#we need more screentime of these three

[dbzsenpai]

loved this trio so much in broly second coming!! 🤭

[iqmmir]

Hi im back . For some time

[theghostofashton]

.

[comicaurora]

top three changes to the star wars franchise?

Like, top three things I would change if I was in charge of the franchise top to bottom?

This is Big Cheating calling it "one change", but scrap the prequels. The original trilogy already implied an incredibly simple by-the-numbers dark fantasy origin story for Obi-Wan and Anakin and if we strip away the space veneer we can easily see that Anakin's original backstory was implied to be "prodigy warrior-wizard is tempted by dark magic (and an established evil sorcerer-emperor who has clearly been in power for more than a scant 18 years by the time of the original trilogy) which slowly corrupts and twists him into a monster who eventually has a fight with obi-wan that he loses, also he has a relationship with a woman who survives to raise Leia for at least a few years". Those are the only points you need to hit, and you could tell a very compelling simple-meal-well-made sword and sorcery adventure with a guaranteed tragic ending. The original prequels fail at holding to the ONLY points of canon they needed to hit - the innately corruptive power of the dark side SLOWLY leading to Anakin's downfall, the empire being an existing threat for a long time and the jedi correspondingly being an ANCIENT religion rather than being less ancient than 9/11, and Padme being alive enough for Leia to remember her a little bit. Close your eyes, clear your mind, let the tropes flow through you - a By-The-Numbers Story will come to you and you will see the completely inoffensive prequel tragedy we could've had. Also, never show Yoda, preserve the fun twist in the original movies.

Easy change for this one. Finn's a force-user with a plot about inspiring a stormtrooper rebellion, another plot that literally writes itself, also let the sequel trio actually all hang out for more than five fuckin minutes because the only thing that ever made Star Wars work was the raw charisma of the actors having a good time and the chemistry was really solid for the only time in the final movie they were allowed to share screentime.

And while we're gutting the sequels, how about letting the hero's victories actually fucking matter. Luke gets to actually reinvigorate the jedi way and doesn't have all his victories ripped away in the name of sequel bait, and can serve as an extremely powerful but very busy Jedi Ex Machina who turns up in the darkest hour to save the day, Mandalorian-s1-finale style. The Empire doesn't just get magically replaced with Empire 2, Now With Less Charisma, let the threat be something actually new or a natural consequence of a newly liberated galaxy in sudden turmoil - feudal tyrants ruling over planetary fiefdoms squabbling to fill the Emperor's power-vacuum, more sith lords coming out of the woodwork now that their greatest rival is gone. Leia and the other rebel leaders struggling to reinstate some semblance of democracy in a scarred and shattered galaxy too accustomed to the crushing totalitarianism of the empire. How goddamn unoriginal to start a sequel by undoing every happy ending from the original series for retreaded drama, as if the universe could only ever hold three problems in it.

[little-buzz]

A Spa Day for Three

It's been a rough few days for me, so this drabble was made. We needed more Vaggie and Angel Dust screentime. Their dynamic is severely underutilized. I hope I did okay, please let me know your thoughts!

Hazbin Hotel x Reader (platonic)

You flopped on the couch in the foyer with a huff. You readjusted your position and absently stared at the ceiling above you.

“Rough day?” asked Vaggie.

You turned your head towards her, watching Keekee jump off her lap and curl beside you. You didn't respond, instead petting the cat.

“Charlie already had the group exercise today, but we can do another one,” offered the hotel manager.

You shook your head. “Nah, I don’t think that’s what I need.”

Angel Dust entered the living room and locked eyes with you. He smiled toothily and shook your outstretched leg.

“You aren’t doin’ so hot, kid,” commented Angel.

You scowled at him before he lifted your legs and took a spot beside you. He repositioned your limbs on his lap and took a sip of alcohol in his hand.

You fiddled with an open tear on the couch, feeling the fuzz between your fingers. He glanced at Vaggie, who shrugged in response. Angel deflated at your demeanor before he tapped your legs.

“Do you wanna blow something up?” he supplied with a grin.

“Don’t give them stupid ideas, Angel,” protested Vaggie.

He raised his hands in protest and glared at her. “Well ‘s not like you’re doing anything to help—”

“Enough guys,” you interjected quickly.

The two paused, with Vaggie crossing her arms and Angel resting his back on the couch in defeat. Angel jumped to his feet where you almost dropped to the floor from his sudden motions. Keekee skittered away in panic. He turned to you, beaming.

“Let’s have a spa day! We can put on face masks and light up some candles,” exclaimed Angel.

You blinked at him like he grew another pair of arms. “A spa day?” you parroted in confusion.

He nodded enthusiastically and grabbed your arms. He pulled you up and tugged you up the staircase. Angel paused and turned to the side at Vaggie.

“You comin’ with, toots? I think you could use a spa day too,” chirped Angel.

You stared at the spider, then at Vaggie. You smiled softly at her. She sighed loudly before she hesitantly joined you both.

“I guess. Besides, someone needs to make sure you don’t burn their skin off or something.”

Angel gasped in mock offense. “I don’t have any products like that! There’s definitely some weird shit like that out here though…” his voice trailed off.

You shared a look with the manager. Angel looped your arm with his and excitedly led you and Vaggie into his room. After the day you’ve had, a spa didn’t sound so bad with Angel and Vaggie.

[sparkles-rule-4eva]

Alrighty! @number-one-shadisper-shipper and I binged the Knuckles series today, so time for thoughts! SPOILER ALERT.

I'll admit the show wasn't perfect. I've seen the negative reviews, and I kinda get where they come from. BUT! I did enjoy this show greatly! And I'm not here to complain. Time for some happy thoughts, y'all! 💙🤩

I think you need to have a love, not just tolerance, for the SCU in order to properly enjoy this show. I do have such, so I had a lot of fun with it.

There were definitely scenes from every episode that had me either squealing, laughing, crying, or flipping out. But my favorite was likely the first episode, because come on, we saw the Wachowski family! Most of them, anyway! While I missed Tom's presence, I was grateful for that comment from Maddie about him being "out of town," so he wasn't just gone for no reason.

The SECOND it showed our three space babies hanging out together in their room?! I SCREAMED. THE BOYS!!!!

Tails sitting on his bed tinkering with one of his gizmos, Sonic rocking out to music with an air guitar, and Knuckles exercising from one of the ceiling planks. IT'S THEM!!! They're just hanging out, doing their thing, looking oh so much like brothers. And Sonic's narration at the beginning was GOLD. 🤣💙

Even though we didn't get enough of Maddie being a parent, we definitely got a nice chunk for it only lasting part of an episode. Maddie called Knuckles "one of our kids" (that had me SCREECHING). The angry mama vibes were GOLDEN. 🤣 The way she made breakfast for them, the "Boys, breakfast is ready!" I love the normalcy of it! Can't wait to see more in the future! (Her calling to them with "boys" is somehow just the sweetest thing and I'm melting.)

