#in a way that a fun. if emotional. comedy show shouldnt be

[jeju-tangerine]

d.p. was good. both seasons but i do think season 1 was better. made me feel a lot of emotions and i think it was a well-made show about a very complex issue and it approached it really skillfully.

i think with media about social issues its very hard to balance it in a way that makes sense because you obviously want to create a satisfying story, but you dont want to fictionalize it to the point where you basically create an alternate universe where actually these two characters just Solved All Violence. i think d.p. managed to do that pretty well and was pretty explicit about how they havent magically just solved all issues, but at the same time, even though there are always so many bad, cruel people in the system which is tough in itself, there will also always be good people who want to fight for what is right.

that being said the ending of season 1 was more impactful to me. something about jun-ho just running. the tragedy of it all, the cruelty, the helplessness, the wordlessness. the way it was even more blatant that there was no straight-forward solution to it all. i think ill remember that scene for a long time.

still, i liked the show a lot, it was heartbreaking on so many levels and well-filmed and oh i looove the intro. i kinda felt like maybe it had some more wasted potential but on the other hand idk maybe it actually did exactly what it shouldve which is not making itself too fun. this wasnt a buddy cop comedy even if there were moments where it felt like it. this was a tragedy without clear answers to the questions it posed.

also i dont like the post-credits scene in the last episode, he shouldnt have lived, it made me happy of course but it lessens the impact of the 1st season. but yea. what a show

[tunabesimpin]

Thank you for the tag @kalu-luwa !!! I separated my post cause I can see this becoming very long TvT sorry if i shouldnt have!

ORIGINAL POST/ TAG! ^v^

Oc asks! : for Tuna!

😍 What's the most attractive personality trait a partner can have to them?

Being super playful or fun to be around! Basically a good sense of humor and always inviting you to do stuff! This can range from just playing video games together or watching youtube to actually going out to do stuff. Tuna just likes to be included and enjoys light-hearted joking!

🤣 What makes them crack up?

Potty humor, dad jokes, and cut-off jokes. They have old man humor. You show them a video with fart with reverb over someone tripping and they will very likely laugh. The man who got his free tacos only to drop them and video cuts off? HILARIOUS, COMEDY GOLD. Anything with a goofy sound replaced overtop the og noise? PURE GENIUS.

😡 What's one surefire way to make them angry?

Yell at them. Tell them their opinion is wrong, that they don't get a say in things, or they are absolutely gonna do something only because you know they will. This is 100% the most annoying thing for Tuna and they will just isolate/ stop talking to you LOL. If you push more they might snap at you with your most sensitive topics soooo watch your step.

😄 When are they at their happiest?

Listening to their fav music and playing around ^v^! Literally put on any song from their likes playlist while they want to play and they're on cloud 9. No thought only random flips and pacing to the song!

😭 What makes them sad?

Being the second choice/ left out completely- TvT The amount of times this has happened hurts, and usually Tuna finds out just on their own by chance. They'll pretend it doesn't change the friendship/ crush, but they usually just try to back off and not be clingy. This mostly applies when its one of their fav persons.

💋 What are kisses with them like?

Their kisses are either goofy and playful or quick and shy. Tuna loves to show affection, but never knows what's too much, so they play it safe bein a goof ball about it! But in some tender moments and after a lot of reassurance, Tuna will have the courage to give a sweet quick peck and then act like nothing happened behind a tomato red blush.

👻 What scares them?

Invasion of privacy and fear of depth (mostly at cliffs and deep ocean). Tuna can be paranoid on if they're being watched or if someone they don't trust/ know is too close. Cliffs are scary cause Tuna has a problem with depth perception. They still like hiking, but just nothing too steep. As for the ocean, they just really suck at swimming LOLOL. They never learned how to hold their breathe properly and are weak swimming. Also deep water is just really dark and has creatures yet to be discovered and as cool as that is it's also terrifying because Tuna is just a smol lil guy.

❤️‍🔥 What sets their heart aflame?

Include them in things and be physically affectionate. They're a hopeless romantic and will swoon at most acts of kindness. Head pats, back hugs, inviting them to hangout, Tuna is easy to please. Though surprisingly they don't fall often and even when they do you may never know.

