#note I did not actually rewatch that ep recently

[vagueeyes]

Finished reading & rewatching CTRL/ALT/ESC.

This episode has definitely crept up on me. I will fully admit it's not one I've thought much about, but I attribute that to s9 being (technically) the first series I watched, and at the time I was too wrapped up in always trying to figure out/guess what was happening (a habit I fortunately dropped by the time I got halfway through s3), that I often forgot to actually pay attention to the story & characters.

Something that really struck me this time - when relistening to the BBC Sounds pod for THE STAKEOUT last week, I really enjoyed this particular exchange with Adam Tandy (when Steve asks Adam whether he knew the "twist" - not transcribing too much of when Reece talks over him lol):

Reece: (after Adam explains when he got it) The other thing though, is I think you're at an advantage of getting it by reading it. Adam: Yes, there's no doubt about it, because you have to put all of that stuff into the script. So the fact that it's in the script (Reece: It gives beats away), and then it's up to us, when we're making the show, to make all of those beats (Reece: Hidden) hidden, or as subtle, or as placed, or as carefully revealed to a certain degree as we edit. Reece: It's interesting, that. Yeah, sometimes we're thinking– we're mindful of the stage directions, giving it away even for the reader - you! Adam: But you shouldn't do that (Reece: I know, I know, yeah), because obviously that's–you know, even if it's slightly spoiled for me, it's important that those beats are all in there, so that we can then judge them when we put it together.

Very much like THE STAKEOUT (and perhaps many of the other episodes but having rewatched the latter recently, this is the comparison that's on the forefront of my mind lol), I thought it was really interesting to see how much of these "beats" were in the script! Especially everything Millie says, and the conversation between Lynne and Jason (and his reaction to what she's saying).

Four more points of interest:

I love how vague the description was for Doug setting the atmosphere to the escape room - it gave an opportunity for Reece to improvise (I assume!) the little "torch in the wrong direction" gag (and he did it twice!!). Always appreciate how much he adds whenever his screentime is limited. I also remember seeing a lot of "OLLIE PLIMSOLLS???" in the sub's discussion thread and not knowing what that was all about hahaha.

Going into this ep, I kept in mind the bit in THE PARTY'S OVER where Steve mentions how quickly they've been filming everything because of the nature/pacing of the escape room, and that he had to write in another puzzle to fill in some space.

For some reason, I was expecting to see this "extra" puzzle in the script, but of course it wasn't there if he added this in during filming! Really enjoyed the fact that he came up with an extra minute of content for before Jason finds the UV torch, just like that! And ofc calling himself a clever bastard, haha.

On a more personal note, I'd like to say that the hospital scenes and Millie's attitude towards Doug felt very...real to me. I've been in her shoes before (more than once, sadly), and her frustration/anger/sarcasm(?) as a defense/coping mechanism(?) was incredibly relatable. I was very moved by Doug's response to just be kind to her, because he knows she's venting and needs someone to direct all of this at.

I do love the uplifting/cathartic ending, and appreciate they switched it around and made the 'EXIT' sign turning green as the final image of the episode instead!

[absolutebl]

Hey Abl, trust you are well. So I took a month off bl to deal with life stuff and upon my return there's a lot of new shows and I'm feeling overwhelmed and need to prioritize. What should I start with that started airing in late October/November? Spanx!

BL Quick Picks - End of 2023 Releases

That finished its run? Sorry I don't keep that close track of things ending but stuff I loved that ended relatively recently as follows. (I'm giving you a range of styles to suit your mood.)

Felling light and fluffy?

Jun & Jun

(Korea Viki)

A delightful office romance about an ex-idol who joins cubical life only to find his new boss is his first love. Others boys are sniffing around too. Operative word being "sniffing" as much of this romance involves smell. With a snappy (sometimes even raunchy) script, enjoyable sides, a pretty as peaches cast, and descent chemistry this show made up for in style what it lacked in substance. I like fluff. I loved this. I smiled every moment I was watching. With tons of rewatch potential (especially the last few eps), my only caution is this is for fans of the BL genre only, I don’t think it’ll work for anyone else. 9/10

Feeling complex and drama llama?

I Feel You Linger in the Air

(Thailand grey, YT for some)

I truly loved this time travel romance. IFYLITA is an exquisite BL, from filming techniques to narrative framework (much like Until We Meet Again). Steeped in history and family drama it edges into lakorn (but no as much as To Sir With Love and with way less scenery chewing). This is an elegant and classy BL… from Thailand which normally doesn't even try for classy. The main couple (both as a pair and individuals) were excellent, particularly Bright (Yai) whose eye-work acting style is a personal favorite of mine. Pity about the ending. Oh it wasn’t that sad but it wasn’t good either. This show should easily have earned a 10 from me except that it fumbled the… erm… balls. Argh. Whatever. 9/10

Feeling odd and chaotic?

Why R U?

(Korea iQIYI)

Korea decided to remake, of all possible Thai BLs, Why RU? And that is exactly what we got: a short form, clean & pretty, slightly confusing, uneven chemistry, all the same tropes KBL that kind of cliff-noted the original but with none of the heat or complex relationship dynamics. I just … what world is this? Because it is BOTH bizarro land, and EXACTLY what I expected. How do I rate it? In the end I have to go back to simple questions: did I like it, would I rewatch it, and would I recommend it? Yes. Probably. And probably not. What the actual hell? 8/10

Feeling dark and complex?

Tokyo in April is AKA Shigatsu no Tokyo wa

(Japan Viki)

Two young men with a shared tragic past reunite and fall in love all over again, but the past will not stop hunting them. Based on a manga, this office set reunion romance is GREAT… damn it. It’s Japan in full on soft focus which means it gets emo, abusive, and chewy. These two characters are giving parts of their souls away in a desperate attempt to shape themselves to the expectations they have of each other. Japan gave us the Bed Friends that Thailand could never even imagine. But here’s the thing: I don’t enjoy my BL this heavy and cutting. I know that for The 8th Sense crowd this is peak BL and I can’t argue with the fact that the romantic devotion, domesticity, script, and acting IS all on point. It’s just not my personal preference for that point to be so damn sharp. I appreciate that this being 2023 I have the luxury of consistent quality (especially from Japan) and thus the ability to say… I acknowledge that this SHOULD get a 9/10 but I can’t emotionally go higher than 8/10

Feeling sappy and in need of comfort?

Stay By My Side

(Taiwan Viki)

This show was an interesting take on the "ghost boyfriend" trope. About a boy who is tormented by hearing the dead, except when he is around one other boy - desperation+proximity = love. Unfortunately, the story was erratic and waffled about. While the leads turned in solid performances and the sappy domesticity was off the charts, it never really had the strength of the narrative convictions such a strong concept should have supplied. Highly rewatchable and enjoyable for that sappy domesticity but not a whole lot more. Still I always give extra credit for the diabetes-inducing sugar content and rewatch capacity. 8/10 

Feeling sexy?

My Personal Weatherman AKA Taikan Yoho

(Japan Gaga)

I liked it a lot and it's classic yaoi of the kind that really only works from Japan. Basically: boys who fell in love in college end up living together but both are so repressed they actually don't realize they're in love. It's higher heat from Japan and well done, but it leaned into the "why don't they just talk for fuck's sake?" trope which is only exacerbated into undiluted frustration by the fact that they're already fucking. It's good, but watching requires more patience than usual, even from Japan. 8/10

Feeling sweet and earnest?

Sing My Crush

(Korea iQIYI)

This a cute coming of age drama around music and 2 kinds of self acceptance and actualization journeys. This was basically Korea’s version of About Youth, and was perhaps a bit too soft and ungrounded by comparison, like a marshmallow sculpture. Sweet but somewhat lacking in discernible flavor. 8/10

If you want to know what I'm enjoying that's airing right now, I'm mot yet caught up this week but I have time today so the weekly ranking will drop in a few hours. But I can tell you with confidence that very little is likely to unseat...

My Dear Gangster Oppa (Thailand iQiyi)

from my affections right now. I love it unconditionally and it's airing on iQIYI.

[mbg159]

What Your Favorite Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds Girl Says About You

[Main Girls Only][DM][GX]

Aki Izayoi/Akiza Izinski (likes the second half of the series): You are pretty chill, and almost definitely a Faithshipper. You’re very fond of doing all kinds of scenarios of their first meeting. You write at least one thing per day appreciating her development. You really, really like the rollerskates episode. Even if it could have been better, you still love Yusei giving her Stardust. You get really sad during the ending, but you know in your heart of hearts that they definitely kissed offscreen.

Aki Izayoi/Akiza Izinski (dislikes the second half of the series): You got the taste of a girl who was straight-up unhinged, and you've been chasing that high ever since. You find bondage jokes incredibly funny. You have at least one very strong opinion about Crow. Despite your feelings on the second half (most of which can be described as "seething"), you have a soft spot for Sherry. To this day, her battle theme still generates a Pavlovian response of swooning tears in you.

Ruka/Luna: Your soul aches every day for her wasted potential. You started reading the manga the moment you saw scans of how it did her. You were very surprised when Ancient Fairy Dragon got banned. You have edited characters to be wearing flower crowns at least once. You’re still not quite sure what to think about her brother, but you definitely wish Life Stream had showed up earlier. You spent eighty episodes waiting for a followup for the end of Ep. 67, and are still waiting.

