#it's very clever that they start the episode off with the call to attention but with curt centered in the shot

[meyerlansky]

#hboww2rewatch timestamp roulette: MASTERS OF THE AIR, PART THREE ↳ what the hell is a "reserve command pilot"?

[oneatlatime]

The Tales of Ba Sing Se PART 2

The Tale of Zuko

Maybe I should make a Zuko's Stupid Faces post.

Zuko and Iroh's whole dynamic in one frame.

This girl is cute. Total girl next door type. She does have fairly horrible taste in men, but she's also very cute.

I just want to take a minute to point out a VERY important distinction. Zuko is not going out on a date. Zuko is not taking a girl out on a date. A girl is taking Zuko out on a date. She's got that arm in a death grip. Not only is that a clever reversal of the usual hetero dynamic, but I'm convinced it's the only way Zuko would ever get any action, so it's also in character.

I know Zuko's social skills are non-existent, but apart from the blow up at the waiter he is actually trying. He's failing, but I have to give him points for trying.

The way this girl's voice actress says "You juggled" made my ears very happy. And the beleaguered "yes. I juggled." is equally good.

Zuko! Tell her you did sword stuff! That's something you can actually do!

It gives me hope that someone so steeped in the most toxic parts of the Fire Nation, for so long, can STILL be so bad at lying, but it would certainly be a handy skill right about now.

I take it back. This girl does have good taste in men. Zuko's such a softie when it counts. He still sucks at being normal, but he just risked his identity because the girl he didn't even plan to go out with was a little bit sad.

This girl is the best.

Ha! He kissed her back! He Did! I saw that!

I take back what I took back. Zuko's evil again. He made my new favourite girl droop.

I love that Iroh's waiting up for him while making it look like he isn't waiting up for him. How many times on their ship, when Zuko was out Blue Spiriting, do you think Iroh found a reason to be randomly sat on the deck at 3 am?

Character development baby! Can you really call yourself loyal to the fire nation if you admit to having a good time on a date with an Earth Kingdom girl?

The Tale of Momo

Pretty.

That was a FILTHY bait and switch. For one shining moment, I had Appa back.

They should take that to June.

Not Appa.

Also not Appa.

I did not have 'Momo gets gaslit' on my Avatar Bingo card. Nor did I have 'interspecies animal friendship angst.'

Are these cat things the raccoons of the Avatar universe? Or the squirrels? Urban scroungers?

I love the idea that this guy just grabs the closest squirrel, sticks a hat on it, and expects it to dance. He got lucky with Momo.

I thought they were taking the animals to the pound, but this is very much a butcher. Which means that in Ba Sing Se, they eat varmint. Stay away from the hot dog carts.

That's very effective Simglish.

Thank god for thumbs.

Aw they're friends! This has Aristocats vibes, when O'Malley and the girl cat are getting together near the end.

And one final Fuck You, because god forbid Momo's tale ends on a happy note.

I'm guessing that's an Appa print, but couldn't it also be a platypus bear?

Something about the cats standing vigil over Momo's grief gets to me.

Final thoughts

I'll go through each of these stories individually, but first some general comments.

Last episode was kind of intense, and definitely ended on a downer (not that this one didn't), so it was a good call to at least start this episode off on something a bit gentler.

I was really impressed with the soundtrack throughout. Apart from the Tale of Momo where it's the animal noises that are front and centre, the music is doing a lot of work in every story, the strings especially. The strings are doing emotional work, plot stuff, and even humour. Seriously, next time you rewatch this episode, pay attention to the strings. These shorts are actually very light on dialogue (apart from Sokka's), but they don't feel that way because the music is doing the talking.

I'm assuming that this all took place over three days at least, since Iroh, Zuko, and Momo's tales seem to end on different evenings. So I don't think calling this episode 'day in the life' is accurate. My bad. It also occurs to me that this kind of episode format would be a great way of showing time has passed. If they had had an episode like this in the Northern Water Tribe - after Katara beat the crap out of Poophead but before the Fire Nation attacked - I would have liked the pacing of the whole finale arc better.

On to the stories!

The Tale of Toph and Katara

It might be because I didn't understand what this episode was doing yet, but this one didn't do much for me. It was good to see Toph have a moment of self-doubt, but I never would have assumed, based on her previous behaviour, that her appearance was her proverbial weak spot. Katara did a really good job at building her back up, and she was delightfully (and appropriately) understated for once. When she's reassuring Aang of something (especially in Season 1) Katara tends to got from 0 to 60 very quickly, so it was nice to see her be reassuring in a quiet, non-steamrolling way. Is this Katara character development? Apart from the fact that Toph quite literally got her eyeballs sanded, nothing much in this episode stuck out to me. Except those bitchy voices. Those were like knives in my brain.

The Tale of Iroh

So many questions! Is Lu Ten buried in Ba Sing Se? How is that grave not defaced yet? How did Iroh get a copy of his son's picture? They lost everything at the North Pole, right? Did he ask the people who got him their passports for a picture of his son too? Does Zuko know/remember that it's his cousin's birthday? If so, why isn't he there offering Iroh the world's most awkward hug? Given the fact that Iroh spent the whole day helping people, including a very misguided youth, and given that Iroh says something along the lines of "if only I could have helped you [his son]" does this imply that Lu Ten was going through a crisis at the time of his death? Was he misguided like the wannabe mugger? Is Zuko not the first Fire Nation Prince that Iroh has had to guide through an identity/existential crisis? Is Zuko going to be the first time Iroh succeeds at guiding a Fire Nation prince through an identity/existential crisis? Does Iroh live in perpetual fear of failing Zuko the way he seems to believe he failed his son? Am I reading too much into this?

To be quite honest, this story would have hit me harder if I had remembered going into it that Iroh had a son. Lu Ten takes being a textual ghost to a whole new level. Also the 'In honor of Mako' text confused me. And worried me a little.

The Tale of Aang

I liked this one! Aang can't help Appa at the moment, but he can help all the Appa stand ins who aren't fortunate enough to have an Aang to help them. Aang is a nice little boy! Of course he'd free a bunch of animals without thinking about the consequences and the epic pile of platypus bear dung he's just landed the zookeeper in with the Dai Li. I liked the animal designs. I liked the earthbending. I liked the Siamese cat representation. I loved cabbage man. I think that, if Appa could have known, he would have approved. I also think that I'm once again reading too much into this. it was nominally a fun fluff piece elaborating on a established emotional conflict (Appa missing), which gave it just enough weight to be slightly more than a fluff piece.

The Tale of Sokka

I am entirely serious when I say that 'poetry bouncer' is my favourite joke so far in the WHOLE show. I love absurdity played entirely earnestly. It's fridge funny too. The longer I contemplate the implications, the funnier it gets. What past event required a poetry bouncer be introduced? He's not there to protect the students or the teacher; he's here to reinforce the structure of the Haiku by force. Was he hired by the concept of Haiku? Is Haiku taken so seriously in Ba Sing Se that he's needed to break up cat fights between students? There is a rich well of haiku-related hijinks just hinted at by his presence, and I want to know more.

Sokka is so often his own worst enemy that it makes sense that he's taken out by his own hubris. That fortune teller lady was absolutely a crook, but she did one hell of an accurate cold read on Sokka.

The Tale of Zuko

Credits tell me that the girl's name is Jin. I would like to congratulate the creators of Avatar for managing to illustrate romantic interest so palpably without resorting to heart eyes and steam whistle noises. Nothing wrong with those; I'm just impressed by how much of Jin's interest in Zuko you can feel. Also, she'd better be more than a single episode character, because I need more of this sweetheart. She's a real contender for displacing Toph as my favourite girl in the cast.

To be fair to Zuko, he did make Jin droop (UNFORGIVABLE), but it was also the right call. He can't date her honestly. It IS complicated. And I don't think any Earth Kingdom girl (worth dating) would knowingly go out with Fire Nation royalty. Jin wanted Lee the Tea Boy. Try as he might, Zuko can't stop being Zuko. I would argue that he shouldn't stop being Zuko. His flashback mom told him not to forget who he was, so I'd also argue that the narrative doesn't want Zuko to stop being Zuko either. I guess it's a case of right girl, wrong time. It looks like she's cool with him being a firebender, but firebending and being the Fire Lord's son are not the same magnitude of hurdle to dating. Maybe when the war's over they can hook up again.

The Tale of Momo

I think this qualifies as cruelty to the audience. I got the impression that this story was crafted borderline maliciously, to make the viewers suffer angst dump after angst dump.

I liked seeing things from Momo's perspective. I loved the animal noises, which really got across a shocking amount of emotion. Those, combined with body language, were as effective as any spoken script. These cartoon people really know how to use their medium.

It absolutely kills me that Momo is missing Appa, and since he doesn't understand human speech, he can't even be comforted by knowing that his humans are actively looking for him. If you've ever seen one of your pets missing another of your pets in real life, you know there's nothing worse than the helplessness that comes with not being able to explain or magically summon their friend back from the kennel, or the vet, or the dead. All you can do is give them hugs. I'm glad that Momo got a street cat support group at the end of the episode, but the animal grief at the beginning was hard to get through. It's sweet to have confirmation that Momo sees Appa as family, but surely they could have showed that to us in a way that doesn't make me need to hug the stuffing out of my own pets?

Final Final Thoughts for real this time

This episode wrings you out a little. Fully a third of the stories are about Appa, despite him not being there. At least half are about missing someone who isn't there. At least half are bittersweet.

I liked this episode format. I hope they use it again next season. Only Toph and Katara's tale felt too short to me. The rest did such a good job at drawing me in, that when I went back to check timestamps I was surprised by how short these stories are.

I'm going to go eat too much chocolate.

[raine-kai]

Luffy and the Limitations of Reality

Today I finally got the time to watch the Gear 5th fight episodes, and I had some thoughts. (Well. It's less that I had time, and more that I was paying no attention to anything else because my brain was full of One Piece so I decided to embrace it.)

First off, SEVEN EPISODES??? Wow they really milked it 😂 I don't remember how many chapters it was but seven would be almost a whole volume and I don't think it was that. (Yes, I know, old news that the anime will milk these things for all they're worth, but still.)

Secondly and most of all, though, I want to talk about what Gear 5th, and Luffy's use of it, tells us about him.

Luffy is excellent at working out clever ways to fight opponents, even when it seems impossible, and training himself up to impossible lengths, using everything he has at his disposal.

But Gear 5th is a little bit different in that it's literally world-bending. The fact that he could use it more or less instantly could be the fruit communicating to him via their compatibility...or it could be that Luffy is always pushing the boundaries of reality in his mind.

While it could easily be a bit of both, Luffy's comment that he can do everything he wanted suggests to me that it's more of the latter.

This means, to me, that Luffy has always felt a little bit caged inside his own head, trapped by the boundaries of reality and physics. That Gear 5th to him is breaking free of these trivial cages that have always limited him, and allowed him to have the time of his life.

There's something that resonates with me about that, feeling trapped in your mind and discovering an outlet through imagination and joy that cut through and reshape a dark, serious world.

One Piece is full of metaphors and references and I'm sure we've barely scratched the surface of what Sun God Nika means, and who Joy Boy was.

But I feel there is something momentous about having Luffy be so good at using his Nika powers, with very little learning curve. Something that suggests an enormity about how he fights all systems that limit him all the time, including physics and reality itself.

He's always done silly things in battle—the first examples that come to mind are the time he tried to eat Crocodile and water Luffy and gomu gomu no boh—and Gear 5th harkens back to those with Kaido demanding that Luffy take the fight seriously. But things like grabbing lightning or peeling up the ground? Luffy has these extremely wacky ideas and as soon as he sees that he can make the ground change form to suit him, he immediately starts playing with that.

One Piece has always had a huge theme of freedom, and I like that it takes this theme to extremes—freedom even from things like physics which will forever constrain us.

It's redefined the shonen genre, and continues to do so by defying and subverting genre conventions again and again.

I've been a One Piece fan for over twenty years, and most of the long-running stories that I was a fan of twenty years ago have waned in my esteem; yet here is One Piece, still waxing, still growing in its scope and impact. The queer representation that used to be considered questionable has become something largely seen as very positive—not through retconning, but through expanding the in-world representation of non-cis characters. (I still live in dread that one day this will be taken away, but until then....) The story has had its ups and downs, but it always introduces something new to drag me back in.

Today, it's the notion that true freedom means even freedom from physics and the limitations of the material world, and that could so easily be silly...and it IS silly, but in a way that continues to make me invested in the story, and love Luffy ever more.

Kaido keeps telling Luffy to be serious, calling him a child...but he loses. All this time, he's been waiting for Joy Boy, but when he meets him, he ridicules him.

There's something in here too about the power of childish fun, embracing your brain's weirdness, and not minding when people call you names.

But when I put it like that...hasn't that always been ONE PIECE in a nutshell?

[allykatsart]

pls i’m so feral about your deer boi oc tell me more i wanna know how the whole everyone notices he’s terrified of alastor thing goes

Who is Peccantum?

HO BOY YOU ASKED FOR IT-

Husk, of course, is the first to notice.

He's a gambler, bartender, and is far more attentive than other sinners give him credit for. Of course he notices Peccantum is treading on eggshells everywhere, and not just for comedic effect. The young buck is genuinely terrified of Alastor.

However, Husk isn't one to act on that information. Not only is it none of his business, Husk is also kind of in the same boat as Peccantum. Honestly, the bartender thinks Peccantum's fear is warranted. He does soften over time, but what can he do, really?

Angel Dust is the first to help.

It would be post episode 4, when Angel really starts to connect with others at the hotel. Angel just kinda always assumed Peccantum was a panicky, on edge weirdo. As they get to know each other a little more, Angel realizes that's not actually the case. Peccantum is usually a sarcastic, passionate, clever guy! So the way the bellhop acts around Alastor... It reminds Angel a touch too much of his situation with Val

(Not in romance or assault, but in the 'Im going to fuck with you for my own amusement' way)

So, Angel starts doing little things. He doesn't want to piss off the strawberry pimp, so no direct confrontation, but he can still help Peccantum not get jump scared. Angel greets Alastor out loud when Alastor enters a room quietly. He lingers in rooms where Peccantum would be alone otherwise. Small things that prepare Peccantum beforehand.

In return, Peccantum makes Angel warm drinks when Angel comes back from a long day. He learns recipes that Angel likes and cooks dinner. He gives Angel a book called "A hundred and one dirty jokes for the wickedly perverted." Small things.

They don't talk about it, and it's not a foolproof strategy, but it helps.

Sir Pentious, the best friend, takes it very seriously.

Sir Pentious doesn't pick up on it like Husk and Angel do, so it takes an actual conversation with Peccantum about it for him to realize it's serious. Pentious and Peccantum are Science Buddies™️ so it doesn't take long before Pentious starts coming up with inventions that might help! Magic seeking goggles, ocular augmentations, even a scanner to help identify Alastor before he appears! They have a little fun with it.

In the end, though, Pentious keeps it simple. He and Peccantum develop a secret hand signal for if Peccantum needs someone to distract Alastor. That way Peccantum can slip away and calm himself down if he's spiraling!

They also develop a secret handshake but that's beside the point.

Charlie....

Despite what everyone thinks, Charlie isn't stupid. She's observant and empathetic, and quickly picks up that Peccantum is nervous around Alastor. She can understand that, Hell, sometimes the Radio Demon makes her nervous! She's also a fixer, so would try to resolve the issue with diplomacy and setting boundaries. Sure, Alastor probably doesn't care about Peccantum, but Alastor does listen to her!

But she doesn't have the context.

I don't think Peccantum would tell her anything, and may actively try to keep his thoughts about Alastor private from her. I also think Alastor has made it clear that if Peccantum tries to hide behind Charlie, he's in for a lot worse than just some scares. Alastor defers to Charlie out of obligation and opportunity, but he refuses to have others use her to manipulate himself. Especially not a soul he owns.

Peccantum, of course, complies. He has to convincingly lie to Charlie, which makes his stomach squirm with guilt, but it's fine. He's overreacting anyways. It's fine. It's the price he chose to pay for power.

As long as he has magic, he shouldn't care what Alastor decides to do with him.

It's fine.

(No, it's not)

[telomeke]

LAST TWILIGHT AND READING THE SUNSET – VISUALS, OPTICS AND ENDINGS IN BONDAGE TO THE BAHT

‌

Last Twilight aired its final episode on Friday 26 January 2024, and the response on BL Tumblr to how things wrapped up (at least among the majority of BL watchers whom I follow) has been a lot of head-shaking disappointment, if not exactly full-on hatred. Without the bittersweet touches we've come to expect from Director Aof as counterballast for his trademark uplifting sentimentality, the ending came across as unforgivably sappy and sugary-sweet for many of us.

And I found myself agreeing with a lot of the criticism being flung at Last Twilight – for the ardent Noppharnachionados accustomed to more nuanced, thought-provoking output from Director Aof (Moonlight Chicken comes immediately to mind) the final episode of Last Twilight (and especially the fourth instalment, Part [4/4]) felt very boxer-gloved, rushing to hit its marks but then only clobbering bluntly at the surface, never venturing deeper and lacking subtlety at every turn.

But I've been giving it a once-over, because it's a little surprising to me that Khun Noppharnach (who's such an expert at his craft) could land quite the dud that some, including me, were so uncharitably calling Last Twilight.

And I now think – as Khun Noppharnach has done so many times before – he may very well be trolling us again. Because on my rewatch, I'm finding that the narrative holds certain clues that Director Aof was possibly quite conscious of what he was doing with Ep.12 of Last Twilight. On closer inspection it's a whole lot cleverer than it seems (maybe a bit too clever for its own good) – but it does require much sign-reading though (and caveat: I'm not a trained or professional tea leaf reader!). 🤷‍♂️

Anyway, after a speed-run rewatch of the 12 episodes (just skimming the surface really, so forgive me if I overlook anything) I've decided I need to reconsider a lot of my preliminary judgement about Last Twilight's final episode (and the series in general). I now think it actually does satisfy on a number of levels (even while it continues to disappoint on so many others). But because of work and other commitments though, this post is very late (still, better late than never I guess!)

I'm not wanting to spend too much time on the text and subtext, because it's the metatextual level of Last Twilight (what this BL says about BL) that intrigues me the most. But this is going to be a super-long post anyway.

In many ways Last Twilight was a departure from Director Aof's usual work, and the most obvious was its return to the structure and content typical of a traditional romance drama. Khun Noppharnach had actually moved away from this in his output over the past few years (once again, Moonlight Chicken is the paragon of examples; Bad Buddy nodded at this, if only to subvert it and signal to us that Khun Noppharnach was attempting an overhaul of LGBTQ+ depictions in the BL industry).

Some background to start things off – BL, including Thai BL, owes a lot to het romance dramas that set the archetypal framework early on, and early BLs often followed that inherited formula very closely (I think SOTUS and Together with Me fit this bill).

