#like so some things that happened in s1 and 3 i'm like oh it'll happen in 5 too so we get 1 3 5

[reikunrei]

i just need. i just NEED. scott to be the key that solves everything. i need him to be there with henry. and i need the party to come back to him. i need them to remember/realize that scott was there when they were kids. mr scott clarke who solves all of their specific theoretical hypothetical questions so they can solve their problems and figure out what’s going on. i need him to be there to tell them about henry and make them realize they are Not Dealing With Henry. i need scott to clear henry’s name!!!

[markantonys]

i'd watched the first 2 episodes of ROP s1 when they first came out, but i found them boring and so didn't continue. however, i've been hearing that charlie vickers is eating and leaving no crumbs in the new season, and that is my sweet boy guglielmo pazzi from i medici (2019) and i've Got to see him killing it in a huge role, i'm so proud of him!!! always a delight when a previously-unknown actor from an obscure show you love ends up making it big

so i decided to give it another shot and dove straight into 1x03 after reading a summary of the first 2 eps to refresh my memory, and idk if 1x03 really is that much more interesting than 1&2 or if it's just that i happen to be in a different frame of mind now that's more predisposed to getting interested in this show, but WOW i am loving it!! i'm an extremely casual LOTR fan (in fact i wouldn't even rightfully call myself a fan, more just "i've watched the movies a few times and like them" haha) and so whatever complaints the fans have about ROP obviously are not things that bother me. i'm just here for a good time, and i'm having one!

the galadriel & halbrand plotline is definitely my favorite (heck, if the numenor stuff had arrived in ep2 instead of 3 i might've been on board with the show the first time around). i already know he's sauron, of course, so i was like "i won't get attached to halbrand since he's not a real person, just sauron's disguise" but fuck, i'm attached, and it hurts!!!!! loving a character who starts out good and turns to the dark is one type of pain, but loving a character who was never real at all because they were evil the whole time and this "character" was never anything more than a facade - it's an entirely different and perhaps even worse type of pain! i can't even soothe myself imagining an AU where halbrand never turned evil, because halbrand was never real! genuinely in immense anguish over this. but once i reach s2 and get to the Unabashedly Evil Sauron Era, it'll be so sexy that i might immediately go "oh no! anyway" and forget all about my anguish jdkjfg

............wait a moment. do i now know how show!rand must be feeling post-s2? attached to someone who was never real because they were always just an evil person's fake persona? oh rand honey i'm even sorrier for you now!

speaking of WOT, it really has broken my brain because i try to polyship everything all the time nowadays. why did i go "wake up babe new polycule just dropped" during that scene when galadriel, halbrand, and miriel had a meeting lmao girl you KNOW this bitch is sauron! but i already knew people were shipping him and galadriel, so i went in to my new watch expecting to see the vibes, and indeed seeing them, and i ALSO unexpectedly saw vibes for galadriel and miriel (two leaders overburdened by duty, oh it's my kryptonite), so how can i help creating a polycule? oh well, i'll enjoy it while it lasts and then once galadriel finds out he's sauron i will instead get some angst to enjoy! and she will still have her girlfriend to comfort her (as long as nothing happens to miriel.........i haven't heard any spoilers about her, so we shall see!)

back to halbrand, the "he's the lost king of the southlands" idea is such a clever misdirect because it allows halbrand to demonstrate unusual skills in combat/diplomacy/manipulation that we wouldn't expect a seeming peasant to have, but provides a cover for it and so we think this one "identity reveal" is all there is to it, and aren't suspecting a second, bigger identity reveal! and actually, as far as i can remember, he never actually confirms that he's the lost king, he just plants a clue to lead galadriel to believe it and then responds to her assumptions in ways that seem to confirm them but don't actually. very aes sedai of him! and hey, if the southlands used to serve sauron, wouldn't it technically be accurate for him to be considered their lost king? very aes sedai of him x2. liars who lie without technically lying are the best kind (gen from the queen's thief also). anyway, because of this misdirect, i don't think i'd be suspecting him of being sauron at all at this point if i didn't already know. on the other hand, there aren't really any other sauron candidates except adar who clearly isn't him. but back to the first hand, the show never set up a "one of our major characters is sauron, who is it?" mystery so i might just be assuming he was hanging out offscreen yet to show up, if i didn't already know.

i'm enjoying the other plotlines too! i remember feeling that the hobbits & the stranger plotline was the weakest link in the first 2 eps, but totally changed my tune now, nori and the stranger (who i'm guessing is gandalf, but i'm not sure, so don't tell me if you know) have the most wholesome friendship, i could die!!

or rather, the second most wholesome friendship after elrond and durin, which i remember was my favorite storyline the first time around. they are so pure!! and disa is a delight! she and elrond have impeccable sibling-spouse energy (yes we've got another polyship in the house, of course we do)

i'm trying not to get too attached to bronwyn because i know they kill her off between seasons due to the actress leaving the show, but i really like her :(( her son's kinda annoying, but he's an angsty teen, so i can't hold it against him. and arondir!! what a man, i'm swooning constantly over everything he says and does. i really like how in the most recent episode i watched they had a Good Guy (bronwyn) genuinely consider giving up her principles of honor and going to swear fealty to the bad guys in order to survive, it feels more realistic and it really sells us on just how desperate and hopeless the situation is (and on how sauron is able to get supporters by creating such situations).

it's also a visually gorgeous show, very decadent (i was practically drooling the first time they showed numenor haha i love white stone seaside cities, and the ancient greek aesthetic vibes are the cherry on top!), and the MUSIC!!!!! you guys know i'm a tv soundtrack fanatic, and my god, this is the best tv soundtrack i've heard in a LONG time. i'd put it as second to WOT because it's traditional fantasy orchestra whereas WOT's soundscape is so different and unique. but "traditional fantasy orchestra" isn't a knock here, because it's done INCREDIBLY well, so it does feel unique instead of generic like other, lesser Traditional Fantasy Orchestra soundtracks do. it's sumptuous, it's lush, it's rich, it's got very distinctive Themes for each character/location that always play in the appropriate contexts (which is one of my favorite aspects of WOT's soundtrack too). i'd been listening to the s1 soundtrack for quite a while before now, so i'm well-primed to recognize all the different themes!

my favorite has gotta be the halbrand theme, i have a character in my WIP who's a sad mountain prince (and a gawyn knockoff <3) and this theme just reminds me sooooo much of him, i cry. but if we dispense with the halbrand pretense after s1, we might not get to hear this theme anymore!!!! it's also the southlands theme, though, so hopefully we'll keep it, and i did hear it crop up briefly in a track from the s2 album. also, shoutout to the fact that the halbrand melody is an inverse of the sauron melody, bear mccreary you son of a gun (the sauron theme is another one of my favorites, the first time i heard it i assumed it was his theme from the original movies because it just had the feel of an Iconic Villain Theme, but no, it's new to ROP!)

anyway! i've watched up through 1x05 now. pacing's definitely still a bit slow, but i'm enjoying it nonetheless, and it's picking up now that galadriel & co are headed for the southlands. and i've heard that s2 is a big step up in many respects (a la WOT s2), so i'm excited to get there!