Carly Nagisa/Carly Carmine: You are a Scoopshipper, with no questions asked. You were utterly horrified when you found out about the cult thing (even if your source may have been somewhat inaccurate). You refuse to rewatch the second half of the series, and have devoted lengthy fanfics to what really happened afterward. You aren’t sure if you like nerds or goths, and you’re glad you don’t have to choose. You have tried to do Fortune Fairy-based readings in real life.

Misty Lola/Misty Tredwell: You may be into Isolationshipping or you may be into Omenshipping, but regardless of where you fall, you are certain she loves women. You saw that bit where she cradles Carly’s face and went “god, that girl is lucky.” Your favorite part of the whole DS arc was when she has Ccaryhua swallow Divine whole. You are very, very angry she’s not in Duel Links yet. (Like, I wrote this in 2021 originally, and she's still not in it? What?)

Sherry LeBlanc: You actually don’t hate the second half, but it’s largely due to her. You have either watched Revolutionary Girl Utena, or have been told several times that you should watch it. You may not be a Roseknightshipper, but you definitely have an LGBT headcanon. You have mixed feelings about how her arc ended, and would have preferred if the entire season was just her running around kicking stuff.

Martha: You hate every single other parent in every other series because you have seen her episodes and beheld a standard none have yet lived up to. She takes no shit, she's a rain of sunlight in a land of misery, she sacrifices herself tragically. Why the fuck did she barely appear after Dark Signers? You just want to talk to the person who made that decision, you say while loading a shotgun.

Mikage Sagiri/Mina Simington: You may be a Careshipper whose favorite arc is Fortune Cup, or an Ushio/Mikage shipper whose favorite arc is Dark Signers. Either way, you just really, really like office ladies, okay? You either think she's cute, relate to her beleaguered nature, or both. Also, did you know there's no ship name for Ushio/Mikage? I didn't until recently, but you definitely do.

Stephanie: Man, you picked the biggest third wheel in the entire franchise and a woman who only appears in the second half to be your fave, huh? That takes a lot of guts. And to my immense surprise, despite her entire existence being "waitress" and "one-note obsession with Jack Atlas", you have decided your OTP with her is Carly. Rock on, Stephanie fans, you make the world brighter.

Misaki: You decided to go dumpster-diving in the video games and found a gem. You understand that the only thing that could have made Bruno's arc better is if he was also Rei Ayanami. The bit at the end where she finally smiles melted your heart like butter in the sunrise. You insist Watts are underrated. You sadly know deep down that there's a reason the only female Yliaster member is non-canon.

[myassbrokethefall]

xf rewatch: ghost in the machine

This one was interesting to watch in light, obviously, of the current AI moment. Like, Deep Throat goes "how much do you know about ''''artificial intelligence''''?" and Mulder says "I thought it was only theoretical." You did? And then a minute later DT describes "a learning machine….a computer that actually THINKS." like hold up there fella! There's quite the gulf between THOSE two things but I suppose we don't really know that yet back now. Even Mulder saying "could someone have ''''''''hacked'''''''' into the system?" like this is the most out-there idea of all time, and instead of going, duh yes, hacking into the system is indeed something that someone could most certainly have done, Brad says "not your average phone phreak, that's for sure." remember phone phreaking?? neither do I because I'm old but I'm not THAT old. I heard an interesting podcast ep about it semi-recently though. Like you could make a noise with your VOICE that was the same pitch as some note the phone plays and it tricks it into connecting you to a long-distance line or something. neat stuff. anyway.

The computer stuff wasn't AS ridiculous as I remembered, but I also wonder if the farther we get from the time period the more I'm like, sure that seems like it could have been true back then I guess. At least, it seemed to more or less follow from a story perspective (but maybe that's what makes it so unrealistic in a tech way). Things that DID stick out to me included the following:

1. all those security cameras seem so RICKETY. They're all just stickin out there servo-ing jerkily around out in the air, just hit that shit down with a shovel and be done with it. Mulder dramatically covers one with a cloth and I was like, great now you only have to do that 9,000 more times in this building.

2. the superintelligent AI is courteous enough to jingle Scully up on her landline at 1:31 am to screech modem noises at her in order to give her a heads up that it's hacking into her computer at that moment (for what purpose? how is reading her reports on Mulder any help to it…ehh whatever).

3. Gordon/Gansa really running through the scifi "homages" with Conduit being very heavily Contact-by-Sagan-based and this one developing a voice solely so it could say things like "program……. EXECUTED GET IT" and "sorry Dave Brad, I can't do that."

4. I did certainly feel that the computer was "thinking" QUITE a lot more outside the box than seemed even marginally realistic (and per what I have read about machine learning, not that I am remotely close to being an expert on any of that). It sure got a LOT of info from filming people with its analog(?) security cameras and like, extrapolating from what it observed. The way it halted the elevator so Scully would call security and identify herself when she did so, so that it could learn her name and start googling (forgive me) her? I mean now that is some high-level strategizing. I feel Janelle Shane would not approve.

Other notes from my "notes":

Penny Northern as the lady congratulating Jerry on his profile that he stole from Mulder.

Scully's hair is slowly getting unfortunate. That swingy little Deep Throat floofy bob remains my favorite so far.

Nancy Spiller forensics instructor at the academy, "we used to call her the iron maiden!" Every time Scully mentions or interacts with a professor now I wonder if she fucked them. Heheh (EDIT: I just realized Penny Northern IS Nancy Spiller. !!! Still wonder if Scully fucked her)

This ep contains the iconique moment of Scully emphatically circling something on a computer monitor with a physical writing implement. (Also that whole mapping the voices together situation was very goofy and also pointless — if the system had a voice why wouldn't it be Brad's voice; he invented it.)

This is the first ep thus far that I've found Scully's Scullying kind of irritating. It seems very obvious that Brad did not do it so her being like "mulder I'm sorry you're so sad about your shitty friend dying that you can't think straight" feels condescending instead of sympathetic. "maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea if you talked to someone." "you're probably right." *leaves* "where are you going?" "to talk to someone." yeah you deserved that, sculls.

Failed mulderisms: "open sesame." I'm not offended by it or anything it's just so weak as to barely rise to the level of joke. Also, it has ALWAYS and I mean since the 90s grated on me that he scoffs "a politically correct elevator" because the elevator is being so outrageously, offensively woke as to… announce the floor numbers??? ok boomer!!! lord

Scully's got this book in bed with her. analyze as you will.

Pretty impressive how Mulder knows how to whip open a car hood and immediately rip the correct wire to get the horn to shut up.

Greatly enjoyed the This echo of them climbing stairs and yelling out numbers while doing so. Also, they are so young and athletic; sure they can go up 30 flights of stairs and then Scully is totally game to be hoisted into a ceiling vent and crawl around up there. J. Edgar's finest, at the top of their physical game!

I got so mad when Mulder goes "he apologized. in his own way" about Jerry. he literally did not even come close to apologizing! he said fuck you I stole your notes because you were gonna help me anyway so who cares, shut up, and then he stomped off. In no universe is that an apology of even the worst sort. Jerry sucks.

this house:

(literal photo of tv taken from couch, too lazy to even get up)

is ugly as shit, and I was making fun of it saying that it looked like a suburban convention center and bar mitzvah venue instead of a rich tech guy's sleek futuristic mansion and wondering if they filmed it at like, a Days Inn, but I was informed it was actually the home of a star Canucks player?? well he had terrible taste.

Finally, I remain FASCINATED with watching Mulder and Scully Work In An Office and interact with other people in the office and do office things like eat pastries off a cart! and hang out in what looks like the FBI archives! This set:

is so endearingly normcore-office to me. The library cart with archive boxes and also some other loose crap on it. All the haphazardly sized shelves from Staples with random mugs that no one wants so someone just sticks them on a bookshelf. Stacks of copy paper. A whole bunch of plants, some of which are dead, and also featuring at least 2 empty vases. The industrial tissue box. Someone did a very good job with this set dec is what I'm saying. Ok, the "INVOICES" folder is a little funny.

This is almost a workplace drama at this point in its life and I am a little bit obsessed with that. What is Fran gonna say about M&S smashing up that car. Smh.

[kinetic-elaboration]

May 14: The Expanse 1x10 (!!!)

I didn’t stop watching The Expanse because of anything to do with The Expanse, more because of the struggling to be a human thing. But here I am, back, finishing off S1.

First of all, this show needs a previously on. Even when I was watching one episode a week pretty consistently, I still felt like I needed a neat little summary going in. Take a couple weeks off and I’ve given up on anything other than Cool Vibes and Look, Action!!

I do still really like Eros station and just the set design in general. The bit in the arcade-space reminded me of the fsociety headquarters in Mr. Robot, possibly because I found my old notes on it recently and I kind of want to rewatch it, I think. But I also loved the whole ‘coins falling on a dead body after a death-match’ shot—very metal. I thought the episode did a good job of having finale-worthy character moments, like Holden choosing not to save Kenzo (do I entirely remember who Kenzo is? No. I mean I remember who he is but not when he was last seen. But that’s okay because I get, like, the meta of what they’re trying to do, I read the moment in its context, sort of like knowing what part of speech a word in a foreign language is, but not what it means). Or Naomi and the little girl—portentous.

