#just watched the episode where he tried to stake himself why-

[jennifersminds]

btvs season 4 spike x scooby gang dynamic my beloved.

[yellowocaballero]

Continuing the JJK posting: Gojo is such a mystifying character.

Action show where swinging out the gate you introduce a character who is so incredibly powerful you then have to, before every fight, establish why Gojo can't just show up and fix the problem in seconds. His existence weakens the stakes of everything. The rest of the show you are backflipping ridding yourself of him. He jobs two major bad guys off the gate and every subsequent extensive fight with them feels like cleaning up his leftovers. Put him in a box, he's ruining the game balance. So absolutely broken. As a writer it makes your job so difficult, but it's also the entire point of him. "Hey I want to write the single most badass character of all time who can do the most insane shit but I will also engage with that", rock on king.

I think he's most interesting when understood as somebody who is fundamentally alien and removed from ordinary human thought processes. In his world there is absolutely nothing he cannot do, and the thought 'maybe I can't do something' just doesn't occur to him. He is capable of doing whatever he wants and of killing anybody who tries to stop him from doing what he wants. If he is not doing something, it is because he does not want to do it. If he wants to do something (kill all of his superiors) and he's not doing it, it's because he doesn't think it's the most effective route towards what he has decided to do. I think this informs the majority of his actions (and, importantly, what he doesn't do)(murder). I think he's reasoned out that you should have a general reason to do things, and it feels like sheer luck that he places value and meaning in human life, and as such you shouldn't kill them without a strong reason. Watching the flashback arc, if I hadn't seen a) JJK and b) Naruto and you asked me which shitty teen became a law abiding school teacher and which became a mass murderer I would have guessed the wrong ones.

Anyway, the way I like to think of him, he's a raging narcissist with a god complex to match. Horrifically, he's actually a good teacher, but he is also a teacher as an ego/'raising my child army' thing. He would be the kind of mother who is a good mother but lowkey had kids also as an ego/unconditional love/lots of attention/'surely my child will worship me' thing. Gets randomly into new hobbies, obsesses over them, gorges himself on the novelty factor, before dropping them in a week once he gets too good at them. Rinse and repeat. The only hobby that does not eventually grow boring is annoying people, so it's his only hobby. Geto told him age 15 that he'll never have any friends if he keeps on casually reminding people that they live on his sufferance, so he developed another back-up hobby more conducive for friendship of helping people forget that they live on his sufferance. This has convinced him that he's a god of subterfuge, intrigue, and trickery. Does eat women out, but is convinced that this makes him God's gift to women, and is actually pretty terrible in bed because his partner's desires never even occur to him. Is convinced he's as good at sex as he is everything else. Sex is actually the one thing he's bad at, but he's not ready to hear that.

In S1 he overall left me with the general impression that his entire idea of how high school worked was sourced from anime, and as such decided that being a teacher involved nothing but field trips, sports games, beach episodes, sports festivals, etc. Did not know how the classroom component worked so he skips it. Jossed, but also left me convinced that it would be very funny if he was an immortal 150-whatever years old and had founded the high school himself out of, you guessed it, an ego thing, and never once properly learned how high schools worked and just arbitrarily made his own aging students the new principals so he could continue engaging in training the kids who are too Misfit (TM) to get apprenticeships and living his fun slice of life anime life and raising a child army of kids who will worship him any day now. Annnyyyy day now. Any day now.

[tss-whumper]

I keep thinking about touch-starved whumpee Roman and caretaker Logan. Roman knows Logan doesn't like touch much, but then Logan hugs him after realizing Roman's touch-starved, and...Roman kinda breaks. Logan is steady and precise, and Roman is so so cold and confused and never wants to leave.

Anyway, no pressure to write this! (/gen)

I love how you write Patton & Roman bc it feels accurate to me, lol. Haven't been here in a while, but wanted to see how you were doing. Glad I returned to read some of your awesome fics!

Take care :D (/pos)

aww, thank you so much for all the kind words, anon!! i really appreciate the support. this idea looks amazing, and i'd love to write something with it. i hope this is what you were looking for!

---

Roman was cold.

He wasn't quite sure why. This had been happening for a few weeks now, Roman woke up and was cold. He ate breakfast and was cold. He even was cold while taking his hour-long hot showers. No matter what he did, he always felt like he was freezing from the inside out. It had only just recently gotten to the point where he was shivering every moment of the day, his teeth chattering whenever he was not talking.

And that was why Roman was where he was now: wrapped in a blanket, on the couch, in front of the fireplace. While all of the other sides were wearing tank tops and shorts, Roman was secretly wearing pajama pants underneath a second pair of pajama pants.

Roman was focusing on keeping warm, but the sound of arguing started to emerge from the hallway into the living room, causing the creative side to carefully listen in, as he tended to do.

"Patton, I don't want a hug. Get off me."

Logan was clearly losing his patience with the overly-affectionate side, and Roman watched from the couch as Logan's muscles tensed and his breathing grew more labored. It was not a secret that the logical side generally disliked physical touch, especially when he was not the one initiating it. The only thing he hated more than physical touch was not being listened to.

"Oh, Logan, stop being such a sourpuss!" Patton chided, "I'm just showin' my favorite logical guy some love! Hug me back, and then I'll let you go!"

Logan rolled his eyes, and they flashed with irritation as he reluctantly hugged Patton back. The paternal side squealed and let go of Logan, skipping out of the room to likely do the same surprise bear hug to Virgil that he had subjected Logan to.

Roman huffed softly from his spot on the couch. Once again, Patton hadn't even noticed that he was in the room. Recently, it had been like that more and more. Patton gave all his attention to all the other sides, but when Roman was around, he awkwardly shuffled away. Roman had tried to make amends from what happened in the past few episodes, going so far as to try and protect Patton from Janus, but it never seemed to be enough for him.

But that wasn't the important thing right now. Roman shivered, a bit cold in the room as he stood up and approached Logan.

"Hey, pocket watch, wanna watch musicals with special effects and try to figure out how they do them?" he offered.

Logan offered a small, tired smile.

"Sure, Roman," he said, "That would be lovely."

Together, the two sides went to Roman's room. Though most of the fans saw the clear animosity between Roman and Logan, the two were rather good friends off-camera. When there was nothing at stake for Thomas, they found good company in each other. Logan helped Roman listen to reason when he was being overly idealistic, and Roman helped Logan find hope and inspiration where there seemed to be none at all.

And best of all, they both loved to watch musicals with special effects and try to figure out how they were done. They giggled and kicked their feet and shouted like children when they guessed correctly.

Something about being with Logan made Roman feel as if he could be himself for a change. He didn't have to put on a performance that he was some grand, indestructible prince, simply because there was no point. Logan could always see right through Roman's acts. Logan knew that Roman was not really a prince, that he really was very sensitive. And though that was scary sometimes, it was usually refreshing, not needing to pretend. Especially because it was obvious that Logan knew how it felt to be put on that sort of stifling pedestal.

Roman was the only person who Logan felt safe to be himself around too, though not for the same reason. Logan struggled to be taken seriously by the other sides, often seen as a joke. Though Roman teased Logan, it was clear that Roman did not view Logan as lesser-than or pathetic. Roman listened to and respected Logan's wishes, especially off camera. He made Logan feel...listened to. And almost appreciated at times? It was something Logan was generally unfamiliar with. But with Roman, it tended to be abundant.

"Roman? What's going on?"

Roman blinked, and looked over at Logan. He clutched his blankets closer to himself as he felt a terrible chill come over him.

"N- no- nothing," Roman stammered between his chattering teeth, "I'm just cold is all."

"Cold?" Logan asked sharply, extremely concerned, "It's eighty degrees in here, and you have two blankets on. I'm surprised you aren't overheating."

Roman was not expecting that level of worry from Logan, who was usually so level-headed.

"Um...I dunno," Roman shrugged, "I'm just cold. I don't know what to tell you. It's been like this for a few weeks now. I figured my room just had a draft or something."

Logan felt Roman's forehead. Roman shivered, subconsciously leaning into Logan's gentle and warming touch. Logan's fingers delicately brushed the hair away from Roman's forehead.

"You don't feel feverish or unwell," the logical side mused, "You don't seem to be sick at all. But I can't think of any other reason why you might feel like...this."

Logan paused when he saw how Roman reacted to his touch.

"You're so warm," Roman murmured, an almost delirious smile on his face, "I've never felt anything warmer, not in all my life."

Logan did not think he was particularly toasty. He frowned a bit, and put his other hand on Roman's shoulder. When the creative side practically keened into the touch, Logan realized what the problem was, the pieces of the puzzle coming together in his head in one immediate snap.

"It's touch," he realized, "Roman, when was the last time somebody touched you?"

"Three weeks ago," Roman said, as if he had the time and place memorized, "When Patton petted my head after I did the dishes."

"So you've gone three weeks without being touched..." Logan mused, "And you're cold. And the moment I touch you, you're warm."

Logan decided to try something else. But when he leaned in to hug Roman, the creative side quickly pulled away.

"Logan- please, you don't have to do that," Roman said quickly, "Patton said I need to work on my selfishness and pushiness. I- I don't want you to hug me if you don't want to. I know you don't like touch. I'll be fine. It's just a little cold."

"Roman."

Logan's voice was so sharp that Roman looked up from his rambling in surprise. Sure, he was used to Logan sounding stern, but this was more than that. His violet-blue eyes blazed with an intensity that Roman rarely saw from his friend. Logan was considerably vexed.

"I mean-"

"Roman."

"I didn't mean to-"

"Roman."

"But I just wanted to-"

"Roman!"

Roman ceased.

"I understand what you intended," Logan said, with an awkward chuckle, and warmth seeped into his tone, making him sound almost friendly. "And I know I've expressed that I'm not particularly fond of physical affection. But this is different. You need me, and...honestly, it's not the touch that I dislike. It's the suddenness of being touched without permission. When Patton surprise hugs me, it...makes me nervous. When Remus elbows me out of nowhere, or when Virgil ruffles my hair, it just unnerves me. I like hugging my friends, Roman. I like it when I get to decide when it starts and ends. Does that make any sense?"

Roman couldn't hide the bright grin that formed on his face.

"It makes sense," he reassured, but a shiver ran through his body, causing him to let out a whimper as he hugged himself in an attempt to preserve body heat.

He rushed to put the blankets around himself again, but Logan stopped him gently. And then, he pulled Roman into the softest, gentlest, warmest hug that Roman had ever experienced. The prince's doe-like brown eyes went round as saucers. And then, he hugged Logan back, with the same gentle strength that Logan exhibited.

And they hugged for a good, long time. Until Roman stopped shivering. Then, Logan got to initiate exactly when it was time to pull back. The two sides looked into each others eyes for a long time. And Logan did not for a moment expect to see tears shining in Roman's.

"Roman...what's the matter?" Logan asked, quickly bringing a hand to Roman's cheek to swipe away the glistening tears.

"I don't know- I- I-" Roman whimpered, "I've never felt so warm. This feeling, it's- it's not bad, but I'm just- I'm so overwhelmed..."

He sobbed and sobbed, and Logan pulled him close, allowing Roman to sob into his shoulder. Logan did not show it on his ever-neutral face, but his heart clenched whenever he heard his dear friend's cries. Roman was a crier, whether he was happy, sad, or angry. But despite how common it was to hear and see, Logan still never quite got used to it. Logan just hated to see Roman look so confused and lost. The creative side had never looked more like a child than he did in that moment.