[wheelerharrington]

Yes I meant to say predictions for stancy

ohhh ok let's go then, like i said i change my mind everytime someone asks me that 😂 but i think we'll have something like dawson's creek ending, the one we only find out who the endgame is at the last minute, speaking of j4ncy first, i think they'll break up in ep 3 don't ask me why i just feel it, OR they'll have an offscreen break up, because i think we'll get a small time jump after ep 1 right? so we can see them broken up in ep 2 or 3, with maybe some small flashbacks of what happened, it's also a nice way to give the single nancy era nat is begging for dkgndjkgnjkg but i think it won't be a break up break up mostly because the duffers are very excited with this love triangle, they posted on twitter many times, they posted on ig "team steve" "team jonathan" signs, so they might break up but they will still be teasing their relationship, which is obvious because they will have a lot of scenes together since we are going back to s1 dynamics, so with all of this happening they will also tease stancy, like a lot, it'll be like season 1 all over again 😂 but this time we don't know which ship is getting there, and there's also jonathan and steve bonding, man it'll be messy kdgjdjkgjkg because they will be teasing ships at the same time they will be developing stonathan friendship, especially now that argyle is out of the picture, so i think we'll have an entire season of teasing both ships, while nancy is "single" and in the last episode we'll see how nancy find her way back to steve or jonathan, i'm very positive about stancy, of course it can go both ways, i think it's 50/50 but we should be positive just for the fact that they are teasing A LOVE TRIANGLE, if they were done with stancy after the backlash of people on twitter they would end things there and start s5 ignoring what happen in season 4, they are good at it, they erased kali from el's storyline, and now argyle, so they could do that, but they didn't, so just because of that i think we should be hopeful, oh and the reason i think we'll get a dawson's creek ending is because the duffers are obsessed with that show ghfdhfhfhs

[aseriesofunfortunatejan]

Just finished watching Providence. I'll probably have some more thoughts to share about it after sleeping on it, and possibly later if I rewatch S3 again (😍).

Providence and S3 spoilers ahead!

The first thing I can't stop thinking about is that upon giving the Psycho-Pass subreddit a quick look before watching the movie, the only post I saw was about how "this movie should have come out before S3". I didn't read the body of the post in fear of spoilers, but throughout watching the movie, I kept thinking about how much I disagree with that. How insignificant would Akira be if you didn't know he was Kei's brother? How random would Atsushi be as a character if you didn't know what he meant to Arata? Imagine this random kid showing up. No one would react positively to Arata, Maiko and Kei. Akira would feel like a side-character we only cared about for a split second and Atsushi would be confusing in the wrong way. Season 3 wouldn't be the same without the mystery of Tsunemori's incarceration. Objectively a wrong take if you care about the storytelling and characters at all imo.

With that out of the way, while Providence answered some of our burning questions, some have been left unanswered, such as:

Did Gino change his haircut so drastically all of a sudden because he realised the wind blowing in his face meant he couldn't see shit?

I'd be willing to buy that he just enjoys changing styles regularly, though.

Since I'm looking at her... do we know what Frederica's deal is, exactly...? I also can't help wondering - is there a reason why Shimotsuki hates her this much? While she's always complaining over petty things, she seems to hold a pretty specific dislike towards Frederica. Is it really just her personality? (I'd be willing to buy that, too...)

I feel like we have gained a net zero information about either Homura Sr. or Jr. Or Bifrost.

I feel like I had another serious question... before I started joking about Gino's hair. It'll probably come back to me. I guess there's always "can Shou's backstory get a Moment? Anyone else remember how S2 didn't give its new cast the same amount of time S1 did? Babyboy's still kinda just Here rn."

I'm still a bit confused about Jackdaw and Vixen, and the fact that I only just realised that Vixen is a woman probably does not help.

I miss Azusawa and Obata...

Oh right, I think I remembered what I meant to talk about. There are events that clearly happened between Providence and S3 that haven't been detailed, such as Gino leaving the Bureau to join Foreign Affairs, Kunizuka running the fuck out of there or even, I believe, Arata and Kei being appointed as Inspectors. We know that Tsunemori contributed to the latter - I wonder if we may learn more about her reasoning in the future. I think we can also infer that Gino, who stated in the movie that he intends on protecting Tsunemori, had to change plans one way or another due to her arrest.

I feel like we still don't know enough about Akira's relationship to his brother or to Atsushi, and I don't know whether that will be forever left in the air of if it will be detailed. The exact implication of Stronskaya Sr. and her relationship to her daughter are also vague.

Honestly, there's a lot going on in this movie. A lot of politics... a lot of religion... and a thick wall of the story's context. It's complex, and it's interesting how Psycho-Pass is continuing in this direction that already stood out in S3.

I'll just say I'm upset about Saiga. Evil evil bad. I'm really hoping for more content with Arata, Maiko and Kei in the near future because I seriously love them!!! And I want closure for them!!!! Akira was a pretty interesting character, though his quick death was frustrating - which I assume was not not on purpose. Though it happened maybe a little too fast due to the movie format (compared to an episodic format), the revelation of his allyship was set up pretty well. Like I said, details are definitely missing - Atsushi didn't explain why Akira was so willing, and he was interrupted before he could say who he was in his own words.

It was pretty nice to see Kougami be a little cringefail. I didn't enjoy his characterisation in S3, but in Providence, it feels a lot more sensible - like he can really feel that he doesn't have control. I'm satisfied with his and Tsunemori's dynamic in the movie, wherein they care about each other deeply - dare I say, Kougami might even care a little more than she does at this point? - how does that dynamic shift feel my guy? - but Kougami's wrongdoings have weight and the narrative doesn't force him back on her. You can feel that he wants to be back, you can feel that to Tsunemori he never really left, but like I mentioned in a more personal post, Gino's her source of comfort, her trustworthy teammate; Kougami isn't welcomed back by default. This feels natural. This feels like the writing cares about their feelings.

What else... Oh yeah... Did anyone else feel like Saiga was kinda................. hot?

[silvertsundere]

Silver Talks AniManga (31/03/24)

there's still 3 shows that haven't finished yet and next week the new season is gonna start already at least I will only be watching a fraction of what I was this season so that's gonna give me a lot more time to catch up on some stuff and play some things I've been putting off for a while (hopefully)

blue - finale/completed

Anime

Gushing over Magical Girls Ep13 (Finale)

surprisingly the best looking showed out of the 3 ecchi ones I watched this season, despite being the lewdest by far but anyway it was alright. the only thing I knew about it going in was that it was about magical girls and lewd. turns out it's just the author's thinly veiled fetishes totally out in the open with a thin coat of magical girl on top to have an excuse to do stuff like MOTW there's not much else to say about it really, everything that happens including plot developments are just an excuse for more and lewder scenes. not sure about reading the manga anymore after having watched it but I'll probably watch a s2 if it ever gets one

Mashle S2 Ep12 (Finale)

there's not much to say really. I had hope it'd be better than s1 and while it was due to the source material being better it still wasn't that much. was hoping for a lot more sakuga cause of one of the pvs they showed but there was barely any. even the best fight in the series which I had my hopes up for only had 1 cool moment and the rest was just the usual quality. which mind you, isn't bad at all, but still not as good as it could be. out of all the things that aired this season too I expected this to get another season announced since they can finish adapting the manga with just 2 more cours (3 at most) but they haven't yet. they announced an event in may so if there's a s3 announcement it'll be there but don't hold your breath I guess

tl;dr: everything I said about s1 applies here. you're better off reading the manga instead since the anime doesn't really get the vibes right

Pokemon Horizons Ep45

this episode marked the end of the second arc and the first year of the anime (basically). next episode we start a more scarvi focused art with the main characters going to the school from the game and a ton of npcs showing up or making a return (rika and nemona 🙏)

but anyway this arc was just alright. it was all about searching and getting the six hero pokemon but there were more random eps about other stuff than that. we also have the explorers who are supposed to be the antagonists and they barely showed up despite them revealing the designs for a bunch of them. two of them are gonna be a part of the school art so maybe they'll have a bigger part in the story but I doubt it. they'll prob just be there to give the mcs a hard time and be comedic relief like team rocket.

anyway, considering how it's gone I don't have very high hopes for this next arc BUT I'm stoked to see rika and nemona, they're some of the best things to come out of those games by far

Manga

Ruri Dragon Ch11

today marked the last chap of ruri on WSJ, going forward it'll be on jump+ and run biweekly, tho the next chap will be on the 21st so I guess it's taking a week off. kinda weird to make the transition on an incomplete part like, could've very easily done it on last week's chap it felt like a more natural stopping point, but oh well. obviously tho she's gonna join that committee thing and the other girl that doesn't like her is gonna be a part of it too and they'll make up and become friends too anyway it was nice having ruri back, it's still as good as before it left. it's a shame that it's going biweekly but hey, the author's health is more important

[marismoments39]

it goes 5, 6, 7, 8, 1, 2, San, 4, HAI!! learn how to count, Yuru Yuri fans!!!