Painting with the broadest of brushstrokes, a stereotypical (het) romance drama can usually be expected to structure its narrative according to the following:

The meeting of the protagonists, usually a fraught mix of attraction and friction;

They go on a journey of falling in love with each other (and we get to watch along);

A major conflict arises to test their love and commitment;

They triumph over the conflict and end up happily ever after (most of the time) or are overcome by it (and the love story ends tragically, some of the time).

As a lot of romance stories are targeted at women, typically the female protagonist in a het romance drama is the center of attention, and the story is told from her point of view as well.

And because of their het predecessors, early BLs also tended to depict their couples with a masculine/feminine framing (which could also be spun out into a dominant/submissive and/or active/passive dynamic – the dreaded seme/uke binary).

Director Aof took a wrecking ball to all that with Bad Buddy (upending the structure, subverting the conflict, dispensing with seme/uke), and his works have since veered toward more-rounded LGBTQ+ drama, centered around romance, but forgoing the stereotypical structure and beats of more traditional romance dramas.

But if you think about it, Last Twilight actually hews quite closely back to the original template.

For example, Mhok is a big, scruffy ex-convict and mechanic, stereotypically masculine – the proverbial seme – while Day is slighter, younger and a Mama's boy (despite what Night says at Ep.10 [2/4] 16.24) leaning into uke territory.

The structure was pretty traditional as well:

The early entanglements of Mhok and Day were a mix of antagonism and attraction;

They went on a journey of falling in love with each other despite their differences, that we were allowed to witness – we had "masculine" Mhok losing his heart to "feminine" Day first, with the seme then pursuing his grumpy uke (a tsundere?) and subjecting us to plenty of swoonworthy Aaaaw moments as Mhok piled on much tenderness, care and affection;

The major conflict that tested their love and commitment was actually Day's questioning of Mhok's motivations, leading to their rupture in the clichéd Episode 11 of Doom;

They triumphed over the conflict after Mhok returned and demonstrated that he'd grown and learnt his lessons in meeting Day's less visible needs – not very convincingly though (and I think this is one part where a lot of us feel extremely let down by the narrative) – but it was enough to sweep Day off his feet once again, and they got their happily ever after.

There was some padding in the middle (including the obligatory out-of-town tourism jaunt – I'm convinced BLs that do this receive grants from the Tourism Authority, and in Last Twilight we were treated to a sojourn in Songkhla). The show really had to work stretching things out over 11 episodes (which was why, for me, the pacing started to drag in the second half). But overall I think the structure of Last Twilight marks a faithful return to BLs (and het romances) of older times.

With regard to characterization, Day rendered progressively hapless and helpless as his vision declined made him easy to read as a damsel-in-distress, the object of savior-knight Mhok's affections and ministrations. It's thus also unsurprising when we were shown more of Day's point of view than Mhok's (just as we usually get to see more of a heroine's interior journey in traditional het romance dramas than her romantic foil's). Last Twilight was nodding at the past once more, asking us again to view it through the lens of an old-school (BL) romance drama.

A lot of romance dramas also tend to be intellectually lightweight – some are pure sentimental, throwaway indulgence – and if we place Last Twilight somewhere on the less demanding end of the spectrum, it's a more than serviceable example of the genre and has in fact more heft than most. (I was expecting it to land more in queer drama territory as has most of Khun Noppharnach's work, and the fact that it only half did contributed a lot to my sense of disappointment at the end.)

But as a lighter piece of trad BL fluff, Last Twilight did punch above its weight class very often. And all of the discourse around vision and Day's increasing blindness was the early tip-off to one of its weightier, central themes – that of seeing and being seen in the light of one's truth.

As his vision faded, Day found himself subject to his greatest fear – of being seen as less than his truth, especially when by all accounts he had been a storied and admired athlete prior to his visual debilitation. Day was still the same person despite his loss of vision, and he was painfully reminded of this fact every time those around him forgot it. Last Twilight deftly showed us that his early snark and cynicism were a brittle defense against being seen as nothing more than an object of pity, the ghost of his former self (which is what Mee/Me in the novel Last Twilight was also about).

There are many examples of this, e.g., when he avoided his friends after blindness set in, and his meltdown at the party they threw him after a rapprochement (Ep.6 [3‌/4] 20.12, when it became clear they viewed him as a weakling in need of rescue at the first sign of trouble, inferior to his previous incarnation as an athletic champion). The story arc with August's feigned romantic interest was also another of Day's nightmares coming true, being exactly the sort of innocently insulting and unconsciously condescending treatment he was trying to avoid.

And of course this was the reason behind his break-up with Mhok in Episode 11, when he sensed that Mhok's care and concern were in part tied to a notion of Day as being less than whatever the nebulous concept of "normal" was in his head. (For context, Mhon and Day have an exchange about the meaning of a "normal" life for Day at Ep.10 [2/4] 7.35), Mhok talks about Day wanting to be "normal" at Ep.11 [1‌/4] 10.22, and Mhon reminds Day of his wish to be "normal" at Ep.12 [3‌/4] 16.29). Despite – or maybe because of – how objectionable the word may be, I think Last Twilight is inviting us to question our ideas about it too.)

So a large part of Day's story arc involved him overcoming his own hang-ups and dealing with how he was seen by the world around him, to stand in the light of his own truth (as a proud member of the differently abled community).

Mhok's character also had a parallel journey. Excluding those who knew him well, society refused to see beyond his rough-hewn persona (and his prison background too, it must be said). His options in life were thus limited by how he was always seen as an outsider, and subjected to othering because his presence was invariably associated with negativity, risk and harm.

But as Mhok demonstrated time and again, his truth (that for the longest time only Porjai and maybe Rung could seem to see) was far less violent and menacing than what was read by the people around him. And his character's journey toward self-actualization in Last Twilight was to arrive at a life truer to his inner self, noting that what we see at the beginning of the series is Mhok trying valiantly to live up to his ruffian image, prone to fights and aggression. With this, it's possible to read that Mhok himself was unable to comprehend fully his own inner impulses, and it was only his time as caregiver and later faen in Day's life that opened his eyes to living out his more nurturing, other-focused energy within (and that must have served him well too, in his later career as a chef crafting dishes for others to enjoy).

In contrast to Day, whose struggle was also about being seen for his truth while cast (by others) in a negative light, Mhok chose to align himself with whatever role the world put him in (whether it was a rabble-rouser mechanic, a straight boyfriend to Porjai, or a guardian to the infantilized Day) whereas Day chose to reject any outsider-determined identity outright. And Mhok failed at his roles mostly because they were inauthentic to his truth, except for his time as Day's caregiver. For the first time there Mhok's failure was different, not because the caregiving recognized his own truth (coming from kindness and softness within) but because it did not recognize Day's truth (as his approach to taking care of Day still perpetuated the invalidation of Day's wholeness as a person).

Mhok and Day's names are also a quiet hat tip to this – with Mhok's name (หมอก, that means fog or mist) also a metaphor for how visibility of the truth behind his amorphous self was obscured for the longest time, while Day's name (actually the English word day, with all its connotations of light and clarity) is a metaphor for how he was clear about his own truth and identity from the start, but needed to be seen correctly, undistorted by any filter of shame or pity.

However, GMMTV's commercial insistence on pair branding worked somewhat against the characterizations – my read is that Day was probably written as much more fragile in appearance (belying the tough athlete that he really was beyond surface impressions, and explaining the tendency of his friends, family and caregivers to want to infantilize him post-blindness). As an aside, badminton is one of those sports that forgives a certain delicacy of frame, as it rewards lightness and agility more than brute strength on the court. Meanwhile Mhok was (I think) written as this big beast of a man whose appearance would scare off all but the most foolhardy, meaning that his innate kindness and sensitivity would remain unseen by most.

Unfortunately Sea is built pretty sturdily as an actual badminton athlete (and he's tall as well) while dermatologist Jimmy is just too porcelain-skinned and delicate-featured pull off any convincing evocation of physical brutishness. Pity, because the pair do have chemistry and their acting was mostly credible in Last Twilight (especially from Sea, who brings an easy and natural charm to his portrayals).

Anyway, I can suss out two visual metaphors in the series that illustrate the ideas described above. But as the analysis of these metaphors is also long, I've moved it all away into its own post linked here: The Fishtank and the Flowers. I found both metaphors to be fascinating (the goldfish aquarium, as well as the pairing of the jasmine with the sunflower), but it was the blooms especially that took me by surprise (when it became clearer which was assigned to Mhok and which to Day). 🤩

So while we're on the characters though, here's an aside about the criticism of how Mhok was treated by the narrative and the outrage surrounding his apology at Ep.12 [2/4] 10.55. Yes, he had been a selfless caregiver and a caring lover, but there were also numerous examples of him treating Day as less than an adult with his own agency, doing to Day what August, Mhon and the replacement caregiver (Assistant Director Meng Chaiyapat's extended cameo, at Ep.10 [2/4] 0.27) had done, by controlling the playbook and removing Day's choice and say in matters directly related to his own life. Some examples of where Mhok fell short:

Pretending not to find the copy of Last Twilight in the Chatuchak secondhand bookstore, gaslighting Day into believing it was his own discovery (Ep.3 [3‌/4] 9.41) – you might lie to a kid about Santa Claus (and I'm divided about that), but nevertheless Day was not a kid and should not have been treated like one.

Lying about Night's involvement in their plan to see Mount Veha (Ep.8 [1‌/4] 17.34) – more gaslighting.

Going back on his word and telling Mhon and Night about Day winning the dancing garland (Ep.11 [4/4] 7.35) – this was just plain disrespectful, especially after Day had shared his mixed feelings about the "win" (Ep.11 [4/4] 1.45).

Taking advantage of Day's blindness to prank him (Ep.11 [3‌/4] 7.32 and Ep.11 [4/4] 3.38) – unless Day liked surprises (of which I see no sign) laughs derived from exploiting someone's vulnerabilities are never to be lauded (please don't jumpscare the blind, people).

And the ultimate – lying about the job offer in Hawaii, which was the last straw for Day (Ep.11 [4/4] 10.51).

All the above might have come from a place of love, motivated out of the goodness of Mhok's heart – but even if they were meant to uplift or support Day, his actions were all disrespectful (even damaging) to Day's own agency and personal situation as someone struggling with visual disability.

In this light (pun intended) I had to re-think my judgement of Mhok's apology to Day in Ep.12, because he did need to learn to care for Day on terms acceptable to Day as well, and not have expected him to give that up just because he needed care.

Now because it's Khun Noppharnach, it will always be possible to give a queer reading to his work. So Day's dread at being seen as less than what society perceives as "normal", and Mhok's struggle with his status as the feared and misunderstood "other", can both be read as stand-ins for (some parts of) the LGBTQ+ experience, where full acceptance of the queer minority has yet to become the norm for most, if not all, societies. But I guess that should be obvious to all by now.

Anyway, there's a whole lot more burbling within Last Twilight that can be explored at length, but as I've gone on too long already I'm simply going to mention them here and then skip on:

The novel Last Twilight that features so prominently everywhere within the series (that not-so-coincidentally shares its name) is rich with significance as a parallel to (and comment on) Mhok and Day's own story, especially with Mee/Me's struggle to be seen in a world often blind to her presence.

Day becoming increasingly unseen as the neverending night of blindness became his defining identity is mirrored by Mee/Me needing to step away from darkness in order to be seen by the world around her (and her light-chasing is also a parallel for the sun-seeking of the sunflower, Day's totemic bloom, and in that way another metaphor for Day's reliance on external validation – see this write-up linked here for more elaboration on that aspect of Day's personality).

Day's blindness was not at all the first time Khun Noppharnach has used a form of health-related affliction as a metaphor for the queer condition, highlighting the parallels of the LGBTQ+ experience with the social model of disability. Other examples of this in his work include Heart's deafness in Moonlight Chicken, Tian's and Med's heart conditions in A Tale of Thousand Stars and He's Coming to Me respectively (the latter maybe less so though) and Pran's obsessive-compulsive disorder in Bad Buddy.

Also in He's Coming to Me, Med's predicament as a ghost subject to all sorts of constraints in the world of the living, as well as his invisibility to those insensitive to his situation, was a parallel with Last Twilight's theme of being seen for your true self even as the wider world imposes restrictions on you, and is similarly an allegory for the LGBTQ+ experience as well.

Last Twilight's ideas about seeing and being seen correctly were also touched on (somewhat briefly) in Bad Buddy, in the discourse around Ink's camera, photography and Pat/Pa's contact lenses.

Mhok's journey was milestoned with numerous examples of the food = love trope, in which he could be seen giving of himself through the creation of dishes and meals for others.

(above) Last Twilight Ep.11 [2/4] 0.39 – Mhok's gift of Black Chicken Soup (ซุปไก่ดำมา) to Porjai is but one of many examples in the series of him showing his love to others through his cooking; in this instance Black Chicken Soup (made by double-boiling silkie chicken with medicinal herbs) is a traditional Chinese preparation, warm and comforting, that is considered particularly nourishing for moms newly post-partum and is also popular in Thailand for the same reason

This is paralleled also by Mhon and her career as a chef (especially when she ladled soup out for her ex-husband in Ep.12, which is a bittersweet Noppharnach touch with reams of cultural backstory – but that's fodder for another post though).

And Assistant Director Au Kornprom's cameo as chef-de-cuisine in Singha's hotel continues a meta-level portrayal of his role in BL as some sort of leader, instructor, teacher or creator with a select group as the intended beneficiaries of his work (see these links here and here for other examples).

(above) Assistant Director Au Kornprom Niyomsil pops up in a cameo as Chef Tom in Last Twilight Ep.11 [2/4] 9.47 

I think Director Aof is announcing that Khun Kornprom is his designated successor as the next generation BL director at GMMTV who will (perhaps) be carrying on a measure of queer activism within his own output.

And that brings me to what I think Last Twilight might be saying on a metatextual level.

What I'm going to be babbling on about here reaches not only into Last Twilight for some clues as to its comments about the wider BL industry, but also to some messaging in Khun Noppharnach's earlier (though still recent) work, because I think it all does come together to paint a picture of some significance.

In the names and chromatic metaphors of Moonlight Chicken (see this link here), Director Aof signaled that unseen persons in authority were increasingly making their political presence felt, especially where financial motivations were concerned (caveat: I think this is a reference to power play within GMMTV and perhaps the BL industry itself, not a comment on the wider political scene in Thailand).

And Director Aof's various cameos in MLC (written up here) as well as its themes of generational renewal and the struggles to leave the past behind, also seemed to be messaging that some of this conflict between artistic/activist directions and commercial considerations were possibly taking a personal toll even as he continued his career within the BL industry.

I would have left it at that, but then when the Our Skyy 2 x Bad Buddy x A Tale of Thousand Stars episodes had their turn on our screens in 2023, it became clear that Director Aof was saying something quite forcefully about the telling of queer stories in the media, especially in situations when queer people have less control over the narrative (as is the case with Y-series churned out by commercial studios for mass market consumption; see this write-up here for the analysis).

So based on the above together, this is my read of the situation.

Khun Noppharnach has been signaling that because of the profit motive, queer creators in the BL world are under increasing pressure from higher up to return to more commercially-lucrative storytelling, perhaps in the form of more stereotypical romances the way Last Twilight was structured. (Whether this pressure is from within the producing organization or from the wider political sphere I do not know nor wish to speculate.)

As a consequence, QL shows are being made to veer away from recounting stories that are authentic to the LGBTQ+ experience (which was the warning embedded in Our Skyy 2 x Bad Buddy x A Tale of Thousand Stars), dialing back content that speaks with a queer voice to queer people (though of course non-queers are welcome to watch along, because after all a good story is a good story).

If the above is true, then the tidal pull of commercial goals may soon be dragging more output back toward the more romanticized imaginings of same-sex love seen before in formulaic (but arguably more profitable) BLs of old, with an emphasis on catering to mass market demand (largely represented by – whether rightly or wrongly – marketing perceptions of the cishet female teen gaze).

And all of this circles back to Last Twilight, which is an example of this return to the past, and perhaps explains in part why its ending feels so unsatisfactory for a lot of us.

I'm very much convinced at this point that the finale (with its hated timeskip, Mhok's spiffed-up but stagey return, his emotionally hollow reconciliation with Day, and especially all the schmaltzy vignettes post-couplehood part deux) is but a conscious reaction to political gameplay from echelons above. For Last Twilight, I'm sensing (guessing?) that Director Aof and his team were coerced not just to stay faithful to the traditional formula of BLs past, but also to shove in an unmitigated Happily Ever After for the branded pair of JimmySea, without any of the hallmark Noppharnach countercurrents to undercut the sweetness (or else).

And perhaps in a burst of inspired-slash-malicious compliance, the team took on the mandate for the HEA and ran with it, churning out a saccharine, nutritionally-deficient lump of candy and unceremoniously tacking it on as the ending of what had otherwise been a fairly measured and self-aware BL from the start. And it really sticks out – but I think it was meant to.

I may be misreading the tea leaves again, but to me the signs of the above are myriad. Here's some of what I think Director Aof is telling us about Last Twilight's subversion of the ending, embedded within the narrative and visuals:

Master Aon's name is signaling (to me at least) a parallel with Director Aof's name (Aon/Aof, On/Off, Onscreen/Offscreen, get it? 😆). He even has a similar look, with his wispy mustache, earring and floppy hair.

Noting that Aon was a respected, good-natured guru who'd already trodden happily the path that Day was on, this reads like a rendering of Director Aof's own role (that I'm tempted to say is self-defined, though it's my own reading really) as a queer elder imparting the wisdom of his own experience to younger queer people viewing his work. (Also, both Aon and Aof are gurus of BL who've had their vision stolen from them.) And if Kruu Aon was recommending acolyte Day to read the novel Last Twilight for the metaphorical lessons within (we were reminded of this many times: see Ep.3 [2/4] 9.08, Ep.8 [4/4] 1.07 and Ep.9 [4/4] 9.26), I think Kruu Aof is recommending that we look at the series Last Twilight more closely as well to learn of something similar.

Last Twilight the series is full of references to endings. And if the novel Last Twilight has been signaled as the roadmap to Director Aof's thinking behind the series, the missing last page and epilogue in Day's copy suggests that – just like the book version – Last Twilight the series is actually (and deliberately) open-ended.

But the messaging doesn't just stop there. We are also called upon to manifest the ending we want (if what we're presented with doesn't meet our expectations). For example, Mhok hated the ending of Last Twilight the novel (although Day liked it –see Ep.9 [4/4] 13.23). And he then conflated this with his disappointment at the lackluster twilight on Mount Veha as well.