"It's alright, Roman," Logan hushed gently, "It's alright. I've got you. And I want this. I know you're a lot colder than I am. But being here with you, I've never felt so warm either. It appears we have that in common. So relax. Please. I want you here. I...I love you, Roman."

"I..." Roman's breath caught in his throat.

God, how long had it been since somebody said those words to him with such sincerity and sureness?

How long had it been since somebody said them to Logan?

"I love you too," the creative side replied, the words coming out his mouth as easily as water poured through a stream.

There was much more hugging, and staring, and hugging, and staring. The touched-starved prince and the typically emotionally unavailable teacher both felt more alive when they were together. It was such a beautiful feeling they shared, something that could not quite be described or otherwise replicated. All they knew was that together, in that room, surrounded by blankets and all by themselves, Roman and Logan felt trust.

"To think," Roman laughed, in higher spirits already, "The solution was right here this entire time!"

"How absurd of me to be so dense!" Logan cried out, "To have only noticed this now, I'm very ashamed of myself."

"Don't be," Roman reassured, "I couldn't be more grateful for you, Logan."

"And same to you, Roman," Logan said, "If you ever need some warmth from me again, you can always ask. Alright?"

Roman beamed and nodded enthusiastically.

"You got it, teach! he said, "And the second you want it all to stop, I'll pull away. Okay?"

Logan sighed softly, and the smile that grew on his face was so wide and free that it surprised him. To think. Having the choice. It was nice to have a physical relationship that did not feel conditional.

"Okay," he affirmed, adjusting his glasses. "It's a deal."

[chrismcleaneatspants]

General season 2 opinions. MASSIVE TDI 2023 season 2 spoilers ahead (as well as a huge wall of text.) You've been warned.

Ok, so here's everything I like about the season (I can count them on my fingers)

-There were some funny jokes

-MKulia was entertaining and it's now in my top 5 favorite ships, but it's not perfect, as I'll explain later

-Hockey dudes were a joy to watch I suppose

-Bowie stole the show as usual

-There are a lot of neat challenges (The canoe, slide, and dog challenges was a particular stand outs to me)

-MK herself was really funny

-MacArthur's cameo was a surprise to be sure, but a welcome one, and she bounces off of Chris really well

-Duncney is still broken up lol

Honestly that's about it in terms of positives, cuz I have a million other negatives for this supposed sequel to (imo) the best written season of the show.

-The Relationships were the single worst aspect about this season full stop. Ripaxel and Praleb are probably the worst couples the show has ever subjected me to. For Ripaxel, they basically removed anything interesting Ripper had going on and Axel wasn't allowed to live up to any kind of hype she created because one lame ass poem turned her into Ripper's girlfriend for the remaining duration of her run, only for the both of them to be tossed aside in episode 7 in perhaps the worst double elimination in the entire show.

-Praleb started off ok. I thought it was gonna be a one-sided crush plot initially before Episode 6. They had a couple cute moments before episode 8, of which their screentime became suffocating because afterwards is was this painful back and forth where Caleb tried explaining himself and Priya would be mad at him, then ally with him, then be mad at him again like it was so tiresome. By the time they got together in the finale again, I was wishing they had just followed up on Pramien instead. Caleb by himself was funny in the first half of season 2 and Priya was great in season 1, but the two of them together were insufferable

-Speaking of Priya, she went from one of the best characters in season 1 to one of the worst in season 2. Why did she have to make it all the way to episode fucking 12 after winning season 1?? Just for some generic heterosexual romance? They also made her so dumb with shit like knowing Julia is manipulating her but then getting a surprise Pikachu face when Julia manipulated her??? You spent your entire life preparing for this show, how the fuck did you not see this coming???

-Segwayying into Julia, she's the worst antagonist full stop. I've never seen such an absolute downgrade of a character. She was a goat in season 1 who was aware of her situation and acted accordingly because the stakes were real. Here? Reality basically warps around her just to keep her in the game. She does things characters would never fall for in season 1 and they just go with it?? They insist on keeping her in the finale and do basically nothing interesting with her. She's not even as funny as Island Heather at the end of the day.

-I mentioned MKulia earlier, so I'll just get to it here: I like it in concept. Two evil sapphics causing chaos together is really fun. My main issue is that it was very sudden. They both were not fans of each other at the end of season 1 and now I'm supposed to just believe they became friends off screen? I mean, I guess, but it's kinda cheap. I would have really liked it if it was straight up enemies to lovers ngl. Also the fact MK had very little agency outside of being Julia's lackey doesn't help either. I want to point to the fake contract thing, for instance. Why did Julia do that? That sounds like an MK thing to do.

-Time to dive into other characters: Damien is an absolute fucking tragedy. At the end of season 1, Damien had one ambition: win next season. They kinda did that, sure, but they regressed Damien into being a complete coward to do so, not to mention he didn't even go all the way either. Damien didn't get a W until episode 6 and tbh that was his only W. By the end of his tenure, I was left confused on what the point of his run was. (I'll come back to this later.)

-What was the point of Nichelle? Like seriously, what did she contribute to the season at all? They didn't do the ironic underdog story with her, and considering she was getting all egotistical and aggressive, i thought she was gonna be the antagonist for sure...until Julia got rid of her in episode 5 in a way that really shouldn't make sense cuz like Nichelle is an actual celebrity that stars in blockbuster movies, I'm pretty sure she could sniff a fake contract a mile away, right?

-Hockey dudes were great, but I felt like they were very dumbed down at times? Like they were just generic dumb dudes that just meandered around a lot of the time (Wayne in particular just straight up floated away from a challenge at one point)

-Bowie was alright too. His line delivery is great as usual, but let's not kid ourselves: In a well written season, he'd be going straight for Julia the next time his team lost. Bowraj was nice to see even if the season didn't really do a whole lot with it

-Am I the only one who thinks this season is a tad bit misogynistic? Like this is the shortest them phase the show as ever had (to the point where i'd argue teams don't really matter) and 4 of the 5 team phase boots were girls. Millie and Emma in particular were really bad. Like, you could make Millie a team phase boot without like shitting on her that hard. And Emma got like fuck all closure outside of breaking up with Chase off screen like wow, way to utilize such a high potential character, Fresh. And this is saying nothing about how the girls that did make it to the merge had plots basically dominated by romance and like nothing else. And then there's MKulia which is apparently intended to be a friendship but like is written like a romantic one at times. It gives me all-stars gwourtney vibes and (as a fan of gwourtney myself) not in a good way. At least MK and Julia were somewhat in character I guess, but they had their edges really sanded off and honestly as a friendship (situationship?) it's a complete downgrade from Millie and Priya in so many ways

-And another thing: who's the protagonist this season? Outside of Praleb, who am I supposed to care for? Who am I supposed to root for? By the halfway mark, the show doesn't really make any convincing arguments to root for like anyone there outside of maybe Damien? And he went gone in episode 10, so like, hockey dudes? No one has an interesting enough narrative for me to care.

-The immunity idol stinks as usual. Like, why did Damien do THE SAME FUCKING THING HEATHER DID IN ALL-STARS?? That actually pissed me off so much holy shit. The immunity idol as it stands in the show is basically a shitty plot device made to keep characters in as there's no real strategy revolved around it.

-Oh and another minor thing: Owen's cameo sucks, and that's entirely due to him not being physically aged up at all and just being a vehicle for the same dumb jokes they always make with him. so stupid

-Anyways, I spend an entire season with two shitass straight relationships taking up screentime, a whole multiude of potential plotlines from last season (pramien) and this season (scary girl's revenge, millie being the new ripper, damien's comeback, julia having internal conflict over her friendship (feelings?) for MK) being set up and just nothing being done with them, and characters in general just being nerfed or borderline out of character (Ripper) and what am I rewarded with?

-Soar Losers. The most boring nothing finale in the entire show. The choices for finalists suck, Wayne, while being the least bad option for a winner (and i do still like him a lot), is still a mid ass winner in the grand scheme of the entire show. And more praleb drama? fuck off I hate them so much. The challenge did not feel finale worthy at all, and honestly it was the worst challenge in the whole season. On top of being a bunch of nothing, the show decides to bring back the worst trope it ever had: losing hair as karma. I almost ragequit the episode on the spot that shit makes me so irrationally mad. I think it's even worse here because Julia still had hair after the fact, which makes it seem like they were aware it's not a popular TD trope but wanted to half commit to it anyways for the sake of tradition or something. Terrible finale to an already decently sized letdown of a season, but it has some ok MKulia moments I guess. The finale was just emblematic of the entire season, where things just happen and you're just expected to go along with everything. (Also side note how come Chase wasn't the one to jump off of the cart for pizza immediately?)

TL;DR reboot season 2 imo was a step down in every conceivable way from season 1 apart of i guess comedy and it's left a very sour taste in my mouth. I'm probably missing a few points that I'll add onto later but man it feels nice putting my opinion out there.

[inventedfangirling]

Episode 7 Pat : To lose or not to win that is the question

Okay I saw a post talking about how episode 7 pat "loses the bet everyday" and how in this rooftop scene...

Pat raises the stakes (asking pran to confess in public) to keep Pran from saying the words just then (knowing he won't take that option) is making me feel and think a lot of things and now my brain is all over the place and i might as well just all note it down here or i won't have peace of mind.

At the outset i want to confess that eventhough i know that the bet has been for pran's sake i still viewed at as a legitimate competition that both pat and pran were trying to win, but i'm realising more and more how (for a large part of the bet) that just wasn't the case at all.

Pat came all the way from Bangkok to the hostile architecture trip alone only and only for Pran. Pat wants to be with him. Pran knows that and Pat knows that Pran knows that. He hasn't tried to hide it at all.

Pat knows that Pran has feelings for him, Pran knows that Pat knows that. But he also isn't ready to admit what it would entail and the familiarity of competition between them allows him to explore that.

"Whoever falls in love first loses" - when both of them know that they have feelings for each other, is hilaaaarious on first watch, but once you've rewatched it countless times and reached a whole new level of brain rot where your blood cells have p cells embedded within p cells in them then it isn't funny, it isn't funny at all * screams into a pillow *

Coming back to the bet, and what it actually means which is that whoever admits it(their feelings) first, loses. And all of us including pat and pran know that pat has already lost. Him coming to the trip just to get Pran to talk and his confession that he actually didn't like Ink 'like that' is all pointing to just one very obvious thing.

So Pat has already lost and yet they're both entering into the bet as if on equal ground. Pat could (and is very much willing to) keep losing over and over again, he very clearly wants to be with Pran but he would keep the charade of the bet up if it meant Pran wasn't ready.

Which means that the entire time that they were teasing and flirting with each other, all throughout episode 7, pat keeps on losing just for Pran's sake.

Do you realise how absolutely insanely madly crazy (mature) in love Pat is???? This might be a childish bet to YEW but to him its a space for Pran (and him) to explore their feelings without the responsibility of a relationship on them, it's actually revolutionary.

Kinda like killing with kindness, which basically sums up the kinda guy Pat is when he's with Pran.

"Don't force me to" he says in response to Pran's "You're just not brave to" (confess) when all of us know Pat is very well brave enough to do that and that is exactly what Pat is reiterating here. He's saying "you very well know why i'm partaking in this charade don't act like you don't i could kiss your competitive ass right now but im not doing it cos i want you to (admit that you) want it".

The man is basically losing (coming over to play and then offering to clean pran's face cos he looked upset screams somebody who wants to win real bad right hahahah NOT *argh pat can you not be so unreally sweet people have to go back to their real lives with real men to be disappointed by*) over and over again asking Pran to "just let me love you, you dork".

