#just chillin in bathrobe problems

[helle-bored]

@marzipanilla. You have have opened the floodgates. :P

If I were a different and more patient person I might have started out practicing with elmers glue and cardboard, honestly. But I jumped right in instead, and here's the stuff I use:

Here you've got my regular sewing, gluing, and paper-cutting supplies. (Not pictured: bookcloth, fancy marbled cover paper, cardstock, an extremely scuzzy old ball peen hammer (heehee) I rummaged out of the machine-shop of random tools in various states of dubious usability we inherited from the previous owner of the house.)

Sewing a textblock uses linen thread & beeswax (for the thread), darner or chenille needles, an awl, something to punch into (cardboard), a marked paper to mark your signatures with (the white paper with notches), and a bone folder for creasing folded pages (black thing at the back). Thicker books also require (sort of a strong word, but most people seem to do it) some sort of fabric tape; I have grey twill tape that I got from Joann's.

Gluing uses flour paste for some things and a sturdier PVA glue for others. I do have a brush, but I often just use my fingers tbh.

Before you glue it you can see the tapes when you flip between signatures -- once it's glued the pages are all nice and flush. :) The unglued one on the left is Blackbird by sixpences and the glued one on the right (and the one in most of these pictures) is Weather With You by @thewuzzy, who has kindly allowed me to flail occasionally in their direction while putting together a couple copies of their fic, lol.

I format in Word and print booklet-style from adobe pdf reader with 8.5x11 inch six-page signatures, which works out to be twenty-four 5.5x8.5 inch book-pages in a signature. This means a 360 page book only uses 90 actual full-sized pages, which is good, because I have the paper custom-cut so the grain runs in the right direction. Shipping paper isn't cheap, it turns out.

My family is all aware of my new hobby and they think it's really neat, so they helped me build a press, which is how I glue and round the spine. Above on the right you can see the twill tapes and how I sew the signatures together; this book is about 350 pages or 100k.

Today I was working on rounding the spine and giving it shoulders (that mushroom shape) and sewing on headbands for WWY. This copy has a dark grey-blue thread alternating with blue metallic sewn directly into the top and bottom of the spine.

Those grey boards on the sides are what the case will be made of -- but they're too short. :( There's something I could try, but I'm probably just going to end up buying new boards because I'm kind of terrified of fucking it up, lmao.

The copy with headbands is ready for covering the spine with cloth and paper. Then I need to figure out my board dilemma so I can build the case and put it in there and slap in endpapers and cry when it's a bit crooked.

So anyway. Hours and hours and hours and hours of work, and honestly it's one of the most fun things I've done in months. There's a discord I'm in and everyone is cranking out amazing stuff every day and it's just really fucking neat to see this much love for fanfiction, which is what most of us bind.

(You should bind some star wars stuff! :P lots of people in the server do star wars things.)

[ravenschmaven]

GIVE US THE STAR WAR SPOILERS

like, all of em??

because, if so

HERES THE WHOLE DAMN FUCKING FILM UNDER THE CUT

We open to poe dameron about to fuck up a ship called a dreadnought - which is HUGE - because the rest of the rebellion is trying to evacuate. he cals hux, pretends he has no signal, makes a yo mama joke then begins blowing up the surface guns so that the ship cant destroy the bombers who are on their way to smash the ship.

leia tells him not to do the thing, he ignores her, blows up all the guns, and summons the bombers, which are these huge bulky things which move at a snails pace while tiefighters and x-wings fight around them. all but one of the bombers blows up, and the last bomber is able to drop the payload because of an asian officer we later realise is rose’s sister. rose’s sister is one of the many who die, with about five x-wings making it back. The rebellion goes to warp, finn wakes up and asks ‘where’s rey’.

Rey is exactly where we left her. she gives the lightsaber to luke, who yeets it over the edge and goes ‘fuck that shit im out’. she annoys him into accepting that she isn’t moving, then she plays the chewie card, and chewbacca trashes the shit outta the place. luke finds out han is dead, and FINALLY gets his head oudda his ass. Wont teach rey tho because kylo ren is a punk bitch who ruins everything. We see flashes of a flashy wristwatch. luke mentions kylo being a shit and talks about what happened. apparently luke confronted him about the darkness and ren went batshit. r2d2 also swears at luke repeatedly for a few seconds.

somewhere between snoke spends like five minutes roasting kylo ren and calling him a shithead while dressed in a gold bathrobe. ‘you have too much of your father’s heart’. ren smashes his helmet against the lift (rude) and yells at two officers to get his ship ready. hux is peacocking around like an asshole.

 while that happens leia gives poe shit for going ahead with a mission that got people killed. Leia HITS POE. LIKE FUCKING SMACKS HIM. (rian post ur address i just wanna talk) and then demotes him for doin his job??? even tho he aint really doing his job. poe is mad as fuCK. Leia has another flashy wristwatch which is actually a tracking device so rey can find the rebellion. she gives it to finn.