But through the power of imagination Day helped Mhok see the beauty of the sunset there (Ep.9 [4/4] 16.28) – on one level it's a trite "Life is what you make it" sort of statement, but on another it also reads like a call to action ("You can change what you don't like"). And I like to think it also embodies Last Twilight's theme of recalibrating your own way of seeing things, and looking beyond surface visuals to find the truth that speaks to you (which, in a sense, is what I'm doing now, hah!). But when applied to Last Twilight at a meta level – I think we're also being reminded that a picture-perfect ending (such as Last Twilight's Ep.12 [4/4]) can also hide the reality of gloomy clouds behind the artifice overlaid by human intervention.

Another sign that the ending of Last Twilight deserves a closer look is all the flapping about between innkeeper Cherry, Mhok and Day around the missing last page of Day's book in the Ep.9 [4/4] scene starting at timestamp 2.38.

(above) Last Twilight Ep.9 [4/4] 3.11 – Cherry tears out the last page of her copy of the novel and forces it on Mhok and Day

I'm putting in a detour for a closer look at Cherry here. She was the unsentimental custodian of her father's guesthouse, with a personality that blew hot and cold (like the weather in the south, referenced at Ep.9 [4/4] 2.12). The guesthouse seemed comfortable enough, although Mhok found it less than welcoming (Ep.9 [3‌/4] 6.39). And Cherry herself was also a strange mix of brusque and friendly. She was more concerned about cash than MhokDay's lack of shelter at Ep.9 [3‌/4] 7.36, but warmed up to them later when they explained their Mount Veha quest (allowing them to stay, treating them to a musical evening with her guitar, and accepting the payment deferral). She preferred the old way of doing things (cash only, no online transfers) and had once hosted David, the author of Last Twilight the novel, at the guesthouse.

Based on the above, I'm thinking that Cherry is a representation of Director Aof's dual role at GMMTV, where he is both a creative (director and sometime screenwriter) as well as part of management (senior director of content production, at time of writing). And in Last Twilight we see this duality acknowledged both in Cherry's mercurial double nature, as well as in the capricious weather of Songkhla. The guesthouse, on the other hand, is a representation of GMMTV itself. On the management side, Director Aof has to make and/or implement decisions on behalf of the company even though it isn't really his (just as Cherry runs what was once her dad's). GMMTV is warm and hospitable enough to the performers in its stable, but as a commercial enterprise it has to prioritize financials above most (if not all) other considerations (symbolized by the guesthouse's paradoxically comfy yet unwelcoming air, and also Cherry's indifference to MhokDay's cashless plight). Director Aof's creative focus is the arts (represented by Cherry's musical interlude) but GMMTV itself prefers the old ways of making money, i.e., old-style BLs (and this is symbolized by the guesthouse unwilling or unable to explore new ways of collecting rent with no online transfers). And just as the guesthouse hosted David, whose bittersweet ending to Last Twilight the novel wasn't satisfying to salt-of-the-earth Mhok (standing in for the tastes of the mass market), GMMTV also hosts under its roof Director Aof, the auteur behind Last Twilight the series (whose original ending I suspect may not have pleased other GMMTV bigwigs in management, and who then enforced a change). Some of this is illustrated in part by the scene just before Mhok and Day departed from the guesthouse. When Mhok and Day asked Cherry to keep her autographed copy of the novel, she instead tore out the (signed) ending from her book and thrust it into their hands. And when Day asked if it had a happy ending – she jokingly tried to grab it back, saying "Find the ending yourselves." To me this is a metaphor that the original ending of Last Twilight the series is actually unknown to us, and the ending we got was forced into the narrative from the outside (because it's what the fans want, according to GMMTV speaking in Cherry's voice at Ep.9 [4/4] 3.15 – "I think it's more important to you than me"). And it has official sanction too (symbolized by the author's signature), indicating that Director Aof (David in another incarnation) may not have had a choice (since we're shown that the author's stamp of approval was artificially inserted into a different book instead). It also suggests (in the "Find the ending yourselves") that Director Aof was aware of how that artificial transplantation was going to be negatively received by some diehard Noppharnach fans, and he's saying to us – "Take the ending that's been given you", but at the same time "Find your own meaning in it".

And then Day tells us in no uncertain terms basically the same message, at Ep.12 [4/4] 3.37 ("We were made to discover our own preferred version of the novel’s finale").

The narrative actually tells us quite boldly in the first part of Episode 12 that we can expect the finale to start unraveling because of outside interference – I actually think this is the message behind Director Aof's cameo at Ep.12 [1‌/4] 10.01:

Mocked up as a hotel porter, Director Aof offered a guiding hand to Day – but at timestamp 10.06 Mhok suddenly inserted himself into the scene in an act of direct supplantation:

(above) Last Twilight Ep.12 [1‌/4] 10.06 – Mhok steps in and supplants hotel porter Aof (he of the white gloves)

To me this was unambiguously signaling that from this point onward the proceedings would no longer be under the guiding hand of Khun Noppharnach. In addition, hotel porter Aof's gloved hands were pure white, unbesmirched and free from stain, conveying the message that Director Aof was innocent and blameless of the plot shenanigans that were to follow. To underscore the point, we were then shown Day taking a misstep under new (non-Aof) guidance at Ep.12 [1‌/4] 11.20:

(above) Last Twilight Ep.12 [1‌/4] 11.20 – Day stumbles without hotel porter Aof's guidance, even as Last Twilight the series begins to falter

This was jarringly out of tone, given Day's confidence in his life as a blind person, as well as Mhok's previous – and very conscientious – stint as caregiver to Day the first time around (he would instinctively stand between Day and any physical risk, and place a protective hand over protrusions that Day might bump his head on, for example). The message from this visually dissonant moment is that we should expect the ending to stumble as well, without Khun Noppharnach guiding the process.

So what can we make of the ending with this in mind? I can live with the timeskip, Mhok's return, and the eventual reunion of our main pair. These are all somewhat expected beats in a standard romance drama – and if that's what Last Twilight is setting itself up as, I won't begrudge it the tropey hallmarks that some do love (though I do think some parts could have been handled better). I even liked the airport run for all of its brash, silly sentimentality (yes, Love Actually is one of my favorite films).

But where I think Last Twilight really falls off a Veha cliff is when it starts lobbing at us a plethora of candy-sweet dreams unrealistically brought to life, one after another, in Ep.12 [4/4]. We have:

Ep.12 [4/4] 0.51 – Surprise! Day can see;

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Ep.12 [4/4] 1.18 – Multiple scenes showing Day rejoining the world of the sighted, enjoying activities that were once denied to him (like reading and badminton) both alone and in the company of loved ones;

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Ep.12 [4/4] 4.01 – Family time! Mhok introduces Day as his partner to his deceased family at their memorial niches, and then we see Mhok very much integrated into Day's family (signified by his pasta dish receiving chef Mhon's stamp of approval) even as we see Night and Porjai joyfully announcing another imminent addition to the numbers;

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Ep.12 [4/4] 8.06 – Mhok and Day get a Mount Veha do-over, talk about the novel's ending and then act out the ending to their own love story.

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It's all just too, too fairytale, with happy news piled atop happy news, and just reeks of artificial sap and fakery.

But that's just it – I think that Director Aof and team were actually faking it. Remembering that the novel Last Twilight's full title is Last Twilight: Until the Last Light Goes Out, take a look at how each of the above little snippets of happiness is finished off – each draws to a close with its own Fade-to-Black.

Now the Fade-to-Black is a device borrowed from theater – in a stage play snuffing the lights for a few minutes of total darkness allows scenes to acquire a sense of separation, completion and closure while giving the crew time to change the sets. But here in Last Twilight it feels like we're being pitched happy ending after unrelated happy ending, each competing with the previous in the too-good-to-be-true stakes.

In the title of the novel, we're told to hold on until the last light goes out. Just when is that last light exactly though? There are so many here that each Fade-to-Black begins to feel not just like closure, but like a little death each time. (Also pertinent to note: MhokDay's kiss under that glorious sunset at Ep.12 [4/4] 13.26 gets replaced by a sky of gray clouds instead at Ep.12 [4/4] 13.37.)

Director Aof is really hammering home his point that traditional Happily Ever Afters in romance stories can be shallow and unsatisfactory, and is making us miss the trademark melancholy that propped up the wistful sentimentality in the closing scenes of his previous works.

However, much of the above is what Last Twilight is saying about Last Twilight.

At the metatextual level, what the show is communicating about BLs as a whole is even more somber. I think Director Aof is messaging that for the BL industry to head toward a happy, satisfying ending (if it really is being pushed down to lowest common denominator levels by commercial interests), it's up to us the viewers to manifest that and make it happen (just as Mee/Me and Day did for their own stories). How this might be done, I do not know. Lobbying GMMTV perhaps? Complaining ever more loudly about what this did to Last Twilight when it could have been so much more?

I rather suspect that unfortunately our numbers may not be sufficient to bring about change – the majority of Last Twilight fans actually seemed to like the final wrap-up and its fairytale ending (at least based on the reviews I've seen on MyDramaList). It's only among the more adult (and dare I say it – discerning?) viewership here in the BL sphere on Tumblr are we seeing more robust critiques of the series, mourning the greatness that could have been.

Last Twilight was a good BL all the way up to Ep.12 I think. And then it looks like we were purposely let down, to make a point about BL endings. As always, Director Aof is having the last laugh – and he lets us know this during the end credits.

For it's then that we see the various photographs that were taken by characters throughout the series but never shown to us before (it's strangely moving, and makes me think of the ending to Cinema Paradiso when Salvatore finally gets to view the priest's cut in one long montage as a final gift from Alfredo beyond the grave).

(above) The end credits of Last Twilight, replaying the scenes where the characters were photographed, alongside the images captured in the moment that hitherto were not shown to us

It's in the ending that we're finally getting to see the director's point of view (and hidden message) from his vantage point behind the camera, just as we're only getting to see those photographs (that were originally unseen by their subjects, and privy only to the one taking the photograph) right at the very end.

And the final shot? We get the whole cast and crew making the "span" gesture (that an almost-sightless Day used to approximate the distance at which he could still make things out visually, before his vision left him totally).

It's a loving salute to Last Twilight for sure, but can we perhaps detect a hint of mockery in the way it also resembles the Forehead-L for Loser gesture from the 1990s? Or a hint of a threat in the way it looks like a gun cocked and pointing? The gesture is also Thai sign language for the letter ล, which is somewhat the equivalent of the letter 'L'. And with so many 'L's or 'ล's in that shot, it's making me think of 'LOLOLOL' and also ลล standing in for ล้อเล่น/laaw len, which means Just kidding.

Is it all just a coincidence? I wouldn't put it past Aof for it not to be. But whatever it all means, I really do think he's having a hearty (if somewhat bitter) last laugh. 😔💖

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[becausegoodheroesdeservekidneys]

Doctor Who, but Chronologically: 43

LOTS OF PLOT we're jumping on two years, it's 1969, and we're back with Smith, Amy, Rory and River for the Impossible Astronaut. Also Sterling from Leverage, that's fun.

Nothing else about this episode is fun.

I'm going to limit too much of this rant, but fucking hell. There are two (2) things on a loop in my head as I watch this episode, to whit:

The very first episode we watched was Fires of Pompeii. Donna wants to evacuate the city, the Doctor says they can't and tells her to listen. "I don't know what sort of kids you've been travelling with," Donna snarls. "But you're not telling me to shut up."

Just before the casting of Peter Capaldi was announced, Doctor Who was at its height in the UK cultural zeitgeist. For the first time, the public were talking very seriously about how much they wanted the Doctor to finally be a woman. And a female journalist at the time wrote a think piece about how she wanted it to still be a man, because she wanted her daughters to have a role model of how men are supposed to be, and behave.

Let's find out why those are haunting me!

So we start with the Doctor being shot in the head by an astronaut in America, and literally dying, but then it turns out he sent invites to Amy, Rory, River, a random American man, and his younger self, hinting them back to 1969. Before they leave, they need to burn his corpse.

"What do we do?" intones Karen Gillan so unconvincingly you'd think she was a "grieving" rich widower standing over the body of her fifth elderly husband.

"What the Doctor's friends always do," Alex Kingston says with genuine gravitas, because she's great. "What we're told."

...

...

...

ah I see why I'm thinking of Donna

Anyway, off they go. The Doctor spends his time being the epitome of toxic masculinity. At one point he literally yells the sentence "I'm being clever and there's no one to pay attention! What's the point of you!" I expect this was supposed to be humorous, but this was merely the latest whiny pathetic Elon Musk-esque mantrum, so it did not hit right. At another point he starts showing off how to fly the TARDIS, and River steps up and secretly corrects him behind his back. When he asks her if she touched anything, she lies, to preserve his manly ego (I am expected to find this #Feminist I think.) At several points he then insults these people we have just supposedly seen devastated and grieving over his loss; "Don't play games with me, don't EVER, ever think you're capable of it," he stamps and sulks (and he is genuinely sulking as he does.) He mocks Amy's weight, Rory's nose, and River's age. It honestly genuinely leaves you wondering why a single one of them gives a shit about his death. Oh, and here's one for the list, in a bit - River gives Rory an impassioned monologue about how her relationship with the Doctor works. They're both time travellers, so they're moving in opposite directions. This means that

a) One day, she will meet him and he won't remember her. "On that day, it will kill me," she says. This seems portentous.

b) When she first met him she was a young impressionable girl and he was this amazing man who knew everything about her. "Can you imagine what that does to a girl?" she says, describing herself as having been fucking groomed.

I see why I'm remembering a woman claiming this was a role model.

ANYWAY this is also the first of a two-parter. We go back to 1969, and learn there's a little girl phoning Richard Nixon every night asking for help; he's called in Sterling, who here is an ex-FBI agent who left because he wanted an illegal marriage (so either inter-racial, gay, or both, I'm assuming.) The gang go and find said girl in an abandoned warehouse full of Doug Jones, dressed as a creepy alien with penis fingers like King Prince Charles that everyone forgets whenever they look away (the whole alien, not the penis fingers.) She's also dressed as an astronaut, and has possibly been experimented on. Also Amy monopolises the Doctor's time across two separate scenes while he's trying to save a child by VERY VERY SLOWLY and with a billion repeated filler lines telling him she's pregnant, so... does that date us on Amy's timeline? I mean we know that's River now.

I mean we also know River is the one who supposedly kills the Doctor, so that'll be the astronaut. And the girl? Probably, though I don't remember the previous versions being American. Or wait! I do! Mels said she regenerated as a child in New York, so yeah, we know that. Honestly, very strange they're presenting all this as a surprise when we already know. Almost as though this is a deeply stupid order to watch the show in that ruins plot twists.

Well. Anyway. Then Amy shoots a literal child who is pleading for help. Believe it or not, that's actually the height of usefulness for her in this episode. Sexy Lamp test profoundly failed by Amy and Rory.

OKAY SO PLOT POINTS!!!! Let's see, let's see...

I mean hilariously the mysteries of this episode are almost entirely already known. River kills him. River is Amy's unborn child. River is the astronaut. The Doctor is the reason she's in prison, because she kills him. Is this why Amy and Rory thought he was dead? Maybe. Also, we know it's the Silents who brainwash Melody, so... presumably this is to do with them.

BUT, who are the penis fingered aliens? Haven't met them yet. We have our second reference to fish fingers and custard, which apparently massively matter to Amy. Um... Oh, yeah, River says she'll die one day when the Doctor doesn't remember her. Tbh babe you can do better. Hope you don't mean that.

“She” (an unknown person) is returning (perhaps River returned as Missy. Maybe Me? Maybe Clara???!)

There is something on Donna’s back

An entire planet, Pyrovilia, just… disappeared, somehow. (Maybe because the TARDIS is exploding??? Saturnine was also lost, and that WAS because of the TARDIS exploding. The lion man’s planet was also lost but he was a bit of a knob about it if I’m honest. The Thijarian planet was destroyed by some sort of impact). Is this the Flux?

Amy is maybe dead (she’s not)

The Doctor has been cubed (he’s out, but how?)

River is possibly blown up  (unless she’s Missy. Nope: she is definitely not blown up)

The TARDIS has blown up  (It’s fine now. Except it’s sort of melting now because it’s corrupted, but it’s fine again. NEW INFO: NOPE, back to not working.)

The universe appears to have ended  (the universe is back again)

The Doctor has employed(?) Nardole

(And Nardole was “reassembled???” Nardole had glass nipples and invisible hair?? WHAT THE FUCK IS HE)

There’s a vault in the TARDIS and it contains Missy but we don’t know why (sometimes she knocks for the bants)

There’s an immortal Viking girl now. Her name is Me and she’s now looking after the people the Doctor abandons

Why was Rory entirely unconcerned by the entire world suddenly going silent when that is Not Normal and should have been, at the very least, extremely disconcerting?

What did the Doctor do to Queen Lizzie One?

Why is Amy seeing a one-eyed woman in a vanishing window? (She’s with the Silents, but we don’t know why Amy saw her)

Why is Amy’s pregnancy inconclusive? (Maybe because the baby had Time Lord DNA?) She's deffo pregnant and the baby becomes River, but why inconclusive?

Who is Sarah-Jane Smith?

How is the Doctor Bill’s teacher and why/where does he have an office?

What is going on with the Cyber War and the Cyberium???

What happened with the Other Cyber War?

What happened with the Third War that deleted the void?

Why does Rose seem particularly important?

What order do these Doctors go in? (Eccleston, Tennant, uncertain, Smith, Capaldi, Whittaker)

Which companion just… forgot the Doctor, and how?

Yaz and Vinder are about to die as Mori/Mwri/Muuri (Not anymore, somehow)

There is a Lupari shield around Earth.

What’s a Time War?

What’s the Rift?

What’s Bad Wolf?

In which war did the Doctor become a war criminal, and how?

Who is the Master?

Why has Amy forgotten Rory? How did she forget a Dalek invasion?

Is Rory plastic or not?

Why is the Doctor sulking on a cloud?

How exactly does the Doctor have a cloud?

What exactly happened with Strax to, uh, tame him?

Which friend killed Strax?

Which friend brought Strax back?

Where did this lesbian lizard and human couple come from?

What happened with Clara as Souffle Girl and the Daleks?

How does Clara actually join?

Why so many Claras?

Why is Missy apparently in robo-heaven?

Why is probably!Missy pushing Clara and the Doctor together?

What is Trensilor and what happened there?

Who is Handles?

The Doctor is about to be dissolved by a beautiful geode man

The universe is being crushed by the Flux

Will the Doctor open the fobwatch?

Sontarans are invading Earth again

Who is Kate?

Who is Osgood? Another name of Clara’s again?

The fuck is the deal with the Grand Serpent

Does Martha get to go to an ice cream planet with 12-fingered massage aliens?

How did the Doctor forget Clara?

Who is Bill’s puddle girlfriend Heather?

How did Nardole die?

When does Bill get Cyberman-ed and die?