I sort of wanted there to be more explanation, both since this was the season finale and because I thought the end of the last episode set up a possible Exposition-Heavy next installment, but it did lean heavier on the action sequences/movement-based plot and less on actually giving context to anything or providing answers. So I have mixed feelings about that. Like I do think tantalizing clues, like whatever they were doing with Julie’s body, or whatever the blue human shape attacking Kenzo was at the end, are appropriate for a finale ep, but I needed some MORE. Is Julie still ‘alive’ somehow? Is the blue light indicative of this substance being more than just a weapon? That’s what I’d like, honestly. The explanation Holden and Miller outline in this episode—it’s just a really big, really bad weapon, and Bad Guys are using Eros as a testing ground for it, hoping to pit all three major players against each other over their suspicions of it—is certainly, like, a plot. A plot I’ve heard before. But understandable, digestible, solid. Classic, one might say.

But what if… something else. What if it’s not just a weapon? What if its ability to brutally kill is just the first thing it does? What if it can also reform or reconstitute? What if it’s absorbing rather than killing? What if the resultant bodies have some sort of unique use or value? That would certainly take the show’s themes of The Machine literally chewing up and spitting out the bodies of the underclass for the benefit of the upper class to a new level. I thought there were some indications of this—not this specifically but an unknown additional level—in the finale. Whatever they were doing with Julie’s body, and the line about saving us all. That Holden and Miller’s explanation, despite its plausibility, is left hanging as not quite complete or not quite accounting for all the facts. The human figure in the blue light at the end. That we have so little exposition and so much of an air of mystery around the whole episode, as if we’d really learned almost nothing here, despite all the action.

I’m not saying I’m necessarily getting my hopes up for any of this because it’s so purely speculative and I could easily see the show moving off in some totally different direction.

A few other random thoughts: the Julie-hallucination turning into Amos made me legitimately laugh. Like this episode is not funny and the show is pretty overall serious but I laughed for real. The funniest character for it to actually be. Also, love guard dog Amos making a return. I think Holden and Naomi are bros. Alex has grown on me a lot. I like when he takes out the country twang voice. Usually the Roci looks like a bullet but today it sort of looked like some kind of bug, while it was still attached to the dock.

[noddytheornithopod]

ask for no reason! Favourite companion for each (modern) Doctor

Let's see...

Nine: Wow, this is a really difficult one... who could there be... Rose. *remembers Jack counts* Eh, still Rose. Jack felt more like a guest companion only being in it for five episodes (only three stories), and of course I haven't listened to Big Finish so I can't judge from that, so Rose wins by default. She had the most complete relationship with the Doctor anyway, and that all worked out. I actually prefer the dynamic she has with Nine than Ten. I'm not anti-companion romance, but I just found Ten and Rose's dynamic being happier and less complicated less interesting, even if Doomsday is a massive gut punch.

Ten: For years I said it was Donna... but that's actually changed since my rewatch. I think Martha slightly edges her out. It kind of comes down to just me having a soft spot for the most underappreciated (seriously when they brought her back in Series 4 she didn't do much of note until the finale and even that's debatable) but I do really like how she basically decided she was tired of the Doctor's shit and also understandably needed a break from everything after all the shit the Master did. I hear she even gets unlucky in Torchwood.

As for why Donna got slightly bumped down... I think it's a couple things. First... revisiting the Meta-Crisis as I'm older? Kinda total bullshit. I envy kid me who was able to just run with it, now I'm just seeing total nonsense. I still love Donna... but I'm not really sure how I feel about the culmination of her self worth being basically "she absorbs the Doctor's brain so now she can be like him". Not to mention there's an absurd amount of ass pulls to make meta-crisis stuff work in the story. For other things... I think it's just that she's kind of been elevated in a way that was unncecessary? I'll explain under 14's section.

Honorary mention for Wilf I guess even if he's more a guest companion? Still loveable as ever even as growing up I now feel he has some major boomer energy lol (look I think he's pre-boomer but you get what I'm saying). Imagine him in the room with Christopher "parasite in chief" Eccleston when he's telling people to show respect for the queen for example, lol. But yeah, joking aside, it's amazing how much heart he's able to bring to being the supportive grandad of Donna.

Ugh if I listed Wilf as a guest companion but wrote about him anyway, then I'll have to also give an honourable mention to Adelaide Brooke. One episode, but she was amazing in it (it's also awesome to see the Doctor play off an older, less wide eyed woman for once), even as she had one of the darkest endings for a central character yet.

Eleven: This is a weird one, because this is what I remember the least, having watched his era the least of everyone's recently (and I didn't even see eps with Amy and Rory). Honestly... I'm not sure how much stock I put in anyone here. If I HAD to pick, I'd actually say Clara, but I think that just comes down to me loving Day of the Doctor and Jenna Coleman being great in the role even if she was just a walking mystery box in Series 7.

So why not Amy and Rory despite being actual characters here? Look, the main stuff I remember about them is basically Rory falling under the "henpecked husband" trope and Amy treating him poorly through that, not to mention you have weird stuff like them needing to get back together like three times (with Asylum of the Daleks being an especially bad example). Just not my thing.

I guess River Song could count since this was the era she'd count as a companion... but her best appearances are the episodes with Doctors that aren't Eleven (and having now seen Husbands of River Song I literally only think the final scenes are genuinely great there). Funny how that works. :v

Twelve: Nardole. Just Nardole.

...okay enough kidding around. I think I'd say Bill here. I don't really know her in and out and I haven't seen most of Series 10 in ages, but not only was it nice to see Moffat finally write a character that doesn't fall into his usual female companion tropes, but her dynamic with the Doctor was genuinely refreshing, and is honestly still pretty unique in the modern era.

I will say that I do think Clara could potentially give her competition though. I think I'd need to revisit Series 8 to be sure (aka where she's arguably the least likeable lol), but I do think her Doctor-companion dynamic is genuinely one of the most fascinating even if not everything worked in that era. Also, I'd need to see how much their relationship is able to step above the usual domestic abuse BS Moffat can't help but insert cuz he loves his dominant women, lol. Huh, Capaldi gets all the cool unique dynamics huh?

Thirteen: ...can I say Dan? For the memes? No? Fine. What's the point of being alive?

This is interesting though, cuz looking back, I do kind of think a lot of the companions blend together. It's not as bad as most say it is for sure, like I feel like they do fit specific roles (Graham and Dan as the older comic relief with a dash of heart, Ryan the more youthful person being opened up to the world, Yaz being the more experienced/accomplished person to match the Doctor when needed), but I do see why people feel like they blend together.

Hmm, if I had to pick... I'd go Yaz. Please ignore that she's a cop though. ACAB. Not sure if it's fair, but I think it might be BECAUSE she got to be with Thirteen the longest (her whole run in fact). Like, I feel like she didn't really get to live up to her full potential, but I do think seeing someone like her with her rough past going all in on the Doctor only to be shut out because Thirteen is afraid of being emotionally vulnerable (which could arguably be influenced by what happened with Clara, and I do think you could argue Yaz has some similarities here, like she even got taught how to fly the TARDIS). Her story is honestly pretty tragic, but I guess like Martha, I have a soft spot for the underappreciated (gosh it's always the companions of colour who are the underappreciated ones huh?). I think the whole semi-unrequited love aspect certainly added to that, and kind of cemented why she had to leave (even if she didn't really have much of a say, it was more just a quiet understanding, at least I think so). Power of the Doctor was also honestly a nice culmination of everything for her, too. Wish it was clear how much she knew about the Timeless Child stuff though.

Fourteen: Gosh, another really difficult one... so hard to choose... oh, Donna. Okay I'm sure some might argue Rose Noble and even Mel could count, but I don't really see them as full companions here.

I guess to continue what I was saying on Donna earlier, I described her as kind of being elevated in a way that was unnecessary. Like, after everything, as great as it was to see her back and get a happy ending... was that really the best or most interesting thing to do for her? I just can't help but feel like RTD was being overly indulgent with her, like how many felt he was with Rose (Tyler). Also... yeah, the metacrisis stuff is still bullshit. "Just let it go." I know emotions were running high in Journey's end, but come on, it makes all the drama there feel kind of hollow now.

I will say I do enjoy the evolved family dynamic though.

Fifteen: Ruby Sunday. I'd say it's super hard and there's so much to pick from, but we've seen so much, and there's so many rich complex layers, it's unlike anything we've ever seen... okay, enough kidding around. We've only seen one episode of them so far, but I am curious to see where they'll go with them.

...but wait, there's more! Time to acknowledge all the other Doctors that were created for the revival!

TimeCrash!Five: Look, he might be a bigeneration, so I'm counting him just in case... oh wait, no companions. Fuck, forget this.

TenToo: Rose! So hard to choose, I know. But isn't it cool that Rose has her own home grown Doctor she can fix again? ...what am I even saying?

Dream Lord: He's from the Doctor's brain, so he counts. Seemed to like fucking with Amy a lot, really exposed the whole love triangle she was in, lol.

Ganger!Eleven: Ganger Amy. Gangers traveling across all of time and space.

