#she's had a few really great episodes and it seems like her characterization is starting to make more sense since her relationship with wor

[gffa]

As someone who grew up on the clone wars, but didn’t watch rebels—I can’t really comment on cohesiveness of continuity of the story—but in general do you think Felony (that cracks me up) could have fleshed stuff out better in terms of characterization if season was given 12 episodes instead of 8?

I think it could have helped, but ultimately, no, I don't think the runtime was the problem--because it's not just 8 episodes, it's 8 full length episodes, which would be the equivalent of 16 animated/half-length episodes. I think there would have been plenty of room in these episodes to put more content in, because some of those fight scenes were hella long and not always that interesting, and I get that he wanted to write the story of how they found Ezra, but honestly he could have included some flashbacks if he'd wanted to flesh things out more, they wouldn't have had to be more than a few minutes long, and I think he could have spared the time for that. I'm trying to have sympathy for this, because I know you can't show every little thing--think about the jump between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, that before we ever had The Clone Wars, that was a massive chunk of the story that just didn't get covered beyond showing the start of it and showing the Battle Over Coruscant! But Felony isn't in the same place as George Lucas was--this is the Disney era of Star Wars, there have been multiple animated series, multiple live action series, and the Ahsoka series seems designed to have always been at least two seasons, so he had the room for it, if the equivalent of 16 episodes wasn't enough time. Ultimately, though, I just don't get the sense that he was interested in the set-up, that it had been cooking in his brain for too long and he wanted to get to the meat of it without the ramp up for those of us outside his head. I mean, maybe I might be wrong, but I found his writing for TCW s7 to be pretty thin as well, so I think he's just kind of Like That for me these days. There's plenty that's really good in the Ahsoka series! There's a lot I loved about Ahsoka herself, especially when she's prickly and almost kind of mean to Sabine, I love that she teases Huyang and clearly loves him so much, I love when she sighs and tries not to roll her eyes because everyone just has to make her day harder, the lightsaber fights were a lot of fun, her interactions with Baylan where he was hitting all her sensitive spots were delicious, I'm glad we got the show and I have great affection for Ahsoka's character in it! But I also stand by my criticisms of how a lot of it was just very, very aggressively less than it could be and I don't think more space would net us anything but more of the same. (But I do enjoy when my dash is excited about the show because it reminds me that my experience is not universal and some people got an absolute charge out of it and I really want to read about exactly what they loved about it. And I hope that I can give that back to, say, someone who found the Obi-Wan Kenobi series kinda disappointing, but I was over the moon for it, it's okay that you don't agree, but let me tell you about my joy for it anyway, just indulge me for a minute--!)

[arceespinkgun]

What is going on... I've seen like five different people hating on Elita-1 in the tags in the past few days? Are people suddenly saying this because she'll be in that new movie? Because she's in the Skybound comics? I guess now is a good time to say that I've been a fan of every Elita I've seen so far. Even when some of them have been portrayed using problematic tropes, like how TFA Elita was fridged for the sake of male characters' development or how Elita in the first IDW run was repeatedly pitted against other women, I've always loved their characterizations and abilities. Honestly, when looking at the original IDW comics as a whole and not as individual series, Elita might be my favorite character from it overall—she was so badass!

As soon as I saw her in "The Search for Alpha Trion" in the Sunbow cartoon I wanted to see more of her and wished she hadn't been in only two episodes, so I'm really happy she's in Earthspark and Skybound and the Go! Go! manga now. Honestly, she was strangely ignored by a lot of media until right after I joined this fandom and started this blog? Lucky me!

Also, on the subject of Elita, when I first saw the episode of Earthspark in which Grimlock gets triggered by Jawbreaker and Elita attempts to stop him from rampaging, I was under the impression that Elita and Grimlock having been comrades (or interacting at all) was entirely new to that show. But now I know I was wrong! It seems like in the Fun Pub Classics comics, which refer to the US Marvel comics, Grimlock was her commander and potentially mentored her?

Her bio also reads:

Elita-1's origins are a mystery to everyone but Grimlock. In fact, no one in the Autobot ranks even knew she existed until Grimlock first brought his newly formed crew aboard the Graviton. There she was, quietly working behind one of the ships consoles, paying no attention to the inquisitive looks directed her way. Every member of the crew has a theory about her, but she isn't talking, and neither is Grimlock. A skilled fighter, Elita-1 is adept with the Circuit-Su form of combat. Her weapon of choice is a hyper concussive missile launcher that converts into an EMP scrambler. Mimetic alloy armor allows her to blend into her surroundings and can also refract laser weapons fire into blinding bursts of light. While confident in her abilities, she feels that she has yet to fully prove herself to others, leading her to take unnecessary risks.

Considering all this and that Elita-1's alt-mode is a pink battleship in this continuity, I wonder if she had a tie to the nucleon well on Hydrus IV that Grimlock used on himself and the other Dinobots.

The well of nucleon was on an island facility surrounded by a pink lake reached by raft, so a pink ship like Elita would fit right in there. If Grimlock did find her or create her somehow in that continuity, great, I guess I have to begrudgingly admit Marvel Grimlock did one thing I appreciate lol

[bylerposting]

Max knows about Billy & Karen and that's what's in her letter to Mike: Season 5 Theory.

I've always wondered what the purpose of Mike being in this scene was, because it feels like such a specific choice. This scene is about Max experiencing the nosebleed symptoms. Mike is all the way in California having gay thoughts about his best friend. What's he doing here in Max's flashbacks? Why was it important that Mike saw Max getting this nosebleed?

From his perspective, Max's hair would be blocking his view from the blood, so mabye he didn't notice the nosebleed specifically. But he noticed something was wrong.

Check out these BTS pics. Look at how much went in to this scene.

All of those extras, the classroom location, outfits for everyone, makeup, props, just for a few shots of B-roll.

Note how Mike is blocked at the start of the shot, and the camera pans right to reveal, as well as racking focus on to him.

It could be just to show growth between the two characters. They both take math class together, and they sit next to each other. Mike and Max have been at odds with each other a lot, so its nice to see them a little closer.

It does keep Mike's from feeling too disconnected from the main Hawkins plot. But due to the nature of his story this season, his character was going to be little disconnected regardless. That's why I like to think there's more to it.

Remember that thing Karen/Billy had?

As lots of time has passed between seasons, a lot of fans have criticized that for it's characterization of Karen because, while it provided excellent subtext for what happened to Billy as he was flayed, it doesn't condemn Karen's involvement. Therefore it comes off as painfully tone-deaf toward the predatory nature surrounding that dynamic. If they weren't going to condemn Karen's involvement, then why characterize her this way in the first place?

At the same time, people have also noticed that season 4 seemed to slowly build something up with the Wheeler family. Namely, with Nancy's vision in S4E8 showing her Karen, Mike, and Holly presumably dead.

And I think the final piece could be hidden in Max's letter to Mike.

Season 2 Episode 8: Billy and Karen meet for the first time and are instantly infatuated with each other.

Outside of the meet-cute, Billy is looking for Max, and Karen knows where she is. Karen gives him the address and says "And when you see Mike, tell him to come home already, yeah?"

Both Mike and Max get tied to this from the start. Billy and Karen talk about Max and Mike as their responsibility, even though Billy is only 17.

As of up to season 4, neither Max nor Mike have any clue this even happened.

But I think Max could know.

Season 3 takes place 6 months after season 2. Billy and Karen met before the 1 month time jump at the end of S2E9, Add that up and from their first scene together up to their last scene together, Karen and Billy have known each other in-universe for 7 months.

Maybe sometime prior to S3, Max could've seen Billy and Karen together. Maybe she could've overheard how they were talking to each other, and and maybe just didn't know what to do. (I wouldn't blame her. She's 14. She shouldn't have to have a conversation like that.)

Mike's presence in this scene could therefore be to represent that secret. To hint at what she was hiding that got her the symptom.

As of Season 4's ending, Max is in a coma, and she instructed that her letters only be read if she died. Right now it's 50-50 on whether they'll actually be read in S5.

Mike finding out this truth would be really interesting. Finding out your mom cheated on your dad with Billy Hargrove makes a great catalyst for a TON of conflict. I think there's so much that it could lead to.

Argyle being cut in half in that shot with Mike and Karen; "your dominoes are gonna fall."

[electronickingdomfox]

"Devil World" review

Novel from 1979, by Gordon Eklund (same author of previous TOS novel "The Starless World"). It's a very short novel, and could have been an episode of the series. Well-written, and the central mystery is interesting enough, but the story isn't anything special as a whole. In fact, at core is a very similar story to that of the previous novel. Kirk's characterization is also off, specially at the end.

But at least Chekov tells a funny bullshit story about why there are no Russian bears in Russian zoos. In the other novel from Eklund, it was McCoy who told a story to Spock, so it seems to be a thing with this author.

Spoilers under the cut:

Kirk, Spock and McCoy are watching a magician's show while in shore-leave. Spock is like "this is crap". And I don't know why Kirk and McCoy (who regularly get disintegrated in a transporter) are so excited about that old trick where a woman is apparently sawed in half, but they are (maybe they drank too much). Then, the magician starts conjuring some devil creatures that seem all too real. And the beautiful, beautiful woman who was sitting in the table next to them, starts screaming suddenly, accusing the devils of taking her father away. Then she faints.

It turns out, the woman is the famous artist Gilla Dupree, whose father (Jacob Kell) is missing. As Kell is a suspected traitor to the Federation, and presumably hiding in a quarantined planet named Heartland, (and as Gilla is so pretty), Kirk is authorized to use the Enterprise as a taxi for Gilla to reunite with her father. Gilla is a Jain, though I don't know enough about that religion to judge whether her depiction is accurate or not. She can only eat a few vegetables, since all life is sacred for her, and blames malnourishment for her frequent faints. An insipid romance develops then between Kirk and her, and it takes too many pages of an already short book. I mean, there's nothing essentially bad about Gilla as a character; she's just so... boring? The romance is also a clear indication that Gilla's doomed by the narrative.