When does the Doctor shrink and enter a Dalek called Rusty?

Whittaker is falling to her death rn

Was that ring relevant?

Does anyone know the Doctor’s name?

When did Yaz talk to Dan about fancying the Doctor?

When did Dan talk to the Doctor about fancying Yaz?

What’s happening with the bees?

What happened with Donna’s ex and a giant spider?

What war wiped out the Daleks, and is it one of the ones already mentioned?

What did the Doctor mean when he said “The (Daleks) always live, while I lose everything?”

If Dalek Caan is the last Dalek left why are there more now?

How did the rest of the Time Lords die?

How and why did Amy melt?

What’s the question that will make silence fall?

Why do the Silents… want silence to fall?

How and why are Silents at war with the Doctor when he… hasn’t even heard of them?

How does Hitler get out of the cupboard?

What’s the significance of fish fingers and custard? NEW INFO: same question but I'm repeating it

Why does the Doctor feel guilt about Rose, Martha and Donna?

What happened with the space whale?

When does Rory defend Amy for 2000 years?

How does the Doctor survive River. NEW INFO: he doesn't, apparently

How does he erase himself from history

Did Captain Jack lose his memories to the same people as the Doctor? What did he lose?

When did the Doctor send the Daleks into a void to save the universe?

What’s with the weird crack in the wall and is it affecting memories?

Why do Amy and Rory think the Doctor is dead? NEW INFO: is it because of River as an astronaut?

Is Matt Smith’s Doctor a tree racist?

Why is the beautiful geode woman stealing people into a Passenger form?

Who are the penis fingered aliens?

River says she'll die one day when the Doctor doesn't remember her, let's hope she doesn't mean it

[danielfeketewrites]

DOCTOR WHO TOP 10 - 9th Doctor

Ninth Doctor. I love him, you probably love him too. He's great. Let's go.

10. The Cruel Sea

Rob Shearman's very weird comic strip. Admittedly, I love it to bits. While I think Shearman wasn't entirely sure about what he's doing, the result is still by far ninth Doctor's best DWM comic. (Okay, I also really like Scott Gray's Monstrous Beauty, it just didn't make the list.)

9. The Beast of Babylon

I love xenofiction and Doctor Who should do it more often.

8. The Sin-Eaters

Ninth Doctor's Titan comic book run by Cavan Scott is on the whole pretty solid. (And preferable to ninth Doctor's 2005 DWM run, which just has too much Gareth Roberts to be any good.) I can definitely recommend the whole thing. Not everything in there is amazing, but there's a lot to like about it.

This story is my personal highlight of the run. Twisted, clever, and fun. The Sin-Eaters just slaps.

7. The End of the World

The moment Tainted Love starts playing, you know you're in for something amazing.

I just love this episode... It's the first episode of New Who that really gets to show off the scope of "the alien" in this universe. I adore the creativity of it, the energy of it. And Lady Cassandra O'Brien.Δ17, of course. So many iconic moments in this one.

6. Bad Wolf / Parting of the Ways

The big finale, of course. Huge, emotional, epic... but also featuring some biting satire about the landscape of television. The perfect finale to the first series.

5. The Stealers of Dreams

My favourite ninth Doctor book. It's kinda Cartmelian in it's premise, but also deals with the new reality for the eu - Doctor Who being back on TV. This is a stunning Who novel and it should get a lot more attention than it does. Steve Lyons is awesome.

4. Monsters in Metropolis

Historicals about film history are great and there should be more of them. Also, this one made me cry, so there's that. I love Monsters in Metropolis so goddamn much, thank you John Dorney.

3. Planet of the End

After listening to the first series of Big Finish's The Ninth Doctor Adventures, one gets a pretty clear sense that Respond to All Calls is the strongest of the four boxsets, by a pretty wide margin.

My favourite of that boxset has to be Planet of the End by Timothy X Atack. There's just something about the size of the ideas in this one... Fred is an amazing character, the Incorporation are truly villainous... Just thinking about this one makes me want to listen to it again.

2. Dalek

Rob Shearman resurrects Daleks. Well... just one, to be precise. But it's all he needs to craft one of the greatest Dalek stories every. Every line is gold, the story is poignant and meaningful, the characters are memorable... And it's a Base Under Siege story where the monster is trying to get out instead of getting in. What more do you want?

1. The Empty Child / The Doctor Dances

What else could it be? Steven Moffat's Hilarious & Horny Horror For Children, also known as The Empty Child two-parter, has become such an iconic and defining bit of Doctor Who. I feel like everyone loves it and for good reasons. It's absolutely deserving of all the hype and acclaim. And... You know... Everybody lives!

[lycanlovingvampyre]

MAG 154 Relisten

Activity on my first listen: apple cutting + sitting thrilled on the couch.

Ah yes, I remember it so clearly when I heard that episode the first time. I was almost done cutting apples, but I didn't quite feel satisfied after MAG 152 and 153, those are statement that were a bit subtle for me. So I thought "Okay, I'll give one more episode a shot" (even though the episode title didn't sound particularly interest-piquing) and then it’s a Gertrude tape and I had some problems following a lot of Gertrude statements before, I don't know, her voice makes me sleepy xD And I was already prepared to drift away during this episode again and felt a bit demotivated. But I kept going. Well, best fucking decision ever. As soon as I realized she's reading from the Catalogue of the Trapped Dead I was like "Ohhhhh!"

JON: "And I started to pay attention to the ones I… wasn’t drawn to. The tapes I instinctively wanted to discard." That's very clever, go against what the Eye wants!

JON: "There was one, this one, that my hand… pulled back from. I dropped it, twice, when I went to pick it up." Lol, that actually sounds funny. Like "Whoops! I dropped it... Woaa, dropped it again, ahaha, clumsy me."

JON: "I am the avatar of awful knowledge and revealed secrets." Oh Jon, you theater kid!

GERTRUDE: "“When he opened his eyes, he of course saw nothing" Ok, she already read that part and still couldn't guess what was necessary to quit. Already talked about this in MAG 111 - because of this I think those memory-ghosts of the Catalogue work like the appearances of people plugged into the Matrix, a mental projection of their self. How they most liked seeing themselves. So when it comes to depicting Book!Eric, I think he'd still have intact eyes. Cause he says he "destroyed them completely", I can't imagine how one could not see that, if the appearance is the same as in the moment of death.

I love how similar Eric and Gerry sound, and I don't think it's because of the ghostly echo. After all, we do have a recording of Gerry without that effect. Very good VA choice!

ERIC: "I know that I’m not really Eric; I’m just a memory someone wrote down. It hurts, most of the time." Primarily it's probably meant to be an effect of the Catalogue's nature, of the Fears just doing their job. But I guess the knowledge of not actually being you also makes it weird and uncomfortable. Sometimes I think about that, like what are we anyway? Isn't the memory of oneself's entire life basically what makes one that particular person (+ hardwired personality probably)? Because it still matters on which hardware we run. Otherwise, how would we explain body dysphoria?

ERIC: "You too. (beat) You got old." GERTRUDE: "Better than being dead." ERIC: (short sigh of a laugh) "Fair enough. To be honest, I’m impressed, more than anything. Hard to get old in this business. You either die, or you, uh, stay young. (short, uncomfortable pause) …How did Mary look?" GERTRUDE: (same sort of short laugh) "She got old, too." Well, let's see, this is in 2008. My educated guess from MAG 35 was that Gerry was born sometime around 1983 or 1984. Perhaaaps 1985 when we'll go with the most extreme numbers from MAG 35. We don't know when exactly Mary killed Eric, Eric says he left the Archives months before she killed him. So, Eric died.. what? 1984 or 1985? So he hasn't seen Gertrude in over 20 years! He probably saw Mary a few times since she summoned him to bounce off ideas of him. But even if she kept doing that for a few years and then stopped, 15 years would still be a long time with visible changes^^

ERIC: "And Gerry? Have you seen my son?" Nawwww... He actually calls him Gerry, like he always wanted friends (and probably loved ones) to call him.

ERIC: "Yeah, it doesn’t feel great. But being dead, I s’pose you don’t feel things quite as strongly. Little bit – flat." Ha, flat like a piece of paper!

ERIC: "Elias? Elias Bouchard, seriously?!" GERTRUDE: "Hm, he’s changed a lot." <.<

GERTRUDE: "So. What did they not want me to know?" ERIC: "I quit." GERTRUDE: "You – Sorry, you quit?" ERIC: "Yeah. I figured out how." Well, on my first listen I was sitting at the edge of the sofa at that point, staring wide-eyed at the TMA logo in the YT video on screen.

ERIC: "You know, you were never actually all that nice to me when I worked for you, Gertrude. Not like Michael, or Emma." Hahahaha, very good, let her dangle a bit! I'd like to say I'd do the same but I know that in the end I never want to give people, one: what they did to me, and two: something they could hold against me in return.

Eric: "I don’t know what she saw in me, not really." Not-really counter of S4: 20!

ERIC: "You were almost there, you know, with your theory that James could watch us from any eye, even an illustration. What did you do? How did you sever that link?" GERTRUDE: "My God!" Yeah, at that point I said "Fuuuuck" out loud... My spouse was sitting on the couch next to me was like ?? and I just kept saying "Fuck" over and over again. First: Eyes are one of the body parts I find the most horrific... I can watch every body horror torture splatter movie without problems but when it's about eyes... Fuck off! If I'd be in that position I'd be like "Yeah, you know what, I actually like the Archives! Screw that, y'all go ahead and do what you must do, but keep me out of it." Second, I love moments like this in fiction! The last one like this I remember was when I read The Last Wish (The Witcher) by Sapkowski, specifically The Lesser Evil. When that innkeeper (or whatever that guy was) explained what happened in Tridam and it dawned on me what Renfri was about to do (just like it dawned on Geralt in that moment. I love having the same reaction like characters. When I can discover huge things alongside them).

[TAPE CLICKS ON.] [JON SIGHS HEAVILY.] JON: "Fuck." [TAPE CLICKS OFF.] Yah, same...

JON: "I know. I know what you said, but I just – (inhale) I think I’ve found a way for us to leave the Institute." [BRIEF PAUSE.] MARTIN: "O-kay…?" JON: "Yeah. But it’s – (heavy inhale) It’s pretty drastic." MARTIN: (hah) "What, you going to gouge your eyes out, or something?" [BEAT.] MARTIN: (gets it) "Fuck off!" Such an iconic piece of dialogue xD

MARTIN: "Erm… like, I mean… permanently? Or…" This has the same energy as answering "In general?" to the question of "Haven't seen a dog, have you?"... Those idiots^^

JON: "But we could leave here, you and me. Escape." Eeek <3

JON: (squawk) "Uh, I, I don’t know. I don’t – know. But… maybe it’s worth it? The risk – y-you and me, together, getting out of here –" [MARTIN SNIFFS.] JON: "– one way or another." MARTIN: "Jon." Double Eeeek <3

So what's going on here has a name, URST or UST. It stands for UnResolved Sexual Tension, although I don't like that term cause it's just as well used for unresolved romantic tension. Especially when we're talking about a couple with an ace character, or when it's used in a show for minors about minors (Miraculous is a textbook example). So basically it's a trope to keep suspense going on by having all kinds of obstacles to keep the love interests from actually getting together, usually also having them pine after each other over and over again + once in a while giving them a scene in which it looks like they finally get somewhere. Full disclosure: I'm a sucker for that trope. I loved that in Inu Yasha, I love this in Miraculous (although it's getting a bit destroyed by all the What-if-episodes with a subsequent time reset or memory wipe) and of course I love it in TMA.

JON: "I mean, whatever their plan is for me, I am damn sure that doing that isn’t it. I’d derail everything – we could derail everything, and then just – leave!" Time travel fix-it for TMA is extremely difficult because you basically have these powerful forces which had it all planned out. I think there are actually two points in TMA where it could really take a very different turn. One of them is here. If Jon blinds himself, he won't belong to the Eye anymore and can't complete the ritual. And given what Annabelle says in MAG 197 it sounds like Jon will even survive being cut off from the Eye. (There’s of course still the problem of just going ahead with a new Archivist, so it’s only a temporary resolve...)

MARTIN: "Nothing; It’s just – (one more laugh) It’s just ironic, that’s all." That's totally in the sense of "At any time before taking Peter's deal I would have run away with you in a heartbeat. But back then you never came to me and now when you do it's me who won't do it"-ironic, right?

@a-mag-a-day

[chibivesicle]

Trigun Stampede - Episode 4 - Stampede’s direction is clear; this is an action packed sci fi series on a desert planet.

Any resemblance to an anime or manga with an old fashioned Western setting is not the the creative direction for this.  Or as I’ve been thinking - Trigun Stampede is a sci fi series with the thin veneer of a western.  The veneer is shown at the beginning of our episode 4 with western sounding music and three random dudes grilling worm meat over a fire discussing how fresh meat is the best, though one guy wants to be all trendy and try a plant based meat product.  I think this is the writing team trying to be clever but it seems to fall flat.  The more I watch this, more of a bone I have to pick with the writers; it keeps coming off as passable but it could be much better.  This also goes into the story boarding, but we’ll get into that a little later on.

I’m also wondering how worms have muscles, but maybe we can go with alien worm biology hand waving explanation.

While enjoying their red worm meat, they spot a single individual walking alone in the desert carrying a cross, stating he’s well dressed for his own funeral and even has his own tombstone.

This is our introduction to Nicholas D. Wolfwood, the previously characterized wandering priest/clergyman who also works as a hired gun [anime] or religiously associated and trained assassin [manga].

The intro scene ends with a hot and sweaty looking Wolfwood.  I will say, they worked hard to get a nice reflection in his sunglasses and he does sport a little of his trademark stubble, but he does look a lot cleaner.

After the OP, the action returns to Meryl and Roberto listening to the news as Vash sleeps in the back of their land rover like vehicle.  Vash has been blamed for the destruction of Jeneora Rock and apparently hasn’t eaten since yesterday as Roberto offers his uneaten sandwich to Meryl.

Roberto gets to comment that only god knows why Vash is acting like Vash since young and inexperienced Meryl is expecting him both to eat more yet, struggle with sleeping due to his feelings of guilt that they are both aware of.

It really seems that Roberto is our info dump, make sure you understand our intent with our limited actions of what we decide to animate for our characters. Since the fact that Vash hasn’t eaten shows that he’s lost his motivation to live/ is feeling super depressed etc etc. has to be told to us by Roberto only with Meryl looking sadly at him.

Meryl then manages to almost drive right into Wolfwood and with Roberto’s help, she only nails him with the satellite trailer instead of hitting him head on.  This scene is very slapstick and seems oddly out of place since Stampede has been taking itself very seriously the entire time unlike the original anime or manga.

Meryl rushes to the nearest gas er - recharge station to save the strange man she just almost killed.  We see at least a nod to the original design of the plants with the light bulb station sign and a covered arch for parked vehicles.

As the group rushes in, they find the station owners shot and killed, likely looking like a station robbery.  There is a noise that allows Vash to find a child hiding in a locker who looks shocked, unable to speak.  At the same time, the injured man, seems to be quickly recovering able to add color commentary.

He takes the lead on some sort of ceremony for the remembrance of the dead, having taken a bottle of water from the station, sipping it before tossing some on the graves and attempting to do a poor ceremony.

It starts out passable but then quickly fails catching Meryl’s attention calling his possible job into question.  She asks him if he is a priest using the term 牧師 bokushi.  Interestingly, the original anime’s translation chose to use priest while the more literal translation is pastor/clergyman/reverend/minister.  Though the bus driver does call him a preacher at one point.

In this version he clearly states he’s not a priest but an undertaker.

Stampede uses the term 葬儀屋, sougi-ya, which translates to funeral home or can also describe an undertaker = funeral director.  Therefore, this is the second shift in a main character’s job in this version and will change aspects of his character by default, just like how it has changed Meryl’s in these first four episodes.

This is a good time to pause and compare Wolfwood’s introduction in Trigun and Trigun Maximum.  It will help frame how the rest of this episode plays out.

In the anime, Wolfwood doesn’t appear until episode 9, Murder Machine after Vash’s battle against Brilliant Dynamite Neon on the sandsteamer.  A glint of light catches Vash’s eye and they find a man collapsed and leaning against a cross in the desert.

After the bus driver pokes him commenting he’s a well put together dead man, he pops up and stutters that he’s been saved!  Showing that he’s got a sort of silly side.

After leaning that it was neither Milly or Meryl who saved him and introducing himself as a priest, he thanks Vash after he’d drank all of his water.  Vash is not pleased with this strange priest having consumed all of his water and this leads to the infamous giant introduction of Vash’s made up name which is blown by Milly blurting out he’s Vash the Stampede.  Once Wolfwood’s shock calms down he offers his hand to Vash and introduces himself as Wolfwood, at his service.

Of course he also can’t help but mention that if he killed Vash he’d get the $$60 billion reward and Vash would prefer he not point this out in public.

The entire introduction of Wolfwood is playful, you get the feeling that he’s a sort of prankster and has a good sense of humor though it has a dark and sarcastic undertone.

The manga is quite similar as Wolfwood introduces himself almost immediately as well.  Again, Wolfwood is shocked that this weird guy is the infamous criminal and is prevented from blurting it out to the entire bus.  I love how blunt Wolfwood is with his comment that ‘everyone’s damn dumb’.

And he again introduces himself to Vash, also offering his services as well.

Either way, both of these introductions show how playful of a character Wolfwood can be at times and how he’s portrayed as a friendly guy and very approachable - which makes sense if you are a religious official (or traveling under the guise of one).  Plus, the anime and manga both highlight that he was stranded in the desert due to his motorcycle breaking down forcing him to walk instead.  This forced him to carry his cross which is both literal and metaphorical for his character arc.

In Stampede, Vash feels a bit awkward as Meryl and the unnamed undertaker argue while the putative orphaned child looks shell shocked.  He walks over to the child and pops a lollipop in his mouth before offering another one to the kid.  This allows for him to have a small inspirational monologue to the child.

He states outright that he’s an orphan and that - No matter how heavy the cross that you carry, you still deserve to eat.  That you still deserve to laugh.

This sounds a bit like Wolfwood, a way of trying to connect with someone else.  After the kid silently looks thoughtful, he returns to give his bill to Vash for $$20,000 which causes Meryl to have another meltdown about his rip off of services.  Which with that abrupt change again makes me groan about the the awkward pacing and oddly placed slapstick style humor with his bill.

Roberto calls him out on not only his criminally high cost bill for services, but also notes that for being hit by a car he’s looking pretty good.  His reply is that he’s tough.  And that it’s his saving grace.