War: Clara. Day of the Doctor. Oh wait, I already mentioned that for Eleven. But I guess she kind of ended up working a lot with him specifically.

Curator: The painting. Gallifrey Falls No More. Look, I haven't listened to Big Finish, I don't know what counts. Also something something bigenerated Fourth Doctor (who also might end up being the Watcher if you subscribe to that version of bigeneration theory, like me who's trying to stay sane?).

FakeOne: That's not the First Doctor in Twice Upon a Time, that's a new incarnation who got his brain scrambled from the bigeneration reaching back in time for his first regeneration, making the side effect of him being a bad sexist parody of his original self. So who does this bigeneration have as his best companion? That one soldier dude. The Brigadier's grandpa or dad or whatever. Because they can laugh about women being made of glass. Oh right, Bill was there. Or Bill's avatar from Testimony. She had actual heartfelt moments. Or they would've been if I liked that episode. I'm committing way too hard to this bit.

Fugitive: Lee Clayton, anothe really har- Oh wait, Karvanista was one. Do you think her and Karvanista ever dated? I'm sure someone thinks Karvanista is acting like a bitter ex. Danvanista shippers, team Ruthvanista is gonna give you a run for your money!

OG Timeless Child: That kid who pushed her off the cliff. He's not just the best companion of this very first Doctor, but the best in the whole show. Without him, Tecteun would never have found out the child could regenerate, and therefore we'd have no Time Lords. And no Time Lords means no Doctor Who. This kid is the reason the show exists. Show some gratitude to this kid, guys. Also, who wouldn't push their friend off a cliff to keep playing with a toy?

The other pre-Hartnell Doctors: IDK Tecteun? Are the worth calling a companion? ...why am I still doing this

The Thirteen Doppelgangers from the Vanquishers: um how many people did she interact with, also wait it's all still one consciousness trying to manage three bodies this is a reach sorry forget i said this

The Master!Doctor: It was so great when he shouted at Yaz right? Or when Vinder held a gun to him? Oh yeah what about the Dalek and Cyber-Master perplexed at the Rasputin dance? They were still around after the Master stole the Doctor's body right?

The other bi-generated Doctors that are basically canon now that RTD is in charge: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

[beneathsilverstars]

i think maybe a 1 season tv show would be most likely to appeal to all of them in different ways. maybe action / horror / drama? it's a bit old but not super old, and recently got added to one streaming service (to little fanfare), causing a very small resurgence in popularity.

bonnie loves the exciting action and makes posts like "WHO WOULD WIN: the monster from dormont, or freddy fazbear??" in their defense, the monster is pretty awesome. they reblog a lot of memes and yell at op in the tags, and occasionally make their own but like, they're shitty on purpose, okay. they also cook meals from the show, liveblogging the process and then posting a final review and recipe!

odile had actually watched the show back when it premiered, and was happy to see it again. she thinks the mid season plot twist was really quite clever, and the horror a lot more horrifying then it seems at first, once you think about the actual long term psychological impact on the characters. she posts a lot of meta, like, "see this phone lying off of the hook in ep 4? likely a symbol for the way the protag refuses to accept other people's attempts to reach out and communicate."

siffrin is really into the character writing! they rewatch the show a ton and sometimes post quotes as they go. he feels like he's not very good at analysis but loves reblogging other people's interesting posts, and one time he did write a huge post analyzing the space imagery surrounding the mc's best friend, which still gets notes from people outside the fandom who've seen the show. and they're slowly working on making a lil carving of each named character!

mirabelle's a big shipper of course! but there's also a character who's commonly headcanoned as aroace, which is helping mira come to terms with her own identity. she draws and writes fic, much of which focuses on various ships for the monster or friendships/qprs with the aroace, but she gets self-conscious and sometimes deletes the posts later. she's more confident in her gifsets and aesthetic boards, though!

isabeau is a cosplayer! he's cosplayed the monster and a couple side characters, plus he likes posting outfits that this or that character might wear. he's also a shipper, but he's more of an otp kinda guy and won't ship the main character with anyone other than her bestie since they're like, meant to be. people often screenshot/copy his tags; he works very hard to get a good grade in reblogging!

au where dormont is a very tiny tumblr fandom

[ectokelpeigh]

I rewatched a few episodes of DP tonight.

And guys

Guys

I hinge so much of my “it’s actually reasonable to not figure out Danny Fenton = Danny Phantom” argument on the fact that no one would think that Phantom is a secret identity at all, let alone as a living person.

But at the end of Double Cross My Heart, the GIW are explicitly trying to single out Phantom among living Casper High students. They rule out Dash for being too much of a blockhead, and eventually attack Gregor because he matches the profile. They’re shocked when Phantom swoops in and foils them, because they thought they were already chasing him by chasing Gregor.

This means the GIW were on board with the idea of a living person being Phantom. Did they know about the whole half-ghost? Still can’t say. Maybe they think it’s a clever disguise. But they really took the logic leap of “living kid is also a ghost” and still didn’t catch Danny.

I’m running out of Watsonian excuses— at least for the GIW. I’ll still give everyone else a pass and assume that they didn’t know about the theory or didn’t believe it because “living kid is a ghost” is still a hard pill to swallow. But the GIW? They stupid

[ssaalexblake]

Soap opera: picard ep 3

You know that moment? That moment where picard and beverly are standing in silence for a few beats too long to be comfortable across the room from each other (nice intentional usage of wide screen format, btw) and they didn’t score it so it really Was an uncomfortable silence? Half way through that silence? That’s where they should have played the eastenders theme (it is the most prolific and well known british soap opera). 

any of y’all who can vid??? bc that’d be iconic

anyway, the episode mvp’s were Sidney LaForge, Seven, Worf and Raffi. I love you all. 

Worf recently swallowed a self help book and i am Living for it. 

the good cop bad cop they had going on here was Impeccable. It is unfortunate that is perfectly juxtaposed the hyped up melodrama of the other part of this episode and made it look even worse by proxy. There was drama with these two, raffi’s a mess, the situation is dire (if not as immediate), but it was still personable and not over the top. There were even laughs! 

Like i get that they’re all stressed but you know that episode of snw when they’re first attacked by the gorn in that nebula? How good that was? How tense it was? How they didn’t rely on interpersonal melodrama with people being obtuse to manufacture excess drama because they realised it wasn’t needed with an already dire situation?

yeah. 

anyway i saw some comments @ the holo scene with Troi before i saw the ep and i was worried but it wasn’t half as bad as implied. I mean, that’s such a typical dudebro scene and my eyes are rolling so Hard but there was no sign deanna was in danger at any point in the birth. The baby can be in danger without the parent being in danger. Like, slower heartrate in utero can make doctors panic while the parent is still 100% healthy. Seems to me like they didn’t like the baby’s vitals so called Will but it turned out he was fine. (my niece did this. panicked a fair number of people for an 100% healthy baby.) 

i’m not even going to go Into the whole justification stuff here other than to say that if she was gonna do that, just have the decency to own it properly instead of whatever that was. If he forgives her in the course of this season I call bullshit. Nobody has that done to them and gets over it quickly, not after so much was lost that will never be recovered. If i liked either of them a lot, and if i shipped them properly, i’d be distraught over this turn of events. And before i get some smart ass saying she didn’t have to tell him, well Clearly she didn’t bc she’s not exactly under arrest right now, but everybody else has a right to think what they want of her for what she Did do. And it was objectively shitty to him. I don’t even like the dude and it grinds my gears. 

'you’re insane’ with seven @ jack after that punch dfjffdjfdkdkd the Line delivery here. That seven and jack get on makes total sense! no notes. 

 will gets points for lasting so long before telling picard to sod off, BUt, is it captain of the titan disease to not own up to your own orders??? first shaw and now will??? sure Picard was being an irritant but damn dude he who ordered it dealt it and he didn’t wrest command from you. 

Unless u meant what happened in the Last episode and not this once, which, fair, but instead i call bad writing bc you instinctually look for what they Just did and picard was actually right in that if they can’t run they have to fight back at that point, which is the Only reason Will actually did fight back, so yeah... 

if the entire resuscitation sequence starting from the turbo lift did not last exactly seventeen seconds i will ask them why they even bothered tbh 

the changeling special effects have certainly improved

tho i sense i will rue the day i never got past the halfway mark of s1 of ds9 

beheading day is on wednesday

worf i love you. You’re a much better intelligence officer than a lawyer. Yeah i rewatched the movie this week in ode to the Plummer family. 

if we see seven with a hair out of place next week we know she’s been copied. I figure that this point she has mess resistant hair. 

will telling jack to call him captain lollllllllllllllllllllllllll 

the portal warfare??? super cool!!!! 

i was both amused by Shaw noping out of captaincy and also irritated by it. Like i get it dude, but still... I suppose i forgive him for being potentially fatally injured. The man is a class A jerk in a situation where he’s not actually in the wrong and that always grinds the gears. 

hearing seven call herself commander hansen in a rote way was weirdly upsetting. 

but really. The drama of interpersonal relationships Added onto the drama of the plot was too much. The tension between picard and beverly. the tension between picard and jack. the tension between riker and picard. The tension between beverly and the medical staff. the crew side eyeing jack. too much. Tone it down. they’re all already injured, being hunted, AND you have a changeling sabotaging you. Too much at once. 

now my ideal seven and raffi spin off involves worf being on the cast as well. Before it was the two of them and Elnor and his pet cat. Maybe Miral Paris. If we can have a baby LaForge we can have her. 

honestly i would have had way less notes for this ep if the snw one similar to it wasn’t so recent and so much better lol

anyway, i hope next week’s one won’t be as.. much... as this. 

