#this might be my favorite scene of the fourth season tbh

[christine-ye]

not rlly a toku related one but how to start precure ... tbh ive tried but idk where to start

Oh wow this might be a bit hard to answer considering I've got almost 4 years of experience and 9 finished seasons under my belt :P

Like both Kamen Rider and Super Sentai, PreCure seasons are mostly standalone continuity-wise (save for Max Heart and GoGo as they're both sequels to Futari wa and Yes 5 respectively) with their own cast and themes/motifs. They also have crossovers with other seasons mainly in the form of the All Stars movies but even occasionally cross over with both KR and Sentai (like this legendary dance scene) as they all air as part of TV Asahi's Super Hero Time block.

Some people have their own ways of picking out what season to start off with like checking out the openings/endings or certain scenes or even deciding which season's artstyle/motifs vibes with them the most. If not, they just watch in release order. For me, I mostly picked out seasons based on artstyle/motifs without much of a specific order in mind and I even started Star Twinkle as my fourth season since I liked space/sci-fi media at the time (still do, just not as much as before).

As for recommendations, most people suggest Heartcatch, Smile, and Go Princess since they're all big fan favorite seasons (should note that Smile in particular also gets more attention in the west because of Glitter Force). As much I want to add Splash Star, Fresh, and Suite (my favorite) as part of my personal recommendations, any season (minus Max Heart and GoGo) works as good starter seasons for newcomers, whichever one you choose mainly comes down to personal preference ^^

[fizzingwizard]

I really wanna write about moominvalley s3 but I have so much other writing to do ;_;

in sum, after rewatching, I really enjoy it. My opinion is that season 2 and 3 should probably have been switched in the order. Obvs certain things would have to be changed (Moomintroll can't come back from a trip he hasn't left on yet, lol). This is just my personal opinion because the tone and build up at the end of season 2 is not answered at all in season 3. Of course, that implies the tension would get a release in season 4... which is no guarantee at all at this point.

(meant this to be so very short but as usual I rambled on and on... sooo under a cut it goes x'D - spoilers obvs)

If I had to guess where the story's going as we head towards the finale, every strong story point has involved themes of leaving/separation/fears of, etc. So as a storyteller, my theory would be that we're building up to a more major separation of some kind in season 4. But storyteller instincts, clearly, have no importance in this situation. I've been wrong many, many, many times in the past with other shows for that same reason: to me it seems you absolutely need X for the story to come together, but the creators are perfectly happy without it.

(Incidentally, I only rarely run into the same problem with books - even YA.)

But I made this post not to complain x'D Because it's not a complaint, it's more a wish/a longing, because I prefer stories that go somewhere than ones that are episodic and development that happens in one episode has no effect in the next. If you're going to do that, I think you have to be careful how strong you make you the emotional impact, because steam without a vent has nowhere to go...

(holy shit I'm still complaining) I REALLY LIKED THE SEASON THOUGH. From episode 5 on, I loved every episode except 12. Also love the first episode. I want to love 2-4, but while I like the themes in them, I find them pretty lackluster, more the sort of run-of-the-mill storyline you find in any cartoon and not a lot of Moomin-y moments. But things definitely pick up again. I VERY MUCH miss the songs they picked for each episode in s1 & 2 (currently listening to s1 soundtrack because I missed it so much :P) but, despite that, the background music was used very effectively.

(Also, the song in ep 9 that Moominpappa and Mrs Fillyjonk sing is awesome. Little My commenting "How do we all know this?" when the dance starts had me in stitches x'D if any character's gonna break the fourth wall, it should be her)

The episode that tears me in two ways the most is the finale, Midsummer Magic. I want to love it!! I love the Hobgoblin's return, I loved his "gifts" to Moomintroll, Snufkin, and Sniff. And I loved the scene at the well... I might ship Snorkmyden after all bahaha. (But tbh Little My looking into the well and seeing the Hobgoblin for an instant was my absolute favorite bit... Also, it was Toffle's Tall Tales that made me a Snorkmyden fan ^^)

But I did find that there was just too little story development for me to really enjoy the finale. Like, aside from getting brainwashed by the gifts, why were Sniff and Snufkin even there? They don't do anything. And as cool as it was to see the Hobgoblin again, he just didn't have the cool factor this time. Just my opinion though.

Well, of course, I loved Lonely Mountain xP holy cheez wiz. it's good and funny. And the sidestory with Little My! By the way, do you know Nutkin...

This should have been the squirrel's name... then Moomintroll would have Snufkin and Little My would have Nutkin... hahaha (i think im hilarious yes)

And I loooooved Moominmamma in every episode except 12 x'D because I still think 12 was very meh. But Moominmamma and Stinky's partnership was unexpected and EXCELLENT. I really like it. Wasn't sure how I'd feel about MV19 Stinky, but I like him specifically because of how he acts with Moominmamma.

Things I still don't get: why is Snorkmaiden and Sniff going off to find Snork at the end of s2 just completely retconned? (I don't know what other way to explain it!) Why did they bring the lighthouse keeper back with them if there was literally nothing for him to do xD That whole "bring the hattifattener home" thing just feels so shoehorned in... the episode is more about Moominpappa anyway. And Toffle was lovely, I adore them, I'm glad they stuck around. But I hope this isn't the last we see of them, just living happily in the fairground... I was hoping we would get a Toffle & Miffle story remix :P

I'm on the fence how I feel about the Little My centric development too. On the one hand, I like it, because without it she would be the only character who's just always fine. So I agree with the decision to create conflict for her. The trouble is there's so little of it in canon. Little My's job is being okay no matter what xD So her wanting a biological father... her feelings of insecurity about whether she belongs in the Moomin family... they just feel OOC. But they do make sense as natural things a human being would feel. Well, tbh I wish they had gone a different direction with Little My, but I do accept what I go.

I also really liked seeing Snorkmaiden showing more of her personality. Reminded me of some good fanfics. The only issue I have is: will it matter in the final season? Once again, I really want there to be a pay-off to all this development, but who knows...

And with ep 10, I wrote a post about it but got rid of it because it was too nitpicky. I really do like the ep a lot! And will probably write about it again some time. It fits the season's theme of community/tolerance well. But I can't help but feel confused by some of it. I think I really needed some explanation of wtf Snufkin doing this job was supposed to mean. For him, I mean. It's meant to be explained with the "it's important that we make our own choices" thing. The trouble is that Snufkin keeps trying to make his own choices but is blocked over and over ;_; and there just seems to be such social consequences for making the choice he's most comfortable with, even at the very start before he actually agrees to anything, that I'm just not sure that's what the take-away is. Idk. I suppose my preconceptions about Snufkin are coloring my thinking here... I guess I find it hard to believe that any Snufkin could exist who hasn't already learned the importance of making his own choices :/

Still love the episode though. It was really fun seeing Snufkin in a stressful situation and seeing him have an argument with Moomintroll. (I did feel bad when he snapped at Little My... she kinda deserved it but hey, at least apologize since you were wrong, Snuf...) And I get the other moral of the episode, that as alone as we might like to be, we still need someone's help at times... even self-sufficient, independent types like Snufkin depend on others sometimes, and this ep was a reminder of that.

Oh, and the episode with Cedric. I like how MV19 remixes stories and doles out lines randomly x'D But this one was such a jumble! Not in a bad way - I'm just observing. In the story from Tales, Cedric is Sniff's doll who he gives away because Moomintroll told him about the "getting your good deed bad tenfold thing." And then Snufkin tells him a story which is basically similar to Mrs Fillyjonk's role in the episode. But in the ep, Cedric belongs to Mrs Fillyjonk, Snufkin is the one who said the "tenfold" thing, and in the end, Mrs Fillyjonk gives Cedric to Sniff but keeps the topaz eyes? That is what happens in Tales - Snfif finds Cedric lying on the ground with its eyes removed because they're valuable - but tbh I was surprised Mrs Fillyjonk would do that. In the beginning, we do see the gleam of Cedric's eyes reflected in hers... but does that mean she kept them because they're valuable..? I thought it was clear she'd grown past that. So it's more like she kept them as a keepsake. But... that's so weird, removing a stuffed toy's eyes... xD

Ok going back to writing now. Still have more to say but I'm just prattling incessantly now lol so I'll take a break. I wish I could write concisely but I'm very prone to word vomit...

ETA: one last thing. About episodes 11 & 12. I like 11 better than 12 but they both highlight the one thing about this season I didn't like... which was that it did a lot more moralizing than earlier seasons. S1 and 2 did it too, but this was to almost cloying levels at time. Yes, I think Moominpappa needs to appreciate the adventures he has at home. That doesn't mean I don't want the side of him which longs for something beyond and which keeps one foot in his youth to go away. Or that I think it's bad. These characters have actual complexity... why water that down to morals and lessons? I've talked about t before, but I'm generally against moralize in kids TV. Just write the story and the kids will learn something from it. You don't need to beat them over the head with it.

THAT BEING SAID... I know this episode is based on that story from Tales, in which Moominpappa pretty much comes to the same conclusion: that his adventure is at home with his family. So I shouldn't be bothered! ... It's just, that story "predates" Moominpappa at Sea. (We don't technically have a timeline, it's just the order of publication.) So I guess in my head, that meant Moominpappa was only temporarily content at home, and the whole lighthouse story was that side of him coming out again and bringing things to a head. Doing it the other way around feels weird because the lighthouse was so fraught and this is so... not! It's just out of balance. To me. I admit, this is coming from imagining what I want from a Moomin show... but it's not my show xP And in the interest of fairness - would the 90s show have done the same thing? totally. It just would have been a little more charming haha

[meta-shadowsong]

Quick response to Mandalorian season finale

Behind a cut because, well.

Okay, yes, I am in this show for Dadalorian and Found Family etc. But I am at least as invested in the plotline this season about various factions of Mandalorians and their, for lack of a better word, sectarian disputes. Which frequently result in barfights. Because Mandalorians.

(AKA that scene where they picked up Bo and her minion was. A Delight.)

(Also, I love my girl Bo-Katan. Even if she’s very much a blunt instrument/not a politician going at this in all the wrong ways and was Very Rude to Boba but tbh I wasn’t 100% sure she was going to show up in this episode and I would’ve been Sad if we hadn’t gotten to see them meet. Either here or next season.)

(Still Sad at the lack of Sabine, though :( )

Leaving aside anything re: Gina Caranno (because that has been discussed by people much smarter and better-informed than myself), I’m kind of thrilled that the strike team was Almost Entirely Ladies.

(On that note. Uh. Does anyone else kinda. That little “Anyone else, we can take” smirk. And I just. Uh. Bo/Fennec, anyone??????)

(I kind of already ship Bo with Ventress tbh but a) multishipping ftw and b) threesome??????)

(Hi I’m shallow sometimes lol)

Anyway moving on.

Also the sound/almost-music when the Cylons Dark Troopers were activating was Excellent I approve.

And that Visual of the one trooper Din set on fire. ...honestly that whole hallway fight sequence was pretty Brilliant.

And the sort of...almost casual layer of the scene in the elevator. Even if these women haven’t worked together before, just that, “sure you don’t need any help with that?” “I got it. Excuse me.”

And that whole thing where Gideon was trying to Manipulate Din and he was like “...dude, I legit just care about the kid. I’ll fight for/with Bo-Katan because she’s pretty badass and I Might As Well plus she gets me what I want but I don’t...actually...Care about her Greater Cause?”

(Side note, I’ve spent a lot of time writing Bo-Katan/figuring out how her head works and literally all she cares about is Mandalore and its survival. It’s why she broke away from her sister in the first place, and has informed every single thing she’s done since. A lot of why she makes the specific choices she does goes back to the Mandalorian Civil War and her experiences there--especially since all the evidence indicates she was not with Satine and Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon. The way that separation and their different experiences of that conflict probably contributed to the eventual destruction of what seems likely to have been a Very Close Relationship before that is fascinating to me. And the subject of a fic I’ve been working on off and on for a couple years now, lol.)

(...anyway, where I was going with this was--I mean, yes, Gideon knows everything in terms of facts, but he doesn’t always interpret them correctly. IMO, Bo-Katan’s desire to rule Mandalore is less about power (for herself) than it is about Mandalore. Especially given some of what she says to Sabine in Rebels--if there was someone else she genuinely trusted to take the throne and rule her world, she’d be willing to cede her claim and be one of their generals. Especially since she’s very much not a political animal. She’s an excellent war leader, but not so much in terms of actual Governance.)

(insert long ramble about the Parallels between her and Anakin, which I touched on in one of my fanfics, lol; and will probably do more with in my BB project which involves the two of them and Padme as the main characters)

(And, yeah, she does want to fight Din for the right, but if she thought Din would be a good Duke/King of Mandalore, I think she would seriously considering swearing allegiance to him? Again, witness how she handled things with Sabine. Also she would probs prefer to avoid a third (fourth?) civil war in her lifetime. But, I mean. I love Din but he is. He is not a Leader. Not like her people need.)

(And I think the way things played out with Sabine affects her decisions here, too--she did accept the Darksaber as a gift/tribute then, but proceeded to lose it. Maybe she does need to fight for it the way Maul and Viszla did (presumably; we don’t know how he got the Darksaber; it may be something he inherited/have been held by House Viszla for a while, even if they never used it to dethrone the Kryzes until now).)

(But, then again, I mean, this has been her life for at least a decade, so...well, maybe she wouldn’t quite step aside. Even if an Absolutely Perfect candidate came along. But WRT Din specifically--given who he is and what he’s capable of, while she absolutely wants him in her camp (and on a personal level isn’t super thrilled about having to fight him like this; she seems to genuinely like this kid), my guess is she doesn’t want him ruling. Not without some more actual leadership training/experience. Because, well, he’s been either a follower or a loner in everything we’ve seen him in, and given Bo’s opinion of (possibly experience with?) the Watch/the group who raised him, and the fact that he’s consistently shown himself to have super-narrow priorities and not really caring about much outside of them...yeah, she probs has some Concerns.)

(Plus, he clearly doesn’t want it. And you have to Want It on some level in order to be an effective ruler--that Wanting can be from genuine altruism/wanting to make the world better, like we see with Bail and Padme; it can be from single-minded determination to Make Things Right, like Satine and I would argue Bo-Katan (Leia falls into either the first or second category, depending on the point in her storyline); and it can come from a desire for personal power and advancement (as we see with Pre Viszla and, of course, Skeev Palpatine himself; to be fair, rulers in this third category tend to be bad in other ways lol). But someone who genuinely doesn’t want power generally kind of Sucks when they’re unexpectedly handed it. Which I could cite several IRL historical examples of. And, I mean, obviously, this isn’t the only factor in play for what makes a good ruler/leader (see above re: Palps and Pre Viszla), but it is a factor.)

