are going to be a writer talking about a writer's stylistic choices, and some of them are going to be a fan talking about the content creator's possibilities.

The Coward's Way Out(I would not put it past Shannon to do this): It was all a dream. Everything was a dream. Sophie got hit by that car and has been in the hospital since, in a coma for the past four years. None of it was real.

The Unsatisfactory Ending: Nothing is tied up well at all. All the villains live, the council is still full of jerks. Sophie's still having a mental crisis. Keefe is still off being an idiot. But hey, at least the plot is... sort of done. There's going to be a sequel series, though. It's going to be twice as long. Maybe Sophie and Fitz are dating again at the end, but none of their pressing problems have been solved.

The Boss Battle Ending: Everything culminates in one last battle. Everything ends here. This is usually what I go for when I write stuff that takes place within canon that hasn't been dealt with by Shannon yet. Like, it all gets tied neatly with a bow. A bunch of people are dead, possibly some of our faves, some adults, all the Neverseen officials, etc. Everything is done, over, and will never be resurfaced. Because the war has been won on a battlefield.

The Annoying Ending: So idk if anyone's read The Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard. If you have, you remember how the last book was just endless discussions of war and politics and Mare going back and forth between hating and loving Cal? Yeah. Imagine that, but it's the council and Sophie and Keefe. Because it's just exhausting and endless. And by the time you get to the end of the book, all you've got is a girl with some earrings and some emotional damage and a life that's in ruins and a guy that's somehow still waiting for her despite how it would be better-- Okay. I'm sorry. But a long drawn out war discussion would be really annoying. Gimme action or gimme death.

The Feel Good Ending: This is literally just going to be found family good vibes. The comfort we've all been wanting, craving, needing. They're chilling or eating dinner or laughing or talking or just being whole again. The world is done trying to hurt them. They're finally free from the chains of being the saviors of the world, and they're finally allowed to be kids again. They'll be okay. It's finally, really, truly going to be okay.

The Sokeefe Ending: It ends with a Sokeefe confession/kiss. That's honestly all I want in this world. I want it to end with them kissing in the rain. I want it. So bad. Please. And if I could get a hunger-games-esque flash forward I would cry. Thank.

The Twist Ending: Some key piece of information is revealed at the last moment. Something important, something needed. And, just like that, all the stakes change. All the weapons shift. The entire stance of the book is altered. Now, loyalties have varied. Sides have shifted. People are having breakdowns. How do you keep going? Some of them won't. Some of them have to. Who's going to be able to make it out alive? No one knows until you get to the last page, staring at the book that has held so much of your life, and whispering, softly, "what the fuckkkk"

The Memory Loss/Lazy Writer Ending: Basically any cheap wrap-up tactic that sets up another series. Memory erasing, mysterious illness, the Neverseen destroying themselves, blah blah blah. Something cheap and quick and easily swallowed by editors so they let you take the next year off before starting the sequel series.

Happily Ever After: Everything. Is. Done. Everything is finished, all the plot points are dealt with. Every character gets a satisfying ending, from Tam getting hugs and Keefe coming home to Sophie getting to sleep at night again and Dex getting page time to Stina getting character growth and Biana dying her hair purple. Everything solved, everything finished, you sit, softly, holding the book, and feel like everything has come to an end. Everything is done. And you're not sad. You're happy. Because the characters are happy. The void in your chest is filled, knowing that they went where they needed to go.

Sad ending: All your darlings are dead. Never coming back. Everything hurts. I'm not even going to say what could happen here. But everyone could die. I'm talking Divergent levels of character death. Like, sweet and holy stars dEATH. Like, all the death you'd never want and more. And who's left crying at the end? Who watches the world burn? Who's sobbing as everything they loved is taken? Who won the war, but lost everything else? Is it Sophie? Is it Fitz? Is it Keefe? Is it Linh? Tam? Wylie? Teirgan? Forkle? Gisela? Who is left? And why are they crying?

but yeah these are just a few theories i have for how it's going to go. :DD hope they are satisfactory!

[highly-flammable]

I love the post you made about sfam. It is probably the 2nd maybe 3rd post I've seen that points out the fact that Johnathan wasn't a saint. I find it very interesting how most people who commented on the series all were like "how can anyone not find Oscar Isaac attractive?" / "I would never do what Mira did!" or saying how Mira was wrong for divorcing him and how she's toxic but hardly any have said that Johnathan was just as bad as she was. I mean, yeah Oscar is very attractive and both he and Jessica made make my bi-heart stutter but the characters they played were both shitty in their own way. I feel like the people that were bashing Mira and saying all sorts of things about her didn't watch the final episode. Johnathan literally cheated on his new wife, who mind you was taking care of his months old son. He also lied to her and was pretending to be somewhere he wasn't, but hey, let's all blame the female character because the male is played by a handsome, charming guy. All this to say I found your post very refreshing <3

@chastainromanova Thank you! It’s so good to see that at least some other people are recognizing that Jonathan is flawed as well. I certainly feel like Mira did a significant amount of damage to him but his damage to Mira was also there. It was just a lot more subtle and incremental in nature. You can say that Jonathan caused a rot while Mira caused an explosion.