🧠 What type of intelligence do they excell at? (Booksmarts, emotional intelligence, etc.)

They don't excel at anything LOL. If anything probably booksmarts? But it's more like jack of all trades, they just sorta logic their way through things and most times it works out for them. Just a lot of luck honestly.

🎂 How do they usually celebrate their birthday?

They get themselves a cake and their fav dinner! They don't really have a party or invite anyone since the incident (no one but their bestie came to their birthday despite inviting all their friends).

👗 What's their fashion sense?

They like comfy clothes! Tuna enjoys many styles and it really just depends if they feel in a certain mood! ^v^ But their most go to is big shorts and big shirt. Oversized clothes are great! Easy to move in and cozy.

❄️ How do they handle the cold?

They are a natural heater! Cold isn't too much a problem except for their piercings... Those metals get really cold so their ears tend to freeze the most! Otherwise Tuna just runs around a bit to warm up. Though they've never experienced weather below 4 Celsius.

and voila! the list is done LOLOL thank you again for the tag! Now no pressure tags! : @moomoomooing @oseathepebble @comingyourlugubriousness and anyone who wants to join in too! ^v^

[th3okamid3mon]

Spies in disguise, weirdly wholesome (Spoilers)

This movie was so freaking weird. I thought Blue Sky Studios was so dead, the only movie I´ve seen from them was Ice Age and Robots, and Ice Age went downhill after the 3rd movie. But this??? This could be their revival.

Sinopsis: 

Lance Sterling is one of the best spies in the agency. He loves his job and does it really well but when a bad guy starts harming different people across the world using his face, Sterling has to clear up his name in any way possible with the help of a young scientist called Walter Beckett. Problem is, though, the same scientist tried a very complex experiment on him by accident which result on him turning into something everybody hates: a pigeon. 

Animation: 

I´m sure Blue Sky has made more animated movies than just Ice Age, but being completely honest I literally only knew that one. I loved that movie, I also like Robots, but the rest they´ve made aren��t as striking to me. 

As an animation studio they know what they are doing, it is really good. The details in the water and rocks, all the backgrounds? They all look awesome!

It´s no Klaus though. In comparison to other movies, this is pretty much blends with the rest of the CGI movies there exist. Ice Age and Robots had a very distinctive style, but this one? This looks like something Pixar would do (they kind of went a bit downhill, Toy Story 4 was not needed and The Incredibles 2 felt off and incomplete, animation was fine, writing meh. I hope Onward and Soul are better. Fingers crossed.) I also thought Dreamworks made it. It´s not very... original as in the style of the animation. 

The lighting was cool as hell!! The first scene in Japan WAS SO FREAKING AWESOME. It had amazing highlights and it was perfect blend in the atmosphere. The darks werent so obscure you couldnt see anything and when a certain light hit the character it was a great contrast. 

The design of the characters were really great, the background characters looked kind of the same though. It was like the main characters were anime protagonists in this case, not only because of the design but because they use more striking and hotter colors in them while the background characters had really opaque palettes. 

Story and Characters: 

So.. Disclaimer: Spy movies taken seriously is not my thing. I HATE Mission Imposible. I HATE JAMES BOND 1, 2, 3, INIFINITE WHATEVER. I hate them, they are boring and the main characters are worst than Superman (Who, by the way, I also HATE. not the animated one, just the live action one. LIKE BATMAN I HA-). That´s because they portray them as all mighty, powerful, type of card of all traits. Making them too useful and too able makes it boring and it makes you question Why do they even have a freaking team with them?

In this case you have the all mighty, hella cool and able Lance Sterling. He works alone, he is able to do everything and anything, right? Well, at least he is charismatic and such. Of course you have to add something to him so he isn´t just a cocky super human spy. What do you do? GIVE. HIM. AN. OBSTACLE. AND. MAKE. IT. HILARIOUS. Thank god this is comedy. 

It was a really weird premise for the super spy to become a pigeon. From all animals, a Pigeon? Uh... Yeah, sure? This director and writer do know how to make this shit work. And BOI was this really interesting. 