We drop out of warp, and everybody is seemingly chill until the first order rocks up literally 30 seconds later, including snoke, who has his own ship like an asshole. People panic, the first order, including kylo ren, attacks, and blows up the launch bay, killing every pilot except poe and a few others, and the bridge, which holds all the generals including leia. leia uses the motherfucking force to fly through space, and makes it back to the ship. she falls into a coma, where vice-admiral/general/mauve murder baby takes charge. her idea of saving everyone is to use their remaining fuel supply to stay just out of range of their gunners, which gives them about 16 hours left.

finn wants to save rey’s life so tries to sneak out, but gets caught by rose, who’s sobbing over the loss of her sister because they dont even get time to MOURN YALL. rose sees him as a hero, then talks about how shes caught 3 deserters, then realises finn is kind-of-deserting, then stuns him. finn wakes up in a trolley and explains the situation (lack of fuel, we’re all gonna die, they tracked us through warp) and rose figures out how they could track the fleet through warp.

if finn leads rose to the weird tracking thingo, she can disable it and save the fleet. the dynamic duo go to poe, whos confused and is really trigger happy and i dont like it, but he agrees that its a good idea. They ask maz how to break in, she says shes busy, and tells them to find this gambler guy with a red flower pin at Space Vegas. the team keep the plan under wraps, with only poe, finn, rose, and a few other officers knowing about the trip. finn, rose and bb8 leave, finn having given poe the tracking device thingy to poe.

Back at it again on depression island and rey is attempting to annoy luke into teaching her. We see the weird tiddy creatures, chewy eats some porgs and rey connects with the force and finds the ancient jedi texts in a funky looking tree. lukes asks who she is and why shes here, she says shes scared of the awakening and has no idea what to do. luke decides to get his act together and teach her.

the day he goes to teach her, rey’s chillin in her room and has a vision of Space trash panda - aka kylo ren - rey calls him a shithead and ren is confused as to how they’re talking, then rey freaks out and shoots the illusion, much to the chagrin of the caretakers (who look like my grandmother). rey lies to luke when he asks about the hole in the wall.

jedi lesson number one is to reach out and feel the force. after telling luke that being a jedi is about moving rocks and breaking shit, and being called a dumbass, rey sits on a rock and shows off a shittonne of power, but also a rising dark side (the motif of this film seems to be that the stronger u get the stronger the good/evil bitchfight) which makes luke panic because ‘this was what ben was like!!!!!!!!!!!! oh no!!!!!!!!!!’ luke get ya head oudda yo ass. its also revealed that luke has shut himself away from the force somehow.

the dynamic duo is in space vegas (they illegally park on a beach) and are walking through the casino and looking for Rose Brooch Guy. rose hears a noise and recognises it as the noise of some funky lookin animal which they use to race. finn says this place is great and asks why rose hates it. rose shares her backstory as the daughter of people who lost so much under the first order. its implied that rose joined because of what happened on starkiller base. she also talks about how everyone here sells weapons to the first order and gets rich off of it. bb8 does his damn job and finds red flower guy, but they get arrested for illegally parking the shuttle on the beach and dont get a chance to talk to the guy, whos gambling with two women on his arm.

one of the support ships runs out of fuel and gets exploded. I think its the medical one first. doesnt matter shit explodes and nobody cares.

JEDI LESSON #2: the jedi suck shit. the jedi are failures and luke keeps talking about it. talks about how he failed kylo ren. rey goes that there seems to be a light inside him (ew) somewhere near here. somewhere throughout the film are a few more force-vision things. one when its raining on Jedi island, one when Ren has no shirt (he looks like a ken doll) and another (the final one) when ren talks about his perspective of that night when luke confronted him.

rose and finn get thrown in space vegas prison, and are angrily yelling abt the problems with their plan when their roommate says ‘hey yeah i can break into a maximum security first order vessel’ then subsequently breaks out of prison. while rose and finn escape, bb8 bashes a few guards over the head and kicks ass.

