#this episode is so painfully filler that it just hurt to watch

[jordoalejandro]

The Seventh Annual List of TV Shows I Saw the Past Year

I have once again found myself caught off-guard by this list and the Emmys.

I feel like this year it wasn’t really my fault. It was the strikes. The Emmys were postponed and I hadn’t heard or seen any advertising or talk about them so they were out of mind. And then I remembered, as September neared an end, that this was about the time of the year that they usually happened and also about the time of the year I usually post my list. God knows when the Emmys will actually occur, but as I’ve said before on this page, the List waits for no man, woman, or award show. It must go on.

And so, here’s the list of TV shows I’ve watched since-ish the last Emmys (9/12/22).

42. La Brea (Season 2 - 2022-2023, NBC) (Last year’s ranking: 37) - Look, I’ll be honest, it’s hard to really care about this either way. I was looking at my notes and realized I gave every episode of La Brea this season the same mediocre letter grade. I didn’t set out to do that. I think I just felt the same kind of “blah who cares?” way about the show each time. There are shows that had episodes I rated more harshly (coming up shortly!) but those shows also had episodes here or there that I rated highly. This show just doesn’t make me feel strongly one way or another. Is that worse than a show that I hate most of the time and sometimes love? I guess? Maybe not. But I also can’t muster the will to argue this should be higher than those shows, so here it sits.

41. True Lies (Season 1 - 2023, CBS) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - This show comes nowhere close to the quality of the film. It’s cheesy and ham-fisted. The actors feel wrong. It reminded me of some of the early seasons of another CBS show, MacGyver, which also was a real mess in its first few seasons before it realized that it needed to lean into the nonsense a bit more. MacGyver never got good, but it got to a more enjoyable place. Maybe True Lies could’ve gotten there someday if it could’ve continued to figure out what worked and what didn’t but it was cancelled fairly quickly so we’ll never know.

40. The Flash (Season 9 - 2023, CW) (Last year’s ranking: 35) - Disappointed but not surprised that this is where The Flash’s final season ended up. One good episode in the season, but more misses than hits, including a couple episodes I truly disliked. I’m not going to dive too deep into it but something that has happened the last few seasons is they’ve had these episodes where Flash will take a vacation or find some other reason to not be in the episode to, I guess, give Grant Gustin a mid-season shooting break? These episodes are typically the worst of the season because one, they feature the terrible side characters, and two, they usually try to be the “funny” episodes (especially grating because the writers on this show are awful at writing humor). That held true here: these episodes were painfully unfunny and annoying. It came off worse, though, because this was the final season. And it was only a 13 episode season at that. I respect these shows are a pain to shoot. You have to live in Canada away from everyone for an extended period of time. I accept giving the star a break here and there. But in the final season? 13 episodes? Why are we wasting our time here with bad filler episodes? Not that the regular episodes were that much better. The season as a whole remained plagued by the issues that have hurt this show the whole back half of its run: weak villains, annoying side characters, a dearth of ideas. Sometimes these CW shows are able to rally and go out on a semi-high. The Flash couldn’t.

39. Riverdale (Season 7 - 2023, CW) (Last year’s ranking: 40) - The final season of Riverdale had all the characters sent back in time to the 1950s. There was a reason for this but it’s not great and it doesn’t really matter. The point is, we’re back in the past for the final season. There’s a lot of potential to get wacky there. Wacky in a good way. When this show was at its best… well, it still wasn’t very good, but it was at least doing wild stuff and trying things. Unfortunately, even time travel couldn’t spark life back into it. They went back to the past and then did mostly generic teen drama stuff. Occasionally there were glimpses of something more but mostly it was a lot of stuff about how sexuality was so repressed back then and society was changing and whatever. Kind of a waste. Mostly straightforward and fairly dull and that’s no way to be for the final season of a show like Riverdale. The last couple of episodes were a nice finale though, so it at least had that.

38. Welcome to Flatch (Season 2 - 2022-2023, FOX) (Last year’s ranking: 36) - This show improved ever so slightly. More moments of quality. It still struggles to be funny with any regularity.

37. Abbott Elementary (Season 2 - 2022-2023, ABC) (Last year’s ranking: 30) - Speaking of shows that struggle to be funny with any regularity. Like Flatch, it has its moments. I have four episodes this season rated as solid episodes. The problem is it was a 21 episode season. That’s a lot of misses.

36. CSI: Vegas (Season 2 - 2022-2023, CBS) (Last year’s ranking: 19) - The show did lose something with William Petersen ducking out. He brought a humanity and likeability to things that elevated the show from its Case-of-the-Week crime show DNA and, just like when he left the original version of this show, it more or less devolved into that basic genre fare without him. Which is all fine. It’s not bad if that’s what you want. Just not very inspiring.

35. Quantum Leap (Season 1 - 2022-2023, NBC) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - It’s alright. Like the original, it’s a quasi-anthology show and so some episodes have better premises than others. Some decent ones, some weaker ones. Nothing that really blew me away. The best thing about this show is it makes me think about how shows have changed over the last 30 years since the original version aired. It has all the new stuff that shows need to have these days, like an overarching serialized mystery and secretive backstories and all that -- stuff that takes about three to five seasons to resolve -- but also the goofy “Oops our hero got sent to a different time and now must go through another adventure!” week-to-week structure of a show that debuted in the 1980s and was built to last 200 episodes. The kind of thing where you can almost hear an announcer saying during the end credits, “Well, looks like our hero didn’t make it home this episode. Tune in next week when Ben ends up in the Old West! Same time, same channel.”

34. The Walking Dead (Season 11B - 2022, AMC) (Last year’s ranking: 23) - This was a fine half a season. Serviceable. Which is, admittedly, a little bit of a letdown for a final season. They never really justified why this was the end of the show. The group had faced bigger and more personal threats than the one here so for this to be the big finale made it feel like an ending just to be an ending. All the characters were even acting like, “Well, this is it. The end. We finally won the apocalypse” as if they hadn’t faced similar groups threatening their survival half a dozen times already. They beat those groups only to have a new group pop up almost immediately. Why is this time different? I guess there’s no real way to end a show about surviving the apocalypse other than to suggest the characters have figured out a system to make it work. Or you could kill them all, I suppose. But what downer that would be. And then you can't make spinoffs.

33. The Blacklist (Season 10 - 2023, NBC) (Last year’s ranking: 32) - Another show with a final season that was just fine. It wrapped things up. Did a few good things on the way out but was mostly average. Like the rest of the aforementioned shows on this list going through their final seasons, it felt about time to end things. A general sense of running on momentum and fumes.

32. Bob’s Burgers (Season 13 - 2022-2023, FOX) (Last year’s ranking: 31) - I’ve noted this before but this show tends to put out a lot of average episodes and one or two spectacular episodes every year now. This year, episode 13.10, “The Plight Before Christmas” was a real knockout. Arguably the best episode they've ever done. In an ideal world, I’d like a few more stellar episodes in a 22 episode season, but I guess you take what you can get.

31. Secret Invasion (Miniseries - 2023, Disney+) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - This just wasn’t up to par for Marvel. The action wasn’t great. The writing often felt amateurish (the acting felt that way at times, too, weirdly). The show kills off some interesting, established characters and doesn’t replace them with better ones, which makes it feel like a net negative on the MCU. The biggest issue is really that they’re doing a hybrid old spy / body snatcher type story -- which, within the MCU, has a ton of potential to be great -- and the show just never has the right energy or sense of paranoia that should come from that. It plays out like a standard thriller. All of this sounds more negative than I intended. It’s fine. I’m using that word a lot in this section of this list but that’s what these shows are. They’re fine. It’s just that, given the concept, and the cast, and the MCU-ness of it all, that’s really disappointing.

30. The Walking Dead: Dead City (Season 1 - 2023, AMC) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - There’s a moment I always seem to experience when I’m playing a DLC for a video game I like. I’ll be on a new map, doing something that’s slightly different from the main game but still obviously really familiar, and I’ll think, “This is alright. I appreciate having more content. But this really just makes me miss the main game.” That’s kind of what this show feels like. Like Walking Dead DLC. Like, it’s alright. It’s cool to catch up with the characters and see them in a new map, interacting with new NPCs, getting new missions. But it’s a little watered down and I kind of just miss the original show. (Not the final couple of seasons of the original show. The earlier ones. You get the idea.)

29. The Night Agent (Season 1 - 2023, Netflix) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - When I talk about how Secret Invasion played out like a standard thriller, this is the show I’m talking about. It hits most of the notes you expect. The main characters were sort of bleh. The show needs a serious injection of personality. But, you know, it moves along fine. Has some twists and turns. If a spy thriller is what you’re looking for, this is definitely one of those.

28. Stargirl (Season 3 - 2022, CW) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - The show wrapped up nicely. This was always a show that hovered around good but never really advanced to great. Some fun stuff, some goofy stuff. Enjoyable enough in the moment but nothing that will really stick with you.

27. The Company You Keep (Season 1 - 2023, ABC) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - A decent show about a family of criminals doing various jobs. The episode quality would vary depending on how interesting the job was but there were a few good ones. There’s a longer arc about the main criminal son falling in love with a government agent that worked fine but honestly was less interesting to me. The structure was there for this show to get better in later seasons but it’s already been cancelled so that’s that.

26. Ghosts (Season 2 - 2022-2023, CBS) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - The show didn’t really get funnier but it did drop a lot of the things that annoyed me in the first season (or at least did them with less frequency). I didn’t rate any episode this season particularly highly but on the bright side, I didn’t rate any very low either. I guess it’s a similar question as shows lower on this list face: is it better to be consistent or better to have more highs and lows? Eye of the beholder.

25. She-Hulk: Attorney at Law (Miniseries - 2022, Disney+) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - She-Hulk is sort of the other side of that coin. It had pieces that were clever and that worked and a cast of actors that were pretty good, but also some lulls. Overall, I think the writing was just not sharp enough or funny enough for it to really excel, but it was enjoyable.

24. Family Guy (Season 21 - 2022-2023, FOX) (Last year’s ranking: 17) - Family Guy is kind of the king of the highs and lows TV comedy. A couple of excellent episodes, a few duds. Mostly good ones in between.

23. Fear the Walking Dead (Season 8A - 2023, AMC) (Last year’s ranking: 28) - This is Fear’s final season and it’s wrapping things up in a fascinating way. This show has gone through basically two iterations (seasons 1-3 and seasons 4-7) and it has decided to bring both of them to a close before it leaves. Season 8A was mostly dedicated to wrapping up Morgan’s story. It featured a massive time jump which I will constantly argue almost never works dramatically (and didn’t here) and often messes up character plots (it did here) but overall, it tied up loose ends for the character in a satisfying enough way.

22. The Simpsons (Season 34 - 2022-2023, FOX) (Last year’s ranking: 25) - It remains The Simpsons. Couple of standout episodes. A good “Treehouse of Horror” and a strong season finale.

I’m going to do a mid-list break here to talk about a couple of TV movies or specials or whatever. I think this is how I’m going to handle these going forward because it does feel unfair to put them in the actual list but they are TV. At least, they’re more TV than movie.

Werewolf by Night has a really excellent setting and look, plus some good music. The story is not all there, though. I think it’s more about the Halloween vibe than telling a thorough story and it does nail that vibe. It’s a good watch for the season.

Similarly: The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special. It’s sweet and funny, and, like Werewolf, has the perfect vibe for what it’s going for. Also, like Werewolf, the plot isn’t really there. I do think that’s okay, though, for both of these shorts that come in at under an hour. You just kinda do neat stuff with cool characters for 40-50 minutes and dip out. Again, makes for a great seasonal watch.

Okay, back to it.

21. Mythic Quest (Season 3 - 2022-2023, Apple TV+) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - I mentioned in the season 2 write up of this show that it’s about 90% a good workplace comedy and then one of out ten episodes will be this just wonderful, touching standalone piece. That mostly held true in season 3, though the workplace-ness of it all did take a step back. It was okay but not as sharp as it’s been in the past. The standalone episode this year, “Sarian”, though, was excellent. Far and away the high point of the season.

20. The Great North (Season 3 - 2022-2023, FOX) (Last year’s ranking: 22) - Another solid year for this show.

19. 9-1-1: Lone Star (Season 4 - 2023, FOX) (Last year’s ranking: 20) - It has its highs and lows but this show understands itself and is able to land around here on my list consistently.