Guys.

GUYS!

I get it, okay

the yuruyuri album art's really cool

I mean look at this one

wow!!

and then look at sakurako's omg...

omg!!

and then, huh!? they can be put together!?!?

wow let's see that-!!

(someone please tell me that "readmore" thing worked! if it didn't, blame @powwuten yep please and thank you)

Wow that's so cool wh-HUH!?!?!???

What's happened to Himawari's arm!?!!?

that's because.. s1 albums were designed with the gap in mind!

according to me.

well, my speculation.

look, I may or may not've made that the heck up, but look:

here are sakurako and himawari's from san hai

(note: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA HALF THE POST JUST DELETED ITSELF!! Everything from here on out had to be rewritten.. now you don't get to see my original thoughts...)

Those are sakurako and himawari's! Seamless! you can't even tell where the original images start and end!

but now, let's look at them in real life!:

Here they are! notice anything? other than my horrible camera quality and the scratches on sakurako? (Please do not bring your most prized possessions to school!) It's that they Don't align! because of that little gap the albums have!

So that got me thinking, were the s1 albums designed with that in mind??

let's see!:

so.. probably not...

but there's a chance! the gap masks it a bit!!

anyways, despite all that talk, this post is actually about something else!

yeah, shocker, right!?!

so, let's look at the yryr albums, see how they connect, and see what Moon's problem is with people couting NORMALLY in the san hai ones,

okay, let's start!

season 1's albums are labelled, and were released, in this order:

Akari, Yui, Kyouko, Chinatsu, Sakurako, Himawari, Ayano, Chitose

(we're ignoring mirakurun here!!)

now, this order is so weird compared to the other season! but whatever, let's see what the albums look like!

odd. and here's what they all look like in a row, if you were curious!:

so, looking at the top pic, these obviously weren't supposed to have their art just put side by side like that

but maybe the albums were supposed to be displayed side by side?

this order IS correct, look at the backgrounds, the gorakubu and seitokai are both spelling 「ゆるゆり」 (yuruyuri!) so this IS the correct order...

but tell me.

TELL ME.

WHY is sakurako BEFORE himawari??

Who's choice was that??

anyways, other than sakuhima's these don't look like they were made to be displayed side by side...

as opposed to s2!! let's see-!!:

The order changed to Akari, Chinatsu, Kyouko, Yui, Ayano, Chitose, Sakurako, Himawari. it'll stay the same for san hai, save for yui and kyouko swapping

Everything comes together to make THIS! Beautiful! Tumblr compression doesn't do it justice. well, maybe it does, idk it looks blurry in the editor

like that.

anyways, the s2 one is gorgeous! althought I prefer the individual art from san hai, s2's complete art is amazing!!!

(oh, I just realized: what if a non-yryr-fan is reading this post?? I should clarify: s3 is also known as san hai! s2 is also known as yuruyuri music note music note but the music notes are silent (akari told me herself!!))

okay, so now let's look at the s3 art!:

(also this is what my taskbar looks like rn, idk thought I would share lol)

Here are san hai's! They're so pretty!! other than yui's right arm being a little jank, (not sure if that's a problem with the original art or with fandom, which is where I'm getting these images), this one aligns pretty well!!

that is, until...

Kyouko! Ayano! Your HAIR!! So long...

sometimes I see these displayed side by side and I'm like UGHH

cuz the solution is LITERALLY SO SIMPLE.

LOOK.

instead of counting 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8, just count 5 6 7 8 1 2 3 4!!

Yeah!

Now we have physics!

That simple!!

WoooO!!!

yeah. that's what this entire post was leading up to.

me proving a point to.. some imaginary audience...

anyways, I wanted to make this post because, for one thing, I don't hear people talk about the yryr songs! well, I do, but NOT ENOUGH!!

Some of my favourite songs of all time are in the yuru yuri character songs!!

guys! please! LISTEN TO THEM!!!

anyways, that's all from me, I hope you enjoyed this post!

cyaa~

~Moon

[aenslem]

aslkjdlasjf THIS GD SHOW, argh. i just finished season one, which i thought was a good idea, you know, finish the season before taking a break. *facepalms* i have those annoying things to do again (stupid household chores, every gd day you gotta do things), so it'll be a few hours before i can watch more, but i should be able to watch at least one or two more episodes today, so HOPEFULLY things will be a bit more resolved by tonight x'D

you were so right, there is so much happening, and i think EVERYONE on that gd ship needs a few years vacation after all this x'D

"married divorced remarried and divorced again and still having feelings for each other" asljdalksjda that is so correct, they are just that x'D

it's so fun, they're like "i don't trust him" pretty much all the time, and then Rush is like "so i had a dream" and Young is like "ok, i'll call General O'Neill" and they keep relying on each other so much right now, it's great, and Young risking the whole gd ship to save Rush, after having tried to kill him, what, twice already? amazing ❤

ah, yes, fanfiction ❤ it's so good at casting light on things from different angles, i love that, seeing characters and their motivations from all kinds of different point of views. though, you gif makers do that too and i love it, it's so great to look at different gif makers in the same fandoms and see how you focus different things.

right now i'm pretty exclusively reading McShep fics, but we'll see how that looks once i'm done with sgu x'D if you have any recs, please feel free to share!

btw, i've been trying to remember why i followed you from the start, and i'm pretty sure it's Star Trek, and specifically Spones, which, ALL MY LOVE! but i also want to mention how much i love following someone who gifs a lot of women, i love having more women on my dash! i never finished OUaT back in the days, but all your Regina and Swan Queen gifs are making me want to, and your Michelle Gomez gifs, waah, i do not want to watch CAoS! 😭 but you are kicking me in the butt about finishing Doctor Who too with your gifs of her (i sadly miss most of them though since i have it blacklisted for spoilers), i had no idea she was in it but man did that make me want to watch it when i found out!

okay, sorry that this got so long, even when i'm trying to keep things brief i end up being very wordy. so many things to say!

anyway, i'm gonna go do the things now, the sooner i get them done the sooner i can watch more sgu =D oh, wait, no, you posted something from 1x18 last night! i didn't look at it since i hadn't watched it yet, so i'm gonna go do that first! =D ❤

/Rodney anon

Oh don't be sorry , you can get wordy in my inbox whenever you like :3

You're fast! but why am I surprised, I finished 7 seasons of OUaT in a month lmao.

Well, imagine how it was for those who were watching sgu when it was actually airing, they did not have a chance to go and watch s2 right after s1, and you can :D so other things are not as bad as break between seasons of the show, but yeah, there's always things to do, sucks

askjhdaksjhd 'i just had a very interesting dream' scene is so good, and it so much better when you take it out of context lmao

well, they have to work together, they don't have a choice. you know how things were when he left rush on that planet, eli is smart, and eli was also right

but eli is still not good enough to do all the work, so no matter how much they don't trust each other, they have to work things out and work together and then finally going towards trust and comradery

well, at least they will try lmao

SPONES!!!!!!! SPOOOONEES! they are everything to me!!!!!

well, if you finish ouat and start caos... I am so sorry in advance lmao

I am not sure I can even explain what mess of the shows are those two, I have similar feelings towards both shows, I love the cast, I love some characters, I love women there, I hate the writers :D

Michelle is stunning in caos, there's also Miranda Otto, and they are like my moms, I love them, this show is worth watching just to look at them, but there's also... the rest of the show and plot asjkhdakjdh

same goes for ouat tbh, some characters are great and actors are doing such a good job and then there's whatever was happening in the show, but it;s still fun if you don't take it all seriously.

you will facepalm a lot and you will have an urge to rip your hair out sometimes, but if you try caos, I will give you two good reasons for it

that's it, think about it

okay, but you definitely need to watch doctor who, WATCH DOCTOR WHO!