Here Pat is literally doing the confession, the very thing they started the bet stating, "i'll make you beg on your knees for me", well he's almost doing the next best thing, and he's doing it willingly, in front of people, with the most genuine smile on his face.

And when he raises the stakes on the rooftop and he does it entirely for Pran again. As much as he wants to be with Pran he equally wants it to be when Pran is ready for it. Not for it to be a decision he is forced or boxed into. He doesn't want to beat Pran he wants Pran to walk into the loss like he himself did, over and over again, because that's just the kinda guy he is.

Boy basically said if me winning the bet means you losing your chance to make that choice for yourself then i don't want that kinda win.

Which is why he's been willingly giving up all the chances to win throughout the episode, but continuing to put up the charade of the bet cos 1. yeah ofc its loads of fun teasing pran and he is so grateful he gets to be close to him again but more importantly 2. he can't (but he is fully willing to) wait for Pran to mentally be ready to get into a relationship.

"As for me, when i have a lover, I always let my lover win" - And truer truths haven't been told. Man has been losing since the very beginning. And that too happily. He is only doing it to give Pran the time that he deserves to process the whole thing and accept his love.

See even here he isn't expecting Pran to confess his love and sweep the whole bet thing away.

Look at Pat pausing trying to figure out what Pran is doing here. I can almost hear the cogs in his brain turn, until the very moment that Pran extends his hand to wipe the stray piece of rice away and then gives him that look. The look that says, "I love you, i'm done making you wait, thankyou, i love you".

So to conclude, Pat like the simp he is entered the bet (and kept willfully losing) only to make Pran comfortable. And literally the first moment that he completely feels comfortable, Pran gives in.

This whole post is borne out of my thoughts after i read what was said in here.

For more of my bet era patpran brainrot :

[ooglywooglies]

FINE, LILY ORCHARD DUNGEON MESHI RESPONSE POST I GUESS

im just going through all the video points and making oppositions to them based on what i think, thats it.

laios useless in the red dragon fight: this is setting up the premise of the story where laios is spacing out because he cannot strategize on an empty stomach which is why the party loses.

there is no urgency to rescuing falin after everyone escapes the dungeon: thats to show that all the adventurers are so used to the dungeons immortality that theyve forgotten about the consequences of death (and also they are not thinking straight bc they are hungry)

dungeon meshi is not slice of life in the traditional low stakes way a slice of life set in the real world might be. the entire premise is about making a fantasy dungeon crawler and its heroes more grounded and showing things that aren't shown in video games, eating, sleeping, bathing, etc. a major theme is life and death, what is needed to sustain life and how death is a necessary part of it.

the tone of the show is not meant to be serious/silly/serious/silly, its not supposed to be wholesome, fun, and heartfelt, though it can be those things, its supposed to be weird and demystifying because its about real life (though a fantasy lense) and real life doesnt adhere to tone either.

resurrecting falin, having a bath and dinner, and then thistle coming to collect her happening in two episodes is not crazy thats almost an hour of runtime

MISGENDERING THISTLE

some of the problems with this video are just the anime format which i cant completely fault, i think the manga is better paced and the humor lands better ill probably ignore those points going forward. but i feel like if you dont watch anime very much you probably dont really know them the common genre tropes, like i certainly dont.

the reason marcille is "infinitely more popular than the rest" is a) lilys girl bias b) everyones girl bias and thats it, a lot of people like decently written generically good looking female characters. but thats not even true laios is probably equally as popular as marcille is and senshi is VERY close behind both of them.

laios is literally only generic in looks and if youre going to bring it up you might as well mention how marcille is therefore EXACTLY as generic as laios is, they are some very regular white people. in terms of looks.

laios only cares about monsters and is an asshole: this is an intentional mischaracterization the OTHER CHARACTERS IN THE STORY make about laios, which is a result of his real flaw which is struggling to connect with other people. this is a character flaw, which is intentional and something laios himself is aware of and tries to overcome, it is part of his character arc. laios is also heavily autistic coded, im not sure if ryoko kui is even aware of it or if she herself is autistic and just wrote a bit of her own struggles into laios's character but this reading is widely recognized by people who are autistic so. like its hard to argue with a mass of people who see their disability in a character. (me included)

comparing his deadpan affect to lloyd (i dont know him tbh)s intentional controlled one makes no sense bc i assume lloyd is yknow a super secret agent who IS a super secret agent because of his self control or whatever. laios is just a guy. literally just a dude, who is autistic.

marcille and laios react to falins resurrection differently because they are different characters, showing different ranges of emotion are part of their characterization. having a limited range of expressed emotion in serious situations where emotion is expected of you is also a commonly recognized autistic trait (see me not crying at the airport when my now husband had to go back to his side of the planet when we were dating)

falin is also autistic coded and shares a lot of traits with laios because its supposed to be funny that everyone thinks falin is so talented and brilliant and lovely when she yknow picks up a bug or something but they think its annoying when laios presents the same traits.

refer to point 10 again

they are literally moving through the dungeon as fast as they can. it gets brought up, laios feels guilty about it but hes not indulging in his special interest as opposed to rescuing his sister, the adventure is enabling it. whats he supposed to do brood the entire way? do you think anyone would be physically capable of doing that? see points 1-4 again if not.

just because a different character would do something different doesnt meant the story would be better, the point of THIS story is an exploration of THESE characters

this is retreading a point but "marcille is the only character who feels like a human being" .... girl the ableism - it can be argued that marcille is a bit ND herself but she is laios's neurotypical foil, the entire point of their dynamic is she is the normal person to compare him to, to act like shes the only character that matters because shes the only one thats normal has some nasty implications.

"you or i would-" thats making some assumptions

marcille is tormented the most by the show because the show is about exploring a dungeon, a major character trait of hers is her inexperience, shes squeamish shes young and naive because she has EXCLUSIVELY studied dungeons in books she has only seen the dungeon in person for like a year or two (i dont remember the time frame but we know how time works for marcille anyway). senshi by contrast has been surviving exclusively off the dungeons resources for like 60 years. you mention that marcille grows a lot by the end but its not just about eating food she learns survival skills, she learns ecology.

sorry i need to take a break to just rant, isnt this woman a writer? i feel like all she can only see characters through common media tropes and so dungeon meshi is just breaking her brain because all of these characters are written from a strong foundation they all have roots that inform all of their flaws. i feel like she isnt willing to see them that way because she assumes that because this is an anime the author didnt put any thought into the characters beyond their designs and gimmicks, thats just speculation obvs its just the impression im getting

but like i see the way people talk about kui on here how she feels like one of us because the dungeon meshi characters are her ocs. how theyre not just characters for a story. its like imagine someone talking this way about YOUR OCS, your babies, the characters you put your heart and soul into and especially for someone like kui who has created so much depth for her characters for someone [who also calls herself a writer] to brush it all off bc it got an anime adaptation and anime has tropes.

i really dont like people who approach media from "ive seen this before" and i mean im a little guilty of it but its kind of a useless thought isnt it, for the most part things get made because someone wanted to make it not because it needed to exist. i guess its a hard thing not to think when theres just SO MANY shows and stuff out there but idk, i dont think its a healthy perspective most of the time.

chilchucks a bitch you cant listen to what he says and be like "the narrative is bullying marcille" chilchuck is bullying marcille, chilchuck is a bully

(oh it seems the numbers have reset, oops)

shes talking about why anime sucks again, i havent seen spy x family and i dont care to it doesnt appeal to me

retreading points but i forgot which ones laios thinking falins dragon form is cool is another example of how laios's character essence is that he doesnt think like other people. and i have to imagine that if not for the mind control aspect falin wouldnt be horrified by her dragon form either. neither of them care about the "obvious" socially expected reaction of "horrified" theyre thinking about a) what they like to think about which tends to be ooh monsters are cool and then b) whatever is most practical at this moment - i think its not just lily that struggles with this i think its a lot of people who follow social scripts tend to follow what the main cast of dungeon meshi is thinking so theyre horrified/confused by whatever laios is doing but he just intuits what actually materially matters and what doesnt. him thinking falin getting to have a cool dragon form has NOTHING to do with his feelings about saving her.

"your experience with autism isnt universal" neither is yours???? isnt that kind of the thing about autism (this is from her comments not the video but thats kind of her point about this point in the video is that she doesnt relate to laios's autistic traits) - guys shes saying sheldon cooper gets called out on his shit and grows as a person but laios doesnt... guys i dont even know what i can specifically say to make someone stop believing that because i dont know why anyone could believe that in the first place.

i dont want to write this point bc i dont want anyone to think i dont have any concept of like pervasive preferential trends in media but i think she specifically hates laios because hes a white man with autistic traits. i think if laios was a woman those traits would be not as bad (which is kinda funny bc i was talking about that being a joke with falins autistic traits earlier)

laios is funny to me :) (in the manga mostly)

i think she shouldve read the manga instead of watching half the anime but i guess thats it. if you (anyone reading this) see this out in the wild please dont make assumptions about me based on this post, it doesnt really tell you anything about me or my wider opinions.

i guess you can assume im autistic i did say that part, go ahead and assume that i suppose.

i think i have some clarifications i was gonna make but i got tired so i cant remember where they go or what they are, this isnt really meant to be a discussion its just me writing down some thoughts indirectly bc i didnt want to comment on her video. but its in response to a video so its only fair i guess if anyone wants me to clarify i can try my best to do that

[xerith-42]

Garrance Week Day Six! Snow/Warm

You guys remember the episodes in Malachi's castle? What if I made them even more gay? And made it better because having Garroth and Laurance's "greatest fear" being the girl they like getting with another guy is weak sauce.

The copium these two men (esp Garroth) are huffing truly is something.

Traveling with one of his best friends on a quest to rescue the other one and he's in love with both of them? Laurance couldn't have asked for a better deal. In spite of his worry for Irena's safety, he absolutely cherished the time he got to spend alone with Garroth while they searched for her. It was so refreshing to get out of the village to go on what was hopefully a low stakes quest. He wasn't scared of much largely because he had Garroth at his side. They always fought well, better together, and he knew nothing could stand in the way.

"She likely took refuge in that castle," Garroth theorized as he pointed at the castle in the distance. Laurance squinted to see it through the blue of the ongoing snowstorm. He could at least make out the general shape in the landscape, even if it was blurry.

"Let's hope so," Laurance said with a shiver. "Not exactly the biggest fan of the cold." Garroth turned to look at the man who was bundled up in his cloak.

"I thought being a Shadow Knight would have made you more adjusted to the cold."

"I got used to living in the Nether, and I'm not sure if you've ever been, it's pretty hot there. I'm designed to survive in that, not these conditions." Garroth chuckled a little at the bitchy tone Laurance had that made it clear he was complaining for the sake of complaining, not because he was really that upset.

"I'm sure we'll be able to warm you up once we're in shelter." Laurance tried to ignore his mind supplying him images of Garroth holding him close to keep him warm. Being able to wake up in his arms completely at peace. Not the time for it. Then again, it never felt like it was the time for it. Why not now when they were alone without any prying eyes? It's not like Garroth would ever notice, he's always been far too dense.

The doors to the castle creaked with effort as the two of them pushed them open. Just as quickly as it opened they were stumbling in, and the doors slammed closed behind them. Laurance was hit with a wave of warmth. Within seconds it became burning hot, and panic filled his system.

Fire spread across Phoenix Drop and screams filled his ears. Irena was on the ground, crying, shaking, on the verge of dying. Laurance glanced down and saw his own hand holding Garroth by the throat, blood starting to pool around where his claws dug in.