The poor mailman being like "I just wanna go home, man" 🤣

We were right, fellas, Knuckles had no idea what being grounded meant. 🤣 Although the way Sonic piped up with "Oh, I definitely know what it means," has me suspecting that Sonic himself has gotten grounded a decent amount before. 😂

Knuckles trying to talk back, and Maddie going, "ExCUSE ME?!" then just making those tiny, terrifying noises and Sonic being like "Bro don't mess with Mom when she's mad" (okay, he didn't say "mom" and that made me sad, but the mom vibes were 110% there so I'm here for it). 😂 And since Knuckles snuck out and later Wade said, several times, "Aren't you grounded?" seems to confirm that this entire show is basically what Knuckles does when he's grounded. 🤣 Although ... his comment about not being able to be grounded because he had no home made me very sad. 😭

I did not have an issue with so much Wade screentime! Sure, he isn't my favorite SCU character, but I love what this show did with him! I'd already seen his moments in the movies (like nearly shooting Robotnik in the face with an actual handgun). I like how they gave him actual family issues; a dad who abandoned him and his family, a realistic sister, a mom. Bad family memories. Awkward reunions. They could've made it a joke, but they didn't, and I greatly appreciate that. Especially since I've witnessed firsthand how painful family separations can be. 😔

All the emotional talks Wade and Knuckles had caught me off guard in the best way! The way they talked about their different family issues, the way they talked of betrayal from friends, and being left alone, hit way harder than I was prepared for. Especially that talk they had at the burger place in the middle of the night? Oof. Good talk right there.

Also, even though they took a "show don't tell" take with it, I loved how Knuckles relaxed more and more throughout the show. In the beginning, he couldn't rest, he couldn't sit back and have a genuine good time. But the more he hung out with Wade and his family, the more he learned. He learned about music and found "his jam" (that was literally amazing btw). He watched movies with Mrs. Whipple and ate snacks in the hotel room in Reno and watched more movies. He had his teenager moments of rolling his eyes and rebelling, but he was so well portrayed here, I loved it. I felt for him.

Despite the bizarre nature of the episode "Flames of Disaster," (we were cracking up so hard) I'm trying to glean bits of the truth of Knuckles's story from the crazy musical play that Pachacamac put on in Wade's dream. I mean, "Longclaw" and her tribe were there, and ... what the heck was that giant demon thing?! Iblis?! Does our Knuckles Wachowski have an actual history with freaking Iblis?!?! 😱🔥

I was deeply intrigued by the two main antagonists, especially at the implication that G.U.N. did seem to exist before the events of the first movie?! Did it exist, get disbanded after the Maria incident, then get reformed?! My brain is exploding. 🤯 I was even more shocked that they apparently died? I guess I shouldn't be surprised, the Wachowski kids don't seem to have much qualms about getting rid of the baddies for good as the game versions do. That was a terrifying phenomenon, what happened with the two rings. 🫣

And then the Buyer getting crushed by the giant glass ball 👀

Although in those last two episodes, I admit I was freaking out and legitimately near tears at Wade's seemingly having to "betray" Knuckles. Before the reveal that all was in good communication, all I could think was how relaxed Knuckles finally seemed, chilling in the hotel room, being excited about whatever Wade wanted to "show" him, questioning whether it was a song, him declaring that he was going to bring his favorite hat, 🥹 all I could think was of their previous discussions about betrayal from friends and family, and when Knuckles called Wade "my friend" right before the elevator doors closed, I just about sobbed. I was like "please, don't let him be betrayed, don't let him have come all this way and relaxed so much only to get 'betrayed' once again by someone he's come to consider a friend." 😭 We heaved a HUGE sigh of relief when it revealed he was aware of the trap the whole time. 😪

Maternal instincts went nuts when he got so badly hurt in that final battle 😭 I literally reached for the screen several times and was right back to almost weeping 🥲 And someone tell me I wasn't the only one noticing the parallel in that scene with Wade standing in front of his unconscious body the way Tom did with Sonic in the first movie. That, PLUS Knuckles's epic comeback, and his retrieval of his own power?!?! EPIC!!!!

The ending was abrupt, sure, but the pure joy on Knuckles's face after everything as he jumped up to high five Wade was just too sweet. 🥹

So yes, even though I would have loved just a little more, a return to Green Hills, a reunion with Maddie, Sonic, and Tails, I adored this show. It was a wild ride, full of laughs, tears, excited screeching, etc. 💙💛❤️ I don't care what anyone says, nothing will make me hate it.

[immaturityofthomasastruc]

IOTA Reviews: Action

So, this is a interesting one to talk about. Not only is this the first episode in all five seasons to not be written or directed by Thomas Astruc in any capacity (though the other three writers on his team, Melanie Duval, Fred Lenoir, and Sebastien Thibaudeau still wrote this one), not only is it not connected to the ongoing plotlines of Season 5 in any way, but this episode was made with the help of the Breteau Foundation.

For those who don't know, the Breteau Foundation is an organization that works together with schools by giving children access to technology for their lessons, helping them with their psychological needs, and teaching them about ways to protect our environment. This episode was even made available on the Breteau Foundation's website for free in addition to educational materials meant to teach kids about recycling.

Yeah, when we were kids, we got excited whenever the teacher played an old episode of The Magic School Bus or Bill Nye the Science Guy in class, but nowadays, TV shows are producing episodes of their shows specifically so they can be shown in class. And I'm not talking about those half-assed science lab worksheets with pictures of SpongeBob on them either.

The point I'm trying to make is that there was clearly a lot put into this episode, and it's all for a good cause to help teach children about how to protect the environment in order to ensure a better future... and of course, I'm still going to make jokes about it, because I'm just some schmuck on the internet who isn't backed by a major educational foundation.

Let's get into the 27th episode of Miraculous Ladybug's fifth season: Action

We start off with Marinette and Adrien heading over to the Liberty so they could be told about the pollution in the Seine River by their class' resident environmental activist, Myl—Nino, I mean, Nino. No joke, Nino gets more lines in this episode than Mylene does, even though ever since Season 2, Mylene has been established as the one to protest polluting the environment. I get that she already had a lot of screentime in an earlier environmental episode (Mega Leech), but why would you have Nino be the one to help spearhead this protest instead of Mylene? Hell, the plot of another episode started from him trying to get him and his friends out of helping Mylene plant trees for the environment (Party Crasher), so this makes even less sense.

I should also get this out of the way by pointing out a few continuity errors in the episode. For one thing, Marinette is stuttering around Adrien when she had mostly gotten over that issue after “Derision”, Kagami is now one of the avatars for the Alliance rings, something that had been established in “Revelation”, and the episode mentions that the Alliance rings are made of plastic when the season finale shows that they're actually made of metal. I don't want to harp on this too much, as this episode obviously wasn't meant to really tie into the main plotline so it would be easier for kids who aren't familiar with the show watching this episode, seeing how this was meant to be viewed as a standalone story. Besides, compared to other plotholes in the show like the ones I'll cover next time, these are fairly minor.

Nino tells Marinette and Adrien, and by extension, the audience, that the Seine River is full of pollution, and the Liberty has recently been converted into a makeshift water treatment plant. The problem is that with a recent increase of plastic in the Seine, it's becoming harder for the Liberty to filter out all of it. Hey, here's an idea: Maybe don't set up your homemade water treatment plant in the longest river in Paris.

The reason for all the new plastic comes from a recent ad campaign promoting some vending machines that sell these paper fans that were designed by Gabriel and are sold by a man named Bertrand King, who looks like a cross between Willy Wonka and Colonel Sanders, down to having a southern accent in the English dub.

Nino suggests that Adrien talk to Gabriel himself, but as usual, Adrien doesn't think he'll listen, so the kids decide to go to Bertrand King's company while picking up an order for plastic containers for the Dupain-Chang bakery... even though I'm pretty sure most bakeries store pastries in paper instead of just plastic.

Nino has the others dress up in disguises, but like most of his plans this season, it fails miserably, so Marinette comes up with a little story about Adrien meeting up with Bertrand. The kids make an impassioned presentation to Bertrand, asking him to help change the way he operated his business like making his fans out of more biodegradable materials. Surprisingly, the man whose entire livelihood revolves around selling plastic doesn't want to listen to the people saying everything his company is doing is wrong.

Bertrand: This is all intentional. It's the wonderful cycle of throwing away and buying again that makes my fortune. If people didn't throw away and buy new items again then I, Bertrand King, would no longer be the King of Plastic! So, there is no way any of this is changing.