18. American Dad! (Season 19B - 2022, Season 20A - 2023, TBS) (Last year’s ranking: 16) - TBS splits this show's seasons up and airs them over entire calendar years, so I’m writing this blurb about the final 14 episodes of season 19 and the first 9 episodes of season 20. Whatever. It doesn’t really matter. It was up to par.

17. So Help Me Todd (Season 1 - 2022-2023, CBS) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - This is, for me, what you want from a weekly, network legal “drama” (labelled a drama because it’s an hour-long show but it’s really more of a comedy), if you were looking for that sort of thing. You get your case of the week. That’s all fine. It works. But the show is elevated by its personality and humor. The characters are good. The actors play well off of each other. It’s snappy. It tips over into too silly or annoying sometimes but I’ll live with it if that’s the cost of spicing up a show in this genre.

16. Gotham Knights (Season 1 - 2023, CW) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - It took me a little bit to get into this show but once it started going it picked up momentum and finished strong. You come to like the characters more and appreciate their relationships. The story got more interesting and built to a good finale. And then it got immediately cancelled because the CW is in some kind of flux state where I don’t know if they’re even making shows anymore. It’s kind of disappointing but given the way CW superhero shows go -- good first season, okay second season, bad third season, resurgent fourth season, bad fifth and sixth seasons, seventh and final season of variable quality -- it’s probably not the worst thing. Go out on a high.

15. Welcome to Chippendales (Miniseries - 2022-2023, Hulu) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - A pretty good true crime drama. It does hit a few lulls though. This is the sort of thing that probably would’ve been a much better two hour movie in the past and is now an eight episode, six hour miniseries. Still, enough interesting stuff to keep you moving through the episodes.

14. Animal Control (Season 1 - 2023, FOX) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - This show is from two-thirds of the brains behind another show I’ve written about on these lists: The Moodys. I’d described that show as “likeable if not particularly funny”. That description more or less fit this show as well through a good portion of the season, though it did get better as it went on. Hopefully it continues that trend.

13. Archer (Season 13 - 2022, FXX) (Last year’s ranking: 14) - Archer has found a good level of consistent quality in its later years.

12. Reboot (Season 1 - 2022, Hulu) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - Another show in this area of the list that started out a little bit slow and got better as it went along, showing potential for future seasons. Also, immediately cancelled, too, like some of those other shows.

11. The Lazarus Project (Season 1 - 2023, TNT) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - Fun and twisty. It keeps switching things up and plays with the time loop story in fresh ways. It has a good sense of humor, too.

10. Ted Lasso (Season 3 - 2023, Apple TV+) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - Someone made the decision to make this an hour-long show and I think that was a mistake. It spread things way too thin. Too many scenes linger. Too many jokes and storylines that probably would’ve normally been cut remain. It almost makes it seem like it’s poorly edited but I think it’s just that you can actually feel it stretching for time. That said, this show still has its plentiful moments of brilliance, in both humor, character, and emotion. It’s just a shame because you can see where these fine hour-long episodes have excellent 30 minute episodes inside of them.

9. The Other Two (Season 3 - 2023, HBO Max) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - It remained a tremendous, frequently hilarious send up of the entertainment industry in its final season. I do think the one issue this show found itself struggling with was when it tried to introduce dramatic stakes. It has actually sprinkled in drama fairly well in the past, but its humor has gotten so heightened (often surpassing even 30 Rock levels of absurdism) that it was giving me whiplash when they suddenly tried to bring the characters back to Earth and have them argue about their relationships. I don’t know if you can have both of those cakes and eat them, too. Still, a good send off.

8. White House Plumbers (Miniseries - 2023, HBO Max) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - It’s labelled as a political satire but it’s more like a screwball comedy. I don’t know how historically accurate it is -- I’m taking everything in it with a grain of salt -- but it’s a funny, heightened look at a wacky criminal conspiracy and if you don’t take it as much more than that, you can probably enjoy it.

7. American Auto (Season 2 - 2023, NBC) (Last year’s ranking: 8) - I’m not sure why this show never caught on the way Superstore did. Very funny. Good characters who played well off each other. Smart plots. Cancelled after two seasons. Seems to happen a lot with NBC comedies these days.

6. Jury Duty (Season 1 - 2023, Amazon Freevee) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - I’m putting this here with extreme reservations. Is this a show? I think in the same way Borat is a movie? There’s obviously a lot of writing and acting that goes into this. And directing. I don’t know. I’m putting it at 6(ish) and if there’s a moral objection from any readers, feel free to remove it mentally. Whatever it is, it is very funny.

5. Andor (Season 1 - 2022, Disney+) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - A strange structure. It’s 12 episodes and it feels like every three episodes the show morphs into a different genre film. There’s the intro one, the heist film, the prison film, then the concluding film. It’s cool, though. It keeps things fresh and moving along. The writing is smart as is the plotting. The acting is strong. It’s a great look at the non-Jedi and Sith heroes and villains in the Star Wars universe.

4. The Mandalorian (Season 3 - 2023, Disney+) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - It does feel like the quality has taken a small hit. It’s a little goofier at times than it used to be but it’s still very enjoyable. It’s like a comfort show. I’m always having a good time while I’m watching it and if I can get eight episodes of fun adventures every year with these characters, I’ll take it as long as Jon Favreau wants to make it.

3. The Last of Us (Season 1 - 2023, HBO) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - I did not care for the game. I didn’t like playing it. I found it frustrating and unenjoyable. But I enjoyed the world the game was set in. And the story it was telling. I liked everything about the game except the game itself. Or, in other words, a TV show is exactly how I’d like to experience this story. This is an excellent adaptation, capturing the game’s story and world and all-around essence. It’s intense and emotional and funny and beautiful. And it also builds on the game in wonderful ways. Episode 1.3, “Long, Long Time” expands upon something you only hear a little about in passing in the game and turns it into this truly wonderful episode of television -- the best of any I saw all year. But beyond that, the show adds these little touches as well. The cold opens of both episodes one and two are brilliant little short films that wouldn’t really have fit in the game but are terrific tone setters for the show. It’s a masterclass in how to adapt a video game.

2. Succession (Season 4 - 2023, HBO) (Last year’s ranking: 3) - They landed the plane with a terrific final season, highlighted by some truly excellent episodes. 4.3, “Connor’s Wedding” keeps you on the edge of your seat the whole episode and is the standout but the final three episodes of the season are all really great as well as the show puts a bow on this messed up family’s saga.

1. The Bear (Season 2 - 2023, Hulu) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - I caught season one of The Bear not long after the last list went up and I really liked it. I don’t think it would’ve been number one or anything, but it would’ve ranked pretty highly. Season two built on season one and created the best show this year for me. It’s an intense show, and a sharp show, but also a kind show. A show that speeds things up on you and keeps you in a state of high anxiety for an entire hour-long episode and then slows way down and gets you to appreciate something so simple as a man receiving a chocolate covered banana for dessert (an unbelievably moving moment). The characters are tremendous. The ways they interact and grow are so well done. The acting is excellent. It’s a great looking show with a great soundtrack. The writing is subtle and smart. It knows when to be funny and it knows when to deliver an emotional knockout punch and sometimes does both back-to-back or even at the same time. It’s firing on all cylinders.

And so there’s the list. The second season of Winning Time and the third season of Only Murders in the Building started recently and I haven’t gotten a chance to watch them so that’s my bad. Those two have rated highly in the past. I’ll try to fit them on to next year’s list. Also, the Daryl Dixon spinoff started recently, too, and while I’m enjoying a little bit more than Dead City, it still feels like DLC. I guess we’ll find out next year if I thought it outgrew that. A tease!

Enjoy the Emmys, whenever they are.

- - - - -

Read More:

Annual Lists of TV Shows I Saw the Past Year

[theredwallrecorder]

There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to all beasts. It is a dimension as vast as fan fiction and timeless as memes. It is the middle ground between good and evil, between mouse and mustelid, and it lies between the pit of a vermin lord’s fears and the summit of their knowledge. This is the dimension of obfuscation. It is an area which we call...

Redwall a la Youtube

Episode Ten: Time For Big Winkle War

Grab your nearest scream pillow and/or comfort object, friends, because the writers for this show are still Hellgates-bent on never allowing our heroic Missed-Highest to retrieve Margin the Worrier’s sword from the cruel fangs of Asthma Day Sauce. Instead, we are lovingly force fed a tangled mash of plot points from both Redwall and Mattimeo, along with a heaping helping of utter nonsense.

Margin, give us strength.

After finally receiving a “don’t die, kthxbai” blessing from Coneflower, Missed-Highest manages to walk approximately 1.34 kilometers from the Abee before a feathered plot device halts him in his progress. Bobak Sparrow brings news of yet another™ impending underground attack from Clooney, and Missed-Highest skedaddles back to Readwhile to warn his friends of this bold move. Why Bobak didn’t attempt to communicate with the creatures actually IN the Abee, we will never know, but the news only brings the Readwhilers more uncertainty. Our normally steadfast Constant is plagued with the desperate need to know exactly how many vermin may show up for the coming skirmish. The badgermum’s dilemma has only one solution: Bobak Sparrow and her nameless sidekick stupidly decide to go count the number of vermin in Clooney’s camp all by their lonesome.

Normally, this wouldn’t be a problem, as Clooney recently lost himself in the worst shroom trip this side of the River Most and his horde has been spending its down time playing hide and seek. Certain members have been getting restless, however. The remaining living members of Clooney’s old guard gather to plot against him, and we get our first instance of anybeast referring to Clooney as “his worship” (???). Their naughtiness is interrupted when Bobak and company arrive on the scene and make an enormous show of counting the horde’s numbers while simultaneously screaming and doing wheelies in midair. Obviously, Bobak is captured and, also obviously, news of this unfortunate happenstance is carried to Missed-Highest.

Everybeast in Readwhile can’t be bothered to help Missed-Highest rescue Bobak. They’re far too busy preparing for Clooney’s impending strike, or they simply don’t care about Bobak... it’s a little hard to tell which reasoning is more prominent. Missed-Highest, true to the lone wolf protag he is, rashly leaves Readwhile to fetch Margin’s sword please give us plot save his friend Bobak. His protagonist powers allow him to do just that, with a little help from the ruler of Hellgates, Vulpuz. Missed-Highest is given Vulpuz’s cloak as a token of their mutual 2v4 match-up, which he decides to pass on to Bazl. The cloak grants Bazl +1 charisma, nearly shattering the Readwhileverse as we know it, but the ever-wise Bazl channels his newfound abilities into slam poetry, sparing everybeast from imminent annihilation.

Maybe, just maybe, next time will be... Margin time.

[recurring-polynya]

Once again I have been thinking a lot the last few days about the part in Bleach where Renji and Byakuya come to arrest Rukia that’s sort of the transition into the Soul Society Arc. (The real story is that I needed a drawing reference from here, and then I ended up re-reading the chapters... and then watching the relevant episodes of the anime... you know. Like you do.)

Anyway, a thing I am fixated on in this fight is this:

It’s a little bit more pronounced in the anime, with the voicework, that Renji believes what he says-- that Rukia tried to keep Ichigo out of her mess and Ichigo should have respected that.

Protecting those you love is a major theme in Bleach, and a thing I am, in particular fascinated with his how much Rukia and Renji don’t. Renji taking hits for Rukia (and everyone else) in filler arcs notwithstanding, Renji doesn’t ever try to keep Rukia from fighting her own fights. He supports her when she (stupidly) wants to split up in Hueco Mundo, and in the TYBW she shrugs and leaves him to fight Mask who has just cleaned out two captains and a vice-captain.

I think this tendency comes out of their precarious childhood in Inuzuri. Most of Bleach focuses on characters with immense power, but at this point in their afterlives, they are incredibly powerless. They are literally filthy urchins, stealing food and running from murderous adults. Even though they are clearly devoted to each other, they don’t have the ability to protect each other. This is made painfully obvious by the fact that they are unable to protect their other friends. I think that they must have taken on the attitudes that they cannot take self-sacrificial actions toward each other, they don’t have that luxury. It is their duty to the gang to do everything they can to live to fight another day, this is the best strategy for all of them to survive. One could interpret the part after all their friends die and they decide to become shinigami that they no longer have to look after their weaker friends, but I think it’s actually because they realize that the next one they lose is going to be each other, and that they must find a way to get stronger, that this is a duty they have to each other. The literal worst thing they could do to each other is to die and leave the other behind.