(Also, to clarify: none of these are bad qualities/traits, necessarily? Like, traits are good or bad depending on whatever context a person/character finds themself in. And in Din’s current context, with his current life and mission--even in situations where he has to coordinate with other groups in the service of a larger goal--these are excellent traits to have. But for someone who’s responsible for an entire nation? Not so much.)

(One could argue that Bo has some Issues there, too, albeit different ones, which is why I think she might be willing to step aside and cede her claim to a Genuinely Good/Better Alternative, if she found one. She’s a war-leader, not a ruler, and the two jobs require overlapping but different skillsets.)

(..........honestly? I don’t think the show would go there, but I think the two of them as a team/partnership ruling Mandalore would actually be really effective? Either on an equal footing or with one as the Official Ruler and the other as a second-in-command/right-hand. She has the leadership expertise and the actual will and drive to pull this off, and he has the diplomatic skill, as we see with the Tusken Raiders, among others.)

(Not a romantic partnership, lol, that would be Weird, but a political and probably eventually platonically affectionate one. Especially with how Mandalore feels about family of choice/adoption, and the fact that they’re both kind of alone now (whatever happened to Korkie, anyway??) even if no formal adoption is likely in their case...)

(Anyway. Uh. Long tangent aside...)

(also if there’s anyone who didn’t see Gideon trying to decapitate Din when his back was turned...IDEK what you were expecting. Like. I am All About guys like Pellaeon in the Imperial ranks, and the fact that there might be a few people who would make that offer/deal and be on the level. To say nothing of my best beloved Alexsandr Kallus. But. Uh. Gideon is. Not one of them.)

(Also, I thought it was a Nice Touch when the spear started turning red--because, no, the Darksaber can’t cut pure beskar. But it does generate heat, as we’ve seen in, say, TPM. And beskar does melt.)

Also, called it on tossing the Cylons Dark Troopers out the airlock Not Working in the long term.

While it’s not Cool or Flashy like a bomb or slicing, the Cylons Dark Troopers pounding the doors down with their goddamn fists was Cool and Terrifying in all the best ways.

Side note--I think even if I hadn’t been spoiled (forgot to mute the spoiler channels on the SW Discords I’m on before going to bed, and checked on autopilot), X-wing + Grogu perking up would’ve probably clued me in and I would’ve been SHRIEKING. I was still vibrating super hard even though I knew who was coming, but it probably would’ve been slightly more XD

(and then a moment of HAHA GIDEON KNOWS WHAT’S COMING)

(and so does my girl Bo)

(and then the green ‘saber and the glove and other costume details and IF YA DIDN’T SCREAM BEFORE YOU SURE ARE NOW!!!!)

(Kind of cool that they waited until the last minute before showing his actual face though)

NO MY GIRL BO-KATAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(IF YOU DIE WHO WILL GET DRUNK AND SWAP WAR STORIES AND MAYBE HAVE VICTORY SEX WITH FENNEC)

(shut up i’m shallow)

(also I love her she’s legit one of my favorite characters in this series I don’t want her to die DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD:)

OH GOOD SHE GOT UP

(yeah that was my actual real-time reaction to her getting shot lol)

“Talent without training is nothing.” ::insert Obvious/Tired joke about Luke having all of three months’ training At Best::

(also, I mentioned this in my last quick reaction, as well as elsewhere, but I’m...still kind of uncomfortable with the continuing implication that the Jedi path is the only option other than Darkness. Not because it’s a bad one, either in the PT-era or with Luke’s reconstruction. But the idea that the only way to achieve the mindset/emotional stability/whatever needed to wield the Force without Falling is through adapting the Jedi philosophy sits wrong with me. especially the implication that you can only do so from an early age/in isolation from other influences or bonds; which is a word I’m using very specifically because there’s a difference between Attachment as defined by the Jedi and interpersonal bonds which they clearly have and I don’t want this to get derailed by that particular Discourse(tm) That doesn’t even super hold up on Earth, with a single species, let alone in a galaxy with trillions of beings of multiple different species. Basically, people and the galaxy--and by extension the Force, which is in part created/influenced by living beings--are way too complicated for there to be only one right answer.)

(Also, it...doesn’t really hold up with the core message of Star Wars, which is about Choice? If the only way you can be a Good Force Adept is by meeting this extremely narrow set of criteria, most of which are outside your possible control......but I should probably save this for a separate post, lol.)

(The point is, I mentioned earlier in the post how much I’m LOVING the throughline in this season about different factions/sects among Mandalorians, and I think it would be Great if we got more of that with Jedi/Light adepts.)

(Anyway. Uh. Back to the episode...)

That FACE MOMENT had me legit crying omg

ARTOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1!@@21!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

omg had they MET

I...don’t know what I was expecting from the credits but Welp. I wonder who the body double was...

(And before you ask, I didn’t really get the Uncanny Valley effect from Rogue One, not even Tarkin, so.....yeah, I guess I don’t always pick up on that, or it hits me from weird directions, lol. Because I sometimes get that from the Rebels animation, especially in stills/gifsets, because everyone’s faces are all so Smooth...)

.........Jabba’s palace, okay.

.......Bib Fortuna, Okay.

(those fingernails, however, are Not Okay)

YAY RESCUE THE GIRL.

Good on you, Boba, just shooting him in the face instead of letting him posture!

although why you want to rule Tatooine is...okay then.

LOL at Fennec perching on the arm of the chair, sipping her booze all casual-like.

Right! So that was an Experience! Overall, I liked it. Looking forward to how Din and Bo handle things moving forward, in particular! Because, like I said, I’m in this series for Dadalorian (so IDK how I’ll feel with it no longer being the Core Story since Grogu left with Luke) and in this season for the Mandalorian factions/sects and how they interact.

I’m also not sure how I feel about three interconnected series leading up to a Major Finale Event? Disney’s Star Wars has not had a super great track record with giving all the information needed to follow things in the core product (see: the ST worldbuilding lol, and also some of the cameos/appearances in this season, even), so I’m Skeptical of how well they’ll do explaining what is Necessary in each of the three series, in case someone only watches one or two.

What were your thoughts?

[obvious-captain-rogers]

anyways so you have one from each section, 12 Monkeys, ColexRamse, and José Ramse :) go off boo

001 | Send me a fandom and I will tell you my:

Favorite character: It’s probably a tie between Ramse and Cole tbh

Least Favorite character: OLIVIA- like serious, fuck her

5 Favorite ships (canon or non-canon): Cassie/Cole (canon), Ramse/Cole (noncanon), Ramse/Deacon/Cole (noncanon), Hannah/Emma (noncanon), and this one is a doozy but @transbucks and I are OBSESSED- Cassie/Cole/Ramse/Deacon/Jennifer (noncanon but it might as well be ya know?)

Character I find most attractive: Tbh probably Cassie though she continued to frustrate me over the course of the show.

Character I would marry: RAMSE IS HUSBAND MATERIAL

Character I would be best friends with: I think me and Cole would get along.

a random thought: This show does NOT have enough appreciation

An unpopular opinion: It was really hard for me to get behind Deacon for most of the show. He was just such a harsh character and it wasn’t really until the second half of the third season/ the beginning of the fourth season (I think) that I really started to vibe with him.

My Canon OTP: Technically Cassie and Cole are the only canon ship in the show but I’m a multishipper so it’s not really an OTP by the technical definition

My Non-canon OTP: Ramse/Cole or even a little Deacon/Jennifer action because they’re CUTE together and Deacon GAVE HER HIS SHIRT

Most Badass Character: Deacon for sure. That man knows how to kick some ass and look amazing doing it

Most Epic Villain: Hm... I’m going to say Athan and there’s only one reason why, he wasn’t really a decent guy until the end so I’m counting him as a villian

Pairing I am not a fan of: I ship the whole Splinter Fam- except the ones who are related- so there’s not much that I don’t vibe with

Character I feel the writers screwed up (in one way or another): They did Sam so DIRTY

Favourite Friendship: Cole and Ramse of course

Character I most identify with: Ramse. He’s just a tired dad trying to survive the end of the world ya know- that’s me rn

Character I wish I could be: Probably Jennifer or Hannah, just becaus they’re so unapologetically themselves which is so badass and amazing after all they’ve been through and they’re just still so kind and strong

002 | Send me a ship and I will tell you:

When I started shipping them: Uh like the first couple of episodes. Literally I think it was episode two and I kept looking at @transbucks like ‘we’re totally gonna end up shipping this right?’ and we did.

My thoughts: I just think that it’s one of those things where they’ve been through so much together and they have so much shared life experience and they support each other so genuinely that it’s a really well-developed ship, especially since their roles always seem to mirror each other. It’s *chefs kiss*

What makes me happy about them: THERE’S NO TRACE OF TOXIC MASCULINITY WITH THESE TWO. They are CONSTANTLY telling each other that they love the other and making jokes about banging each other- it’s HILARIOUS and so refreshing to see.

What makes me sad about them: Their last scene together. It makes me cry just thinking about it.

Things done in fanfic that annoys me: one, that there’s not that much and two, that it’s always really creepy- like borderline abuse fantasy shit- or that Cole is substituting Ramse for Cassie like ??? that doesn’t make any sense

Things I look for in fanfic: That there actually is some and it’s actually focused on Ramse/Cole as the ship

My wishlist: Ramse and Cole raising their boys with Cole being the best stay at home dad/house husband ever- LET HIM REST

Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other: I wasn’t upset with how the show canonically ended except for the fact that Ramse doesn’t remember Cole.

My happily ever after for them: The Happy Splinter Fam AU that me and @transbucks are going to write together

003 | Give me a character & I will tell you:

How I feel about this character: I adore Ramse. He’s written so complexly and so human that it’s hard not to love him.

Any/all the people I ship romantically with this character: Ramse/Cole (obviously), Ramse/Elena, Ramse/Deacon (under the right circumstances), and the beloved tSplinter Fam ship- Cassie/Cole/Ramse/Deacon/Jennifer

My favorite non-romantic relationship for this character: Ramse and Sam. Their father/son dynamic was so precious and it brought out the gentlest side of Ramse. Also Ramse and Jones’s bickering, and Ramse and Jennifer’s almost frienship?

My unpopular opinion about this character: I don’t think I have an unpopular opinion about Ramse- well, other than I totally understandd his motivations for some of the stuff that he did that wasn’t exactly the GREATEST.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: I want him and Cole to find each other after the finale.

Favorite friendship for this character: Ramse and Cole for sure

My crossover ship: None :)

send me a fandom, ship or character

[debbiewilder]

(idk if tumblr ate my other ask up so im just gonna say it again lmao) do u have any predictions for glow s4 or like.. a wishlist maybe?

oh i got it dude, if you write me an anon that requires more than half a brain cell to reply, it usually takes me a few days to respond, but always good to check, tumblr can be weird!

anyway, to answer your question, here are predictions and a wish list mixed into one, good luck figuring out which is which.

-I want Ruth to start season 4 exactly like we saw her in season 1…at a shitty audition. It’ll feel even more hollow and painful now though (for audience and for Ruth) bc she’s dealt w so much at glow but is still in the exact same place. I think that would be a strong way to start the season, and I could actually see them open with that? 

-I want Ruth and Debbie to spend some time apart. Kind of like Killing Eve season 1, the characters could spend time away from each other but be obsessing over/thinking of each other?? Like I could see that really really working for season 4. I mean, I would obviously love if every scene was Ruth and Debbie together, but I also just think the only way Ruth can figure out who she is and what she wants is if she gets away from Debbie for a little while. Not to mention the only way to get Ruth and Debbie to a healthier, more balanced place is if they spend some time apart I think.

-I mean I obviously wish for Ruth and Debbie to admit they’re in love because duh but….yeah not predicting that 

-I think the last frame of the series could be Ruth and Debbie together looking all happy. Kind of goes against the last frame of the first ep where Debbie is pinning Ruth to the ground in the ring.

-I’m really curious to see what they do with Bash?? I guess we’ll see what’s suggested in Season 3. He’ll start having sex with men, Rhonda will probably find out somehow because she’s pretty perceptive, and she’ll also try to be there for him but it’ll be a huge mess because Bash doesn’t want understanding in ways he prob wants to be hated for being gay…I wonder if it’d jeopardize the new network but I doubt they’d go that route, I think that’d prob be a lame route to take. Rhonda has always been really good at communicating to men who are dickheads to her so I think it’ll be interesting to see what she does when she finds out Bash is gay. And what Bash does in turn anyway.

-Oh, Debbie Eagan. My favorite fictional character of all time. I think her arc is almost all the way there. She’s come a really long way. EXCEPT it’s time we see what she’s like without Ruth. Because that Debbie is gonna be a big ol’ mess and I can’t wait. She’s used to relying on Ruth for like everything. Also, Debbie used some shitty, selfish language when she offered her eden for Ruth and Debbie. I don’t trust GLOW to actually have Debbie realize that though but I wish her to realize that…I mean given how much they’ve skipped over so much other stuff (Debbie took drugs while wrestling meanwhile Ruth thinks Debbie broke her leg on purpose, Ruth had an abortion after having sex with Mark and Debbie doesn’t know etc etc etc). But I do WISH they would have Debbie realize that she used shitty language with Ruth and grow more? So, we’ll see. I think time apart could do them some good and there’s at least a chance Debbie will realize like oh telling someone their dreams will never come true isn’t the best thing to say kjlsdf

-I do think they’re finally gonna give their protagonist a bit of an arc. Sure, it’s in the FOURTH season and that is…ridiculous but…it feels like Ruth may actually get to grow. My fingers and toes crossed that happens dude!! 

-prediction def not a wish: Sam and Ruth have sex. I think Sam could encourage Ruth to reach out to Debbie? Def not a wish too because I want Ruth to figure out her shit on her own but…the writers seem to struggle with making Ruth active so it might be a way to include Sam. I also don’t think Ruth and Sam will end up together or if they do it might have little screen time since the writers seem pretty uninterested in Sam in season 3? I don’t know, we’ll see. 

-Honestly really curious how they resolve Sam’s storyline with the health stuff…because he starts drinking when the doctor told him not to which suggests yeah he could die…but could he die?? In a show like GLOW?? Not sure?? He felt kind of…besides the point in season 3 so not sure what they’re gonna do with him tbh

-unsure what they’ll do with the other girls and how they’ll include them all? I could see the first episode having a more limited cast or something. Until X and then the gang has to get back together again. Oh god I hope it’s not a funeral or something. Or, the B and C story feel super unrelated to each other for a while. Really looking forward to seeing how they bring everyone back together. 

-curious what the new network will be like for Bash and Debbie. In ways, I could see it really working out and meanwhile they’re falling apart in their personal lives because that sorta defines Bash and Debbie? I can’t wait to see them working together omg

-What will bring Ruth and Debbie back together? I don’t know! Ruth goes on an audition and accidentally sees Debbie at the casting. Ruth finally goes to Debbie because she’s ready to be her equal…Debbie goes back to Ruth and realizes her first proposal was shit and she learns her lesson like in Pride and Prejudice and does a better proposal. Not sure. Doesn’t matter, point is Ruth has to figure out her shit first. What acting means to her. What directing means to her. Some ppl in fandom seem to really want Ruth to be a director and think she made a huge mistake not agreeing to Debbie’s terms. I disagree. It feels like she’s done directing in the past because Sam wasn’t doing his job or whatever. She def shouldn’t just be forced down some path someone else wants for her, even if that person is Debbie. Like, Ruth may realize she wants to be a director in season 4 but I just really want Ruth to figure out what she wants and who she is on her own terms and go for it. She could have a healthier relationship to acting. She def needs to have a healthier relationship to fiction and express herself more fully in her real relationships. That would be a happy ending to me. Not her just going to directing because Debbie says she should. I just want Ruth to explore and find a healthier relationship to herself and fiction and Debbie and that’s really my main wish for season 4. And, I predict they may finally honor her.

Hope this nonsense was worth the wait, anon :) 

[vrainsrewatch]

episode 19 thoughts

this is... the most screenshot heavy post i’ve made so far, lmao, so please bear with me. as i’ve said, this is one of my favorite duels, and there’s a lot that gets covered here. like, seriously, i haven’t written this post out yet but i can guarantee this will be my longest so far lmao.

the beginning of the episode starts off fairly standard, and mostly dueling:

i really do love the pacing of this duel. i was glued to the edge of my seat while watching these episodes. i remember it so clearly, too, because i’d been binge watching from episode 16 that day, and got to like, 24 by the time i stopped, lmao.

ai does a lot of cute/funny stuff this episode, to help break up some of the more dark tones of the rest of it, like this:

it really makes me miss hi in this form :( i really like his soltis form, don’t get me wrong, but i miss him on yusaku’s wrist lol. i would say when things were less angsty, but, well. lmao.

we very quickly get akira’s rad boss monster summoned out:

and seriously, i just love the animation for it. it’s so sick. the door, the fire, how it looms behind him at first.... aaaaaa. so cool.

and of course the classic:

the worst part about this line is it’s said so often (esp in arc v LOL) that i actually. have slipped up and said it in normal, day to day conversation before. my boyfriend looked at me for like a minute and gave me the deepest sigh i’ve ever heard the first time i did that pff.

also:

i couldn’t not screencap this, given what my blog is for LOL

every time something reminds me of that painful final duel, i have to screencap it and make you guys sad with me. if i have to be sad seeing all this stuff, knowing where their relationship goes and how the series ends, so do you.

also, though, i forgot how often this was brought up before the bohman duel lmao. it makes that theory look a lot more credible, so it’s cool that it had all these little hints towards it, even if it ultimately wasn’t true.

seriously, my heart. i don’t think i need to talk much about this scene to make y’all sad, but really. they went from this to i loved you. ugh, god, i’m so sad thinking about it lmao.

there is so much to talk about between akira and playmaker and even blue angel in this episode, so i guess we’ll start here.

it is hard to decide that you want to take control of your trauma and do something about it. it is not easy. to see yusaku fight for that right so thoroughly is incredible, and really, really validating.

more sadness! seriously, this is too much. this deck was created specifically for him by ai. i don’t like this anymore lmao

but even besides that, often times the protag’s decks mean a lot to them, obviously, but i love that it wasn’t built strictly by yusaku. his cards were literally made by ai, and i think that’s such a cool twist. 

but then, akira’s speech:

i talked last time about akira wanting to handle things himself, and i briefly touched on him thinking he knows best...

but i really admire how calm yusaku stays at that tbh. he gets angry, reasonably so imo, but he takes this so well. i know i was a much more volatile kid then he is, so respect lol

i’ve spoken at length already about akira, but i also want to talk again about how oblivious he is. he is so blinded by his own thoughts and feelings on the situation that he doesn’t stop to think about how yusaku might be feeling -- and worse, honestly, how his sister might be feeling.

it was why he was so visibly shocked when emma mentioned a few episodes ago that aoi wasn’t just a little kid anymore. it’s so clear that he still, at the moment, sees her as the six year old girl he swore to protect, and not the sixteen year old person she’s become. he doesn’t think about how she might be feeling towards his actions, or why she does what she does.

this is highlighted as early as episode 6 iirc, when he asks her why aren’t you happy? as much as i, personally, dislike his character, i can’t deny it’s very realistic and well written.

speaking of aoi:

i love how she’s written in this episode, too. but her entrance here is great, and i love how she stands up to him about this. it’s minor, but it’s still a good step. when she’s blue angel -- or blue girl, or blue maiden -- she feels comfortable doing that. at least a little, and it obviously grows throughout the series. i hope that transfers over to the real world for her, too.

and then, we finally get the full story:

i remember flinching when he started talking about it, remembering the shots of yusaku getting electrocuted from his duel with revolver.

i really love this. i said it last episode, but vrains handles yusaku’s trauma so realistically and it’s amazing.

i remember originally staring open mouthed at my tv screen while this part played. we got a bit of it from the other episode, but the full context truly shocked me. where’s that post that says “who thought this was an acceptable backstory to give to a card game protag” bc honestly??? YEAH

it’s still hard to watch. it’s still hard to see play out, even if it’s only fiction. even though i’ve seen these clips so many times, and written about them in detail a few times too. doesn’t matter lol. watching it in context actually still made my stomach drop.

which leads me to talk about reactions to this, actually:

the two that vrains focuses heavily on are blue angel’s and kusanagi’s, and they contrast really well here imo.

blue angel’s is a normal reaction. it’s horrified, both at the thought of it happening and at the fact that someone would actually do that to another person -- a six year old child, no less.

kusanagi’s is strained. he is angry hearing about this, thinking about jin. we’ve been told, and have seen in the last few episodes, how much the lost incident impacted kusanagi and his brother, but i really love that the show tells us that here, too, and shows the difference between hearing about a tragedy and being involved in some manner.

i did not expect it at all when first watching vrains, and honestly, it still impresses me how gracefully they handled it coming off of arc v (cough, shun i love you but really cough cough). no hate on arc v at all, it’s my third favorite ygo very close behind gx, but the difference between the two on how they handle these things is staggering.

this whole section makes me thing that ryoken talked to yusaku fairly often, after the first time. which is something i don’t see brought up often? but that’s so important imo. it meant that yusaku had someone encouraging him not just once or twice, but on the regular, but also it meant that ryoken was constantly risking himself to comfort that child. 

we don’t see too much of ryoken when he’s a kid, but we do see him scared and crying over the lost incident. the fact that he was able to talk calmly to this child so many times is really amazing. it also makes more sense as to why ryoken feels so guilty over calling the police -- he probably felt that maybe if he had just kept up his encouragement, the kids would’ve all gotten out okay and his father wouldn’t be in a coma. 

this was so powerful. it’s obvious, and i think anyone with half a brain would understand that the LI isn’t something that a kid would recover from easily, but i love this anyways. 

he wasn’t saved. and even if he was in body, it’s still something he and all the other victims will live with for the rest of their lives.

this also is something i don’t feel like people bring up enough, but does this mean that yusaku went around asking the kids at the hospital when he was rescued? it’s not hard to believe they were all put together, at least for a short amount of time, but it’s still something i feel like people overlook. 

i also love this, because it’s nice foreshadowing to how revolver feels. he’s not captured, not like yusaku and the lost kids were, but he is a prisoner. and just like ryoken saved yusaku, way back then, he is determined to repay the favor.

not just because of that, either. because that voice meant so much to him. because that voiced saved him. because that voice understood him, and was there for him in his hardest moments. god i love them.

i love this shot. it’s so dramatic, how the match the drum beats with flashes of everyone’s reactions.

but it drives home his point, and while i know most of akira’s development came through emma and aoi, i’m sure this helped, too. 

i’ve sung vrains praises this entire post, but i’ll do it again -- this is incredible. this is so realistic. it’s so well portrayed. and it’s really honest to god incredible that we got a protag in ygo who was shown going to therapy. 

ygo has always dealt with some pretty dark subject matter, and it’s never really been shy about showing it on screen. i’m not saying that at all. arc v obviously dealt with some pretty heavy stuff, and while i haven’t seen zexal (keep shaming me please) i know it does, too. 5ds obviously has the dark signer arc, and the later arcs concerning bruno and also yusei’s father, and gx has... well, it’s entire third and fourth season. 

but we see everyone healing via card games. we see those shows talk about these things, but kind of at the same time, skirt around the subject matter; or if they do go deep into it, they pull out (ie 5ds) or the characters don’t get resolved properly (ie arc v). 

idk where i was going with this but i just really love that this happened, this was shown on screen, and they stuck to yusaku’s character. they didn’t just... up and make his trauma and his world view disappear at the end. he has a bittersweet ending, but it suited him and his development. a lot of people were mad about it, and i get it -- i wanted him to be happy, too.

but that’s not always the case, and it’s really important to me that vrains doesn’t pretend it is.

anyways, though, i’m almost done with this episode i promise lmao. before the episode ends, we get this:

and i think it’s honestly kind of cruel that akira says this, after everything, and still maintains his point of handling it himself. he has heard, first hand now, how horrible the incident has scarred yusaku for life. and yet, he still is stubborn in refusing to relate or at the very least empathize.

what i mean by that, since we obviously see him attempt to last episode, is he refuses to look at it from someone’s else’s perspective or in a way that might make him uncomfortable. the way my boyfriend describes these kinds of people is that they “haven’t had their bubble popped”.

everyone has a bubble when they’re born, and that bubble shields you from realizing that the world is a cruel and hard place. even if you go through hardships, sometimes your bubble stays put, and you think that is the worst of what can happen. 

i’m explaining this very poorly, because i’m running on not much sleep and i’ve been typing about this episode for like, far, far too long, but essentially, he refuses to step out of his comfort zone and recognize, in playmaker’s case, that he doesn’t have a right to interfere and that playmaker’s desire to handle it himself is justified and helpful for his healing. and in aoi’s case, that just because he does a lot of good for her doesn’t automatically mean ignoring her for work and keeping her locked in their house is an okay trade off. and also that she’s not a child anymore -- she’s nearly an adult and she deserves to be treated as one. 

those thoughts seem to unsettle him. you can kind of see it in how detached he is after hearing all that come from playmaker. blue angel is visibly shaken up by what he’s said. akira doesn’t even flinch, because he’s not really listening right now. 

i’m glad he learns to, or at least learns how to start, later on.

anyways, i think that’s enough for this post lmao. this took forever to type up, so let’s hope i actually have time to cover up to 21 here today LOL. if you read all that, thank you for your time on my kind of dumb vrains thoughts :’)

[spaceorphan18]

Finding Kurt Hummel: The Rise and Fall of Sue Sylvester

Masterpost

6x10: The Rise and Fall of Sue Sylvester

And here we are at the infamous Sue episode panned by fans everywhere.  Is it really that bad?  Well I did have it as my least favorite episode of the series, (though after careful inspection, that title truly goes to the hot mess that is I Kissed a Girl).  However, believe it or not, I don’t think this is the /worst/ Glee ever put out. I do, though, think the context is what makes it so frustrating.  

Child Star and Other Missed Opportunities

Here’s the thing - when you write out season 6 on paper, I think the structure of what the writers were going for makes a lot more sense.  The main story that they were telling was getting the Glee club back in order, to be, in a way, an echo of what season 1 was.  And for the most part, I do think that structure works.  You have Rachel in the ‘Will’ spot as teacher, trying to get her life together while trying to inspire these young kids to be awesome, and like the end of the Front 13 - the ending there is Sectionals.  

All the other plot lines are secondary, including Rachel’s triumphant return to New York, which is the b-story of the entire season.  Kurt (and Blaine)’s reunion arc might be, eh, a distant 3rd? Maybe 4th after Will’s.  But that’s what makes these final three episodes (before the final two that make up, essentially, the series finale) so jarring.   We’ve been used to strong focus on Kurt and Blaine as secondary characters, and the kids have been the main focus since season 3.  Shifting everything back so that Will and Sue are the main characters, with Rachel as a secondary lead feels... off.  

The thing is -- I see what they were trying to do here.  After wrapping up the Klaine (and Brittana) arc - the last arcs that the ‘kid’ characters get (besides Rachel) we essentially have three extra episodes left.  One will be the competition episode.  One was the episode about the New Newbies which I don’t think was a bad thing - even if I think introducing a new character five episodes before the end was a dumb move.  But like the original kids, I think these new kids rightfully deserved an episode of their own.  And thus leaves one episode where they needed to do, well, something.  

And hence - we get Sue.  

Yeah - It would have been nice if they had spent an episode exploring Kurt and Blaine’s now married life, or what the hell are Mercedes, Artie, Tina, Brittany, Santana, Mike, etc, etc, etc, etc, doing with their lives.  But - in the minds of the glee writers... they already did that in various capacities over the previous episodes.  

But even more than that - for reasons I’ll never fully understand, unless it’s about how much they love Jane Lynch, they decided to focus an episode on Sue.  And while the episode isn’t the utter worst thing Glee ever did (honestly, go back and watch IKAG again...), trying to make emotional sense of a character you’ve reduced to a cartoon character, who breaks the fourth wall just... doesn’t work.  And on top of that, they don’t resolve anything, nor is it that interesting to watch.  Sue remains, well, Sue and nothing remotely happens.  

So yeah, this ‘filler’ episode was a way to stall time before the obligatory ending Sectionals episode - and they filled it up with a lot of what no one wanted, especially the precious few who were still watching.  And thus, we have the most frustrating and least satisfying episode of the entire series.  Thankfully, Kurt is barely in it. 

Burn the House Down

So, we open with the New New New Directions in typical Glee fashion, doing the hot single of the moment - idk even know the name of the song, though - Rather Be? Idk.  Anyway, Kurt and Blaine come sombering in, cause, plot dictates they be there for exposition. 

And we find out that Dalton has burned to the ground.  

So.  

Here’s the thing - there could have been an interesting story here for Blaine -- matching Rachel’s story about having to grow up and move on.  I mean, it’s kind of subtly and subtextually there. It is (another) reason Blaine is forced to move on and grow up.  

But.  Do you know why they burned Dalton to the ground (other than doing it probably out of spite)? Not for some kind of deeper level of symbolism.  Nope.  They did it so New Directions can meet their quota of having 12 members.  That stupid, fucking rule.  I realize that it’s now become a joke (as mentioned earlier in the Hurt Locker episodes).  But c’mon Glee.  It’s like you’re not even trying now.  

But also, like after most big Klaine events - do Kurt and Blaine get a moment to reflect on their newly marriage life? Nope.  Other than talking about a piano exploding in the next episode, Kurt and Blaine won’t share dialogue again until the series finale.  On top of that -- instead of getting to be happy newlyweds, they have Blaine upset because his surrogate home has burned down.  Thanks writers.  Thanks. 

However - there are two things I do like about this little moment.  A) the fact that Kurt is being a very comforting husband.  B) the fact that they are wearing their proposal colors.  Nice touch costume dept.  You get the gold star.  

In the next scene - we get the indoctrination of the Warblers into the New Directions.  And Kurt just nods his head along in all the appropriate places.  Not a whole lot to talk about -- other than now that we’ve got Will back in charge, Rachel and Kurt have faded into the background.  Is Kurt even teaching anything any more? No, not really - despite all the ‘conversations’ Kurt, Rachel, Will, and Blaine have off screen.  

Anyway - you know another reason Dalton was burned to ground? To service the Sue plot.  Yup.  God.  Luckily, though, I don’t really have to go into it. 

The Way Too Long Geraldo Segment

So, long story short, Sue’s hurt locker was found out and then she’s exposed on Geraldo, which does go on way, way to long.  Look, there are some funny moments and callbacks, like the finding of Sue’s Penthouse magazine and the quick return of Joe.  But it just becomes stale as it continues after the commercial break.  Also, though, Sue’s not going to actually face ramifications. I mean, she should really be in jail just on the hurt locker alone.  But this is Glee, where Will, Sue, and Rachel never have to really deal with the actions they make.  

So - Kurt’s bit is about the elevator.  Which is... fine.  It kind of feels hollow since they’re going to thank her in the finale, and she just sent them on a week long honeymoon.  But yeah - don’t kidnap people, guys.  Bad.  The best part of this is the look on Blaine’s face.  

  Unity

This scene was almost impossible to get a good still.  Oh well.  Anyway, a good twenty minutes of the episode later...

So, I should mention in the previous scene, the gang is all trying to help Rachel through her issues and trying to get her back to New York (or whatever).   It’s a little weird that Kurt is not here since he’s spent so much of his screen time playing emotional prop to Rachel Berry. but I guess I’m not complaining even if I think it’s weird? But we do get Sam calling NYADA a scam school, and info that Blaine was kicked out by Carmen herself - to which I say, why does anyone care about this school??  Whatever.  It is a funny little scene though. 

Anyway, back to this scene -- where the Warblers and the New Directions are arguing over costumes.  And the only real thing I get out of it (Kurt-wise) is that Kurt really hated wearing that uniform when he went there, lol.  (He did, though, it’s in season 2.)  

And I know there was some grumbling of this scene - why is Kurt taking New Directions’s side? Why is he not supporting Blaine and the Warblers - to which I say... the writers didn’t give a shit about that.  Seriously.  This scene is a) about comedy and b) presenting this argument that will be compromised in about ten minutes anyway.  It’s not at all any kind of reflection on Kurt or Blaine or their relationship.  And actually, I’m of half mind that the writers completely forgot that Kurt even went to Dalton himself.  

In the large scheme of Kurt related things - this scene barely registers, tbh.  **shrugs**

Hey, but costumes wins again - Kurt and Blaine are wearing each other’s colors!

Final Countdown

So, Sue and Will duke it out through music - like it’s always done, and we get confirmation -- all those fantasy performances? Were just that -- fantasies.  I kinda do like when the kids come in and are like - wtf??!?  Kurt tells Rachel that he hopes that the’ll never become that.  Oh y’all won’t, promise ;) Anyway - I love that the show comments that Will and Sue have lost it - like we haven’t known that since the end of season 1.  

So, uh, the next day? Will apologizes for being an idiot.  Okay, fine.  And then Rachel says that now -- if the glee club doesn’t win, all fine arts will be cut.  Because that makes a load of sense, c’mon writers, c’mon....  

Anyway - the one redeeming thing for this otherwise ridiculous little scene, is that Kurt’s a ball of optimism -- he inwardly reflects on all the crap that’s happened in his life and he turns it around saying that they’ll never give up on anything (to which Blaine looks at him adoringly).  And, I mean, it’s a subtle thing -- but I kinda love this.  Because here’s a kid who has been through hell and back and a lot of shitty things (even recently) and you know what? He’s fine.  He’s in a good place, he’s happy, he’s loved, he’s got a great support system, and a good attitude about life.  And, he’s got a great motto to go along with it -- It’s Got Bette Midler.  (lol)  

But I mean, let’s take a second and think about the fact that Kurt started his journey being that kid who gets thrown in dumpsters for being weird and gay and now, you know what? He’s fine.  He’s really, really, really fine.  :) 

Rise

So - here at the end, we see Blaine solving the absolute crisis of the episode and somehow he’s managed to make, like, twenty unity blazers overnight, combining the Dalton tradition with the McKinley colors.  And did it without Kurt knowing what he was up to because Kurt was totally surprised.  But it’s in a good way, Kurt’s incredibly proud that Blaine managed to solve this epic dilemma.  (I joke, but really, it’s sweet that Kurt’s, again, proud of his new husband).  

Meanwhile, we get the song Rise, written by Darren Criss -- and I’m kind of impressed with this song -- it manages to reference birds, Dalton burning down, the kids rising to the top, and the fall of Sue Sylvester all in one go.  Color me impressed, too.   (Btw, this is such a Darren-esque song, I can hear this in his voice even if I’ve never heard him actually sing it.) 

I’ll leave you with the some lyrics, which I’m sure you can work out their meaning on your own ;) 

Have you ever felt like you woke up (On the wrong side of your heart) Has it ever felt like it's broken (Like the world tore it apart) Have you felt so weak, You could hardly stand Like if you ever fell You could never tell If you'd ever get back up again I know it's hard to do, But I think you can make it, Cause I know we can take it Baby we will... Rise We are young we are the dreamers we will fly When the world will not believe us, We will rise above the ashes Before this whole life passes us by You and I, we will rise

[thelivesoftargaryens]

Tagged by @chillyravenart . This looks like a fun challenge so thanks for the tag :)

Rules: Answer the 10 questions below. Then make up 10 of your own for the next person to answer, and tag people. 

1. What are your top 3 favorite houses in Westeros? 

Well... Of course the Targaryens are my all time faves, but the Velaryons come a close second, and i’ve always loved the Martells. (Sorry I just have to add in the Daynes here too!) 

2. If you could live during one era in GRRM’s universe, what era would it be? (Age Of Heroes, Valyrian empire, Conquest of Westeros, Dance Of Dragons, etc.) 

As much as i’m the biggest fan of the Valyrian empire... They’d most likely have me as a slave (But let’s hope i’d be born into one of the ruling families and get to have a lil’ dragon of my own :) ) I will have to say The Dance Of Dragons though, because even though i’d probs not be highborn enough to get within Daemon’s vicinity, a little bird told me he liked to hang out in Flea Bottom too, so i’d most likely search this badass up and just ask him to adopt me or take me to wife, mistress... whatever works for him. Y’know, I ain’t picky-- Just make it happen. 

3. What is your favorite episode/scene from the Game of Thrones series?

My favorite episode will have to be when Dany is in THOTU to retreive her stolen children and she sees all these forebordings. My favorite scene is stuck between the scene in the same episode where Dany meets Drogo again and Rhaego (it just hurts the soul, man.) and the scene where Bran tells sam that Jon is Rhaegar’s son. 

4. What ruler do you think brought the most change in Westeros, be it good or bad? 

This is one tough cookie, but i’ll have to say Fat Aegon (aka Aegon the unworthy, Aegon the fourth) Because this absolutely thick, dumb fool thought it would be a great idea to legitimize all of his bastards and then fuck up the line of succession, leading to oh, so many rebellions and wars. Absolutely idiotic. 

Honorable mentions go out to Viserys I, the one who couldn’t make up his fucking mind and declare the heir who’d be succeeding him once and for all, and Jaehaerys (father of Aerys) Who thought it would be a great idea to marry his son and daughter to each other, because some randy dwarf that his brother’s peasant wife had brought to court (thinking it was a child of the forest) said so. (No hate to Jenny though, she seemed swell) Though I can’t say that I wouldn’t have seen Aerys and Rhaella wed, because then we wouldn’t have gotten Rhaegar the hot sad boi™️ 

5. If you could ask GRRM one question, what would it be? 

Ugh... I have so many, yet now I can barely think of any. I won’t ask the obvious but I would ask ‘’Why is it so dangerous to travel to Valyria after the doom and why did so many go missing?’’ It was trademarked like we’d get to know this in Fire & Blood, but either I must have completely missed it or it was fake advertising hmmm.... I still want to know, i’d love to know more of the Valyrian freehold. 

6. If GRRM could write a short novel/series about one other family or historical time (besides the Targaryens) in this universe, what would you want it to be about?

Personally, I’d want it to be about the Daynes and how they gained their Valyrian features (silver gold hair and purple eyes) without being of any kin to the old Valyrians and Targs. (I know Maekar married Dyanna Dayne but their kids didn’t marry back into the Daynes, so they didn’t gain the features from that one wedding.) It would also explain why Dawn is such a badass, superior sword (even toward Valyrian steel.) 

7. What was your first introduction to ASOIAF/ Game of Thrones? Did someone tell you about it, did you see it online or did you come across it at a store/shop)

Well... I first came across the series after it was broadcasted on TV and my dad told me that Tywin hated Tyrion, though more of a direct quote would be ‘’Look at this show, that one hates his son who’s a dwarf.’’ And then I binged it all but forgot about it for a few years. Then I randomly started to watch it again after it was hyped up, but i’d say I discovered the series like 5 years ago. 

The books came a little later, however and It was during a Swedish class that I discovered the book (we had quiet reading time and i’d forgotten my book, so I got to choose a random one and thought ‘A Game Of Thrones ‘ looked interesting. It was in swedish though and I only read Dany’s chapters because she was the only character that I knew for sure, who she was. 

After reading her chapters, I forced my friend to come with me to the library and I borrowed all of the books and read them during the summer. 

Fun fact: After I finished them all (circa 6 months) I began rereading them again because so much had passed since the first book and I for some reason wanted to jog my memory. This was around 2-3 years ago. 

8. What was the one thing that bothers you about GRRM’s series? 

As @chillyravenart put it, the women dying in childbirth all the time irks me a bit, because i’d wanted characters such as Laena Velaryon and Joanna Lannister to have lived and even though dying in childbed was common back in the days... That the child they’d birthed almost always died, seems a bit overused too. 

9. What’s the one thing you unbashedly love about GRRM’s series?

The Targaryens and Valyrians beeetch. I’m a sucker for that light hair and purple eyes (and inhumanly sexy, might I add, features.) They’re basically gods to me. Yet I love how he also shows us the rawness of characters and the human heart in conflict... There’s not really black or white, a lot of things come in varying shades of grey (except like Joffrey, fuck that little shit) and I love the way he describes everything, it’s all sex, sweat and regret--Passion, heartbreak and the ugliness of war.

10. What are your feelings about the prequel series in development at HBO right now for the Long Night?

Unpopular opinion, but i’m not tooo excited. I mean i’ll watch it but I really wanted one about the Valyrian freehold. I’m still hoping for it though. The long night ain’t really my cuppa’ tea. 

Now for @chillyravenart ‘s questions...

1. Which Westerosi castle would you like to live in? 

Hard question but i’m stuck between Dragonstone and Starfall. Probably Starfall since Dragonstone would be a little too cold and damp for my taste. 

2. Would you rather be a rich and influential lord, born into wealth and privelege, or would you rather be someone who wields power from the sidelines, like littlefinger? 

Tbh i’d probably like to be born as a rich lord because life just seems to be easier if you’re already at the top... Idk if i’d be clever enough to be as smart as littlefinger lol. Make me a Targaryen princess and i’ll be content. 

3. Pick one: Platinum hair or purple eyes?

This is a really tough one but definitely purple eyes. I can just color my hair platinum but purple eyes are rare and ethereal and I just love them sksksk.

4. Based on a tag I made once, based on your physical features, which part of Westeros/which house do you belong to? 

I’d probably say the Martells.

5. Who do you think will actually defeat the Night King?

Oh, a hard one. Probably Daenerys and the other two unknown dragonriders. In the series; Jon and Dany. 

6. Three people you think will die in season 8?

Tyrion, Cersei and Euron. 

7. What would you name your dragon/direwolf?

Well I’d probably name my dragon something like ‘’Valerion’’ and my direwolf would probably be ‘’Viséa’’ idk why lol. 

8. How must Ser Pounce be avenged?

Do what Cersei did to Ser Pounce, twice to her. Honestly reading the articles about Ser Pounce’s death was horrible for me, since my favorite animal are cats. I’d make Cersei suffer. 

9. Whose POV chapters are your favorite?

Dany’s are a hard favorite but Cersei’s come a close second. I always fancied Arianne’s chapters, too. 

10. Your favorite ASOIAF/GOT antagonist?

Don’t lynch me but I love me some Viserys. *Shouts from the rooftops, hidden behind a bench* He was misunderstood, okay? 

Here are my own questions; Sorry if they’re shit in advance haha.

1. What do you think about Arthur Dayne?

2. Do you think Rhaegar truly loved Lyanna, or was he fueled quite a bit by his obsession for the prophecy of TPTWP?

3. Why do you think Ashara Dayne killed herself?

4. Do you believe that Young Griff is the real son of Rhaegar and Elia Martell, or a fake?

5. What do you think will happen to Daenerys in season 8? 

6. What are your thoughts on Cersei? 

7. Do you think Tyrion will betray Daenerys in season 8? 

8. Who do you want to sit atop the iron throne and rule the seven kingdoms? 

9. List your top 5 characters and a short explanation to why. 

10. Thoughts on Fire & Blood? 

I don’t really know who to nominate so i’m nominating random people I follow, sorry lol. @mhysaofdragons @eliaamartell @where-is-the-winds-of-winter @rhaegardaily @wolvesofspring @ladyofdragonstone

And... I hope whoever reads this found my answers mildly interesting, even though no one will probably see it. Also, Tis my first post. YAY!

[jeanmoreaux]

I feel the same way about enjoying the show more towards the end of season 7 bc of closure with Mickey and I think Trevor was mostly good for Ian. I also liked Lip a lot more through season 8 and how Debbie is progressing with her life. there’s something I would consider big that happens in season 9, idk if you know and I’m not entirely sure if you would like it or not bc of one of your reactions but I thought it was nice.

((i feel the exact same about debbie and trevor tbh))

uhhhm okay i just watched 9x06, which is apparently cameron monaghan’s last episode (but not really since he’s going to be a regular in season 10 again), and if you’re hinting at the episode’s ending in your ask then OMG IDK IF I LIKE IT OR NOT EITHER LMAO!!!

((SPOILERS FOR SHAMELESS SEASON 9 AHEAD, so just skip everything from here on if you haven’t watched episode 6 yet))

THEY BROUGHT MICKEY BACK FOR LIKE 50 SECONDS AND MADE HIM IAN’S CELLMATE!!???!!??!? ASJKDJKHAKSHKASLKA I LITERALLY THREW MY LAPTOP A FEW FEET AT THAT!

i have so many conflicting feeling right now it’s confusing! i feel surprised, happy, and oddly disappointed at the same time. it’s weird how emotional i got. The scene brought me endless joy and great despair at the same time. i just really miss mickey; he will forever be my favorite! and i am still a big supporter of gallavich being endgame ((when reading the following rant, please, bear in mind that my fangirl heart was really pleased with the final gallavich scene, even though this contradictory burst of opinion might suggest otherwise.))

I mean let’s be honest, an ending to ian’s story without mickey just would have felt wrong. he’s been such an important part of ian’s life and the only significant partner he’s had, so bringing him back for ian’s goodbye felt only natural. they have been (and probably still are) profoundly in love. you can see that in every single one of their interactions through the seasons. and it was a sweet ending to the story, yeah, but it’s not the satisfying ending (or reunion) i hoped for! there is absolutely no resolution to their relationship and all the shit they have been through. that was my main issue with the episodes in season 7 too, they never talked their shit out. they’re back together and everything is fine, when, clearly, they still have a lot of issues to resolve because things didn’t always go smoothly with these two.

In season 1&2&beginning of 3, ian seemed to be the one more invested; but since at least the start of season 4 mickey is the one putting more effort into the relationship. obviously, ian is preoccupied with coming to terms with his mental illness, so clearly he has to take care of himself before taking care of his relationship. but i mean season 5 is mickey supporting and loving ian unconditionally, taking care of him when the gallaghers won’t. and what does mickey get in return? a cruel breakup, ian’s sudden nonchalance, and absolutely no closure. (the writers definitely could have handled this differently. the end to mickey’s character in season 5 and the start of season 6 was just one massive shit-show). the season 7 reunion was a mess too, ian&mickey both deserved a better ending to their epic love story than what they got during these two episodes. again, there was no real closure either, but it’s half-decent. and now in season 9, the writers just throw them in a cell, together, and then they are like “yeah look at this endgame that we totally planned for in advance! we love our amazing endgame! actually, we love it so much that we didn’t even give it more than 50 seconds of screen time to give them some kind of satisfying closure! this was totally not rushed and unprepared because we are excellent writers! yeah, #gallavich #endgame, am i right?” so yeah, as much as i love that ian and mickey are reunited, i am disappointed with how their (apparent) ending was handled.

I NEED TO SEE THEM TALK THEIR RELATIONSHIP OUT! i need them to find a balance. i need them to get on the same page and not have mickey give and give while ian only takes and takes. it’s like ian is only with mickey when it’s convenient while mickey will always choose ian first, no matter what. everthing mickey does is for ian. mickey returned and sacrificed his freedom for ian. HE TURNED HIMSELF IN AND RATTED ON HIS CARTEL TO BE IN PRISON WITH IAN BECAUSE HE KNEW IAN WOULD HAVE A HARD TIME DEALING WITH HIS INCARCERATION ON HIS OWN! He cares so much about ian while, apparently, ian can’t seem to give two shits about mickey whenever he’s not around, from what we were shown. ian never went the extra mile for mickey thus far. ((that’s not really on ian, it’s the writer’s fault, but it taints the relationship nonetheless. they finally need to decide if they want gallavich to be endgame or not. they can’t keep their option open forever without ruining the ship.))

i love my boy mickey so much and seeing him hurt and heartbroken time and time again just destroys my soul. (like he repeatedly suffers bc he cares too much and loves too hard, that’s just not fair.) he deserves happiness, and i am not sure if that’s what will happen now that he’s in prison with ian as his cellmate. though i hope he and ian eventually get a proper happy ending, it’s become more and more unlikely, from what i have gathered. with ian’s character being back on season 10, this apparent gallavich endgame isn’t really a save endgame at all!!

cameron returning for season 10 is amazing, but i honestly don’t believe gallavich will survive ian’s return to the show. cameron stated in an interview that he chose to return bc he was intrigued by ian’s storyline for the next season. he also stated, in the same interview, that he would like to see ian bettering himself and growing into a responsible adult who takes care of his siblings, exploring stories beyond the quest of seeking and maintaining romantic relationships – which i think is fantastic, don’t get me wrong! with that being said (and noel fisher probably not returning for season 10), i don’t really see a chance for gallavich surviving past their prison reunion. are they ever going to be endgame? frankly, i am not sure. depending on how well they handle mickey’s departure this time around, there might still be hope. maybe i am too pessimistic, i don’t know? mickey’s character and gallavich have suffered so much due to bad writing, idk how much more both can endure before it’s Too Much. you know what i mean?

i hope i am wrong with my assumptions because i’d love to see ian and mickey’s relationship flourish again. they are one another’s big, true love, and they deserve a well-written happy ending.

my biggest fear atm is that they are simply going to kill off mickey so they don’t have to bother with the fans wanting noel and the gallavich relationship back.

I feel like, at this point, the writers should stop playing with us and either give us the gallavich relationship mickey and ian deserve or kill this ship for good. I think my heart can’t handle seeing mickey being poorly written out of the show in season 10 for a third/fourth time. it’s just… he deserves sm better!

despite my worries i try to remain hopeful, though!

[taggianto]

The Aces Charity Carnival

Ladies and gentleman, step right up! It’s time for the annual Las Vegas Aces Charity Carnival!

Born from spitballing in the Parse Posi Posse discord. Love to @rushingsnowy (Linnea) and beaniebaneenie (CJ) for cheerleading and helping with this, and love to the rest of the Posse for all their support and awesomeness in general!

Suddenly I have the image of the Aces doing some sort of fundraiser with a dunk tank and everyone on the team signing up so they can dunk Carl

And like, it's outside in Las Vegas and normally it would be like, super hot so getting dunked in a tub full of water would be a good thing? Except it's stupidly unseasonably cold the day of the fundraiser so by the end of his shift Carl is shivering and his lips may or may not be blue from it

And then it's Kent's turn and everyone who signs up misses on purpose.

Jeff has a line a mile long while he's in the kissing booth.

Mostly because he's out at this point so there's both men and women lined up to kiss him

Kent gets in line with the guise of it being "for charity" but really he just wants to be able to kiss his boyfriend in public with a layer of plausible deniability

Scrappy is actually really good at face painting? So he spends the whole time painting kids faces with Aces logos and butterflies and sharks and abusing his glitter spray liberally

So what if each booth is for a different charity. Like the kissing booth is for HIV testing, the dunk tank is for well drilling in impoverished countries, the face painting is for art education... and each Ace is sponsoring one of the booths and matching all donations by 500%

CJ: What if the only person who dunks Kent is Bitty, because he wanted to see Kent with a wet t-shirt

But it's okay because it's at the end of his shift and then Jeff is there with a big fluffy towel to get him all dry

Jack is super awkward at this whole carnival thing. But he and Kent have started talking again and Kent had invited him and it was the offseason so he really didn't have an excuse....

He asks for a hockey stick at the face painting booth and scrappy paints a super glittery butterfly on him instead because he's still a little petty about how much his Captain got hurt by this guy

Jeff scolds him later because liking butterflies as a guy isn't a bad thing and shouldn't be used as a method of humiliating someone but at the same time he's like but for real I get you, bro

Jeff's just like "next time just like, paint that the Aces are better than the Falcs and then get that shit on insta."

CJ: ....what if Jack offers to get in the dunk tank (also matching donations?)

Bitty talks him into this because the only thing better than jack in a tshirt is jack in a wet tshirt Bitty has a Thing okay?

Linnea: are bitty and jack out in this? does the media latch onto pictures of sparkly butterfly on jack's face and go 'this gay pro athlete out here, being gay' and jack's like 1) i just wanted a hockey stick 2) a sparkly butterfly isn't what makes me gay? i was literally holding my boyfriend's hand and kissing him. why not take a picture of that?

Jack and Bits are definitely out for this.

There's definitely like, a hardest slap shot competition, with two entry levels - amateaur and pro. Because a lot of hockey players show up for this thing and jump at the chance to show off

Bitty actually signs up for the pro side and does pretty damn well for himself.

Jack and Kent end up tying for second. Some nobody fourth liner for the Lightning gets first and a lot of the players in the area are like hmmmmm

One of their goalies is really good at slight of hand, and does magic trick shows for the kids

They call the goalie Houdini. His first name is Harry anyway, the magic tricks were just a fortunate coincidence.

He's like their back-up's back up. But the guys love him too much so even though he's down in the AHL for the moment, he still gets invited to all the team events off season.

There's also a silent auction of course, and there's the requisite signed jerseys and sticks and pucks, but there are also gift certificates to the player's favorite restaurants, and one of the most popular items is a date with a few of the players.

So. Who wins the dates? Let me tell you.

Jeff's date is bought by this older gentleman who takes Jeff out to a celebrity restaurant in Vegas and then to a bourbon bar afterwards and they bond over talking about trains - Jeff loves model trains and the gentleman's father was an engineer.

Scrappy goes out with a woman whose husband bought the date for her. She's middle aged and super self conscious about her looks, but Scrappy is a total gentleman and treats her like royalty the entire night. They go swing dancing and she turns out to be really good once she gets the hang of it.

CJ: What if scrappy got her a corsage, bc that's what people did for dates when this woman was in the dating world

Kent's "date" is bought by the parents of a ten-year old kid who's on the spectrum and idolizes Kent. Kent takes him out onto the ice and shows him how to shoot the puck and gives him a jersey and one of his old sticks and shows him all around the behind the scenes of the arena, and also gives him box seat tickets to a game with his parents. It's a private box so if it gets too overstimulating for him he can take a break. Kent keeps up with the kid, sending him emails and eventually helps him pay for college when his parents go through a rough spot.

No one buys Carl's date.

CJ: bitty also definitely paid to kiss swoops

Kent gets Ideas when he sees Jeff and Bitty kiss. Because he's over Jack by now, he has no desire to start up any sort of sexual relationship with him ever again. But. He just might be convinced to sit and watch their boyfriends.... >.> this isn't an NsFW chat but you get the idea.

CJ: ...maybe Kent gets it in his head to kiss bitty?

And is v. disappointed when Bits doesn't get in line for his shift at the kissing booth. But then again he isn't out so Bits may just be trying to respect that? But then again he IS Jack's fiancé. And Kent is Jack's ex. Maybe that would be weird? But maybe it would be hot... fuck.

All I know is they def go out for a double date after the carnival except Bitty isn't aware it's a double date at first because he doesn't know Kent and Jeff are together, except Kent thinks he does because he definitely told Jack about them and he just figures that Jack will have told Bitty but he hasn't? Because he didn't want to out Kent if that's not what he wanted? And Jesus Christ Jack, since when did you get to be so thoughtful?

Fuck, yes of course you can tell your fucking fiancé that I'm in a relationship with my teammate but thank you for not assuming.

CJ: "Hey Eric, Swoops and I need you to settle something for us... We keep fighting over who is the better kisser... We need you to be the objective scorer. For science."

Bitty: But I'm not a girl? Kent: wait, what? Bitty: you're both straight, right? Or well, I know Jeff is Bi but... Jeff: Eric, Kent and I are together. Kent: And you know Jack is my ex. Bitty: Right but like you'd never actually come out to me or anything and I didn't want to assume I just thought maybe you were trying to get comparisons between how you both kiss different people and Jeff: Dude, breathe.(edited)

CJ: Jeff: also Zimmermann? [Bitty] is a good kisser. Out of your league, definitely. Way to go.

Jeff: *holds out a fist for a bump* Jack: Uh.... Bitty: No, babe he's totally right. I am so out of your league. *kisses his cheek*

Meet me in NSFW.

They go back to Kent and Jeff's place after dinner and Kent is definitely quite a bit tipsy on wine and Jeff is pleasantly buzzed and Bitty is too and Jack's the only one who's fully sober.

Jeff: So Kent and I were talking. Kent: *giggles* Jeff: And he'd totally like to watch you fuck me, Eric. If you'd be up for that. Bitty: :flushed: Jack: :no_mouth: :thinking: :flushed: CJ: Bitty: looks at swoops and sees tall muscle-y brunette Bitty: i.....could be persuaded

Bitty: glances at Jack Jack: subtly tries to hide the bulge that's appeared in his dress pants Jack: *looks at Kent* Would that mean we...? Kent: Oh, no. Sorry Zimms, you know I love you bro but that'd be weird I think? But I'm totally cool with watching them while we jack off to it. Admit it, it'd be hot as fuck. Jack: :tomato: Jeff: I'll take that as a yes?

CJ: Ngl i love bitty/parswoops bc  A) Kent gets two bfs B) swoops has two smol blond boyfriends

I don't see Jeff getting with Jack tho. TBH, I don't think Jack would be down for sharing himself with someone else? But he's totally on board for Bitty being with who he wants.

So when they all get together Bitty, Jeff and Kent go have their fun while Jack sits out on the porch reading a book and getting the quiet time he needs, and then Bitty sleeps with him in the guest room at night

CJ: And on nights where Jack needs to breathe, bitty and Jeff cuddle with Kent In the middle

Yes. And it takes so long for Jack to admit that some nights he just needs to be alone because at first he feels like that's rejecting bitty? But then they have Jeff and Kent in their lives and Jack can get what he needs and so can Bitty and it's perfect

CJ: Jeff also approves of this because it's easier to lavish attention on kent with two

CJ: And overstimulated, wrecked Kenny is beautiful

And like, before they got to this point Bitty and Jack's relationship was kinda on the rocks because they were fighting all the time (surprise surprise Jack couldn't communicate what he needed)

But now it's just so peaceful? Like yeah they still fight but it's just normal couple stuff.

CJ: Swoops would probably be good at getting them to cope better

Oh yeah. He would be super no nonsense about it too.

Like just. Sit them down and be like look, you're both idiots. Figure this out, Kent and I are going to the movies.

The end <3

[lightsandlostbells]

SkamFr Episode 6 reaction

For some reason the read-more keeps getting removed from my long-ass posts even though I make an effort to put it in, I apologize for that.

This episode contained some really great things (Alex 💖💖!) and also made me able to articulate something about the remake that is part of why, despite having things I’ve enjoyed, I don’t feel it is that emotionally resonant. It lacks fragility. 

Clip 1: Lucas gets the dirt from Emma

You know I don't have a problem with Yann being a skateboarder or whatever, that's where they're going with his character, but it low-key exasperates me because (as we just heard this week) Jonas was into skateboarding because Marlon Langeland was. Similar example, Sana played basketball because Iman Meskini plays basketball in real life. I believe Eva’s Black Swan costume was a nod to Lisa Teige being a dancer. Is Yann’s actor into skateboarding IRL? I don't know. Maybe he is. But by sticking to the original characters so slavishly, they're missing on opportunities to personalize them and play to the actors’ strengths. Like these are really simple things they could do to differentiate the characters to make it more of a personalized production. 

I mean it’s totally fine and even a little charming if Yann is kind of a crappy skateboarder, lmao (I am not an expert). 

I forgot how much Isak leads into this conversation with Eva, trying to get the details. But that actually makes more sense to me because in this version, Lucas just sits down, asks if everything is okay, and then Emma confesses right away. If this has been weighing on her (which it has), she could have told one of her girls, who would have been a “safer” choice to tell? Maybe not Daphne, but Manon wouldn’t have cared and wouldn’t have any reason to tell Yann - ignoring Lucas’ real motivation at this point, he is also Yann’s BFF and might feel a sense of loyalty to him. Any way you look at it, not a great person to confess to. Isak was at least leading Eva a bit and encouraging her to open up, so it makes sense that she would cave and share with him in that moment.

I never noticed before but at the beginning of the original clip you can see Isak and Eva walking together, cute.

No offense to these actors but Lisa and Tarjei are the ones from the original I miss most. For all of the social media for Lucas and Emma that makes them seem like good friends, within the clips themselves I don't really feel like they're close.

Clip 2 - girls at lunch

On the one hand, I get why they picked episodes 7 and 8 to merge, gossip travels fast and I could see these events unfolding rapidly. On the other hand, there’s a lot of really weighty material in these episodes so it’s unfortunate.

So the big thing here is obviously that Alex hooked up with a girl! I saw the post about the actress confirming her as bi, so that’s terrific. What would be great is if this was integrated into future seasons - what if Kasper was a girl??? A deeply weird girl. I would be all kinds of into it. Or just keeping up the trend of her casually talking about girls, having her chime in to correct Vilde/Daphne’s ill-advised comments about lesbians, etc. 

This is also pretty big because she’s apparently out, at least to her friends? There’s not going to be a coming out season for her unless it’s for her family or something. So should they decide to do an Alex season or involve her sexuality in a future storyline, it would be from the perspective of someone who is already open and seemingly comfortable in her sexuality. I seriously hope they do some exciting stories with this piece of information.

Poor Daphne clinging to her delusions. Her enthusiasm about double dating with Emma, Alex, and Charles is so sad.

Were the jerseys in the previous episode at all? Manon being like “I can’t stand seeing you in this jersey” when it’s the first time Daphne’s worn it (though I agree, once is enough). I checked and Daphne wasn’t wearing one, she had on some cute sweaters. Did Charles have to like ... order one in her size ... and the shipping took a week ... because that was a big thing to overlook, costuming wise.

I was going to say that they could have shot the rest of the scene in the cafeteria, with Manon pointing out girls in there wearing the jerseys, but we got Manon taking Daphne by the hand so that was nice. And I guess it might be awkward for Daphne to realize this at the lunch table. 

OK, Emma launching herself at Yann for a makeout session during this heartfelt moment where Manon is trying to make Daphne feel better about a boy not liking her is rather insensitive. Read the room, Emma. (I know she’s trying to alleviate her guilt. It’s still pretty WTF.) 

I know that a lot of criticism has been directed at the remake sticking to closely to the original, and I’ve certainly done my share of this, but I’m really disappointed they choose to cut Vilde’s line about feeling like there was something wrong with her. It was so raw and heartbreaking and real and it’s too bad that of all the things they’ve been keeping the same, they got rid of that part. For example, the Alex and Lucas “flirting” could have been cut to make room for that line; that moment felt forced and stilted anyway, and it’s the exact thing they should be cutting if they’re having to compress the story for time.

Clip 3 - confronting Charles

I thought the whole bit about Vilde not having dignity was one of the less excusable Sana moments from S1 since it’s not directed at something Vilde did wrong or said to help her, but Alex snorting after Imane says it is probably an added sting for Daphne.

Charles is the fucking worst. I feel like he’s even worse than William at this point, tbh. He just seems smarmier and sleazier. I’m not saying the actor’s bad or anything, I just find this dude to have an extra layer of creep. William seemed kind of checked out of the Vilde confrontation, what is this interrupting my day, Charles seems more deliberately trying to twist the knife.

Uhhhh I guess it’s nice that Charles and Alex have more of a friendship and Alex can tease him about getting verbally shredded by Manon and all but he was also cool with standing there as his best bro told a girl that he fucked that she wasn’t pretty enough for him so frankly, Raptor Alex is the worst, too. 

I will go into Manon at the end but this moment was fine, it wasn’t my favorite thing she did this episode but I thought she showed more fire this week than in previous ones. 

I also missed the moment where Vilde called Sana out on throwing water in Ingrid‘s face and Sana replies that she had a good reason for that because it was a little reminder of that incident and foreshadowing to the reveal of why she did it. I get why they cut it but it might’ve been nice since I’ve seen more divided opinions on Imane and whether, in making Daphne less offensive and less willing to speak up for herself, they’ve made Imane seem unnecessarily rude.

But also, in watching the original clip, I think Vilde was inspired or bolstered by Sana’s comments not to confront William (who are you to tell me what to do, you just put me down, you’re telling me not to ruin things when you also caused a scene) and Noora‘s encouragement (Noora had previously comforted her and given her the idea to confront him). 

Clip 4 - The fight

Depending on your POV, the fourth wall breakage about a Norwegian tv show was either groan-worthy or cute. I thought it was sweet.

What kind of books do you think Daphne reads? I assume, much like Vilde, she reads exclusively The Secret, The Game and other self-help/relationship manuals.

I also liked Emma calling Manon “Booba” and giving her that little shoulder squeeze.

You know I never realized quite how much this would’ve been embarrassing for Vilde. Not just because of what William said, but because that was supposed to be her moment. Confronting William was supposed to be her proving to be a badass. Instead William cruelly put her down in public, and instead it was Noora who got to be the badass. You know, Noora, who in Vilde’s eyes is prettier, thinner, and cooler than she is, and who William instantly has an attraction to (not that Vilde got to see this). Vilde’s words didn’t land a blow to William at all, but Noora managed to leave William speechless. He didn’t put Noora down, it was Noora he was impressed with. So even when the girls are like good job, Noora, about this epic moment that Vilde didn’t see because she had to walk off in shame and hurt, Vilde’s empowering moment was snatched away from her. Ouch.

Manon was a boss in this fight. I kind of hate the term “mama bear” but that’s what came to mind here.

The fight itself went on for too long, Manon’s excellence aside. It also made me think that a physical fight inside the school would be a more serious deal than a fight outside of it, in the sense that teachers/adults are definitely going to notice. IDK how French school works but at my high school everyone involved would be hauled off to the principal’s office right away.

Clip 5 - Emma on the steps

The bit with Emma being called a whore on Facebook - I wouldn’t say that’s a NICE touch, but it adds to the aspect of social media being used for bullying. 

Yeah Ingrid is straight up intimidating. Manon is like a little mouse beside her. But lmao at Sarah immediately folding when Manon stood up.

I did like Ingrid stepping in front of Sarah. That’s her girl.

THEIR INSTAGRAM POSTS ARE SO DRAMATIC. JESUS.

Clip 6 - Manon comforting Emma

The scene was cute, especially Emma starting to sing along.

I legit do not care what anyone ships but I’m so ????? at how people could ship Manon and Charles at this point except by already being a Noorhelm fan and having the knowledge that they are a future couple. Because like ... if you were watching this not having seen the original show, Charles’ role has to been to be a jerk to a girl he slept with and spoil this lovely moment between two friends in order to deliver some rapey as fuck dialogue about how No is a Yes in waiting. WTF. I don’t want to get into the discourse but he is deeply creepy here! 

I would not be surprised if Blurred Lines is Charles’ cheer-up song of choice.

I kind of laughed about Manon watching House of Cards because isn’t House of Cards considered a prestige show, Spacey scandal aside? I watched several seasons of it; although it is like a political soap opera, I thought it was supposed to be kind of an award bait. It doesn’t seem that weird that Manon would watch it even if she’s not a TV person, lol. But maybe it is, I don’t know! I thought Suits was more of a sort of guilty pleasure procedural but I’ve never seen that show, so maybe my perception is all wrong.

Clip 7 - Daphne’s extraordinary meeting

Alex’s hair is indeed very pretty. Nice job.

Soooo this scene.

In the original, while Vilde tells the story about Ingrid and Jonas, the camera stays on a close-up of Eva’s miserable, guilty face while memories of what happened flash by in her mind. In the remake the camera focuses a lot on Daphne as she’s telling the story, with some shots of the group, and only cuts to Emma for a few short moments. The result is that this scene is much less emotionally effective. Yes, I already know the story, I know the twist, perhaps that matters. But I’m not deep in Emma’s pain. You really feel it with Eva, how her past is coming back to haunt her and how her mistakes are being exposed in front of her new friends against her will, and she probably feels like she deserves it. When I watched the original scene, I felt gutted for her. Here the emphasis is on Daphne’s judgmental face as she tells a story that she’s not personally involved in. That creates an emotional disconnect. This is the moment that should make us understand Eva’s behavior over the season even further, this is the moment that should explain the mysterious feud with Ingrid, this is a defining moment for Emma’s character and it’s not hers.

I do like that Daphne seem almost like she’s appealing to Manon by saying that people should know not to steal boyfriends, because that is the kind of thing that feminist Manon would be strictly against. Although obviously the attempt backfired.

Also lol at them working on the party “for months” it’s been one month since you even formed the squad! Though I do think it’s implied Daphne has been working on it for longer, and that she doesn’t want her pet project to be ruined.

The bit about Imane saying you stand for your friends “even when they don’t deserve it" was added from what I can tell; I think that’s a decent part though it might kind of be unnecessary, like sometimes less is more, the point is still there even without it, we get that Daphne just messed up. It’s not a huge sin or anything but there are a few occasions where I think the dialogue has been too on the nose (like Yann being all WOW SO MUCH TRUST BETWEEN US right after Emma cheated).

I do like Alex comforting Emma. I think Alex is a little more OK with confrontation then Chris was. Chris was a little flustered and didn’t know quite how to respond in the original, and we later saw that sometimes she struggled with how to be there for her friends, and Alex seems a little more chill with open displays of supporting her friends. She’s a very chill character in general.

Clip 8 - Yann and Emma in the skatepark

Time to talk about fragility.

When I think of Skam at its best, that is something which comes to mind. Not fragility of storytelling, but fragility in its emotions. Stripping away all the bullshit that you encounter in everyday life that leads you to put on a mask and say hollow words, as well as cutting out all the bullshit that you see in 90% of teen dramas and TV shows that go for noise and overblown, nonsensical emotions in order to produce drama, and just letting the characters say something real to each other. It’s not just about characters being sad, but being vulnerable. To be vulnerable means you can be easily broken. Fragile.

Not just Noora in the wake of her assault, but Noora telling Vilde about the nutritional benefits of potatoes as a way of talking about Vilde’s eating disorder, because to address the subject outright is too much. Not just Isak falling to the ground in tears, but Isak trying to talk around and delay his coming out to Jonas, turning it into a guessing game, because if Jonas rejects him or says the wrong thing, it would shatter him. Not just Sana crying alone in her room, but Sana writing a text to her friends explaining how much she feels she doesn’t fit in and asking her friends to forgive her.

And I heavily associate that concept with Eva’s season in particular. Every moment with her feels like we are with someone whose vulnerability is right there on the surface. Her old friends now hate her, her boyfriend seems to be keeping secrets from her, she’s struggling in school, her mom isn’t there and doesn’t know about her life, she just doesn’t know who she is. Think about how delicate a moment is the end of episode 2, when Eva is upset and can hear the boys laughing from another room, not caring, and she sees that Noora has accepted her friend request. A tiny, tiny gesture like that feels enormous. This really mundane thing because powerful because the show has demonstrated how Eva’s fragility, how much this friend request means to her.

The best scenes of Skam France, IMO, and the aspect has been working for me personally, is Daphne. And in a lot of ways, that is because she is fragile. We can see her hurt coming a mile away even if we hadn’t seen S1 before - because we can tell how much Charles means to her and how she is nothing to him. She is really, really fucking vulnerable when she puts herself out there for someone to love only to get rejected. She is vulnerable when she sends Charles a topless picture and when she tries to win back his attention. She is vulnerable when she tries to stand up for herself only to get put in her place. The show has done a good job with the actress and with demonstrating that raw, realistic pain.

Where I don’t feel that fragility is with Emma. Or Yann. Who knows if we’ll feel it with Lucas, with his upcoming parental woes and confession to Emma. But Emma is the focus of the season, and that’s a problem.

Some of it is in the acting, personally, and some of it is the writing. I know a lot of people like Emma and even prefer her to Eva because of her self-confidence, but I’m not a big fan and I think part of it is that her attitude and essence don’t work as well with the material. Like it feels less like a teenage girl having all her insecurities and mistakes bared. Again, it’s not just about Emma being sad. We have seen her sad. I don’t find her as fragile. 

Another example from this episode: not focusing on Emma when hearing the true story of what happened with Ingrid. Eva’s vulnerability was the focus of that scene. We could not get away from her haunted face as she had to relive her past regrets. We missed a chance to follow how much the Ingrid incident has broken Emma.

Another non-Emma example: omitting Vilde’s line about feeling something is wrong with her and knowing she shouldn’t feel that way, an incredibly raw, wounded line we didn’t hear from Daphne.

There are several other key scenes where I think some aspect of the production has undermined a potentially vulnerable moment - what sometimes seems like the overuse of music, condensed conversations with less room for silences to speak for themselves, camera work that keeps us at a distance. Also some times where it has worked, too, I’m not saying there are no emotional moments like this, and I’m not saying that it needs to follow the original in these exact ways. But it’s a repeat issue. 

This is not to say every character has to be troubled and vulnerable, by the way. But - this is a show about being young and dealing with problems. Vulnerability is vital in our ability to empathize with these characters. These are kids getting their first taste of adult problems and not knowing how to deal with them, they should be fragile. Almost all of the best coming of age films, books, and TV shows excel at depicting vulnerability. It doesn’t matter whether it’s French or Norwegian, youthful fragility is universal (and if not then why the fuck are you making a show about teenagers and their feelings).

Anyway, this scene.

This is an angry conversation.  Sure I know Yann is upset. But I don’t feel that personal fragility coming from him. I have seen it before at time - like when Emma came over while he was playing video games with the boys, she made to leave, and he asked her several times to stay. Other times we’ve missed that vulnerability from him - for instance, when Jonas asked if Eva wanted a break, he genuinely seemed kind of fearful that she would say yes. When Yann asked Emma, he was throwing it in her face, and didn’t really seem afraid until she walked away and he gave her a dramatic speech. 

Like Yann just skateboards up to her and doesn’t have much patience for what she says. He seems pissed. And hey, maybe that is how he expresses vulnerability, you could certainly make a case for it. But the acting and directing didn’t really make me feel it at all. It just feels like he’s angry (understandably). 

However, Yann is also such a jackass here, jeeeeez. Obviously I can’t know for sure because I don’t speak French, but even his tone of voice to me sounds like he’s making fun of her. And of course he has to go on about her stupid parties and her friends, when I think Jonas seemed to mostly go for the idea that she doesn’t know what she wants. It wasn’t that Eva’s friends were dumb, it was that she changed who she was and what she wanted based on who she was with. But Yann seems to be mocking her specifically for trying to throw those parties and making fun of her friends. He's really aggravating and almost seems to resent that she’s no longer fitting into the image of what he wants his girlfriend to be. I do think Jonas did say something that cut Eva to the bone, but I don’t think he was trying to make fun of her. He was angry but he did seem vulnerable himself, not as much as Eva, but it was evident.

I do think Emma is being vulnerable here, moreso than we’ve seen her in some other scenes, but overall she doesn’t really have that vibe for me. It’s probably more effective for people who are fans of her character.

The last shot of Yann smashing his skateboard into the ground is a dramatic TV moment. The last shot of Eva sitting by herself, tiny against the skate park murals, is a fragile moment.

General Comments:

This was a really big week for Manon. The scenes were a little hit and miss for me. I think Manon lacks the withering disdain to really nail scenes like telling off Charles, but is stronger when she’s in full on angry protector mode, like during the fight or standing up to Sarah and Ingrid. She did finally make a much stronger impression with all of her big moments.

The moments where Alex ogles Lucas don’t really work for me and I wish they’d be cut to make room for other things, but you know how it could work? If Alex and Lucas form some kind of friendship later on, gay dude/bi girl solidarity.

There was a lot of social media this week after the big events, like Manon telling off Charles, the fight, etc. and it was like a flurry of vagueposting and flinging shade all over the place. I kinda feel like it’s too much, lmao? But I also kinda think teenagers are overly dramatic on Instagram.

Because they combined episodes seven and eight, several scenes are missing from the original, for example Jonas and Eva in her bedroom while Eva texts P-Chris, Eva and Isak in her room after Jonas finds out, and Eva arguing with her mom. It’s possible some of these moments like the Isak or mom scenes could come in later, like I guess they could have Emma and Lucas hugging it out this week. I did miss that scene because it was an important moment for their friendship (also fragile...) and more painful when we learned what Isak did. I’m not feeling the friendship between Lucas and Emma that much on screen and that could have helped. However, I do understand why these where the scenes they cut.

Personally I think having time limits to the French episodes is a strong case for doing more comprehensive rewrites, but blah blah it’s in the contract blah blah.

I was pretty nitpicky this time around but it was not a bad episode, there was a lot going on. 

I sure hope someone did a parody of Yann spiking his skateboard to this song.

[based-bobcat]

I have to ask, after all the Supergirl comic posts! Do you watch the live action Supergirl show at all? :o If so, thoughts? Opinions? General commentary?

I liked the show, but It’s been a while since I watched it and I’m the kind of guy who remembers stuff he didn’t like more over things he did like. (Works great in my every day life) Long post incoming

I’ve watched up until the Bizarro episode with my brother. We stopped watching when we couldn’t find the time to watch together anymore, so we dropped it alongside with the awfulness that is season 3 of Arrow. Might start watching it again when I finish my current backlog of series. Or when I finally convince my brother to watch it with me

Let’s start of with the fact that Melissa nails the part of Supergirl and the kind of person she’d be both in personal life as in . Perfect mash of fierce, inspiring while being adorable. Her interactions with Cat, Alex and Jimmy bring out the best of her. Love the design choices on her costume. Her chemistry with the others shines in every scene. (Including the massive Cross-over I did manage watch) 10/10 Supergirl perfect

Same goes for Jack as Jimmy Olsen and Calista as Cat. He won me over with his great performance and I can definitely see him as being Superman’s biggest pal. I can see Cat being Lois Lane’s biggest rival and strong businesswoman

High points of the show (from what I’ve watched) are Alex, J’onn, and Jimmy. Especially Alex, or as I call her “The Superbiochemist” steals the show. Should have her own spin-off tbh.

Martian Manhunter is perfect and amazing and everything I want out of the character. Strong leader, but Team Dad all the way. Would love to see him more in action. And dad!J’onn needs to show up more!

The DEO angle was a great idea and it serves as interesting dynamic that feels fresh. Evil Kryptonians is a bit of an overused idea, but I actually like them as far as villains go. Especially since Astra is an interesting character and her objectives are noble, but flawed.

The choice to keep Clark on the down-low was a great idea. The first season should be all about SuperGIRL. Having him drop by whenever the plot needs him kills the tension and he’d probably steal the spotlight. Having him text her was a great idea, because Clark is the kinda guy who only shows up on invitation.

That said some things did get on my nerves a bit. The early episodes had undertones of  “Straw man’s guide to Feminism” (For instance Kara’s objection to being called girl and some of the marketing choices) and although Winn is my favorite character, he’s more of a creepy stalker than a friend/love interest. Also the typical CW Love triangle stuff is embarrassingly bad, I would stayed with mutual pining or one-sided. That probably changed after the Bizarro episode, but knowing CW I’m skeptical. I loathe love triangles. 

A few of the casting choices and her villains in general made me raise my eyebrow. I’d pick a more “nerdy” actor to play Jimmy than gentle giant Jack Larson. My personal top pick was Donald Glover. Larson did grow on me though, but I still yearn for smoll Jimmy. I also preferred Hiro Okamura as “Toy man” with Winslow Sr. as ex-mentor or step-father. 

Starting off with Reactron as one of Kara’s first enemies baffled me. He’s one of the few villains that can be considered Supergirl’s arch-enemy, hell he’s one of the very very few members of Supergirl’s rogues gallery. He was the one who killed Kara’s father in the comics! Imagine Flash dealing with Reverse Flash in the fourth episode and then going on to fight Simon Stagg and Captain Cold for the rest of the season. It kind of felt like that to me.

Speaking of which, choosing Max Lord as Luthor expy felt weird. I would’ve gone for a scientist/business man with a history of dealing with Superman. Like Ultra-Humanite or Morgan Edge. Humanite In human form naturally, with a gazillion wink wink nudge nudge moments alluding to his transformation. Not saying Lord is bad, but why that character? 

All in all, a bit of a rocky start, but it gets better each episode. Solid 8/10

I really need to pick this up again

[myrecentobsession-blog]

Whump Portfolio

We kept seeing these around tumblr and thought it would be cool if we each did one....

Name: D

How old were you when you first realized you liked guys getting hurt?:  I don’t remember exactly, but I would say around 5 or 6 at the latest.  I don’t remember a time when I didn’t like whump.

What was that very first scene you remember gave you those glorious butterfly feelings?: I remember whumping really hard for like every character in The Brave Little Toaster movies for some reason and those movies were pretty dark so there was a lot of whump.  I watched Lord of the Rings around fourth grade and that’s one of the earliest times I remember very explicitly enjoying injured men.  

When and how was it that you realized “Hey, I’m not so messed up in the head!” and that there’s a definition and community for this sort of thing?:  I found the hurt/comfort tag over Christmas break my sophomore year of high school, after frantically scouring the internet to see if anyone enjoyed the scene at the end of Supernatural season 2 where Sam gets stabbed as much as I did.  I don’t think I found the whump community on tumblr until about six months later though.

What’s your favorite whump trope?: I love characters that are in some sort of position of power (King, Captain, Chosen one, etc)  getting hurt and the people that care about them having to try to save them.  I also love anything that involves stumbling around or collapsing.  

What’s a whump trope that you hate?: Lack of transportation scenes, lack of aftercare, super healing (ew)

What’s your favorite whumped character?: I would say my top two are Mal Reynolds from Firefly and Jesse Pinkman from Breaking Bad.  I also whump quite a bit for the Winchesters, Merlin and Arthur, like every character from Lord of the Rings, Sawyer from Lost, and like pretty much every other male character that exists tbh.  

What’s that whumped scene(s) that you’ve watched over and over again. (We know you do it and we understand): Season 1, episodes 4 and 13 of Merlin were some of the first scenes I remember doing this with.  There are a couple from Supernatural that I’ve watched quite a few times, I whump fairly equally for Sam and Dean so I’ve got a lot of good material to work with.  There’s this one episode of Lost where Sawyer passes out from an infected bullet wound and I love that one.  The entire second Sherlock Holmes movie with RDJ is pretty whumpy and I remember watching that a bunch.  

Bullet or stab wounds?: Any and all whump is welcome

Fevers or Hypothermia?: Either?  Both?

Emotional or physical?: Physical (duh), although emotional is fine too

Injured and asks for help or tries to cover it up?: Depends on the situation and character, I’ve appreciated both

Lastly, does anyone know about this addiction of yours?: My best friend (who I run this blog with) of course knows and feels the same way.  I have a couple of other friends who know at least part of it, but don’t completely get it.  I feel like my mom might have guessed, because she keeps recommending whumpy movies to me...

[kuya-marvelous]

Good lord we need to talk about the Tokusatsu genre

So Leon and I had a long discussion the other day about a lot of Toku (specifically rider and sentai, sorry ultra) and I wanted to write out my praises and complaints with both since I feel like I’ve watched enough to form an opinion. May come back to this someday after watching a lot more.

Let’s start with Sentai:

-Pros

. I genuinely love how fun it is! Toku as a whole knows how to take itself seriously when it needs to, but it also remembers that it’s still a kid’s show at heart. Sentai really reminds you to have fun with the show instead of taking it super seriously, especially when you’re watching Zenkaiger. BUT, LuPat had every right to be serious.

. This might just be me, but I feel like Sentai does the extra hero thing better than Rider does. You could argue that the extra hero in Rider is meant to be the secondary or side kick to the main hero (kinda like a Batman/Robin thing) but to see a team get a new member later on through pure coincidence or through over coming an intense rivalry is kinda cool.

. As a music nerd, something about the music in Sentai just slaps more than I expected. After picking Go Busters back up, a big part of the show’s intense moments that keeps me engaged is the music. Everything from the henshin standby, the theme song, the mech music, all of it is just so memorable. And the fact that Sentai does the whole ending dance song, OMG I love this series so much.

. I’ll expand on this later in the cons, but I just wanna add that I really like the three people Sentai that gets a fourth and maybe fifth member later in the show cause it’s so much easier to follow and like each character. Cause like I loved Kyoryuger, but sometimes looking at all ten of them and trying to remember everyone’s names is a head ache that I wasn’t in the mood for, but I’ll get more into that later.

. Can we talk about Bio man and Flash man? Why do those suits have to slap so hard? They need to do suits like that again. You too Go-Busters.

-Unfortunately, there are some cons

. I did say that Sentai knows when to be serious and when to have fun. But I think some seasons try too hard to be the “fun and colorful” season and forgetting how to still tell a good story. Like Kirameiger, Leon and I tried to watch it but couldn’t really take it seriously for a few reasons, one being that it just felt too silly. I understand that story develops after time, but it’s weird to kinda just be funny right from the get go.

. I won’t lie, I love that extra heroes get introduced as assholes at first because yay character development, but if they stay an asshole for a really long time, it’s harder for me to find a reason to like them. I’m scared because I wanna like Abare Killer when I get to Abaranger cause his suit is sick, but just knowing that he spends 90% trying to kill them kinda makes me wonder if I’ll like him.

. So something I noticed is that whenever Sentai does a three person team, it’s so much easier for the characters to build a dynamic together compared to how long it takes a five person team to bond. Like I remember in Shinkenger, I got to episode 8 or so and they had a vacation episode when Takeru still wasn’t too fond of the whole friendship thing. But with Go Busters, the three of them quickly formed a bond with each other and it made their vacation episode more impactful when they learned that Yoko went through so much effort to plan the day out to make them all happy, including their buddy roids (god damn you go busters for being so bad ass and cute)

Now for Kamen Rider... This might take a bit:

-Pros

. Oh my god Kamen Rider. This series can do such a good job with it’s story telling that you can forget that you’re watching a tv show. The way they write their characters is genius, and it’s even better when whoever they cast to play these characters takes their role seriously cause it just adds more emotional value to that character.

. Also the pacing of its story telling is great. I like how much time there is in between arcs of shows to flesh out what is happening in the plot between villains, certain characters/side characters, etc.

. I dunno if this is just me (again) but Rider REALLY knows how to cast their actors. Be it extra heroes, villains, main characters, these actors honestly are friggin fantastic. Kazumi (as biased as it may seem) so far has been one of my favorite actors in the entire genre solely because of how he performs his character. Everything from being silly when he needs to, showing how emotional he can be, and oh my god him responding to the belt during his Grease Blizzard henshin. Oh right, and his last scene with Misora. I’m still hurt about that.

. Ok, let’s talk about suits. I won’t lie, I think I prefer the Rider suits over Sentai suits in most situations. Something about them just makes more of an impact on me, even though I’m reminded constantly that they’re just robot bugs... except for a select few, which we’ll get to in just a second.

- Time for the cons of Rider, there are sadly a lot

. So. Like I mentioned before, I love how the suits impact me even though they’re just based off of bugs mostly... But when they stray too far from the bug motif, or even just the theme of the show, it’s like what the fuck even am I looking at. Two examples, Gaim and Ex-Aid. Gaim did a great job with staying true to its theme. Fruit ninja. Easy concept to follow, all the riders got a pass from me even though some of them are kinda whatever. But Ex-Aid is just unforgiving, and I know this might piss people off. From my understanding, I went into Ex-Aid expecting a very heavy focus on the gaming theme it had going on. BUT. I was later informed that literally almost ALL of the riders are doctors. I still don’t get why. And even after hearing from Markus and Leon (who apparently gave up on the show) they don’t get it either.

. I’m sorry, but we need to talk about Saber and Agito. Let me get Agito out of the way. I’ve seen so many people have split opinions about it, saying it’s either the best show of the heisei era or the worst. Personally, the writer of the show popped off maybe like three times MAX, but I feel like things happened so randomly without explanation and they just went with it. Although the G4 movie was fantastic, I’m not even lying when I say I will gladly watch that movie again.

. Saber. Omg Saber... I went into the show honestly super excited for it. Hell, I was almost willing to say the show would be in my top five cause the first few episodes were fun. But... it’s kinda losing me. The way some of the characters are written confuses or straight up angers me. Like the girl side character (I can’t remember her name for the life of me) is just so annoying, and I question why they wrote her like that. Like they even gave her a book that tells them where monsters show up, but like.. why? Isn’t that why they have their own little base? And the dude with the two swords, my god does he have to smile like that all the time? I dunno... Don’t quote me just yet, I need to finish catching up first before I can fully be confident about my judgment

. Alright, Reiwa era, I know you just started but we need to address something that I honestly thought was just me being picky, but many people have pointed this out and I couldn’t agree more. Your final forms suck. Zero Two and NOW Cross Saber are quite literally upgrades to the base form suit. Like ok, Leon and I just got to the upgrade forms in Go Busters, and they compliment the base suit so nicely. But Zero Two and Cross Saber? For a Rider’s final form, in my opinion, it just doesn’t work.. You can call me paranoid cause infinity Wizard is just him but silver, but that’s just how his motif works and they made it work beautifully. Zero Two was LITERALLY given to Izu in the movie after (and this is hilarious cause Leon explained it this way) the Zero Two Driver basically 3D prints a Zero One Driver for Aruto. And Cross Saber is just blue Base Form Saber. Like WTF. Sure, I saw he got a different sword, but still, not cool. It’s scaring me that they’re just gonna keep doing that for other Riders later in the Reiwa era but I hope not.

. From what I’ve also been told about other shows, not just Zero One specifically, I’ve heard that some shows just don’t let the other Riders interact with each other that much. I dunno why they do that cause I really like to see relationships between the cast, but I guess i can see why if the show has like 15+ riders.

. Ok last one, I wanna dive into the excessive amount of Riders in one show. Take Ryuki for example. That show had 13 riders. Technically only 11 if you consider that the Ryuuga movie wasn’t canon (even though they keep making it seem like it is and I DONT KNOW WHY). The way they handled the screen time between the main four (Ryuki, Knight, Zolda and Ouja) and the others is in my opinion the best way to go about a big cast like that. I liked seeing Raia flesh out his relationship with Shinji, him butt heads with Ren and try his best to fight against Ouja and Gai. Gaim I’ve heard isn’t as bad cause they kinda pace them out well, but oooh boy Ex-Aid and Saber. Ex-Aid in my opinion should’ve just been Ex-Aid, Brave and maybe either the bike or Snipe (I think that’s his name?) and the villain just be GenM. And Saber... I’ve bashed Saber too much, I feel like I’m beating a dead horse at this point and I feel bad.

~In Conclusion...~

. I really want hard on Rider just now, maybe not so much with Sentai, but I just wanna say that the criticisms I have are really personal because I know what I enjoy with shows like this. But I also have to remember sometimes that it’s literally still a show aimed for kids or teens so it’s obviously not gonna be perfect.

. The Toku purists who praise the Showa era and absolutely trash the Heisei and Reiwa era scare me tbh. I’ve seen soooo many people say Black and Rx are the best riders period and everything after was trash. Being in this fandom sucks, but it doesn’t stop me from wanting to watch the shows.

. Same with these criticisms I have. I’m super critical about these shows and Leon sees how intense I get when it comes to me either loving a show or absolutely dunking on a show. That doesn’t make me wanna stop watching it cause I just remember to have fun with it still. The stories and lessons you learn from watching shows like this honestly make you feel young again and I love anything that does that.

. As far as what I prefer... I can’t answer that. Rider and Sentai both have something special to each season they come out with. I always short circuit when I think about which one I like better cause honestly, I used to think Sentai was too silly and I loved the seriousness of Rider, but it really is just up to what season I watch.

~All in all, I’m glad I got into this genre. I feel so dumb literally every day for the past year that I used to think these shows were lame when Leon and Markus told me to watch Build. I really wish I could go back and slap my old self cause god damn, I’ve been missing out. I love this genre for keeping me young, connecting me and Leon, and for absolutely destroying my wallet with the belts and changers.~

[junker-town]

Calais Campbell played every spot on the Jaguars defensive line and dominated in Week 1

Campbell had 3.5 sacks in an upset win over the Texans. His dominate performance earned him retired NFL defensive end Stephen White’s Hoss of the Week award.

Last season when the Jacksonville Jaguars went out and broke the bank to sign Malik Jackson I immediately got excited. The reason being is that while Gus Bradley was the head coach, the Jags tried to emulate the Seattle Seahawks defense, where Bradley had been a defensive coordinator. I felt like Jackson — who played defensive end and three-technique in a 4-3 defense in college for my beloved Tennessee Vols and played four years in Denver all around the line in a 3-4 defense in the pros — would be the perfect guy to step into the "Michael Bennett" role in Jacksonville.

Welllll that didn't happen, much to my chagrin, as the Jaguars decided to instead play him almost exclusively at three-technique which to me was somewhat a waste of Jackson's biggest asset; his versatility. But hey, Bradley was fired last season and while several staff members, including new head coach Doug Marrone, were held over I figured there was a chance that they might re-think how they used Jackson this season.

Then the Jaguars went out and signed Calais Campbell this offseason to a four-year, $60 million dollar deal. I was basically like what the shit?

Don't get me wrong, I'm a Calais Campbell fan. The dude kicked ass in Arizona the last nine years. At the same time, with Campbell being 31, I wondered why the Jaguars would be paying a guy that much money who might be on the downside of his career. Bigger than that I wondered just where the hell they planned on playing him.

Campbell is one of those rare guys who is really tall at 6'8, but is so good with his pad level that he played well inside. In Arizona's 3-4 defense you could find him lined up in several different positions both inside and outside. I thought he did the most damage from the interior rather than the edge.

With the Jaguars having two young defensive ends in 2015 first-round pick Dante Fowler and their third-round pick from last year, Yannick Ngakoue, who burst on the scene as a rookie with eight sacks, it didn't appear that there was a big need for a defensive end. And of course, with all that money they had already given Jackson, Campbell wasn't going to be his similarly high paid backup.

It looked like maybe this meant they re-thought things and would move Jackson around more and have Campbell as the three-technique. Turns out I had it exactly backwards.

In the first game of the year on Sunday it was Campbell who was playing that "Michael Bennett" role, and my goodness, was he fucking great at it.

I know everyone is jazzed about the four sacks (as they should be) but Campbell was stout against the run as well. But what was most impressive to me was his versatility playing all over the defensive line and dominating pretty much every where he lined up.

I'm seeing him basically two gap the left tackle to give his linebacker a free run to make a tackle for a one yard gain. I'm seeing him bench press the left tackle back into the running back with just his inside arm to help keep him to a minimal gain. I'm watching him haul ass to help make a tackle near the sideline on a smoke screen.

And that's before we get to the damage he did as a pass rusher.

Even then just saying Campbell got four sacks, and that they all came in the first half still doesn't do his performance justice.

The first sack came on the Texans' opening drive on offense with them facing a second-and-9.

Campbell was lined up at left defensive end and he absolutely destroyed Breno Giacomini, the Texans' right tackle.

He ran No. 68 slap over, and I swear it looked like a fucking avalanche had fallen on Houston quarterback Tom Savage when Campbell took him down on that play.

It really doesn't get much better than that.

Campbell's second sack came early on in the second quarter with the Texans facing a third-and-12.

This time it was all effort that allowed him to take Savage down again. Campbell was lined up as the right three-technique over Texans left guard Xavier Su'a-Filo's outside shoulder. Off the snap he tried to knock Su'a-Filo's outside hand down with his outside hand down, but unfortunately Campbell missed which allowed Su'a-Filo to grab him in a bear hug.

Hey, that shit happens to the best of us.

But instead of shutting it down and allowing himself to remain blocked, Campbell stayed active and when Savage tried to scramble up the middle because nobody was open, Campbell was able to rip off inside of Su'a-Filo's block and take Savage down before he could get past the line of scrimmage.

The third sack came with 10:55 left in the second quarter and the Texans facing a third-and-6.

The Jaguars ran what was either a called pass rush game or just a "natural" game where one guy sees an opening and just goes. Campbell was lined up as the three-technique again. Ngakoue was lined up outside him as the right defensive end.

Ngakoue got upfield four steps and then tried to come inside Texans left tackle Kendall Lamm with a rip move. Campbell, who had initially bull rushed Su'a-Filo, looped outside around Ngakoue to exchange pass rush lanes with him.

Campbell was so quick that he ended up scott free and took down Tom Savage down like it was nothing.

(Mind you there is a whole other conversation to be had about how the Texans' coaching staff didn't do either of their quarterbacks any favors and how there wasn't anybody open on a lot of the plays when Savage got taken down, just like this one. Sacks don't come with an asterisk, and Campbell still worked his ass off to get that one so he still deserves all the credit for making the play).

The fourth sack came after the Texans had already moved the ball down to the Jaguars 31-yard line with a little over a minute left in the first half.

Houston appeared to be threatening to score for the first time all afternoon.

Campbell was lined up as the right three-technique again, but this time he hit Su'a-Filo with what I like to call the ghost move. Instead of going with a power rush, Campbell came off and used his inside hand to knock Su'a-Filo's hand down. In one motion Campbell then swatted Su'a-Filo's shoulder with his outside hand while turning his hips to get skinny through the B gap. It looks like initially Cambpell planned on finishing the move with an arm over, but he went to a rip move to escape off and beat Su'a-Filo clean.

Savage was BBQ chicken.

In addition to those sacks Campbell also hit Savage on two other occasions that didn't result in a sack.

The first hit came with 2:02 left in the first quarter and Campbell lined up at left defensive end. He took a couple steps up field then beat Giacomini like a drum with a quick arm over inside. The only thing that saved Savage's ass that play was he was already in shotgun and it was a three-step drop, but Campbell still blasted him pretty good.

The second hit came with 10:20 left in the third quarter after the Texans switched quarterbacks to Deshaun Watson. Campbell was again lined up at left defensive end, but this time right before the snap he stood up and moved inside on left guard Jeff Allen's outside shoulder.

Campbell's power was on full display as he literally knocked Allen on his ass on the way to knocking Watson on his. Once again the only thing that saved the quarterback from taking a sack was shotgun combined with a three-step drop.

Unfortunately the play technically didn't count since Nuk Hopkins was called for offensive pass interference on the play. Even though the pass was incomplete, which would have made it third-and-10, the Jags decided to accept the penalty (I'm still trying to understand why, especially when the Texans eventually ended up scoring their first TD on that drive but what evs). Ask Watson if thinks that hit counts, though.

But that's not all.

Campbell also forced a holding call late in the fourth quarter with my favorite pass rush move; the long arm.

He was once again lined up as the left defensive end and came off and stabbed Giacomini in the middle of his chest with his inside arm. As Giacomini tried to shoot his punch at him, Campbell effortlessly knocked Giacomini's outside hand off with his outside hand, then took his inside hand off Giacomini's chest and finished with a rip with to escape off the block. Campbell was just about to take Watson down when, out of desperation, Giacomini grabbed him and dragged him to the ground.

Thankfully the refs actually called the blatant hold for once and the Texans had to go back 10 yards. I have to say, for the refs to be full time now they still missed a bunch of those this weekend.

But I digress.

Plain and simple Calais Campbell balled TF out this weekend. I’m not sure he can keep up this level of play all season, but one thing is for sure — Campbell started this season off with a bang on Sunday. The Jaguars came away with a huge division road victory in no small part because of his play.

While he isn't the guy I thought would be playing that "Michael Bennett" role it turns out he was the right dude for the job after all. For his efforts I'm happy to award Calais Campbell the first Hoss Of The Week for the 2017 season.

If he keeps playing like that he might mess around and be the run away choice for Hoss Of The Year, tbh.