[hacash]

ted lasso 2x09 thoughts

for an episode that I knew I wasn’t going to be hugely excited about - I like beard, but he’s not one of my faves by any stretch of the imagination - this was really cleverly put together

the precise reason why beard isn’t one of my faves is we get very little to latch onto with him, and this episode did a good job of reversing that: we see coach beard not as ted’s guardian angel or the football-exposition provider, but just as beard: a man clearly dealing with some seriously self-destructive tendencies and one hell of a toxic relationship. also, we all have those little voices that tell us when we’re fucking up and make us feel bad about ourselves, but the fact that beard’s are gary lineker and thierry henry? damn.

(seriously, I know gary lineker mainly as the crisps ad guy rather than the football guy, but seeing him narrate beard’s spiral downwards just had me spluttering.)

beard constantly rewatching the game in his mind’s eye was brutal to watch, but cleverly done as well. I also found it interesting that as well as highlights (well, lowlights) from the match we also saw him relive the moment when he fell over the fence and Ted was left at the side of the pitch clapping the guys on as if nothing was going wrong. tell me that’s not significant, I dare you.

the fact that we had more of the pub regulars was a dream! they really deserved their moment in the sun, and they had so many little wins tonight - I love how they could just be left as a running joke but instead we get to see more of them and end up rooting for them. (particularly in a show set in britain, where the class divides and lingering images of ‘chavs’ could have led to the three mouthy football supporters being seen as a very one-dimensional negative stereotype.)

seriously, if you didn’t cry tears of joy when the boys were playing at nelson road to the tune of ‘we are the champions’, you have a heart of stone.

(uh, and if you didn’t then panic from realising that ‘we are the champions’ is not now being held for the season finale and richmond’s long-desired promotion back to the premier league, you’re a stronger soul than I.)

I absolutely loved how much of this episode felt like weird british pub/club/ambling around London at 1AM in the morning culture. I feel like I’ve had so many of these conversations with my mates myself. and honestly, ‘Just One Cornetto’ was peak drunk brit, and it makes me really sad that most of my american followers won’t quite get how significant and perfect that was.

As an ex-oxford person I can also confirm everything about that scene in the bar was pretty much dead on too.

FUCK ME the moment James Tartt showed his face was worse than any horror movie jump-scare I’ve seen recently.

the significance of Beard continuously dropping his keys was interesting - I wonder if it’s carrying on with the theme of ‘there’s no place like home’ that we’re beginning to see emerge? A sign of his self-destructive tendencies? I like the theory already suggested on here that it’s just a demonstration of the fact that there are always good people around if you just let them help you: Beard has a brutal night, but people who don’t even know him that well like Jeremy and the impeccably-played Big Angry Man are willing and happy to help him get back home.

other folk have written better meta than me about Beard and Jane - I certainly don’t think it’s a healthy relationship and think Beard needs to run, run like the wind, but I found it cleverly done that by the end of the episode I was happy when Beard ran into Jane. he’d been through so much and now he needed a break, needed that rush of endorphins, and she provided it. it was a clever way of showing just why he keeps going back, and although we still don’t want him to stay with her, it provides a good insight into why he goes back.

I’ve said it before and will say it again, but we had direct, verbal confirmation that the coaching team lost Richmond the Man City match. whether you see that snippet as something that only happened in Beard’s imagination - which is significant, he knows something’s wrong and needs to change - or if you think Lineker and Henry were actually saying it out loud - which is also significant, if Gary Lineker and Thierry Henry are criticising your coaching tactics you want to listen - it all boils down to the same thing. the coaching team is heading for trouble, and that’s not just us reading too much into the situation -  the show is actively acknowledging it. colour me both scared and intrigued.

(on a side-note, I thought Lineker and Henry were hilarious in this episode. same goes for all of the sporting personalities they’ve managed to wrangle onto season 2.)

that last scene did exasperate me a little - it feels like even with these inroads into therapy Ted is still going for the classic head-in-the-sand, everything’s-going-to-be-ok-if-we-just-look-at-it-positively approach - but, well, I did like the Benny Hill theme music, even if this feels like the last calm before the storm.

still not quite over the fact that we got zero new colin or isaac content in this ep. I am a simple woman: I want to watch pretty boys being a bit daft and a bit sweet to each other on a regular weekly basis.

[bucksbisexual]

reveal your watch and rewatch list

so i got tagged to do this by both @itoldsunset and @spicyvampire so why not do it hehe (little spoiler: i’m not watching any bls)

currently watching:

9-1-1 s5 (as some of u may have noticed by my recent rbs)

dr. stone s1 (cool anime thats basically a mad scientist but said scientist is 17 years of age and living in a world that has no modern technology even though he’s in future)

uramichi oniisan (i started this but it was a little weird ngl, idk if i’ll continue it)

vanitas no carte s2 (i am SO behind on this, the last ep of s2 airs this friday and i’m 5 episodes behind and have absolutely no idea what the fuck is going on)

currently rewatching:

kimetsu no yaiba s1 (doing it basically because ive forgotten a lot about it and i missed them v much)

plan to watch:

moon knight!!! it starts airing this wednesday so i’m HYPED!!!!!!!!

i have a list for this on my notes app actually but there’s this gay anime that is either airing or just finished but i saw something about it yesterday and i want to watch it soooo bad

of course i also want to watch ms marvel !! kinda worried that i’ll get bored of it since it seems very highschool centred but we’ll see !

and that’s it!! watching a lot of things overwhelms me so i try to not do that lololol i didn’t even add not me here because i completely forgot to continue watching so i’d be lying if i did say i was........ as u can see i’m on my animanga phase lmaooo

i’m gonna tag my friends cus idk if theyve done it and im a nosy bitch and need to know what their brains are rotting for so @jangchu @soulmatelines @offjumpol @nanonkorapat @petekaos @richkidtay @tipnaree @lovingtrans @kaonoppakao @sapphicsharks (sorry to anyone who wasn’t mentioned i just put the urls i remembered :HELP:)

[lunatic-fandom-space]

My pals from discord and I were talkin shit about Aphmaus Minecraft series and two of them wanted to rewrite Diaries n Mystreet respectively and the more we talked the more I wanted to rewrite Diaries as well so now Im gonna watch/rewatch it and write my notes down here

Ive only actually watched the first season before bc I really liked Zane in Mystreet when he was a bastard asshole and ive heard that he was the villain in Diaries but then I wanted to look up his age on the wiki and found out that he really wasnt too important in seasons 2 n 3 so I never watched anything of aphmaus again. until now

Heres my notes on ep. 1:

Im considering renaming Aphmau (as a character obvs) to Jess/Jessica or smth. Idk like, all the other characters (aside from maybe Kawaii-chan but I'd prefer not to think abt her in general) have these very normal kinda generic names (Katelyn, Garroth, Zane, Lucinda, Lawrance, Aaron n god knows who else) so Aphmau as a name just seems really out of place but im not fully sure yet

Okay, so I think im gonna keep the plot stuff about how their Lord recently passed away and now everythings in chaos and theyve lost contact to all those other village states and theyre running low on resources oh no, I think thats a good excuse to keep it contained to one single place in the beginning as everyone is trying to deal with this shit. I dont remember too much about the plot from when I last watched this series though, so I might change some stuff later to have some foreshadowing and maybe make things more cohesive

Because this is a Minecraft Roleplay Aphmau doesnt really have a backstory which makes perfect sense in the context of it being a Minecraft Roleplay since we (the audience) dont really need to know anything about what happened prior the RP starting, however, Im trying to approach this like more of a traditional story so I think thats kinda necessary. I actually kinda already rewrote Diaries when I first watched it a few years back (but I was also using my own OCs back then so idk if it really counts) and the way I dealt w/ it there was just, the Main Character has amnesia. The full backstory was that she was actually the daughter of a noble (idk if it was the noble running the community she stumbled upon but its likely) and they did some magic/herb bullshit to make her forget everything but her name in order to protect her from being killed like the rest of their family and then shes just kinda a helpful nice girl in this struggling community until her past catches up w/ her yknow? I'd like to basically just do that but w/ Aphmau here

Im gonna go more into detail when we actually get to it, but I know towards the end of the first season they reveal that Aphmau is actually the reincarnation of Irene (whos basically Jesus in this world) and I feel like thats a bit much?? So im just gonna say shes like, Irenes only child or her only living child instead and sort of tie that into my previous idea, but again Im gonna get more into it when we get to that part

Im also leaning a bit more towards realism here (obvs its still fantasy I'd just rather nor have Minecraft physics yknow)

Aphmau finding the village is gonna go like this: She sees Vylad on patrol or some shit, follows him to the village, sees the other guards and kinda hides in the bushes nearby, eavesdrops on them (hears Garroth n Zenix have their exposition talk, (G) "I dont think anyone in the village will listen to any of the guards. Not after how horrible the last Lord was..." (Z) "Now that the Lord is gone the village is in chaos. What are we going to do?"), wonders whats going on and sneaks to the village without alerting the guards