Once in Heartland, the crew plus Gilla meet a hermit man who's been living alone for forty years. He's the last of the human colonists, who was left behind when they evacuated and quarantined the planet years ago. The other colonists had all gone mad, but not this one. He doesn't want to get any close to the native aliens of Heartland, the Danons, but says that Kell lives among them. The Danon village has a compelling eerie atmosphere, and there's something Lovecraftian about the great stone tower in the middle of the central square. Kirk and the others find themselves suddenly surrounded by all the Danons of the village, and Kell is among them. The Danons look exactly like naked Christian devils, so the crew is really xenophobic towards them (haven't they seen stranger creatures in the galaxy? oh well). Kell is very unfriendly, and orders them to leave Heartland at once. Nonetheless, the Danons allow the crew to spend the night in their village. And one of them even plays poker with the redshirts (Spock doesn't want to play poker since he's too good at it, because Vulcans have the perfect "poker face", yeah). But the next morning, the redshirt who got too close to the Danon during poker is missing. They find him naked and completely mad, his mind as if it was wiped clean. They leave McCoy with crazy, naked dude, but he can't do anything for him.

Then Kirk and Gilla run to Kell, to demand answers from him, and at last he explains what's happening. It turns out the Danons are all part of a single mental entity, which can claim people as part of the whole. But only the strongest ones can become assimilated; those that aren't ready, simply lose their minds. Kell was a deeply broken man ever since he spent a month alone in space, drifting with just his spacesuit after an accident. He couldn't live with people anymore, nor did he find help among the Klingons (the reason why he was branded as a traitor by the Federation). Only in Heartland, after uniting with the mental presence, he found some relief. And I don't know why, at this point, they can't just leave this poor old man alone. But Kirk still insists on taking Kell to the Enterprise. Only that now, they discover that the entity just won't let them leave the planet. Spock does his Spock thing, and tries to mind-meld with the mental presence. And then we get crazy Spock (but he's no redshirt, so McCoy says he'll recover in time).

In the end, the hermit reveals the whole truth. The entity is actually a super-computer that fills the whole core of the planet, and the entrance is located under the mysterious tower of the village. The Danons built the machine as a planetary defense long ago. But their species is dying now, so the computer wants to assimilate humans to have some company, once the Danons disappear. The hermit convinced the other colonists to try and fuse with the machine, but he was too cowardly to follow them. Gilla disappears, and soon Kirk suspects what she's doing. She has exchanged herself for her father, and Kirk finds her, too late, connected to the computer.

Back in the ship, Kirk is totally depressed and neglects his duties after losing Gilla. And this is quite out-of-character for him, since duty always comes before love for Kirk (save in the case of Spock in the third movie). McCoy comforts him, revealing that Gilla was actually dying from a tumor, so she had nothing to lose anyway (and maybe, McCoy, you should have told this to Kirk before, since he was so emotionally involved and all...). I was left wondering what was the deal with that magician at the beginning and his devils, and why Gilla knew about them. But that's never addressed (an abandoned plot line?).

Spirk Meter: 1/10*. It's almost nothing, but at one point Kirk reflects about how comfortable he is in Spock's presence. So comfortable than they can both be in silence without it being awkward.

Also, this author seems to have something for Kirk/Scotty, as it happened in the other novel. Kirk compares him to an angel, says that he's looking forward to see Scotty's smiling face again... And Scotty gets super-protective of Kirk when he wants to beam up the last, even though there's no immediate danger in the planet. ????

Apart from this, Kirk gets crushed by a horde of naked (mostly male) devils, that tear his clothes as usual.

*A 10 in this scale is the most obvious spirk moments in TOS. Think of the back massage, "You make me believe in miracles", or "Amok Time" for example.

[cepheusgalaxy]

How I think Vivziepop could fix some of her mistakes in creation on the Hellaverse shows (mainly Hazbin Hotel):

Big ramble, basically. Lil cws for light death and violence mentions, so yea.

The "Stolas and Stella both are deeply flawed and even tho Stolas is objectively nicer, Stella is a bich just because and basically has only one function to the plot" problem - This on itself is not a problem, I think. It's perfectly valid to have whatever characters you want as long as they have a purpuse...even if that porpuse is just one. However, a reocurring thing in media is when girl and woman characters are despicted as either A. objecitvely good people with good morals always or B. bad people but like for no reason at all while man and boy characters are usually allowed more nuance and grey morality. I don't think Stella is a bad character, and there are a few other assholes-for-no-reason characters that are men in Helluva and Hazbin as well, but to level up the ground I'd suggest giving one of the bad people characters some deep grey morality and stuff. Good possibilities for this are Cherri Bomb and Lute in Hazbin Hotel, and Loona on Helluva. I think all of them are very likely to be explored in a direction like that.

The "Millie has had such simple writing compared to the other protagonists and it sometimes feels like her only purpose is to be Moxxie's wife" problem - Giving Millie an arc of her own would be great: see her dinamics with the other characters on her own and with her family and have an objective in the episode that isn't tied to Moxxie--i think that'd be a great start. Separate them and have their reasons not be tied into each other for a bit and see how that goes. She has a lot of potential. I'd be particularly interested in seeing how Moxxie was in her childhood. She's characterized as this super strong lady, and I'd love to see some high stake bloody teen adventures tbh.

The "the black characters are made as if the designers are afraid to make them actually black" problem - Most of the black characters in Hazbin Hotel have really shitty greyish and dead skin tones, as well as basically all of them having straight hair. While many black people do have straight hair, just giving two out of all of them actual curly hair is just so shitty. Velvette had a spiky straight hair in the pilot and her hair was wavy during most of the show as well, only being curly at the end (i hope that means they are sticking to it now--i'd love to see more curly velvette) and Sera has dreadlocks but that's it. The main example we can see is with Alastor. Solution A would be making more curly black characters, and solution B would be warming up their skin tones. For an in-universe explanation, I think it would be fine to say that peoplein Heaven, as opposed to Hell, have more...actual skin tones, as shown in Sera. Vaggie and Alastor have this ugly grey skin because they've been a while in Hell, and I think that by showing flashback exterminator!vaggie and other angels in heaven (it seems like heaven will be more visited in upcoming seasons with sir pentious there) with actual black skin tones. This explanation could be sustained by the fact that white people like Charlie also have unnaturally pale skin tones. A better yet solution I can come up with is saying that sinner's bodies react differently to Hell's atmosphere--sustained by how some have interesting animal and weird forms like pentious or angel dust--and so the new black characters we get in the next seasons have actual skin tones. I also think that if they warmed up Vel's skin a little nobody would complain. It's a good one already, though.

The Alastor's visuals in general problem - Simplest one I can think of is straight up replacing the vodoo simbles that appear when he uses his magic to radio ones. I've saw someone do it already and it was not only a good concept but it looked great. Second problem is his lack of visual cues for the fact he's of mixed race. Mixed people like me usually have a skin tone you'd usually refered to as "strong tan" or can be around an olive kind of nude. I don't mind much that there are almost no visual cues of when he's from--the 1930's--but the fact that he is not visually POC is just really upsetting. His hair is straight and bright red--there is this lil trend in the show of making black character's hair a fantasy color as if avoiding visually black hair--and his skin is just so ugly and pale. Sure, dead people in hell and corpse haha, but there is more room for changes. One solution I can think of, but i dont know if it would be well-received by the fans, is to like give his hair a real change--say he cut it or was straightening it or had magic to make it look like that or smth--or, making his skin gradually warmer to signal something on his character development, like becoming closer to being a redeemable person and showing that by giving him alive people--heaven people--colors. Also, one thing that i think is one of the more viable out of these three for problem number two~~would be giving Alastor a second outfit, based more on his time period and tendencies forhis ethnicy, something like a vest over a longsleeved button up (i think the fans would love it aesthetically--me included) and have him wear it gradually more over the course of the next seasons, maybe also to signal character development.

The "all of the characters are very thin" problem - just make more fleshed out cool fat characters. good one is also making some characters gaining weight. good candidact i think are vaggie and husk, because it wouldn't mess up their sillouette a lot. i think any of them would be good, tho. Developing Mimzy to be a cool character would also work on the show's favor.

The "hazbin is so fuckign red why" problem - weather. play with the weather and say it changes the environment colors to have it fluctuating a bit every now and then. also: introducing new places or redecorating the hotel to include more colors (since it was destroyed and reconstructed--a good excuse) could work.

[dwellordream]

Initial Impressions of HotD, Episode 5

be warned there are spoilers below.

i have read fire & blood, but i am not judging the show as to its accuracy towards the book, as i had major issues with fire & blood, particularly in regard to how grrm wrote the female characters and handled the Dance.

this is not an evaluation of it as an adaptation but on its own merits.

Rhea’s actress did a great job establishing her character in such a short amount of time as confident, independent, and blunt - similar to Daemon in many ways, but clearly not someone he would ever find appealing because she would never flatter his ego.

I think her death scene was a little silly; they could have had her riding out alone, and then show Caraxes’ shadow overhead, then cut to her being found dead, but I’m glad they kept it nebulous as to whether Daemon directly caused her death, or even meant to hurt her at all.

Otto is a horrible person, but it’s true that Rhaenyra’s claim will never be secure so long as Alicent has living sons. Rhaenyra might not initially intend to harm them, but they would always be a threat to her, and Daemon would have zero qualms about killing them.

Having it be autumn at this point in the story is a good choice, because everything is declining; Rhaenyra and Alicent’s relationship is dead in the water. Viserys’ health is fading fast. Daemon has repeatedly squandered the power he has. Laenor and Rhaenyra’s betrothal is depicted as a rather tedious, reluctant affair.