"NO!!" Laurance screamed, trying to fight back. But he couldn't do anything. He couldn't control himself.

"Don't worry, you won't die yet," A low voice drawled. "I'll make sure you have a front row seat to watch your beloved lord fall at my hand. Then I'll make killing you seem like a mercy."

"Don't touch her!" Garroth gasped out, before Laurance tossed him aside. His footsteps were heavy as he stalked towards Irena, who was begging for her life. It all blended together. Even as Laurance internally fought as hard as he could to control himself, there was nothing he could do. Nothing. Nothing.

He could only watch in horror as his own body grabbed Irena's hair, pulled her off the ground, and just as quickly wedged his sword into her gut.

"Goodnight, my love."

"LAURANCE!!" Her scream jerked him awake. Laurance's breathing was heavy, and he had to blink a few times to let the world come into view. The walls of the castle were dull, old rotting spruce that was sparsely decorated. The fire place was active, a young man with blue hair sitting by it with a young ghost child.

The last thing Laurance took in was Irena, sitting in front of him with tears in her eyes. He hated that look from her.

"Oh my Irene, you're okay," Irena gasped out, leaning forward to press her forehead to Laurance's. She was so warm. "You're back "

"What... What happened?" Laurance muttered out.

"I-It was Malachi. He's a ghost that haunts this castle and he can't control his magick. It forces people to see the illusion of their worst fear."

"I-It was just an illusion. It wasn't real."

"Exactly. We're all okay." Finally he could feel movement in his fingers. Laurance instantly brought a hand to her cheek, his heart swelling at the rush of heat he felt upon touching her. His eyes drifted to the side when he heard the clank of Garroth's armor. Everyone was alive. It was just an illusion.

"Thank Irene." Irena tore away from the embrace with a relieved smile.

"We're going to rest here for the night. In the morning I plan on seeing if I can't find an exorcist to help Malachi out of the castle." Laurance could only slightly move his head to look at the ghost child. "He really didn't mean any harm. He was never taught to control it."

"I-I understand. I'll gladly help in the search come morning." Irena gave him a smile, before she stood up and walked over to Malachi. Laurance felt a splitting headache the minute he tried to stand up, audibly groaning at it. In an instant Garroth was at his side picking him up.

"Come on, let's get you moving," He instructed. "You've been still for some time."

"How long was I out?" Laurance questioned as he managed to move his feet towards the door, with a bit of help from Garroth.

"Two hours."

"How long were you out?"

"Less than that." It was Garroth's nice way of saying ten minutes or less. He knew how competitive Laurance could be. And how sensitive he could be to potential shadow knight effects. At least, he assumed that was the case. Laurance let out a slightly nervous laugh, letting his hair fall down in front of his eyes as he leaned over part of the castles lower walls. Garroth wasn't quite sure how he felt about how pretty Laurance looked. Maybe he was just happy to see him relaxed after being caught in that illusion for so long.

"Care to tell me what you saw?" Garroth considerably tensed up.

"I'd rather not."

"I could tell you what I saw. Means it's less likely to actually happen." Garroth didn't respond. He'd made it clear that he wasn't going to give details on his vision, but he wasn't objecting to Laurance sharing. It might be nice to know what he was worried about.

"If you'd like to, you may." Laurance sighed.

"There's no easy way to put this... I lost control. I saw the future where I gave into every cruel thought ever put into my head in that hell." Laurance shuddered at the memory, and at the cold sweeping around him. "I need you to promise me you won't let it come to that." Garroth knew exactly what Laurance was saying, but he was unsure if he could promise it. Especially with the sudden feelings for Laurance he was barely coming to terms with.

"I..." Garroth's sentence trailed off. He felt truly tongue tied. Normally Irena would know just what to say, but she was likely comforting Malachi or Dante. "I pray to Irene it never comes to that."

"I do as well." Laurance shivered again, which made Garroth laugh slightly. He took off his own cloak and tossed it at Laurance, who caught it with a confused expression.

"Go get warm by the fire. I'll keep watch tonight." Garroth didn't leave any room to argue. Laurance gave him a half-hearted smile before trudging inside as he wrapped Garroth's cloak around himself. Laurance kept a safe distance from the fire, even though Malachi had already gone to bed and Irena was on the other side of the room talking to her new guard. It left Laurance to just sit on the floor staring into the flames.

It was something he often did as a child. Laurance was incredibly rowdy while he was growing up. it was hard to keep him focused or still for very long. Except on cold winter nights when his father would put a log on a fire and go off to bed. Cadenza and Laurance would sit and watch the flames for hours, often falling asleep in front of the fireplace as a result. It was always something that held his attention, that caused some kind of fascination. Something he never quite understood.

This time Laurance could barely look at the fire for a few minutes before turning his head away and leaning against the wall in a way that it would be out of view. He could still faintly feel some warmth from it, but he couldn't stand to keep looking at it. It just reminded him of that all to real vision. Laurance draped Garroth's heavy cloak over his curled up body like a blanket. It actually made sleep come to him very easily in spite of the cold. It was almost like Garroth was holding him...

Sleep didn't last long. It felt like the moment Laurance was able to dream, just the flash of Irena's terrified face jolted him awake. And the moment Laurance was awake, he was cold. The fire was starting to die from nobody attending it, even if Irena and her guard were sleeping around it. Laurance's eyes darted to the closed door. If they were cold inside, how was Garroth faring outside?

He tried to be quiet in his movements, but if this guard was any good, he definitely knew Laurance was sneaking past them. He ducked out of the castle quickly, shoving the door behind him and coming face to face with a very confused Garroth. Well, the helmet hid his expression, but Laurance had seen enough of his face to make a guess at what it looked like.

"L-Laurance? What are you doing out here?" Garroth asked.

"Couldn't sleep," Laurance replied quickly, before shoving Garroth's cloak onto him. "You sound like you're freezing."

"You do too." Laurance brought his arms around himself, pulling at the edges of his cape.

"Nah, I-I'll be f-f-fine." Garroth resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Practicality overtook emotion. Garroth pulled his cloak on, fastening the clasp, before grabbing Laurance's arm and walking him over to the small onning that came off the eastern part of the castle wall. Laurance glanced up at him confused, but his vision was quickly filled when Garroth brought an arm around him and held him close.

Nearly instantly Laurance was filled with warmth as Garroth pulled his cloak across their bodies. It was the best way to conserve warmth. And the most romantic. It was like a scene out of one of Laurance's stupid fantasies he would have while daydreaming at the academy while pretending to pay attention. But this was real. It felt real. Laurance's blood usually ran cold, but in this moment, he felt a lot warmer than he had since coming back.

"Are you comfortable?" Garroth almost whispered. Laurance just nodded, snuggling into Garroth. More points of contact meant heat would be generated faster. That was the excuse. Laurance always had plenty of them. He knew Garroth would need them any time they got intimate together. "Rest well."

"Don't think I can," Laurance admitted. "But I don't mind being out here with you." Garroth didn't ask why, he didn't need to. Instead he let silence settle and the winter winds to whip it away. Laurance's body had been unusually cold, but he seemed to be warming up now. His body was still capable of generating heat, which would be key to him surviving these conditions. It just meant he had to share heat with someone.

"Would you like to know what I saw?" Laurance nodded.

"If you don't mind telling me."

"I just figured that you told me your to help ensure it doesn't happen. I-I'd like to ask you do the same."

"Gladly." Despite not sleeping, Laurance was usually a man of many words. Except when he was really tired. It may not have been obvious to anyone else, but Garroth could tell when Laurance started giving one word or one sentence responses.

"I saw Zane return to Phoenix Drop. I saw him... I saw him hurt people I care about, including you." Laurance let out a small hum. He liked to hear Garroth admit he cared about him. "A-And there wasn't anything I could do about it."

"But that's not true."

"Hm?"

"You don't trust Zane. You won't fall for his deceptions a second time."

"L-Laurance, I don't know if I can bring myself to harm my own brother."

"Even if he tried to kill us, again?"

"Would you not be conflicted if it were Cadenza?"

"Cadenza wouldn't be so obvious about it though." Garroth laughed gently at Laurance's argument. "She'd be way better at being secretly evil. Your brother has already let the mask slip too far down." Laurance snuggled further into Garroth's embrace, a burst of warmth coming from his body as he did. "We're gonna be fine."

"If you say so." In spite of his paranoia, Garroth did mean those words. He believed what Laurance said. He knew that when it came down to it, he would throw his own life into danger to protect the ones he loved, and if that meant striking down his brother in the process, he would do it. And he knew it wouldn't come to that point. Laurance wouldn't let it.

The two lay in silence for the rest of the night. Neither of them slept, but they were able to relax. And when morning came, they never spoke of it.

Laurance bitterly misses the feeling of Garroth's cloak wrapped around him while nearly freezing to death in Gal'ruk. And winters on the Alliance Island get colder than Garroth has ever experienced. He constantly yearns for the feeling of Laurance's breathing on his chest.

Whump quota met.

[zalrb]

I know Steroline is just a flop but it still bother's me that they make Stefan ooc with how he gave Caroline a shitty snow globe for Secret Santa and having Damon TELL him about Caroline like Stefan wouldn't know and DAMON would? And the lame ass proposal. Stefan Salvatore? Hopeless romantic, compassionate, sentimental, intimate, intense Stefan Salvatore? Okay guys. Like, I MISSED Stefan in the later seasons so much because he was mostly a shell of himself with a few glimmers of og Stefan.

OK. I'm of two minds about this.

When I was watching it in real time, I agreed with you. There are a lot of rants about how OOC I found Stefan

But thinking about it, looking at the whole chessboard, I don't think that's actually true. There are a lot of issues with Steroline but Stefan not being Stefan isn't one of them.

There are certain things definitely that I can't abide like Damon explaining Caroline to Stefan. Or the snow globe because at that point in time, Stefan would've been with Elena, but, I also have to say, Steroline isn't Stelena and that contextualizes a lot, because I keep saying it, Stefan and Elena were built as a pair and that allows for certain traits to shine.

So, for instance, Stefan being on the run for three years and writing Caroline a letter every day is technically speaking being romantic and sentimental and intense but

a) it's not believable because there are so many issues in that relationship where neither Stefan nor Caroline communicate with each other, they both communicate more with Valerie than one another and Caroline communicated more with Alaric than with Stefan (see masterlist)

b) Paul and Candice didn't have the romantic chemistry needed

c) Caroline sends the letters back.

She doesn't even read them and then complains about him abandoning her despite the fact that he kept reaching out to her

and that's a perfectly valid response but that wouldn't have been Stelena. Stefan calls Elena and doesn't say a word but she knows it's him

and the very next episode she's got on her inappropriate-for-hiking shorts and searches for him in the woods, coming face to face with werewolves for him

which emphasizes how much an intimate gesture calling her was.

And granted, Caroline has kids so she can't do that, she can't up and go, she has different priorities but there isn't that implicit understanding between them where Caroline would understand why Stefan would leave in the first place or if she does understand, it's not enough, which means sending the letters is really just a futile attempt at something rather than an expression of intimacy and longing.

The show tries to give that understanding to them in the series finale

but I don't know, that's kind of overshadowed to me by the fact that Stefan's last goodbye before leaving the world is to Elena and it's more intimate than his goodbye to Caroline

Stefan sells his soul for the twins

and I get what they were trying to do with Caroline's response like "no, no, no you can't leave me, we're starting a life, and I can't lose you, I can't lose that"

but Caroline's indignation doesn't play very well and I'll get to what I mean later.