So it goes like this: Sterling goes against a bad guy who isn´t even the main bad guyTM. He does his cool fighting montage during which POOF, GLITTER! Glitter..? Da fuq? And he rolls with it because if he doesn´t he COULD DIE. (I know there´s the flashback montage for Walter at the beginning but bare with me). He gets the briefcase, which had a very dangerous and powerful machine which in spanish is called LITERALLY ASESINO (MURDERER) , LA-DI-DA-DI-DA he goes back to the agency and... The briefcase is empty and some agent comes all of the sudden and has some recording where it is shown HE stole it and killed some guys in Japan with it.

But he escaped, relax. 

Now, previously he had fired Walter because he got into Sterling´s things and put the glitter bomb, which actually did his purpose: distract and make everyone happy. 

Walter is actually a curious character to me. He has good intentions, he just wants to make a safer world and all his inventions in comparison to the rest are to minimize damage and to protect not only the spies but also the villains. Now days we have characters who are mostly all in favor to not kill, because killing is wrong. It´s not a new thing, its a pretty old concept, but it is mostly seen in TV shows (at least from the movies I´ve seen, even if the hero doesn´t want to kill, the villain still ends up dead somehow). From all the movies I´ve seen, there were several that didn´t killed the villain but... I didn´t like them at all because the villain didnt even made sense (IM LOOKING AT YOU FROZEN 1 AND THE INCREDIBLES 2, FUCKING WASTE OF MONEY AND VILLAINS, SO HELP ME GO-) 

I dont know why Walter stick to me so much more than any other characters in other movies. His motivations were always for the greater good even as a kid. The biggest inspiration in his life was and is his mother, and I think because of her dead that motivation became even stronger. His whole personality and genuine care into his work to help others leaks in everything he does. It´s in your face, ALL THE TIME, but in a good way? It isnt at the point of being annoying, it´s weird how they manage to make such a nice character with certain points that are quirky without making him annoying. 

Ok, back to the story without spoiling much and going to the point, they both start working out how Sterling as a pigeon can do his spy work and Walter works on an antidote while also helping Sterling with the spy work. Question: Is it original? I dont know. Does it matter? No. 

Look, the concept of a character turning into something is not really original and as spy movies we all KNOW in all 9 levels of Mictlan that Spy theme movies are not original at all. Spy Kids? That was slightly more original than any other spy movie I ever seen AND I LOVED IT. The important manner here is and will always be the characters which... Well... Will Smith acted as Will Smith, or well.. I watch in spanish... wait... 

Ok, I already knew Mario Filio was the official Will Smith voice Actor... 

HOLY SHIT, EMILIO TREVIÑO IS MILES MORALES TOO?!?!? 

Where was I...? Ah, yeah. 

As a plot, it had pretty much a lot of dark themes and several heavy spots. For example: The talk between Will- I MEAN Sterling and Walter in the boat, where they talk about how to fight the villain we saw a bit more of them. We already knew the motivation for Walter, but Sterling? The cocky cock has feelings? WHO WOULD´VE KNOWN! He really doesnt want people to get killed and it gets to him, because that form limits him a lot. Walter is so stress too, they both want the best for the people and they argue but in a manner that makes it a bit heavy. Walter is still young and too dreamy, Sterling has worked in the battle field, he tells Walter  you have to fight fire with fire and doing it Walter´s way is not gonna work because bad people doesnt care about the good people. Walter replies that there are no good or bad, only people. (UM... I HAVE A BIT OF A PROBLEM WITH THAT?? But I will discuss it later.) 

There some scenes i did not expect to get emotional and it quickly returns to comedy but not as awkwardly as I would thought. It´s a fun movie, if it wants too it gets a tad heavy and if it wants to it becomes extremely dumb. It´s a weird blend, the concept is super dumb but the plot and the characters teaches you certain things like: People still get hurt even if you acted with the best intentions. Sometimes to solve a problem you need to think in another way. Kindness is a powerful weapon. And most importantly: Weird is good. 

Conclusion: 

So... It was a really fun movie. Weirdly wholesome, weirdly good! Pretty good actually, it didn´t get me much as other movies but it did stick to me. It has good animation, the characters are enjoyable and charismatic, the super good boi is Walter MY GOD, HE DESERVES THAT JOB HE GOT. Sterling is a good pal once he sees the value in Walter. That part with the egg was strange but Walter made it have sense and they both rolled with it and it was pretty cool.