Wow, a rich person in Miraculous Ladybug turning out to be a total jerk? What an unexpected turn of events.

Bertrand points out how much plastic is used in everyday society, using pens and the Alliance rings as an example, and seeing how we cut to the next scene afterwards, we can assume he had them thrown out. Oh, come on, you couldn't even parody The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air like you did during “Migration”? The kids then try to go to Andre and Gabriel for help protesting the fans, but because one's a corrupt politician and another helped make them, they won't do a thing. Marinette tries to ask Nadja, the local news anchor, but because the ad revenue from Bertrand's company funds the channel she works for, she can't do a thing or else she'll be out of a job.

This leads to the kids deciding to do the sane thing and HACK THE NEWS BROADCAST SO THEY CAN MAKE A SPEECH ABOUT POLLUTION.

Because it's not like Marinette and the others could have just gone to another news network with this story or uploaded it to the internet instead, right? And sure, scowl at the camera while you're giving this presentation too. That won't make you look like a bunch of eco-terrorists at all. The kids give a presentation about how dangerous plastic is, and how people can use fans made of more biodegradable materials like bamboo instead. Also, we get cameos from Jess, Aeon, and Fei, but they're pretty much there just to remind viewers that the New York and Shanghai specials happened.

Of course, the episode's following RWBY Volume 8 logic, so rather than view them as a bunch of lunatics who hijacked a news broadcast, the public immediately turns on Bertrand's company, arguably faster than what happened with Andre in “Mega Leech”. Speaking of, Andre and Gabriel change their opinions to make themselves look like they were always against Bertrand, and seeing how this episode aired after Season 5 ended, didn't really sit too well with viewers.

Bertrand calls out Gabriel for lying, but Gabriel doesn't care, secretly using this as an opportunity to akumatize Bertrand into King of Plastic through his pen.

King of Plastic has a pretty underwhelming design. It's clear that the intent was to make him look like plastic, and there is a noticeable reflection on his body, but other than that, it doesn't really fit the anti-plastic moral. I think maybe if they did more to make his movements seem more stiff like a living doll, or at least make him look less like he's made of candy, it could work more. The Miraculous power this time is the Bee Miraculous' Venom, which he can use through one side of his lance to stun any victims so he can use the other side to turn them into plastic statues. It's sort of like the dollmaker episode of Arrow, only we don't get to hear the sound of anyone's esophagus hardening.

King of Plastic makes short work of Andre and the local police squad, and Adrien is forced to put teaching Marinette Mandarin on hold so he can transform into Cat Noir, while Marinette transforms into Ladybug as soon as she's alone. After he transforms Adrien's bodyguard into a plastic statue, King of Plastic fights Ladybug and Cat Noir, eventually transforming Cat Noir's staff into plastic too. Even though he was originally akumatized to get revenge on Gabriel, King of Plastic leaves the Agreste Manor and heads to the Liberty to get revenge on Marinette and Adrien's friends instead... for some reason. Even the episode points out how weird this is.

Cat Noir: Didn't you want to take revenge on Gabriel Agreste?

Ladybug: He probably has more than one enemy.

After following King of Plastic there with Cat Noir, Ladybug summons her Lucky Charm, getting a plastic bag. Because it's already made of plastic, it can't be transformed, which gives Ladybug an idea. She tells Alya to activate the Liberty's water treatment function, intentionally overloading it before Cat Noir Cataclysms the engine. This jettisons the collected plastic and overfills the deck of the Liberty, trapping King of Plastic so Ladybug can break his lance. So in an episode meant to teach kids about how dangerous plastic is, the day was ultimately saved by plastic. I'm sure that won't confuse any kids watching this in class.

Ladybug de-evilizes the Akuma, tells Bertrand about how dangerous plastic is, and he immediately vows to change his company's ways before Ladybug gives him a Magical Charm as useless as a plastic toy before she uses Miraculous Ladybug to fix the damage.

The episode ends with Bertrand funding the repair of the Liberty before vowing to change the way his company operates, as do Tom and Sabine, who now sell their products in eco-friendly containers. Unfortunately, with all the renovations being made to his company that come with moving away from plastic, Bertrand had to stop funding this groundbreaking cancer research institution in America in order to prevent his company from going bankrupt.

Anyway, this episode was pretty good. I honestly didn't have a lot of problems here. The plot was pretty straightforward, the themes of how easy it is to perpetuate companies that damage the environment were handled pretty well, and the main characters were pretty active.

Even the greedy corporate asshole meant to be a stand-in for real life executives was handled pretty well, having some quirks that make him stand out while showing how ignorant he is to the situation without making him completely insufferable. This episode could have easily gone the Captain Planet route with Bertrand, but they showed he wasn't intentionally endangering the environment because he felt like it, but rather, because he cared more about his company making money, even showing him ultimately realizing the error of his ways.

If there's one problem I had, it's with the way the Akuma fight was resolved. I get that any other Lucky Charm wouldn't have been immune to King of Plastic's plastic powers, but I feel like weaponizing the plastic the heroes spent most of the episode fighting against in order to stop the Akuma sort of muddles the message the episode is going for. It's not the worst way to resolve an Akuma fight, but it just bugs me personally.

While I still think “Mega Leech” did a better job with the environmental message, overall, this episode did a pretty good job teaching the moral it set out to teach.

THE BIGGEST IDIOT OF THE EPISODE IS... ANDRE (THE OTHER ONE)

Shockingly, nobody really acted that stupid this episode. Yeah, the kids were pretty naive thinking they could make Bertrand change his company's way of production, but still took action when that didn't work. Andre, on the other hand...

While Gabriel and Nadja had their own reasons to support Bertrand (Gabriel for Monarch reasons and Nadja for financial reasons), the only reason Andre went along with the fans polluting the environment was because they happened to have his image as one of the designs, and when the public started to turn on Bertrand, Andre acted like he always opposed him, and when confronted with an akumatized Bertrand, begged for his life like a coward and said he would reinstall the fan vending machines. While I guess it's better than having Chloe be the primary supporter of Bertrand's company, I need to reiterate that this aired after the last few episodes of Season 5 tried to place Andre in a more sympathetic light.

[rubenhopclap]

Despite Ruben having more screentime than any other RG, nearly all of it has been spent interacting with the BKs, interacting with Wanda, or literally performing.

So it is a little difficult to tell, which of these is most like the way that he is normally, the rest of the time.

But with the info of voting against Kipperlilly, and with the one moment that doesn't fit into those three categories, I think he might not even have specific beef with the BKs (or with Kipperlilly) and that's just what he's like right now.

Ruben's main characterization is that he's desperate for attention. His type is "anyone who thinks he's cool. Straight up." Not conventionally attractive, skinny, rich or popular people who think he's cool. Just literally anyone who will give him attention and treat him like he's special. I think the way that he is with Wanda is probably close to the way he is with anyone he's talking to romantically, and it's different because he's already receiving a different kind of attention. (Same thing with performing.)

The rest of the time he's consistently described as smirking or sneering, and engaging with people in a way that pisses them off. The big examples we had before Kipperlilly were Fig and Gorgug, so it might have just been that he had some mysterious problem with the BKs in particular himself. Maybe he still does, maybe he separately has a problem with the BKs for being popular and with Kipperlilly for being a nerd who cares.

But there is one single moment where we know some behavior of his that doesn't have anything to do with a specific other character. And that's the scene where Yolanda Badgood's death was announced to the school. And Ruben was described as smirking.

Now you might interpret this as incredibly callous, and it is pretty callous. But we don't know how much yet. If the giant did the killing, then Ruben might not actually have known the death was related to Lucy's death at that moment. Which would make it about as callous as Adaine dunking on the dead oracle.