And yeah, Jonathan ended up doing the exact same things he and the audience hated Mira for. And why did he do it? Because he and Mira were so out of sync after Mira left that they couldn’t fix the relationship even though at different points they wanted to, and Jonathan ended up valuing his ego so much that he gave up on what really made him happy even when it made its way back to him. I definitely empathize with not wanting to be hurt again, not wanting to give someone that power. But then really get over that person and IDK, properly commit yourself to the new situation that you think is oh-so-right for you. He didn’t do that. In fact, he is doing a whole lot less for his new marriage than Mira did to keep their marriage going even when she was depressed and cheating. It says a lot about Jonathan that both times after having a kid with a woman his marriage with her became stagnant and he stopped looking after the woman herself, focusing more on the child. He really does care more about being a father than a partner. You can hear in his interview in the first episode that he thinks marriage is a platform, as in, it is just going to stay there below your feet. He has a habit of taking the women for granted after he has had a kid with them because he sees that as the ultimate culmination of a relationship. He doesn’t like working on relationships. The only time he actually even wanted to was when Mira was already on her way out, and that’s only because deep down he does love Mira, always has, always will in his fucked up way. But he still couldn’t think of doing right by her before it was too late. And he won’t work on his relationship with Jane at all because he doesn’t even care about her. All he cared about was that she could give him a kid and an environment that reminded him of the one he grew up in.

What I find hilarious is that there are people blaming Mira for ruining Jonathan to the point that he eventually became a serial cheater, but it has been canonically established that a bunch of bad relationships also hurt Mira in the past so are they going to make the same excuse for her? Clearly no. I agree that along with Jonathan’s flaws being a lot more subtle in nature, his actor being attractive has a lot to do with people being biased towards him but buddies, look at Jessica Chastain for a second. She’s a hottie too but that doesn’t make Mira a good person 😂 They’re both attractive and both are playing toxic people, what’s not clicking? It’s exhausting to see only one character getting the bashing in a show where both characters are equally messed up so I just had to speak about it.

[katatonicimpression]

Marauders #27

This was somehow a culmination of all the bad things in the series but also the best things....? I'll explain.

The bad:

1. Lourdes:

The horses are back. I literally said "fuck you" out loud when I saw them.

More seriously. Look at this dialogue. What does Lourdes' education have to do with anything? She was an accomplished, fully grown businesswoman in her own ri-

Oh.

So Duggan's retconned Lourdes' career to make her only be successful after Emma helped her. Wow. Such feminism.

2. Sebastian:

This is pretty bad you guys. I think this insert sums it up.

What we see here more of the same character assassination we've seen the whole time. More cartoonish sexism. There are a few flashes of good character writing - yes, he would conceptualise government as corporations and see that as a positive thing. And the email about Shinobi is genuinely fun.

Likewise this is funny. "Will somebody please take this child away from me."

But in general, duggan has a really poor grasp on this character and the whole lourdes retcon is just uncomfortable. You want to root against the abuser, but you also don't accept that he did abuse her because it was so poorly written. And it's not like duggan!lourdes has any unique charm that makes you care about her, sorry.

Oh and this panel. Duggan's fem dom fixation strikes again. Honestly, out of context it's a pretty apt Shaw panel.

3. Bobby:

Jesus this was lazy. I'll rant about this separately at some point but at the moment just let the record state that I'm unhappy with it.

The surprisingly great:

4. Pyro and Bishop:

So this is what duggan had been going for.

This is a really fun action scene and the comedy really works? He builds on the joke, the line about the novels, the twist that pyro didn't make this up, the gag about jumping off the side. It's really good and it makes you wonder what this series could have been like if they'd achieved this energy all the way through.

I also appreciate pyro doing something more with his powers than just shooting things with a flame-thrower.

The meh:

5. Christian:

So this ties into the Bobby thing. He just rocks up and says he's leaving. For Christian himself, this isn't a problem as he's a less important character.

But what is this? Oh, is he resolving his issues with his relationship with his dad? Dealing with past abuse? If so, this is LITERALLY the first time this has come up the entire series.