[feuqueerfire]

Death's Game S1 & S2 Live Blogging

This is a pretty recent release, Season 1 in December and Season 2 in January. Hadn't heard much about it until I saw Pocha Playlist podcast covering it but I didn't listen to that episode. Then, I found out that Lee Dohyun plays a (reincarnation) character in it and it's getting good reception, so here we are.

Ep 1: Death (Jan 29)

Okay I think I heard the main character commits suicide and is granted like 14 lives to make the person he's in charge of live a full life or smth like that

Lots of violence right from the beginning woah

Doing bad at job interview or job is my biggest weakness when it comes to these fucking shows fr but I'm assuming this show isn't gonna have too much of that actually

7 years of not getting a job after getting a job interview ahead of his peers...

This guy cannot get a break on these job interview days for real

Awooga, that breakup

lost all his investments, broke up with very longterm gf, got kicked out of his home, got rejected from the job

Oh, that call from his Mom right as he threw himself off the building

Oh yeah that Super Junior's Choi Si Won fucker is the first iteration

This hell-ish place is so disgusting ew

I just realized why it's called Death's Game. Gonna body hop into 12 bodies that are legit almost about to die like imminently and if you avoid one of the deaths, you'll live on in that body for the rest of that life as your own life.

I wonder what's gonna happen to that person though lol? Just disappeared into the wind while Yi Jae lives on as them in ep 8 or whatever? I wonder if it'll be like he finds himself in the hospital bed or smth and it's his own body that he has to survive and live in for the 12th iteration - but death did say he's dead so maybe not

oh, the airplane is Taekang - isn't that the company he's trying and getting rejected from?

Any probability that the older brother tinkered with the plane to murder him for userping him as the CEO-to-be?

Not this fucking airplane side opening up and sucking ppl out while the door of an airplane Boeing had literally had that happen recently (though I don't think anybody got sucked out or died thankfully?)

Oh, so the original owner "plays the whole game without saving" and dies, then Yi Jae begins again at "the last save point of the game" before it ended and tries to get a different ending than the original owner (death)

oh, sudden Ryeoun (Twinkling Watermelon, 18 Again) appearance 41mins in the computer center, hi pretty :)

Oh that death was fucked up fr

Ryeoun cutie, come back for another cameo in another iteration pls <3

Here and in Tomorrow, I gotta come to terms with the fact that we're gonna have established suicide=sin and will be punished rules. To expect the cruelty of it

I'm actually still so confused/curious about how this quite works though because like in the airplane, other people also died. So, if he had survived and managed to make them survive, would they have also survived? And in the famous thrill-seeker thing, it's like being streamed by millions of people or whatever, so in the original universe they've already seen this and they're dealing with the aftermath of that death but this is a different universe that started at that savepoint?

Like I guess I'm just wondering whether this is a parallel universe? If not, what about all the other people involved who have supposedly already experienced this with the original person's death already.

Anyway, without thinking too much, this is super cool and interesting. So far, it's just been thrilling and quick/snappy deaths, kinda reminds me of the Squid Game and Alice in Borderland missions/games, but I'm assuming it'll get more heart-wrenching as it goes on (Lee Dohyun's storyline apparently? okay I saw a tiktok for his story and that's where I realized he's in this show but I didn't really understand what was going on and didn't try properly finding out beyond he's supposed to save some girl? or smth idk)

Ep 2: The Reason You're Going to Hell (Jan 29)

Is the woman who apparently died a gruesome dead Yi Jae's ex-gf? Since the Yi Jae photo was lying on the ground? And maybe Lee Dohyun was supposed to save her in the tiktok I saw? or is it his mother?

Ah, they're clearly hinting that Yi Jae's death hurt a lot more than just himself (ie. his gf, his mother) and that's why he's being punished

Awooga, Yi Jae remembering his own mother while in this kid's body

Okayyyy when watching Yi Jae remember his mother's "eat a lot" from across the table, I realized she is the mother in law from 18 Again. Her food-related thing at a table like this also killed me in 18 Again

Adult Yi Jae trying to figure out how to manipulate these kids is entertaining as always, my favourite concept

Oof, he defeated the bully but is the bully now gonna kill himself or smth? Or end up killing Yi Jae because it's not like Yi Jae's gonna stay in this body rip

Oh that was fucked up, murdered by smacking his head with a brick

Yi Jae really keeps mouthing off at death, such a silly thing to do after having seen everything

oh... stepping on Yi Jae/his face

"The pain that death brings you will be even worse from here"

oh noooo so he's not a kidnapper, a criminal who ran away with a woman who was being abused oof

Wait, okay, this fight and chase with Juhun was unexpectedly fun

First, the fist-fight (including after turning the lights off) reminded me of Bloodhounds ep 6, ah truly such a good episode before the show went to shit

Secondly, I loved this car chase! I'm usually not somebody who gets super into the car chases but I think Juhun being on a motorcycle helped a lot, it made it more intense and fun and cool

Ep 3: Death Can't Take Anything Away (Jan 29)

was it his gf who died and was she pregnant or smth?

"Does he have nine lives or what?" heh

lol I did wonder if was gonna kill him but was like hm

Ah, it'd be so ironic if Lee Jin Sang kills Yi Jae in two different bodies

death was so right when saying Yi Jae has no thoughts, more like he has no impulse control or foresight because why is he now provoking Jin Sang while knowing that he can kill a kid with a brick and the body he's in supposedly dies soon

Last time too he provoked Jin Sang and got murdered, so I wonder if provoking him again to debase him is gonna backfire

Damn bruh, everybody tryna kill this guy

not him using Hyuk Soo to scare Jin Sang

Cool shots with the seeing the past bullet to the head

Girl whoooo is in that big van with the dark windows

just billions and diamonds out in the bag in this random room while he sleeps. it does take a boat to get to but it's indeed a public place lol

Ouuuch, Yi Jae had actually gotten the call from his mom before jumping

HE'S JUST WALKING ABOUT 10 BILLION WON IN CASH + DIAMONDS!?!?!?! girl you're stressing me out

ah, the father of the girl who got killed. briefly i wondered if it was Yi Jae's gf but she's prlly like 30 or smth whereas the girl who died was apparently 20 (also I wonder if the tiktok I saw of Lee Dohyun not letting a girl die in a crash was her though but that wouldn't make sense since time is going linearly and she's she died, she's dead)

where did the prison lacky come from suddenly?

ohhhh I knew the fact that he came and literally brought a weapon doesn't necessarily mean he was gonna defend him (instead of killing him and getting the money lmao)

oof, mans really got stabbed multiple times and got killed

lmfaoooo crying at him being a baby, can't do anything and can't get his 10 bill won

Okay, so is it like we're going to have threads that continue on as the lives go on:

the money he stored in that locker

the dad knowing who the real killer of his daughter was

Ep 4: The Reason You're Afraid of Death (Jan 29)

Lee Dohyun!!!!! Finally he will appear in this ep, though I'm guessing for like 20-30 mins agh, idk why I was under the impression he's in eps 3-4 but oh well, I'm sure he'll make his short appearance count

Oh, I get her. this is why I don't want a child because 0 chance of me being a good, well-adjusted parent fr

I know we're supposed to hate the mother because she's mean to the kid and is abusive and I do but the father just noticed that the baby food is 4 months expired?

Oh nvm, they're showing him be scary too

Poor baby :( useless that the cops/child protective services came but just left

As expected, here's the "you chose death so flippantly but others are trying so hard to live" so you should be grateful etc etc

Lee Dohyun!!!!!!!

What's he gonna do with the bag of money? Stresses me out fr that he could die at any moment and lose it

Lee Dohyun is again playing a character who is a different person inside his body (18 Again it was his 40s self in his young body and this time it's like 28 or so years old Yi Jae in 24-year old body)

Bro this Taekang group is not leaving this guy's life fr, they gotta be behind some huge thing or smth?