And with that suspicious look from Roberto, we hear a weird high pitched whine and the ground begins to rumble as the entire group is eaten by a giant sandworm, charging station and all!  The next time we get a close up on Wolfwood he’s got a crumpled cigarette instead of the pink lollipop.  This is a point were the story boarding continuity seems a bit off.  We went from him having a sucker, to likely losing it as they slid down into the worm but then the link to the cigarette is missing.  When did he pull it out?  Why now?  If they wanted to give the effect of him being level headed and cool, we would have seen him pull a cigarette out of his jacket pocket, place it in his mouth before casually lighting it.  That’s how you establish a cool smoker look.  Instead, he’s got a almost burnt down cigarette which does not look cool and collected.  He just looks annoyed.

After their fall into the depths of the belly of the giant worm where the silent child continues to act odd.  We see everyone sliding into the worm which is fine and we get to have Roberto info dump more about how worms are sort of collective organisms that have electrons to communicate with each other.

The little baby worm glows indicating that it associates with giant mama worm, hence all the little baby worms can hang out inside it unharmed.  Silent child is excited by the glowing worm and dashes off! 

Vash of course wants to save the child and with time being of the essence the nameless undertaker tells them to split up and called Vash とんがり tongari which is needle-noggin’ in the anime translation and spiky in the manga.  I always thought the anime choice of needle-noggin’ was a clutch translation decision, really getting at the teasing intent of the nickname.  With spiky hair and the fact that Vash is oblivious to things from time to time.  It is pretty early for the tongari nickname to be dropped - that’s a sort of post 2 year time skip nickname.

He proceeds to assign nicknames to everyone else as well, Meryl is little missy and Roberto is uncle downer.  Vash is surprised by the nickname - though I am too Vash! As he’s not as spiky with his more ruffled hair.  Meryl is upset and just wants a man to call her by her name and Roberto doesn’t even argue with his.  Meryl you are 100% valid, no one on the planet wants to respect you.

Though in the original he does always have nicknames for others but more of calling the insurance little sisters and variants of that instead which sort of works . . . but he isn’t particularly rude about it in the originals.

We finally see that Roberto is indeed armed with a small pistol that he loads before the split up.  Keeping with Meryl’s book smarts slowly becoming more street smarts, she’s the one who points out this entire plan is a terrible idea and they should have stuck together for safety.

She’s absolutely right and finds the missing child but clearly is attacked by something.  Eventually, the three men all end up meeting at the same location.  Is it there they started?  Or did they exit the four worm tunnels?  It looks a little unclear with the vague background but I’m reading that they returned to the start where Wolfwood is chain smoking away.  Likely, he never even went into the tunnel with all the cigarette butts around his feet.

Vash indicates that they can save both of them while the undertaker mocks him for his self-sacrifice and need to rescue them, calling him odd.  He then grabs one of the glowing baby worms and bites into it, eating it almost whole spitting out only a small part of it.  WTF is this supposed to mean? It just seems odd - I know the set up is that worms are a good source of protein, but did he need to eat one raw?  What does this do for his character establishment?  Will eat anyone to survive?

Due to him eating the worm, it causes Roberto to both tell Vash that this undertaker might be one of the people who can control worms to kill others. Roberto approaches him with his small derringer wanting to know what is the deal with the giant cross. He knows it isn’t what it appears and wants an answer from the suspicious man with them.

Of course the undertaker deflects this comment stating if he’d want to kill him, he wouldn’t be trapped there with them.  The conversation also allows for Roberto to info dump that there are people who can control worms but his theory is off since it seems that the suspicious undertaker is trapped with them.

This doesn’t allow Roberto to relax and he is clear that the statement ‘could kill with smile’ but of course Vash denies this based on his eyes.  We only get a vague line of ‘You really mess with me.’ which would have been a line intended for Milly in the anime; in this case for Vash and Vash uses this as his rationale that he won’t hurt them. Vash’s own behavior messes with the mystery man - he won’t hurt them!!  There seems to be some sort of emotional ‘something’ to go along with the statement of Vash ‘really messing with him’ but it doesn’t linger for long because Roberto is now missing.

The duo proceed to wander around lost and Vash maintains hope while his downer companion tries everything to get him to give up, they were already eaten and digested, they are lost, they should save themselves.  They proceed to be sneezed out of the worm (these sandworms apparently have animal based biology with nostrils) which has another slapstick moment of them being flung back out into the desert.  Vash tells Wolfwood to run who argues that they should both run, but both get re-eaten.  Since Vash doesn’t run and neither does Wolfwood.

They find the child who runs to Vash and hugs them as he reassures them it will be okay.  But he’s called out for being careless and let someone out of his sight all the time.  Of course Vash replies that he hasn’t been shot by the morbid man.  Yeah, that’s a great rationale there Vash for trusting a man who still hasn’t told you his name!

The kid then runs away and Vash figures out that they are the one controlling the worms with a high pitched sound leading us to the reveal of our next Gung-ho Gun.  The inside of the worm then becomes digestive/active with saliva/liquid and Vash just yells for Meryl and Roberto to be given back.  Dude!  You have a gun.  We know you are a pacifist but you can still use your gun!  Where is your brain?  Is it on vacation?  Did you leave it in Jeneora Rock?  In Vash’s moment of whatever, he begins to get sucked into the stomach of the worm and just stands there. 

It takes Wolfwood doing the big reveal of his large Punisher in what I’d say is an overly long, drawn out sequence to reveal it - is a giant gun!  Wow.  Even if you’d never seen Trigun before, you could guess it is some sort of giant weapon.   Was that really necessary Studio Orange?  No, but you think it looks cool.  You gotta animate it in all the angles.

He’s able to shoot around Vash’s feet allowing him to move and then blows a hole in the side of the worm.  Our worm whisperer escapes out the side of the worm and wishes them good luck on surviving.

Now, I’ve already made it clear that I liked the slow style storytelling of the original anime and even in the manga - Wolfwood will not show what his Punisher can do - until Trigun Maximum after the 2 year time skip.  Even though he’s revealed to be a Gung-ho Gun early on, he doesn’t show what his Punisher is capable of - just uses it as a blunt object.  We also learn that Wolfwood’s actions are those of a trapped man and not his choice, but something he can’t get out of.  The Punisher is how he’s recognized as ‘Chapel’ by Legato though Wolfwood never verbally confirms this at the Jeneora Rock Church. But with Stampede, we don’t need any of that delay - we are going to show you how badass his Punisher is now, which can apparently create a laser beam cannon that literally slices the entire worm open and blood? haemolynth? explodes out into the desert.  Wolfwood clearly has leveled up in his weapons.

We jump to a scene of the three random dudes along a campfire with them eating some of the fresh worm meat.  Wolfwood teases Meryl trying to get her to eat the worm meat while Roberto points out that a man with a giant cross machine gun is pretty damn suspicious and Vash is like ‘he’s fine, he hasn’t hurt us, he helped us.’ 

When Vash approaches, Meryl and Wolfwood are still arguing with each other about the worm meat.

Finally, around the campfire, Vash sits down and eats some worm meat, quoting Wolfwood that he still has a right to survive and eat.  Wow, deep - and Meryl is excited that sad boi is eating - he’s not going to be depressed all the time!  This is also finally when Nicholas D. Wolfwood introduces himself to Vash the Stampede and they shake hands.  It took the entire episode for him to introduce himself!

Wolfwood then invites himself into their crew telling them that they should get going - to where exactly sir undertaker?  He continues to tease Meryl and get do get a good side profile and finally one of his cheesy smiles.

Then they all go to sleep, with Vash on top of the car to show Wolfwood chain smoking on the roof of the charging station.  It then reveals that he was working with Zazie the Beast who tells him that killing his ‘friends’ is his skill and that he couldn’t care less about human lives. 

He only glances slightly oddly for a moment before replying he does the job that he has to do.  So, even though we have a fast reveal of Wolfwood as a Gung-ho Gun like in the manga, we don’t get his additional monologue that none of this is by choice.

The last scene returns to the place where Knives is collecting the plants and the Doctor is mentioning how Vash is the most human individual, which is why he can’t reach his full gate potential and this is why he’s not able to do whatever Knives wants him to.

Grey the Ninelines is still in the background along with the small blonde girl - not Zazie.  Is the small girl also a plant?  Tessla? Are they on Knives’ ark ship?

Thus the episode ends with a sort of plot from Knives to push Vash into an extreme corner.

Main points and themes from this episode

1.) Story boarding and flow are still weak.  It is still difficult to follow things at this point.  Actions and transitions aren’t quite fluid and transitions are choppy.  I already highlighted how Wolfwood goes from a lollipop, to falling and then having a cigarette already in his mouth but we never see it happen.  There are too many blink and you miss it moments and orientation is perhaps supposed to be frantic.  Based on the current pacing if we are to get more of the Gung-ho Guns including Livio, are we looking at a 12-13 episode complete series?  Maybe - it would explain the action non-stop pacing.

Along with this point is the writing continuing to be average at best.  This is a sci fi story where all the characters are checking particular boxes.  I was almost expecting Wolfwood to ask Vash ‘Whose side are you on?’ but we didn’t get that, just him being a morbid, rude, jerk.  I think the male character default in Stampede is unless you are Vash, you are a jerk. Roberto is now slightly less of jerk, so Wolfwood is the new jerk.

Does the CGI look pretty?  Yes, yes, it does.  As my meta nerd friend Merdopseudo put it:

In fact, "Trigun Stampede", more than an adaptation of a manga in anime, it is a demo to promote Studio Orange and its 3D.

And thus spoke the Merdo!  Is this a snazzy series with generic character to get as many eyeballs as possible?  Looks like it.  Is it really sourcing the original material - eh, not the characterization, nor the original themes.  We like to invent all sorts of terms and we’ve decided that this is an example of ‘mainstreamification’ taking a series that was modestly successful in Japan and more of a cult hit outside due to its quirky nature.  Meryl is now your cute little waifu instead of being an experience insurance adjuster with her junior partner Milly.

This then leads into our characters . . .

2.) Current status of the main cast, now fully assembled per the promotional poster!

i.) Vash - Was pretty lame in this episode, his sad boi trend continues as he is so depressed from Knives most recent actions he won’t eat a sandwich and tries to sleep in the back of the car.  He is considerate of Zazie when he thinks she’s a victim of a robbery while Meryl and Wolfwood argue, but puts a lot of faith and trust in a man who is suspicious as all hell based on what he sees in his eyes - through his sunglasses?  Which just like Vash, Wolfwood wears his glasses all the time.

Additionally, Vash is rather useless the entire episode, again chooses to plead with Zazie to release his friends, get sucked into the stomach of the worm, unable to move and all this stuff happens and he never even thinks to draw his gun?  Look, he may be a technical pacifist, but Vash knows if he shoots the worm with a bullet or two release his feet, the worm is not gonna die.  Yet, he never uses his gun at all.

Are we to interpret this as Vash being ‘frozen’ and unable to act?  Is this why he needs Wolfwood to do all the work for him?  Where is his creative brain coming up with solutions?  Why is he so helpless?  Does this mean that Wolfwood inspired him to regain his confidence that he lost in episode 3 when he quotes Wolfwood’s words to Zazie?  By eating?

Crisis averted - Vash has decided to live by Wolfwood’s deep words (which I’ll get to in a bit). ii.) Meryl - or Can I just get some respect on this planet? Meryl continues to struggle in a male dominated group and has bickered with Roberto, then Vash and now, Wolfwood throughout the episode.  She still has to be assisted/rescued etc but at least realized that Wolfwood’s plan was reckless and dangerous - but told no one but herself crawling through the wormtube.  She’s intelligent but lacks agency and authority.

She also gets a lot of scenes bickering with Wolfwood and he gets a bit friendly with her trying to force feed her the worm steak? flank?  She doesn’t look thrilled and they continue to argue until Vash sits down and eats and she is happy that Vash isn’t refusing to eat.

Without Milly Thompson as a potential romantic interest like in the original anime, are we to see Meryl x Wolfwood as a possibility?  It would explain why they keep getting into each other’s faces.

If this is the case, I’m not so keen on it, though Wolfwood in this episode is rather rude and morbid making him not very friendly or attractive.  Please don’t go this direction Studio Orange if you are thinking about it.

iii.) Roberto -  Our old man info dump.  Yep, now with a derringer to match the promotional poster.  You need to know more information about this planet and organizations - he’s got it.  You need to know how to read a scene or interpret something?  He’ll tell you. 

I’m sorry Roberto but you are not Milly and we shouldn’t hold that against you.  But really, you don’t add much to the plot.  At least you didn’t take a single drink all episode, but still haven’t fixed your shirt these past few days.

He doesn’t trust anyone, or organization but he’s just chillin’.  Why?  What’s your deal man?  Or are you just there to have four people in the main cast?

iv.) Wolfwood - Studio Orange what have you done to my man?  I gotta be dramatic when it comes to Wolfwood.  This is a case where a very nuanced character has been simplified to a rude guy who has no friends and will do his ‘job’.

I don’t even want to dwell too much on his now generic Tokyo hipster design, they shrank his nose and made him have a fair skin tone.  Also, why does he also have an untucked dress shirt? 

I have more of an issue with who and what he does based on this episode.  First, is the change in his occupation when he is traveling around meeting others.  In Stampede, Meryl asks him if he’s a priest and he says he’s an undertaker.  This is a change from the anime and manga where he originally said boukushi = priest/clergyman but always translated as priest in both; while he’s now, a sougiya or undertaker/funeral director.  Hahaha, so funny Studio Orange, a hired gun is an undertaker because he makes people dead.  lols. The change from priest makes a huge shift in how he acts.  In this episode alone, Wolfwood gives Vash shit for being ‘self-sacrificing’ and mocks him about it while they are in the worm trying to rescue others.

Stampede Wolfwood is not a nice person nor willing to help others because it is the right thing to do.

In contrast both the manga and anime have Wolfwood introduce himself as a priest and later we see him trying to strike a deal with the bus driver as he’s short the full bus fare.  He states if he gives up any more money, he’ll starve and the man allows for him to ride for $$80 instead of $$100 (which to be fair, he picked him up midway).  This then gives Vash a reason to ask him how he makes money as a priest and why he needs money to help support orphans associated with his church.  All of this makes sense, most people who take religious vows/occupations are not flush with cash and Wolfwood is no exception.  But what happens next is how Wolfwood demonstrates self-sacrifice towards others.

In the manga young children beg him for assistance and he of course gives all he can dividing it between himself and the children equally, even though he’s an adult.  We know he’s not lying, we just saw him haggling with the bus driver.

In the anime, we have a similar scene where he offers two of his three meal blocks to hungry children as well.

Their mother thanks him and the children understand the importance of their gifts even stating they will not waste a crumb. They respect his sacrifice for them.  These two scenes show us that Wolfwood very much cares for humanity and innocents who need help from adults.  Does he also understand that there is evil in the world? Yes, but it doesn’t make him isolate himself from others and helps in anyway he can. 

Afterwards, he walks back to see Vash beaming with a soft genuine smile, which prompts him to state that he was worried that Vash couldn’t smile - you know really smile - not fake cover the empty pain sort of smile.  These scenes alone make sense why Wolfwood makes sense to be traveling as a priest/hired gun as in the anime or a religious assassin in the manga.  In both cases, we know that despite his failings, he has the underpinnings of religious beliefs and actions.  His faith guides his morals and drives the conflict inside himself which eats at him even though he eventually finds peace and acceptance in both versions.

In the anime episode 9-11 allows for ample Wolfwood character development with the rest of the group as he reveals his precision shooting skills to Vash despite lying in Murder Machine - but Vash also states that Wolfwood’s prayer worked and God saved them.  Episode 10 Quick Draw has him twisting Vash’s arm into a contest to help out a woman and her son but also gets into the mix, revealing that he’s got multiple guns in addition to his fine marksmanship.  Lastly, 11 Escape from Pain has him getting into a philosophical argument with Julius, Milly, and Vash before departing the group.  The scene where pulls out his pistol and holds it to his temple to test Julius and Moore.

Murder Machine was an episode where an unarmed Wolfwood jumped into action with Vash to save a single child!  This is a man who understands self-sacrifice.  We also get his entire uncool dodging of laser beams here:

If we turn back to episode 4 of Stampede - Hungry we can’t even take his interaction with Zazie seriously nor compare it to what he offered previously unknown children.  He eats a lollipop for himself and offers the other to Zazie because she might be hungry?  We know he gave Vash and Meryl a crazy invoice but nothing says he’s on a budget, nor is giving up a single piece of candy self-sacrificing.  Did you get the point Studio Orange?  No, because you decided that he’s not that type of character anymore. 

Who is this character in Stampede? Not one I recognize from the anime or manga that’s for certain. He’s rude, has his gun Punisher which is now vastly more powerful than previously and is not friendly at all!  We know he’s got a job to do for Knives but he’s not really selling himself as a great traveling companion or friend for Vash.

I think that Wolfwood is such a popular character due to his humanity that he displayed in the original series; how he has an internal conflict struggling to navigate life on a shit planet either as a gun for hire in the anime or trained assassin in the manga.  He drinks, gambles, smokes and is willing to kill others if they will hurt innocents.  Yet, he strives to do his best as indicated by his inner thoughts while playing chess against the random guy in episode 11.  He realized it was dumb to bet his entire fare on this chess game and thinks about head butting the man and making a run for it - only to correct himself by reminding him to think of his profession as a priest.

He is also a jackpot character for fans - he’s a priest and a gunman who has principles yet also sins - what’s not to love about that set up?  As Merdo put it, even as an atheist, you can’t help but love a character like him.  Why Studio Orange passed on this aspect of his character and the leverage of such a trope baffles both of us.

Come on, you missed this golden line when the bus driver and two other guys toss his ‘luggage’ down to him.  The bus driver remarks that the damn thing is heavy and to what Wolfwood replies:

Which is the best clever joke that it is full of mercy, if you ever met it, you will have a swift and merciful death.

Or lastly, his words of blessing when he departs from the group which is totally in line with him being religiously affiliated.

3.) Themes for this week.  I really don’t have anything obvious.  Eat to live?  Life sucks sometimes but if you don’t eat you die?  Not very motivational all in all.  With Wolfwood no longer a priest (or under the guise of being one), the line of a heavy cross to bear rings hollow.  BTW, Knives is still really evil. 

[socrat1cjunkiewannabe]

APPRECIATION POST

—

We have a friend, and we appreciate her very much. Times have been hard for both of us mentally, I think it’s fair to say it like that (we know each other IRL), however this isn’t a mental health post, this is to promote some things that she does + also a thank you for her to being such an incredible being to our whole system as a whole.