Now, the messages are good. I understand people are people and such. You shouldnt kill because its wrong. I mean, the villain DID kind of had second thoughts after Walter saved him from falling after turning the droid off, which was SO COOL TO HAVE KILLIAN LOOK LIKE THAT. He didn´t had to say shit, just that look of ¨Huh... That kid did save me even after I tried to kill him...¨ Yes, give me more shown not tell. THIS MOVIE HAD A LOT OF SHOW NO TELL, THANK YOU. 

Still, bad people not always want to change. Some bad people stay bad, and sometimes we will have to fight back. We had movies like The Incredibles 2 or Steven Universe: The Movie shown what should we do and what happens to the villains. They had a backstory, they had their motives, as heartbreaking their backstories were what they did was wrong and at least one of them in those examples were punished for their wrongdoing. Steven in the movie fought back instead of getting himself hurt. 

In this movie, the villain was kind of kept a mystery, his backstory wasn´t a flashback or anything, it was told by the character but I think that was a good thing because the pain in his eyes and the anger he felt leaked from his explanation to Sterling. Even when he was explicitly a bad guy from the beginning, before even the movie started, we can see that those bad guys, in fact, are people too, and as the good people they can get hurt too because they have families, friends, pets, interests, hobbies and more. Walter does have a point, they are just people so we shouldn´t kill them. I guess the problem I have with the saying ¨There´s no good or bad, just people¨ is that the people who do bad things, people like Killian, they hurt and murder so many people and I am not fine with those kind of people. I say Eye for an eye, but then again ¨Eye for an Eye and everyone gets blind¨. 

I dont know why or how they manage to get somehow complex in movie where a person LITERALLY TURNS INTO A FEMALE PIGEON. Oh, yeah, by the way. Sterling becomes a female pigeon because Walter uses a feather of his female pet pigeon. 

I had low expectations and came out impressed and howling with laughter even after getting home. I do recommend this movie for his whole ridiculousness and for his weird but wholesome character development, bonding, different characters and final message. 

Weird is good and we need weird to make the world a better, safer place. 

-Sincerely weird, T.O.D 

[actualbird]

yo you totally made me think about low empathy michael and it like totally makes sense and i think about it a lot when i listen to two player game bc ye like he OBVIOUSLY cares a lot about jeremy and he loves him and like jeremy's stating his problem and michael keeps saying the same solution cause like "that's the answer bro, don't be down" bc he cant wrap his head around the emotions and connect w them that well so in his mind he's just saying this completely fool proof solution i love this hc

yo i got this ask while balls deep in three books of discourse analysis i could only understand by like 10% but because of that was in the mood to just. keep thinking my brain in circles.

so heres a stupidly long answer cataloging canon instances of michael being low empathy af/exhibiting other traits related to this. along with like, characterization to extrapolate from that (at least by my own personal interpretation. obligatory disclaimer that how i see characters is not law, this is just My Take). 

but before that, im gonna define some terms outright so we’re all on the same page. empathy is a person’s capability to understand and feel what others are feeling. basically how well you can put yourself in somebody else’s shoes. this shouldnt be confused with sympathy, which is feeling compassion, pity, sorrow etc. for another. empathy is recognition/replication while sympathy is more on the caring about it. here i focus on empathy and the lack of it. 

im not an expert on Anything but speaking from experience as somebody who has very low empathy, this causes some complications. when you dont feel what others are feeling, sometimes you dont notice other people’s feelings at all. this results in stuff like bluntness, trouble reading social cues, insensitivity, etc. all things that 1) may happen unintentionally, 2) can be worked through via healthy communication, 3) are not inherently bad, just a result of how one reacts to external emotions and 4) things i totally think michael exhibits because hes a low empathy goblin i love with my whole heart. 

let’s get right into it. in more than survive, right after jeremy and michael discover their boyf riend backpacks, this exchange occurs

this seems pretty normal at first glance but it is the first instance of what seems to be michael’s go-to pattern for when he notices his best friend is feeling down, which, at least, kudos to michael, he very obviously noticed jeremy’s feelings. hurrah! so his process for how to fix this goes a little like “step 1: notice jeremy is upset. step 2: cheer jeremy up! step 3: unknowingly kinda mess up step 2“

jeremy is upset about the backpacks but then jeremy provides an out with something supposedly positive. michael latches on to it. it turns out to be negative. michael tries to salvage the situation by cheering jeremy up! by giving him a cool science fact! hell yeah! except it’s a shaky save at best because he does call the both of them losers but in an “it’s okay :D” way. 