Awooga, so it is indeed Lee Dohyun playing Yi Jae trying to save his (ex) gf from dying or smth in that tiktok

Ahhhhhhh my guy didn't know when his gf Jisu wrote novels and won awards T.T and yet her first thought was of him

He also didn't know her blood brother? Bro what

And not only is Lee Dohyun playing a diff character in his body but is also watching/interacting with the woman he loves from a distance/as the other person both here and in 18 Again

Linguistics: His name is Yi Jae and it also means "now" so he says it as if he's gonna say his book character's name is Yi Jae but ends up saying it's not decided yet now but Jisu thought the character's name was Yi Jae

Ahhh she got the fountain pen after his death ahhh T.T

Oh, I wish we got to see Lee Dohyun as Yi Jae with Yi Jae's mother cuz then it'd be just like Lee Dohyun and the mother-in-law in 18 Again

Nawt this umbrella scene, really reminds me of 18 Again frrr

Oh, this is the scene I saw in that tiktok

Ah, he saw how his death is still affecting her

Ouch, Jisu-ya :(

Ah, Lee Dohyun and the mother interaction - 18 Again vibes

Okay idk I'm nervous that he's gonna confess about being Yi Jae or strongly hint at it and she's gonna be scared and mad and never met him again and never trust another person again bc she's still grieving and ah

This is so fucking romantic and sad mannnn

awoooo fuck I had guessed that she was gonna die but I'd... forgotten for an hour, oh goodness

Ah, it's the Taekang CEO. Is it also the guy who put that kid in jail for his hit-and-run? He also has that lighter he's fiddling with and there was a scene like that when that kid was called to the warehouse to be told about the incident and to take the fall

Oh I see lol I'm late, they're showing that he's the dude. He even made the proposition to the skydiver in the 2nd iteration

as expected, the CEO indeed fiddled with the airplane to kill his younger brother CEO

Ahhhhhh sad ass ending, also I wonder how Geonu originally died and whether Jisu would have also died if not for Yi Jae stopping her to talk there?

Also... I should watch 18 Again fuck like I'd been wanting to since Twinkling Watermelon and now these parallels with 18 Again and Lee Dohyun agh. Then I should rewatch this ep too to compare again lol

Okay do I need general thoughts and a rating and everything? It's just 4 episodes of an 8 episode show which is divided like this not because it's a completed story but because of greed (get 2 months' subscription instead of 1).

Also, before watching the next 4 eps tmrw, I will be catching up on all the hundreds of on-air comments (I just read the episode-specific comment threads) and reblogging people's part 1 gifs hehe and have to do the MDL and monthly/yearly updates and stuff just like a usual show even though... it's a 4 episode half of a show, not even a full one lol I considered just treating it like 1 8-episode show but Part 1 ended in 2023 while Part 2 ended in 2024, so I can't oof

General Thoughts:

Really good and interesting, I'm enjoying it a lot. If I had watched more kdramas and known more actors, I would've definitely been having even more fun based on the r/kdrama on-air comments + my reaction to Lee Dohyun. My favourite eps are eps 2 and 4, they balanced a good amount of heart with excitement (for ep 2) and plot progression/answers (ep 4). The 18 Again characters/actors were already haunting me but Lee Dohyun once again 1) playing a character who is in his body but isn't himself, 2) interacting with the lohl as this other guy who his lover doesn't know while he himself knows and regrets not being a better bf/husband and 3) interacting with the same actress playing mother/mother-in-law character, also not as himself but as the character stuck in Lee Dohyun's body. Also, beautiful, talented man.

It's just 4 eps, my life usually isn't changed in such a short time, so here it is currently rated 7 but yknow, part 2 can be higher if I become more into it

Rating: 7/10

Death's Game Part 2

I was just watching this month's Certified Noonas What We're Watching episode and someone mentioned that part 2 is more horror and gory? Okay, interesting because I thought Part 1 started off kinda action/thriller and then went into a more heart-felt, less gory direction but I guess it's veering into that direction again

Also from the on-air part 1 comments, seems like there's a serial killer (is it just the Taekang CEO?), a homeless guy, a gamer among the people left. Also, I think I read a spoiler that his last iteration was his mother? I scrolled away really fast after registering that but hmm

Ep 1: It is impossible to break free and fight against death (Jan 30)

oh, horror and gore right from the start fr (kinda reminds me of Beyond Evil sad)

also I've been calling this killer guy Taekang CEO but is that true? who knows? Maybe it's a diff dude because the guy who just killed the other dude and made a "painting" didn't seem like the same guy whose face we flashed to during Lee Dohyun's death idk

Okay, so Jisu was indeed supposed to die at that time in that spot, so it's not Yi Jae's fault which is good

Okay, this serial killer guy is indeed not Kim Taeu, the Taekang CEO. but did this guy appear before this episode and I confused him with the CEO? Hope not

Oh he's so fucked up

Kinda reminds me of Strangers From Hell where dentist mans kept the teeth in the bracelet as art or whatever, although this is so fucked because he's making paintings based on the blood splatterings of his victims + selling them for hundreds of millions (of dollars?)

goodness, death everywhere. the gruesome murders by the new body while Tae-u is taking a break from putting a hit on/killing people to kill birds

Such a weird angle of crashing the car, was it on purpose?

Damn, making the lawyer guy taking the fall this time

Are we supposed to believe the Taekang CEO hyung is a CEO since he had trouble w those qs?

serial killer name: Jeong Gyu Cheol

This episode really is focusing on other stuff like Tae-u's story instead of the hyperfocus of ep 4 Yi Jae and his lovestory with Jisu

Police car chase scenes are so dumb, now whenever I see them, I keep hoping to see them crash into a wall the way that one Twitter video of irl cop dangerously chasing a car did lol

If you're gonna kill Tae-u pls do it quickly lol it's only ep 5/8, you might die in this life before getting to kill him (although death said she'll step in if you try to kill anyway)

This Tae-u and Yi Jae intertwined connection is too much bro, the original death Yi Jae witnessed in ep 1 was also by Tae-u? cmon

Will Tae-u not find the cameras and stop them/destroy them before Yi Jae's next life? It wasn't livestreaming was it? Maybe being backed up somewhere in the cloud

bro i'm so sleepy but i'm not sleeping and i'm also not doing my HW cuz I'm sleepy and thought I was gonna sleep. Watched this whole ep instead agh

A deviation from the first half of the show for sure. Much gorier and thriller/horror-based due to the serial killer and hands-on murder aspect. I wonder if it'll continue on this way because the serial killer is dead but Tae-u is still alive and a murderer and Yi Jae will also want to kill him maybe? or have him killed or smth

Ep 2: Memory (Jan 30)

Why am I started next ep instead of doing hw? who knows?

So creepy with the guy speaking while his legs and hand are on the ground (ripped apart from his body) and talking about how he was once Tae-u's younger brother who he murdered

Oops, caught the serial killer in a blink after he was supposed to be dead

Cop iteration, I remember reading about this as well in the on-air thread but forgot till now

Are they in Seoul? Is the place made of like 25 people lol we're seeing the betrayer man from prison iteration

oh girlll you're gonna die D:

Bro he copied the files of Tae-u killing Gyu-Cheol and deleted them from the computer awooga ik it's gonna work out because it's a show but why

Oh, the rookie cop caught that he moved some evidence

Dude must have other copies of this right? He's handing over the video evidence, so he must have it stored elsewhere as well right?