Not getting to see the shiny silver roofs of Driftmark was a missed opportunity. It looked very generic and seemed quite desolate, as opposed to a bustling port.

Larys’ actor is great, and he and Alicent have a very fun dynamic. He comes across as much more awkward than the typical scheming advisor, but in works in his favor because he is aware people already pity/scorn him due to his disability.

Laena’s actress is great, but this show has done her very dirty. Laena easily could have featured in Episodes 3 and 4 as Rhaenyra started to pull away from Alicent. They also cut her claiming Vhagar, which annoys me a lot. The writing for women of color on this show sucks, frankly.

It was a delight to see Rhaenys again. Then, again, we could have seen a lot more done with her in the last two episodes. What a waste.

Corlys and Rhaenys seem to have become disillusioned with Daemon now that Laenor and Rhaenyra are a possibility, which makes sense. They very pointedly bring up that Daemon may have murdered his wife, and have probably heard the rumors about him and his niece.

Viserys never says anything about Rhaenyra’s firstborn child succeeding her regardless of gender in Fire & Blood, so it’s strange here that he doesn’t even try to go ‘well, of course Rhaenyra will have sons...’. 

It’s nice to see Rhaenyra trying to be kind to Laenor and proposing a marriage of friendship and respect, even if his actor is much more stiff than hers. 

To be honest the breakneck pacing of this season could have been slowed down considerably, and the finale could have been Rhaenyra and Laenor wedding, and Alicent turning against her permanently. It would have developed the Velaryons much more.

Corlys being in denial about Laenor’s sexuality and insisting he’ll ‘outgrow it’ seems silly. It would make more sense for him to be aware, but not see it as a genuine impediment to Laenor siring children.

Joffrey Lonmouth is very fun, and I think his actor has a lot of charm. You can see how Laenor, who seems much more solemn, would be attracted to him.

I assume the implication here is that Rhaenyra and Criston have continued their sexual relationship in the few months since last episode. He never seriously proposes running away with Rhaenyra in Fire & Blood, and I don’t really like his characterization here - I can’t see Criston being willing to abandon his post as Kingsguard and the honor/fame of it for a life on the run with a princess.

However, I do think his reaction to Rhaenyra proposing they continue the relationship after her marriage is good. Criston wants to preserve Rhaenyra in his head as a pure and chaste princess who was only willing to give up her virtue to him, and then never stray from her husband. He’s horrified at the thought of being the third party to a marriage between her and another man, even if Laenor is gay.

Alicent’s nervous speech to Ser Criston, trying to ascertain if Rhaenyra actually had sex, is very well done, especially when she tries to play the wise older woman reflecting on the ‘flush of youth’. Alicent never got to make youthful mistakes or have any lapses in resolve. And the thought of Rhaenyra having had sex doesn’t just upset her on a moral level, but seems yet more salt in the wound of the life she never got to lead, and the pleasurable relationship with Rhaenyra that ended abruptly with Alicent’s marriage.

Nice to see some actual dragons again the dragon show.

Daemon waltzing in to the wedding celebrations uninvited and knowing damn well he is still exiled is such a Daemon thing to do.

Alicent’s evil stepmother entrance was beautiful. Seeing her do the first genuinely petty, selfish thing for herself right at the perfect moment to show up Viserys was so fitting. The music was also great; a very sinister waltz.

Joffrey massively underestimating the consequences of joking about Criston Cole is pretty heartwrenching. 

Harwin being completely unthreatened by Daemon, but also never contradicting or defying him establishes a lot about him as a character. He doesn’t have much of a temper or ambitions; he just wants what he wants, and is willing to bend rather than break for it.

Criston ‘accidentally’ killing Joffrey during a tourney was one thing. Brutally killing him in a brawl during the royal wedding celebrations is another. I hope they’re prepared to explain the consequences of this next episode. The Lonmouths are not a minor house, and they would be enraged by this act from a Kingsguard.

Despite my issues with how they have handled the Velaryons, especially Laena, I do think this was the best episode since Episode 2. The pacing was tight and the suspense was genuine, and there were a lot of great shots of characters carefully observing one another.

[sallysellsseashellssundays]

Father’s Day-DW Confidential

I’m so glad I started watching these, this is the one I was looking forward to the most for series 1 b/c of how much I love this episode. Honestly I’d quote the entire thing just because of how good it was, but here’s three of my favorites...

“We spent a few episodes sort of showing how good a companion Rose is, so having done that it’s time in episode 8 to push that to its extreme and say ‘actually sometimes she gets it wrong’, but she gets it wrong, when Rose gets it wrong it’s under extraordinary circumstances.” -RTD (showrunner)

“The wound in time it’s not entirely Rose’s fault it’s a two-way street, the Doctor cares a great deal about her so he’s vulnerable to her suggestions and her input and never imagined that she’d do something like this.” -Paul Cornell (writer ep 8)

“With Rose, by now he should have learned his lesson and just done nice things with his companion, just taken her for a nice meal or something, rather than meddling around in her own past ‘cause it never ends well.” -Clayton Hickman (DWM Editor)

(I hope I got those right, I still have a difficult time with the accents!)

I’ve always been of the opinion that Rose had a very realistic emotional response and it was nice to see so many of the people involved discussing it in that same manner. 

It was interesting to see how Nine’s response was characterized as being alien in not fully understanding why it would be a powerful moment for Rose, but at the same time family being something that he was yearning for. Plus all the clips of Classic Who interspersed with those statements made it even more interesting.

As always one of the most fascinating parts was seeing how they made the effects, especially the part where they showed an actor pretending to be attacked by Reapers!

One of the things that stood out to me near the end was Shaun discussing how Pete one ‘ordinary man’ saved the world and how nobody really realized it, which seemed to me to be almost word for word what Rose said about Gwyneth. It’s honestly one of my favorite things about the RTD era this continued pattern of one single person being able to make a difference :)

[iwantescapism13]

Amphibia Week: Day 2 - Favorite Character

Sasha Waybright

Sasha started off as a horrible person, acting as the main villain of Season 1. In the flashback in ‘Reunion’, it has come to my realization that Anne being a pushover was because of Sasha, who was being emotionally manipulative. Even though it wasn’t her birthday, Sasha forced Anne to hang out with her (and Marcy) instead of adhering to Anne’s wish to go home by a certain time so she could celebrate with her parents. Her intentions were always in the guise of “I’m doing what’s best for you” but it just came off selfish and possessive (in a sense).

In another way to interpret Sasha’s cliff scene in ‘Reunion’, even until her demise, she still sounded like she emotionally manipulated Anne into “regretting” choosing to let the frogs live instead of joining her by saying the above famous line.

She... was a piece of work in Season 1. 

But my perception of her changed in Season 2. Specifically, in ‘Toadcatcher’.

The shaking of the voice? The denial? Grime’s lines along with Sasha’s expression that seemed to insinuate that he was right? The implication that maaaaaybe she likes Anne? Awesome. Most LGBTQ+ thing I’ve ever seen in the show (at that point). 

And I fucking love it.

There’s definitely something else about this character (more than being queer), I thought.

And I was right.

The flashback scene in ‘The Third Temple’ showed a heroic side, something that didn’t seem to line up with the bitchy attitude she had been portraying for the past few episodes she was in.

But what sold me into liking her even more was her interaction with Anne against the stone goblin.

Oh? That was such a soft tone. She... regretted it?

Huh... interesting.

And then she proceeded to go all anime by taking off all the heavy weights that she’d been wearing and sliced off the stone goblin cleanly. All this... because Anne cheered for her, telling her how much of an inspiration she was to them (as in her and Marcy, I presume).

Damn. She’s so cool.

Thinking back on it, her actions in ‘Reunion’ were all for the sake of finding her friends and a way back home. To be fair, she really was trying.

However, she's willing to sacrifice other creatures - innocent frogs, mind you - and that’s even after Anne told her how important they were to her. 

Best intentions ultimately but terrible, TERRIBLE execution.

Then... oh boy... just when I thought she’d have a change of heart (because she showed a hint of regret at the end of ‘The Third Temple’), she betrayed them.

Anne was, for the first time in the entire series, goddamn PISSED as hell.

WITHIN that SAME episode, Sasha had self-doubts.

What if Anne’s right? What if I AM a horrible person?

Yes, Sasha. You are. But... then... you’re not.

After the infamous scene in ‘True Colors’, Sasha started to regret every single thing she did.

And eventually, she made a promise. To be better. Whether for a certain someone or herself... only I know the answer to that. Haha.

And now... she has made a damn great effort to change for the better. 

Her actions affected so much more than she could’ve ever planned and she’s trying to make up for it by setting up the Resistance Team and leading the rebellion against King Andrias. She had held off the threat to Wartwood, she had helped them train in combat to protect themselves, she had established a base in order to get the villagers comfortable...all of it... to wait for Anne to come back. She had learned to care about Amphibia, about the frogs, about other creatures and about setting boundaries in terms of control. 

She has the BEST characterization in the entire show and that’s why Sasha Waybright is my favorite character. I love her so much.

I didn’t think there’d be a time where I’d say that I love the blonde-haired bitchy character in a show because they’re usually portrayed as ‘refusing to change for the better’ or whatsoever until the very end (Pacifica Northwest, for example). So huge, huge kudos to all the Amphibia crew and sir Matt Braly for creating such a well-paced character.