all in all this is nothing really, just some friendly fast paced banter between best friends. whats important here is the 3 step pattern aforementioned because it 1) shows that michael Cares about his best friend and tries to make things better and 2) is BASICALLY the entirety of two player game

TWO PLAYER GAME is such a BOP and, at its core, is a song about how michael has got jeremy’s back and vice versa. but tpg is also textbook the 3 step pattern with added sprinkle of unintended invalidation. ive briefly spoken about tpg before so this might look a lil familiar but at its gist:

like you said anon, in tpg jeremy tells michael a problem he has, and throughout the course of the song, he continually makes it known that hes upset and has a lot of issues. step 1 has been achieved: michael knows jeremy is not doing too hot. time to do step 2: cheer him up!! and what better way to do that than to think positive with his trademark line “guys like us are cool in college” like, over and over again. because….it makes sense for michael. things might suck now, but just keep swimming yeah? it’ll be better later.

but it’s not better now and thats what jeremy actually needed validation on. michael thinks the solution is to look to the future but jeremy has his problems bothering him in the present. for all that michael says this is a two player game, he’s unintentionally dismissive because he doesnt understand that this isnt something that can be fixed with a simple “look forward to two years from now” mentality. neither of them are in the wrong, really. theyre just not on the same page.

onwards we go to something else entirely. the chili fries

this is a RIDICULOUSLY SMALL MOMENT but it stuck out to me because imo it is pretty obvious that jeremy says “leave me alone” because hes bummed and is being dramatic, but michael takes it literally and uses the opportunity to skedaddle and get his sweet sweet discontinued soda. im aware michael had to be gone for plot reasons and also the discontinued soda is foreshadowing for the mtn dew red, but taken at face value, this is something that happens a lot w/ low empathy: things are taken literally. 

jeremy is upset. jeremy said to give him some space. thats cool, i’ll go for a bit and come back with something neat that might cheer him up—hey, where’d he go?

and now let’s jump to something everybody and their dog knows about. michael in the bathroom. except not really. because mitb isnt what interests me so much as what happens before.

pre mitb is very, very interesting. before i say anything i’ll be clear in saying that literally nobody had even remotely a nice halloween night, it’s a disaster for everybody involved, but keep in mind that jeremy goes into the pre mitb scene immediately after the clusterfuck that is do you wanna hang and also getting chased down by a sloshed but aggressive jake. many people have said this before me but i’ll say it again: jeremy was not doing well. at all. 

and this is where michael fails step 1 of his pattern. he doesnt pick up on this at all. michael is kinda stuck in his own head right now. hes pissed. hes confused. hes betrayed. he cant understand other people’s feelings and now he has to deal with his own too. his head is a melting pot of AGH and he takes it out on jeremy. yeah, he tries to help jeremy, but he doesnt do it very well. it’s all very accusatory, and jeremy just had a terrible night, so jeremy lashes out.

teenagers are bad at emotions but theyre not bad people for it.  //cue mitb notes, we know the drill

to the play!!! 

recap for maximum contextualization: jeremy realizes the squip is bad fucking news and wants it gone. michael makes an entrance with the one thing that can kill it. and then this happens

AIGHT okay so the whole “i need an apology” scene is obviously played for comedy, and it does a good job at suddenly diffusing the end of the world stakes with some more down to earth teen friend drama but that aside, this scene is a good candidate to be listed under the definition of the phrase “bad timing” because michael, holy shit. BAD TIMING. like great timing for humor but bad timing as a human being. 

here we have jeremy clearly in possessed distress and michael has the antidote but he only wants to give it on a condition. it is absolutely a dick move. yeah, michael is is valid for wanting an apology, but not at this moment with the current stakes. this is michael thinking pretty selfishly. hes stuck in his own head and his own thoughts. he cares about jeremy and wants to help but…this apology important to him. it’s easy to get stuck on things like this when you cant empathize with others. the low empathy means that the only feelings you really get to really interact with are your own, so theres a tendency to focus on them. sometimes even at inopportune moments.

unintentional asshole-ery behold. in fact, this can be pushed even harder by this snippet in the score of be more chill that had some lines from an earlier draft. 

the fetus version of michael makes an entrance is hilariously low empathy, oh my god. this happens while jeremy is rolling around on the floor fighting an invisible-to-everybody-else squip and this is the first thing michael says. it’s positively dickish. 