Oof, okay I'm kinda glad that they brought up how troublesome just having had THAT MUCH money randomly show up at your house would be. Especially because Lee Dohyun's character was fucking killed afterwards. Yi Jae was being dumb af when just giving that much money to his mother like that

Oh, the touching and parent-child moments are back

Tae-u brining the cop over to the General Commissioner's office ah, reminds me of Beyond Evil

Oof, ofc Tae-u spins it that he himself is the saviour who bested the serial killer and is a hero

Anyway, I hope you've still got some of that video so that you can upload it online or smth tf

Oh, Tae-u going to the states

are the ppl who captured Ahn Jihyeong also cops in his team? Can't remember the faces

When Tae-u lays down at 45mins, I saw Cha Eunwoo for a second there from the side

wtf was that how did that even happen how did Yi Jae manage to literally blow up Tae-u's plane

Seeing Yi Jae use all the memories of previous iterations is cool, though I didn't know he still had the skills and memories of every person wowie

Lee Dohyun for like 5 seconds

This means many of the actors were here in this moment to act their little bit part right?

oh wow that ending lol

8:35 PM and I have lots of work to do... maybe I'll try to do it for at least 25 mins till 9?

Ep 3: Oppurtunity (Jan 30)

Spent an hour doing this stupid q, so it's 9:35 now rip

We get a glimpse of the attorney guy who had other people taking the fall for Tae-u until he himself took the fall. Wonder if we'll see the backstabbing prison dude who got caught by the cop again or his father?

Yknow, the fact that these videos are evidence and "were confirmed to be true" really does make me wonder what'll happen as AI gets better and better in skill but worse for like the world and society lol

oh man, is the younger cop partner gonna die or his kid Seulgi gonna die because this promise and stuff is just foreshadowing that. Or I supposed the Yi Jae cop himself is gonna die but that's expected

Oh I see, led him to sacrifice himself

Ah, "who are you" indeed - identity crisis

Damn, that's it as the homeless guy? I was kinda hoping we don't get much because it's really hard to watch the way people treat unhouses people but damn

Wait, what? So this is like backwards in time? girl...

Was this guy also given X amounts of lives and deaths to get through like Yi Jae was?

Ah okay for a second there I was like wait? Is this still the original guy or Yi Jay as this guy who chose to still go into the road and kill himself? But ig it's Yi Jae following in that dude's footsteps to get on that road

Ah, the same quote about death being a means to an end coming back again

Indeed the last round is his mother, wish I hadn't known that, the surprise would've been good

Ep 4: Don't Go Looking For Death, Death Will Come Find You (Jan 30)

Ouch, parent-child relationship

oh, his mother was in the hospital that night?

Ouch because obviously it's tragic but more ouch that I'm not emotionally connecting with it a whole lot because Yi Jae has died and his mother has also functionally died since he's taken over her body and it's like... old interactions as a way to grow and learn and not as a way of reconciliation/coming together again

Oh, he lived for 32 years as his mother, that's almost 1.5x my current age. I guess he's also like 50 years or smth now if he was ~28 then

Ah, he got to live again

General Thoughts:

As I mentioned before, fuck the message of "suicide is a sin, you must be gravely punished, why not think of and live for your family and friends, think about other people who want to live but can't, so could you kill yourself, you selfish bastard." In shows like this, it's of utmost importance to just roll your eyes and see the story/acting/etc. that's not just this message. I'm glad it was brought up more in the part 2 on-air thread in r/kdrama because part 1 had only a few such comments and didn't have that many upvotes.

Eps 1 to half of 3 were interesting and exciting but in the way of "I'm watching a show with murder and gore and people trying to outsmart each other" rather than about this specific show (although in the end I liked that we got the whole gang (lol his previous iterations) and their skills to punish Tae-u. Although it's a bit jarring that Death wasn't specifically making him go to deaths connected to Tae-u it just happened that way lol. It also made the come-down and slow nature of ep 4 boring to me, although it was touching.

The ending is... okay, I guess, expected it.

In Part 1, Death just left something to be desired for me and this kinda continued here. I think it's maybe the acting? She should have been more menacing or more like a trickster, idk. Her getting offended at stuff Yi Jae says feels silly and idk she should've seemed more Death-like ig. Just seemed like an especially mean and stubborn boss. Such a shame because the show focused on so many male characters that the highest-billed female character fell flat.

Don't think I'll think of this show much (except maybe Lee Dohyun?) and the 2nd part didn't have the excellent pacing as the first one. Not as good as part 1.

Rating: 6/10

18 Again character counter: 4 (Ryeoun, Kim Mi Kyung  - Yi Jae's mother and Da Young's mother in law, Lee Do Hyun, Kim Kang Hoon - the 3rd iteration kid Hyuk Soo here and a child in 18 Again ig? I didn't realize this one but the comment also mentioned below did)

Found this comment under the ep 2 discussion in the r/kdrama on-air thread but apparently the director for this also directed 18 Again and so that might influence the number of overlapping actors (and also Death's Game just has a wild number of actors)

Also this director also directed Go Back Couple, another show on my to-watch list because of time shenanigans (after a marriage fails)

Tiktoks:

Maybe this is the Tiktok I saw since it involved seeing Lee Dohyun rushing to a crashing scene and the comments being like he was looking for a girl but she survived

[thetragicallynerdy]

20 Questions for fic writers

I got tagged by @zombiethingy, thanks so much for the tag pal!!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

50!! I just hit 50 with my last kinktober fill, it's neat haha. Halfway to 100 XD

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

728,567. I write... a lot lmao. I would love to hit 900K by the end of the year - I've got an 150K+ fic that's unposted in it's entirety that I'd like to finish by then, we'll see if it happens!

3. What fandoms do you write for?

OFMD, UnDeadwood, Critical Role (Campaign 1), and Leverage. Mostly OFMD and UnDeadwood, though!

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

but don't you shake alone (Leverage, 817 kudos, blows my mind every time)

In Which Mr Sharpe Is In Need Of A Rescue (UnDeadwood, 252 kudos, my first fic ever written!)

i like to call myself wound (but i will answer to knife) (OFMD, 221 kudos)

every bit as feral (UnDeadwood, 178 kudos)

for my life, still ahead, pity me (CR 1, 167 kudos)

And looking at this list, I now realize that all of my top kudos'd fics are whump fics XD

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Sure do!! I can take a while to respond because of the Executive Dysfunction but I try to always respond.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Hmmm. Either something from the UnDeadwood whumptober collection (I can't think of one, because I wrote them 3 years ago, but some were damn sad), or the weight of another unearned victory.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Oooh that's tough! I dunno, I tend to like writing if not happy endings at least hopeful endings. Three that stand out are 1) i will stay, if you dare, 2) i found love where it wasn't supposed to be and 3) Ask Me Anything OFMD SMAU - because they all start out or get super sad (bad breakup, character death, and character death midway respectively) and end super happy.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Not on ao3, but I've gotten anon hate on tumblr for the ships I write after posting fic snippets!

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Yes lmao. It is the majority of what I write right now. As for what kind - ehhh that's hard to say! I write a lot of different stuff! But mainly: smut featuring Jim from OFMD or Clayton from UnDeadwood. I write a lot of trans/nonbinary smut for both characters.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

Nah, not really my thing!

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not to my awareness? Honestly I'm not a big enough fic writer/don't write for popular enough ships/fandoms to really be worried about it.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Nope!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Sure have! Three published, and another few in the works. I really enjoy co-writing, it's always a fun experience.

@askmeanythingofmd (ao3: ask me anything ofmd) with @yerbamansa

a grave softer than your end with @eldritchjackalope

i found love where it wasn't supposed to be with @lovewithagirl

@lovewithagirl and I are also currently co-writing a really long sad Jim/Ed post s1 fic, and have a few other ideas we're messing around with really casually! We co-write together pretty often <3

14. What’s your all time favorite ship?

Oh this is a tough question haha! That I write for: Jim/Olu and Jim/Ed or some combo of poly ships with them (OFMD), Clayton/Aly/Matthew, Clay/Aly, Clay/Matthew (UnDeadwood).

Other faves include Arthur/Eames (Inception), Parker/Elliot/Hardison (Leverage), and I'm blanking on any others lmao. But those are the big ones!