----

Amphibia Week hosted by @picturejasper20

[lesbianmarrow]

okayyyy let me make my post about legends of tomorrow 6.05 “the satanist’s apprentice.” right away i knew this episode was gonna be something special with the care they were taking showing us astra’s perspective. and it just kept getting better and better until the real show-stealer which was of course the ANIMATED SEQUENCE!!!!!!!! i am so glad i wasn’t spoiled for that. truly amazing to see. i can’t imagine how much work that must have been to arrange but it was totally worth it, such an incredible sequence. but even apart from that very fun and flashy trick it was a really great episode!!!! 

i’m really really glad the writers decided to allocate almost an entire episode to humanizing astra and showing us life from her perspective. astra won me over in the college sorority episode but i definitely think more work needed to be done with the character to make her really feel like one of the team members, and they did that really well here. one issue i had with astra early on is that she felt very much like a two dimensional sexy femme fatale when she was first introduced, and i feel like that characterization stuck around for quite a few episodes. i really dont care for the decision to introduce her that way, even if it makes it more shocking for constantine to see that shes alive and all grown up. i think she shouldve been presented as a more nuanced character from the get go. but hey they finally start doing that in later episodes and this episode explores who she is very thoroughly. 

i loved seeing astra’s morning routine and just all the stuff she does (or doesn’t do) every day. lots of fun. again i think it’s so important to humanize her not just because she was initially presented as this evil sexy femme fatale but also because she is a Black woman and too often white or nonblack audiences refuse to relate to these characters. so it’s great that the way the episode is written and directed essentially forces us to relate to astra. i felt so bad for her when she got drenched by that puddle omg i hope constantine’s house at least has hot water in the showers. i thought it was interesting when her old white guy neighbor is racist to her because legends has been really steering away from depicting racism onscreen in recent seasons when the early seasons showed much more of that. i think it’s done effectively, it makes us feel for astra and want to see the old guy dead which of course plays into the later scene where astra lures him over to kill him. also i was so mad at constantine for being super dismissive of astra and not helping her even though this is her first time living on earth as an adult and also she’s basically his time-displaced niece. constantine you misogynist!!!!!!!!!! 

somehow i had previously been under the impression that astra was already a sorcerer but i guess not? it was fun seeing her make this devil’s bargain although she seemed just a tad naive. but if you think about it she had everything under control up until the bad guy (i forget his name) stole the soul thingy. so she didn’t do anything wrong except lower her guard down a little when she realizes she can’t kill this horrible old racist guy. and i think that makes sense because such a revelation is going to be shocking for her. she used to be fine with causing lots of death and cruelty, and this guy certainly had it coming. but she’s not that person anymore. she has changed and become more compassionate and doesn’t want to hurt people needlessly anymore. i still wish that old guy could be punished in some way though like she could infest his house with bats or something bc he deserves it. 

it was so fun when she turned the legends into various household objects. why was nate a CHEESE. i loved zari and ava’s little faces. and it’s so funny that zari was a flip phone. would she even know what that is, since shes from the future? and then everything about the animation i loved. it was so funny how astra began talking all disney princess-y and using dramatic gestures and all that. and she saves the day by singing her mother’s song! how lovely is that. also awesome to see the animated versions of the transformed legends fight and then tuck the bad guy into bed. so silly. i like how at the end astra says the legends are her friends!!!!!!! love that for her. 

the side plot with sara was also really good even though it was very short. bishop is a fantastic villain. he’s just so AWFUL. i love how charismatic he is and how that just enhances his awfulness. and also how he is always singing and dancing like a weirdo. i dont have much experience with techbros but he seems like a techbro. also so interesting to see the nurse ava clone. i like how disturbed sara was by her and by how brainwashed she was. and i loved how sara tried to convince the clone to help her escape and really thought she got through to her. sara made the mistake not only of thinking this clone was more like her ava than she truly was, but also of thinking that all it would take to get this clone on her side was an inspiring speech about her personhood. it’s honestly so arrogant of her, but also so in character. sara has a hero complex when it comes to saving women from their own internalized misogyny and that’s essentially what she’s trying to do here. but the clone’s brainwashing is more thorough than sara had counted on. 

umm anyway really good episode i thought caity lotz’s directing was good and i like that astra is becoming a bigger part of the team now :) 

[consumeronionbulletin]

Death's Game (2023-24)

This is a smartly written show based on a webtoon that I have not read. The acting is top notch, and overall it is very effective and a quick watch. A few choices they made left me with some lingering questions...

What Worked

I liked the cast, especially the portrayal of Death by Park So-dam. I wouldn't say it's my favorite portrayal (*cough* Discworld *cough*), but the way Ms. So-dam managed to be both playful and pitiless, with a touch of someone weary of existence was interesting to watch.

And the way the clockwork pieces of the story came together at the end was also very satisfying, with the last two episodes making a touching coda.

What Didn't Work

I have quibbles. Not because the bad outweighed the good, but because the good parts made the "not so great" parts of the show stick out.

Much of the CGI was janky-af. There were goo-gah problems. The showrunners either didn't know how to use the effects budget properly, or they didn't have the right tools to do the job because there were scenes that threw me out. I assume (generously) that they were homages to something the webtoon did that the showrunners liked, but the CGI was not up to the task.

I also didn't like the terrible child abuse plotline. It was off-putting, and it didn't really add anything to the show.

Also, the metaphysics left me scratching my head in a few places. The overall message of the show is pretty good / standard existentialism, but trying to match that up with the "fire and brimstone" aesthetic they had going for Death frustrated me. It feels like they wanted to say that—even through suffering—existence is still worthwhile. But there was this fear of judgement and eternal damnation hanging over the main character the entire show that seemed to undercut that message. If existence is enough by itself, why do we need an afterlife of torment?

Maybe the webtoon fixes that problem, but the show did not.

Also, there were times when their message around suicide was confusing and a bit preachy. It's definitely a touchy issue in Korean culture though, so the fact that they're talking about it at all is something.

The Performances

Park So-dam as Death. The best part of the show, and that's saying alot because they brought in some good talent. I would have liked a few moments at the end of the show with some compassion or empathy from this character. Or at least having them show Death acknowledging the overall purpose behind their actions, but the performance itself was still great.

Seo In-guk as ("Confused Protagonist") Choi Yi-jae. Overall, the lead did a good job. I had some issues with the way Yi-jae was characterized at the beginning: he was angry and almost prideful towards Death, but somehow meek in his first life? How does that match up? This was more of a writing / show problem and could probably have been fixed if we'd had more time to get to know the character (which means more episodes).

Kim Mi-kyung as Yi-jae's (Tired) Mother. This is nothing new for Kim Mi-kyung, but still a good performance. This is another case where it would have helped if we had gotten to know the character before everything started to go bad, but a touching performance overall.

Go Youn-jung as ("Writer / Girlfriend") Lee Ji-su. I liked her alot in Moving and she was good here in a very different role. They gave her one solid episode where we got to know her, and it was really great. Again, more time at the start with her and Yi-jae would have made the show even better.

Lee Jae-wook as (MMA / Prisoner) Cho Tae-sang. Always fun to see this guy on the screen. I especially enjoyed the humor he brought to the crazy situation he was in.

Oh Jung-se as ("Old Detective") An Ji-hyeong. Another great actor knocking it out of the park. Oh Jung-se was the anchorman for this relay race, and he did a good job.

Kim Kang-hoon as ("Teenager in Crisis") Kwon Hyeok-su. This guy did such a good job that he legitimately felt like a younger version of Choi Yi-jae. Really good to watch, even if the situation / setting was kind of bleak.

Lee Do-hyun as ("Pretty Boy") Cho Tae-sang. Really good performance that walked the line in terms of story. Could easily have veered into off-putting territory. I won't spoil what happened, but there were layers to what he had to do to get the character to work, and he managed to hit all of them.

Kim Jae-wook as ("Creepy Painter") Jeong Gyu-cheol. Another actor that's just fun to watch. His character was terrible, but I couldn't take my eyes off him.

Kim Ji-hoon as ("The Worst CEO") Park Tae-woo. Very effective and menacing. The fact that I was actively rooting for the creepy serial killer, instead of the CEO, shows what a good actor he was. I feel like the writers could have made him a little less "mustache twirling evil", or else played up how he was evil as a businessman in addition to being a mass-murderer, but you can't have everything.

Everyone else. The teenage bullies did a good job. The Evil Parents of an Infant were very effective and I pray their agents got them another role ASAP so people can forget they did this. All the other side characters and minor roles were good. Basically, good casting + good acting across the board.

TL; DR:

Grimdark to its core. The acting overall was great and there are some hidden depths as far as the writing goes. Not a perfect show, but definitely give it a try if you find the premise even a little interesting.

[rotationalsymmetry]

General gripes about DS9 and gender (some spoilers) (content notes: some references to sexual abuse/trauma, and specifically spiritual abuse/sexual misconduct in religious leaders, also death/murder):

I swear to fuck these people do not know how to write female characters without shoehorning them into romance plotlines. (Or weird fucked up stuff, like when that Cardassian serial murderer kidnaps Kira.) Especially noticeable with Ziyal -- when Kira takes her to DS9, the writers apparently can't think of a single thing to do with a young woman other than ship her with a much older Cardassian. Then, she's starting to get her own life and make a name for her as an artist, and they fucking refridgerator her. The fuck. (And: the focus is on how her death affects Dukat, that fucker. Which, obviously sure it's going to affect him...but it's also going to affect Kira, who sees Ziyal as like a younger version of herself and was trying to protect her. And then Ziyal dies. That should have some sort of effect on Kira! And did no one else on the station make any sort of connection with her when she was there?) This is arguably not primarily a gender thing, but it is partly a gender thing: the show keeps demanding Kira find sympathy for her oppressors, over and over again. (This is a gripe fest: of course there's a lot of things about Kira's character that are done really well.) She keeps getting thrown in situations that show (some) Cardassians in more nuanced lights and that more or less force her into relationships with them, while meanwhile her old resistance cell friends all get killed off, her parents are dead, if she has any other family we don't hear about it, and she's basically left with no Bajoran friends even, as far as we know. She gets Bajoran lovers who... OK, about that. First, Vedek Bareil. Now, Bajorans are shown to have a pretty relaxed attitude towards their clergy (eg Kira is frequently rude to Winn even after she becomes Kai with apparently no consequences) -- but still. Vedek is roughly equivalent to, what, cardinal? He's high up in the heirarchy. And, he's put himself in a role of spiritual authority relative to Kira: she gets access to one of the Orbs through him. They've got a power imbalance and one that's connected to Kira's ability to do her religion. I don't care what the social norms are on Bajor that is 100% sexual misconduct on Bareil's part. If something went wrong in their relationship, it could fuck up Kira's connection to her faith. And in the show it's presented as no big deal.