But most people in that scene weren't actually reacting to Yolanda's death anyway. They were reacting to the Pass/Fail news. Max Durden's party was happy about it, but a lot of people were upset. I think Ruben was smirking about that. I think at some point during that assembly he was probably making eye contact or taunting some people who were affected by it. I don't think it's because he has some issue with people who care about their grades, they're just the people available at the moment to be a troll at. And at this point it looks like that's probably also his reason for acting the way he did towards the BKs and to Kipperlilly, because he doesn't need an extra one.

Obviously this doesn't actually make him look better as a person, than if he had been messing with Kipperlilly (or the BKs) because he specifically wanted to upset her/them as individuals. He's clearly a huge mess at this point in his life (just like every Rat Grinder and every Bad Kid). Despite my obvious bias, it's not my goal to make anybody like him. Just maybe think about him for longer than two seconds.

If Ankarna is manifesting in him at all, it seems very likely that she's doing it this way, by twisting his desire for attention into something that engages with rage.

[morethansky]

***TBB SPOILERS***

My primary takeaway from these last six episodes is that Hunter and Crosshair ARE SO MARRIED OH MY GOD. They do everything together, even little chores.

And my Crosshair-is-Hunter's-second agenda continues to thrive; since their reunion, Hunter has hardly made a decision without checking with Crosshair first.

The way I cackled at Crosshair looking up at a ship careening in the sky and being all put upon: "Uh-huh. That's the idiot I married. Unfortunately."

And then the way he hurriedly reached for his binocs when they saw the ship crash, and how the camera lingers on him to show his relief, sob. I see you and thank you for your service, shippers on the crew.

Finally a glimpse of the cadets! Thinking about them tasting ice cream for the first time makes me want to cry. How many clones have never tasted it...

I like that "Identity Crisis" was like a mirror of "Confined," but I think it could have been 15 minutes. To be fair to them, I feel this way about like 75% of the franchise.

So we were all very wrong about what was in the Vault. What was Palpatine even going in there for, honestly. I do quite like this foreshadowing of the Inquisitorius though.

The ominous hint about Emerie's past is interesting. Is the implication that Nala Se took Omega under her wing and abandoned the rest of the Omega clones? Like Jango, I guess.

I love that Tarkin's cameos are all about funding. Something about the Imps squabbling over government spending just delights me. I wonder if the end of that conversation actually means he's not going to be killed by the clones but by Palpatine instead? That'd be kind of disappointing tbh.

Hilarious to me that Fennec got an entire episode and Cad Bane got like two minutes of screentime. Like Asajj, he knows when to stay out of the plot. They did my boy Todo justice though, love that dumb droid.

I, a plushie enthusiast, approve of how this is adamantly a pro-plushie show. But how am I supposed to believe that Omega, who missed Lula so much she effectively cloned her, was just going to leave her there??? I guess that whole scene was just a way to remove her and the goggles from the ship before it exploded.

I'm in the middle of writing like five different Tech/Wrecker whump fics and even I wouldn't have written CX-2 effectively shooting Wrecker. My heart!!!

I was so worried about Gonky. Glad he's okay.

"Point of No Return" needed 15 more minutes, actually. I continually find it so jarring how quickly this show breezes through reactions. It would've been nice to see at least a little more from the Batch at the sight of their ship being blown up.

That ending...was not for me. Crosshair missing that shot after he was given an entire episode to figure out what was wrong and meditate is such a frustrating choice. What even is going to be the arc here? Is it really going to be him abandoning his weapon entirely? That should be an upswing in the plot, but at this point it'd be more believable for him to be like, "Man, fuck this, I'm over it," lmao.

I'm glad Omega at least chose to get captured. Everyone knows I've been pissed about the anti-heroic messaging of this show from the start, and given how afraid I was that they would just abandon the other clones, I'm very relieved Omega's had this arc of worrying about them. But it's so silly to retread this line of plot after the three kickass episodes covering this exact thing. These next episodes are absolutely about to be messy af, and it's a bummer how it'll take away from the impressive clarity of the first three.

Why does this show keep cutting the titular team off at the knees?? Seems like Omega will probably work with Emerie and Nala Se to contact the Batch and Echo/Rex with the coordinates, but that will mean that Hunter's group will once again be lost and searching in the meantime. And they didn't even get to find her the first time!

Truly the quintessential fandom show. Half of it makes me tear my hair out in frustration and the other half makes me shriek in delight.

[blinkpen]

i've seen actually a few different people/users leave comments or tags about wanting to check out scavenger's reign after seeing my glowing praise of it, but also being very nervous to do so, because they're excited for a lesbian who looks like them (azi), but despite my gushing, i keep mentioning how the show is full of body horror, brutal deaths and characters having a bad time;

this is a very valid concern to have, given how a character like azi might be treated in another show, i was going in with tempered caution as well

without spoiling too much, you can lay those worries down. the show treats her very well.

if you'd like some more elaboration, i've put it under this readmore!

azi is put into stomach-churningly dire "an alien is about to eat you/do a big big body horror/assimilate you" situations the least of any of the characters, and not even because she's being given a lack of stuff to do/experience in the plot!

i think we only see her get "afflicted" by something the way sam does once, and its very mild compared to everyone else (basically she gets a really bad itchy rash after successfully prying some weird would-be paralytic puffballs that get stuck to her) and even this one instance is quickly resolved by other fauna, in a very nice sequence of scenes that is clearly a healing/relaxing experience for her.

while she is put into danger and is trying to survive like everyone else, she gets tossed about in action setpieces she makes it through with minimal injury, more than enduring The Horrors;

she gets to have better luck because more of her narrative screentime is, by design, already dedicated to emotionally bonding with her robot buddy, levi, as they suddenly and rapidly attain self-awareness, and levi encourages her to find the beauty and harmony in this nightmarish nature documentary they got marooned in.

this helps her lighten up just in time, too, because she is, very understandably, stressed almost to her breaking point by the point the show starts, having one of the better crash landing sites of any of the survivors, and i bet the other survivors all wish they had a robot tagging along to help, but being stranded and lonely and trying to not lose hope of rescue. she misses her girlfriend, and is feeling increasingly vulnerable (negative) and afraid, especially when situations occur where she gets reminded she does need help. azi starts the series being kind of mean to levi, and having to balance her confusion, worry, and then awe of levi's transformation, and let herself accept she does need that help.

azi is not the gruff grr nothing phases me nothing hurts me the writers dont have to try giving me depth i'm just the badass butch who exists to fill the death quota later so a lighter/more fem character can survive;

her vulnerability reveals itself without much fuss, and is eventually tended to both by herself and others. we get flashbacks that show she was naturally introverted, but clearly wanting to overcome that in order to socialize and get closer to someone (girls...)

she goes through it for other reasons, but i promise you, the show treats her very well, i feel. she and levi are probably-nah, definitely, my favorite characters in it, and the show would not have blown me away the way it did without them here

SR has 3 main story threads; Azi and Levi, Sam and Ursula, Kamen and The Hollow. of the three, Azi and Levi's is the heart, and is the most romantic, in multiple senses of the term. i might right a breakdown of what i love most about all three threads? but yeah

now, if you still need the "okay but does she or her gf die" y/n:

.

.

.