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

Oh man, so many. I have a lot of WIPs that get abandoned tbh. The big ones are both for UnDeadwood - The Lighthouse AU and The Nemesis AU. Both sitting at pretty high word counts (50 and 90K respectively). I'd love to finish both, but not sure it'll happen. Maybe someday, though!

16. What are your writing strengths?

I think I'm good at adding in details? Specifically details around what characters are thinking/feeling/experiencing. Or at least I try to be lol. I find writing dialogue pretty easy, and I think I'm decent at smut and whump writing.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Worldbuilding my beloathed lmao. I find it really boring, so basically never do it.

Detailed settings are also pretty hard for me to write - I don't picture places in my head easily at all, so I basically do as little work as possible with it. Which is something I'd like to work on, because I really enjoy very place/space heavy writing.

Also conciseness XD I am a wordy bastard, and always write way too much lmaooo.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

I've done it using google translate, I try to keep it pretty minimal because I don't actually speak any other languages and I know it's not going to be very accurate.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

UnDeadwood my beloved <3

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

Ooh, that's really tough. I've gotta go with i threw stones at the stars but the whole sky fell - it holds a really special place in my heart. (If we're talking smut, then probably we both go down together XD) For unpublished stuff, the long sad fic I'm co-writing with @lovewithagirl is probably my favourite thing I'm currently writing.

---

Thanks so much for the tag, this was a lot of fun!! Neat to look back, too.

I'm gonna tag (but only if you feel like it friends!) @yerbamansa, @dragonmuse, @yourlocal-charlatan, and @alfalfairy.

If you didn't get tagged but see this and want to do it, consider yourself tagged!!

[just-emerald-star]

MY THOUGHTS ON THE TOTAL DRAMA REBOOT (BOTH SEASONS)

WARNING: This post contains spoilers for both seasons of Total Dram's Reboot. Just as a head's up.

Since I never intend on discussing the series on my channel (at least not until it gets an official release in the US...thx for that WB/Max) I'll share my thoughts on the Total Drama Reboot (both seasons in context) here in detail. I'll be doing so through explaining my thoughts on the characters.

If you want my basic thoughts on both season first, here's the gist:

SEASON 1: Excellent from start to finish. Minus a few glaring issues the show has been known for (gross out jokes/fart jokes), it was absolutely phenomenal. A real & true breath of fresh air after a streak of shit seasons (not including Ridonculous Race <3) | 9.5/10

SEASON 2: This season had a lot to prove since it was gonna bring back the cast and we all know what happens when Total Drama insists on keeping characters longer than necessary. I was pleasantly surprised when they dodged a bullet and made a damn good second season with the cast. The new writing team has given this series a much-needed edge to put it back on the map. That said, some of the characters very clearly stayed on for too long or in one person's case...won the whole damn season. It suffered from keeping certain characters around for too long but it did give some (mainly my boi Caleb) some much needed screentime and development. | Gets a 8/10.

Now onto the character stuff.

First things first: Here's the tier list I made for the cast. It'll help as I explain myself per each placement.

Ok so let's start from the bottom and make our way to the top cuz I'd like to end this on a positive note.

No. Just. No Tier

Chase: Easily one of the most annoying characters in the entire show. I know that's the point, cuz he's a shitty influencer type who cares mostly about himself and the views. I totally get that. But that's ALL he was. We often saw him be a nuisance who cared more about himself or impressing Emma. I didn't laugh at him not once. He was just plain awful. And if that was the point, then good shit writers, I guess lol

Emma: Sadly she suffered from being attached to Chase. Her whole reason for being on the show was just connected to Chase. It was also the point for her but what gets me is that she was a tour de force outside of Chase's shadow. This was proven when she tried focusing on herself and was besties with Bowie. Those were glimmers of hope. And I was hoping she'd come back stronger post-S1 upon learning that Chase lied to her. But in the end, Emma was just...kinda there until she left.

Millie: Nah fam, I couldn't stand her. Started out fine enough and was fun to have around, but once she started moving forward in the game with Priya in the alliance, I started growing tired of her. I'm glad she started taking the game seriously but man oh man it was too late. Didn't need to see her in that finale, but she's lucky it was for the sake of reconciling with Priya. And the less said about her time in S2, the better. Just glad she left early.

Ripper: Fuck Ripper. He wasn't funny. He had a few good lines here & there but was just...not great. If you like him, that's cool. His relationship with Axel was admittedly adorable though. Not enough to make me like him but still cute nonetheless lol

WASTED POTENTIAL & MEH TIERS

Gonna combine these two since they have one character each in there.

Nichelle: Sweetie, I'm so sorry. We were all rooting for you. you were a victim of high expectations just by design alone. And it's a shame cuz you could've been great. You left in S1 so early & that hurt like hell. But then you came back swinging in S2 and kicked ass...until you fell for such a shitty tactic. Brilliant on Julia's part but fuck y'all for not giving Nichelle more time to shine.

Axel: I don't have much to say on her tbh. She was just kinda in the middle for me. She honestly would've been much higher if she wasn't dragged down by her lovey-dovey relationship with Ripper as S2 went on. Still adorable pairing tho. Glad she was around a bit more in S2 tho.

GOOD & GREAT TIERS

Wayne: I suppose I'll start with S2's winner. I love Wayne. He's a great friend & ally to Raj, on top of just being hella funny. Love what he was all about. Sadly, S2 didn't do him any favors. He was still the lovable goof we know & love but it felt like his IQ took a bit of a nosedive between seasons. And on top of that, IDK how tf he reached the finale over Raj. Again, I love Wayne. I really do. But him winning S2 was...a choice.

Zee: Funny af guy. Crazy how he got sent away for similar reasons twice. I don't have any critiques of the guy. He was funny everytime he was on screen. He's just good. Not great, but good. Loved him.

MK: This lady would've been a bit lower if I was only talking about S1. But the writers gave her a major glow up in S2. Seriously, her & Julia's friendship is some excellent TV. Seeing them work together and fuck around with everyone was fun to watch. She's never been a fave for me but I do appreciate having her around.

Damien: Oh honey, you were robbed. Damien was one of my faves from the beginning. Was hoping for more from him in S1 but realized he left at the perfect time, otherwise he would've gotten annoying af. S2 however...my man stepped the fuck up & I'm so damn glad. He was SO GOOD and he made merge. And then my heart broke when he got sent packing. I knew the moment he found that idol he was done for. He was gonna lose it. I hated it. He could've reached the finale.

MY FAVES TIER

Scary Girl: Scary motherfucker who had some of the best lines/moments throughout S1. I appreciated the writing for her in S2, even if it didn't quite stick the landing...that is, until she returned in the finale. She was back to her crazy self and I loved every minute of it. Entertaining character from start to finish.

Julia: Easily the second best antagonist in this reboot. One of the best surprises in the reboot. Holy shit, Julia was given all the good shit. Whether it was the writing or character moments, Julia basically delivered what I look for in villain in Total Drama. One thing that bitch is gonna do is find a way to win immunity by any means necessary and honey, she's a challenge beast in the right circumstances.

Priya: Ah yes, S1's winner. One of the best competitors in Total Drama. She was made for shit like this, as explained to us by her lol. I loved her in S1, cuz she was hella focused and stayed in the game despite being let down by Millie at every turn. Don't cross Priya y'all homegirl will win lol. S2 Priya was solid and I especially loved her budding relationship with Caleb, despite all the hiccups. She kinda lost her focus when Caleb came up but even that didn't entirely stop her from kicking ass. Also kudos to Total Drama & I having characters named Priya.

TOP TIER

Bowie: The baddest bitch out there. I've spoken at length about how I'd love to see more prominent queer black rep in mainstream media not centered around being punchlines or tragedy. And Total Drama delivered just that to me on a silver platter. Bowie is literally everything I was looking for in great queer rep. Best part? He was well-written. Dude was written perfectly from start to finish in S1. Every move he made was executed well. Even when he fumbled, he found a way back on top. His rivalry with Julia is perfection. His friendship with Emma was cute...wish they rekindled it. And of course his relationship with Raj was so damn cute. Speaking of Raj...