This attitude follows them to the Academy, where they cannot associate freely with each other for fear of being seen as street trash. Rukia is deeply hurt by the fact that Renji is placed in an advanced class, but she can’t bring herself to tell him this, because she doesn’t want to jeopardize his success. Likewise, when Rukia is adopted, Renji has to support her, there is no other option for him. The decisions they have made in their lives up until this point have been life or death-- turning down a chance at advancement out of sentiment is unthinkable to them. They have lost their other friends, and they owe it to each other to live well.

Come back again to the arrest scene. Renji scolds Rukia over and over-- for squandering the opportunities she’s been given, for resisting arrest because it will make things worse for her.

This may seem strange, but the fact is, he is appealing to Rukia in a way that shows how well he understands her. The whole time he is telling her not to help Ichigo, she’s trying to get Ichigo to turn tail and run away for his own safety. Ichigo thinks this is the stupidest shit he has ever heard, and does not hesitate to inform Rukia of this fact.

This theme is repeated over and over during the Soul Society arc, as Rukia is repeatedly horrified whenever Ichigo tries to save her, and he yells at her over it. She is devastated on the bridge when she realizes that Renji has entered the fight for her sake and quite possibly died because of it, and then impossibly relieved when he shows up on Soukyoku Hill.

Anyway, this is all very interesting to me as a shipper, in the sense that it is Rukia and Renji’s deep understanding of each other that stymies their ability to move forward. They each want to be the one to take one for the team, they never want to impose their feelings on each other, and it takes Ichigo storming in and yelling “You guys are SO STUPID, do you ever LISTEN TO YOURSELVES??”

[beybladefanboy]

Beyblade Seasons Ranked

Here is my personal ranking, from worst to best, of the seasons of Beyblade Metal Fight: Metal Fusion, Metal Masters, Metal Fury, and the awkward spin-off Shogun Steel. Yeah, let’s get into that:

4 Shogun Steel

Honestly even if I did like Shogun Steel for what it is, it would still be at the bottom just by default. It can barely be considered part of the Metal Saga. The main characters in the last three seasons are either absent or reduced to supporting roles in favour of new characters who aren’t nearly as interesting or likeable. It is by definition a spin off. It feels very disjointed from the rest of the series because of these factors along with the lighter tone, the changes to the Beyblade system, and even some continuity errors particularly with Fury. Bringing back Doji again was also the biggest leap in logic this whole series made and feels downright lazy. The whole story just feels like a watered down Fusion with many of the story beats being similar and some characters never growing past mere echoes of the old characters. Some of the bey battles are fun and Ren and Takanosuke are decent characters but there’s a reason this show doesn’t get much attention. It falls into the Star Wars Sequel Trilogy trap of being overly dependent on original series sucker punches for its appeal and not putting as much effort into the new stuff. So as a result, the new stuff, some of which has potential, isn’t as fleshed out as it should be. This show is honestly fine on its own but awful when compared to the Metal Saga and it is comparing itself to the Metal Saga. This show intentionally put itself in the Metal Saga’s shadow and seemed content with being just that: a shadow of greatness.

3 Metal Masters

Okay, this is where I’m gonna start pissing people off. Don’t get me wrong, Masters is great and I don’t think it’s clearly worse than the other two seasons or anything. I think the main three seasons are very close in quality and putting them in any kind of order was incredibly difficult. However, I do think Masters is slightly weaker than Fusion and Fury. First off, it introduces Masamune. I don’t like Masamune. I find his whole “I’m the number 1 blader” shtick incredibly obnoxious and he’s everything I don’t like in real Americans: self absorbed, disloyal, big mouthed, entitled, and just annoying in general. He did have good character development over the course of the season but I personally can’t stand him. The pacing of this season also isn’t the best. With the exception of the Dark Tsubasa arc (which I’ll get to!), the season is just a normal world tournament until they get to America, which I don’t find very interesting. Kenta is also criminally underused. In Fusion he was basically a second main character and there are some episodes specifically following him. Then in Masters, he’s pushed aside in favour of side characters. People say Fury underused characters, and I’ll get to that, but holy crap, Masters gave Kenta no room to grow. Aside from him though, the other characters are used really well. I particularly like how Kyoya and Ryuga are incorporated. This is actually the season where I grew attached to Ryuga during my viewing in December. I was starting to like him in Fusion but this season cemented my newfound attachment. This season also gave us the dark Tsubasa arc, which is one of my favourite plot points from the show overall. It’s a fascinating look into the mind of a character I already really liked and it allowed Tsubasa to develop a lot. I love the conclusion that you cannot drive out the darkness in yourself, you have to accept it as part of who you are in order to properly control it. It’s brilliant, and I can personally relate this message to my own life. The dark Tsubasa arc is probably the strongest part of the season overall as the rest of it until we get to the HD Academy conflict kind of drags for me. However, when we do finally get to the HD Academy conflict, it is very fun. The whole “spiral energy” thing was actually pretty creative and while brainwashing isn’t a new concept for this show, I think they went more in depth with it in this season and it was pretty interesting. So yeah, still a really good season.

2 Metal Fusion

If I was ranking based on nostalgia, this would be number one. In fact, it probably deserves to be number one. However, I do have a few problems with this season that hold it back and it’s not the pacing. Actually, out of all the seasons, Fusion probably has the best pacing. The main villains, Doji and Ryuga, are introduced early in the season and all the characters are developed throughout the season, building up to the final tournament: Battle Bladers, which is also set up fairly early. The story is predictable but very well-structured. My biggest problem with this season is the plot twist with Gingka’s dad. Not only is it painfully obvious, but the reveal of the twist drags the plot to a screeching halt for nearly an entire episode, hurting the pacing and making an entire episode an exposition dump. It also made Gingka’s dad a terrible character. You can argue that him abandoning his teenage son and making him believe he was dead was for the greater good, although I personally still think it’s messed up, but breaking Gingka’s point counter like that was a step way too far. That moment serves to further the story by forcing Gingka to work harder to get into Battle Bladers. But did it have to be his dad who broke the point counter? I argue it didn’t. Gingka’s dad was flat out abusive to his son on that occasion and was pretty cold to him in general as Phoenix and yet the plot and even some of the characters praise Ryo for doing this. Why?! The way the story is structured puts Ryo in the right for abusing his son which disgusts me. That is my biggest problem with this season and possibly the whole series to be honest. I hate it that much. However, apart from that and those random filler episodes with Sora that in my opinion were boring, this season was really solid. Like I said, the story is told well and the characters are all introduced and developed well. Battle Bladers is definitely the highlight of this season, having the most intense battles and hardest hitting moments. Those episodes are exhausting to watch, because of Reiji and Ryuga. Reiji was randomly introduced in Battle Bladers and decided to try and rival Ryuga in how much he could traumatize the characters (and younger me). I have no idea why they decided to do that, but it worked. Ryuga in this season is the best villain in the whole series. He has such a presence to him: his (dubbed) voice, his sadistic expressions, his abilities, the music that plays when he’s onescreen. He’s over the top but in my opinion, Ryuga is the perfect balance between entertaining and intimidating. He’s even slightly sympathetic by the end of the season when he gets taken over by dark power and is seen trying to fight its control. They managed to both make Ryuga an irredeemable psychopath and found a believable way to redeem him. I love that in the end, Gingka isn’t fighting to defeat Ryuga, he’s fighting to defeat the dark power, which came from the greed and hatred of humans. Basically, the problem isn’t humanity, it’s humanity’s greed/hatred and being consumed by these feelings lead to evil. That is genius. This season also had two of my favourite battles in the entire series: Kyoya vs Ryuga, and Gingka vs Ryuga.

1 Metal Fury

Yeah, I said it. Fury is my personal favourite season. It probably has more wrong with it than Masters and Fusion but honestly, Fury��s strengths more than make up for its weaker parts for me. The only problem I have with Fury that actively hinders my enjoyment is Kyoya’s poorly handled arc, which I’ve been over multiple times and wrote a whole fanfiction rectifying. To sum it up briefly: it was rushed and weakened Kyoya’s character when it had the chance to develop him. I will admit this season also had too few episodes. I don’t think it was rushed per say, it just feels like parts are missing. There should’ve been more leading up to Nemesis’ revival and an actual epilogue episode because as it stands now, Fury ends really suddenly without much actual confirmation of where the characters we know and love ended up. It’s kind of jarring. Overall however, I really love Fury. I love the adventure style story and there's so much variety to the bey battles this time around, both in terms of the beys themselves and the stadiums. It’s just more interesting to watch. It also did a great job giving all the major characters victories, not just Gingka. This is something Masters also did well and a gripe I have with Fusion: Gingka gets all the major victories in Metal Fusion and pushes the other characters to the wayside. Well, Masters and Fury fixed this issue in my opinion. The very final fight of Fury against the shadow Nemesis could’ve been executed better in my opinion. However, it hits all the right emotional beats for a final battle and still grabs my attention rewatching it, so I can put aside my criticisms of it while watching it. Also, I like that “destiny” is something these characters are controlling themselves and can go either way rather than being some unstoppable force that they will all give in to eventually otherwise they’re villains. Because that’s how Yugioh does it and it’s probably my biggest problem with that show. In that series, it feels like the characters are all just blindly accepting “destiny” and those that don’t, Kaiba and Marik most notably, are deemed villains for wanting to take control over their lives and not be governed by some invisible force. Yes, I know Marik went to some horrible extremes using this logic but it still bothers me that the only characters in that show that don’t throw their lives away blindly following someone else’s whims are deemed villains. It’s just kind of messed up. Fury thankfully subverts this. “Destiny” is not an unstoppable force in Beyblade, it’s the will of the characters and those characters are allowed to make their own choices. It makes the story more interesting and the characters more likeable because the characters are the ones driving the story, which feels so much more natural. Yeah, I really like the characters in Fury. Honestly, I’m more attached to Yuki, King, and Chris than anyone introduced in Masters and the other legendary blader characters all bring something different and interesting to the table that I don’t think older characters could have. I also like how the old characters are used. Sure, Tsubasa and Yu are underused this season. But guess who also got a lot of focus last season? Tsubasa and Yu. And some of the characters who were underused in Masters, Kyoya and Kenta, get more focus in this season. They did mess up Kyoya’s arc in my opinion but the effort is there and I appreciate his presence before and after that. Kenta especially was severely underused in Masters so this season decided to make him relevant again and they did it in such an endearing way. You all know how much I love Ryuga and Kenta’s friendship. It’s one of the things that should have gotten more focus but what we do get is good enough build up. This season was the one that drew the most emotion out of me during my most recent viewing and that was because of Ryuga and Kenta. I was devastated by Ryuga’s death (even if he may not actually be dead, that’s certainly what it felt like in the moment) and the scene where he gives Kenta his power was the most touching moment in the entire show for me.

Well, that ranking probably pissed some people off. Again, I love the classic three seasons. (I’m not a fan of Shogun Steel but it has its moments.) Choosing between the three of them like that was incredibly difficult, especially Fusion and Fury. In the end, I just had to go with my gut.

[magnolia-penn]

A Helping Hand

Noriaki Kakyoin x Reader

A totally late self comfort fic that I wrote to help cope with terrible parents

WARNINGS: Just some Part 3 spoilers. Nothing that you wouldn't know after watching the fist few episodes. Other than that, there's none. Just self indulgent fluff.

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Dealing with Jotaro Kujo isn’t the easiest of tasks for anybody unless you’re his mother. He’s cold, abrasive, and a bit of dick. He detests people who can’t take care of themselves and hates covering anyone’s ass.

 

            Not a good situation for you.

           

            You had only developed your stand, Magenta Sunset, ten days ago. A week before your meeting with the StarDust Crusaders. It happened during a business trip to Cairo that you attended with your father.

 

            The night it manifested, you were approached by a man named DIO. He used sweet words and promises to help you better understand this strange new power you had received, as long as you helped him when he needed it.

 

            You naively agreed.

 

            He took your hand and whisked you across Cairo’s rooftops to his mansion, the wind and his deep voice almost drowning out the screams of your father.

 

            True to his word, he taught you about Stands and how to control yours, by inserting a flesh bud into your forehead and giving you your orders to eliminate the Joestars.

 

            You encountered the Crusaders in a small desert town, and you launched your attack. The battle only lasted about fifteen minutes, and you shouted your apologies the entire time.

 

            After being apprehended by purple and green tendrils, it was the redhead’s idea to have you join them, stating that your circumstances were no different from him. The old man agreed and ordered the teen dressed in all black to remove the flesh bud, and you were put under the care of the redhead, now known as Noriaki Kakyoin.