.

azi and her girlfriend both survive the events of the show, and reunite in one piece! they may or may not throuple up with the robot.

i sure hope they do.

you can't tease us with scenes like this and Not

OH: also, when a new antagonist shows up later in the form of a lethally pragmatic blonde woman named Kris who tries to boss azi around, i did get nervous, but Azi soured to max on her and spoke exactly what i hoped was the intent at the exact moment i felt it was critical to avoid me going "hrrmmm don't like these Implications" (the Instant azi detects blondie is trying to haze her into being a new teammate to be bossed around, azi immediately gets rightfully pissed and rejects it, and schemes to get the tagalong kid to see this also and on azi's side in the long run, which plays out and kris gets rapidly shuttled out of the plot and then pretty damn well humbled in the only blatant Sequel Hook present. i Appreciated that. Would have loved to love you Kris I love evil women but then you pulled That Stunt and now you can go wither alone in the corner

[fastlikealambo]

so here is a review of dune with spoilers so if you haven't seen it yet *timothee voice* GO SOUTH

so I got to the movie late and couldn't get popcorn/soda so when it started I was like fuck how am I gonna get through this long ass movie without the good stuff?

I didn't even remember it

this is one of the most visually stunning films of 2024, every shot is a painting, a moveable feast if you're pretentious and say shit like that.

i wanna ride a sandworm

timothee is fantastic, his first act work is solid and even funny at times but that third act is monumental. i won't spoil it for you but when he hits this frame below, know that you are in for something phenomenal.

austin butler was a terrifying scrotum with a knife, he is a good actor and needs to move away from pretty boy roles. BE FREAKY MORE OFTEN AUSTIN

with what she was given, lea seydoux was great, every time the light hit her face and what her scene with Austin leads to is WHOA

rebecca ferguson (whomever screamed at her i'm in your walls btw) was so intricately evil and calculating just plotting and yapping with her hot topic fetus but her last line again WHOA

javier bardem was running that paul atredies stan account like the navy stilgar was one step away from handing out and trading muad'dib photoscards

my only real low point was unfortunately florence pugh, don't come for me, I love her, I get that irulan is supposed to be stoic but she was a bit monotone in all her line delivery and with such little screentime till the very end it just didn't knock out like she usually does and I know in dune messiah she'll be great with more to do

but that leads us to Zendaya. this is chani's story, not paul's and this is zendaya's film, not timothee's. what zendaya does with chani is heartbreaking and in three acts we see chani lose love and ascend herself all while trying to save her people. Chani is Dune and Zendaya's performance is the best acting of 2024 so far, this is for certain. when it gets to this frame below, you'll know.

[brigdh]

I was thinking more about how Stede doesn't really have an arc this season (see my previous criticism here), and I've decided that what I would have loved to see was Stede actively attempting to court Ed.

Now, we did get a little of this in the first few episodes: Stede's letters in 2x01 are great, I love his attempting to track Ed down via a crime-map in 2x02, and of course the "I'll never leave you. I'll never leave again" speech at the end of 2x03 is fantastic. But once Stede and Ed are both in the same location and conscious, there's really nothing. Stede just hangs around, waiting for Ed to figure himself out, or take the lead, or something, I don't know, but Stede's certainly doesn't take any action to progress their relationship himself. He's such a static character in the second half of S2.

But! Imagine instead the arc where Stede is actively trying to romance Ed! I don't need him to be good at it; it's probably a better character arc if he isn't, in fact. Maybe he comes on way too strong at first and this is why Ed asks him to slow down, until Ed can figure out what he's doing about his own guilt/violence/identity/daddy issues (maybe Ed can actually figure out something about his guilt/violence/identity/daddy issues). Maybe Stede's entire conception of romance comes from poetry and novels and it hits a hard skid when he tries it out in reality. Maybe there are cultural clashes between how pirates approach one another and how the landed upper class does it. The exact way Stede fails doesn't really matter, because the point is that Stede is trying something, and fucking it up, and trying again, and growing as he does so, learning more about what the relationship between him and Ed needs and who they are as people.

This also could have been a really interesting arc for Stede internally. Throw in a couple of flashbacks to Stede courting Mary, to make a parallel between how he acted then and how he's acting now with Ed. If it's beyond the budget to fly Claudia O'Doherty to New Zealand or she's busy or something, give Stede a random other lady or two he approached as a young man – ones who obviously refused to accept his hand. Excellent! Now there's even more weight to him getting it right this time with Ed, when he's never managed to get someone to like him before! Or give young Stede an intense friendship with another young man that went wrong, and back then he didn't understand, but now he can look back and be like, 'oh I guess that wasn't as platonic as I thought'. (Personally, this would be my favorite option, but I know Jenkins & co said they didn't want to write a coming-out story, so maybe they'd have been less interested in this one. Fine, but I want it! 🥳 ) I think you could do this without taking up a lot of screentime – I doubt all the scenes we got of Ed's childhood add up to five minutes in total, but we got plenty of information from those three glimpses.

It would also make sense for Stede to discuss the issue with the crew, which gives the show a chance to flesh out their role a little more, another thing the season could have used. If he asks Lucius, what Lucius responds and how he reacts could help to develop the Lucius/Pete relationship. Similarly, if Stede turned to Olu or Jim, we could have heard more about Jim/Archie or Olu/Zheng or any combination of the four. Or any of the crew! What kind of relationship advice does Frenchie give? Roach? This also could have intersected with Ed's redemption arc nicely: which are the crew are willing to put aside their anger at Ed to help Stede (and them doing so would give more credence to Izzy's speech about them being family and loving Ed at the end)? Who isn't willing, and tries to deliberately sabotage their relationship for revenge, and how do Stede and/or Ed react to that?

Overall, I think such an arc could have fit the show's themes of masculinity and toxicity really well. There's so much about dating and pick-up lines and romance that reflects on gender – there are expectations of who should be aggressive vs receptive, flowery vs crude, prudish vs too fast, gifts as a sign of love vs gifts as obligation... it's endless. Obviously the season wouldn't have time to explore all these angles, but I list them as a sign of how many directions they could have taken this topic in. Ultimately it all comes down to: Who does Stede want to be as a partner? And who does Ed want him to be? And that would be so strong as a direction to go in, even if we didn't get final answers to the questions! At least they would be asking them.

But instead we got a vision of a mermaid and never explored who Stede is in reality. :(

[alfiely-art]

Thinking about how the Raincode gals get seriously fucked over

Like. Out of the main cast of 22-ish characters, only 7 are girls. There's more in the supporting cast, but still- there's a majority of guys in Raincode. Which is fine! You can have a majority of male characters and still have really great female characters! But. We don't. Really get that.

We have Pucci, who's limited screentime is mostly shipping bait with Yuma.

We have Melami, who just sorta... introduces herself, comforts Yuma, then dies.

We have Shinigami, who's great 90% of the time but whenever another woman comes on screen she becomes the biggest misogynistic asshole I've ever seen, and she's the main source of fanservice (not necessarily bad, but sooo much of her dialogue and animations are Centered around that)

We have Fubuki, who gets introduced as a blue haired version of the dumb-blonde stereotype- thankfully she gets to prove that she isn't that in chapter 3, but that's kinda. It. She does help in chapter 4 but it's pretty limited

We have Martina, who shows up, barely does anything in chapter 1, kinda... embarrassingly fails in chapter 2, gets sent to her death, and shows up with absolutely no foreshadowing or buildup to arrest Yomi. That one moment is cool, but that's... honestly all she has other than her threatening Yuma and Desuhiko with a gun.

Guillaume does absolutely nothing. She tries to intimidate Yuma and the others, is defeated, and walks home. She has barely any presence in her own chapter!!!

And Kurumi. Kurumi my beloved. She's delegated to Yuma's love interest, is insulted by Shinigami every time she's on screen (and she doesn't even know!! She can't even fight back like Fubuki did!!!!) and she's just given nothing to work with, being shoved into the plot whenever Kodaka needs to remind us that Kurumi and Yuma sure are cute together, aren't they??????