Stefan goes into the tomb for Jeremy

and Elena races to run in after him that Damon has to slam her against a wall

and she literally tries to fight him so she can go into the tomb

that raises the stakes of what Stefan has done to protect an innocent who happens to be her brother.

When Stefan is human and decides that he wants to leave so he can atone, so her life can be better, Caroline is pissed, she's all but I've stood by you through everything, this is bullshit

and again, her being indignant is valid and obviously she knows why he's doing it, but the tone and Candice's read on the whole thing and the "how dare you do this to me" quality of the conversation also feels like Caroline not understanding just who she's engaged to.

Elena calls Stefan out in 1x10 where she's like, don't act as if you're doing for this for me when I'm not the one who wants this

but she's not berating him, she's being vulnerable which then emphasizes his vulnerability, emphasizes what he's wrestling with, emphasizes how deeply he feels things

So effectively, my point is that Elena's reactions to Stefan's actions amp up Stefan's romance and compassion and intimacy and intensity because the show let's it breathe, let's us revel in it, let's us really see it.

It also helps that Stelena actually had chemistry so when they have their intimate moments it isn't awkward and the romance and the intimacy and the intensity come out the way they're meant to. Like, 7x05 is supposed to show that Stefan knows Caroline so well but they don't feel natural that I don't believe the scene

this, though I believe

and it also helps that SE's relationship wasn't riddled with the same amount of fundamental problems that SC's was -- again see the masterlist.

[spacemagicandlaserswords]

The Clone Wars 2x14 ‘Duchess of Mandalore’ Reaction

This first Mandalore-Obi-Wan/Satine-Obitine arc started out so well. 2x12 ‘The Mandalore Plot’ was an absolute hoot. One of my favourite episodes so far. 2x13 ‘Voyage of Temptation’ wasn’t quite at the same level but still had some fantastic and hilarious moments. And then everything just felt like it fell completely flat in the final episode of this Mandalore arc.

We’ve just been introduced to Satine, who we very quickly get to know as an exceptionally capable, hyper competent, dedicated and principled leader. She’s smart, shrewd, quick witted, intelligent, and has the nous to best Obi-Wan Kenobi, the Great Negotiator himself, whenever they flirt verbally joust. The Satine we know is there at the start of her appearance in the Senate, where she delivers the absolute banger of a line that is “You would trample our right to self-determination.”  

However it all goes downhill from there when the recording plays and she gets all flustered and upset. Now that is understandable given that she has the lives of her people at stake and she has just discovered that her deputy minister and supposedly good friend has betrayed her while in the middle of the Senate. Yet we’ve seen Satine maintain a level head and remain collected in the face of peril, threat and adversity before so why did she suddenly lose that composure in the Senate? It feels a little too much like leaning into the ‘women are too emotional to be leaders’ nonsense. Even with everything that’s happened, I really couldn’t understand this sudden 180 on Satine’s character. Also, a recording? Of course it’s fake. Though this is an audience perspective looking in, and there was no proof that it was doctored so of course Satine has to go off and find said proof. I did enjoy how much she was pissing off Palps though, and how much he couldn’t show it. Anytime that happens is deeply satisfying.    

Then we get to Obi-Wan and Satine having their first real proper fight. The whole thing just seemed really unnecessary. I really was not impressed with Obi-Wan basically barging in with advice and telling her not to be hysterical. Sexist much? I guess this is one of those times where I have to remind myself that this episode aired over 13 years ago and so this is another example of how TCW has aged. Younger nerd me would still be pissed at that though so it doesn’t excuse it. Also, how is 2010 13 years ago?! I can see both of their points of view, even if Obi-Wan really didn’t go about delivering his in a considerate manner. In a way, they’re both right and they’re both wrong. Nothing good comes of it and then the Death Watch promptly tries to assassinate Satine, which gives you some idea of how well her day is going.

All the smarmy politics nonsense that happened after this was utterly frustrating. Hopefully that was the point because what else could that have been apart from an assassination attempt?! The speeder of a visiting political leader crashes into a building and that isn’t suspicious? I also really don’t like how the Republic thinks it can just march on over and decide what’s best for planets under the guise of helping. Sounds very colonial of them but then that’s probably the point. Just because the Republic might think they’re helping doesn’t mean they actually are. Especially when the people and elected leader of said planet have specifically stated multiple times that they don’t want them there. I can think of a lot of real world parallels that this is echoing. Another example of TCW tackling difficult, more nuanced topics. Though I’m beginning to realise that for all TCW is held up as fairly decent to good writing in Star Wars, there’s still plenty of ways that it also disappoints.    

Satine has to find proof of the recording being doctored so of course she goes to the Coruscant underworld and of course her day gets even worse and she ends up framed for murder and is now a fugitive on the run. She’s got a hilarious unsubtle royal red hooded cloak on as a disguise, complete with ornate gold detailing. How is that fooling anyone? And then we had the chase sequence, which was utterly ridiculous. It was so laughably bad it reminded me of the speeder bike chase from The Book of Boba Fett. 

I’m putting this tangent here immediately so that I don’t get hate for this. I want to make it completely clear that I enjoyed The Book of Boba Fett. There were some absolutely fantastic parts of the series. I think the highlight for me was the physicality Temuera Morrison brought to his acting and to Boba. He imbued so much of his Māori culture into Boba and You. Can. Tell. It was amazing. I loved it. There’s a video interview where he talks about this and I wish I could find it because it’s fantastic and definitely worth a watch. TLDR I enjoyed The Book of Boba Fett. Sometimes it feels like I’m one of the few who actually did. That said, I can completely recognise that there were quite a few elements of the show that were lacking, along with some decisions that were just ridiculous. Just because something is enjoyable doesn’t exempt it from critical thinking. Sidelining Boba in his own show and turning the back half of the season into The Mandalorian Season 2.5 was particularly grating. There were also parts of the show that unfortunately just didn’t land, and the speeder bike chase was one of them. It was supposed to be a speeder chase. That implies speed. The word is there in the name of the vehicles. Yet the whole thing looked like it was trundling along at about 20km/h, almost as if in slow motion. The chase sequence of Satine in this episode had the same vibes. It just seemed ridiculous. Everything happened so comically slowly. Clones are trained from birth and created with the sole purpose of being the perfect soldier and here they are bumbling around Coruscant like a pair of incompetent buddy cops from a dated British comedy show. There’s only so much you can suspend disbelief and it really didn’t feel believable that a pacifist royal could continue to evade a whole cavalcade of pursuers that included two highly trained genetically engineered soldiers and a Mandalorian Death Watch assassin.

Obi-Wan meeting up with Satine, at what I assume was the top of Umate, was also hilariously ridiculous. Two hooded figures in the most populous public space on Coruscant? That’s not suspicious at all! Though there might’ve been a little bit of an acknowledgment of this in Obi-Wan’s line “Nice disguise.” I did love the moment where Satine grabbed Obi-Wan by the front of his Jedi robes and dragged him away from where they were sitting. I’m realising more and more that it’s the little moments that really make the characters and the show. Also, these moments are often a lot more fleeting than I thought they’d be. There’s a similar one at the end of the show where Satine and Obi-Wan both look out over Coruscant through the window of the Chancellor’s office. I was expecting this to be a longer scene with conversation and a moment between the two of them. But instead it barely lasts a few seconds before the credits roll. 

I will admit that Satine handing herself in as a distraction to allow Obi-Wan to get into the Senate building was particularly gutsy. So the episode is at least bookended by the Satine we know. I’m almost up to the next Mandalore arc in season 3 and it’ll be interesting to see how that goes. I also have so many episodes that I’ve watched and need to write about and Ahsoka comes out August 23 and I still have to get through seasons 3-7 of TCW and all of Rebels before that starts. Why have I done this to myself? *cries* I may have to revise my approach to these recaps again but I want to get through these ones first before I try changing things again.  

[shirtlesssammy]

The Winchesters 1x07: Reflections

“Comes a time in every hunt when the fightin’ starts. And the difference between winning and losing isn’t whether you have the holy water, the wooden stake, or the silver bullet. It’s whether you’ve got the grit to get the job done.” 

We open with John and Mary surrounding a radio station tower. The radio tower has been a beacon for all the unicorn monsters who come to Lawrence and then the Akrida feed on their essence. 

They head inside to find the place in shambles. Mary finds her dad’s pack, with blood all over it. 

Meanwhile, at the Bunkerhouse, Carlos and Lata are lamenting the uselessness of the Akrida catching box. They’ve tried everything to make it work again. Ada shows up with a box full of papers from other bunkers. Carlos wonders what happened to all the Men of Letters. <Insert bird ??? gif> He suggests retirement —um, yeah, let’s go with that. 

Mary and John find a dude possessed by an Akrida. He passes along the message that their job at the radio station is done. They’ve acquired all the monster essence they need for their queen. Nothing can stop them now. “We’ve got a box that says different.” YES! A BOX! John coming in with the big guns!! WHOOT! 

Rockin’ Roxy is busy browbeating her nerdy scientist Akrida minion. The dig has begun! Get with it genius dude! (Sidenote: Words that Boris frowns at that have been said in this episode include essence and juicy.) An Akrida monster pops in with an update!

Back at the clubhut, Lata discovers the name of the box. The Ostium! The notes on the box are in code –AND written by Henry Winchester!! If they can translate it, maybe they can figure out the secrets of the box! 

Carlos tries to give Mary a pep talk over her missing/possibly bloody father. He tells her about his own parents. How he wanted a guitar and they went to get it for him, only for them to be killed by ghouls. He got revenge and lives with the guilt.

He helps Mary understand that it’s not her fault for Samuel’s disappearance. 

John brings Millie in on the translation party. 

Carlos and Mary are pulled over by Officer Mustache wearing lovely sunglasses, and Roxy. She needs a word with Mary. She wants the Ostium. She’s willing to trade Samuel for it. Carlos thought ahead and put a hex bag in the cruiser. If they can track Roxy, maybe they can get the jump on her! They rush back to the others and ask Ada to track the hex bag. 

Ada starts on her work in the conservatory. Millie walks in, surprised at everything in the building. They drink and talk about Henry. And generational trauma. “Seeing John here, it’s like history repeating.” 

Lata explains to the others that the Ostium transports monsters –to parts unknown. The Akrida are hive-like monsters that take over worlds. The Akrida are all connected to their queen. Use the Ostium on the queen=kill all the Akrida. Win! Carlos gets morose realizing that if they save Samuel Campbell, the Scooby gang will break up. 

Ada’s spell is working so the gang rush over to watch the magic.

The Akrida are hanging out where Mary was stung. WHY? 

Down in old tiled and bricked over tunnels, Akrida-possessed people dig. And they dig - without care for the bodies of their hosts. (I rock back and forth chanting, “the broken nails are not real the broken nails are not real”)

In the clubhouse, the Scooby gang spin out attack plans while Millie goes over Henry’s notes. Millie tells them about a ritual she discovered - a seance. She proposes raising Henry’s specter and having him translate his notes himself. (As someone with dreadful handwriting, I look forward to having my ghost be summarily raised for future researchers!) We also try to remember just when John had given up on finding his dad alive, but it doesn’t matter, because the gang is all in on this plan. Carlos proposes that they use Millie’s wedding ring as a fulcrum to the spell, but she sold it to fund equipment for the shop. (That’s my girl!) Instead, they choose an emotional keepsake from John. 

Once more down in the pits, one of the Akrida hosts takes a sledgehammer to one of the walls. Breaking it down, they discover an ancient-looking door. 