Also he doesn't actually need a mutant name. Loads of them don't have one. That's not a problem to be fixed. It's fine.

6. Kate:

This is a petty thing but... Kate's looking for technical solutions to her gate problem. She commits some light treason to do so (bringing in Reed Richards and sharing krakoan tech with him). I bring it up because this kind of misses the point.

Kate not being able to use the gates isn't (or shouldn't be) a very literal, technical in-universe obstacle. It's an emotional conflict. Any changes (any progress in finding a solution) should come with a character beat. And this didn't.

On the plus side, I liked her, Emma and Lourdes on the boat. Like with the Bishop and pyro stuff before, it feels like a more fully realised version of the team dynamic. Also this is the first time Duggan's pulled off the alcohol joke effectively imo. It's funny, it's got a good rhythm to it. I enjoyed it.

7. Callisto, Masque etc:

This neatly tied things up I guess.... I just didn't care about that evil child. Similarly to the Lourdes thing, the retcon is so badly conceived AND implemented that I was just never on board for this story line.

Closing thoughts:

Wow this series was a disappointment you guys.

Like, really bad idk what to tell you.

Terrible, cheap attempts at girl-power that just circle back around to feeling sexist again

Pointless bad retcons that improve nothing

Routinely undermining any narrative tension

Poor pacing and plotting

Ignoring and/or erasing the canon abuse of queer male characters.

Straight-washing queer male characters.

Sidelining the gay man from the team antics because only the two "straight" dudes can have banter

Sidelining the Black characters in favour of retconning in sympathetic backstories for villainous white women

...

....

OK I'll stop but just because I'll be here all day.

I don't want to make this into something it's not. The series had a lot of really good ideas and, to be fair, a lot of the more pernicious things I mentioned aren't immediately obvious. They're also, if I'm being completely honest, milder in reality than what it sounds like when I list it like that.

All in all, there are things that Duggan's Marauders did that I liked, but I'm really glad it's over. Hopefully, the reshuffling will work out well for these characters.

But I'm not holding my breath.

[jojotichakorn]

Ngl I’ll be a little disappointed if they break up UNLESS they have a really good reason to and tbh their parents’s drama (never though it’s valid) is not it. Like I really can’t see why they would turn on each other after all they’ve been through.

Their parents separating them (kinda like it happened in the novel) may happen but even that I don’t see really a point to it as history has proven that separating them really doesn’t do much lol (in the novel it made more sense because of the arranged marriage).

Idk I’m just kind of losing my mind cause some people are like almost 100% sure they’re going to break up and the others are 100% sure they’re not going to and I’m so stupid and confused that my mind keeps changing with every post I read 😅

i will personally be very disappointed if they break up or are separated. from where i'm standing, there is no valid reason for either to happen.

at the same time, i am not crossing it out, because i know the formula and i know what it looks like. and i'm not even talking about bls here - i'm talking about stories in general. so many writers have this one specific way of constructing the narrative, and very rarely do we see the subversion of this construction. and it always includes deep angst and emotional culmination in act 3, particularly at the end of it. and taking specifically a series model, where we have a certain amount of episodes to tell the story, if it were a rollercoaster, the scariest part where you fall down or hang upside down or what have you is always from the end of the penultimate episode to the middle of the finale. look back at any tv shows you have seen - no matter what they are - and you will find that this is how most (if not all) of them went.

i would kill for bad buddy to subvert this construction, and not even because i find it boring, cliche, and unsatisfactory. i have read many books and seen many series, where this trope is followed, and - with some very notable exceptions - i liked them much less just for that reason alone. and i would be disappointed to see it in my favorite piece of media either way. but in our specific story, i genuinely don't think there is anywhere to get that drama and those wild amounts of angst from in the first place. this isn't going to be "i wish they constructed it in a way that made the finale less angsty and settled us more into the happy ending", it's going to be "they pulled this angsty shit in episodes 11/12 out of their asses just to have angsty shit - fuck the fact that it makes no sense for the story". the only way i can see them not subverting it is if they decide to throw everything to the wind and go with drama that makes less sense just to have the drama in order to follow the formula - that's exactly what happened with 2gether, for example. and not to rain on anyone's parade, but 2/3 of our screenwriters worked on 2gether.

(as a small note, i don't mean that it makes no sense for the last two episodes to have angst and drama AT ALL, i mean something as big and story-changing as a break-up or something akin to it - not a small woosh down on the rollercoaster, a full-on "we have been falling down for what feels like an hour and i have no air in my lungs to scream anymore").

so for me "do you think they might break up/be separated?" and "do you think it makes sense for them to break up/be separated?" are two drastically different questions. the latter is a solid "no", the former is... more complex.