A lot of the guy characters also have some of these issues, but 1. There's more of them so it's not so concentrated 2. They usually have way more going on with them anyway, ex: Vivia doesn't get much screentime but the screentime he does have is so impactful and visceral

It's just. Ourgh. Not to be an ass and compare it to Danganronpa but compare it to Danganronpa. They had mostly balanced casts, about half-and-half male and female (except our beloved nonbinary bot Kiibo) and every gal gets SOMETHING to work with. Even Sayaka, Makoto's Love Interest Girl, gets more development than Kurumi and Pucci combined. Every mastermind is a girl (Izuru was like... a co-mastermind), you get a girl sidekick, they all get stuff to do whether they're a victim or a blackened or a survivor! Two of the three traitors are gals!!! Even Mukuro, who doesn't show up as herself outside of the anime, has more she's doing. Obviously Danganronpa still has its flaws writing women but. It's just. Ourgh. Kodaka let me learn more about these gals. Kodaka. Kodaka write women normally

[ravenalla]

Please correct me if I’m wrong but from what I know Helluva Boss is written by only three people right? That being Viv, Brandon, and Adam. And while I’m sure ideas are bounced around here and there with the team, the way this season is going is begging for an actual writers room with more experienced people. Not saying those three don’t have any experience, but it’s clear they don’t know how to mesh the comedy and serious moments together well at this point. Part of writing is knowing when you need to omit stuff because it doesn’t fit the tone or story progession that you have established, even if you very badly want to include it. The writing for Helluva Boss in contrast feels they are forgoing any sense of coherence so they can stuff in whatever they like even if it goes against previously established plot points and try desperately to get to you pity these awful characters instead of letting them learn from their mistakes and grow as people naturally. Again, if this had stayed a dark comedy, that would have been passable, but now they are trying to tell a serialized dramatic story with arcs and emotion, and it’s just failing because that is not these writers expertise. This is complete speculation, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Viv’s aversion to any form of criticism is affecting it.

How many times must we see something terrible happen to Stolas because the show wants you to keep crying and pitying over without having these characters actually navigating it themselves? How many times will Blitz acknowledge he’s an awful person but not actively try to change his behavior in anyway and revert to the exact same character the next episode? How many times will Moxxie have to learn confidence because it’s the only arc they can think to do with him while Millie is a walking prop and Loona flip flops between liking her dad and physically abusing him for no reason? To the people who keep saying “just wait the shows not over yet!” we are basically halfway through season 2, there is no damn reason why Millie shouldn’t have had ANYTHING on her own yet or why Blitz and Stolas should be repeating the same “uwu he doesn’t love me” scene over and over again. If you give us what should be moments of character development but never actual show it through their actions or behaviors after the fact, it’s not character development at all, it’s cheap scenes you threw in cause you wanted the guise of something serious without actually taking the screentime to commit to it. And yes, the Stolas Blitzo stuff is probably going to pay off eventually, but it’s annoying for the audience to watch this will they won’t they game in almost every single episode just waiting for when the characters will finally change or have at least SOME type of acknowledgement of all they’ve been through instead of just keeping the status quo of another “Stolas looks sadly at his phone,” “Blitzo doesn’t really care about him until there’s one millisecond showing maybe he does 🥺.” Unless your a hardcore shipper, people won’t stick around with that forever.

The show wants to have world-building, quirky characters who are bad people, tons of villains, funny sex jokes, emotional investment, and a complicated romance, but there’s a reason lots of media fails when it tries to be everything at once. The Stolitz plot behind every episode now is sabotaging parts of the show that promised wacky demon assassin adventures, and the less serious moments like the Loona doctor B plot in turn ruins the atmosphere of the dramatic scenes associated with the Stolitz plot. They wanted to show a serious abusive arranged relationship through Stella, but they also wanted her to have be a campy bad guy so Stolas could have a reason to cheat on her so he wouldn’t look like the bad guy. This leaves us with confusing contradictions like Stella written as being legit mad about him cheating and wanting him dead while hinting at them having at least a positive public image as a family once through the background paintings, to suddenly her not having ever cared about him and seeking him out “cause she likes tormenting him” while she also now didn’t want him killed I guess because she’s opposed to the divorce because the Goetia want them together??, but then wanting him killed AGAIN after even though the Goetia probably always wanted that guy alive and her brother has to come in for no reason to make her look like an absolute dumbass.

Same with Loona. They try to give her development with Blitz, but they never do anything with it and by the next episode she’ll be beating the shit out of him again. “She’s a moody teenager!” She’s a woman in her twenties and I don’t care about her sometimes finding appreciation for her dad when she’ll just kick him in the nuts right after because physical abuse against a spouse is serious but with a daughter it’s funny I guess. And again, the entire argument fans have to justify this constant loop of creating and forgetting about character development is “just wait they probably have a plan.” Nah bro I’m pretty sure they just still wanted to throw edgy dark comedy in there and to do that they had to ignore any positive character changes it seemed like happened until a future episode specifically is written to continue that arc. Also the world building and class system in general is just bad when they actually choose to acknowledge it, which is rarely. It’s still so unclear whether hellhounds are seen as actually sentient autonomous people or pets, and it just makes scenes with Loona super weird sometimes. Same with imps, for an apparent underclass they sure seem to be able to go wherever they want and do whatever they want without too much trouble, and until the latest episode we’ve never seen any imp discrimination be a major factor besides comments from Stolas (which we are now choosing to ignore because Stolas can’t be a bigot that has to learn to be a better person, Stolas is perfect 🙃)

Yikes this got longer than I meant it to but overall Helluva Boss just could really benefit from some more inputs in the writing, not just ideas for story or jokes but someone who actually knows how to properly balance and structure this kind of stuff into an episode. As is it feels very disjointed, especially this season. I don’t think this show would ever be perfectly for me, just because I don’t find the humor at all funny and that’s kind of what makes the show, but at the very least it’d be nice if the actual plots and world these characters navigate was fun to watch, but most of the time it’s just not anymore, because you don’t get to actually see most characters interact or what their relationships are, and if you do they hardly ever change from what they were until suddenly it’s relevant for the plot. Blitz is uncomfortable around Stolas and is tired about being treated like a play thing, wait no now he’s turned on by Stolas’s flirting even though we’ve never seen that before and this is right after they literally had a huge fight, wait nevermind now Blitz doesn’t care again. Moxxie is always weak and sensitive when an episode is about him but suddenly super strong and has no problems killing in any other episode (“We’re not going up there just to massacre we need clients! -S1E3, exactly what he and Millie do to an entire audience of innocent bystanders in the Cherub episode and they don’t care). Stolas is super perverted and sees Blitz as an object, wait nevermind we’re just gonna change his entire fucking backstory so his behavior will look justified even though that man would literally have to be a the dumbest person in Hell to not see Blitz did not care and was actively repulsed by him all throughout season 1, yet continued to act that way to his supposed “first friend” because..he thought it was a sexy game or something they were playing? Even as a retcon for an excuse it’s still bad. Helluva Boss has no rules it sticks to, no jokes or character behaviors it refrains from even if it harms the quality, it’s just a badly written fanfic with pretty animation.

[asherisawkward]

How do you think a "hero and villian are forced to work together" type of episode would have worked between Luz and Belos?

(Note, this is a rough outline of what season three could look like but without any focus on subplots.)

The intro would play the way it does in Thanks to Them, and we’d get some scenes of the Hexsquad adjusting to Earth while Luz is in school. She’d still be suffering from guilt, but it would be related to abandoning Camila without thinking about how that could affect her, especially with Manny’s death. Additionally, there would be a scene where Vee and Luz talk about what happened, and Vee apologizes for taking over Luz’s life and throwing out her things without permission. I think it’d be a good thing to give Vee some more time to develop and acknowledge her own mistake.