Aphmau is staying more or less lowkey and just kinda walks around the village for a bit, sees all the villagers and all that, maybe has some little interactions with them idk

She nabs some carrots from one of the fields bc shes hungry (this is basically all just like it is in the OG Diaries but less Minecraft RP-ey yknow)

After that ya girl jusg sort of wanders around in the village, maybe pointing out some stuff that needs fixing and thinking about how she could help (bc shes definitely not leaving) and its kinda like foreshadowing her being this really good and helpful presence in this struggling village n shit

Im not fully sure how Im gonna deal w/ the Minecraft stuff initially, like, before it transitions into pure story and more or less cuts out all the modded!Lets Play shit. Bc in the RP, they dont really craft things (if I remember correctly) they just. get them somehow but Aphmau is gonna be crafting quite a bit in these early episodes im pretty sure. Now I have tried to convert this type of MinecraftRP into a proper story before, and the way I dealt w/ the crafting aspect there was by having a sorta Fullmetal Alchemist style magic system, where you have to put raw resources in this summoning circle thing and they work exactly a crafting bench but more Mystical n Magical but Im not sure if that would work that well

Aphmau is exploring the area a bit (and collecting some stones for better resources, if I'll actually go for my idea w/ the crafting benches) and hears weird creepy noises?? I dont remember if that leads anywhere, but Im putting it here in case it actually does or in case I can use a scene like this for something else

She doesnt really worry about finding a home and just kinda does her thing for a bit, exploring the area and all that, but then she realizes Oh Shit. Its Night Time and everyone already went home and locked their doors so dhes kinda fucked. She tries knocking on some doors but no one opens her but she fortunately manages to find a house thats seemingly abandoned and stays there for the night

(Also, Im keeping the hostile minecraft mobs)

And yeah, thats pretty much it for the first episode/chapter??maybe

Im not sure how close I wanna keep it to the OG but we'll see

[crisp-sweet-pink-lady]

Summer of Strawberry Shortcake: Berry Bitty Adventures episodes 23 - 26

This batch of episodes marks the end of season one, which means it also contains the episodes I've seen the least. Back when BBA was airing on The Hub, I still only had SD, so I preferred to rewatch the episodes when they were released on DVD and I could get HQ screenshots. However, they were still releasing season one on DVD when season two started airing, and since season two was half as short as season one, they started putting out DVDs of season two eps while still putting out season one, which is part of why I started to feel that I didn't need to purchase every BBA DVD anyway (the fact that it was actually airing on TV didn't hurt either).

I actually kind of revisited How You Play the Game relatively recently, as when the SSC youtube channel put it up, I had no memory of the episode, and skimmed through it to jog my memory. Whether this meant I hadn't seen it when it first aired, or just didn't remember, I'm not sure, but I did at least have a passing recollection of the rest of these episodes. That said, as an episode it's just okay, as the end is painfully clear from early on. Though when the girls said they were keeping Orange from making the schedule because she has a tendency to jump into things without thinking, I was like "Yeah, that's fair." I mean, the very first episode was about her adopting a fish for no reason other than she thought it needed her, and the crux of her campaign speech for BerryFest Princess was "Less planning, more doing," to name just two examples.

Good Citizens Club puts a new spin on my most hated story contrivance in this series; Plum is kept away from the other girls to prolong the story. At least this one also has Kadiebug and Sadiebug in the mix, and their attempts at being polite were amusing enough. If they'd really been smart, of course, they would have told Plum she passed the third test after she "reminded" them that cutting the flowers from the community garden was wrong, that her refusal to do it proved she was a good citizen (which is ultimately what Strawberry does later, but still).

Team for Two is another ep where I was vibing with the first half, and it lost me in the second. Honestly, Raspberry and Lemon sniping at each others' creative styles was the most entertaining part of the episodes, but the scenes where they had to delay Princess Berrykin just felt too long. Conclusion: this is another ep that could have benefited from just being 11 minutes. And I did note that Strawberry's line about how it would have been better to be honest was added in a later draft of the script.

Lost and Found caps off the season, and is a good one to go out on, as it involves all the characters we've met over the season (except for Postmaster Bee, but he turned out to be a less important character than I remembered), and gives them each a moment to shine. Which is especially nice considering we won't see most of these characters in the seasons to come (as far as I recall). The search party is a comedy of errors that plays out well and ends happily, the perfect way to put this season to rest.

[rgbyshipper101]

Animaniacs Reboot Season 2 Review Summary

Happy one year anniversary Animaniacs reboot! Here’s a season 2 review.

I might do individual episodes. Just mini reviews of each.

First and foremost, I don’t know Pinky and The Brain that well.

Aesthetic

From what I’ve seen, it’s more fluid and the characters bounce more. Especially during a song. I’ve heard some say the opposite, but that was from the trailer. The trailer is mashed scenes together with edited dialogue. I go by the episodes once they’re released.

The speed is still the same. Not fast like OG. Although I’m not surprised. I don’t know the animation budget. The OG show was really expensive. It looked a little awkward at times. Like slower but still hits the notes and scene. Might be large key frames.

I like the different art styles in certain situations (like songs). Very creative. Although I would say it’s a little jarring when you’re so used to the current art style. A little inconsistent. The only exception is Yakko Amakko since that’s the point.

The humans look a lot better. Less detailed. And thank goodness the grotesque bits have waned. Still there, but about one fourth of season one’s.

Music

I definitely hear the orchestra. It’s sounds better than season 1. But I’m not gonna hang over it because of recent events.

The SFX improved! They used musical sound bytes instead of stock sound effects. (I don’t know about everything but it’s definitely there.)

Songs

Vast improvement. Season 1 had variety in music genres. I wasn’t privy to it and it wasn’t really Animaniacs. But this season had the educational songs. I can safely say there wasn’t a song I disliked.

There doesn’t need to be any exposition in song shorts, though. Literally just a title card and maybe an intro sentence would be fine.

The backup singers for Yakko, Wakko, and Dot were there for the first episode. I don’t remember them being in any other ones.

Still waiting for a Dot educational song and a Wakko song longer than a minute.

Humor

I don’t necessarily remember laughing at jokes, but at the references I did. I’ll be honest, I might have to rewatch, but I don’t remember that much comedy. Just shock humor. There were some that was explained to the audience. Animaniacs is known for not dumbing down their audience. Let’s keep that.

I…don’t remember any innuendos (sexual jokes you have to to think about or have second hand knowledge of). Not necessarily bad but a couple would’ve been fine. Any non-direct humor is welcome actually. Encouraged. I know it’s hard, but at least don’t explain a joke.

Story

No themed episodes. There was potential for one. The Thundercats parody, exercise break (80’s workout), P&TB episode with 60’s music, and Warners with archival footage (70’s PSA) could have all been one episode. Span of three decades.

Pinky and The Brain were just as good as season one if not better. They compliment each other really well. You can tell the writers put heart into them. I was genuinely surprised at the outcome of some - which is a good thing. The Julia episode was really good. And the how-to video. There were a couple that were weak. Like the 60’s one. It felt rushed.

As for the Warners, they are generally the same as season one although it is better. More decent episodes. Some really good. Some weak. The sweet sixteen one also felt rushed.

Some had like an unnecessary element. Like in the exercise break, there was a mayfly with them. I get why but literally just a spoof of workout videos would’ve been fine.

They toned down the reboot references but now we got Yakko’s World. It gets old real fast. I know the OG did some as well but that was a recurring gag this season. I don’t think we need an update cause then we’ll need another down the road. (Plus I’d rather have new content.) There was a lil one which was nice. But no more. Same with the meta jokes. It’s unnecessary. Meta humor works if it’s subtle and you have to think for it. The joke is ruined if its outright told.

Also, why was there a death theme this season? In nearly every episode, someone died.

Too much modern day technology references. If it’s shown then fine but not every segment has to be about something technology based. Or actually, that could’ve been a theme for an episode. We got…Wakko’s short shorts, Please Submit, streaming service, targeted ads, for P&TB the how-to video…that’s about an episode.

The Warners are also more physical with each other. Or people are physical with the Warners. They’re not those kind of siblings. They don’t physically fight each other.

Characters

Pinky is spot on. Silly, loveable Pinky is still a joy to see. Brain though…geez. They really made him evil, huh? I get he’s bitter but he’s not like that. Some of his ideas are a little out there, but shouldn’t be diabolical. It’s shown that when he rules the world, it’s peaceful in OG. In reboot it’s tyrannical. …Makes me not wanna root for him. It’s only good because he always fails.

Maybe they can show him slowly getting more cool and collected in season three. Character development. Him and Pinky seem to be getting closer which is nice. It’s canon that they’re best friends and care for each other. They seem to be hinting at a relationship. But I won’t accept it until Brain cools down. He’s too absorbed and obsessive at the moment to be fully committed (Happy Narfday). But it is a positive sign that whenever Pinky’s in danger he chooses him over anything else.

The Warners are still off. Actually it’s like different personalities each episode.