SO with that done, a little bit can be extrapolated in terms of characterization. i think michael is low empathy so the dominos fall. michael is terrible at feelings. hes got a tendency to get stuck in his own head and not see what others are going through. his emotional periphery is abysmal, hes like a horse with those things that stop horses from looking to the side. in spite of all this, he still has a lot of love and good in his heart and he tries his best to show that in the ways that make sense to him. post-canon, the rift between his brain and jeremy’s brain can only be bridged by a big healthy heap of communication where michael learns that what makes sense to him isnt always what makes sense to other people. hes a good kid. he can do it. 

of course this is, again, all my take. the fun thing about transformative work and fandom is that all interpretations are valid and there will always be somebody out there who agrees. or disagrees. but on this blog, this is my michael. or at least one aspect of my michael. //shrug

ANYWAY im glad you like the hc anon!! ive obviously got a lot of feelings about it since i used your ask as an excuse to aimlessly ramble for, holy shit, 1.6 k words lmao. i hope you have a good day!!!

[zenyattasperceptrons]

yknow we laugh a lot (perhaps a little painfully) about how news shows on comedy central (and HBO) are better researched than a lot of mainstream news sources, but I actually think that being on a network like that and having a “comedy” show allows for better, more in-depth reporting?

because let’s be real, every show is vying for views in some way. if no one’s watching it, there’s no point in staying on air. and I know you want to say, well, there’s got to be some people who still want to actually be informed about what’s going on! but honestly, there are much better places than news on television to simply be informed about things. I much prefer reading articles, because I can choose how much time I spend on each subject. With the advent of the Internet, it’s become much easier to stay informed on your own time. (Or misinformed, but I don’t think we can say television always protects people from that)

so, a lot of mainstream news channels try and get those views by being shocking, or through cheap click-bait like tricks meant to get views but not actually be entertaining or even informing. (tax returns...). Either way, the news suffers a lot in this reality that people need some reason to sit down and watch an hour long report, and if it’s not entertaining in some way, it better be something they’re really interested in already.

but comedy shows can get around this. they write the entertainment right into the show--you might not have any idea what they’re going to talk about before you turn it on, whether it’s interesting or not, but you tune in because you assume you’re going to have a good time. and since they already have that right out of the gate, they don’t have to compromise on the stories in order to get people to watch. Sure, there’s a delicate balance to these kinds of things, and sometimes it does get out of hand and stray into more ridiculous humor that’s not very focused on what’s going on (or making fun of touchier parts of the story), but overall it’s a really effective medium imho?

and besides just trying to get views, I think it can be really...dissociative, in a way, to hear news anchors report every story in the same, informative tone. I understand the use of it, but listening to terrible stories getting told to you by someone who is having little to no reaction is a very strange thing, and might not invoke the kinds of emotions in you that a terrible story probably should. Having a show that isn’t constrained by those kinds of rules about tone and bias (I much prefer shows that state their bias upfront rather than pretending they don’t have one) allows the presenter to be a lot more relatable, and help you connect to sometimes abstract events in an emotional way that’s more healthy for everyone.

and let’s be real, a lot of us deal with terrible news by making jokes about it, so (as long as the joke doesn’t target anyone it shouldnt), humor is a way to connect everyone to a situation, and help people not get bogged down and burnt out by a bad stream of events when they still need to be caring about them and maybe taking action. and shit, every so often, a piece of news really genuinely just deserves someone slamming their notes on the table and going OKAY, WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON!!!!!! and it’s really fucking great to watch someone have that reaction when you’re thinking the same thing yourself

so idk. I think that’s about all I have to say on the subject. TL;DR/in conclusion, as long as it’s done respectfully, comedy TV shows might actually be one of the best mediums to deliver meatier news stories?