 

            It soon became glaringly apparent that without the flesh bud dictating your movement, you were at an infant level with your stand. After some deliberation, the old man, Joseph Joestar, and the Egyptian, Muhammud Avdol, chalked it up to inexperience. Everyone had theirs for quite possibly years, while you only had yours for a mere couple of days.

 

            With introductions and backstories out of the way, it was time to get back on the road. You took every opportunity to practice with your stand, and everyone agreed to help, except Jotaro, which was to be expected.

 

Kakyoin was your sparring partner more often than not. Under his guidance, you improved significantly, but you still faltered in defense. You always struggled to keep an eye on your surroundings and were slow to block. 

 

            The others would offer words of encouragement, but Jotaro would only scoff and throw an insult. His words hurt because you knew he was right. He was the strongest member of your team, and the team is only as strong as the weakest link. AKA, You. You started pushing yourself too far beyond your limits, to the point of exhaustion, and it was beginning to show. Your performance would drop, and Jotaro would degrade you more.

 

            Kakyoin was always quick to rub salve on the wound, though. Every word he spoke lifted your spirits and inspired you to keep pushing. This might sound cliche to say, but you thought you might be falling for him.

            Sadly, good things never last, and it all came crashing down after an actual battle. In a last-ditch effort, some C rated thug, who probably wasn’t even one of DIO's minions, launched a full-powered attack straight at you. Even the almighty Jotaro wasn’t prepared for it, and he just barely managed to pull you out of the way by the back of your shirt. He let you fall to the ground and quickly finished the thug off. He turned back to you and glared while looking you up and down. After a few tense seconds, he turned and walked away. He didn’t say anything. Not even a “Yare yare daze.”

That hurt worse than anything he could possibly say.

 

The other members of the group quickly came to your aid, gently pulling you to your feet and checking for injuries. You brushed them off with a smile and a wave. Kakyoin lingered longer than the rest, eyes filled with fear and pure relief at your safety. He embraced you in a giant hug, and you quickly returned it. Kakyoin pretended not to notice the way your body quaked in fear and how you clung to him like your life depended on it.

 

He knew Jotaro was harsh, but he didn’t expect it to affect you so severely. He worked with you every day, and none of his criticism ever got under your skin. But after seeing the sheer despair in your eyes after Jotaro turned his back to you solidified his belief that you cared about how Jotaro saw you. 

 

His mind was telling him that it was only logical that you wanted Jotaro’s approval. He was the strongest of the group, and Jotaro’s harshness was a way of showing he cared. Still, Kakyoin’s heart overrode the system, and he couldn’t help but get angered at Jotaro’s lack of sympathy for you.

 

Later, out of the prying eyes of anybody else, he talked to Jotaro. It took some will power to keep his voice even as he tried to explain your side of things. Eventually, Jotaro acquiesced, promising to apologize to you.

 

            That night, after everyone fell asleep, you snuck out over a sand dune to get some practice in. Every kick, every punch, every block seemed slow and sluggish as all of your pent up emotions chiseled away at the wall you put up. Letting out a frustrated groan, you dropped to your knees and cradled your head in your hands.

           

            Large tears threatened to spill as you tried to suppress a sniffle. You knew it was useless to cry, but that didn’t stop the tears from falling

            You were so wrapped up in your own emotions that you didn’t hear someone come up from behind and sit beside you.

 

            “Messed up that badly today, huh?”

 

            You jumped and quickly manifested your stand, ready to attack. Before you could, Emerald coils wrapped around your arms and pinned them to your sides.

 

            “Hey, hey. Calm down. It’s just me.”

 

            It was Kakyoin. Honestly, as much as you cared for him, he was the last person you wanted to see. He put too much time and effort into your training to see you on your knees, sobbing like a baby.

 

            “It is just you. What do you want?” You managed to push Hierophant's coils off and sat up, pulling your legs to your chest.

 

            “A reason to why you’re in the desert trying not to cry? A moment of your time? Penny for your thoughts?”

 

            You let out a half-hearted scoff and played with the hem of your shirt.

 

            Kakyoin chuckled. “A nickel?” No reaction. “A dime?”

 

            Your face broke out into a smile against your will. “How about a quarter?”

 

            Kakyoin rooted around in his pocket for a bit. “Aha! One quarter. You’re thoughts, M’Lady?”

 

            You took the quarter and sighed, setting it between you as a time filler as you figured out what to say. You always admired Kakyoin. His stand is well-rounded, and he was so strong. He never walked out into the desert to lose control of his emotions. You knew it would be hard to explain everything you felt in a way he would understand.

 

            “I’m weak.” You finally say after a long pause.

 

            Kakyoin blinked in surprise. “You’re not weak.”

 

            “Yes! I am! I can’t block attacks, and I’m painfully unaware of what’s happening around me! Anybody and their mother could sneak up on me! You did! I have to rely on everybody else to protect me, and there’s nothing I can do to get better!”

 

            You threw your arms around Kakyoin and buried your face into his chest to hide your shame. He sputtered on air, and he prayed that you couldn’t feel the way his heart sped up.

 

            He wrapped his arms around you and said, “That still doesn’t mean you’re weak.”

 

            “How so?” You asked teary-eyed.

 

            “Y/N. You are one of the strongest offense fighters on our team. Magenta Sunset might have lower defense, but you really make up for it in offense and improvisation. The others only wish they could come up with crazy ideas that just might work on the fly like you.”

 

            Your ears twinged pink at his kind words. “Even you?”

 

            “Especially me.” Kakyoin moved his hands to cup your face, forcing you to look at him. “ Look, you’d never be able to guess it, but Hierophant is actually kind of terrible at offense. Sure it has the Emerald Splash, but it works better out of the spotlight. And every time I see you and Sunset spring into the thrall without a moment’s hesitation, I get so jealous because I could never just jump in guns blazing. Hierophant works better in enclosed spaces, but Sunset works great just about anywhere.”

 

            Kakyoin suddenly caught himself.

           

            “Sorry. I was rambling again. But you get the idea, you are so amazing and so far from weak. I know I’ve only known you for a couple of days, but I really like  you, Y/N.” He accidentally confessed.

 

            Your eyes widened in surprise at the redhead’s words. You never imagined that anybody thought of you like that, not even Polnareff. When you didn’t respond, Kakyoin’s face lit up in a fiery scarlet.

 

            “I.. I mean-I mean! I look up t-”

 

            “I have an idea.” Your words cut off any excuses in his throat. “It’s crazy, but it just might work.”

           

“Yeah?”

 

            “Hierophant sucks at offense,” You said as you pulled yourself off of Kakyoin.

 

            “You don’t have to put it so bluntly.”

 

            “Sunset sucks at defense.” You twirled a lock of hair while deep in concentration.

           

            “I’m not sure where you’re going with this.” Kakyoin gently pulled his curl from your fingers.

 

            “We both like each other, and we will spend a lot of time together now, since you confessed,” You took his hand in yours.

 

            “Naturally. Wait, what?”

           

            “Why don’t we partner up and give each other a helping hand.”

 

            Kakyoin was going to ask about what you meant, but the realization of how great an idea that was hit Kakyoin like a truck. “Oh my God, that’s a great idea!”

 

            Kakyoin pulled you to your feet and pressed a quick kiss to your forehead. He went on a tangent about how great of an idea that was, and you couldn’t help but to laugh and go along, shushing him to keep his voice down.

 

            As the two of you lost yourselves in tactics and techniques, you didn’t notice a tall figure stand some distance away.

 

            “Yare yare. I guess I’ll apologize tomorrow. Lovebirds are having too much fun.”

[aerynwrites]

Liberation - III

Chapter 3: The Egg

Author’s Note: Honestly not sure of the pacing of this chapter but... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ . I think i VASTLY under estimated how long this series would take with me following the episodes. My foolish self was like “Oh Aeryn don’t worry you can totally fit each episode into one chapter and then have filler chapters!” --- yeah....not going to happen ever. I must have been on crack or something when i though this lol. but whatever! I kinda like them being a little longer because then we get more Mando and reader stuff! I hope you all enjoy! And as usual i love hearing from you all! Let me know if you would like to be tagged or if i missed you in the tags! <3

Word Count: 4.2k

Warnings: Mentions of blood, violence, fluff, angst (kinda?)

Chapters: Prologue, One, Two, Three (here), Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight

* * *

You and Mando walk in silence through the small canyons of the desert planet. The only noise you hear being the coos of the child between you two and the chattering of insects and critters inhabiting the land around you. Neither you or Mando had spoken since you left the encampment, mainly because you were too wrapped up in your own thoughts to start any conversation, and you know Mando isn’t much of a conversationalist.

Why did the empire want this child so bad? This was the main question bouncing around in your head on the journey back to the ship.

You knew from personal experience that the empire had no qualms with or moral discrepancies when it came to taking children, but it still bothered you. You looked down to the small pod that was floating between you and the Mandalorian and felt a shiver run up your spine as the child looked up at you curiously. You were terrified of what would happen to him.

You shook your head and looked in front of you once more, just do the job. Get paid. Don’t ask questions. Don’t ask questions. You repeated Mando’s earlier instructions like a mantra in your head, hoping that it would quell the storm clouding your brain, and tried to focus on the noises around you once more.

However, you quickly noted that there were no noises anymore. You saw the last lizard skitter away into the shadows and all was silent. You and Mando looked to one another in the same moment, mirroring each other as your hands went to your blasters. You stood stock still listening for any sign that someone else was around you. Then a loud roar came from Mando’s direction and you watched as the assailant fell from the ledge above him and knocked Mando’s blaster from his hand. You automatically raised your blaster to fire but as Mando and the other humanoid looking creature fought close together it was impossible to get a shot. However, your ears quickly picked up on the familiar beeping of a tracking fob.

They were here for the asset.

Before you could dwell on the fact too long a deep growl alerted you to the enemy behind you. You saw the attacker bring a large silver bladed weapon down towards you, you quickly rolled to the side feeling the wind from the weapon whisper past your ear. You straightened yourself once more and raised your blaster to fire, but the creature knocked it from your grasp with a swift blow. He raised the weapon once more, but you raised your left arm above your head and blocked the blade with a clash of metal on metal as it came down on your bracer. You used this moment of distraction to grab the knife from your boot and cast a quick glance at Mando, who seemed to be doing just fine with the two enemies he was facing.

‘Of course he is,’ you thought sarcastically.

You turned your attention back to the rival hunter in front of you. He runs towards you weapon raised again, and you crouch down driving your knife into his side and dodging his attack. You hear him howl in pain, but it doesn’t bring him down, and before you can react, you feel a set of rough hands grab your cloak and sling you roughly to the side. You manage to hold on to you knife, which rips from his side, but you aren’t able to catch your footing and you are thrown to the ground, the side of your head connecting painfully with a rock. Stars explode across your vision and your ears ring as your head cracks against the hard earth. You immediately try to sit up, looking for your attacker, and through your blurred vision you can see that he collapsed a few feet from where you lay. But you also take note of another creature running towards you and the child who was to your right, a high-pitched screeching coming from his lips as he raises his weapon. You raise your arm feebly in some vain attempt to stop the oncoming attack, but it never comes. The only thing that you see is a cloud of ashes raining down around you and the child, and Mando lowering his rifle.

You wince as you try to sit up more, the pain in your head subsiding slightly, but still present and excruciating. You see Mando crush a tracking fob on the ground, before glancing at the asset and then coming to stand in front of you, offering his hand.

You take it and he pull you to your feet gently, you stumble slightly, “Thanks.”

“You’re hurt.” Is all he says.

You wave your hand dismissively, “I’m fine, just a scratch.”

Mando tilts his head to the side minutely, as if saying really?

You reach your hand up to your temple and wince as it comes into contact with the newly injured area and cringe as your hand comes away warm and sticky with blood.

“You’re hurt,” he reiterates.

“Okay, fine. I’m hurt.” You relent, as you pull a small cloth from your pack and press it gently to the side of your head, “but I’m not dead. I can stand and walk,” you kick your feet out a little as if proving to him you can do said things, “let’s just go.”

The last thing you wanted was for the Mandalorian to think you couldn’t handle yourself. You were fine, truly, you had dealt with worse than this before.

Mando didn’t say anything for a moment, he just continued to look at you as if deciding if you were being truthful.

“Maker, Mando!” you exclaim finally, hating that he was looking at you like a child in trouble, “I’m fine. The sooner we go, the sooner we get back to the ship and I can get patched up, sound good?” you offer, hoping your compromise would get him to back off.