(Star Trek seems to be aware of this when it comes to ship's captains! For all that Kirk notoriously fucks everyone, he never voluntarily (/outside of the mirror universe, outside of odd transporter malfunctions that split him into two parts, etc) came on to a crew member. But it's no less important for religious authorities.) (Also: this has nothing to do with celebacy. I'm fine with Bajoran religious figures being allowed to have sex and being allowed to have sex outside of marriage. But: a religious leader having a sexual relationship with someone who they're in a pastoral relationship to is wrong, and while Bareil isn't exactly Kira's pastor I think there is some level of, he's providing spiritual guidance to her. That means she's off limits to him, or should be. In the same way that bosses shouldn't fuck their direct reports, college professors shouldn't fuck their students, therapists definitely shouldn't fuck their patients, etc. Regardless of how they handle their sex life outside of those restrictions. And regardless of whether there's love involved or not -- romantic love absolutely does not make it better.) And then there's Shakaar, the former leader of her resistance cell. That she joined as a teenager. It's...yeah, it's been many years, yeah she's not directly under him any more, and yeah goodness knows a band of resistance fighters is probably not going to have a clearly written up sexual harassment policy so it's not necessarily unrealistic...it's not as blatantly "oh god no" as Bareil, but it's got some...is anyone thinking of potential abuse of power issues here? Anyone?

There was one episode where Jake and Nog were double-dating and it goes badly due to Ferengi, uh, gender roles not meshing well with Federation egalatarianism. And, then the rest of the episode is all about how they're going to repair their friendship. And I was thinking: we didn't see either female character either before or after, and why is a sexism issue being shown from the lens of "how can I, a nice guy, stay friends with my male friend who has sexism issues" and not "how am I, a young woman, going to deal with this affront to my basic personhood" or "how am I, a young woman, going to repair my friendship now that I talked my friend into a double date so I could date the guy I liked but his friend turned out to be garbage?" Like...out of all the potential relationships there, why is Jake's friendship with a guy with sexism issues (who's made it clear he's not going to change, at least as far as dating goes) the one presented as being in most need of preservation? I know, it's because Jake and Nog are more central characters and their friendship has been significant in the show for seasons now. But...that just brings up more questions. Like why does this show have a significant bro friendship between two teenage boys, but there's no friendship between two women (or between a woman and a man for that matter) that's given as much weight? There's some bonding between Kira and Dax, but it doesn't have the same presence and significance as Jake and Nog or, say, Miles and Julian. (I'm having first name/last name inconsistencies here. Ah well.) Keiko has no on-camera friendships. Kira has no on-camera friendships that have Jake & Nog or Julian & Miles weight. Dax maybe does with her Klingon buddies from Curzon's lifetime. (Benjamin Sisko also doesn't.) Ziyal could have, but doesn't. Molly could have, but doesn't. Miles doesn't seem to have any (on-camera or otherwise acknowledged) parent friends (like...there's one couple mentioned who can babysit Molly at times? That's it? We never even see them?), which is weird because fuck knows parenthood can make it hard to have any friends who aren't parents. Odo's got his weird frenemy thing with Quark. Garak has his standing lunch with Julian (if you read that as platonic, which ... yeah, there's not a lot of arguments for seeing it as platonic beyond "they're both men.") I am, don't get me wrong, extremely for showing male friendships. Very much for it. It's just...I want friendships that aren't between two guys also. And I want them to be shown as significant and meaningful and worth overcoming obstacles for. Friendships between women, friendships between people of the same race or culture (or alien species, since we are talking Star Trek here), friendships between men and women that aren't just a precursor to romance. And...parenting that isn't just...I want to see Keiko have problems with parenting that she overcomes with help from other people. I want to explore the emotional ramifications of Kira being a surrogate mom to Kirayoshi or being a semi adopted mom to Ziyal and then having her die. I want Kira to talk about how her own upbringing in times of famine and war and occupation affects her sense of her ability to potentially be a parent. I want a female character to calmly talk about her decision to not become a mother and have that decision be treated with the utmost respect. I want the sort of struggles that male characters have with parenting on the show, like Worf's difficulty connecting with his son or Benjamin's conflict over watching his son grow up and get less interested in spending time with his dad, be shown for female characters as well. And the joys, like when Benjamin remembers holding Jake as an infant, like when they reunite after Jake gets caught in a war zone. Rather than parenting be this thing that mom characters apparently do on autopilot without any internal conflict or feeling out of their depth or particular moments of joy and amazement. There's so many plot lines and moments and bits and pieces that could be amazing moments that give

mother characters balance and nuance and characterization, but they only ever get shown for fathers. (And this is not just Star Trek either...look at all the kids movies that are about father/son or father/daughter bonding, and somehow the moms...just aren't there. It's so good when there are single father storylines, just...where are all the mom storylines that could be like that?) And why do teenage boys get focus and their own stories (especially with Jake in DS9, but also TNG has Wesley Crusher and Alexander, and TOS had one story centering on a teenage boy) but girls either aren't there at all or don't get to have stories that are about them? Ziyal's stories aren't about her, she doesn't get to form her own friendships and only barely gets to develop an interest of her own before her life is taken away from her. Molly doesn't get stories that are about her. (And yeah, Molly's a lot younger than Jake, but those are still choices: DS9 could have been set when Molly was a teenager, or the show could have introduced a different teenage girl as a significant character, or Jake could have been a girl rather than a boy, or Benjamin could have had two children...)

[feliciamontagues]

Is it just me, or is there something kinda off about s9? There have been some really great episodes (ep1, ep3, ep5), but I get the feeling there's been some behind-the-scenes drama that’s caused everything to feel way more haphazard. Like, why has the cast been changing so much between episodes? Even Mrs McCarthy has been absent. Is it a Covid issue? Scheduling problems? It's as though everything (editing, cinematography, casting, even the writing on some episodes) has been done in a hurry.

This is an interesting comment because I see where you coming from and I *kind* of agree a little but at the same time I don't.

There've been a few episodes that I haven't been crazy about, but I'm actually for the most part preferring S9 to S8 (and to a S4 and S6 which are the 2 weakest imo).

(Specifically I feel like the jury's still out for me on 9x05, since there were things I adored, things that were meh, and a few things that I'm going to have to wait until 9x10 to decide about. )

As to why things seem different and/or why so much of the cast seems to change around there a couple different issues/explanations as to why things are a little odd this time around.

Series 9 was supposed to film in 2020 but then COVID happened. And notably lockdown was at its peak right around the time, they were probably going to start pre-production (casting, approving script drafts, coordinating people's schedules and filming locations). It's very likely that at least a few planned episodes were scrapped and/or significantly rewritten for any number of reasons connected to COVID, including but not limited to 1) not being able to film in certain locations at certain times due to COVID and/or other restrictions. 2) having to significantly rework planned material to better comply with safety guidelines (ex: smaller casts, fewer extras, smaller crew, maintaining physical distancing when possible).

The cast has always been very talented and very popular, so it's unsurprising that scheduling them has been difficult. John Light and Nancy in particular do a LOT of live theatre, which is always especially tricky to schedule around. Additionally, a bunch of the cast signed on to some unexpected new projects during the 2020 hiatus. I know Emer did a lot of writing and has 2 other shows that she's working on--one of which she helped create and has a good chunk of creative control with. I believe Nancy Carroll also filmed a new show as well and so that's another challenge in her schedule.

As to why this series has had less Mrs. M in particular, Sorcha Cusack is in her seventies. Like, She's amazing and an international treasure but like...she is getting up there. I've always gotten the impression that the cast and crew who make Fr. Brown genuinely care about each other, and so I can see them reducing Mrs. M's role this season (maybe at her request so she can take a well deserved break or if COVID cases are spiking and they want to keep her safe since she is more vulnerable than the others.

Nine seasons is a reasonably long run by any standards--and even more so for a UK show. (According to the wiki, it's the 2nd longest daytime show not counting soap operas...which is crazy to think about). I would not be surprised if Series 10 (assuming we get it) is the last as I am sure that Mark Williams (and to a lesser extent Sorcha Cusack) will eventually want to be able to work on other projects...and well, you can't have Fr. Brown without Father Brown.

I feel like this season in particular is kind of laying the groundwork for the end (which is sad ofc but in a tender bittersweet way) and so it makes more sense for them to try to revisit as many characters and stories as possible (Kalon callback of all things?) and plant seeds for future journeys for certain characters (Felicia/Flambeau and/or Flamdemption; more characterization/hints of promotion for Goodfellow... which is overdue imo) and well... just a general sense of life moving on in general (like we are *finally* going to see 1954 apparently...things are changing) and unfortunately, that can also mean characters moving on and being less present.

And ironically, that's kind of what I've really loved about S9. I mean in a perfect world, every episode would have Fr. B, Mrs. M, Lady F, Sid, Bunty, Mallory, Valentine, Sullivan, Goodfellow, and Flambeau--and all of them would have a ton of really great lines and moments...but that's unfortunately just not the realistic.

So the best compromise imo is to try and split them up and make the most of the characters who are in each given episode. I feel like Mrs. M had a really good showcase this year in 9x02, Sid's writing has been great for the episodes that he appears in, Mallory and Goodfellow have much more to *do* besides just try (and fail) to solve the case.