John gets his old music box from his closet, and fills everyone in on the sad backstory of it. He played it at night as a child. After his dad left, he played it for comfort until he got angry one day and broke it. SYMBOLICALLY. Further driving us into a state of frothy unrest, DEAN’S THEME plays over this confession. And the father/son/anger parallels overwhelm me for a moment and I lie down gaping like a fish suddenly laid out on a rock. For just. Imma need a minute.

The gang preps for the seance. But ooooh there’s a catch. John has to share his emotions with his dad “openly and honestly” in order for the spell to work. LOLOLOL good luck. Millie wants to know if anyone else can talk to Henry and I ache for her a little bit. They chant to work the spell and the candles extinguish at the height of their chanting. Carlos proposes that it was just a drafty room and not the magical workings of spirit magic. 

John storms off, his chair crashing to the floor behind him. Mary finds him in the conservatory, where he bitterly stews over his memory of Henry. John reveals some additional insight into his music box FEELINGS. He also played the music box to drown out the sound of his parents arguing. (Specifically, his parents arguing about HIM and his safety.) Mary concludes that he was angry at himself as well - for failing to be ENOUGH. To keep his dad with him. GAH!

Henry appears, a flickering but warm presence. He assures John that what happened was Henry’s fault, not John.

Mary heads off to get Millie, which gives John and Henry an opportunity to display vulnerability without manly man masks. John cuts to the chase: the Akrida are back. They have the ostium but it’s broken. Henry proposes that the ostium is NOT broken, but instead just needs a quick power-up. The energy source that powers the box ensures the location of the portal on the other end of the transporting ostium. They need to power it up Akrida-style, in order to zap the Akrida back to their world. John has a piece of the Akrida energy source - it’s hidden in the jasmine vine growing along the side of the garage. 

Henry and John spare a moment to talk about John’s larger arc, and Henry warns John that he’s stepped into a dangerous world. “Watch out for yourself, and your mom,” he instructs. And OOOOOOH that’s gonna sting when John fails to save Millie sometime in the future. (I’m sorry, but we’re all thinking it???) 

Millie arrives in time for the flickering Henry to tell her that he loves her - both of them, in fact. He fades away. 

Later, the Scooby Gang passes a rock around - the Akrida energy source. Mary sets it on the box and it glows, opens, and swallows up the rock. BOOM. They head out to the tunnels to track Roxy. If they trap her in the box, the whole colony will collapse. Ada warns that the box won’t be able to swallow up every Akrida. Eventually it will lose power. 

John and Mary head inside, and Akrida-possessed humans step out to block their way. While Mary and John prepare to fight, Mary reminds John that they “have to use demon possession rules” - so, like, be super careful not to kill the hosts. I laugh and laugh and then cry a little too, my fists clenched in voiceless agony. We get a great action fight scene in the hallway, the camera traveling, agile. I enjoy the style! (Good work, Speight)

Elsewhere, Carlos and Lata find the lab from before. They locate the monster essences, but there’s someone at the door before they can do more than run and hide. The Akrida woman who discovered the doors in the tunnel arrives to remove the monster serum and transport it to places unknown. 

Millie and Ada stake out the scene when the cop from before knocks on the window. He orders them to get out of the car and Millie whacks him with a bat in reply. 

John and Mary, meanwhile, encounter Roxy. Mary whips out the box. The ostium sucks in Roxy and one of the Akrida, leaving a third behind to growl angrily. Wherps. Not the queen, then.

Mary and John flee, ending up in a room with no way out. They banter, riffing off of episode one dialogue to reflect on their first monster excursion. Remember all the way back then? Man, they were kids then, amirite? John makes his move and they kiss passionately, to swelling music. The Akrida break down the doors. It’s looking bad for our heroes, when an ostium-like light spills out and the monsters all get sucked inside. It’s…SAMUEL to the rescue! I am seriously just happy enough for Mary that I forget how much I dislike Samuel post-resurrection.

Emotional reunions have to wait, however. The Akrida pulls up to the entrance of the tunnels at their dig site. They gather around the doors and open them up. The Akrida woman with the vials of monster essence heads inside, her eyes full of wonder. She promises to make the Akrida QUEEN strong again.

__

Don’t You Quote About Me:

Didn’t any of you guys ever go to Sunday school?

I know what you’re thinking and you’re wrong

“How insane are we talking?” “Certifiable with a side of sassy”

Plants break the earth to reach for the sun

Guess I shouldn’t be surprised he didn’t show up. He didn’t come to my baseball games either

__

 Want to read more? Check out our Recap Archive!

[regarding-stories]

Winter Was Not An Exciting Season

When I started writing this, about 3-4 episodes had dropped for most shows that started in winter 2024 season on Crunchyroll, and I came to the conclusion there was no reason to get excited... And I think that's pretty much how it worked out. I stopped watching most of these shows at some point. Eventually I dug into the archives on Crunchyroll instead... which was much more rewarding.

I by the way never bothered with "Solo Leveling" or "Shangri-La Frontier" because I don't get what's the point with these kind of shows. OP skill this, video game that, and usually no actual stakes at all. Why bother?

Delusional Monthly Magazine

Hot trash.

Weird scientist tries to place his research in a paper that's more of an "I saw an UFO manned by Elvis" style tabloid. Lots of unconvincing hijinks happen.

Stopping point: I switched off in episode 1 when somebody suddenly developed a superpower because this is all over the place. And stupid.

Villainess Level 99: I May Be the Hidden Boss But I'm Not the Demon Lord

Girl gets reborn as the hidden boss of a game she used to play. She decides to avoid becoming a problem and also levels up to 99, which is a level reached by no one in this world (and the limit).

It does not help that she has dark magic as attribute and the heroine of that game is a light magic user.

What's hard to bear is that she gets constantly ostracized way into episode 4. Everything she does is taken negatively and the potential love interests of the heroine (it's a dating sim) constantly stir trouble for her because everyone assumes the worst.

On the surface this is yet another show about being reborn into a dating sim, like "The World of Otome Games is Tough for Mobs" or "I'm in Love with the Villainess". Though I can't help but think that the setup is also a tongue-in-cheek about how being exceptional can get you bullied in Japan. "The nail that sticks out gets hammered down" is idiomatic there for a reason.

In general a decent show, but what kind of person is the protagonist that she doesn't understand social cues at all? I don't think that's established very well.

Stopping point: I'm not sure why I stopped watching around episode 6, there seems to be no strong reason beyond losing interest. Might revisit.

Sasaki and Peeps

Middle-aged salary man gets himself a pet bird which turns out to be a reborn wizard from another world.

What follows is a wild (and also illogical) mix of genres. He gets transported to an Isekai world and learns magic, but mainly he wants to open a business there by transporting Japanese goods there and selling them. (Yet he never figures out that he could transport gold back to pay for them - or just be rich.)

His magic then gets him recruited into a squad of psychics fighting other psychics. He's totally OP because psychics have only one ability and his magic works differently for every spell. Anyway, the show doesn't benefit from cutting across plots. It first tries to hit the "living the quiet life in another world" vibe, then goes into "everyday man thrust into the world of superpowers", and now seems to also tap into "adventuring in another world..."

Sasaki is likable enough, an innocent man, mostly, really drab and unassuming. What disturbs me is that so far all the females appearing are minors. There's a high school girl waiting for him every day next door - why? I don't want to know. His wild colleague at the agency who is a snappy dresser? Supposedly 17. (Yes, high school age.) The person he's supposed to protect next - a child beauty. (She seems important as she was given a completely "doll style" credits variation of her own.) I seriously don't want to know where this is going...

None of the GIFs here on tumblr feature the protagonist. Funny.

Stopping point: After Episode 3. After the third under-age girl appearing I was wondering how many other genres they are going to cram into this one.

Hokkaido Gals Are Super Adorable!

Tokyo boy moves to rural Hokkaido and meets his future girlfriend, a total gyaru (gal).

Actually, he meets several, but I can't imagine this show playing out any other way. Has surprisingly little to say about Hokkaido itself except that it snows a lot and you need to keep warm.

The show has a mellow, slice of life flair but lacks originality. I actually ended watching the full season, it's an easy show to watch. The three heroines are all pleasant people that overlap with part of his life, making the harem-ish setup of all three crushing on him a bit annoying since two of them never stood a chance.

Stopping point: I actually finished this one but I must say the drama built for the last episode was a complete no-show and completely unconvincing, even by the typical "Japanese is a language of unsaid things" standard.

The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic

Frankly, initially this was the absolute highlight of the season. I waited for every episode.

Two talented teenagers are summoned to be the heroes saving another world. And a third, average guy, who happened to be nearby. He ends up stealing their thunder because he has the rare healing magic talent.

Surprisingly, the other two people are really decent (looking at you, "Shield Hero") and in general he's treated well. The only dramatic concern is that healing magic has found its master in his teacher, an over-the-top drill sergeant style woman.

It quickly becomes apparent that healing magic, if used wrongly, is the strongest of them all - giving you infinite stamina, instantly restoring your strength, making you the perfect tank. You just have to train like a maniac. Which our drill sergeant ensures will happen.

Stopping point: After episode 7. The show is funny and has heart up to a certain point, but somehow I lost interest, also because it's destroying its previous vibe by hinting at impending doom. Interestingly I read a review today that points to mid season being a complete drag and messing up the pacing, and the finale not saving it. I guess I'm not surprised?

7th Time Loop: The Villainess Enjoys a Carefree Life Married to Her Worst Enemy!

A woman gets reborn into another world as a noble, only for her defining moment to repeat over and over. She turned down by her prince fiancé and basically ejected from her social status.

But this filly has spirit, and so she cuts out a life of her own successfully. Only to die in a war years later and to find herself at the same scene! Since she retains her memory she starts to pick different routes, leading various lives, picking up skills and knowledge, only to die eventually in the same continent-spanning war.

Her last time around, something odd happens. Just as she's escaping her betrothal she runs into the instigator of that war, the dark prince of the empire. And he is so taken with her, he proposes to her.

An unusual setup for sure. At some point we will likely learn what is behind the whole war business, but just watching her navigate all situations in stride is actually interesting by itself. As the title suggests, big drama is mostly absent so far ever since her "final life" started.

Stopping point: Middle of Episode 6. The mini-villain little brother turns out to be the complete opposite of a schemer and actually only wants the attention of his oniiii-chaaaan!! The whole flip was so unconvincing, I couldn't anymore. It's absolutely unclear why the guy she married does anything, including telling her to avoid his brother.

Tales of Wedding Rings

It would be hard to take this show serious at any level as it mostly exists as a vehicle to get this guy together with big-buxomed vixens for plot reasons - but there isn't much plot either.

He follows his childhood love to another world and accidentally marries her, getting the first ring of power. Then he learns he must fight off some evil led by the Abyss King. For that he has to marry more princesses.

There's no logic to the action, though. In the first kingdom he can fend off abyss monsters but gets his ass handed to him by an abyss knight. So they run off, abandoning their own kingdom?!? Then, as soon as he gets the ring from the elven princess he easily hands the abyss knight their ass without even trying. Instant wipe. So that knight keeps showing up and somehow evil rings appear and there's no rhyme or reason to the drama.

Otherwise it's pretty clear that he wants things to work out with his childhood love, but the other girls want attention, too. So another unrequited harem, badly done, too. And yes, the kingdoms they encounter are sexy elves, sexier cat people, and lolicon demon people. Expect plenty of fan service.

Stopping point: Episode 9. No special reason. The show is easy to watch, undemanding, but also doesn't deliver much. You can pick it up at any point and leave it and you won't miss much. Ironically I got mostly GIFs for "Rings of Power" when searching, and frankly, even this anime is better than that.