Yakko’s too focused on his past acknowledgements at times. He does lead in some skits but overall it’s Dot. Here’s my problem with Dot being the leader: if she’s in charge, and her and Wakko talk a lot more, what does that make Yakko? That’s what he’s known for. So either he has to take his sibs personality traits (which he does), give him new ones, or do the same thing as before. But there only needs to be one leader. They made him the drama one, but that was Dot’s role back in OG. He’s also random but that’s what Wakko is known for. It doesn’t work. He’s stuck in limbo.

Wakko is generally the same. They mention him as an eating machine and Wakko says he is more than that (correct), but where’s the proof? He’s like a third wheel to his siblings. I’m definitely gonna have to rewatch it cause at the moment I can’t think of anything else he showed.

Dot’s the same as last season. Less feminism (thank god). More aggressive. Like the trait. Better than wit. They all displayed the same amount of wit this season. Nothing inherently bad but again she took Yakko’s role.

The voice talent is still good.

I would give it 7/10

I am being harsher, but this was also made the same time as season 1, so, a little lenient. So a generous score of 7/10 for season one and a harsh score of 7/10 for season two is actual improvement.

Season three though…look out.

I would suggest, if any staff reads this, that they rewatch episodes again or even read a wiki to read about the characters. To understand them more. If you want episode ideas, try some more of history with historical figures (but make sure that what you portray them as is accurate), a black and white cartoon (with red noses), a Marx Brothers parody, scammers, art history song (show a portrait and talk about it for example along with artists), lgbtq info song (like explain the terminology), etc.

[siriuslyarrogant]

I posted 1,154 times in 2021

29 posts created (3%)

1125 posts reblogged (97%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 38.8 posts.

I added 45 tags in 2021

#murdoch mysteries - 11 posts

#text - 7 posts

#william murdoch - 6 posts

#mm unnecessay thoughts - 4 posts

#omgcp - 3 posts

#dead poets society - 3 posts

#thomas brackenreid - 3 posts

#george crabtree - 3 posts

#james gillies - 3 posts

#got george - 2 posts

Longest Tag: 139 characters

#this is about something im writing rn its one of theose fics that follow the eps of a show but dur to storyline im hoing for the charcatwrs

My Top Posts in 2021

#5

Unnecessary thoughts: Gillies

Okay so I've now seen all of the James Gillies episodes and I'm gonna rank them because I like ranking things and he's my favourite MM villain.

1. Big Murderer On Campus (2x07)

- so the whole lecture confession trick is wonderful. The fact that Murdoch sports Robert Perry as the weaker one and uses it.

- honestly the whole episode being like we know Gillies did most of the work but we can't prove it so next best thing

- George finding his mother as the subplot

2. Midnight Trian to Kingston (7x09)

- so I think this might of been the first episode I watched with Gillies in (this would've been years ago though).

- the fact it's all on a train, great

- the fact that much of the tension is created by Gillies' taunting people when all he does is sit there. He's just sitting there, driving people insane.

3. The Murdoch Trap (6x13) & Crime and Punishment (6x12)

- so I mostly like this episode due to the trap aspect (which also explains why I like the s14 episode that does something similar, more advanced though). It's like this mastermind criminal is going to act like a cat does will it catches mice, they flaut themselves until they cause themselves to lose.

- did Darcy deserve to die? Does this relate to this post? No and no, I just want to say it.

- mirrors, I don't know what to say about them but I enjoy the overdramatics

- Giles coming around to finally help Murdoch and Co was also nice to watch. It's like I have rules and morals but okay, maybe and just maybe, I was wrong.

4. Murdoch in Toyland (5x11)

- creepy dolls for the win, right?

- if someone gets buried alive it's going to be a dramatic episode and yeah

- the interrogation scene with Brackenreid being all I hate your guts and I will make you bleed

- honestly do prefer this episode due to others characters like George and Henry's fingermarks debate but the whole sawing off the head of someone who betrayed is something.

5. The Devil Inside (10x10)

- so aside from the s14 finale (which puts them in overuse) I actually like the flashbacks used in the show, including this episode.

- the whole being possessed by the devil and going insane was actually interesting

See the full post

16 notes • Posted 2021-07-11 16:22:09 GMT

#4

You can't have my toy *pushes it into Niagara Falls*

21 notes • Posted 2021-07-05 21:47:06 GMT

#3

Unnecessary thoughts: Big Murderer on Campus

So I just watched big murder on campus as a break from rewatching season 9 and woah despite the fact I've very recently watched the early seasons I forgot how different they are. Like the camera zooms, Julia and William not even being together, Brackenreid being a dick, Murdoch being very neurodivergent. So my random thoughts on this episode.

• "why are you shooting arrows in your office?"

"Because I thought bullets would be too disruptive."

• "get to the university quick."

"Quick..ly. Quickly."

• the noose loop with Robert Perry in it. Love Laurie Lynd's directing.

• honestly the whole lecture at the end

• "shut up James"

• George's two mothers and the fact he genuinely didn't think anything bad would come about by placing a newspaper advertisement

• I forgot how much Murdoch would just dissapear from a conversation if he got an idea

• Professor Godfrey looking down on Murdoch

• "I would give it a A-"

"A minus?"

• anytime the university is a used as a location is just great. Because I find the setting rather beautiful

• "mr perry for whatever reason went along with it". - dude took being in love with the bad boy to extreme levels

• Murdoch asks Julia out on a date.. to a lecture about batteries

• Gillies trying to get his hat back from Branckenreid

• the fact that if I didn't know until the letter and handwriting is revealed you don't really suspect Gilles and Perry

• I'm rementioning the ending lecture scene cause I love it

30 notes • Posted 2021-07-20 01:55:43 GMT

#2

So I watched the Murdoch Effect

• for starters the modern theme song is excellent

• just George and Murdoch being on two completely different ends of the spectrum

• the ridiculousness of it all

• Murdoch being confused and amazed by everything while thinking he's being normal

• JULIA AS A DETECTIVE , also George as a detective BUT JULIA!

• brackenreid being some weird criminal in love with Emily just yeah

• I laughed a lot more than I should've

• henrys 'detective crabtree' sneer

- then Murdochs 'you alright Henry?"

• murdochs reaction to aunt daisy

• "You were raised by monks in Tibet"

"Jesuit priests in Nova Scotia"

"Explains a lot actually

• hit me *gets hit in shoulder not head*

• flip phones since it's 2012 and yep

• the whole scene in the interrogation room

• Murdoch trying to make up a story about how he knows about the flat iron building

• "doctor grace?" "No she just needs some air"

• "doctor grace?" "You just need some ice"

36 notes • Posted 2021-06-22 00:23:36 GMT

#1

Brackenreid has a weakness for talented, attractive women (usually actresses) while Murdoch has a weakness for attractive, talented men (usually inventors) when it comes to murder investigations.

56 notes • Posted 2021-07-08 03:35:23 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

[zeawesomebirdie]

Hey!

I really feel like I’m writing forum messages again haha, that’s a lot of fun :)

Yeah the popularity of Kylux is pretty impressive, the fanlore page is interesting if you want to have a look. I wasn’t really there to see it but apparently it grew pretty slowly but steadily, contrary to those ships that get super popular suddenly. I honestly think it’s so fun that the like, 2nd most popular ship on AO3 for all of Star Wars has this rando who doesn’t even get 15 full minutes of screentime over 6 hours of movies as one half of it, that’s pretty impressive (and yes I did time that when I rewatched the sequels, I was kinda surprised, he doesn’t even get a full 15 minutes! More precisely, it’s ~4:20 in ep 7, ~6:30 in ep 8 and a measly ~2:20 for ep 9! Counting those seconds you see him vaguely laying on the ground dying! What the hell, JJ Abrams, what the hell. But I mean, if we’re talking about Hux, what happened to him in ep 8 wasn’t… yeah. I have a few rants ready at all time and the one on whatever the hell they did to Hux is one of them haha). I know I have the potential to get into Reylo somewhere in me, I just know it, but I never did because… I don’t really know, maybe the fact that I’m generally not a multishipper and Kylux is already there, something. I’m honestly pretty curious of what ships are popular on what platforms and with which audiences and how much and when and all that? There are so many things that could influence that, it’s the kind of thing that would deserve a study but also you can’t really do one. I didn’t check FFN though, even if that’s where I started reading… I’ll add that to my notes for when I finally feel like writing down numbers. The advantage with the sequels is, contrary to all the older fandoms, I imagine the LJ population is much smaller and there won't really be archives, it’s just too recent for that. Look at me getting all excited for maths and statistics when I should be doing literature homework lol. Anyway, apart from that, I too could talk about ships for hours, I get the feeling :’)

The “fixed point in time” was a Doctor Who thing, I thought it was clear but maybe I’m biased because I have the context. It’s this thing where some events are fixed, they happen whether some time travelers decide to change history or not. A lightly spoilery example: in one of the seasons of the 11th Doctor, there’s this whole thing with his death, and it’s a fixed point in time, that means he’s always going to die whatever all his friends do to try and make him stay alive. The internet archive idea is super good though, that’ll help me flesh the thing out! I have to say, I have a deep fondness for the whole citrus scale, but I don’t think I feel quite ready to explain what a lemon is to a classroom haha.