He looks a moment longer before turning and continuing in the direction of the ship, “Fine. Let’s go,” while his words suggested he was giving in, his tone was laced with irritation and annoyance.

You rolled your eyes again at his confusing actions. Did he care about you, did he not care about you? You honestly couldn’t even tell. You huffed quietly at this thought and bent to pick up your blaster before following him and the child.

* * *

Okay, what you said earlier about being fine? Yeah...that was bullshit.

You didn’t make it back to the ship as soon as you’d hoped. Which led to the three of you setting up a makeshift camp in the middle of the desert at night. This would all be fine and dandy under usual circumstances, but your head was throbbing more than before and stars continued to dance across your vision. Something that Mando seemed to notice when you stumbled unceremoniously to the ground next to the small lamp he had lit. you close your eyes to try and get your vision to stop swimming but it didn’t work and you swallowed thickly, trying to keep down what little food you had in your stomach.

Mando sighed quietly as he looked to you, clearly miserable but too stubborn to ask for help. It reminded him a little too much of himself.

“Hey kid,” he called, getting your attention.

You opened your eyes, and looked over to him slowly, discomfort clear on your features, “What?”

You saw him stand and move so he was on your other side before moving to sit once more, pulling some medical supplies from the bag, you shake your head, stubbornness still engraved into you, “Mando I’m fine –“

“No, you’re not. You took a nasty spill and that’s okay. Now just be quite.” His interjection and firm tone left no room for argument.

You snapped your mouth shut, lips pressing into a firm line as you bite back a sarcastic comment and a small hiss as he spread some sort of ointment over the small gash on your temple. You don’t say anything as he finishes with the ointment and quickly wraps a bandage around your head.

“You know,” his voice breaks the silence, “You’re too stubborn for your own good kid. It’s going to get you in trouble,” by the end of his observation he had moved back to his original spot a few feet from you.

You bristle slightly as his accusation, “like you aren’t?” you bite, frustrated at his belittling tone.

He doesn’t say anything to that, just pulls out a small device and holds it up to his arm, before turning it on. You jump slightly at the sparks that come from it and your eyes widen as he presses the device to a cut on his arm that you hadn’t noticed before.

“What in the hell are you doing?” you all but screech, reaching over and swiping the device from his hand, “Maker, you’re going to kill yourself with this thing!” you look down to the device in your hand and cringe at how crudely it was put together.

“It’s a cauterizing device,” the man defends before reaching for the device, “Now give it back.”

You hold the device out of reach before stuffing it in the bag and instead handing him a bacta patch you had, “No. That thing is a fire hazard, and the last thing I need right now is you catching on fire and dying.” You joke.

Mando doesn’t say anything, or laugh, he just takes the patch from you and nods in thanks. You watch as he goes to remove the backing on the patch, but he stops short when he sees the child waddle up to him slowly. You watch in confused interest as the small green creature reaches his little hand up towards Mando’s cut and squints his eyes in concentration.

‘What was he doing?’ You wonder.

Unfortunately, you would never know, as Mando picked the child up and returned him to his pod, shutting the doors before returning to his spot. You watched as he finally placed the bacta patch in place before turning and picking up his chest plate, fiddling with some wires and electrical parts. You sighed quietly and shifted to lay on your back, using your rolled-up cloak as a makeshift pillow.

“My name’s not ‘kid’ you know,” you speak from your new position.

Mando stops working and looks at you, “What?”

You roll your eyes and turn your head to look at him, “you keep calling me ‘kid’,” you inform before casting your gaze back to the stars, “Which is partially my fault since I never told you my name. But it’s (Y/N).”

Mando pauses for a moment, the fact that he didn’t know your name until now dawning on him and for a moment he almost felt bad he didn’t ask earlier. Almost.

“No last name?” he inquires, returning to his work.

You scrunch your nose and suddenly you have a bad taste in your mouth, “No. No last name.” you fail to keep the bitterness out of your voice.

Mando, always being perceptive, picks up on your tone but doesn’t acknowledge it or push the subject. He just nods his head and continues working as if you had said nothing at all. And for once, you were appreciative of his silence. You shift onto your side as best you can in an attempt to get comfortable and try to get some sleep.

“Wake me up when it’s my watch,” you say through a yawn.

“Will do.” He replies.

But you’re already fast asleep.

* * *

“Mando what the hell are you doing!”

You all but screech out this sentence, trying your best to keep up with the sprinting Mandalorian as he chased down a sand crawler full of thieving Jawas that destroyed the Razor Crest. He doesn’t respond to your call, or perhaps he didn’t hear you over the roar of the treads, but before you knew it, he was jumping onto the large vehicle.

“What the fuck?” you mutter to yourself more than to him.

Your breathing is erratic as you continue to follow the large machine, watching helplessly as he fights his way to the top avoiding various junk and items the Jawas were throwing at him. You cast a quick glance at the small child in the pod following beside you, but he just opens his mouth and lets out an excited squeal. The corner of your lips twitches up at the cute gesture before you turn back to keep an eye on Mando once more. You see that he has finally made it to the top, clinging to the edge after his grappling anchor was tossed off. You watch as he flings an investigating Jawa from the side of the sand crawler and clamors his way up on the ship. The next thing you know you see several electrical shots fire his way and he is falling the several stories from top of the machine to the hard ground below.

“Mando! Oh my gods.” You cry out as you approach his fallen form.

The sand crawler was disappearing in the distance as you kneel down next to him, the child’s pod coming to a stop next to you both. You hesitantly snap your fingers in front of his visor, trying to see if he was even awake.

Nothing.

You feel panic start to rise in your chest, your already heavy breathing becoming even more labored and your eyes searching frantically over him.

“Mando, come on,” you slip your hands under the top of his chest plate and shake him lightly, “Wake up!” you called desperately.

You glanced at the small creature in the pod behind you, his ears tilting down in concern as he looks from you to Mando’s unconscious form. What would you do with him if Mando didn’t wake up? You didn’t have a way off planet, you didn’t even know if you could give the child up if it came to that. You finally looked back to Mando, taking note of the shallow rise and fall of his chest, the small action giving you some sense of comfort. Then you looked up to his helmet, what if he had a head injury? It could be deadly if it was bad enough and left unchecked. Without a second thought you quickly reached up and rested your hands on either side of his helmet, you started to pull gently to relieve him of the barrier preventing you from assessing him completely. However, two gloved hands shot up and grabbed your wrists roughly, pulling them away frantically.

“Ah-Mando! You’re alive, oh my – ow, stop!” his grip had gotten considerably harder as he sat up.

“What are you doing?” he questioned roughly, his hands squeezing harder with each word.

You let out a cry and tried to move but he held you firmly, “I was checking to see if you had head trauma – fuck, Mando, let go!” you cried, it felt like your wrists were going to snap if he gripped them any tighter.

“Did you take my helmet off?” his words were frantic as he pulled you menacingly closer.

You shook your head, “What the hell does it matter?” you wailed.

“Did you?” he demanded; voice raised.

“No! Let go please, you’re hurting me!” you were panicking at this point, terrible flashes of painful memories crossing you mind.

Mando dropped your wrists from his grasp as if you burned him and scooted back slightly, going to adjust his helmet. You pull you wrists back to yourself, holding your left wrist in your right in an attempt to get the busing pain to disperse.

Mando wasn’t affected by much, but seeing the fleeting look of fear in your eyes - fear of him - as you stood from your position next to him and took a carful step back...felt like a punch in the chest. He stood slowly, not wanting to frighten you further.

“I’m sorry. I – I can explain…” he rambles, desperate to remedy the situation.

“Well start explaining.” You spit, still nursing your bruising wrists, “Because I am tired of this – whatever the hell this is. I’m tired of walking on eggshells around you,” your voice trembled slightly as you tried to hold back tears, “I always seems to do things wrong because I don’t know what’s right! I can’t keep trying to read your mind to figure out what I can and can’t do!” Your voice was pleading now and the sound reminded Mando of a child crying after getting yelled at and he had to remind himself that that’s just what you were. A kid.

As much as you didn’t want to admit it to yourself or him, you were barely an adult, still learning and adjusting to the world and the harsh realities of it. He lowered his head in shame at his actions. Yet, he knows he didn’t do it on purpose. His gut reaction to any touch was panic and fear. Because, in his world, most touches were hostile.

“Well?” you asked expectantly.

He looked up to your small form, hair falling sloppily out of its braid and arms crossed protectively around yourself, and he sighed.

“I can’t be seen by anyone else. Not without my helmet.” He finally tells you, “If I had known you didn’t know this, I would have told you first thing.”

Your eyebrows furrow at this information and you blurted the first thought that came to your mind, “Well that seems stupid.”

Mando let out a chuckle, one that was loud enough for you to hear this time and smiled under his helmet. Back to the old you it seemed.

“What’s so funny?”

He just shakes his head, “Nothing just…that’s not the usual reaction I get,” he admits.

You shrug your shoulders and rub unconsciously at your wrists again, “Well it’s true,” you followed the Mandalorian as he started to walk away towards whatever new destination he decided on, “What kind of rule is it that you can’t take your helmet off? It’s just weird is all.”

“It’s a Mandalorian thing,” he explains.

“So, like a race thing.”

“No,” he corrects, “It’s a creed, a way of life. When you put the helmet on you don’t take it off in front of anyone again.”

You hum in acknowledgment but say nothing more besides inquiring where you all are headed. Then Mando simply explains that you all need to go back to the Ugnaughts farm to request help with the Jawas. After that it’s silent, the only sound being your footsteps and you rubbing your wrists.

“I’m sorry,” Mando says after a while, so quiet you would’ve missed it if you weren’t right next to him.

You see him gesturing to your now black and blue wrists and you shove them in your pockets quickly and shake your head, “It’s okay.”

“No. it’s not.” He insists voice strained, “I shouldn’t have done that. It wasn’t right.”

You could hear the genuine regret in his voice, it laces his every word and you are slightly thankful to know that he does seem to care at least a little about you and your wellbeing. It was also comforting to finally see some sort of evidence that he feels just like you do. It makes him more…human. Not just the helmet and armor you are so used to.

“Well no, it’s not fine,” you backtrack, “but, apology accepted,” you nudge his arm lightly, trying to show that you aren’t upset with him.

He nods contentedly and that is all that is said between you until you finally arrive at the ugnaughts farm several hours later. You and Mando approach the smaller man as he worked on what seemed to be a comms tower, electricity sparkling around him.

“I thought you were dead.” He says without turning to either of you.

“Not yet,” you call up to him.

You hear him laugh as he starts to descend the ladder to meet you both and you turn to the pod and let the child onto the ground to wander while you and Mando talk to the Ugnaught about your situation. Mando has one leg up on a crate, messing with the mechanics on his bracer, and you take a seat on the nearby well, sighing at being off your feet. You watch as the Ugnaught observes the small creature curiously.

“This is what was causing all the fuss?” he asks curiously.

“I think it’s a child,” Mando says, and can’t help but give him a look that says, no shit.

“It is better to deliver it alive then,” the Ugnaught states.

At this you speak up, taking your eyes from the child chasing frogs, “his ship was destroyed, we’re trapped here.”

“Stripped,” the Ugnaught correct, “Not destroyed. The Jawas steal. They don’t destroy.”

You roll your eyes, “same difference, his ship doesn’t work. We have to get it fixed.”

“They’re protected by their crawling fortress,” Mando takes a tool the other man offers him, “There’s no way to recover the parts.”

You watch the child amusedly as it chases a frog before finally pouncing on it and trapping it with its small hands. You let out a giggle at his antics, before turning your attention back to the two men.

“You can trade,” the Ugnaught suggests.

“Trade with Jawas? Are you out of your mind?” Mando counters.

“I’ll take you to them…I have spoken.”

The Ugnaught leaves little room for argument, so you turn your attention back to the child and your eyes widen as you see the earlier mentioned frog sticking out of its mouth.

“Hey!” you call scrambling to pull the frog from it’s mouth, “Spit that out right now!”

You call draws the attention of the others, but before you can reach the kid, he swallows the frog whole, and you have to stifle a gag. The child however seems unbothered and lets out a small giggle followed by a burp.

“That was disgusting,” you say nose scrunched up in distaste.

The child just lets out another giggle and continues to explore while you move to help Mando and the Ugnaught prepare for the journey to the Jawas. There wasn’t much too it really, you hooked up a small trailer to one of the Blurrgs and before you knew it the four of you were off. It took the rest of the night to get to the Jawas encampment but as soon as you all pulled up the Ugnaught offered a kind greeting. However, the Jawas were immediately on their guard, exclaiming various warnings and readying their blasters.