A Sign Of Affection

I almost forgot this one.

The heroine of the story is for all practical purposes deaf but she soon gets to know an absolute boy-hunk and wonders what these feelings are. Which she then proceeds to find out since he also likes her.

As for a story that focuses on a character with a disability, it does very little with it except her having a lot of trouble reading situations around her and the impediments of communication. And people constantly getting in her space. (Which is a necessity but unusual in Japan.)

It's certainly a high profile production for a romance, with great art.

Stopping point: After Episode 2.

In spite of being a fan of romance stories, it somehow rubbed me wrong that not only does an absolute model boy (the art is good enough that nobody needs to tell us) become immediately interested in her, he also is portrayed as this interesting character who travels abroad in a moment's notice for his studies. Mr Perfect on day 1. There didn't seem to be anything interesting to be going on at all. So I lost interest.

When looking around on the internet, in most places this show is described with one short paragraph for a synopsis. A critic compared it to "A Silent Voice", but that show needs almost a full page to have its synopsis laid out on Wikipedia - because it's a complex take on multiple topics - disability, bullying, social dynamics, and the ability to change. Somehow that strikes me as a contrived comparison.

[raayllum]

Hello! It's been a day since S4, how we feeling? Personally, I think it was a pretty good season, (a little fast-paced, but that's probably just me) except for maybe one thing; Rayla. I feel like Rayla was kinda weirdly written this season. Like seriously, for two episodes after she appeared, me and my sister were convinced that her behavior was "off" and really thought she was a fake until ep.4. Sure, I was glad it was the real Rayla, but it doesn't change the fact that I thought her behavior seemed unnatural. Maybe the whole Fake Rayla theory is what made me cautious about her behavior. Perhaps months of Rayllum angst accidentally set an expectation, or maybe I'm just missing something. EXTRA: This is kinda nitpicky, but given how Rayla lied to Callum about going to find Viren together in TTM, I feel that Callum should've helped Rayla chase Viren down at the end of the season, but that's my opinion.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts! Honestly Rayla’s mix of nerves, heartbreak, forced casualty and trying to cheer her way through it reminded me a lot of her arrival back at the Silvergrove + how she tried to cover things up in 2x09 when she was awkward and flustered ( “You’re even looking cheery!”  → “You look nice, Callum”)

Another thing that I think about sometimes but haven’t really meta’d about is that is that like the biggest instances where Rayla apologizes to Callum in show (1x02 when she thinks she has to kill him, and 2x03 in the aftermath of finding out about Harrow) particularly the former is that Rayla is worried and scared that Claudia and Soren will hurt him and Ezran. It’s not just a matter of their relationship being at stake (although that terrifies her too) but also that if it breaks, she will not be able to effectively protect him and Ezran. And I think that adds a layer to her desperation that we don’t talk about a lot, and I also think it’s interesting how much that similar desperation (chasing after him in ways she almost never does at any other point in the series, some expressions, etc) of those surrounding scenes mirrors her body language and behaviour in 4x03 despite not having the same amount of like, literal stakes

If you are interested in more thoughts on Rayla’s characterization in S4 I will direct to you this post! A Rayllum focused follow up to touch on things I didn’t get as much of a chance to (i.e. the “I know” 4x09 scene in particular) should be coming in the next few weeks (unless I am a mad man and commit to it this weekend or something)

But to write the short form, I think Callum didn’t go after her for a few complicated, interrelated emotional reasons

1) Callum realizing that he can’t change this part of Rayla, to a degree. This is something that will always be a part of her. I think that’s why his look here mirrors his sad gaze in 2x07 - and he’s undeniably sad in 4x09 - because whereas before he was sad that she had left, he’s sad now that she’s already gone. He tried in TTM and it didn’t work. 

2) Additional growth in some ways in Callum realizing if Rayla is taking on a dangerous and/or self destructive path, he doesn’t have to follow her down. (Or at least he can try not to, but more on that in the final point)

3) In TTM, Rayla wasn’t really trying to move on (and for her own understandable reasons) and that’s one of the big changes in S4 where she is trying to see if she can Let Go. The answer is no. Likewise, Callum is also attempting to see if he can let go, since again: she’s hurt him very deeply. And if he can watch her walk away now (the fact she tells and waits for him to respond first, too, I think means a lot) than he can close himself down in a way that she won’t be able to hurt him. A final test to see if he can do it

And he can’t, of course. So then he finally lets himself fully run after her / to her, the way he always has

[stitchlingbelle]

Watching Avatar, the Grand Finale

I am NOT ready for this show to be over and I'm sure once I've sat with it a bit I'll be brimming with takes and hooking myself to AO3 with an IV. For now, let's see how they stuck the landing.

18. “Sozin’s Comet, Part 1: The Phoenix King”: Yikes, what an opener. When did Ozai go batshit? I never understand the burn it all down mentality from people who want to rule—what are you ruling over at that point?? Isn’t the point of your power-hunger to, you know, EXERT that power? Over other people? Can’t do that if they’re dead! I don’t envy Aang his moral decision here, especially since, again. He is 12. My kid is older! (Barely.) Loved the bit about Zuko being the expert Aang tracker, which, fair, glad he’s using it for good now. Adored seeing June again, she’s great fun. (Where is Iroh??) What IS this ambulant island Aang just found himself on? Oh well, at least it’s nice to have our boy back in focus after the last few Zuko-themed episodes. Not sure if Azula should be pleased about being Firelord if Firelord just became a subordinate position. Nor do I think this is going to go well. The Phoenix King reveal was creepy and well-done. (I keep forgetting that’s Mark Hamill and freaking out a little bit when I see it in the credits.)

19. “Sozin’s Comet, Part 2: The Old Masters”: IROH’S BACK. I legitimately cried when he grabbed Zuko and hugged him. It was lovely seeing the mentor squad and having the White Lotus stuff pay off. (Please let Iroh have his tea shop back!) The plan to split the group sounds interesting and also like a good storytelling choice, allowing Aang to go face off with Ozai without the others complicating the scene. The past Avatars were interesting, although Aang doesn’t seem to notice that none of them actually SAY to kill Ozai—they tell him to act, to be decisive, and to put his responsibilities before himself. Also, I will exempt the lion turtle from my usual cries of “wtf is with the ANIMALS on this SHOW” because as a Discworld fan I am predisposed to believe in giant magical turtles that carry landmasses around.  

20. “Sozin’s Comet, Part 3: Into the Inferno”: Annnnd here we go. This was intense, although since we watched all four parts in a row, it was less cliff-hanger-y than it could have been. Iroh and team were obviously the optimistic part of the episode, giving you something hopeful before SLAPPING YOU IN THE FACE with the other three plotlines. Azula’s breakdown I did NOT see coming, and while it was a little abrupt and convenient, the paranoia does make sense as both a fatal flaw and a logical reaction to Mai and Ty Lee’s rebellion. (Also she 100% would have tried to blast Katara regardless of her state of mind, I don’t know why they didn’t see that coming.) Sokka/ Toph/ Suki’s plotline was actually the most wrenching, to me—the stakes were obvious and sickening, they were horrifically outnumbered, and the sense of danger felt very real. (They didn’t kill Suki, right? Guess I’ll find out in like twenty minutes but still.) Aang’s part of the story didn’t have much—I was proud of his stand and the fight kicked off well, I appreciated the lightning redirect, but I feel like the meat is coming in the next episode. This was just a fight scene so far, albeit a good one.

21. “Sozin’s Comet, Part 4: Avatar Aang”: I’m not ready for this to be over. Here we go. Again, the liberation of Ba Sing Se was just a grace note against the other fights, though I’m always happy to see Iroh and the mentor squad in action. (Belatedly it occurs to me that it would’ve been nice to see an old woman in that squad…) LOVED Katara’s defeat of Azula, immersing them like that was very cool. (What happened to Azula after all this? I hope Aang took her firebending too, or she’s going to be a problem.) Sokka and Toph continued to be the most intense part of the fighting for me. That broken leg, clinging to each other’s hands moment was very visceral, maybe because it wasn’t magic in nature. We can all picture broken bones and falling from great heights, you know? Thrilled that Suki survived and rescued them. (But kinda bummed Sokka lost his boomerang and sword). Aang reactivating the Avatar State at last was a fantastic OH SHIT moment. Just the way it went from “these guys are almost evenly matched” to “Ozai done fucked up” in a heartbeat was intensely satisfying. I was also happy with Aang getting to find a third path—taking Ozai’s bending was a very elegant solution. (And arguably an even more fitting punishment, since Ozai will suffer more in powerless disgrace than he ever would just dying. “To the pain” and all that jazz.) From a purely aesthetic view, I was happy when the comet left just because I was tired of the screen being solid orange for like an hour, but it did leave me with a lot of questions about the orbital mechanics here. (Are there fics with spacebenders? Please say yes.) The rest of the episode felt like it went really quickly, trying to wrap up in the leftover time—WHAT DO YOU MEAN WE DON’T FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENED TO ZUKO’S MOM. Seriously??? Fine, fine, that’s what we call a sequel hook, I guess. But at least the final scene AT THE TEA SHOP YAY so happy for Iroh—ahem. At least the final scene was really cute. An expanded version of the Gaang, having fun together, getting to be kids again, getting to be friends, family (and eventually more, for Aang and Katara). Just getting to live. That’s what all the fighting was for. And there’s still magic in the world, and they can still fly. What more can you dream of?

[duhragonball]

Dragon Ball Super 075

Yeah, okay.

So in this episode, Goku is bored.  This is a running theme in Episodes 68-96, where the Zamasu Saga is over but the Tournament of Power has not begun.  Normally they just skip the downtime and move on to the next arc, but Dragon Ball Super is built different, and just devoted a fourth of its episodes to dull filler episodes.  This one’s okay, but I still don’t understand why we needed so many episodes about Goku being bored.

Anyway, Chi-Chi wants Goku to train.  Yeah, you read that correctly.  Goku’s so bored that Chi-Chi is worried about him being understimulated.  The problem is that no one’s available to train with him.  Whis is busy, Vegeta is busy, etc.  So she calls in Gohan, who says he’s retired, but he’ll give it a shot.  Wait, he’s training with Piccolo, though.  Gohan still proposes Goten training with Goku instead, but Chi-Chi wants him to study, so that’s no go.

For some reason, Gohan feels the need to turn into Great Saiyaman for this, like he needs to be in a particular “mode” depending on what he’s doing.  Goku doesn’t get it, but he’s not going to question it.  Wait, is this why Gohan keeps saying he’s retired from fighting?  Like he’s training with Piccolo and he was just in a fight in the last episode, but maybe he’s compartmentalized his life to the point where he refuses to acknowledge one role while playing another. 

Like, I don’t want to make too much of this.  It’s not like Gohan’s having some sort of psychological crisis here.  It’s just that I think he feels that he shouldn’t fight while he’s wearing his “scholar” outfit, but he doesn’t want to switch to his “training with Piccolo” persona because Piccolo’s not here, and I’m starting to get the impression that he’s been keeping that a secret from everyone.  Like, this seems to be how Gohan operates now. 

Anyway, this seems to go well until their sparring wrecks the farm, so Goku has to come up with something else.  Goten suggests Krillin, and that’s a good idea.  Krillin is always a good idea, really.

Of course, Krillin is in the middle of shootout while doing his job as a cop.  I like how the other cops have to dress like actual cops while Krillin wears his lime green and purple uniform. 