Yeah fandoms get… intense sometimes, it’s pretty scary to hear about it. That Hetalia thing sounds ridiculous, though it’s funny to see another variation on why genderswaps are bad. There was a bit of that with John’s wife in BBC Sherlock, what with the show having quite a lot of queerbaiting, but you could pretty easily avoid it. I never got it either, people really do weird stuff on the internet.

Thank you!! Probably mostly flimsi, but I imagined she would also try other mediums like metal or wood? Kind of like your arts classes where you drew but also tried sculpting and all kinds of techniques (even if here you can’t sculpt a map, but I think she’d try stuff for the fun of it. Also, an engraved map of a sector on a piece of wood sounds dope). The Mary Sue thing is so bad for confidence when you’re young, I totally get the strong feelings, me too tbh. Like I always saw people criticising their old cringy OCs or other people's and I desperatly didn’t want to “fail” at anything, even something you can’t really fail because as long as you’re having fun you’re good, so I just didn’t create any, since I was sure I couldn’t do it properly. Internet is fun but sometimes not that much actually.

I hadn’t even realised for “dear one”, I mean it makes sense that he wouldn’t say it in canon but it just… fits so much!! That’s a thing you read once and go “yeaah he WOULD say that” because yes he would. And you know what this makes me even more curious of who thought “Yan Dooku” was good, because yeah it is, honestly I like it, it sounds like a SW name, it works. By the way, I’m super curious about the human naming conventions in the galaxy, where do the names come from? Cause they have normal names that you could give a kid in our world (if you exclude the fact that some of them are Star Wars Names and immediately off limits), like Luke, Leia, Norra, Wedge, Caleb, probably Han or Sinjir, Ben, Owen, Amilyn, Armitage, Rey, Poe, Finn, Orson… you get the idea. Then there’s the more ambiguous like Lando or Satine or Padmé and her handmaidens, they’re not really real names but they might work if you want something original. And then, well. Obi-Wan. Qui-Gon. Anakin. Shmi. Temmin. Mace. Cliegg. Sheev. Dryden. Mon. Galen. All of the damn Knights of Ren, if that’s even their real names? I suppose Lor San Tekka’s name is Lor?? Anyway, you catch my drift. How do they work is my question. I’m not gonna start on birthdays and certain things not existing because what they’re based on doesn’t have a SW equivalent (like uuh the name Christopher is based on Christ but they don’t have Jesus), because you gotta know when to stop. I just can’t figure where they found those weird human names and what would sound fine. Are the same names considered basic and timeless? Are there weird ones that sound perfectly normal to them? How does any of that work?? Because picking a name for a species that has few info available is fine, you just invent your own stuff and fill in blanks, but humans? That’s us! … Maybe I just answered my own question and I’ll have to invent my own stuff. Still curious about how the fuck Obi-Wan came to be though, that's a very nice but weird name. Also I know I’m not the first one to notice but I think it’s very funny that it’s more or less official that the strip of cloth Jedi have around their waist under their belt is called an obi. Because haha, funny joke, Obi-Wan is a Jedi, Obi's obi, all that.

Oh this is pretty comforting actually, thank you! There’s always that “I don’t want to be annoying” voice in the back of my head but putting it in perspective does help. I’m glad that you’re having fun too then :)

Also unrelated to the rest but I really want to talk about it, I went to a con this weekend, and while it was more fantasy themed, there was a stand for the local lightsaber combat association, and they did demos and short little initiations. I didn’t catch any of the demos but I did get to learn a few stances with a saber and it was super cool. I mean I’m really bad at most anything physical so I probably looked like a tiny initiate having their first lesson but hey, at least I tried! I also have renewed appreciation for literally anything they do with lightsabers in the movies and series because those movements are not easy, even when your weapon is pretty harmless. The instructor tried to teach us how to do the little twirly wrist movement you can do at the end of your salute when you’ve finished a session, the same kind Obi-Wan does when he “unsheathes” his saber in TCW sometimes, and my friend got it right away but I couldn’t for the life of me figure it out lol. So yeah that was fun, there was also a super nice cosplayer who came as her own OC with an apparently Revan-inspired design that looked really cool.

Now that I’ve written the equivalent of the homework due tomorrow on some text analysis I should have been doing instead, I think I’ll go attend to my actual responsabilities (sadly, because this is much more fun). Have a nice – I think it’s late-afternoon/evening in the US, so a nice end of your day I suppose, and don’t worry, I did see your answer! (I think at that point the anon isn’t very necessary BUT I’m shy lol)

- ☂️

Hey ☂️! Thanks for your patience with me, I really appreciate it!

Ngl that kind of popularity from kylux is crazy impressive. I remember it being the crackship back in the early days of the sequel fandom, that was before TLJ had come out. Its really epic that its gone from being a crackship to the 2nd most popular ship though! And its such a good ship too, it definitely deserves that popularity lmao!

Okay so ik i say this a lot but Hux really did deserve better from d*sney. Less than 15 total minutes of screen time? How dare they! And they gave him this terrible awful backstory and then refuse to show any of it on screen, like his whole relationship with Brendol could have been so interesting to see outside of comics but no ofc not and his bio mother isn't even a named character in canon and thats!! So terrible!! Im very defensive over him i love him very much (yes he's a villain ik but look) and like maybe im just super defensive of him because I built an entire backstory for him for fic purposes (that i can't really talk about until the kylux big bang is released) but I love him and he deserved!! So much better!! And how dare they just kill him!! I have a whole rant about this somewhere lmao, im so glad we can agree on this!

I can def agree with kylux being the better ship compared to reylo. Why have het enemies to lovers when gay enemies to lovers is right there? But legit reylo is what got me to like the sequels back in the day, they're still a soft favorite of mine 😅

Now exploring ship popularity in comparison to which platform you're on would be very very interesting! I can tell you that tumblr has a very small kylux base these days (i go through that tag almost weekly these days and there's very rarely new stuff that im interested in) compared to say, reylo or obikin where there's constantly new stuff being posted. But there's also a ton more "hate" in the obikin and reylo communities compared to kylux, so by popularity are you going for traffic overall vs positive interaction vs just the negative interactions and you're right, there's so much that can influence it and its definitely worth a study if someone has time!

Oh, im gonna be honest I stopped watching Doctor Who after Eccleston. With your explanation though it makes a lot of sense! Seems like theres a few of those in the prequels fandom, generally there's always the Clone Wars and generally unless its a fix it au Anakin always falls.

Explaining lemon to a classroom, thatd be,,,, rough lmao. Its probably a good idea to leave that one out 😅

Fandoms do get intense. Its pretty crazy, and I say that as someone who's been around fandoms for the last decade. I have so many Opinions(tm) about it lol, it really is easy to avoid the stuff one doesn't want to see and ngl its a lot better that way isn't it

Omg an engraved wood sector map would be so so cool!! She sounds like a great character, im very excited to hear more about her whenever you want to share!

The whole concept of "cringe" is kinda sucky tbh, I dont know how to explain it but it feels like it was just a way to make fun of people for their ocs or their writing or art or whatever. You're right, the internet is fun but also not sometimes. But yeah, you really can't fail as long as you're having fun! Just getting over that initial hump of feeling anxious about your oc is the hardest part! This reminds me of that one meme, "I want a good grade at [thing], something that is both normal and possible to achieve-" and I dont remember where it started but I remember @/mandocule having a good one somewhere, I think it was about fic writing?

Okay so human naming conventions is such a hotly debated thing! Or was at one point, i dont keep up with fandom drama anymore lmao. I remember seeing something on reddit saying Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon must have come from the same planet because their names use similar conventions, which is very interesting to think about but also! There's so many different planets and cultures that its absolutely impossible to narrow the naming conventions down to a single thing, and I doubt even Lucas and d*sney have it all figured out so if you can find a naming convention go for it yknow! I think also thats the benefit of fanfiction, we can make up whatever we want and it'll be plausible because the SW universe is so vast whos to say xyz thing isn't true. That got a little meta, but yeah you did answer your own question there!

Also yeah Obi-Wan is a v nice, v weird name. Re: obi also being the belt, do you think its maybe one of those things were theres a name variation of a word? Idk if that question made sense, yknow how theres words that are Also Names? Bc it could be like that, so maybe "Obi" as a name prefix isn't actually that weird? Again, making it up as we go along but! Wouldn't that be interesting!

Let me reassure you again then, you're not annoying me whatsoever! I love talking about this stuff :) this is really fun, and delving into these topics also gets me thinking about stuff I wouldn't have normally thought about!!

Omg testing out lightsabers is so much fun!! I have two lightsabers myself, I've been messing around with them (and actually have to replace the electronics in both whoops) and its so so hard to get the movements right! And its good to try new things!! Im not sure which actor this was said about but there was an interview once about how the lightsaber duels were choreographed like actual sword fights or something, and there was one actor who was really good at it and worked really hard at it and stuff. It was either Mark Hamill or Hayden Christensen, im pretty sure?? Anyway, yeah that stuff is wicked hard and good for you for trying it!!

Omg i hope you got your homework done! And attending real life responsibilities is never as fun as fandom stuff, its too bad its necessary 🥲 you're always welcome back in the inbox for more analysis :) im not sure what timezone you are, so I hope you're having a good day/night today!