At school, we could have a few scenes of Luz trying to fit in and being shunned as evidence for why she was so eager to leave behind the Human Realm. We’d still have the scene of Flapjack finding the Codex and the Hexsquad deciding they’d go searching for the Titan’s Blood as a surprise for Luz. It would also be around this time that we see Gus and Hunter being Cosmic Frontier nerds. They’d get the scene of the group finding giraffes and getting terrified like in canon, and they meet Masha, who gives them a hand with the code.

It would then switch to follow Philip wandering about the Human Realm, possessing or feeding on animal corpses in an attempt to regain his strength. This would be an incredibly grim set of scenes focused on the difficulty Philip has with physical survival and regaining his strength after what the Collector did. A lot of his screentime would focus on the after effects Philip experiences after the Day of Unity. He’s falling apart and having a hard time becoming stable without a form to take over, and he would frequently be interrupted and distressed by various memories that Gus went through in King’s Tide coming back and tormenting him.

He’d start working up in forms until he got to a deer and get hit by a car just like in canon, and goop would get sprayed and spilled over the road, attracting Luz’ and Camila’s attention as they’re driving home with groceries. This is the point that Philip becomes a variable to the Hexsquad, and they start trying to plan around him.

Then, as the episode continued, each party would individually realize that the Collector is a threat to their respective goals (Luz’s goal being to save the Isles and Philip’s being to destroy them) along with the unwanted necessity of needing the other person in order to be able to stop the Collector from going on a rampage. Philip could help them make another portal if they gave him the right incentive with it. The group is rightfully conflicted on it, and Hunter is the most outspoken one on the Anti-Philip side of things for obvious reasons.

Philip would probably be more active about seeking Luz out because he’s more aware of her and the Hexsquad, while the latters are still putting pieces together about where he is and grappling with the fact that he may be an asset. Eventually, he’d move to digging up corpses and possessing them to get back his human form without actually hurting any humans before he forced himself into his human form briefly to get his clothes back and starts hauling himself to the Noceda household.

The scene of Philip knocking on the door of the house that the Hexsquad’s adopted would be very tense because, a) everyone is already there, so who’s knocking on the door, and, b) Philip is possessing a literal corpse to be here. Along with, you know, he’s Philip.

He wouldn’t ever say “I need your help to take down the Collector,” because he would not want to confess that he needs help and cannot take the Collector on alone. Instead, he makes it about how the Hexsquad needs him to make a stable portal and his magical expertise will be invaluable to them. Hell, he’ll even be generous and swear to not attack them while they’re teamed up. After a lot of debate and bargaining, they come to an agreement and start working together.

The rest of the episode is about how the various characters come to terms with having to be around the monster that tried to murder them all, and how Philip attempts to balance his recovery and creating the portal. On Halloween, they go out and have a bit of fun before they go to leave, and they still see the Tale of the Brothers Wittebane. The episode would end with the characters going through the portal, except for Vee, who stays behind how she does in canon. She’s been incredibly brave in facing and dealing with her abuser/captor, and I like that she’s not expected or forced to go along after that.

In For the Future, it would focus on King and the Collector for about half of it (with a little bit of Eda and Lilith) and the expanded Hexsquad for half of it.

On King’s side of things, he is dealing with a very sadistic and manipulative Collector (Shadow Collector, my beloved /j) They’re still playing Owl House with the Collector as Luz, but they’ve amped the stakes up. Instead of puppetifying everyone immediately, the Collector is forcing everyone to play their parts through intimidation, and if they mess up, then they start getting turned into a puppet slowly. It travels kind of like possession but slower, and the victims lose control and feeling of their limbs as the spell progresses. I’m thinking a horrifying situation that kind of goes, “my body is not my own.” Once someone is completely transformed, the spell is irreversible like petrification and basically becomes a corpse that is forced to move around and talk by the Collector. Eda, Hooty, and Lilith are set up by King as vital characters and are given a bit more leeway because King said they’re necessary for the game. Still, the Collector is becoming more violent as he starts to get bored with the game.

With the Hexsquad, Gus is quickly becoming one of the more important characters in the episode. The earring the at he took from Graye had a slice of Galderstone, which, contrary to popular belief, amplifies the complexity and scale of illusions that can be done. Using this knowledge, Gus makes and maintains an illusion as the Hexsquad walks that makes it seem as if there is nobody there without needing to hold breath the way they would with a glyph. He does a double-layered spell: one layer that has slight changes to the area around them and a couple animals to explain the noise they’re making, and another that just makes the group invisible to other eyes.

Willow and Amity will start talking properly about the way that things have changed over the past couple years and how just because Odalia and Alador made them stop being friends did not excuse the bullying that she did for years. Amity could properly acknowledge this and work to be better.

Camila is being a momma bear while also trying to adapt the way Luz did, and Luz finally gets to explain to her mother how she came to the Isles and how she fell in love with the place as a whole. It’s a really good bonding moment for the pair, and I think it could really help flesh out the way they interact as a family as a whole.

They’d stop at the Owl House and take a break, and Gus would have a moment where he talks to and connects with Philip. He explains his fascination and interest with humans and how he spent his childhood being enamored with them. He thought they were strange, amazing creatures that were good as a whole. Now, with what he’s seen in Philip’s memories, he feels disillusioned and hurt, like he’s lost a part of something integral to himself. How it that humans can be so horrible to people?

It would be really interesting to watch Philip and Gus to mourn their childhoods and the loss of that bright-eyed innocence about the world. After all, even if Philip believes humanity is good, he knows that there are bad people, and it can’t have been easy to learn that.

It would be a moment of genuine connection between the pair, and Philip could point out that there are good and bad people in every group, and that for every murderer or thief, there are doctors and authors and other amazing people who change the world. After listening to that, Gus pauses for a moment and says, “Have you ever considered that it’s the same way for witches, too?”

The pair stop talking after that.

Finally, finally, Luz and Philip get to talking about the way things are. Luz shares some of her concerns about being like him and how she’s a bad person for helping him meet the Collector. Philip roughly says, “You aren’t like me; you’re like Caleb.” Then we get a brief flashback scene as Philip explains a little bit of his childhood—being orphaned and dependent on Caleb with no one else in his life, the way he was all but destroyed when he saw his brother leave with Evelyn, how certain he was that Caleb wouldn’t abandon him, and everything else about his story.

At that point, Luz starts feeling awful about what happened with her mother and how scared she must have been when she found out that Luz wasn’t at summer camp and instead another realm. She wonders how she could be so thoughtless and what other ways she could have hurt the people she cares about. Philip points out that Camila is still alive and that there’s time to make things right between them. Hearing that, Luz runs off to go talk to her mother.

Camila is a bit surprised that her daughter comes to her suddenly and says that she needs to talk with her. They go into another room, and Luz pours her heart out about everything that happens and apologizes for leaving the way she did and not talking about things with her. Camila is gentle and comforts her, saying that she had been incredibly scared, but she’s proud of how much Luz has grown from her time in the Boiling Isles and how she could never ask her to leave someplace so dear to her forever.

Luz’s palisman wish in this is, “All I wanted is to feel like I belong somewhere,” because it still fits into her theme of being a weirdo and feeling misunderstood without putting pressure on her friends and family to bend over backwards to understand her even when they disagree. Stringbean is still her Palisman, but she’s just a snake as opposed to a snake-shifter.

Meanwhile, the Collector is becoming more and more suspicious of their “friend.” King goes away too often, and he’s always so secretive around Lilith and Eda! What if he’s planning something? What if he’s going to betray them the way Philip did? He begins preparing himself for King’s betrayal and spends some spies to follow the Titan. Eda, Lilith, Hooty, and King wander about in some of their limited time away from the Collector while they’re distracted or sleeping.