“They really don’t seem to like you for some reason,” The Ugnaught tells Mando.

“Well I did disintegrate a few of them.”

You watched as the Jawas motioned something to you all and nudged Mando lightly, “I think they want you to drop your rifle,” you suggest.

“I’m a Mandalorian, weapons are part of my religion,” he deadpans.

“Well then you’re not getting your parts back,” the Ugnaught informs.

He heaves a deep sigh, “Fine,” and set’s the rifle to the side before getting off the trailer, you right behind him.

The Jawas point to both you and Mando and you roll your eyes before pulling your blaster from your holster, “Blasters too apparently,” you mutter, as you and Mando leave your blasters behind as well.

You watch as the Ugnaught walks over to the Jawas and converses with them shortly before motioning you two over to join them. All three of you sit down and the Jawa in front of you immediately starts speaking, you listen intently until he stops speaking.

The Ugnaught moves to speak but you beat him to it, “They will trade all the parts for your beskar,” you translate.

You look over to Mando to see his head turned towards you and a look of surprise on the Ugnaughts face, you shrug your shoulders as a blush comes to your face.

“What? I’m not completely useless, I know some things!” you defend.

Neither of them say anything until Mando turns back to the Jawa, “I’m not going to trade anything. These are my parts. They stole them from me,” he argues.

The Jawa speaks again and before you can stop him Mando attempts to speak back, “They, they…belong…to me!”

You cringe internally at his pronunciation and have to stifle a giggle as the Jawas erupt in laughter as well.

“You speak terrible Jawa. You sound like a Wookie.” the Jawa leader mocks.

At this you can’t help but let out a chuckle, “Yes, please don’t ever do that again,” you joke.

Mando looks from you, annoyance radiating off of him before he turns back to the Jawas.

“You understand this?” he threatens and lifts up his right arm, blasting a short burst of flames from his bracer.

“Mando no!” you exclaim, grabbing his arm roughly, as the Jawas scream in terror at his actions.

The Ugnaught tries to remedy the situation and explains that since Mando is a Mandalorian he cannot give up his beskar armor.

“What else can we trade?” you ask the leader in Jawanese.

It seems to think for a moment before pointing behind you at the child still residing in the trailer. You and Mando both turn to see two other Jawas already reaching for him.

“Get away from it!” you and Mando command in unison.

You turn back to the Jawas and pinch the bridge of your nose, tired of bartering with them, “There must be something else,” you insist to the Jawa.

You all watch in anticipation as the Jawas form a small huddle and converse among themselves shortly before turning back to you three.

“We will require the egg. Bring us the egg,” it states finally.

“The Egg?” Mando questions, “What the hell is the egg?”

You shake your head uneasily as you watch the crows of Jawas chat ‘the egg’ over and over creepily.

“I don’t know,” you say, “But it can’t be good.”

* * *

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Permanent Tags: @lord-wolfgen @petalduck​

[gintamajustaway]

Question, how do u know Yashahime's plot and writing is terrible if u have not seen the show.

Answer below the cut =u=

I found out they were making a reboot and before it aired, as soon as I saw the characters, I just had a gut instinct it was going to be terrible. It was obvious which kids were Sesshoumaru’s and anyone who has seen the original knows that it was painfully obvious how disinterested Sesshoumaru was in anything involving romance. So you knew for sure that it would be wildly out of character for him to suddenly want to bust out some kids, especially hanyou children. He may have come to very slightly respect his brother after defeating Naraku, but that wouldn’t make him suddenly want some half-breed children of his own. His scorn for half-breeds was so consistent throughout the original series and another constant was of how proud Sesshoumaru was of his own heritage and bloodline and how he thought InuYasha wasn’t a good enough representation of it, he wasn’t worthy of being an Inu.

So, anyway, at a glance, you can gather information that will toss up plenty of red flags. Sesshoumaru having children is one red flag, but him having half-breed children is an even bigger one because the only female in Sesshoumaru’s life is Rin. We know that every time anyone made a pass at Sesshoumaru, he was totally not interested and barely even acknowledged them... but he kept Rin around all the time. There’s no way I could have known Rin was going to be the mom, but I had a feeling that she would be. Mainly because this is a reboot and so the writers are relying heavily on the original content to draw in as many viewers as possible. Rin would be in the show somehow, that was a given, but considering she was literally useless in the original and her only purpose was to teach Sesshoumaru to understand, in some capacity, that not every human is inherently bad... yeah, I had a really bad feeling.

There were a lot of clues just from the promo art that this was a cash grab and I absolutely was not going to waste my time on it. A friend of mine was interested in it though so she watched the first episode and said it wasn’t too bad. I wished her luck and put it out of my mind. Then she came back and told me all about it and to say it’s bad writing doesn’t even seem to be enough to cover it. I started reading some forums and talking to other people and I definitely did not guess the plot. It was clear in the promotional art that Sesshoumaru and InuYasha/Kagome were absent in their children’s lives, so you knew something had to have happened to them to prevent them from being there, I just hadn’t guessed it was as stupid as the writing team came up with. The characters are bland, the plot is laughably dumb, and they decided that having a 13/14 year old having kids was better than actually putting any thought into anything.

I was never involved in InuYasha enough to be hurt by any of this. To me, it’s amusing how bad it is because wow, they really fucked that one up and it would have been so easy not to do that LOLOL I didn’t even finish InuYasha, technically. I watched a little over 100 episodes before it got too repetitious and annoying (Kagome screeching InuYasha’s name was nauseating) so I skipped to the final episodes and watched those. It was an okay anime. It had some good characters and the plot, when watered down without all the fillers, was decent. I would have liked for it to have ended with Kagome returning to her own time and staying there and using the jewel to close the well, but I get it was a crowd pleaser happy ending. 

For a reboot to exist following an original like that one, it would need to be strongly written with a solid plot in order to stand out on its own. Legit, just looking at the promotional images told you that it was going to be trash and it would not at all live up to the original in anyway. Normally I like to keep an open mind and give things a chance, but for this, there were too many red flags and now we have Pedomaru. 

[mrsgreenworld]

Sen Çal Kapımı Episode 16 aka Mistrust Is In the Air

Last week brought us another light and funny but, unfortunately, also a filler episode. Actually, for me, it turned out to be one of the most conflicting ones. I absolutely loved it while I was watching it live. I guess it's because the Haunting of Bly Manor / the Haunting of Hill House pulled out all of my insides and then ripped them to shreds so watching SCK was such a reprieve. This episode was even funnier and lighter than episode 15 which still had some lingering angst. I can declare episode 16 almost completely angst-free.

After having rewatched the episode with the subs I've got a feeling that the writers are trying to mess with some of my favourite characters and dynamics. I don't appreciate it. Still love the show, the cast, the characters. Just didn't enjoy certain writing decisions in this episode. Let's get down to it.

Now I'm going to break my habit and start with the one thing I hated:

❌☣️❌ Eda and Ceren: what the hell was that scene in the office when Eda spotted Ceren and Ferit talking and then tried to... do what exactly? warn Ceren? give some constructive relationship advice? support her?🤔

the first and the main problem I had with the scene was the energy - I don't know what caused it but it lacked the love and warmth that had always been there between all the girls; no matter what happened - even in that shitty situation with Kaan and when Ceren was the first to find out about the contract or even when Fifi and Melo finally learned about it - there was true girl power, they didn't allow anything or anyone mess up their friendship, they supported each other, tried not to judge and be understanding; so for me to see Eda so cold and kinda detached towards Ceren was a shock; maybe it would have been ok in a conversation with Pırıl or Selin since they're not friends but given that Eda was talking to one of her closest friends the way she spoke with Ceren was just wrong; moreover, Eda came off downright condescending; that's why Ceren's reaction was understandable in a way; I liked how she called Eda out on her lack of support;

if you think that your friend is making a huge mistake it's ok to show concern, it's ok to even say "hey, what the hell are you doing?" but you have to do this with love, you have to make sure that your friend knows - even if they mess up you will be there not with "I told you so" but with silent support; I didn't see that kind of love from Eda;

and while (as I have already mentioned) I partially understand and support Ceren's reaction I think it was a bit too aggressive;

and the way they parted with *itch faces just left a horrible aftertaste in my mouth 🤢 - THE *UCK THE WRITERS ARE DOING MESSING UP WITH MY GANG LIKE THAT???

The things I didn't like / was annoyed with:

❎ Selin: what's her problem with Ceren? have I missed something and Ceren stole her man?👀🤔 nope, don't recall anything like that happening;

Selin's channelling the kind of behaviour I really hate - she didn't give a shit about Ferit when they were together, was ready to dump him at the snap of Serkan's fingers and now when they're not together she's behaving as if Ferit has no right to even as much as talk to another woman; what's even more infuriating is that it's not jealousy because it would require having some sort of feelings and there are none on Selin's side; which brings us back to her ego and unbelievably self-centred persona;

her mistrust in Ceren as a lawyer also seems to stem from a personal dislike and Ceren's interactions with Ferit (at least it looks like that to me);

all in all this tension between Selin and Ceren is messing with the female dynamics because it's brought something the writers managed to avoid in the past - women being petty and bitchy towards each other;

❎ Efe: man, if he was just shady in the past, in this episode he was freaking snaky 🐍👀;

I understand that Serkan's attitude is unpleasant to say the least and there were moments when he was downright rude but in his case it's not being rude for the sake of rudeness; I think Serkan has excellent gut feeling; he didn't trust Efe even for a second from the very first meeting and his rudeness stems from this mistrust; Serkan is not a type of a person who's going to pretend to like someone for the sake of appearances, hypocrisy is not in his nature (which is one of the things I admire about our precious Scanner 😍❤️);

but back to Efe - yes, Serkan's not making it easy for him but he was like that from the very beginning and Efe seemed so nice, so friendly, so open to this partnership; all smiles and down-to-earth attitude; so what happened to his face in this episode? Serkan spat into his coffee?🙈😆🤣

I mean, really, have I imagined it or there was barely contained irritation and something even darker on his face?👀🤔 there was a small moment when he was moving a chair with a little bit more force than necessary 😬

I also don't like him getting so close to Eda; I still don't see anything romantic there but rather his malicious forethought is becoming more obvious;

also - was I the only one to think that a black rose he talked about with Eda was symbolic? here's what I have found about black roses:

"In the language of flowers, roses have many different meanings, with black roses specifically symbolizing ideas such as hatred, death, and despair"👀😳😱

ok, I am not calling him a Horseman of the Apocalypse quite yet but damn, he's gonna bring chaos, I am sure 😱😳😬

❎ Engin and Serkan: okay, these two dummies deserve the titles of the worst boyfriend and male friend respectively🤦

honestly, Engin forgetting about Pırıl's birthday shows him as careless and superficial; a man who claims to have been in love with Pırıl for years and who's also been friends with her for so long would have remembered such a small fact unless he's got a serious head trauma🧠🔨

as for Serkan, a character whose certain qualities have been constructed with remarkable consistency, forgetting about Pırıl's birthday is just ridiculous, unbelievable and completely OOC; sorry but that's just lazy writing🤷

it could have been avoided with just one line: "Yeah, it's Pırıl's birthday. I had Leyla send her flowers in the morning" - BOOM! that's it!