Honestly, I'd rather have the characters we have be used really effectively when they are used...than just have them be there and not do much. And for the most part, I think that they have, and if S10 (or even S9) does end up being the last season, I think we're still ending in a pretty good place. Others can and have done much worse with their final seasons.

[busterscorp]

Why I Am So Conflicted On ReVice? (Episode 32 Checkpoint)

So Kamen Rider ReVice has been airing and i’ve been watching it week to week for my Tokusatsu Podcast TWIT. For the most part i’ve been enjoying it a lot but there’s little things here and there that add up for me to put the show down for me a few pegs so I want to blab about a few problems I have with ReVice along with the things I’m really into. 

Pro Number 1: ReVice is a Compelling Duo

Something about the last two Kamen Rider series (Zero One and Saber) that I noticed was that my favorite characters didn’t end up being the protagonist. Sure I still think Aruto and Touma are good characters but they weren’t the star of there self tilted show which bugged me in a nitpicky way. However ReVice decides to give the titular of Kamen Rider Revi (Ikki) and Vice a lot of great development and banter with one another. 

Vice took sometime to vibe with (especially given that his VA is a racist jerk) but he quickly became a really fun dude who could bring actual pathos to scenes. Ikki is a charming guy who can bring the heroic speeches a Kamen Rider is known for but still has his own doubts and turmoil to overcome which physically manifests in Vice being apart of him. 

Con Number 1: Secondary Blues

Secondary Riders have often been fan favorite characters for modern Kamen Rider shows with Vulcan and Blades from Zero One and Saber respectively often being seen as the best parts of their shows and sadly the same can’t be said for ReVice. Daji has a great start as his Demon Kagero/Kamen Rider Evil is a joy to watch but after Daji becomes Live things go downhill for his character.

 There’s some great little moments like with Kagero coming back a few times (the scene where he defends his sister with his belt and talks about curry is the peak of his character and I mean this unironically) but Holy Live arc felt so hollow. Some say it’s because it only had one episode but I disagree. I think the main problem is that there wasn’t really a strong message to go with Live vs Evil into Holy Live like with ReVice’s Magma or Thunder Gale forms. It just felt like “We have to fight for the sake of fighting” with no important lesson to be learned. 

Not to mention unlike the other characters, Daji just seems the most plain in terms of personality outside of his Kagero persona which would normally be fine but the lack of focus he gets in the show doesn’t help me endear to him.

Pro Number 2: Kamen Rider Solved Sexism

Sakura/Kamen Rider Jeanne is probably the best part of the show and the most innovative aspect of it to the Kamen Rider franchise. The head writer for the series, Hanta Kinoshita, kept pushing to include a female Rider for this show even wanting a women to play the titular role for this series and he made sure to give Sakura not just a legitimately good arc for a female Kamen Rider (where the bar is set incredibly low mind you) but a good arc for a character in general. 

While her first attempt at a transformation failed, it’s only to confront her weakness which manifests in the marketability cute demon Lovekov once she does transform. I like to think of that plot point as a mini commentary on how Toei executives think female Riders are useless but Sakura overcoming the perceptions to prove em wrong. Even after her debut she’s still active in the plot via her rivalry with Aguilera, and learning about the creator of her Belt, The Weekend so she’s always being challenged. Probably the only complaint I have of her is that her belt is locked behind Premium Bandai instead of a proper retail release...speaking of.

Con(ish) Number 2: The Show Hates Hiromi

I call this a Con(ish) because Hiromi starts off great. Despite not getting a focus episode till his trilogy of episodes, he gets all these neat bits of characterization and progress in the background about his beliefs and fears which lead up to his trilogy which are good episodes...up until the ending where his “death��� is the most comically anti climax thing I've seen in awhile. 

Yeah he’s not dead but the way we learn about why he’s not dead is just out of nowhere. We don’t even see his face in the episode where he is confirmed alive and kickin. This is probably to get us poor fools to watch the specials something ReVice has had a problem with between this and the Vail special. I mean ReVice has had MOSTLY good side content (the HBV was awful minus the Build form fight) so I guess it’s fine but I wish it was in the main show to begin with. Hoping Hiromi can get back on his feet in time for the final arc.

Wrap Up

That’s some of the ReVice thoughts I have at the moment. I could get into more but maybe for a later date when the show finishes. I just did this to articulate my conflicted thoughts on ReVice. The show is good and I would recommend it but in my five years as a Kamen Rider fan, you can get fatigued, cynical, and start to notice patterns that may annoy you which is why it’s important to take breaks and experience other media in the meantime. Anyway i don’t know how to end this blog so...subscribe to my YouTube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCF3w6-RAiok95mbro-VXB-g

[fruitless-nonsense]

Well… turns out I have a lot of opinions on characters I don’t even think strongly of. Who knew?

No joke, this is probably not as thorough as I like, but this idea came to me and I have so much to say that I don’t know how to structure it. Okay? Let’s talk about Damon Salvatore!

If you read any of my previous posts, you’ve probably gotten a decent idea of how I feel about him from my quick snippy remarks. I genuinely believe he is the worst character in the show. Yes, other characters can be more boring than him. Yes, there are people that can be more infuriating than him. It’s not simply who his character was, it’s how the writers wouldn’t stop messing with him that convinced me he was utter trash. Sit back, cause this could take awhile.

Let’s start with season one and the two brothers. Theory time! I’m strongly of the opinion the writers wanted a love triangle between Elena, Stefan, and Damon from the very beginning. Not that crazy to believe considering this show was born off the heels of Twilight’s grossing fame, not to take credit away from all the other shows at the time which featured a love triangle or two. From fanfics to original stories written by tweens I read when I was thirteen, love triangles were huge back then (in a way they still are fairly popular, but not like back in the day. Now I feel old). So they wanted a love triangle? Sounds cliche enough to be in the vampire diaries, what’s wrong? Well, there’s a bit of an issue with the candidates, or more specifically candidate. You see, Edward was a creep and Jacob was an incel, but you can say they weren’t monsters (well by my standards they were, but by YA standards they were pretty normal). I mean, the movie made a point to say the Cullens didn’t feed from humans, and they’re only seen killing in self defense, meanwhile Jacob is treated like a good person throughout despite everything. My point is, at least at the beginning, the story didn’t want to paint either candidate as irredeemable. Back to tvd season one, Damon tortures Caroline, kills Zack, two random humans, and that one football coach/history teacher, mentally and physically tortured Vicky Donavon before turning her against her will and made it impossible for Stefan to remedy the situation until he ultimately had to kill her to save Elena, and this is all from the first seven episodes.

Now, I used to think at least Damon was a fun villain, but was he really? I mean, yeah he could be funny, got a few chuckles outta me, but besides humor and violence what was his character? For example, in season one we are introduced to Stefan, a supposed “good vampire” who has taken a liking to Elena due to similarities between her and his ex before admiring how much better of a person she is and wanting a true connection with her. We later learn that his experience with his ex Katherine was extremely one-sided as he was compelled to love her to satiate her needs. Even later (still season one), we learn that his only drinking animal blood is because he is a ripper or “blood addict” as I call it cause even one taste of human blood and he’ll go on a rampage. So by seasons end we have a character who was a victim of serious abuse (which is never truly addressed in the show btw) and carries a rare vampire trait that makes not being a murderous psychopath incredibly difficult, yet he still tries to beat the odds and not hurt people. This is a lot to learn about a character in its first season, and it helps us gravitate towards wanting him to succeed. Stefan is what you would call a good character (at least for now). So that was all we got on the first candidate, what about option number two? Well, he’s funny and he likes to kill people, that’s about it. That ripper gene that Stefan’s fighting, Damon’s not someone who gave in to the gene to explain why he’s so murder happy, he doesn’t even have it! There’s nothing making him be a bad person, he just is one! Why? Your guess is as good as mine. The most we get is learning he had real feelings for Katherine and was never compelled to love her as an explanation for why he hates Stefan so much. Wow, two brothers at war over a girl one of them doesn’t even like. You can’t even say it was because Stefan turned him, because Damon says it blank that it’s cause of Katherine in 1x20, so don’t. So Damon kills for no reason, hates Stefan for a stupid reason, and has no personality traits outside of humor, murder, Katherine, and hates Stefan. With all of this on the table, my question is this, how do the writers expect me to pick Damon over Stefan in this love triangle with everything we got in season one? And the writers realized this.

Season two starts this long “arc” asking if Damon can be redeemed, or that’s what the writers wanted. Second theory: the writers realized they couldn’t justify Elena picking Damon over Stefan without ruining her character (lol), so they decided the best way to keep this love triangle idea afloat was to redeem Damon. The theory comes in when they realized they couldn’t completely redeem him because they had written themselves into a corner and being a murdering psycho with quirky one liners was his entire character, therefore redeeming him would take away what made Damon himself and so likable among fans (not me). I’m gonna pull the rug from under ya, remember when I said klaroline was not actually a love story, but was positioned and is still believed to have been one despite this fact? Same applies here. Did Damon ever go through a redemption arc, or did the writers want you to think that he did so they could have their cake and eat it too? Is there any actual story progression that show growth in Damon as a character? Nope. He’s sadder, wouldn’t say that’s him being a better person. In the early seasons, his characterization feels more like a seesaw than an arc. Sometimes he’s chill and helping with a plan, and the next episode he’s biting a chunk out of more innocent bystanders while abusing more women (*cough* *cough* justice for Andie). The longest I can say he was a genuinely decent person was in season six when he was trapped in the prison world with Bonnie (cause she’s the only character that would put up with his bs). Everywhere else, an inconsistent character, and I feel like that was intentional. They wanted to keep Damon how fans liked him while making him seem like a better person. An example is the introduction of Enzo, which I think was a ploy by the writers to make it seem like season five Damon was interacting with a season one Damon to show how far he’s come, but that doesn’t stick at all (mostly because Enzo’s crimes in the show compared to season one Damon’s feel less psychotic and malicious). All in all, to me Damon on his own was a truly boring character and even more boring villain. No motivation and no personality outside his infatuations. Which leads me into the worst plot line of my entire cw experience: Delena.