Rose and Finn end up in the stables of those weird elephant-horse-camel creatures, and start a stampede with the help of the child slaves stable hands by using rose’s secret rebellion ring to prove theyre good guys. the animals seem to have a connection w/rose so i guess shes incredible. the dynamic duo are trapped between a clifface and the cops, and there’s a second where the pair say their ‘goodbye’s before a ship pops up with bb8 at the door going ‘get in bitch we’re going shopping!!!’ with the thief guy from before.

uuuh i think this is where support ship #2 goes because poe picks another fight saying that the new leader is running away and being a coward. she kicks him off the bridge.

rey explores the upside down dark force place on her own, and asks the dark force to show her her parents (I shit u not) it doesnt work and she tells this to kylo’s weirdass force ghost as she sits next to a fire. rey pleads w/ kylo to join the light one last time, and holds out her hand. fingertips touch and then luke fuckin rips the hut to shreds with the force. rey and luke fight, rey continuously pushing for the truth and luke confesses to, for a second, wanting to kill ren, and it was that second of weakness that led to all of this. rey thinks that ren can be saved and fucks off to Snoke’s Party Palace, where ren currently is. She takes the falcon and leaves luke behind.

poe starts a fight with the new leader while leia’s in a coma as the rebels abandon ship for the escape pods. he takes over and locks himself in the bridge to buy finn and rose more time. finn and rose have to barter with the codebreaker by giving him the only piece of her sister rose has left (a matching pendant with huge yin-yang vibes). finn calls him an asshole. the ship that they’re flying on belongs to somebody who sold weapons to both the first order and the resistance.

rey gets chewie to drop her off @ the Party Palace and is immediately captured by Ren and gets brought to Snoke. Snoke - still in the bathrobe - is pleased and brags about how his master plan is brilliant. turns out hes the reason there was a connection between them, AND the reason for the raging struggle in kylo ren. this bitch then fucking starts torturing rey for into on where the fuck luke is, rey aint a snitch so doesn’t say shit, but makes a few attempts at killing snoke. 

finn, rose, bb8, and randomass thief guy sneak onto the ship and wear disguises (including bb8, who is in an upside down trash can) to get to the tracking device thingy. however, bb8 is very unusual and attracts the attention of the first order version. thief guy uses rose’s necklace to crack open the lock, then gives it back. aww. but then they get caught by first order just as rose is about to break the tracker. not so aww. captain phasma shows up and finn is ready to start swinging.

poe’s locked down the bridge, and c3p0 is being a whiny shit and starts panicking when somebody starts lasering the door down. poe gets ready to shoot a bitch, but hesitates when he sees that it’s Our Lady and Saviour Leia. she, however, doesn’t hesitate and shoots him w/ something that causes him to go flying and knocks him out (???????)

on the rebellion ship, leia is talking to purple-hair lady - poe is being lifted into a shuttle - when purple-hair lady reveals that she’s going down w/ the ship so that the shuttles can escape. they say may the force be w/ u and leia looks longingly out the window @ her not-gf. poe wakes up, and leia explains the Master Plan. purple-hair lady knew about the tracking and had them rock up to this particular place because there’s a whole fucking planet nobody talks about that used to be a base.

rose and finn have been captured and are paraded thru the loading dock. the codebreaker sold information to the first order about the shuttles, and the ship begins firing on the shuttles.

WE INTERRUPT YOUR REGULAR SPACE FIGHT FOR SOME ANGSTY ISLAND BOI. luke goes to torch the tree where the jedi books are kept when yoda shows up (really bitch), asks wtf hes doing, then sets fire to the tree himself. theres some weirdass yoda speak of which i understood none of it but was about how failures are good teachers too (what is this motivational speaker month)

and back at it again at space fight the musical

Snoke’s still throwing rey around, then pushes her against a window so she can see the rebellion dying. he takes her/luke’s lightsaber, places it next to him, then tells kylo ren to kill her. snoke is revelling in rey being helpless, and starts monologuing kylo’s actions. ‘he turns the blade to face his true enemy’ luke’s blade shofts so it faces snoke ‘and slays his true enemy!’ a schwing, and snoke is literally a kebab. ren uses the force to DRAG THE LIGHT SABER THROUGH SNOKES FUCKIN ABDOMEN, CUTTING THAT PASTY BOI IN HALF. he gives it to rey, and then they fight snoke’s guards. its cool, there’s some teamwork, rey throws somebody in an oversized paper shredder. ren uses luke’s light saber at the end.

purple-hair lady sees that they’re going after her people and does possibly the coolest thing i’ve ever seen: she points the ship directly @ the bigass ship, and warps THROUGH IT. because there’s so little fuel, she doesn’t make it to actuasl warp, but is going fast enough that its an incredible battering ram which rips apart the ship, saving the lives of finn and rose, who are about to be executed. 