Eventually, the two groups meet up, and there’s a lot of joy for everyone as they reunite with each other, explain what’s been happening in the different realms, and introduce Eda, Lilith, and King to Camila. The Hexsquad is ecstatic to know that their loved ones are okay, as King confirms that he hasn’t seen any of them get puppetified (and King’s almost always there when that happens). However, once the shock has worn off, they realize that Philip is there, and they become incredibly suspicious about him. The situation is quickly explained, and the Eternal Oath between the two groups soothes them for now, but Lilith makes sure to tell Philip that she’s watching him for any suspicious business. The episode ends on the Collector, revealing that he’s seen the whole interaction.

In Watching and Dreaming, it would start shortly after Eda, Lilith, and Hooty were reunited with Luz and the rest of the Hexsquad. Philip is awkward and generally standing off to the side due to his mistreatment of both witches in the past and the growing realization that with the fight approaching, they will have to fight and either die or suffer, and Philip will have to turn against them in the end.

Eventually, the Collector would find the group and try to take King hostage for betraying him and working for his downfall. That would trigger an all out fight where everyone would scramble to get King free. Hunter would succeed by grabbing King and teleporting away after Amity restrains the Collector for a short period of time.

I’m not the best at describing fight scenes, but it would be a mess. Willow would be shooting vines at the Collector and making sure that everyone had the potential to get in range and get away if needed. Gus would be distracting, diverting, and attempting to visually overwhelm the Collector with his illusions. He might even try the bad memory thing again.

Amity would attack utilizing abomination matter and attempt to restrain the Collector’s movement. Hunter would have Flapjack and go about his usual teleportation-and-retreat based fighting style. King would use his Titan powers and Lilith would use potions (and Hooty) to destroy and hold back the puppet army. Eda and Camila would be doing their best to give the Collector hell while protecting their kids, and they’d be absolutely badass at it.

Philip would be fighting like the devil, and it’d be another opportunity to get a true sense and scale of his power. I’m thinking that because he’s the most durable and survived being liquified by the Collector, he jumps in to take most of the damage for the Hexsquad. Finally, Luz would be absolutely amazing with her glyph combinations now that Philip has had some time to teach her some of his combinations.

The fight would eventually end when Philip partially petrifies the Collector before Luz slams them with a glyph combination that nice again traps them in their prison. Then, the Hexsquad absolutely demolishes the tablet that’s used for the imprisoned and the real world to communicate.

There’s celebrations, laughing, crying, and hugging. People are hugging, and Amity and Luz kiss after the latter hugs her mother. Everyone’s celebrating, except for Philip. He’s standing off to the side and kind of staring at the scene before him. He’s seeing proof, actual proof, of the goodness of the witches and demons that he thought were evil. His entire life has been dedicated to a lie, and everything that he used to see as good is monstrous.

Philip is badly wounded, but he interrupts the festivities to attack the witches around him. Luz uses Stringbean to deflect the attack and begins fighting him back. With the wounds he has and the knowledge he’s been wrong his whole life, Philip is not fighting nearly as well as he does in his prime, making it easier for Luz to fight against him on more equal ground.

Luz asks him to stop, saying that there has to be some other way to resolve the situation. Now that she understands the situation and what caused it, maybe find another way. (Basically, she tries to pull a Steven Universe)

“How else could this have ended with how far I’ve gone?” Philip asks, continuing to fight. They continue to fight, the man getting more and more injured as they go on. Eventually, he’s too wounded to go on, and his body gives out beneath him. He passes on soon after. Luz is there when he dies, but she is not responsible for it. I want it to feel kind of somber, because he’s a pretty tragic character as a whole.

————

That’s my idea for Season Three if Philip and Luz had to team up. A lot of Thanks to Them comes from @chiconisroc’s “Was Not The Hero,” because it’s got the same sort of premise.

[zeldahime]

I did math on David Tennant's hands (so you don't have to)

EDITED WITH MORE ACCURATE PHONE INFORMATION AND A DIFFERENT CONCLUSION.

I swear all I wanted to know was what kind of phone Crowley has in season 1.

See, I have an iPhone, and one of my gigs shares a building with an Apple Store. I was taking a screenshot of his contact picture for Aziraphale, and noticed that the camera on the back of his phone is laid out horizontal. Most iPhones aren't! So, I fell into this rabbit hole: what phone does Anthony J. Crowley have?

(The bit where you can see the cameras, immediately before the cool heart-in-flames picture he has for Aziraphale's contact, is basically impossible to screenshot; the phone moves very fast and reflects the environment. But his contact photo for his angel is so neat and I love it ❤️‍🔥)

I figured out very quickly the only iPhone with that camera layout is the iPhone SE series, but there have been only three generations: 2016, 2020, and 2023. Season 1 of Good Omens was released in 2019. The iPhone SE first generation was also Apple's "budget" phone. It just didn't make sense to me that Crowley would have an old budget phone, but the new SE wasn't commercially available so it also didn't make sense to me that the prop department could have given him a new phone.

The main visual differences between gen 1 and gen 2 are threefold: gen 1 didn't come in black; gen 2 has slightly more beveling; and they are different sizes. The first two visual differences are basically meaningless, because it's trivial for a props department to turn a white phone black and the beveling difference only is obvious in comparison. So I had to figure out what size Crowley's phone was.

We see Crowley's phone in s1e4 and s1e5, but the only thing in its environment we can really measure to get an accurate read on its size is... Well. David Tennant.

More specifically, we get a fairly good shot of the phone in his hands, held level with the screen, and thumb easily available to use as a reference.

But if anyone has done David Tennant Hand Math before, they weren't on page 1 of Google and therefore may as well not exist. So I took up this quest myself.

So first, I had to find a picture of David Tennant holding something of known dimensions. I am, first and foremost, a Doctor Who nerd. There's only one answer to that.

Another Doctor Who nerd on the internet went and figured out 10th Doctor's sonic screwdriver was about 160 mm and the head of the sonic from tip to the joint with the middle section was about 40 mm.

I then got out my actual goddamn fabric tape and measured this man's fingers on my computer screen. After converting the measurements back to scale, first to second knuckle on his middle finger was 54.55 mm.

Then to figure out how long his thumb is, I needed a photo of his hands. This one is courtesy of the GO Reference Server:

His thumb came out to being approximately 68mm long. (My thumb came out to 55mm long. Not relevant, I just got curious while I was doing all this measuring.)

Finally, the data necessary to the main event: the goddamn phone.

Using the thumb as a reference, the phone came out to 136mm in length.

The iPhone SE Gen 1 was 123.8 mm long; the Gen 2 was 138.4 mm long.

Given that I rounded quite a bit during my calculations to keep things at 2 digits or less, I'm very comfortable saying: Crowley had an iPhone SE (second generation) during the events of Good Omens Season 1, a phone that would not become commercially available until April 2020.

I don't know how the props people got their hands a phone that wouldn't be released for a full year and change after filming, but they did that for us. It's a character note that practically nobody noticed, for a prop that gets barely a full minute of screentime. They could easily have used an iPhone XR or iPhone XS Max, which were the newest iPhones actually on the market at that time and which people would have recognized when the episode aired, but they knew Crowley would have the newest iPhone before anybody else had the newest iPhone and by Jove, he did.

After I posted this in Discord, @giveintomay pointed out that the iPhone SE second generation used the same build as the iPhones 7 and 8, which came out in 2016 and 2017 respectively. So, he most likely had an iPhone 8, which would have been the latest generation while filming (as generation 10 became commercially available over the summer and fall).