If you haven’t noticed, I hate this ship with a fiery passion. The only reason I think it’s slightly better than klaroline was at least the writers tried to write a story with them (keyword tried). I said they would have to ruin Elena’s character to have her choose him over Stefan, and I was right! Not only does she cheat with him (2x22 and other scenes from season three), it’s never explained why she likes him in the first place (actually in season six they say it’s cause he gave her Stefan’s gift necklace despite being in love with her, which is so stupid it made me laugh). Furthermore, why does Damon develop feeling for Elena? Supposedly it happens while he’s still obsessing over Katherine, so is that it? The turning point which pushes them together is revealed to all be fabricated by a sirebond. For real, the only reason Elena fell out of love with Stefan is because a bond out of her control made it impossible for Stefan to help her through vampirism and thus she had to lean on Damon for support. I know the show states the bond didn’t create her feelings merely heighten them, but it did isolate her from everyone else she loved and made it so she had no choice but to rely on Damon, and that’s not exactly better than the former. Let me say it louder for the kids that were corrupted. Codependency. Is. Not. Healthy. It’s toxic, and the trope in romance needs to die a horrible death. And the show knows it’s toxic, they bring it up all the time in season five and six thinking that will excuse them to keep going with it. Sorry hun, self awareness does not give you a pass. The worst part is the pacing. I mentioned the sirebond storyline in season four which takes up a huge amount of the season with them debating if her feelings were real before abruptly deciding Elena doesn’t care. Great conclusion, but it gets worse. Season five is pretty thin as far as a story, so what fills the run time is a storyline straight out of fifty shades. Fighting, sex, fighting, sex, breaking up because they aren’t healthy, sex, fighting followed by getting back together followed by more fighting and more sex. I can’t tell you what was gained after everything that transpired in the season. Lastly is season six which took time away from the first interesting villain since season three to give us an amnesia storyline! I’d tell you more, but if you’ve ever seen a movie you could probably explain it exactly. All that time that could’ve been spent in better ways, was given to something I stopped caring about by season fours end.

Honestly, the fact that the show treats this like the greatest love story of all time makes me less angry and more concerned, because the audience who watched this show weren’t adults who understand what love really is, the people who watched this was made up of mostly tweens and teens. I can’t get too mad, this trope is everywhere, girl helps abusive guy be better person while sapping away all her energy in the process was done before and is still being done today. All I ask is that the young adults who remember this show fondly understand how wrong this is. How people like Damon should not be pitied and relationships like Delena should not be celebrated. Ship whatever you want, but please tell me you’re okay. Are you okay? In conclusion, Damon is trash and Delena wasted my time along with being extremely toxic and abusive. Goodnight everybody!

[lucemferto]

Niki Nihachu & Barbara Kean

Gonna drop something controversial real quick.

Niki Nihachu is the most tragic character on the Dream SMP – and I don’t mean in the sense of her having a tragic story (though she is up there), but in the sense that she is tragically mishandled.

I want to start out by saying that this essay is by no means an attack on the content creator Niki Nihachu or her abilities as a performer. She is frequently one of the strongest actors on the SMP and I have no idea how much of her character writing was within her power. How much of it was improv, how much pre-planned, how much something she genuinely wanted to do and how much stuff she just stumbled into or – in the worst-case scenario – was forced upon her. I don’t know.

The Dream SMP is not very transparent when it comes to their creative process. As such I can only judge it as a discerning viewer and English major dropout, who retained some half-remembered stuff about narratology.

So, a few weeks ago, I tumbled on here that Niki’s character journey reminded me a lot of the character Barbara Kean from the hit TV-show Gotham. Then I got an ask asking me to elaborate. This is the elaboration.

Barbara Kean

So, a quick crash course for people who haven’t seen Gotham (the greatest comic book show on Television, seriously, what are you doing with your life?!): Barbara Kean was a major female character throughout all five seasons of Gotham – and not once during those five seasons did the writers ever figure out what they wanted to do with her.

Every 10-12 episodes or so, Barbara’s role shifted completely. She started out as cop-protagonist Jim Gordon’s girlfriend at home and moral compass, then became part of a bisexual love triangle, then a hard-drinking jealous party girl with a backstory as repressed, lonely rich kid, before being kidnapped by a serial killer and ultimately making her perfect metamorphosis into the psychotic ex-girlfriend trope.

And that was Season 1.

Since then, she became the pseudo-Harley Quinn to the pseudo-Joker, a whip-wielding dominatrix, the obligatory female member in a supervillain squad, some sort of information broker, a mafia kingpin, the leader of a girl-power posse and – my favourite – the reincarnated wife of an ancient immortal who also controls all of Gotham and transferred that control over to her before that plot-point was dropped harder than a half-dead Oswald Cobblepot of the Gotham piers.

Also, she’s Batgirl’s mom.

In short, it’s a mess – but that’s what makes Gotham kinda fun.

Character Cohesion

Now, obviously, Niki’s character journey has not been quite as extreme. But it falls into the same traps, I find. Namely, that there’s just a distinct lack of character cohesion or character continuity.

Now, character cohesion or character continuity doesn’t mean that the arcs these characters undertake can’t be explained in a logical way. Barbara’s character journey is logical in the sense that you can explain it all with in-universe logic – but it’s not logical from a narratological sense now, is it?

Character Cohesion basically means that a character’s journey is reflected in their personal conflict – their Want vs. Need. Their arc is the natural continuation of what was set-up in previous sequences. Everything falls into a whole with Set-up, Confrontation, Resolution – we set up the character’s Want, their Want and Need are conflicting, the Want vs. Need is resolved. Ideally this coincides with the plot beats of the large conflict surrounding the cast.

When you look at Barbara in Season 1 of Gotham, you’re not thinking “This one right here – she’s the reincarnated wife of Ra’s Al Ghul”. Because why would you? There was no set-up; it’s not part of what her character was about in this moment – or any moment before that concept was introduced. It’s not needed for her character conflict (or any thematic conflicts for that matter).

It’s quite transparently just something that is affixed to her so that she has something until the writers come up with the next at which that first thing will dropped, underdeveloped.

Niki in Season 1

Niki follows the same route, unfortunately. She’s set-up as the resistance in L’Manburg, allies herself with Eret and HBomb until – oops – it doesn’t end mattering, because that entire side of the “plot” is completely underdeveloped. Just be a damsel until Wilbur can swoop in and save you, Niki.

Okay, but now she has a big moment with Tommy and Tubbo just after the pit-scene. “We’ll figure something out”, she says. “We need L’Manburg back”. This is all before the backdrop of Wilbur completely giving in to his role as a villain and Techno’s apparent “betrayal”.

So, now, surely, Niki is gonna affect change in Pogtopia and will have some influence on either Tommy or Wilbur, the two people she’s closest to. What’s this? Her biggest contribution is holding a birthday party where Quackity convinces Wilbur to hold off on his TNT-plan? And after that … she’s just gonna be part of the Pogtopia-masses?

Now, I like Wilbur’s writing and Season 1 generally, but when it comes to Niki (and Eret) something went terribly wrong. Both of them provided many a set-up – none of which were taken advantage of, unfortunately.

And, just to be clear, I’m not putting the blame on Niki here (or at least not most of it). Season 1 was pretty firmly in Wilbur’s hand … and Season 2 was a train wreck.

Niki in Season 2

Niki is – for the most part of Season 2 – a nothing character. She has no real conflict, no character beats, no arc. This is because through some unfortunate writing decisions, Season 2 is pretty squarely focused on a specific set of characters – and even fewer of those characters are granted a fully explored, completed character arc.

It all culminates in her Doomsday villain arc – a moment that can be logically explained from both an in-character perspective and a meta-perspective, but unfortunately, it’s not justified from a technical writing point of view.

Niki burning down the L’Mantree is her “Ra’s Al Ghul’s reincarnated wife”-moment. It’s a big statement that put her character on the map for a large part of the audience again. It was a striking visual. It could not be ignored.

Most of that was because it was a stark departure from her characterization in Season 1. Now, such a departure doesn’t necessarily have to be bad. The problem comes in when

a.) The full potential of the character in their previous narrative role had not yet been fully or even partly exhausted

b.) It cuts into an on-going character arc and drastically changes its course

c.) It’s not foreshadowed or developed properly.

And most of those are true for Niki’s character. She was not necessarily underdeveloped but underexplored in Season 1 and had no consistent storyline going on in Season 2. She was a witness to Tommy’s trial, but that was never worked into an on-going storyline for her. No matter how much we retroactively pretend like this turn to villainy, this breakdown, was brewing deep inside of her – there was no foreshadowing.

The reason, why I said it’s understandable from a meta-perspective, is that the content creator Niki Nihachu had a self-admittedly hard time getting her foot in in Season 2 – because Season 2, for as much love as I will heap upon Tommy’s and Dream’s storyline, was a pretty messy.

So, the villain arc was not well foreshadowed and Niki’s turn was developed, but what happened after she was in it?

Niki in Season 3

Well, unfortunately that problem of an inconsistent storyline never really went away for her. In the beginning of Season 3, she hatched her wagons with Jack Manifold, which was a pretty big tonal shift – from darkly tragic to cartoonish villainy.

But as Jack kept developing his character in that lane and following up on big plot development with corresponding character moments, Niki again just … vanished. She then changed gears again, joining the Syndicate – a great idea if only the Syndicate actually streamed together and developed a storyline and group cohesion.

As it stands right now, Niki’s character exists in the negative space of the fandom imaginations. We are given some scraps and good character moments – her sleeping in a jail cell, “I started baking again”, her secret city – but those moments never coalesce into a full-fledged storyline.