She’s got an AU which is about Adamsapple! It’s a custom made AU including canon and non canon characters from HH (I assume so, at least) and I think it’s only fair you show your love if you’re into HH and or HB, like how we are (partly from her as well, thank you for that Ruffled) and I think her ideas, her drawings on art are so imaginative for it, like it’s got us quite interested (Healy and me were really on the ball, it was quite immediate) and I think that the headcanons, the way the characters interact are definitely linked in well with the canon, despite us not seeing much of the new Hazbin. Now that’s called real talent and examine skill bc I probably wouldn’t be that attentive, using the shows as further help for lore or canon, so like.. a lot of damn work went to this, and this is why, again.. I write this on her behalf so she can get more attention/boosts for her creative ideas and her love for character development and arcs!

Personally we got invested in the characters and I really saw the slight interest points in which some of our alters could relate, for example with her OC Caine, having a band with a few bandmates, which sated toward our musical alters (myself as James Marriott introject, Healy, Bedford, Hann, Matty and Jago) as well! Although that’s just a hc that was meant to build her imagination, this kinda stuff helps us to involve more into it, feeling like we could at least offer a contribution or to even spread the word like we’re doing rn!

Also I really can’t stress enough how I personally adore the fact that she keeps the canon characters such as Vaggie, Charlie, Lucifer, with their traits from what’s in the show/episodes. We found that loads of series like that with people making AU’s tend to drift away from the integrity of the canon and waver off, but not Ruffled, she bloody knows how to just keep it real, keep it investing just like the show itself. I really love that about this starting AU. Just, although it’s a starting point.. it feels like maybe with enough pushing, enough drive and motivations, I personally know it could go far. We personally will push this out there for people to note what hard work and talents may pay off to do. Of course that’s not to say anyone else who does this is far from talented or far from skilled, this is just to show that we want our friend to go far with her work, and with how she puts pen to paper. We’ve seen her work, we’ve known first hand that she’d either become a great artist, or a great writer. And look, from what we say.. yes she’s pulled both off right here in this moment in time.

Valuing people for their talents or perhaps interests lays important to us. We want Ruffled to feel on cloud nine, knowing that she’s got friends backing her up and knowing people should see how incredible her work lays out, no matter how absurd it may look or sound on paper or in words.. it’ll probably mean that the lore has a raw purpose, because I feel mildly complex lore quite entertaining.. and again another skill she’s acing at!

Enough of our ramble now.. but I want everyone to know you go far. I want them to see your immaculate work, your skills.. I want you to prosper, even if sometimes we can’t always show that to you. We think you’re important, skilled, clever, kind, and you always never fail to make an introject alter missing a friend in source feel as if they’ve got a friend they’ve missed (for example, you’re like Ross Macdonald to the 1975 boys in system) and I find that special as you’re like Will to my James. Whatever happens, we don’t fade apart okay, we stick together. And if people hate on your work, oh boy well come out all guns a bloody blazing.. they just haven’t seen the raw talent that we see in school every day and the attentive literate ability to which you have, sometimes more than us or even our academic alter Bedford, (/lh, just joking here). Just, ah.. everything about you as a whole is like a manifold of different knowings, it’s almost like a story to find more on. Like we say, the art you produce, incredible. The writing, the headcanon concepts, the way you just think up these somewhat wild and perhaps a little zany ideas but to see them come alive as something as like a full fledged story it really is a natural talent which you seemed to just have right there in your genes. Again, it’s amazing to be friends with someone that’s so innovative in many ways, it’s like seeing an alternate us but with perhaps deeper meaning. I appreciate you for being that.

[GO CHECK OUT HER BLOG! @ruffled-wings ]

(again our friend is very talented, cool, funny all that cool stuff. she may start showing her writing like how we’re doing with our fixation on The 1975, and I would love to see her writing up on here personally! Go show our mate the love that she deserves 🫶]

- written by James, Healy, George(The 1975) and Hann (on behalf of everyone in our system though, of course! you’re like family to us <3/p)

[khiphop-discussions]

SMTM11 Diss Battle Ep.7 Part 2

This is the Team Quiolin vs Team R-Jus. If you haven't seen part 1 yet then I suggest you go see it.

Background: So it starts off with QM talking in an interview with SMTM producers. He says that Don Malik is the one who dissed VMC first. He was a fan but felt like they changed over to mainstream after dissing mainstream. Then Justhis diss VMC. This whole time I was underthe impression that Justhis was the main catalyst but really Don Malik was. I think Justhis got more attention from the diss because he is more famous than Don Malik. Then, QM dissed Justhis. QM also dissed Don Malik but Don Malik never responded to the return diss. So this is the first time that Don is responding to QM.

Back on stage before the battle starts: The Quiett is effortlessly throwing shade when asked about the upcoming battle. He makes a comment about no props and just going back to the basics/fundamentals. To me, it came off shady because the Don/Justhis/QM/VMC diss was all about basics/fundamentals of starting off in the underground, taking pride in it to the point off DISSING mainstream, but then "switching sides" to be mainstream. It's like they are forgetting or abandoning their roots (aka fundamentals/basics). Don and Justhis dissed VMC for that but then ended up doing the same thing so they basically forgot the fundamentals too. So Quiett kinda brought it up without bringing it up. Very slick LOL. Side note but R-Jus team reminds me of the Ballas gang in GTA: San Andreas lol. If you've never played, they're a fictional street gang with purple as their gang colors.

Battle preparation: Justhis has the energy we NEEDED to make this battle good. "I'd like it better if it were something a bit more offensive". Then Leella is like "I'd like it to not be excessive" to his team during seperate prep. That's because Leella is a sweetheart LOL. At some point, Los(?) exposes that QM was an idol trainee. That was shocking. Even to R.Tee.

Battle starts with Khan vs NSW Yoon: NSW Yoon takes out bug spray because of Khan's "mosquito" voice. Personally, I think it was tired and played out. Loopy already did that on SMTM777 when he was facing Super Bee. He asked if Khan washes his hair or not. I think NSW mentions this is because he wears braids and the bar before is about his braids so that's why I think it's connected (Context: its common for people who aren't Black to not wash their hair [or wash it way less regularly than they should. Like going weeks or months without a wash] when they have Black hairstyles. This is because it's hard for their hair to hold these types of styles. Black people can wash these hairstyles more often without them getting ruined BUT the more you wash the more "frizzy" and they don't have that freshly done, neat look anymore. This happens more quickly if you don't have afrotextured hair. I have more to say about Khan's hair but I'll save it for another post). Because of Khan's voice quality, he calls him an "ASMR rapper" He also has this "KhanMakie" (sorry don't feel like switching to the Hangul keyboard at the moment) line that is clever AF! If you haven't seen the episode yet, just watch this part for the lyrics plus explanation. It happens around 55:40. Overall, NSW Yoon's rap has more lines but the ones mentioned stood out to me the most. His rap was MEAN! Like DAAAAMMMN!

Khan raps a few lyrics but the first one that really stuck with me is "Your biggest hit features Khan" that line was CRAZY! Also, "Hwang JiSang's gofer, NSW Yoon" is a line Khan got the crowd to chant. Khan and NSW Yoon are good friends so Khan knows it pisses NSW off. So I thought that was good lol. Overall BOTH of their raps were MEAN as hell. I was like "Well, damn. Do y'all even like each other for real?" LOL they do. I felt like NSW Yoon had more good diss bars overall. He did end up winning.

Don Malik vs QM: QM comes out HARD. His frst line is actually Justhis' line from the UV Cypher that was probably meant to be shade to VMC. "After all that criticism, now you want to earn money too?" Then he referred to Don's lyrics calling rappers who come on TV "whores": "You said that coming on SMTM is akin to selling yourself, so how much do you cost?" DAAAAAMMMMMM!

"Can't handle Deepflow alone so y'all became a group of four" He's referring to Lil Boi, Taekwon, Justhis, and Don Malik doing vv2 remix. As you may remember, one of the rappers Deepflow dissed back in the days was Lil Boi. So all of the had beef with him. I didn't know Taekwon did, maybe he's just a part of it because lil boi and his are close. So even Taekwon (who was in the crowd) ended up taking a stray (bullet). QM said something about Nucksal working with Yoo Jaesuk so he must be higher than Justhis can reach. Just watch this part of this battle. It's explained better there and you'll have the context of the rest of the rap. (This part happens at around 59:50). QM went IN! This isn't even half of all the lyrics and disses he had. This is one of the best SMTM diss battles.

Switching over to Don Malik: Don was more playful. Most of his individuals lines weren't all that interesting as far as dissing go imo. It kinda goes along with the fact that he never responded to QM cause he kinda looked down on him and felt he needed to improve. So it's kinda the point that his diss is kinda childish and flippant (mostly just said different variations of "HAHA QM is fat"), cause he doesn't take him serious. It's subtextual (this is how I view it) so you have to know that info to put it together. It was witty (as witty as you can be just calling someone different variations of "fat") and good but QM's was better to me. QM's diss is one of the best in SMTM history imo.

Don Malik ended up winning.

So then right before the team battle: Khan randomly starts making fun of Damini's voice. He's doing an impression. Since it was so random I was like "awww does someone have a crush?" lol. After seeing the team battle it makes sense why he "randomly" chose her to go after.

The team battle was MEAN as HELL!

Damini said Huh was prettier than her and I thought it was hilarious (its funnier when you're watching obviously). He is handsome though lol. Damin also says at one point during her diss that "she doesn't have much to say" and Khan's petty ass goes "Thank You. Thank You!" Basically he's saying he's thankful he won't have to hear much of her voice/rapping. He's mean lol. Khan was being an ass during this battle haha.

Huh's diss was vicious! His main lyrics was "Damini looks like dog poop". It's the most childish line but the delivery of it in Korean was very impactful. It landed really hard. I found out Damini dissed Queen Wasabii (she said the n-word though that's not what Damini dissed her for) so I definitely like Damini more now. He also said "You don't rap, you poop with your mouth" I was like "Damn Huh that's COLD!". He also said "everyone will know she's a bubble". The subber's note said that a bubble is someone or something that looks good on the outside but is empty inside. Honestly, I'd have to take that as a compliment cause Huh just accidentally called her good looking...but only AFTER saying she looks like dog poop lol. His finally lyrics that was HARSH as hell was saying "You're black on the inside, the only thing that's white is your tongue coating"...DAAAAMMMMMNNNN nobody expected Huh to be this mean. Also, this was after he made fun of her wearing the same outfit by asking if she washes it and basically calling her dirty. After the "tongue" line, I gasped and covered my mouth. It was SOOO bad!

Next is Los. One bar he said to Crucial Star was that "Soul Company failed right after you joined". That bar is CRAZY but honestly...it didn't age well because now VMC is closing and Los was one of the last few artists to join haha.

Los called Damini a "crazy bitch". I, again, gasped with my mouth open.

I found out Don Malik is only 1 year older than me. He was born in 1996. I thought he would be older. Then Khan came being an ass again. "What this fool does best is collect food coupons." (see I told you most of what was aimed at QM was fat jokes). It landed well and the delivery was good (why it landed well). I was just like DAMN Khan is MEAN!

Anyway, R-Jus won to me. I thought there was no way they lost. Just off of the disses to Damini. They ended up winning by 126 votes overall. Team Quiolin eliminated Damini. Leella looked SOOOO sad. He legit looked sadder than she did. Khan said Damini did a good job. He probably feels bad for the disses (or likes her lol).

At the end all the rappers are hugging backstage and on stage. QM and Justhis hug. Don and QM have a brief talk. They end up hugging and The Quiett funnily declares the beef over with a Squid Game quote.

@lilsvt

[toontowncreepypasta]

My final thoughts!!

Episode one, Jobs: It was good! It made me interested. It wasn't perfect, the pacing was a bit off and it floundered at moments, but it was good! I thoroughly enjoyed it. I thought the gore use was excessive, but I enjoyed how many new puppets and sets there were. That was my favorite part of the episode.

Episode two, Death: THIS. is my favorite episode. It was so funny, I thought it was so clever with the topic it was given. The jokes were nonstop, but the topic was so unnerving it gave the whole episode this extremely tense feeling. I think this episode captures everything I LOVE about dhmis.

Episode three, Family: second favorite and very CLOSE second. Where I think death did DHMIS at its funniest, I found Family's highest points were how scary it was. I loved how many physical sets and objects were used, they clearly went all out with thid episode and it paid off. it's visually appealing, and pretty fucking impressive to me. the humor here is also still very good. i need to rewatch this one again to really appreciate it, i spent a lot of time worried they were going to do something gross with tommy and lilly and am very happy they didnt.

Episode four, Friendship: i didn't like this episode at all, i wanted to skip it. i kept hoping half way through itd get better but it just continuously got worse and worse. the art style is poor and looks too nft-y for my taste, and this episode marks a turning point away from puppets, which were mt favorite part of the show. The story was pretentious, and I found the idea of someone thinking it was funny more annoying then Warren actually was. It was extremely on the nose, and I found the Collin call back really forced and flashy. His inclusion felt like something out of a fanfiction. All of the humor fell extremely flat.

Episode five, transport: This was a very nothing episode for me. There was almost no pupetteering involver, or creative props or anything. The train costume was clearly a result of budget cuts, and the episode was modtly green screen and flash animation. That being said, the community portion was very nicely animated!! It was the only part of the episode that caught my attention. This one isn't offensively bad like Friendship, its just kind of boring. I did like a lot of the gags with Yellow guy and Bird in the back seats.

Episode six, electricity: I think this episodes sort of.... poorly crafted in a really interesting way. It feels like fanfiction. Like... They were clearly trying, and doing a lot of similar things to the original series. The song sounded verrryyy very similar to the old ones, including the same sort of like steady boring learning song tempo with evenly placed spaces for the characters to quip in. But it all felt relatively artificial. It just kinda felt like "yep this happens because its a thinf that happens in DHMIS." like the gory batterys felt like. Welll. Dhmis is weird and gory sometimes so we'll be weird and gory sometimes!! without having an actual meaning. Like comparatively to say, Birds coffin being brought to life with his blood, it sort of ties in to the themes of the episode. An issue a lot of the later episodes have is they aren't obscurist enough to get away with it. theyre too pointed, opinionated. loud. a lot of the characters start screaming more frequently in the later episodes too and that feels very emblematic of the series as a whole.

[ravenya003]

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Puppet Show, E01E09

My favourite season one episode!

If Angel was a turning point in the show's mythos, then The Puppet Show is a standalone example of what the show can be on a weekly basis: high concept premise, clever twists, genuine pathos and a great guest-star. It’s also the only episode in this season (barring the finale) that moves away from the “high school metaphor” format and just focuses on being a fun supernatural murder-mystery.

These days it would be classified as filler, since it’s a Monster of the Week story that’s entirely self-contained, though it does herald the arrival of Armin Shimerman as Principal Snyder. And it’s about the time-honoured high school tradition of annual talent shows for students who have very little actual talent.

It starts off from the point-of-view of the monster, with a scary voiceover and a creeping “monster-cam” that crawls through the backstage dress rehearsals of the auditorium – and it’s a total cheat since we see Morgan, Sid and Marc from this so-called demon’s perspective. I mean, if it was just the first two, then it would be a clever indicator that they’re not in fact the demon that Buffy is looking for. But Marc is there too, so whose perspective is this scene coming from?

Ah well. Giles has been put in charge of overseeing the show by the new school principal (or as he puts it “our new furore”) and is slowly dying as he watches Cordelia’s terrible singing performance. I can’t fathom the thought process that would lead Snyder to deciding that “the school librarian should manage the talent show,” but he needs to be involved for plot purposes, so whatever.

Snyder arrives just in time to hear Buffy, Xander and Willow make fun of Giles for his new responsibilities, and promptly informs them they’ll be participating in the show as well.

Just to make sure we’re all paying attention, he also rattles off a boatload of continuity: reminding the trio that his predecessor was eaten, that the three of them left school yesterday (to fight the robot-demon in “I Robot, You Jane”) and that he’s sick of all the strange occurrences in the school, including: “suicide, missing persons, spontaneous cheerleader combustion...”

So I guess poor Dave is going to be remembered as the guy who hanged himself. 

There’s a fun musical cue when Buffy sits down glumly right on the final note of the tuba-player’s performance, and Giles tries to hide his amusement.

The next act is a student called Morgan Shay with a ventriloquist dummy by the name of Sid. He’s pretty bad at first, until all of a sudden (which is made out to be part of the act) the dummy starts insulting him. Morgan’s lips aren’t moving, though the jokes still aren’t worth the amount of laughing that’s going on.

Meanwhile, Buffy says of dummies that: “they give me the wig.” Bless, they’re still trying to make “wiggins” happen. They’ve even shortened it.

Once rehearsals finish, we get the monster-cam vision again, as a ballet dancer packs up her stuff and then makes the fatal mistake of investigating a noise and calling out: “hello, is someone there?” instead of just booking it. Who cares if someone is there? Just leave.

The following day, our trio have decided on performing a dramatic scene from Oedipus as the least painful way of getting through the show, and once again Morgan – apparently – starts speaking as Sid in order to make some suggestive jokes. Thankfully, Buffy shuts down the horny dummy shtick (it was dated even in the nineties) only a few seconds before everyone hears a scream.

Emily the ballet dancer’s body has been found, minus her heart. Everyone is suitably sober, though because this is Sunnydale High, the mutilated corpse of a peer found on campus is not enough of a reason to send the rest of the student body home for the day.

Giles approaches the trio and tell them that Emily’s heart was removed, and that the murder weapon was a knife – which suggests a human culprit. Everyone is appalled at this, even though they’ve dealt with a human would-be killer in the past (the zookeeper from “The Pack”). Buffy doesn’t buy it, though given the location of Emily’s death, the obvious first step in any investigation is to question the rest of the talent show participants.

(As has been mentioned before, any police presence would obviously severely hinder the writers’ ability on a Doylist level to just let the show’s main characters solve this particular mystery, but their complete absence in this episode is pretty weird. They’re represented by a bit of police tape and a faceless extra and that’s it).

Everyone splits up to interrogate the rest of the talent show, and everyone from the juggler to the magician to the tuba player point the finger at a single suspect: Morgan. Apparently he’s been muttering to himself lately and acting like he’s in pain, and was the last to speak to Emily before she was found dead.

And hey, one of these characters in this montage is played by a Black actress, which takes the number of Black people living in Sunnydale up to a grand total of three (the other being Blayne’s friend in “Teacher’s Pet” and the girl whose mouth disappeared in “Witch”).

Seeking out their prime suspect, Buffy finds Morgan in the auditorium, seemingly in an argument with his dummy. He covers by telling her that he’s practicing throwing his voice, and there’s a nicely staged little scene between the three of them in which Morgan has to negotiate a conversation with Buffy while also pretending to be speaking for the sentient puppet that won’t stop interjecting!

Rich Werner actually does really good work in this role, having to act constantly distracted and twitchy in a way that points just as much to ill health as it does to demon-related shenanigans. As with Dave, I feel desperately sorry for Morgan in regards to what happens to him.

Buffy decides to break into Morgan’s locker to search for more clues, but is caught by Principal Snyder, who makes some thinly veiled threats. I’d totally forgotten that the script treats him as a candidate for the killer!