During a heroic moment, Krillin saves a cop from gunfire but get shot in the arm for his trouble.  Luckily, Goku shows up and bends all the bad guys’ guns, George Reeves style. 

At first, Krillin isn’t eager to train with Goku, since he’s retired from fighting, and unlike Gohan, he’s sticking to that decision. Goku points out that he helped out against Golden Frieza, but that was only because the fate of the world was at stake.  Then 18 kind of shames him into going along with Goku’s plan, and Marron says she wants a “strong daddy”.  Kind of laying it on thick, aren’t we?  Well, it works, anyway.

To be fair to 18, Krillin kind of needed a kick in the pants.  As he says to Goku, he shouldn’t have gotten hit with that bullet at all, and he needs to get back into shape if he’s going to pull those kinds of heroics on the job.  This isn’t like when Yamcha became a pro ball player and could coast on his skills through the entire season.  Krillin’s job involves apprehending dangerous criminals who want to kill him. He can’t “retire” from martial arts and then use martial arts to execute his duties.  Eventually, they decide the best thing to do is seek training from Master Roshi, and just go completely old school with this. 

Roshi isn’t sure he can do much for either of them, but he gives it a shot.  First up, he has Krillin spar with Goku while Goku wears a weighted turtle costume.  I’m not going to ask where Roshi got this or why he has it in his house.  He’s not trying to watch teenagers poop, so I’ll deal with this.

And their match seems to go okay, but Krillin isn’t getting much out of it.  His problem is more mental than anything else.  As Roshi puts it, Krillin is frustrated with himself for falling behind, and the harder he tries, the more frustrated he becomes.

The next morning, Roshi assigns Goku and Krillin to go on a fetchquest for... whatever plant this is.  Make your own weed joke here. 

It’s a race, and he promises the winner a rare girly mag from his collection.  Goku and Krillin aren’t interested, since they’re both married to hot milfs in their area.  Also, why does the “rarity” matter?  They’ve been making naked ladies for a long, long time.  I mean, if you’re a collector like Roshi, I’m sure there’s certain models and photographers he prefers, but how would anyone else appreciate that?

You know, the art direction on this episode is pretty incredible.  This is a goofy scene but the backgrounds look like something out of the Lion King or what have  you. 

So they fly to this weird island, and they meet Fortuneteller Baba there, because she’s got some role to play in this.  Actually, I think she’s just supposed to use her crystal ball so Roshi can monitor the boys’ progress, but I don’t understand why she has to be on this island when she’s just going to head back to Roshi’s place.  Anyway, according to Baba, this island is like a liminal space between Earth and the Otherworld.  Aren’t there like... three more of those in this show?  Goku and Krillin have both died five times put together, so I think they might be a liminal space between Earth and the Otherworld. 

Now everything looks like Sleeping Beauty or something.  You know, with all the thorns?

Then they find themselves surrounded by all their old foes.  Well, in particular, all the ones who beat the shit out of Krillin.  Which is most of them, sure, but we’re not seeing guys like Mercenary Tao or Android 19, because Krillin didn’t fight those guys.

Also, Tambourine is here, which is a big deal to Krillin, since Tambourine killed him.  But I’m posting this shot of Cell instead, because Cell is cooler than Tambourine.  Yeah, he didn’t kill Krillin, but he did kick him really hard, which was pretty awesome.  No offense, Krillin.

[p3l0k3n]

MSP 5

After my last post I noticed something in Ep. 4 that this episode didn't address.

To paraphrase Gun to Win: It's a long story; I'll tell you later.

Promise? Hopefully Gun will do just that.

I find this episode to be the weakest one we've seen so far. The stakes are ill defined, and I don't understand where key characters are going from here.

Gun is fortunate enough that his parents' interests match his own, and that they nurture that interest. He wants to follow in his father's footsteps; they're not forcing him to. His mom ends up reassuring him that he can follow his heart no matter what.

It is unfortunate that the milk bar employee is taking maternity leave at this critical time for Gun's plan for New Wave.

Gun's mon says the he wants to go into the Faculty of Music. Won't he need to study for that faculty just like any other?

Then there's Tinn. He's fully under his mom's thumb. She wants him to be a doctor, and he never asks himself if he really wants to be one. Instead, he tries to find meaning and purpose within her expectations. Does mother know best all of a sudden?

Por actually has to confront his mother with what he wants to do; something he manages to do with Tiw's encouragement. She is okay with him being in the Music Club and the New Wave competition. That doesn't come as a complete suprise as they have a grand piano in their living room. I don't know if he want to pursue music after high school or not.

Win is still in defiance of his father's plan for him. We've barely scratched the surface between him being in the band, his desire to break into the rap scene, and his father's expectations. Sound helps him take the first steps, and the two of them end up back in the club room.

I haven't been able to get a good reading on what is going on with either Yo or Pat, but they are there in the club room with the rest of them.

Back to Gun, he has been focusing on keeping his club alive and winning New Wave. He looks like he has spared little thought about what happens next, win or lose.

Step 2: Win New Wave

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.

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Step ?: Success

While the song in Ep. 2 is in my #1 position, the song in Ep. 3 is in #2. Despite the fact that neither Tinn nor Gun are willing to outright admit it (even when the other one pushes), I believe they understand that they will face whatever obstacles come together.

Throughout the series so far, we have watched reality crash through Tinn's daydreams, but he has the connections and resources to deal with what is thrown at him. The song in this episode steps away from reality. It counters the guidance councilor who is a little too zealous in his role at the beginning of the episode.

I hope that Ep. 6 gets back on track.

Side note:

Bad Buddy was really good at keeping things grounded in its reality. We watched Pat and Pran work together to overcome obstacles while developing a pretty solid relationship. After watching them bringing their warring faculties together, I had envisioned them getting their families together as well. At the very end, the young men must face the fact that they have met an obstacle they can't remove. They come to terms with the notion that a not-so-secret relationship is better than no relationship at all.

I was dumbfounded by this ending. It was worse than finding out the reason why the families fueded in the first place. To me, finding out about the scholarship was the beginning of the end. I figured that this was because the US and Thailand are very different culturally. At the same time I realized I wouldn't be able to enjoy another watch of the comple series again.

[ncisfranchise-source]

New guy Alden Parker (Gary Cole) had some giant shoes to fill when he took over in 2021 as head of the NCIS team from longtime leader Leroy Jethro Gibbs (Mark Harmon, who’d been with the series since the 2003 premiere). After a bumpy start with the agents, Parker won them over, but fans loved Cole — a familiar face with a long career in TV and films — from the start. We spoke with the actor about his character’s journey so far.

When Director Vance (Rocky Carroll) offered Parker the job, he hesitated. Why?

Gary Cole: He [wondered], “Is this where I really want to be?” The stakes couldn’t be higher. The [team is] on a perpetual stress train. Parker, by nature, is a loner. Out of instinct, he doesn’t trust anybody. But he’s got to make compromises and do two things: watch his back and trust other people with his life. At first, Parker was adversarial with everybody, but Vance gave him the benefit of the doubt. [Vance] is a trademark good leader, firm but fair, and that’s what Parker tries to be.

Parker bonded with his agents in “All Hands” (Season 19, Episode 11), when he led them in outsmarting and outfighting terrorists on a ship. It was the first time Parker called them “my team.” Why was this a game-changer?

The circumstances were so black and white. People’s lives were on the line. Being in charge, he was responsible for them. Before then, the team had reason to not necessarily have a lot of confidence or trust in him because Gibbs had been there so long that they were used to one thing, and Parker was not that. In this episode, he’s proving himself to the team. In real life, about two weeks before, I tore my meniscus. Whenever we weren’t shooting, I was sitting on an apple box with a giant bag of ice.

(Credit: Robert Voets/CBS via Getty Images )

How does Parker see the agents now?

Parker looks to get McGee’s [Sean Murray] take on the big picture, zeroing in on whoever they’re looking for, whatever they’re trying to solve. He knows that in Torres [Wilmer Valderrama] he’s got a guy that will go the distance, go undercover, do the dirty, badass work, and to some degree [so will] Knight [Katrina Law]. With Torres, he sees recklessness he’d rather wasn’t there. There is a concern that Torres is going to go off a cliff because he wants to do things that are extreme.

Parker is notorious for his many passions: international pastries, bird-watching, horticulture. Have you picked any of those up?

None of his hobbies interest me whatsoever. [Laughs] I like a good doughnut as much as the next guy, so maybe that’s the closest. [The hobbies are] a distraction from the job and maybe the inability to be somebody who’s more social or comfortable around people. He is a guy who can’t sit still. He’s not somebody who reflects a lot — until he doesn’t have a choice if something is weighing on him.

In “Thick as Thieves” (Season 19, Episode 15), fans were just as surprised as the team to learn Parker was in juvie! How does that relate to the agent we know?

He was on the other side, albeit in a juvenile crime, and got close to a path that would have, if not destroyed his life, really altered it. He chose the path of law enforcement, and he takes it very seriously. What makes the character interesting is stuff you don’t see on a frequent basis. It’s bubbling underneath.

(Credit: Sonja Flemming/CBS via Getty Images)

Speaking of bubbling underneath, we learned in “Bridges” (Season 20, Episode 11) that he never got over high school love Joy Aaronson (Rachel Ticotin). Let’s talk about the women in his life. His ex-wife, former FBI agent Vivian Kolchak (Teri Polo), helped him when he was framed for murder, and he had a fling with Sen. Constance Miller (Brigid Brannagh), but nothing sticks. Can Parker commit to a relationship?

If there’s a theme running through that, it’s reluctance. Maybe that traces back to the episode with his ex-partner that he wounded. That’s a significant piece that has something to do with his reluctance to be close to anyone, and certainly, with a woman in the most intimate way. It’s on the back burner.

Right. In “Old Wounds” (Season 20, Episode 14), we met his former FBI partner Jeremy Brighton (Michael Patrick Thornton), whom Parker had mistakenly shot and paralyzed. There was a scene where Brighton had Parker read aloud the letter Brighton had written him shortly after the incident. What was it like to play that?

It’s as emotional a scene as I’ve done in quite a long time, and I was able to do that in a more effective way than maybe I ever had — just because of life experience and working as an actor. I wanted Parker to get the letter and read it back to his partner, almost in anger at first, and then discover the turn [to forgiveness] that the letter makes almost as if it just kind of overtook him and he didn’t expect it. That’s what we wound up doing. It brought some closure to whatever Parker had been holding on to over that.

(Credit: Robert Voets/CBS)

Parker’s dad, Roman (Francis Xavier McCarthy), whom we met in “Birds of a Feather” (Season 19, Episode 21), has criticized his son for not joining the Navy and for divorcing Vivian. But Roman’s also helped on cases! How do you see their relationship?

We don’t know much about what went on when he was younger, but I think at one point he was yearning for his dad’s attention or approval. He loves his father, but it doesn’t come easy between the two of ’em. I liked the way those scenes were written, especially Parker trying to set him up in a new apartment and Roman finally relents and gives his son credit and tells him he’s proud of him. That means a lot. Parker was more exasperated with his father than anything else that ever happened on the show, which has a real-life feeling.

Coming up in Season 21, Parker will pose as a surgeon in one episode. He’s previously impersonated a lawyer and psychiatrist, which seems risky for a federal agent.

Parker does have a gift for bulls–ttery, if that’s a word. He’s comfortable in that. He was introduced [to the series] as this wacko guy who was a lone wolf and hiding the fact that he was working for the FBI and closing in on the same person as NCIS. He will pose as somebody else to get what he wants.