❎ Edser: yeah, I know, it's unprecedented for my babes to make it into this section 😬 but there were certain things I didn't quite enjoy;

1 - while the office scene where Serkan asked Eda whether or not she had accepted Efe's offer was humourous and funny it was also painfully immature; that's a conversation between two pre-schoolers not a conversation between two adults;

2 - Eda's conversation with Leyla where Eda asked about Selin; I smelled some jealousy and, honestly, I think it was completely out of nowhere; and Serkan's reactions to them talking also seemed kinda weird because he normally looks like that when Efe is around Eda; jealous of Leyla now?👀😆🙈

3 - karaoke bar scenes; Serkan's appearance was also kinda out of nowhere; since he was adamant about not going it would have been nice to see what had changed his mind; didn't like him telling Eda something along the lines of "we're broken up but I don't want to see you with Efe" - it's the type of "I wanna eat a cake and have it too" attitude that I cannot stand; I understand that it's hard for Serkan but he's made a decision, he's made this bed so to speak, now he has to sleep in it; moreover, discussing this with a clearly tipsy Eda - not a very smart idea;

a dance scene - while romantic and all it lacked logic and seemed a little bit like Serkan was taking advantage of the situation;

4 - a visual side of the flashbacks; they looked weird, as if I was looking through dim glass;

And finally the things I liked😏:

☑️ Edser: while immature and all I cannot deny that their kindergarten level fights are cute; it's better than them being petty, angry and cruel towards each other;

the beginning of the episode was just GOLD, with disoriented and doped up Eda and her calling Serkan "Aşkım" and his reaction like WTF?👀😳 and how when she said something nice he was like "ok, I should write that down and then remind you of this" - he's such a little shit😏😆;

there was also a moment when Eda cupped his cheek and I swear I saw Serkan melt, he was a breath away from nuzzling into Eda's palm and purring😹😻

them being in that house broken up, trying to maintain distance, avoiding physical contact - such contrast with the flashbacks where they couldn't keep their hands to themselves, where they were practically glued to each other;

I loved how the flashbacks were shown through Eda and Serkan's eyes - wherever they looked they saw ghosts of those happy moments;

the scene where they tried to talk and Eda asked Serkan to tell about a day he hurt someone, then a day he was hurting, then a day he was the happiest - so painful to see both of them clearly hurting; while Eda was openly crying, Serkan's eyes were red-rimmed and I swear I thought he was going to start crying too; it's so freaking hard for him to see Eda in pain 😭💔

another heartbreaking moment - a parallel scene when they both talked about their rings; I loved how they used the same, word-for-word reasoning for not taking their rings off; must be the soulmate thing😏😊💞

Serkan's inability to say no to Eda even when they're broken up is my gem; if one day they have a daughter her and Eda will have Serkan completely wrapped around their fingers😂😆🙈

in that last scene when Eda was leaving after her meeting with Aydan, when Serkan asked "Did my mother upset you?" - oh boy, could you maybe be less obvious? your love and concern are right there, on your forehead 🙈😆

☑️ Leyla and Erdem: I dunno I kinda ship them now🚢❤️ 🙈😂

honestly I am so over Erdem's obsession with Fifi; him and Leyla, on the other hand, look really cute together, both a bit cray-cray 🤪

the scene with them hangover in the office, wearing dark glasses - cracked me up; also has anyone noticed Erdem's cup with "Ciao" on it? a nice nod to Italy and maybe a bit of foreshadowing? Italy is not going anywhere; I feel like we're going to get the freaking time jump where Eda leaves to go to Italy 👀😬

loved the "I hate you / Our feelings are mutual" parallel with Edser

☑️ Aydan: this lady has a long way to go until she is in my good graces but I really liked that the writers decided to move her storyline forward;

I think lots of her unlikeable qualities stem from her traumatic experiences and in order to make her character grow and develop those experiences need to be addressed so I am all for this therapy thing; I just hope they are going to continue showing us the progress instead of just turning this into a one-time thing;

I actually liked that she reached out to Eda and asked her for help; while it might seem selfish I think it was clear that Aydan hesitated before calling Eda, she didn't want to trouble her, was embarrassed to ask for such a huge favour - that shows a sort of humility I hadn't detected in Aydan before;

☑️ overall mood and humour + I freaking loved that they addressed Serkan's OCD or maybe it's not really OCD, just a symmetry tick 🙈😆😂 we had snippets of it in other episodes and I have seen people wonder if that's Kerem's acting choice or something he himself does; now it's an official canonical part of Serkan's personality 😁🥳

And... that's pretty much it! Yay!

[mysterylover123]

BNHA Rewatch: Episode 35 “Yaoyorozu Rising”

mysterylover123

Best. Girl.

We open up with Tsuyu and Tokoyami vs Ectoplasm. I don’t really have a lot to say on this fight, other than “Tsu is smart and Tokoyami is cool”. I kinda low-key ship them.  Their actions are a little different here than they are in the manga; the whole fight is summed up well in this vid: Link here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXhJO-jP-y8&t=6s

RG and Deku’s meta on Tsu establishes her purpose among the class: Support, encouragement, and coolness in the face of danger. These are her strengths. Also good strategy and spitting up her stomach. kero kero!  (Poor insecure Momo! Your time is coming!

Iida and Ojiro vs Power Loader (Link here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d49orVrPCaE&t=569s ). I honestly don’t have a lot to say on this one. It’s funny. They expanded on it fine in the anime (it’s one panel in the manga). 

But on to the main event: Todomomo vs Aizawa!!!!!!!!!!

Todoroki starts by taking  charge, telling Momo his plan (ie what to do) and dismissing her objection. At this point in the story, Shoto is bad at teamwork, dismissive of his friend’s contribution, and thinks he needs to do everything himself. Momo is too insecure right now to voice her objections to the obvious problems in his plan.

There’s a story behind the Yaoyoroshkas, which is revealed in the manga: they were the first items Momo learned how to create. Here, she is so insecure about herself, after months of real, tangible failures in her chosen profession, that she completely freezes up, unwilling to take any chances, and admits to Shoto how insecure she’s feeling.

Momo also outlines how she and Shoto work as foils to each other: from a similar starting point, they have made different degrees of progress over time, her own progress seemingly inconsequential in comparison.

Aizawa Attack!

Shoto is, big shock, immediately captured, and Aizawa lays into him for underestimating Momo. Good on him. Shoto’s lesson is learned.

I love this little sequence, despite the somewhat tasteless (and not in the manga) shot of Momo’s breasts, the other shots of her running in various places do such a great job, in a creative way, of conveying the confusion in her mind and the stress she’s experiencing. I saw one reactor compare it to watching NGEva, and I agree - it’s a similar feeling of all-encompassing stress and panic.

Aizawa Metas about Momo a bit and her newly developed complex over Todoroki. I like how Momo calls out her quirk’s name like an attack move in her head when she uses it, btw. 

The vid analyzing this fight describes Shoto and Momo’s pairing in this test as ‘quite mutually symbiotic’, which I think is pretty accurate. Momo gains confidence from Shoto, Shoto learns to cooperate and think about trusting someone else by working with Momo. 

OMG HE VOTED FOR HER! TODOROKI YOU BEAUTIFUL CHRISTMAS TREE ORNAMENT! I’LL HAVE YOU KNOW I SHIP IT. 

And now we commence Momo’s brilliant-beyond-brilliant plan to fight Mr. Aizawa. Like damn, she is so much the smartest character in this series, it’s mind-boggling. So step 1: Use the flashbangs planted in the Matryoshkas to weaken Aizawa’s quirk. 2: Stay out of Aizawa’s sight using Todoroki’s ice wall.

(you’re attracted to her, Shoto. don’t deny it).

3. Make Aizawa’s scarf replica out of nitonol alloy. (Their teamwork here is so amazing! See Shoto, it doesn’t hurt to ask if it’s ok!)

that is a pretty Shoto

4. Hide herself and Shoto using mannequins and a cloth. 5. Catapult the scarf at Aizawa, heat it up and capture him. 

According to reaction comments, a science minded fan confirmed that nitonol does exist, has the properties Momo described, and would work for this scenario. Awesomeness!

I’m not sure whether Aizawa is bluffing here, honestly. Either way, TodoMomo scene and teamwork and awesomeness and winning the match! I love it! (Shoto you awkward boy) Link to the review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCTOVddikME

“Yaoyorozu Rising” is definitely one of my Top 10 episodes. I love it a lot - I didn’t squee a ton in this recap, but I really do love this one. It’s such a great match, filled with suspense and intrigue and strategy, as well as character development. The first half is a little slow, but the buildup is worth it. It’s my second favorite fight of this arc. Of course, we have to sit through a bunch of filler fights (and one really cool one) next ep...ah well.

BKDK CORNER:

Hm, a powerful-from-birth hero, made painfully insecure by months of tangible failure in the chosen profession, given a reasurring speech about their own worth by the person who brings out their own insecurities - a chosen one hero who looks up to them, supports them and sees them as the  cool one? Are we talking Momo and Shoto, or Kacchan and Deku?

BEST GIRL OF THE EP: No new ones. Let’s just repeat from before: Momo is best girl.

RANKER: Most Powerful Girls in Class 1-A, ranked

6. TORU HAGAKURE, aka Invisibile Girl

5. TSUYU ASUI, aka Froppy

4. MINA ASHIDO, aka Alien Queen

3. KYOKA JIRO, aka Earphone Jack

2. OCHACU URARAKA, aka Uravity

1. MOMO YAOYOROZU, aka Creati (duh!)

[keeloves]

Flash Season Five is Wasted Potential

Season five of the Flash could have easily been one of the best seasons ever, because we got to see what WestAllen are going to be like as parents, Barry’s disappearance was mentioned and I was curious to see how everyone would deal with that and Iris started Central City Citizen her reporting business and even hired photographer. This could have been a really great opportunity to step away from STAR Labs. Another thing that could have season great is Nora’s back story being told sooner and how she decided to got Eobarde Thawne of all people for help. All of these things were such wasted potential for season five. Now on to why season five is a hot mess. For starters, the villain is absolutely dreadfully boring, yes I get his niece is sick and he blames meta humans but why is he going around killing every meta on sight what is that going to help? Cicada is by far the most boring villain ever and he has absolutely no motivation to hurt Barry or let alone does he have a connection to Barry it just feels like he is just trying to kill for fun. It also doesn’t help that the actor playing the first Cicada gives a wooden performance and he is not menacing at all he is just so blah. Grace Cicada is also blah and how does future Grace not affect any changes in the time line when her childhood self is in a coma? Cicada can easily be defeated and got knocked out and everyone watched Grace Cicada be knocked out and no one did anything. All in Cicada is painfully boring. My next complaint is Nora West Allen holy shit have you ever seen a more disrespectful spoiled little brat? What are reasons for being so awful to Iris? Yes I know Iris put a dampening chip in her to keep her safe but she constantly makes Iris out to be this god awful mother and treats Iris more like Daddy’s new girlfriend or an evil step mother instead of the woman who raised since birth and gave her financial, emotional, and stable support. Even before the chip was put in the strain the on the relationship was there and that is piss poorly explained. I mean from the get go we see Nora act like Iris is something to be allergic to. She vilifies present day/past Iris for something future Iris did to her. She blocks Iris’s number in her phone and answers when Caitlin calls her! This show has biracial girl treating a white woman who is a human trafficker better than her own black mother! I could get into all the ways Nora West Allen is a disrespectful little bitch but these gifs of Nora XS are perfect. This post sums why I can’t stand Nora XS any longer https://ohmygettingcrazy.tumblr.com/post/184807431963/apparently-westallen-fans-not-liking-nora-makes-us

Cisco’s arc was horribly done I mean did he even have an arc? The only time he seems to have a story arc is when he is catering to a white character like the Wells characters or Caitlin Snow. Cisco is by far has the most interesting and unique powers, has the most potential and even said he loved having only for him to take the meta cure and be with a girl that has been given all of five minutes of screen time. I mean Kamilla is cute and had great potential to be a female companion for Iris and she got paid dust. 

Wells ugh get rid of this character! Harrison Wells is dead weight at this point like Caitlin Snow. It is bad enough that I have to see a new Wells every season but now there had to be two versions EoWells again, and Sherloque Wells who is by far the worst and Tom’s bad accent was like nails on a chalk board. It was awful. Sherloque’s love story was an unfunny filler and it take away from what could be really compelling things, like Nora XS back story, Barry’s disappearance and Iris running her Newspaper. Do the writers give us a full course meal on those things no they give us scraps and instead we have dead weights like Caitlin and Wells over running the show. 

Now on to my biggest gripe of the show aside from Wells that is Miss Caitlin Snow/Killer Frost. As I have stated several times before I think she is the absolute worst written character on a show. The writers said she was the key to defeating Cicada because she is apparently not a dark matter meta even though dark matter cuffs seem to dampen her powers despite the fact they shouldn’t. They constantly retcon her. They say Grace Cicada is afraid of her but how? Caitlin is constantly knocked out. I am not even kidding she got knocked out by a cold gun and her powers are THE COLD! She is a bitch and not in the “Oh she is a bad bitch she is a bad ass bitch” I mean she is a selfish bitch. She destroys the cure without considering what other people want. Yet she is supposed to be redeemed, she has never faced repercussions for all of her heinous acts in season 3 and 4 and all of her episodes did absolutely horrible and they were not compelling at all and the scene where Caitlin cried over her father’s death was probably the worst and shittiest acting I have ever seen come from Danielle Panabaker. I have no idea why they choose to keep Caitlin around, when her character is selfish, doctors incorrectly and gets knocked out. She is a danger to the team and yet she get treated like a child who was told not draw on the walls again. I mean Iris does so much as chip her daughter for her own safety or when she chooses to express her emotions Iris called “annoying” she is called “whiny and a whole bunch of nasty names. I have been avoiding saying this for a long time because I don’t like to jump to this conclusion but if you can defend Caitlin Snow/Killer Frost for committing the most atrocious/heinous crimes and even justify why she did it but can’t defend Iris for making mistakes or have to find fault in her then you people are down right racist. Yeah that’s right I said it oh boy are people going to come at me but I am done. I am done with everyone excusing white women who commit heinous crimes, and people shitting on black women for feeling their emotions and for being a love interest! I mean I can’t believe how many times I have seen people excuse Caitlin and treat Iris like she is the bad one. UGH! Caitlin getting knocked out vs Iris when she gets knocked out.