Raj: Y'all gave me not one but TWO queer POC in the same season?? And they ended up together??? Total Drama you're spoiling me! Raj is one half of the hockey bros. And he was my fave of the duo. Raj just kept surprising me as the show went on. When I realized he was gay, I screamed. Jaw dropped...I really thought Bowie would be the only one. So glad I was wrong. Similar to Wayne however, his IQ did drop a bit in S2 but it wasn't as bad compared to the former. I would've preferred him to reach the finale over Wayne. Raj v. Caleb v. Julia would EAT DOWN.

And finally...

Caleb: From a first boot to a literal king of the game. Caleb was one of the biggest surprises in the show and I'm so thankful he did the dam thing in S2. Seriously, Caleb could've been another one of the show's infamous first boot punching bags. He was the one I was cautiously optimistic about coming back for S2. What was he gonna do? Was he actually a threat as Bowie assumed? How will Caleb turn out character-wise beyond the good looks? All of that was answered and then some in the first ep of S2. He made a point to be a great asset to his team. He's the embodiment of the hot guy who's got a great balance of brain & brawn, while also being a very nice guy. I especially appreciated his whole thing with Priya. I was almost certain they were gonna reach the finale ngl lol. If there were ANY justice in the world, it would've been a Caleb v. Julia finale instead of what we got. But hey, at least he made it to the end. Biggest glow up from a Total Drama character.

Annnnd that's all I've got. If you made it this far, thanks for reading. Share your own thoughts in the replies below. These are just my thoughts and I've been holding them in ever since S1 got leaked last year. With both seasons out, I just felt like it was time to finally speak on them since I had no plans to make a video. As I said, maybe I'll still make one if there's interest...but no promises.

Anyway, thx again for reading & until next time, peace out!

[silvertsundere]

Silver Talks AniManga (30/04/23)

there was no WSJ this week cause of golden week break but there was still some other stuff, like the new manga from the danberu duo or me catching up some anime

also starting from this week gonna have some background colours in the series list too, to make it easier to parse at a glance, but I'll include the meaning for them before it always

also I meant to watch a couple more anime (at least the first 3 eps) but got distracted with other stuff during the week. oops, I'll get to it tho, it's only a couple more

green - new series (anime in the first 3 eps count as new but silver those are more than the first 3 yeah but I meant to watch them before 4 came out let me live)

Anime

Uma Musume - Road to the Top Ep1 - 2

bruh. idk why these damn horse girls have such a grip on me but they do some places in s1 made me cry and this was wrenching my heart too which is fucked up cause I'm usually p unaffected by stuff anyway, this is a special ONA that'll be just 4 episode, you can even watch it all on uma musume's youtube WITH english subs even it looks great, since it's cygames own studio, the music's great, the voice acting is great, all the quality you'd expect from one of the top grossing gachas in the world (despite being jp only) the thing that surprised me the most was how good the character acting is tho, ofc uma musume has always had the little details with tails and ears but sheesh also I'm loving to see ayabe and my prince opera in action, some horses I've really come to like a lot in recent years cause of twitter

Uma Musume - Road to the Top Ep3

oh tehe I didn't realize ep 3 was gonna fall in this week's post too, putting it separately like this instead of 1-3 to not disrupt the thoughts from when I watched those, anyway good ep, had me tearing up AGAIN (damn horses..), it pains me to see ayabe suffering so much :( but I was looking up stuff about the main trio after the other 2 eps and saw Real Horse Lore so I know what's gonna happen in the finale already lol, it'll still be good tho

Megumin Ep1 - 4

let me start off by saying I'm never watched konosuba cause of aqua, kazuma and darkness, however I do like megumin. watching this since I know I wouldn't need to watch it to know anything (tho if you spent any time on tumblr back when it first came out you've seen it all through gifs and caps and clips like me so..) but anyway

it's alright, the only good animation moment was at the start of ep 1 with, of course, the explosion but I shouldn't have expected much considering what I know, oh well. however, takarie (megumin) and toyosaki aki (yunyun) really carry it with their performances, tho mostly takarie cause of how megumin in lol

not really much to say other than that so far, if you like megumin then it's a must watch show but you already knew that if you do. she should be using her first explosion next ep (5) so that should be cool

Imas CG: U149 Ep1 - 4

TL;DR: if you weren't gonna watch U149 cause "it's just for kids" you're wrong, and if you like the previous im@s anime do yourself a favour and watch it cause it's incredibly good too. I'll be honest I wasn't too sure about U149 at first, since it's the kids from CG I thought it was gonna be, well, aimed to kids as a way to bring them in into the franchise but I was very wrong! The show is incredibly good. It follows the same structure as the original im@s anime of having and episode dedicated to each of the cast members (completed with their character song as the ed) and it can actually be serious. Like in ep 3, miria is live streaming with satou shin and she gets some hate messages in the chat and it's a very tense scene. they even did this cool trick where the noticeably muted the colours during that scene to give it an heavier atmosphere it was so good man. Also I love all the cameos of other cg girls, the direct and background easter egg ones too. Also because I played the game hearing the insert songs and eds just got me going like that leo pointing me lol. Anyway I'm start to ramble too much but, please understand, I love idols. A lot. One final thing I'll say however is: it was very funny going directly from megumin into this and seeing the difference in quality; Megumin has the bare minimum of animation (cause kadokawa) but you can really see the passion behind U149, all the characters got little details and you can see their personality with how they move and interact with each other.

Mashle Ep4

still nothing crazy animation but we did get the lance fight and the first muscle magic moment, and it actually didn't look half bad which gives me hope for fights later on but we'll see how it turns out

Pokemon Horizons Ep4

nice ep, mostly an introduction to roy the other protag, he isn't nearly as annoying as he could be so that's good, there was also a buncha good expressions so that's fun

Jigokuraku Ep5

nice episode, mostly exposition and set up so some people aren't gonna like it, but it happens every now and then in the breaks between action. also they really made takarie say chinpo noooo

Manga

ST✰R: Strike it Rich Ch 0 - 1

new manga by the duo behind danberu, yabako and maam, it's probably gonna be set in the kengan universe since it's yabako writing it but we'll see. anyway like it said in the post I made before, it's about a underground fighting ring for women, it came out with a prologue chap and the 1st one, setting up all the characters and all that, the art is a lot more brutal than I expected since I just see danberu as ripped cute girl fanservice but shoulda kown better not really much else to say, chap 1 ended with a big cliffhanger, I wish it was a bit longer, hina down here seems interesting enough tho so we'll see how it goes, gonna be rough remembering to read it tho since it's biweekly

Dandadan Ch103

nice and emotional chap, should only have 1 or 2 more left of vamola's backstory now

Saihate Quartet Ch10

not much to say, tho it's nice that luci's already shown up to the cast according to my buddy mega it's not doing great in terms of views, so it's very likely to get canceled/end soon so that's a rip

Kaiju 8 Ch85

the first 1v1 fight to end, they didn't have to go full yaiba at the end there but it was still good. next up is cap narumi so that should be good too tho the one I'm looking forward to the most is hoshina's

Shuumatsu no Valkyrie Ch77

aww I was hoping they'd say who the next fight was gonna be but they didn't, didn't expect to see siegfried tho but since he's been established now there's no way he's not gonna do something later

Jiangshi X Ch14

thought this was gonna be the classic "mc awakens to a power they didn't know they had when in danger" but it was just the amulet his dad gave him (? afaik), also I think the art looked off this week? but might be just me

Spy x Family Ch79

nice yor centric chap, been a while, tho her harpie coworkers were annoying me with their jealousness

Ayakashi Triangle Ch128

ah yes the classic aquarium date, expecting a lot of shenanigans next week since everyone's following them