the floor breaks and they’re about to get outta there when phasma’s squad rocks up. one of the first order machines takes out most of the stormtroopers, and the pilot turns out to be bb8 (yeah, dont worry, rose and finn are confused too), and he distracts them as finn and phasma face off. the floor collapses and phasma falls in. byeeeeeee

rey and ren have won, everythings on fire, and ren decides that the best way to get a girl to join your side of the moral spectrum is to tell her that her parents are drunkards buried in paupers graves (damn, all those amazing lineage theories and they go with randomass power………… sad) and that the past should burn, the rebellion should die, all of it. he holds out his hand, and rey holds out hers SIKE shes taking the lightsaber and they’re basically standing there using the force when, really, some dumbass could just, yknow, GRAB IT. they are so ~evenly matched~ that luke’s lightsaber cracks down the middle, exploding and knocking them out.

NOW WERE GOING TO THE PLANET THINGY (god it never ends) where finn and rose make a dashing entrance and are almost killed because its a first order ship but poe hears them and calls off the gunfire (then immediately asks ‘WHERES MY DROID’ and honestly? i love). theyre surrounded by not-pokemon evolutions which are better than porgs. the rebellion gets a message sent to their allies (none answer. god thats worse than a groupchat) and then realises they’re sitting ducks because there’s one way into this base on the schematics and the first order is fuckin knocking.

hux finds ren on the floor, who blames rey for the death of snoke (bitchassliar) and claims the title of supreme leader, then goes after the rebellion. the first order has super polished weapons and the rebellion only has skimmers, which are the fancy version of skateboards with nerf guns like they are severely fucked. the first order also has a gun which they use as a battering ram.

when ren sends tie fighters out there, rey and chewie swoop in on the flacon and smash all of em (bless). the ground fire, however, gets almost all the skimmers. poe orders a fall-back, but finn doesn’t listen and goes straight for the cannon, a la poe at the beginning. rose, however, swoops in last second and stops him. when finn asks why, she says that the rebellion will win by saving what they love. she KISSES HIM. then falls into a coma.

all hope is lost until the OG BITCH, THE ONE THE ONLY LUKE SKYWALKER IN THE HOUUUUUUUUSE enters like its nbd. He holds leia, kisses her forehead, gives her a trinket from the falcon (two lil gold dice which i honestly thought were dreidels), then goes ‘bitch i got this’ and just stands in the middle of the battlefield doing the equivalent of the middle finger at ren, who loses it. hux tells him to #chill, and when its revealed that luke survived all that firepower, ren goes down to do it himself.

finn wants to step in, but poe realises its a distraction, and notices that the sparkly bois arent here, so there must be a natural exit somewhere. up above, rey is using the tracker to try and find them. 

outside, we figure out that ren is still a punk bitch and gets beaten by luke repeatedly. luke apologises for letting him down. ren goes on about destroying everything. luke calls him a dumbass. talks about rey being the next Jedi.

the rebels find the exit, but, lo behold, its covered in rocks. what does rey do like a fucking badass? move the damn ass rocks. FINNREY REUNION BITCHES. its cute. its v cute. theres a hug.

ren goes in for the kill. luke doesnt die. he stabs luke in the goddamn chest. luke is ACTUALLY A FORCE PROJECTION SIKE BITCH. luke fades away as the rebels escape on the falcon. the remains of whatever weirdass connection remainging between rey and kylo ignite one last time, but rey literally shuts the falcon door in his face (fuck that bitch)

the first order storm the empty base, hux is bein slim shady as fuck, ren finds the not-dreidels on the ground, which flicker out too.

cut to jedi island! luke is watching the sun go down, he smiles, cut to leia and rey pulling a face, and BAM Luke dies. hes gone. poof. his outfit blows away in the wind.

poe and rey FINALLY meet. ‘im poe dameron’ ‘im rey’ ‘i know’ finn is looking after rose (when finn grabs a cloth you can see the jedi books in the same drawer), and starin right @ her. leia sits next to rey, and they talk about luke dying. it’s not a sad death, rey says, but a peaceful one. it was his time, leia goes on. rey looks around at the twenty ish people who make up the rebellion now, and goes ‘how tf do we do this now’

CUT TO slave animal trainer baby in Space Vegas. kid has the ring and looks up at the stars. is holding a broom like a lightsaber as leia talks about hope as a spark which is slowly growing.

cut back to group shot from inside the falcon.

fin.

[finalnocturne]

Let’s talk about Evie.

So a while back I wrote a break down on disproving Mal being the toxic person a lot of people talk about her being by using a checklist of signs of if your significant other is a toxic abuser. Now I agree that there is a toxic main character in D2 and we’re going to talk about her today. Evie.