Her character’s journey is still as fragmented and underexplored as it ever was. I really hope that – with Wilbur’s revival and the new character conflict that seems to arise from that for her – she manages to finally get the foot in and get the storyline and dynamic arc she deserves.

[wrenhyperfixates]

Loki Series Thoughts—Glorious Purpose

Ok, I’m always nervous about posting my thoughts, but here we go. Spoilers ahead of course!!! (Disclaimer: Any gifs or images are not mine.)

Let’s start out with the episode’s name: Glorious Purpose. I know some people were a bit miffed about the emphasis put on the line, but I actually thought it worked well. It’s not so much that Loki actually believes in this “purpose,” but rather he is clinging to what he’s been told his purpose is. And by the end of the episode, he’s finally working through some of the things he’s been hurt by, abandoning what he’s been forced into and ready to be who he wants. Granted, it’s still going to take some time for him to come to grips with all that has happened, but I’m excited to see the journey.

The TVA. They undeniably suck. Whether or not it will be addressed directly, they are the (or one of the) antagonists in the show. What they are doing is, frankly, tyrannical. Three “time keepers” have taken it upon themselves to force countless versions of time and people into one single stream. And you know what? They can’t control that timeline. Not like they want to. As much as Loki’s line about “the weak” applies to himself, it applies to the TVA, too. It’s a facade of control that they cling to; if they truly had the right, the ability, to control time, everyone would follow their path. There would be no variants. Now, I could write a whole separate analysis on the MCU’s explanation of time travel. It’s convoluted and in a large way doesn’t make sense.

I’d like to talk about Loki’s characterization. I am, in a word, relieved. From the trailers, Tom seemed to be over-acting, something rather strange for someone so good at conveying deep emotions through nuanced actions. Now I believe any exaggerated lines from the trailers are just Loki trying to separate himself from who he’s been told he is, and trying to reinvent himself. I don’t think that’s a bad thing either; they’re not rewriting Loki, he’s just growing in a new way. And though this way is “new” I think it will be similar to what we’ve seen before. From what we’ve seen so far, there is good continuity, and they are addressing things about Loki that should be addressed in canon.

Loki projects. Most notably in the Avengers, but also a bit in Thor 1 and The Dark World, a lot of Loki’s lines can be applied to himself, though he is talking generally or towards another group. What comes to mind is actually something he touches upon again in the series. The illusion of freedom. And though it is not said that line in particular is him thinking of himself, it can be inferred based on his admission that the line in the gifs above apply to him. Also that little gesture when he says “weak” breaks me. He’s hurting so much.

Loki is not a villain. He may think he’s one because everyone else is telling him that, yet we’re already seeing it brought up that it’s not true. I can only hope that we’ll see Loki state this himself later in the series. He was largely forced to do what he did. It is not his fault, so how can he be a villain?

Loki cares. Tom’s acting is just *chef’s kiss* Seeing his mother’s death hurts so much. I love that his first response is denial. Loki is thrown into something he’s never known about before, being shown things that, to his knowledge, have never happened. But then when he’s had a few seconds to wander around the TVA on his own terms, he’s more come to grips with all that’s going on. So, when he’s by himself and see’s Frigga lying there, dead, it gets to him. Then seeing Odin still call him his son, he feels the slightest glimmer of hope, but also regret; he already knows in the back of his mind that he’s not actually going to get that. Loki’s living from second to second, trying to hold on. He probably thinks this ends with his death. (I do have issues with that Odin scene in context of Ragnarok but that’s more a tangential aside, so I’ll gloss over it for now.) Then seeing Thor and himself acting like brothers again is heartwarming. So just when he’s feeling uplifted, Thanos comes into the picture. He realizes how much control the titan still had over his life; he never really escaped. And in the end, Thanos made good on his promise. And that is terrifying! And he laughs at it. It’s a sad sort of laugh, one that’s slightly crazed. Loki feels that no matter what he does, it ends in pain. By the end of seeing all that, he is a man broken. Rather, more broken than he already was.

Loki is struggling. That’s nothing profound; it’s obvious. But where it really stands out to me is actually in a part I originally thought to be out of character. I am referring to “What if I was a robot and I didn’t know it.” Upon closer inspection, I realize it’s actually that his perception of himself has been so thrown that he really isn’t sure about his own chemical makeup anymore. Odin and Frigga keeping from him that he’s a frost giant made him so unsure of himself, he thought he might not even be a living being.

Nervous tics. Was I the only one noticing his leg bouncing when he talked to Mobius? And what about that scene when he’s sitting on the steps? He begins to pick at his hands. Note, that’s something he did in T1 after finding out he was a frost giant and while confessing to the Warriors Four about how he was the one who told the guard of their trip to Jotunheim. Just a little detail I really appreciated. (If anyone has gifs of any of these things, feel free to share :)

Mobius. I’ll be honest, I’m a bit undecided. I’m hesitant to say he’s evil. After all, we haven’t seen that much of him yet. However, I will say he is unscrupulous and manipulative. His questions weren’t to help Loki work through his trauma. Mobius was trying to goad him into helping, and likely was trying to gauge how much this Loki is like the variant he’s tracking. When Loki makes any admission of his feelings, it’s something he already knew, not a conclusion Mobius helped him reach. Mobius mocks him a bit and pushes his buttons because he sees Loki as a means to an end, and wants to know how easily he can get him to work with him. And what strikes me is how similar Mobius’s deal is to Thor’s deal in TDW. Thor doesn’t offer Loki freedom, he offers revenge. Mobius’s deal is just another variation of this. He can’t offer “salvation” but he can offer something “better”. Working for the TVA really isn’t better, though. So what does he mean? Well, I think he means a chance for Loki to prove he’s a hero. I hope as the show progresses it’s addressed that Loki doesn’t have to prove himself to anyone. That’s what he’s been doing his whole life, but I want Loki to see for himself that he doesn’t have to.

Miss Minutes. Propaganda. Plain and simple, it’s propaganda. Besides the way it praises the “time keepers” as amazing saviors, necessary to keep the world in order, it’s essentially saying “don’t think for yourself.” The whole point of the video is “the time keepers are great. The TVA is flawless. Trust us to decide everything. You have no autonomy in the world we want, so surrender your free will. Submit to the system we’ve decided is perfect and everything will be just fine.” Of course, by “just fine” they mean the variant will be pruned and the timeline will keep going as the time keepers see fit. The animation style was great though! It really fit.

The infinity stones. I think their inclusion makes sense. If you remember from Endgame, the stones being in the right place in the right time keeps the timeline from branching, and thus prevents the multiverse from being created. Likely, the time keepers used the stones to make their “sacred timeline.” Naturally, any variant time stones would cause a problem. That’s why they have so many extras. But think about how pointless so much of what happened seems. Nat, Gamora, Vision, Tony, everyone who was snapped, everyone who was left. So, literally the entire universe was flipped upside down for paperweights. It really puts Thanos’s pursuit of the stones into perspective, doesn’t it?

The cloaked figure. I think there’s some misdirection going on here in one way or another. Mobius says he’s chasing a Loki variant, then immediately it cuts to a scene with the cloaked figure. Our minds are likely to assume that is the variant then. But they don’t actually say it’s Loki, so I’m inclined to believe it’s not. Though, I don’t have enough information to say who I do think it is, I could make a couple of educated guesses and say Mephisto (he certainly interacted with Loki in the comics, plus there’s the stained glass window) or Sylvie. Well, whoever Sophia Di Martino’s character is. I know she was previously listed as Sylvie on sources such as IMDb, but that has since disappeared. But why would you have a “young Sylvie” (Cailey Fleming) without an older version? There is speculation Di Martino’s character will be Lady Loki, but I hope this won’t happen. If they make Lady Loki her own character, I doubt we’ll see Variant Loki get to be fluid. Even if it’s confirmed on the record, it’d be nice to see actually happen beyond a piece of paper. And with twist villains being such a prominent force in modern media, I’m interested to see who our cloaked friend really is.

Time travel. Like I said earlier, this is a lot. But I can’t talk about the episode and not mention this aspect in at least a little more depth. I don’t like how the MCU deals with time travel. I think it’s an unnecessarily complicated mix of a number of different, already complicated theories. However, I think Loki will ultimately escape from the TVA and create a multiverse too difficult to prune (and maybe he’ll actually get to burn the place down too!) This will then tie directly into Doctor Strange 2. Do you guys know what that’s called? The Multiverse of Madness. Actually, in the Miss Minutes propaganda, they almost exactly say “will throw the multiverse into madness.” Will we get to (finally!) see a certain raven-haired god meeting Dr. Strange? And maybe even the Scarlet Witch herself? Well, I’m not sure, but right now I think it’s looking pretty good!

And some random things that didn’t really anywhere else:

Peggy is in the background?! My thought here is that Steve wasn’t supposed to stay with her. This made not only a Variant Steve, but also a Variant Peggy. We may not see Steve, but I bet he’s been taken care of too!! And who knows? Maybe there will be a cameo later. Otherwise, it might be something that was cut from the show, or just a fun easter egg of sorts.

The score was so good! It sets the mood perfectly.

Loki is a good fighter. Even if he’s overpowered, he finds a way.

Some of the humor didn’t land, but that might just be a personal thing.

So now my final thoughts. It’s their strongest pilot yet. So much emotion crammed into less than an hour. A lot of exposition, too, yet it didn’t feel tedious (Endgame I’m looking at you). And then we get to delve into Loki’s psyche, something that really appeals to me! Overall, 9/10. I hope the rest of the series is as good!

Did I miss anything? Was there something you were hoping I’d mention and didn’t? Or do you have something to add or (politely!) disagree with? I’d love to hear it all! Remember, fandom is a safe space to talk about, analyze, and debate about things you enjoy. My ask box is always open with anon on. Reblogs and comments are great too. Thanks!

Me after watching the episode: