#this season was conventionally weird if that makes sense? time travel and traveling to the afterlife are somewhat comonplace weird? y'know?

[jfktalkstomeasacoin]

JFK’s Doom Patrol Review of S3E10

I’ll be honest, the middle of this season was a drag to get through. I wasn’t happy with the direction the show was going, I didn’t care about the new characters introduced, and I was ready to stop watching. I am glad to say that this season finale has changed my feelings.

I am a lot happier with everything that happened in this episode compared to every other this season. Instead of more “Sisterhood of discount X-Men”, we got compelling interpersonal drama between characters, like Rita and Rouge, Larry and Keeg. Plus, everyone is getting a good ending! Cliff and Jane are at a good place with each other! Rita is doing something other than being sassy! Madame Rouge is gonna get a redemption arc come S4! the only outliers in this are Vic and Larry.

Vic is a tough character for me to talk about this season. If It’s not obvious by know, I have lived a white experience in America (My genetic make-up is not entirely white but it’s a complicated issue and nun ya business). I have not faced racial discrimination in my life, and I don’t have many people in my life that have (not by choice), so I don’t believe I can give a meaningful statement about the scenes in this season that depict racial discrimination and what that does to a child. I would imagine however that the show tackled the topic well, given the few things I have read on the subject.

Larry in this season has been a rough watch for people who really like his dynamic with The Negative Spirit. I know that some have sworn of the show because of this, citing that it’s just not the same or more personal reasons. It’s not surprising that many would, because a large amount of people seem to really only enjoy Larry and his relationship with The Negative Spirit in this show (or at least an affinity for him that outmatches anyone else). For me personally, I enjoy the direction the writers are taking him and Keeg (Sidenote: I’m making a difference between the alien being inside Larry in S1-2 and the alien being in S3-beyond because I’m not sure they’re the same). I think Larry needs some love in his life that is parent/child based and Keeg is a good way to bring that to him.

This episode is so poetic to S1. When Vic tells Rita “We’re not heroes”, my eyes fell out of my head. I was so amazed when Rita stopped Cliff at the baseball game, not only being able to use her powers, not only being able to use her powers like in the comics, but the two of them saying the exact same lines to each other in the Pilot. Like poetry, they rhyme.

Sometimes i think about how this series will eventually end. What I wanted them to do before i saw this episode, is to finally be rewarded for doing something heroic. When asked who they are, they say, “We’re the Doom Patrol.”, Finally deciding that this is who they want to be. So when Rita started to talk about actually being a Superhero team, I leaned forward into my seat, waited for them to say exactly what i thought they would say, and then Cliff made a Doom Force joke. Funny, but my dreams were halted another day. For the best.

I will have to re watch this season again to make an accurate judgment of it, which probably means I’ll have to re watch the show again. For the 4th-5th time. Idk. Hard to keep track. Ta-Ta for now.

[murasaki-murasame]

Thoughts on Fruits Basket 2019 Episode 11: “This Is A Wonderful Inn”

Funnily enough, an episode involving the characters literally soaking in a warm bath is exactly what I needed to watch after yesterday’s episode of Sarazanmai, lmao.

But this episode isn’t JUST pure fluff or anything. There’s a bit more going on with it.

Thoughts under the cut. [And spoiler warning for the whole manga]

Even though this episode ends at the same spot that episode 12 of the 2001 anime did, it ended up being a fair bit different in practice, as a natural consequence of how the last episode differed from it’s equivalent episode from the 2001 anime.

This episode adapted chapters 17 and 18 of the manga, whereas episode 12 of the 2001 anime just covered chapter 18, since it covered [parts of] chapters 15-17 in the episode before it. So instead of the hot springs trip being padded out into an entire episode, it only takes up the back half of this episode, and instead of being in the Valentine’s Day episode, Momiji’s story about the Foolish Traveler is in this episode. Which might be a bit odd to some people who just watched the 2001 anime, but this is a lot more faithful to the manga, and in terms of pacing I think it works a lot better.

For one thing, Valentine’s Day and White Day are a month apart, so the 2001 anime had to basically have a month-long time-skip in the middle of an episode since they crammed those two parts together, whereas in the reboot they’re separate episodes, so the jump forward in time is a lot more natural. And I feel like Momiji’s story has a bit more weight when it doesn’t get brought up in the exact same episode as Tohru buying everyone chocolate.

But even more than that, when I watched the 2001 anime for the first time a while back to prepare for the reboot, I thought that the hot springs episode was one of the slowest and most dull episodes of them all. It’s not a very eventful chapter to begin with, and padding it out into an entire episode was just . . . not great, especially since it involved them giving Ritsu’s mum like a thousand times more screen-time which pushed her way over the line into being obnoxious. Even in the reboot her whole brand of comedy still bugs me a bit, but at least there’s only, like, two scenes of it this time around.

And on the note of Ritsu’s mum, this episode reminded me that it’s kinda weird, in hindsight, how the English translation of the manga just has her straight up go ‘I hope you can meet my son one day, he’s a nice boy :)’, or something like that, considering that one way or another Ritsu’s gender is meant to be ambiguous. They even had Momiji refer to Ritsu with he/him pronouns in the scene afterward. I actually looked through both my English edition and my Japanese edition to make sure, and yeah the English version just adds in gendered pronouns and stuff that aren’t really meant to be there, and it leads to this really awkward situation later on where Tohru’s genuinely surprised to find out that Ritsu is a boy later on, which doesn’t make sense if you’re reading that translation, lol.

But anyway Ritsu as a character is a whooooole can of worms that I’ll get into when he comes up later on. If I remember right, I think the hint we got at the outline of season 1 from that one video Funimation posted implies that Ritsu’s intro will be in episode 17, so I guess that’ll be when that happens.

Anyway, even before the hot springs stuff, the first half of this episode is all about the Foolish Traveler story and how it relates to Tohru “self-sacrifice is my middle name :)” Honda.

It’s really funny watching so many new viewers be really thrown off by how dark the whole story is, and how it just ends with the traveler being a disembodied head with empty eye sockets. Though I think it feels especially creepy in this version of the story since it has such a unique and vivid animation style that really makes it feel like a dark fairy tale, which I loved.

Momiji pretty much spells it all out for the audience, but the whole point of the story, as it exists within the manga as a whole, is that while Tohru’s habit for self-sacrifice and selflessness is genuinely a character flaw that hurts her at times, it’s not something that should be exploited and belittled. It’s all about respecting how other people choose to express their kindness, and about pointing out how the people who choose to treat her badly are the ones who are in the wrong, not her.

I think the reboot in particular has been pretty good at portraying Tohru’s maturity and depth, but I hope this episode in particular makes it clear to new viewers that she’s not some cliche Mary Sue who’s super perfect and has nothing wrong with her. If anything, I’d say that part of the story as it goes on, even if it’s a small part, is about interrogating the way that we think about conventionally kind and feminine heroines in these sorts of stories. There’s a whole list of characters who have their opinion toward Tohru evolve as they get to know her and understand how she really is as a person, and the story also slowly peels back the layers on all of her repressed trauma and complexes that lead to her being this way in the first place.

It’s been really interesting how this reboot has inspired a lot of discussion from people who’ve been fans of the series for a decade or more, and how their feelings toward the series as a whole and Tohru as a character have evolved over the years. I’ve seen a lot of people talk about how they disliked Tohru when they were younger, because they thought she was stupid and annoying and overly perfect, but as they got older and looked back on the series with a more mature perspective, they realized how much of a genuinely good person she is. It’s kinda funny that stuff like this shows how different types of kindness can be misunderstood and disrespected by people [especially when it intersects with stuff like misogyny], considering that one of the first scenes that really shows Tohru’s true colours is when she talks about how her mother always told her that everyone has their own different type of kindness that they grow inside their hearts, and that those differences can lead to misunderstandings and conflict.

There also seem to be a lot of people who didn’t understand the point behind Momiji’s story when they were kids, and that’s basically the same thing. When you’re a kid, it’s easy to look at a person whose kindness is exploited by people with bad intentions, and to go ‘well they’re just an idiot who deserves what they get’. But that’s not really how it works.

It’s worth noting that in an interview you can find in the last volume of Yen Press’ collector’s edition of the manga, Takaya pointed out that after hearing Momiji’s story, Kyo decided to stop calling Tohru an idiot. It’s a really subtle detail that I know I definitely didn’t notice the first time around, but it makes sense, and it’s really cute. He’s such an incredibly Good Boy [tm] who’s trying his best to slowly improve himself and be kinder in his own ways.

Also the scene with them on the balcony with the sheets flying in the air and the neat direction trick where the shot of Tohru gets covered up by one of the sheets blowing in the wind and then when it moves away it shows Kyo was CINEMATIC POETRY and I am not emotionally prepared for when a very similarly framed scene is gonna happen way way later in the reboot.

The inn sequence was really fun and cute, but I’m really glad it was just half the episode rather than the entire thing. It’s not really enough material to carry an entire episode on it’s own.

It’s fun to watch new viewers get into legit shipping wars with the whole Tohru/Kyo/Yuki love triangle, lol. These early episodes are really leaning into the Tohru/Yuki ship-tease. I guess it goes to show how much they’re getting invested in the reboot, at least. I wonder how many new Tohru/Yuki shippers are gonna get disappointed over how their whole deal develops, especially after this episode.

I have a loooot of thoughts about the whole Tohru/Yuki situation in general, and it’s a bit too early to really bother getting into it, but I at least wanna say that it’s kinda funny seeing some Tohru/Yuki shippers who’ve read the manga be like ‘I’ll never be able to accept the idea that he just saw her as a mother figure! He was definitely crushing on her!’, since my opinion on the matter is somehow both more or less the same and also the exact opposite of that. Let’s just say that I have a lot of thoughts about Yuki’s performative attraction toward Tohru.

Anyway, I think that’s about all there is to say. Though I still think I ended up saying a lot more than I expected to. This wasn’t exactly the most eventful episode ever, but it was really fun and relaxing. It was a pretty necessary breather episode to have between episode 10, which was a fair bit heavier on the dark and worrying foreshadowing than most new fans probably expected, and the upcoming episode 12, which is probably gonna REALLY catch people off guard with how dark it’ll be, considering how well the reboot’s handled it’s more dramatic moments.

[falinscloaca]

RTD Doctor Who:

+ character-facing storytelling with a strong heart. can’t really say more

+ occasionally fantastic writing

+ camp 

+ Donna was excellent

+ Martha was alright and the fact she felt like a grown woman was good

+ generally liberal in terms of politics which is something at least, it kept up with the general spiritual grounding of the classic series pretty well (regrettably for good and for bad but. well i mention the whole deal with mickey in the “-“s section down there)

+ actually got Moffat to write some decent material

+ really interesting aliens amoungst the random animal people, especially on its rare off-earth-trips

+ actually mostly resolves story lines in a way that at least has a sense of internal logic

+ Donna’s grandpa was excellent too

+ when the series did decide to ramp up emotional stakes in an actually mature way it was outright brilliant (see: Dalek, Silence in the Library/Forest of the Damned, Midnight, Turn Left, the conclusion of Waters of Mars wrt mortal causality and the doctors arrogant betrayal thereof, etc)

+ his era’s dalek designs were fuckin excellent

+ i even have a lot of intellectually stimulating things to say about its negatives

- Skeletor long-jumping lighting-hands speed-eating low-rent-riddler-impersonator master who has none of his classic-who dignity (even in sound of drums) and whose story implies him being just an outright abuser just to make it so that someone besides the doctor or one of the main cast has to shoot him uwu 

- the “he will knock four times” foreshadowing thing was fine in itself but a) it should’ve found actually omniscient beings with a reasonable explanation why to parrot it instead of just a human turning out to be psychic and the ood being inexplicably advanced

- it often forgets how time travel works (the doctor rushing into his tardis so he isn’t late to an even that happeneds thousands of years before and hopefully stops it before it already happens, for instance) 

- Rose sucks, i can’t quite put it into words but i don’t like her. also the arc of her and the doctor falling in luv is fucking gross since its equivalent to bestiality in a broad sense. also russel expecting me to feel sad about it three-and-a-wierd-specials-season in a row? L . what did the doctor even see in her. 

-the way mickey is depicted is racist and the fact that after a few seasons of not being around very much he and martha are suddenly a couple for The End of Time. when martha was already IN a relationship with another guy and the only explanation Russel gave as to why was that the guy was abusive off-screen. also martha and mickey never interacted much. so russel invokes abuse just to pair the only major black protagonists from his run together even though they hardly interacted and don’t even have chemistry? i don’t think i’m qualified to even explain the ways this sucks but G-d its awful

-the slitheen are fucking stupid and walking fart jokes. also their plan relies on literally everyone else being stupid too. Boom Town was alright though. 

- Rassilon went from “omnipotent time-god who was imprisoned in eternal slumber in this weird hunting ground-y hell-reminiscent-kinda place called the Death Zone (and even though he was asleep he could still petrify people instantly if he wants and is very much conscious so like. if he was awake he’d probably be in complete control of the universe as those in the story know it)” to “impotent angry supervillain fashy man who rules the time lords and needs a glove to disintegrate one person at a time and gets fucking owned by a hungry skeletor with stubble” and there isn’t even an explanation WHY

- the doctor tended to be a smug prick 

- this is petty but the doctor was too young/conventionally attractive 

- honestly most importantly the doctors hardline stance against killing of any kind is fucking disgusting. people bring up Batman as the primo “oh no uwu i cant kill this man who’s killed hundreds bc it’ll make me feel bad uwu” but the doctor REFUSES TO KILL SOMEONE WHO’S A LEGITIMATE DANGER TO ALL LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE AND MASS MURDERER OF ENTIRE POPULATIONS AND EVEN HAS THE FUCKING GALL TO HUG HIM AND SAY “ I FORGIVE YOU” ONCE HES WON AND THE MASTER WOULD OTHERWISE BE GOOD AS DEAD. DOES BATMAN HUG THE JOKER WHILE THE JOKER’S KNIFE IS STILL BLOODIED?! NO!!

- also the series hypes up the doctor as way more important in the grand scheme than he really should be. its hard to feel invested when the protagonist is space jesus

- the plot arcs it does hardly connect within themselves by any actual logic (this is mostly about bad wolf and the doctors regen though tbh) 

- tonally it was all over the place

- also it relied on old who aliens too much for finales

~Most importantly, and this is weirdly also kinda a positive since its a direct complement to the showrunner, given his actual writing skill its obvious Russel was dumbing everything down for mass appeal when he absolutely did not need to 

i was originally just going to write both russel’s and moffat’s runs but tbh i’m fucking tired expect part 2 where i rip moffat into small bloody chunks even worse than i did here to russel eventually maybe