In D1 I didn’t mind Evie. She wasn’t a personality I liked but I understood why her character was that way. In D2 she does and gets away with so many things that can be considered toxic and abusive it angers me that I’ve never seen anyone else notice or acknowledge it. Instead of the checklist, I’m going to examine scenes with her and explain what’s wrong with her behavior.

Ways to be Wicked: A Mal dream sequence, so there’s not a ton of things to gather from this because of the way all of them are acting. But I’m going to note what she dreams Evie doing. Mostly that hers involves Chad and Fairy Godmother.

After the interview: Red flags immediately. Ben has to rush off to a meeting and is trying to give Mal a kiss on the cheek and say goodbye. Evie comes rushing over and roughly yanks Mal away from him. She scolds her that they need to get to a dress fitting right this second or Evie won’t be finishing her dress. She does a brief hi to Ben before dragging Mal away with “Let’s go, let’s go” and not letting them even have an actual goodbye. I don’t see this bit as funny or cute with her “you’ll be dancing in your bathrobe” I see the pulling and yanking as “you do things on my schedule and only my schedule.”

Dress fitting: We get the “I can’t breathe, you can breathe after” joke, which as a fashion designer myself, is terrible etiquette with a client, even if she’s your friend. Mal then continues on, expressing how she has so many things to do after Cotillion and she’s stressed out about them to the point that she can’t even keep it all straight. What is Evie doing when her friend is telling her about a problem? Ignoring her and praising her own work. Mal even makes a face, noticing this, but says nothing. Mal then asks a “what if we were still on the Isle” question seriously and Evie just scoffs and takes this tone to just shut her down. Mal realizes she forgot to read something, goes for her spell book and Evie, who was doing something else tunes right in on her flipping pages with this face of “she better not be doing things I told her not to.”

Just making a side note that some of the spells Mal had been using weren’t bad at all. She changed her hair color; no one was saying anything about it in D1 when she did everyone’s hair. She did a speed reading spell, she’s still reading just faster. The food spell, she had no time with everything else and Ben couldn’t take a cue that maybe he should provide the picnic since he has staff to get it ready for them.

When Evie takes the spell book, Mal acknowledges that she’s using it as a crutch. Does Evie say something like “why don’t I help you so you don’t need to use it?” No. She scolds Mal about secrets and pulls the “As your best friend” card. She further scolds Mal as if she were a child: “Don’t give me the face. Put the pout away. You know I’m right.” And basically just tells Mal that she’s out of luck doing all this because she can’t get help from anywhere. She is no way acting like a friend should when someone you say is your best friend is expressing that they’re having problems. “We’re Auradon girls now.” So shut up about the Isle and be a pretty princess Mal.

Chad’s fitting: This scene…. Really makes me angry, despite what makes me upset being so short. Now Chad is throwing out idea for his cape, trying to stand out at Cotillion. Evie does put the idea of King Chad in his head, and I will only give her this as a designer tactic since her client is trying to drastically change something when the item is mostly done. However, Doug even looks at them with the face of “are you really saying that to him?”

You get lip service acknowledging that Chad and Audrey aren’t together anymore. But when he leaves, crying mind you, what happens next? “Not a lot of there there.” Great, you’re calling back to the first movie, but the context is completely different. In D1, Doug said that to describe Chad to a girl he was looking at who was too busy staring at Chad. Chad also was spacing out so the point was being proven. This call back is thrown in in poor taste. The guy left crying and they laugh, say that line, and comment on him having a rough break up like a couple of mean girls.

Another side note, if Evie isn’t getting paid for her commissions until the dresses are delivered where did she get the money for all her equipment and materials? Nothing she has or makes is cheap.

Return to the Isle plans: “And we’ll bring the boys because there’s safety in numbers and none of us are too popular over there right now.” Okay so… if you didn’t have to bring them for safety, you had no intention of telling Jay and Carlos about Mal leaving? Even though they’re her friends too? You’re only bringing them for better protection?

“But let’s get two things straight.” She suddenly becomes very serious and demanding. Ben has to promise she won’t get stuck there again. Okay so her own personal well-being is paramount to her. The way she presents her conditions to Ben comes across like “if you don’t do this for me, I won’t help you at all then you won’t go.” This wouldn’t have been true, because Ben would have just gone over on his own then. She doesn’t control Ben like she acts like she controls Mal.

Dizzy: Evie’s not in the scene but we get important information. Evie has someone, much younger than them, still on the Isle that seems to adore the ground Evie walks on. But Evie earlier said “let’s leave the past in the past okay?” and forget everything about the Isle. So what does that say about what Dizzy means to her?

Leaving for the Isle: “Wait something’s wrong. *fixes Ben’s hat*” I just think this is a dumb pointless joke. That’s all.

Chillin’ Like a Villain: This sequence is fine. Since they do need to put reigns on Ben since he doesn’t know how to behave on the Isle. Also it’s all three of them and not just Evie doing it.

Reunion with Dizzy: You actually see Evie’s guilt starting to build when faced with having left Dizzy behind. I enjoy it. But it does show in hindsight what she was throwing aside to live as an Auradon girl and pretend never existed in her life.

Pre-Space Between: All of Evie’s reactions indicate a person being pulled out of her bubble and faced with reality of things not playing out the way she thinks it should. Mal saying that she didn’t want to spoil things for Evie when it came to Auradon really has no basis until this moment. When they first walked into those dorms in D1, Mal would’ve said something mean with Evie’s reaction. (Though that is a moment from D1 I love since it was executed well.) Up to Mal leaving in this movie, she had been trying to express herself about thinking back to the Isle and Evie was the one brushing her off. That’s not Mal apologizing for something she actually did, that’s something an abused says to their abuser to keep them satiated.

Space Between: I really can’t talk about this song much. It’s my least favorite and have to skip the scene every time. I honestly think this would’ve worked better as a Mal and Ben song (of which they don’t have a love song between them in either movie). I don’t like how it is used to basically brush off everything that happened with these two.

Returning to Auradon: After Ben goes to talk with Jane, what does Evie do? Grab Mal by the arm and start leading her away with a very firm “we need to talk.” Mal is in a fragile state so she lost her previous backbone stance and just goes with her. When Carlos stops them, she turns on him with this look of “Did you dare just say no to me?” After everything that happened on the Isle and showed Evie realizing her mistakes, she goes right back to pulling Mal around.

Evie and Doug: “Don’t be dopey.” It’s a cute scene and small confrontation, but it’s not bad. The only thing that bothers me is on both sides. I don’t like that line, it feels condescending. Doug ignoring what Evie just said about Ben. And then they both shrug the whole thing off. The scene’s not horrible it just doesn’t sit 100% with me.

Evie of the Isle: “…and his councilor Miss Evie of the Isle.” It’s implying that Evie is going to be Ben’s advisor and ambassador when it comes to Isle relations. Honestly, I think that should be Mal since she was also made a Lady of the court and all, and it would make sense to give her court responsibilities like that instead of just being a Lady to be Ben’s trophy arm candy as far as the rest of Auradon sees. But I reserve this for D3 and we’ll see what the case is then.

 So while Evie does have some of her behaviors fixed by the end of the movie, her depiction throughout bothers me so much. She is the toxic member of the Rotten Four as far as I’m concerned and I don’t think all of it should be brushed off like it seems to be.

[polandspringz]

Voltron Legendary Defender Season 2 Review (SPOILERS)

I would like to begin by saying that I was FLOORED by the final battle of the season. THAT WAS A FINAL BATTLE. Although I was worried a lot throughout the fight they were going to end it on some cliffhanger(which they sort of did), it was nothing as intense as last season, but that does not mean the stakes are not high, if not higher than they were at the end of season one. 

First off, I would like to note some of the improvements this season made before transitioning into its flaws. I thought the comedy this time around was spot on. Last season, the show was experimenting with its audience, and while it was enjoyable to older members, it still had a younger, less mature sense of comedy and style. Additionally, season one had a more ���edgy” shaky feel to it at certain times, and for first time watchers its fine. However, over a couple of months reflecting on it, and especially in comparison to the new episodes, the previous season does look a bit unstable. Season two managed to fix most of that, the comedic style was varied, with most of the jokes being made by Hunk having the punchline of being overly explained for younger audiences who can appreciate those jokes in succession while the other characters strayed from wisecracks and made genuine jokes that worked within their characterization. The one that made me completely lose it was Pidge’s “Spores Code”, particularly for its delivery. It was made with no eye movement or anything to signify her thinking of it beforehand, and the way she followed its use by a delayed “HAH!” before the scene cut just worked with how the audience processed it, as they would be catching up with the dialogue right alongside Pidge’s realization. (And forewarning, I will be referring to Pidge as “she” throughout the review, but I will get to that later, so I hope that won’t deter you too much).

Secondly, the action scenes in themselves were very well done. The way the art shifted to have those lines across the images during intense scenes (not entirely sure how to categorize them) were seen in season one as well, but they were much more prominent this time. They were used gradually throughout the show, with the monochrome beige and red background and line art being utilized in the most drastic moments helped stress the emotion. Especially in the final fight, I felt like I was watching something from Gainax or Trigger. Also, this is where I talk about the show being less “edgy”. This season’s battles were very high stake, everything was on the line, but the show’s balance of comedy and action drama was so perfect that it let things flow better. I think this is also do to the way the world felt more fleshed out overall. I remember seeing in either an interview transcript or an interview on youtube the creators talking about how in season one, they really enjoyed the Altean language and cultural jokes the show pushed, and that really stuck out in this season. The creators had a whole segment on Pidge studying the Altean language to later on come back to haunt the other paladins when she began to use idioms and jokes unfamiliar to them and there was also the whole way the plot of the “Slipperies” fit into Coran’s small character development. Most of all, the foundations set to give all the new aliens and groups unique comedic personalities stuck out, with the viewer even being given multiple scenes showing Zarkon’s desperation and Haggar’s disapproval. I keep using the same transitional phrases, but overall, I truly do believe that this is what made this season such a treat to watch. The creators stopped keeping the villains to just villains and the aliens to just aliens and made the leap to do simple things like have characters like Slav act quirky and anxious or the security guard who dreamed of being like Zarkon. It just helped world build and immerse the viewer much better than the first season which had this wall of mystique and edge that kept it feeling a bit empty and kid oriented.

Now, onto some of the flaws.

Episode 1, 5, and 13 were my top three episodes from this season, with Space Mall fitting somewhere in between them. Episode one was a good transition between the seasons, it jumped between the different scenes well, had good comedic timing, and built up suspense about Shiro without overshadowing or contradicting too much of the mood of the other scenes. Space Mall had a bit of problems balancing this, because I liked all the subplots in the episode separately, but Shiro and his Black Lion’s arc just did not flow well with the rest of the scenes. Standing alone, it’s amazing,for I had the suspicion from the beginning that they never actually left the castle and the way Zarkon and Shiro had to fight one another with their minds was well done. Yet, the jump into the “mindscape”, as I’ll call it, was very sudden and confusing with Zarkon saying how if they died here they would die for real. (Leaving me to shout at my phone, “IF YOU DIE IN THE GAME YOU DIE IN REAL LIFE”) Generally, my main issue was how we would go from very jocular, joke-riddled and driven scene to one so dramatic that I felt Shiro’s arc should have been placed in another episode. 

Also, this was the season of Shiro. Keith did get a lot of growth with most of the fandom’s theories being confirmed about him, the way the knife tied into it all and such, but from the way the final episode ended, anyone could tell this season was about Shiro. (And the next will probably be Keith’s). One of my favorite things I liked about Shiro’s growth in the show was that he stepped out of the “Dad” parameters set up around him and seemed like another young guy, not quite on the same level as the other paladins, but he became flawed. After he kept repeating to Keith about patience and keeping calm, I was so excited when Slav appeared because it was so clever to have Shiro develop backwards, in a sense. Rather than having him overcome any flaws for growth, the writers gave him a setting in which he could develop flaws. We can see Shiro get seriously angry when given the right circumstances, and the irony in his statements to Keith help bring this to life even more so. On a side note, I would like the bring up something that might upset the Sheith fans a bit. I feel like this season really established that Keith sees Shiro in a fatherly view, as not only did the animators have the “hologram” Shiro transform into Keith’s dad, but we also saw how similar they designed their eyes and other features (Scar on nose vs. scar on forehead). I was a little worried going into this season because about a week before I had heard some news about one of the creators liking a “Sheith” photo on twitter and everyone blew up about it. I really do not want to see any romance happen in this show, not only for personal reasons but also because I feel like it would not only destroy the fanbase but ruin a lot of the integrity and style the show has just now started to build correctly. To be fair on both sides, the elevator scene with Keith and Lance did make me chuckle (”GIRLS DON’T WANT A VOLTRON SEASON 2 GIRLS WANT A VOLTRON BEACH EPISODE” and I also yelled, “TWO BROS CHILLIN’ IN A HOT TUB, FIVE FEET AWAY...”) but I felt like Keith and Lance’s dynamic wasn’t well established this scene. For me personally, Lance almost came close to be destroyed as a character for me. The elevator scene felt like a bone was thrown to the Klance shippers, and I felt like it contradicted anything we had witness between the two before. Sure, they had a mild spat back and forth, and we got another clip where Lance tells Keith to back off his Lion in a bathrobe and face mask, but then we also got a scene where they “had each other’s backs” and it felt like the writers were just constantly fluctuating their opinions on one another depending on the scene and the tempo of the other characters or for plot advancement purposes without taking time to really delve into how these two characters actually feel about one another as paladins.