I support a girl’s right to wear whatever she wants, but wow, that’s a tiny dress.

Unbeknownst to both of them, Morgan and Sid are watching them from behind a half-closed door, and they’ve seen Buffy’s super strength in busting open the lock.

Throughout the episode so far, there’s been some cute double-meaning talk between them, from: “right now you and me gotta be on the lookout. Figure out who's gonna be next,” to “you saw what she did, how strong she is. She's the last! Just this one more, and I'll be free.”

It’s dialogue that matches either one of the theories that Giles and Willow have come up with: that the killer is a type of demon who must steal brains and hearts every few years to keep up their human visage, OR that a dummy like Sid “already possessed of consciousness” could act upon their desire to become human by harvesting organs.

And yet, not all the pieces fit. As Giles points out, Morgan is getting weaker, not stronger. And if Sid is the demon, why does he need to be in league with Morgan? Morgan certainly acts nervous and edgy, suggesting he’s afraid of his puppet, but what exactly is his purpose in this partnership?

The truth of what’s really going on makes all this clear, but for now at least, I love it when stories introduce theories that get discarded when the evidence doesn’t fit, when the audience is exposed to disparate clues that don’t add up; all leading to the characters finally reaching a solution that accounts for everything they've witnessed. For some reason, logical wrongness in fiction is fascinating to me.

In a bit of padding that also serves as a reminder that Joyce still exists, there’s a cute little scene between her and Buffy in which Buffy talks her out of attending the talent show. Later that night, she’s convinced something managed to break into her bedroom – and the open window supports that claim.

The next day I’m thrilled to meet yet another member of the Sunnydale High faculty: a history teacher called Mrs Jackson. She seems passionate about her chosen field and is nice to her students, so I hope she made it out of her teaching tenure alive and well.

In this scene Sid does a Natalie French-level neck-swivel to stare at Buffy, and when Mrs Jackson can’t get Morgan’s attention, she takes Sid from his desk to stash in a cupboard for the duration of the class. Once the period ends, Morgan attempts to retrieve him, and gets incredibly flustered when it's revealed that he’s disappeared.

This time the culprit is Xander, who must have performed a fairly impressive slight-of-hand to remove Sid from the cupboard without Mrs Jackson seeing him. He’s brought Sid to the library to ascertain once and for all that he’s absolutely a puppet, and though Buffy isn’t impressed with his fooling around, takes the opportunity to find and talk to Morgan without his appendage.  

Unfortunately, all she finds is Morgan’s body backstage in the auditorium – his head sliced upon and his brain removed. (And a brief confrontation directly prior to this once again asks us to believe Snyder might be responsible).

Before she can do anything, there’s a snapping sound and the chandelier falls on top of her. Okay, why the hell is there a chandelier hanging from the ceiling behind the curtains of a high school auditorium? While she’s pinned to the floor, Sid rushes up and tries to stab Buffy with a knife – she manages to fend him off, lift the chandelier, and then pin the psychotic dummy to the wall with her arm.

Sid: You win. Now you can take your heart and your brain and move on.

Buffy: I'm sure they would have made great trophies for your case.

Sid: That woulda been justice.

Buffy: Yeah, except for one thing: you lost, and now you'll never be human.

Sid: Yeah, well, neither will you.

[beat]

Buffy and Sid: What?

It’s a great Bait and Switch, and it cuts through all the red herrings and misdirection that the episode has thrown at us. Sid is not a demon, but a demon hunter under a curse. Morgan wasn’t in the puppet’s thrall, but just a nervy teenager trying to assist Sid in his mission to kill the last of the demon brotherhood. Sid referring to “freeing himself” referred to his chance to lift the curse that turned him into a dummy. The reason they targeted Buffy was because from their point-of-view her super strength made her the prime candidate for the demon. It answers every question but one: if neither Sid nor Buffy is the demon, then who is?

Sid is sure it’s someone from the talent show (which is about to start) and so instructs Giles to form a “power circle” with all the participants in attendance. Since the demon has obtained his heart and brain, then whoever’s not there has to be the demon.

Problem: everyone is there. More red herrings: Sid disappears and Giles spots Snyder lurking around backstage. But he’s got no time to confront him – the show must go on!

And in her search for Sid, Buffy finds a brain. It’s obviously Morgan’s, who was a very smart guy, so why did the demon reject it? Willow checks his school records and discovers he was suffering from brain cancer – which explains all the headaches he was having and why the demon is still on the loose. It still needs a healthy, intelligent brain.

That’s easy, decide Buffy and Xander. All they have to do is protect Willow, the next smartest person they know. Unfortunately, this doesn’t take Giles into account, who is currently demonstrating that he’s not actually that smart by assisting Marc in his magic act by willingly allowing himself to get strapped down onto a guillotine.  

Yes, the demon was Marc the whole time! Wait, who? Well, he was one of the contestants that the gang interviewed after Emily’s death, and he’s popped up a couple of times after that in a comedic capacity given that he’s absolutely no good at stage magic. I’d say his haplessness was meant to be a clue as to his true identity, but the episode has been at pains to demonstrate that none of these students have any talent.

Having realized that Giles is in imminent danger, the trio arrive just in the nick of time. As in, Xander catches the rope attached to the guillotine as it is falling, while Buffy fights the demon and Willow tries to loosen Giles’s bonds.

Um, where on earth are the rest of the talent show contestants while all this is going on?

Buffy manages to behead the demon with his own guillotine, but Sid reappears to tell her that he has to take out the heart for it to die properly. Then, his curse will finally be lifted. He does the deed, and the dummy slumps over. As he told her earlier, his body has long-since turned to dust. For him, “freedom” from the curse is the freedom of death.

I actually like how quiet and almost anti-climatic his final moments are: no drawn out speeches or flashing lights, not even a glimpse of his human self in spirit form before he ascends to the afterlife – just a methodical doing of what needs to be done. And the rest is silence.

Until the curtains open on Buffy holding a mannikin in the Pietà Pose, Willow brandishing an axe, and a headless demon. Snyder is not impressed. It’s such a great ending, that I’ll withdraw the question of where the heck the rest of the talent show participants disappeared to.

And hey – look! It’s a post-credit scene! This is the only episode in the show’s entire seven-year run that contains such a thing, and it’s the trio attempting to pull off their dramatic reading of Oedipus while Snyder and Giles (and the entire audience) watch to varying degrees of bewilderment and/or exasperation.

Xander forgets his lines, Buffy is utterly fed up, and Willow rushes off when stage fright strikes. It’s cute.

I love this episode because I generally love puzzle-box plots – when they’re handled properly and all the disparate pieces come together into a coherent whole. “The Puppet Show” pulls it off: the misdirection, the double-meaning loaded dialogue, the careful seeding of plot-points such as Morgan’s intelligence (“you’re one of the brightest kids I’ve seen in a long time”) and his waning health (all the headaches), the fun twist that’s predicated on our aversion to ventriloquist dummies. There's also a twinge of fairy tale ambiance about it, which is always going to get you extra points in my book.

I’ve no idea what exactly inspired writers Rob Des Hotel and Dean Batali, but other famous dummies of the era include Slappy from R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps books, and Scarface from Batman: The Animated Series. Both had their first appearances in 1993, predating Sid by four years – though obviously there have been hundreds of other examples of the classic ventriloquist dummies in pop culture before and since “The Puppet Show” first aired in 1997.

And Sid is a great character, so much so that if they ever make a Buffy the Vampire Slayer prequel (I envision a miniseries that focuses on one of Buffy’s distant predecessors) it would be very cool to see his backstory play out in full. The script wisely but tantalizingly only gives us a rough sketch of who he was as a human: a demon hunter who was cursed into the body of a dummy, and who has been hunting down the seven members of the demonic brotherhood ever since.

We don’t get much more detail than that, only that he was friends (perhaps more?) with a Korean Slayer back in the thirties. So he’s been around for a while, and for all we know, that was a love story of epic proportions. Talk about Hero of Another Story potential!

Has his backstory ever been explored in more detail in any supplementary material? Because I have the vague inkling he turned up in one of the video games. [Quick Google search: something called Chaos Bleeds, where his soul is put back into a dummy by the First (!!!) before he’s finally freed at the end of the game. Huh.]

They build a strong rapport between Buffy and Sid in a surprisingly short amount of time, so much so that I felt a feeling when he slips away.

While we’re here, let’s also pour one out for Morgan. I feel desperately sorry for this character for so many reasons. At first, we’re led to believe that he’s either a demon, or a guy in cahoots with an evil dummy that has some sort of hold over him, forcing him into being an accessory to murder. Turns out he’s a perfectly decent guy struggling with brain cancer and trying to do the right thing by helping Sid hunt down the final demon.

How’d he meet Sid in the first place? Was he involved in Sid’s successful killing of any of the other demons? Why was he so certain the last demon was in the talent show? Where were his parents during all of this? And what kind of psychological impact would all this have had on the poor guy? Imagine trying to hunt down a demon while fighting brain cancer and knowing that your bright future is in jeopardy on two fronts.

And then he’s horribly murdered, and no one even cares! Sid doesn’t mention him at all after he’s killed, and (despite setting up a preexisting friendship, or at least amiable acquaintance with Willow) the rest of the Scoobies only discuss him in regards to the ongoing mystery. Heck, they demonstrated more grief for Emily, who had barely any screentime.

We don’t even see his death – he’s last seen freaking out about Sid’s disappearance in Mrs Jackson’s classroom, and then he’s brutally murdered by Marc off-screen. Come to think of it, he was probably backstage because he was looking for Sid. It’s all very, very sad.

But I still love this episode. A great guest star, a twisty-turny plot, a fun subversion of the Demonic Dummy trope, and a solid introduction to a recurring antagonist. I’m still chuffed that Snyder was heavily hinted as being the demonic killer for a fair portion of this episode.

And like I said, it’s nice to move away from the “high school is hell” metaphor and just have a quirky murder-mystery for a change.

Miscellaneous Observations:

Early on, Giles is given the line: “A demon is a creature of evil, pure and very simple.” Um, really? Cos we’re eventually gonna meet a WHOLE lotta demons who don’t fit that profile.

Cordelia is on comic relief duty for this episode, and new viewers would be forgiven for wondering what the point of her is at this stage. But her time will come. Also, no Angel for the second episode in a row.

There is a particular emphasis here on Buffy, Willow and Xander operating as a trio, which I always appreciate, from Giles saying: “oh, you three” when they turn up to mock him, to Snyder pinpointing them as “those three.” That relationship really is the crux of the show at this point: those three against the world, who are identified as such by friend and foe alike.

Armin Shimerman is given a special notation in the title sequence, in which he’s identified as a “special guest”. Does he keep this honour for the duration of the show? I can't recall.

Xander jumps at the sight of a mime, which mildly foreshadows his fear of clowns in the next episode (which has otherwise never come up before).

Willow apparently plays the piano, something that has never been mentioned before, nor will be ever again.

In hindsight, it’s actually pretty funny at just how little Sid gives a shit when it comes to talking of his own volition in front of other people. He did it constantly. I suppose he knew Morgan was just going to take the blame, and what was anyone going to do anyway? Believe he’s real?

What do you think the Scoobies did with Sid’s “corpse”? Bury it? Mount it on the wall? Give it to a travelling circus? Kept it in Giles’s basement as a souvenir?

This is the episode that taught me what a “power circle” was – when you get everyone involved in a show to gather in a circle pre-curtain and rev them all up. I’ve since used it in real life.

A recurring feature of this episode was that Buffy’s instincts were consistently correct, despite everyone else’s skepticism. She doesn’t believe that a human being was responsible for Emily’s death, and she’s right. She thinks that Sid is a sentient being, and she’s right.

Later, she believes that neither Morgan nor Sid are the culprits behind the murders – and she’s still right. Usually a story would have the protagonist assert a belief in order to demonstrate how fallible she is by proving her wrong... but in this case, the Scoobies would have done well to trust her instincts from the get-go.

When Buffy, Xander and Willow burst out of the library and go rushing down the hall to save Giles, there’s a brief glimpse of someone in the hall behind them. A janitor? An extra? A crewman that wandered into frame? Until I got the screenshot I assumed it was Snyder and that a scene had been cut which featured him slowing them down somehow, but apparently... it's just some guy in the hall.

As stated, there’s not much evidence that Marc the magician is the demon beyond the fact he’s really bad at magic, which might just be the weak note of the episode. There’s no satisfaction to be found in the reveal – it’s just a random guy who made a couple of appearances throughout the episode. It could have just as easily been the juggler or the mime.

I enjoyed Giles psyching out Cordelia by staring at her hair, mostly because the idea was suggested to him by Xander, implying that a friendship is building up between them. Speaking of, Xander gets his first real Big Damn Heroes moment by catching the guillotine rope and saving Giles’s life.

In his confrontation with Buffy, Snyder tells her: “there’s something going on with you. I’ll figure it out sooner or later.” It’s a shame this never really goes anywhere, despite some later-episode hints that Snyder know more about the supernatural side of Sunnydale than he lets on... but we’ll get there.  

Buffy gets the line: "OK, everyone look at me like I’m in a bunny suit 'cos I feel so stupid saying this." It’s funny because three seasons later, Anya will turn up in a bunny suit for Halloween.

Best Shot: Loved this one:

Best Line: After Snyder overhears the trio telling Giles they’ll be there to “watch” and “mock” and “laugh” over his efforts in the talent show, he tells them: “I know the three of you will come up with a wonderful act for the school to watch. And mock. And laugh... [awkward pause] At.”

It’s quintessential Snyder: summoning a certain degree of menace and then instantly blowing it. He’s so threatening and yet so pathetic.

Most Random Scene: When Buffy interviews Lisa, the tuba player, about Emily, the ballet dancer, they have this exchange:

Lisa: I didn't know her too well. There's that whole dancer/band rivalry, y'know? Buffy: I've heard about that.

HAHAHA. I want to know more about this dancer/band rivalry! They say it so matter-of-factly!

Best Reaction Shot: The Scoobies see Sid talk of his own volition for the first time:

Death Toll: Lisa, killed by the demon. Morgan, killed by the demon. Sid, sacrifices himself to kill the demon. The demon, killed by Buffy and Sid.

Grand Total: Fifteen civilians, fifteen villains, one ally (Sid).

[hoghtastic]

So what projects is his gf actually in? cos I think iv seen her advertise herself in half a dozen musicals these past few months or were they just promotions for 1 off events? Even her new musical Jersey Boys seems to only be running for a short time, is that how Musicals are in Denmark - they only run for a very short period? Whereas in London and New York shows run all year round with the same cast usually for a long time like a year or 2 contract then changing over. I thought she was doing a Cinderella show called Epcot or something? Then there was another 1 or 2 musicals she seemed to show in her stories but they never materialised then all of a sudden this Jersey Boys rehearsals and now the show but its only out for a few weeks it seems?

Re: the podcast, do we think she has filmed this very recently or was it filmed awhile back? Cos' other podcasts I listen to seem to be filmed and/or recorded weeks, sometimes months in advance before we can hear/watch them. It just seems she recorded the 1st ep with Soren then released it straighaway without actually thinking it through propery ie researching copyright of the songs she wants to sing, what platform to release it on, advertisements etc. Just because podcasts are very popular at the moment doesn't mean anyone can just start one and have it do well and get a big audience, even if you have famous bf from a worldwide popular famous TV drama.

Soren - she seems to do a lot of work with this guy, is Denmark a small pool of celebs?He has narcissistic vibes, but then so does she. They both seem very fake in that friendship - like they are both trying to outdo/outshine the other but not make it obvious. I don't know how Alex or anyone else can stand to be around 1 of them nevermind both of them together.

Thank you for your input, anon! 😊

Trying to answer your first question, "is that how Musicals are in Denmark - they only run for a very short period? Whereas in London and New York shows run all year round with the same cast usually for a long time" — Yes, I believe that might be the case in Denmark and other small countries, as this is also what happens where I live. Musicals and other theater plays are only in exhibition for a short period of time. They might return if they're successful, but they never run for years, as let's say "The Phantom of the Opera" in London. Maybe some countries have more of a musical/theater culture than others. 😊 And about her projects, other than "Jersey Boys", she has the "Call Me Dad" series, which is supposed to premiere later this month, another series called "Graverne", which is still in production, as well as a comedy movie (?), "Bedre Tider". [ Source ] The Cinderella musical, "Askepot" is due to premiere next year, in March.

About the podcast, I agree with you. She started working on it when she made that story from Alex's place, showing all the equipment, so it wasn't that long ago. And it surely seems that she/they were in a hurry to release the episode, so much that they didn't really pay attention to all the details you mentioned, nor did they plan their schedule very well, as I still believe it will be a long time between the 1st and 2nd episodes, which is not a very clever strategy to secure an audience. 🤷‍♀️

And about Søren, isn't there a saying, "Birds of a feather flock together"? So I believe they're very similar in their personalities and ambitions, and they know that, at the moment, they have something to gain in being each other's friends.

[writeshite]

Hello! Would it be possible to ask for a Mark fic where the reader takes some weed cookies by accident like how it happened in 14x20 (clever with the ep choice) and he’s just super giggly and more affectionate than usual with Mark, and Mark finds it amusing while trying to calm him down a little. Yes, I know Mark canonically isn’t in the episode, but I don’t wanna talk about it lmao

Tumble Weed

Summary:

“Those cookies tasted funny,” George mumbles, his voice dragging on before he starts laughing. “Funny. Funny. Funny.” He laughs some more, kicking up at the table.

Pairings:

Mark Sloan x Male!Reader

Tags:

Weed Cookies | Affectionate!Reader | Crack Fluff

Words: 674

Author's Note:

First person to guess why the title is Tumble Weed gets a gold star because they understand my sleep-deprived brain's humor. Fun Fact, I am nowhere near season 14 so as the logical person that I am, I went and read through the Wikia for the episode you mentioned and also spent a few minutes googling about weed cookies.

A wise man would have waited until someone came into the canteen before tasting the cookies, but considering how good they looked and how nice they were, you just couldn’t resist. The first one was a vanilla crumble cookie, the icing swirly with sprinkles, and the second, your favorite, was a chocolate chip cookie; after another two, you felt sort of full. Another five, and you felt high as a kite, which according to the others, you were. You weren’t the only one who enjoyed the treats; George and Izzie were sat next to you. Well, you were lying on the table, Izzie was slumped between three chairs, and George was on the floor.

“Those cookies tasted funny,” George mumbles, his voice dragging on before he starts laughing. “Funny. Funny. Funny.” He laughs some more, kicking up at the table.

You smack the table in response, both of you making noise, Izzie joins in singing at the top of her lungs, and soon enough, you’re all singing the theme song of Little Einsteins. “Wait, wait, wait….what…what comes next?” You’d gotten past the line ‘in our favorite rocketship’ and were now lost.