Iris when she gets knocked out

Another thing they say the trick to defeating Cicada was Killer Frost and yet this Iris handling Uncle Cicada

How come every Meta human on team Flash seem incompentent and yet the only one anything done is Iris? Yeah now to those call Iris useless STFU! 

[charlie-minion]

The one you’ve been waiting for

I’m going kind of slow with my season 12 rewatch. Actually, I just finished watching 12x05 and some things caught my attention despite the episode being a filler. The plot wasn’t so interesting to me when I first watched it. I remember quite painfully how it happened after the U.S. presidential election last November and how the whole Hitler thing became a little tasteless. However, the episode did have three things worth talking about.

1)      Sublimation is kind of Dean’s thing.

Sam gave a name to what Dean was doing. In 12x04, Dean was obviously cranky and very much affected by Mary’s decision to leave (in 12x03). Through the case in 12x04, Dean learned that sometimes families need space, which was what Mary was asking for herself, so he decided to roll with it even if he didn’t like it.

In 12x05, we didn’t see cranky!Dean anymore. However, every time Dean says ‘no’ to food he’s being offered, it’s an immediate sign that something is wrong. Sam offered him scrambled or fried eggs, and Dean said he wasn’t hungry. Sam was suspicious about it, so he offered pie and Dean declined. That was the alarm Sam needed. Pie is Dean’s comfort food and he was denying himself that.

The problem was that when Sam tried to talk to Dean about their mom, Dean didn’t allow it. Dean started talking about the case and easily diverted a complicated conversation that he definitely wasn’t ready to have. When Sam tried a last time and Dean stopped him, Sammy called him out on what he was doing and said that was called sublimation. Dean didn’t deny it, though. He easily admitted that it was his thing.

What I find interesting about this is that sublimation is a defense mechanism, but it’s considered a mature one. The psychiatrist George Eman Vaillant introduced a four-level classification of defense mechanisms:

Level I – pathological defenses (denial, delusional projection)

Level II – immature defenses (fantasy, projection, passive aggression, acting out)

Level III – neurotic defenses (intellectualization, reaction formation, dissociation, displacement, repression, compensation)

Level IV – mature defenses (humor, sublimation, suppression, altruism, anticipation)

The Level IV defense mechanisms are commonly found among emotionally healthy adults and are considered mature, even though many have their origins in an immature stage of development. The use of these defenses enhances feelings of control. These defenses help to integrate conflicting emotions and thoughts, whilst still remaining effective.

If we ever doubted that season 12 would focus a lot on Dean’s growth, I think this is proof that the writers knew what they wanted to do with our Dean since the beginning of the season. Dean has used denial, projection, passive aggression, displacement, repression, and compensation a lot in previous seasons. He’s used humor, suppression, and maybe other defense mechanisms as well, but why did Sam mention “sublimation” specifically this time?

Sublimation allows a person to channel stress toward something productive. It takes the energy of something potentially harmful and turns it into something good and useful. In other words, Dean was hurting because of what Mary decided. He felt abandoned again, and he felt like a disappointment; he wasn’t the son Mary wanted him to be. Probably somewhere inside his head the words “not enough” were making an appearance. However, instead of being sorry for himself or hiding in a bottle, Dean decided to move on and keep saving people.

Dean desperately needed a win, and he got one by killing none other than Hitler. It’s obvious to me now why Dean easily understood and defended Cas in 12x19. Cas needed a win just as much as Dean needed one in this episode. He felt such satisfaction after a job well done that he was willing to give himself some pie at the end. He even said that he DESERVED some pie.

That was Dean starting to voice the things that he deserved and the things that he didn’t. All of that led to Dean saying out loud in 12x22 that his childhood wasn’t FAIR. We’ve always said that Dean deserved to be a child, but he never was because he had to be more than a brother for Sam; he had to be a father and a mother, and it wasn’t fair. It was glorious to see Dean finally saying it and finally forgiving the one person that unknowingly caused all that.

It’s no coincidence that this was the first episode where Dean wanted to use the grenade launcher and Sam didn’t let him. (The second episode where Dean got a negative was in 12x11, penned by the same writer of 12x05). Sam promised Dean that he would get the chance to use it. It’s like Dean wasn’t ready to tear down his internal walls. He got to use the grenade launcher in 12x22, the same episode where Dean finally faced his mother and told her how he really felt.

So if Dean needed to kill Hitler to realize that he really deserved a pat on the back and some pie, then all I have to say is thank you Meredith Glynn for this episode!

2)      Dean’s visual association to ships.

Once Dean and Sam went to the antique store, what was something that caught Dean’s attention? A ship.

Seriously, they could have chosen any object, any object. Why would they choose a ship? A ship that Dean accidentally knocked down, tried to pick up, and dramatically failed? A ship that wasn’t even related to anything relevant to the episode plot-wise?

Then Dean kept walking around in the store and what caught his eye again? Another ship! 

It’s just that this time Dean refrained himself from touching it because he remembered the damage he’d caused some seconds before.

You might say that it was just the “haha” moment of the episode. Look at Dean making a fool of himself because he’s careless. But why not use a vase or any other thing like that? Why a ship? I’m ready to bet that wasn’t a coincidence.

 3)      I’ll never be good enough.

There’s a reason Sam connected with Ellie and Dean kind of connected with Christoph (the Nazi necromancer’s son). Sam was the one who could relate to Ellie for being Hitler’s descendant. Dean was the one who could relate to Christoph’s words: “All I do is try to make [my father] proud, I’ll never be good enough.” 

Dean who always tried to make John proud and failed. Dean who now wanted to make his mother proud and was failing (in Dean’s eyes the fact that Mary left was because Dean wasn’t good enough; he wasn’t the son Mary wanted him to be).

As his father said about Christoph, the boy had spine after all. He didn’t quietly accept everything his father said. Before the Winchesters caught him, he was saying these things to his father over the phone:

“That is not fair. You know, I try with you, I really do. But you expect me to be a mind reader, and it’s exhausting.”

He voiced what he thought was an unfair treatment. When he was scolded for telling the Winchesters about Hitler, he didn’t remain quiet. He told his father he should be thanking him. He even told him he “used to look up to” him, meaning that he didn’t look up to him anymore. His father called him an unconceivable disappointment and that was when he realized he would never be enough, but he wasn’t willing to simply accept death for that reason.

Christoph was a mirror for everything Dean would have to experience for the rest of season 12. He voiced what Dean didn’t say, but we know he was definitely feeling in this particular episode: all Dean did was try to make his parents (now his mother) proud, but he’ll never be good enough.

The rest of season 12 would prove Dean wrong in that regard. He didn’t have to do anything in particular. HE WAS ENOUGH JUST BY BEING DEAN WINCHESTER. I’m so proud of my boy! :’)

[sealedbeastnue]

cami’s super shittery end of season anime reviews for winter 2017!! spoiler: it was an average season but there were standouts and I probably rated some shows too highly (lol this is every season)

maid dragon: starting off with the freshest., this one earned a very solid 9. didn’t feel the last episode as much as others did but I respect it. this has a lot of really, fantastically strong art and a lot of anime original content. very good

onihei: petered out towards the end. if you watch this show, you can skip everything after episode 7 which coincidentally was its score. it was cool but it could gow as low as a 6 just based on how damn repetitive it got. recommended if you like uh... historical action? kind of?

urara: loved it, very good show. lots of charm and some interesting storytelling, about half a dozen good hooks for season 2 (jc staff when pls). actual divination is Good. gay girls are Even Better, and things got REAL weird when we hit the first advancement exam. 9/10 watch for gays.

demi-chan: (squirms uncomfortably) I forgot how much of this show was going to be wrapped up in the warped relationship between teacher and students. REALLY didn’t rub me the right way. it came off as like “lol oh well I guess theyre gonna keep doing it!) a very low 7/10 due to raw quality. watch for fluff, dullahan worst character

gabdrop: 5/10. fantastic show to trim your pubes to.

eldlive: 6/10. eh. if they wanted to sell this show, we absolutely needed heavy focus on Dr. Strangelove and they did not deliver on it (dont tease my cock with the good stuff and expect me to like it!! this goes double for the body horror shit that happened in like episode 7) ending was pretty cool, all told

ACCA: one of the oddest things that’s been out lately. really enjoyed it, I gave it a 9 but I don’t know if that’s right? political intrigue and down-tempo storytelling are always welcome in the Fast Paced World Of Tomorrow

kemono friends: this is the big one folks. this is a 9/10 somehow. it’s sincere, silly, lighthearted but respectful to the viewer. as the animators learned how to ... uh... animate, at all, it got pretty fuckin neato. they’re releasing singleton episodes and there’s a manga which is also of good quality. get into this show if you want to feel a lightness beneath your wings, and a goodness in your heart.

other shit I watched lately:

utena rewatch: still holds up pretty well. gave it a 9. grungy looking traditional art backgrounds are fucking legit. overall plot was weirder and more off-color than remembered, and there’s still a lot of depth. every nanami episode is a train wreck

ranpo kitan rewatch: 9/10 oooh it hurts so good. please watch this and try to figure out the solution to the big mystery before episode 9ish, thats your challenge. this show holds up and it’s still really good at giving you just barely enough information to solve everything - you just have to be a very active listener and viewer

steins;gate: 10/10 I AM MADDU SCIENTISTO SO-COOL I shouldnt have to explain this score HACKING TO THE GATE DAKARA IMA ICHIBYOU GOTO NI SEKAISEN NO KOETE KIMI SONO EGAO MAMORITAI NO SA

uchouten kazoku: I had never heard of this show at all before tay told me to watch it and I had zero interest at first but dude, it’s 10/10 material. this show does pure slice of life better than most anything else, has amazing concepting/art/music and a gripping plot. watch for idiot tanukis

gatchaman crowds: 9/10 season 1 was fucking great. do NOT WATCH THE CRUNCHYROLL SUBS. they make hajime into a walking abortion and I loathed her the first time I tried to watch this. in fact she’s got a surprising amount of insight. both mid-season eps were cool and season 2 was a fantastically solid 10 that showed great restraint in building up its point. and it was painfully true. dont elect a meme. we should have listened....

everything about girls und panzer: everything is just perfect. apparently I only go back and watch good shows now. god damn this one was solid, can we make senshadou a real sport and have world peace now? I want to drive a tank and get fucked up

canaan: just kidding there are some Not Great shows I watched. shockingly dissapointing at 7/10. you know how a lot of shows don’t do anything with their premise? canaan tries to do way too much. that being said it accomplishes some astounding moments (white noise fight at the flower garden) and has some great score work. also canaan is really hot so that’s neat. type:moon definitely has better offerings than this

both seasons of kagewani: 6/10 at least they did something cool with the design work and aesthetics? if you need a quick filler show to cleanse the palette, this one’s neat. very visually unique but ultimately not that much to back it up.

monster: 9/10 though I can respect that it was not the most tightly plotted show for its length. it felt a bit at times like someone would Just Remember Something Important At The Right Time and that was the impetus for the plot? it’s still a really important show to watch if you’re an anime historian, or if you want to see dr house following a serial killer. stayed really down to earth for how fucked up the subject matter got

candy boy: do you like incest lesbians? I do. 9/10

gunslinger girl: kind of boring and weirdly off-color in atitude, I ended up giving it a 7. no interest in watching season 2. I don’t really know what the message was here.

also doing a symphogear rewatch and christ this show is so hype... season 1 looks a lot better than I recalled and it still sounds lovely. I also have been reading kaiji and this author absolutely needs to write a human psychology dissertation, it would be culturally important