Lance’s character problems for me also tie into Pidge’s for this season, as it felt very repetitive in episode two and four for me. I could accept Lance and Hunk’s adventure, but once we got the mermaids in the picture I felt like I was watching Hunk and Shay except with Lance and mermaids. Of course they had different purposes in the story, but when we suddenly got Pidge going to a planet about technology, I immediately felt like the writers were trying to check boxes off character arcs as quickly as possible. Back to Lance though, the one thing I could sort of accept and by pass was the scene with him and Laika (the yupper) where Lance suddenly starts to question his worth on the team. This was a bit random, but I also understand how someone could easily start to overthink things about what others think about them when left pretty much alone, so it worked, especially when Lance proved his abilities later. This was not done for Pidge. Pidge’s planet arc really bothered me only at the end of the episode when she learned her Lion’s true potential. When she first got to the planet, she made a statement about her brother Matt. Later on, when she’s about to activate the Lion’s power, we see her struggling to connect with her Lion and hearing the voice’s of her friends saying how they need her and that helps her focus. This worked with Lance, because Lance had self-doubt before Shiro fixed it by saying “That’s why we bring our sharpshooter.” With Pidge, it was like we had the development with nothing to develop from. If before they had landed on the planet, we had had a moment where Pidge talks about her technology or something or had done something and was mildly brushed off by the other characters, the same effect in Lance’s case would have occurred. We, as the audience, would not have had to been given a whole episode of the paladins being disappointed in Pidge but rather we would just have needed a little nudge about something with how they react to her, like how they react to her using technological or Altean terms. If we had been given a set up in the beginning of the episode to show her being somewhat annoyed, the moment where she hears her friends voices would have been more meaningful as we would have made the connections ourselves. Pidge’s line later at the end of the episode talking about how technology has always been important to her felt empty to. Considering the mention of Matt at the start of the episode, it seemed like they could have used this line to have her elaborate or at least have the audience be shown a flashback or something with Matt that would make her love of technology in the present that much more important or valuable rather than just a quirky aspect of her personality.

Now, I’m almost done, but I haven’t addressed the last part of Pidge’s character.

The bathroom scene.

I’m not here to call this a flaw despite it succeeding my list of flaws with this season. I thought the bathroom scene was well executed for something done for a kid’s show. It really wasn’t concrete clear and offered two interpretations so people could take from it what they will before the writers decide to clarify anything. We are given a scene displaying two bathrooms, both with unfamiliar symbols, but one colored pink, the other blue. Pidge glances between them, and we see a non-identifiable alien emerge, and Pidge says she will “hold it”. I know the majority of the fanbase is jumping on this to show that the writers are saying Pidge is non-binary or genderfluid or trans or such. I personally do not see Pidge as transgender. The reasons behind her posing as a boy at the Garrison are still unclear, as girls are obviously allowed to enroll, and she only raises more suspicion around the people who knew her brother by looking more like them. In my opinion, I saw Pidge dressing like her brother as a coping mechanism for the loss. Looking like him would be a constant reminder to her of what was either lost so she doesn’t forget her mission or it was just a way of making her feel like he was still with her. But, back to bathrooms. I had seen this gif online as a spoiler at first when I took a break between episodes. I was worried they were laying down any definite statements about these characters without fleshing them out, but the bathroom scene also provides two interpretations. If you look at the first half, with the two symbols alone, it makes sense that people can use this to support the Pidge’s gender argument as although the symbols are vague, the colors should be enough to tell her which one is for men or women. Hell, the later scene when Keith walks out of the blue one shows that at least one other Paladin “knows” which one to go in. (I personally could just see Keith saying screw it and taking a chance) However, the thing afterwards, where we see an non-identifiable alien emerge from the “ladies” room, the show also could be saying that Pidge is still confused on which bathroom is which and not which one she feels she should go in. It is easy to also interpret the scene that the colors aren’t enough for her to distinguish, which I think works well for children who are watching the show and wouldn’t fully pick up on all the little things yet. (It’s like that scene in Spongebob where they are in the trench city or whatever?) Regardless of what you view Pidge as, the way the writers portrayed this scene allowing a double meaning was a good choice, as it gave the fans what they wanted while also easing the children and those who are less likely to agree with the gender debate something they could stomach. And hey, if you think that kids should be fully exposed to this early on, consider this scene something they can watch when older and realize the full connotations of if they so choose.

All in all, I’d give Voltron Legendary Defender an 8/10 with the first season at a 7/10.