“ZOOM!” Izzie bellows out, but George disagrees, kicking at the table, “ZOOM!” she says to get another reaction out of him. After another series of kicks, you resume your singing, “Ok, from the top!” Izzie commands.

“We’re going on a trip in our–our favorite rocket ship, zooming through the sky,” Izzie sings.

“Little Einsteins!” You and George sing the chorus.

“Climb aboard; get ready to explore! There’s so much to find!”

“Little Einsteins!” Izzie slides off her chair; she barely manages to regain any standing before she topples to the floor; George’s following laughter is loud. Izzie pouts, then shoves George; they play fight, then it escalates as they run around the room; at one point, George runs into a chair. Izzie climbs the canteen counter, hands on her hips, and proclaims herself queen of the canteen. George groans on the floor, “Silence, peasant!”

It’s then that the commotion draws attention; Meredith walks in, followed by Alex, Mark, and Andrew. They glance between the three of you, and you perk up when you spot Mark, calling out his name, and sit up. You open your arms, beckoning his to you, he walks forward, and you put your arms around him, “Soft,” you mumble to yourself.

“Woah, sweetheart,” Mark startles when you fondle his ass. 

“Ok, I did not need to see that,” Alex groans.

You chuckle, placing your head on Mark’s chest, “Very soft.” You make a kissy face, but Mark shakes his head, “Kissy, kissy, kissy. Gimme a steamy kissy.”

“Oh my god, he’s out of his mind,” Andrew says.

Meredith scoffs, “I’m pretty sure Izzie’s the one completely out; I mean, she’s hanging off the canteen hood. Then again, George is currently making snow angels on the floor.”

Mark startles again; taking your hands away from his ass, he holds them in front of him, “Ok, how about we keep our hands over here.”

“But I want to hold you,” you pout. He laughs, reaching out to the few remaining cookies; you smack his hand away from them, grabbing one, you shove it in your mouth. Mark sneaks another, sniffs it, and then sighs.

“Sweetheart, how did you get your hands on cookies packed full of weed?” 

You shrug, “Found them here, took a bite, they tasted funny, not funny bad, funny good. Good like you, my soft cookie.” You lock your legs behind him, “Maybe I should make you my hard cookie, my creamy hard cookie…” you bite your lip. 

Mark’s eyebrows shoot up, “Maybe later, right now, you need to lie down.”

“No,” you whine.

“Sorry, sweetheart, thems the rules; come on.” Mark moves back, and you follow, stumbling forward; his arm supports you as he moves to sit you down on a chair. When he’s sat down, you slide into his lap, ignoring the chair he’d pulled out for you, and snuggle close to your soft cookie.

End Note:

This is the funniest shit to me now, I gotta write a drunk reader at some point.

[multiversxwhore]

Eddie, and Cheryl Chronicles 

Pairing: Eddie Munson x Black!oc

Warnings: None, pure fluff

Word Count: 3k

please reblog, and leave comments, thank you.

a/n: Cheryl Sinclair (my oc) is 18 years old...and I couldn't have finished this at a worse time lmao. This one shot contains no spoilers (maybe a smidgen of a spoiler if you've never watched the show), well no current season spoilers. Literally just finished the last episode as im posting this/ as I finished this one shot, so yea...

Status Quo

Cheryl Sinclair has always been interested in tabo related things, but she usually kept it to herself. Eddie Munson is someone she would consider as “tabo.” She watched from her locker as he fooled around at his own locker with his friends, Cheryl recognized some of these kids as Lucas’ friends from middle school: Mike, and Dustin.

“Gosh Cher, are you trying to read his thoughts or something?” April Scott teased from beside her, Cheryl rolled her eyes turning to her cheer partner, and that's she was to Cheryl. She knew if she wasn't on the Cheer team, they would all bully her, and make racist jokes. There weren't that many Black kids that went to Hawkins High School, now it’s  just Cheryl, and Lucas

“Yeah…I believe he was thinking that people should mind their own business unless spoken to.” Cheryl quipped, April either didn't understand Cheryl’s smart remark, or didn’t have anything half as clever to say back. When the bell rang for next period, Cheryl slammed her locker shut, and left the blonde standing there dumb founded. 

History is probably Eddie’s least favorite subject, right next to Algebra, but at least he had the ever so pretty Cheryl Sinclair to sit next to. She wasn’t like any of the other cheerleaders, or normies at Hawkins High. Cheryl actually treated him like a human being, which may have caused some friction between her, and the other populars. Eddie thought it was entertaining to see her interact with the other jocks, and cool kids. 

“Afternoon Sinclair.” Eddie greeted her with a goofy smile, and when she turned to him Eddie wiggled his eyebrows suggestively. Cheryl bit the inside of her cheek to keep from bursting out in laughter in front of the whole class. 

“Munson…” She replied, satisfied for now, Eddie turned his attention back to the front of the room, from the corner of his eye he could see Cheryl’s lips turn up into a small smile. Eddie tried to focus, and actually take notes. If he’s being honest the only reason he started giving a shit about his grades this year, is because of Cheryl. He’s always known her, or seen her around. It wasn't until she became a senior that he truly took notice. Then she joined the cheer team, and oh boy did her personality really blossom. 

The rest of the day went by in a blur for Cheryl, even cheer practice was boring, but she held on to her sanity until the bell rang. As she stood at her locker collecting her things Eddie approached her, and it seemed like the whole school had stopped breathing. Literally everyone in the hallway had stopped what they were doing to stare, point, and whisper about the interaction.

“Very ballsy of you to approach me in the daylight Munson.” Cheryl smirks, Eddie knew she got off on making the student bodies heads split open, if he really thought that his close proximity made her uncomfortable he'd never force it. 

“Ever since an alternate dimension monster decided to attack me and my friends, I figured life's short; I also wanted to see your face when I show you this.” Eddie ru

“Holy shit Eddie…74%? That’s a C, congratulations.” Cheryl inhaled a deep breath trying not to make a bigger scene, Eddie nodded his head impressidly.

“That is all thanks to your help, I mean seriously Cher…thank you.” Eddie’s lips pulled backwards into a genuine smile. Cheryl was a bit shocked, that’s the first time he’s called her by her first name.

“It’s nothing…Hellfire tonight?” The DnD club didn't actually meet tonight, but that’s what they used for code when they were at school around unwanted ears. Eddie, and Cheryl only brought it up to each other on nights the club didn't meet. Those nights were instead used for Cheryl to help Eddie with his homework, and sometimes just hang out in the privacy of her room. She has yet to reveal to him her secret passion for rock music, but she planned on doing that tonight.

“Mhmm, 7pm.” Eddie grinned as he spinned in the opposite direction back to his own friends down the hall from Cheryl's locker.

“Eventually you will get kicked off the Cheer team if you keep indulging Eddie the freak Munson. You can be replaced, Cheryl.” Marta, the cheer captain, threatened Cheryl. Behind her stood April, and some other girls from the cheer team. 

“And get rid of the only Black girl on the team? Pft, I don't think so.” Cheryl throws her book back over her shoulder, she goes to walk off but Marta stands in her way, she looks Cheryl up, and down. 

“You’re in my way.” Cheryl said she wasn’t scared of Marta’s mean girl routine. She’s been doing it since they were in third grade.

“No, you’re in my way.” Marta rebuttals, she smirks thinking she has gotten the last word. 

Cheryl leaned forward a bit, and lowered her voice to a whisper so that only Marta would hear her. 

“I know about your fathers affair…I heard it was with a sistah across town.” Cheryl looked Marta right in the eyes, that was indeed a real rumor going around Hawkins, but no one knew if it was true. 

“Bitch.” Marta gasped dramatically, the other girls shared a look of shock as well. 

“Actually my name is Cheryl, now if you’ll excuse me I don't have time to wait for you all to pick your jaws off the floor.”  She pushed past them as they all stood speechless, when she made it outside, Eddie was standing by his van with his friends. When they made eye contact, Eddie wiggled his fingers at her, the corner of Cheryl’s mouth curled upwards. She got into her car without another word, and drove off. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Later that night, after Cheryl’s shift at Radio Shack, she came home to freshen up some before Eddie arrived. Cheryl hated how it sounded like a date in her head, but that is how it felt to her. It’s not like Eddie comes over often, just once, or twice a week. They keep it that way so as to not raise more suspicion. It was exhausting to keep up this regime, that’s part of the reason they start early in the evening, so Cheryl can have time to cover half the work.

While she was sitting at her mirror messing with her neat ponytail the doorbell can be heard from down stairs, before she had time to beat anyone to the door, Lucas got there first.. 

“What are you doing here?” Lucas asked Max by his side to which she just waved and smiled. 

“None of your business, move it.” Cheryl shoved her younger brother out the way, he scoffed at her, but didnt say anything as he watched Eddie, and his sister disappear up the steps to her room. Max, and Lucas try to get a peak as they try to see through the crack in Cheryl's door. Max could see Cheryl jump into Eddie’s arms excited about something, to which Eddie awkwardly hugged the eldest Sinclair sibling back.

“They’re totally into each other.” Max grins, Lucas nods his head in agreement.

“Yep, totally dude.” Lucas mocks a Californian accent. Max punches him in the shoulder hard enough for Lucas to feel it sting. 

“Ouch!” He shouted, Cherly’s head pops out of the door, surprisingly she doesn't look too mad, but it seems The Freak Munson has that effect on her. Cheryl rolls her eyes at Lucas, and Max as they stood frozen at their spying spot at the bottom of the stairs. She decides to spare them the scolding, and slams the door in their faces. 

When she turns back around, Cheryl watches Eddie goe through some of her things on her dresser. It’s nothing new for him to look at, but she thinks Eddie does it out of nervous habit. He confessed being alone with Cheryl made him slightly uncomfortable for the fact that he feels like he’s not supposed to be alone with her in the first place. He’s never known a single girl in this town to be so confident the way Cheryl is. 

“Eddie…” Cheryl called from the other side of her room. He twirls around to face her, a sheepish grin on his face, she thought he was so cute when he was being himself. Usually at school Eddie does a lot of theatrical show boating giving the student body the show they want to see. Underneath all that Eddie is just a regular person, Cheryl’s come to learn he’s rather sweet, and thoughtful. 

“Yes?” Eddie asked, he still stood at the opposite side of her room, his fingers fiddling with a small stuffed animal. 

“We have a history project to do, remember?” Cheryl held up an unfinished poster board, even though they were supposed to decide together the topic, and the person. She had a feeling Eddie would love her idea.

“Looks like you started some of it without me.” Eddie slowly wandered over to the bed to sit down, the soft mattress creaked under his weight. He isn't the most athletic, but Eddie has spent a fair share of time running from drug deals gone bad. Between that, and eating at the Sinclairs every other weekend, Eddie has gained a bit of weight. 

“Yeah…I chose our topic to be music, and the artist I chose is Queen.” Cheryl mumbled the last part not sure how Eddie would react, she knew that he liked Eddie Vedder, and mainly hard rock. Queen is a bit more on the pop side of things, but Cheryl loved their music more than she cared to admit. 

Unexpectedly Eddie burst out into laughter, his body slumped over, and tears springing from his eyes. As he continues to laugh, Cheryl rolls her eyes, and joins him on her bed. “I didn't expect you to laugh at me, come on seriously stop.” She giggles, Eddie falls over onto her lap, this new found information would keep Eddie afloat for the rest of the year.

“Come on, do you know how brilliant this information is, I mean what a revelation. I expected you to say Micheal Jackson…or something.” Eddie sat up to look at Cheryl, her deep chocolate eyes sparkling extra bright at the moment. 

“Why because I’m Black?” Cheryl deadpans, now it was Eddie’s turn to roll his eyes.

“No, because he’s popular, and everybody loved Micheal Jackson.” Eddie says as if it was obvious.

“That’s exactly why I did not do MJ, so are you in or out?” Cheryl asked, Eddie grinned mischievously. 

“For you sweetheart, I’ll be in, and out.” Eddie jokes, Cheryl laughed harder than she should have, and he was proud to be the one that made her giggle so hard. 

“You're an idiot Munson.” Cheryl takes her pillow, and playfully smacks him in the head. She got off the bed to go into her closet, she pulled out a cret full of vinyl records, and Cheryl sat them on the floor at Eddie’s beat up converse. 

“Eddie Munson, you are looking at my secret music stache, not many have the honor to know about this. Unless you’re my nosey little sister.” Cheryl rolled her eyes at the thought of Erica going through her room without a care in the world.

“Donna Summer…expected, Pat Benatar…expected, Fleetwood Mac…not really surprised, but hot damn you listen to Bon Jovi?” Eddie pulled out the perfectly intact record, and looked it over. Now that he’s noticed all of her records seem to be untouched, he’s starting to question if she actually plays any of them.

“I knew I liked you for some reason, Sinclair.”  Eddie put the record back gently, and turned back to Cheryl who had returned to her spot on the bed. She fiddled with her fingers abit suddenly feeling nervous.

“You sure it’s not just because I’m pretty?” Cheryl jokes, and Eddie reminisces quite as he takes in her features. Cheryl has flawless chocolate brown skin, full small, but plump pouty lips. Her face is round, giving her youthful look, she’s smart, and funny. 

“That’s just the bonus sweetheart. Cheryl Sinclair, academic genius, goofy, and loves rock music? Sometimes I have a hard time believing that we’re friends.” Eddie spoke softly, the room was quiet again, Cheryl couldn’t take the way he looked at her, like she was the brightest star in the sky. 

“I wish we didn't have to hide it, I wish I could just see you in the hallway, run up to you, and hug you. Like, why can’t I be a cheerleader, a nerd, and have friends that are different. Why aren’t we allowed to be different?” Cheryl asked no one in particular, these are thoughts that plagued her on a daily basis, and it made her depressed sometimes.��

“Hmm, that’s just the way it is sweetheart, I’m a freak, and freaks don’t belong with pretty girls like you.” Eddie whispered, this broke his heart as well. Everytime Eddie passed Cheryl in the hall, she always looked so beautiful, but she was never smiling. It’s like she only joined cheer to survive, that in itself is miserable. 

Cheryl grabbed Eddie’s large hand which is surprisingly soft, she held onto his fingers, her own rubbing the pale skin gently. The small notion got Eddie’ss heart racing, this posible the most intimate thing they’ve done…ever.  Cheryl came to sit on her knees on the bed, using Eddie’s shoulders to steady herself, his hands grabbing onto her waist trying to help her to not fall over. 

“Wanna start a revolution, Eddie Munson?” Cheryl had that same twinkle in her eye when she was telling someone off, it’s something Eddie has grown to love. 

“Life is short, why not start a riot?” Eddie replied, a goofy grin on his face, Cheryl her hands on both sides of Eddie's face, and pulled him into her. Their lips met gently, they both wanted to savor this moment, both Eddie, and Cheryl have daydreamed about this. The kiss was warm, and soft. Eddie remained respectful of Cheryl’s boundaries keeping his hands at her waist, and when they pulled away Eddie put on the Queen record Cheryl already had out on her night stand. 

They laid in bed together just chatting the night away, Cheryl laid with her head on Eddie’s chest listening to his heartbeat with one ear, and taking in some story he was telling with her other ear. Cheryl’s mother had walked past her daughter's room, Erica didn’t hesitate to tell her that Eddie was over again. At first she was going to wake them up, and send Eddie home when she saw them tangled in the bed together. But when she noticed they were at least fully clothed, her mother decided to leave them. After everything they went through, she had to trust her children would do the right thing, and that they would trust her as their mother. 

The next day at school was an intense one for Cheryl, and Eddie. Her plan was totally insane to him, and could upset the natural balance for their remaining time at Hawkins High. Cheryl had skipped half her morning class all for the sake of making a dramatic statement during lunch. When she walked into the lunchroom, everyone stopped talking, even the lunch ladies, yet again all eyes were on Cheryl. 

Marta quickly approached her, a scowl on her face, and her hands balled into fist.

“Where the hell have you been, we had early morning practice, and you’re the only one that can do the basket toss. And why aren’t you in uniform?” Marta asked, she scrutinized Cheryl’s outfit of a dark blue jean jacket, light blue jeans, and black vans. 

“Here it comes…” Eddie mumbled to himself from his lunch table at the other end of the cafeteria. The other boys looked at him in confusion as he didn't tell them that he’s  been hanging out with Cheryl, he didn’t tell them about the kiss, or what was about to go down just now.

Marta snatches the bag from her hands, what she pulls out of it, is something Marta feels to be blasphemous. The cheerleading uniform inside the bag is not only beat up, but in fact ripped to shreds. Cheryl stood there with her hands on her hips proud of the reaction, she watched Marta’s face turn cherry red with rage. The onlookers whispered among themselves as Cherly grinned triumphantly. 

“What the hell have you done? What is wrong with you!” Marta sheriks, ever since they lost their cheer star Chrissy, Marta has been trying to dig her claws into the next best thing, Cheryl. 

“If it’s not obvious, I quite cheer as of this moment. You no longer own me, I will no longer be your token Black friend, nor will I allow you to show me off at cheer competitions like some shiny toy. I will be friends with whomever I choose, and join whatever clubs I wish to join. Speaking of which.” Cheryl takes a pregnant pause as she inhales deeply, and exhales slowly.

“Here it comes…” Eddie whispers again, he holds his breath in anticipation as he waits for Cheryl’s big reveal. 

Cheryl ripped open the jacket, and pulled it off her, Marta, and the whole lunchroom gasped in unison. 

“BOOM! Eat shit normies! Ha!” Eddie leaped out of his seat in excitement, Mike, Dustin, and Lucas looked at each other in shock. Not in a million years did any of them see this coming, but it was totally worth the wait. 

Cheryl dusted off the freshly pressed print of her t-shirt that read “Hellfire Club.” In big letters, and a red devil face with horns. Marta felt like she was going to throw up, and pass out at the same time. How could this be happening, how could she have lost her control over things like this?

“Fuck status quo.” Cheryl held up her middle finger to Marta’s shocked face, turned, and walked away. As she made her walk to Eddie’s lunch table, another cheerleader shouted out from her seat. 

“I quit cheering  too! I’d rather join the sports team!” The girl stood from her seat, and threw her cheer jacket off.

“Yeah, and I wanna join the theater club!” Shouted a deep voice from the basketball team. Suddenly the cafeteria exploded into a frenzy of confessionals, finally Cheryl made it to the table where Eddie was waiting for her with open arms. 

“That was quite the show Sinclair.” Eddie grins impressively, the rest of the DnD club just stares at them, but Lucas, he knew this the whole time. 

“Holy shit, welcome to the dark side Cheryl.” Mike grinned. Cheryl, and her new group of friends enjoyed the rest of their lunch as if everything was completely normal. 

“What I say huh, 86…my year.”