#we watched the whole season and we're talking about it like we're philosophers and it's much deeper than it is

[butterflydm]

wot deeper dive 2x1: a taste of solitude

Today is all about 2x1 for me! I am going to go scene by scene, talk up some thoughts about where we're starting with all our lovely characters in this first episode of season 2.

This specific post I am going to avoid any spoilers from the books! I will be doing another post later today that includes those spoilers and related thoughts.

Our first scene is the meeting that Our Friend From the Eye is having with his buddies, which I've talked about before since it was one of the released teasers but I really do love how it sets up some themes that I'm sure we'll follow over the course of the season -- what is evil? How can you tell if something or someone is evil? I really get the vibe that we're going to do a deep interrogation of Why People Become Darkfriends and I am here for it. I love him setting up his own philosophical view on the world here.

What the Man is arguing here is essentially that the Trollocs (and, by extension, the Shadow) aren't immoral but are amoral instead. "Hungry" rather than "malicious".

2. I do mourn the loss of our lovely little title sequence. I guess they wanted to squeeze every last possible second that they could for content!

3. I love the sort of bait-and-switch here where Moiraine is working her ass off... in order to fill a bath for herself. But this whole sequence is so touching and heartbreaking. When she tries to heat the water but fails to reach the Source. Heartbreaking! And when she's all alone, you can really see how she's despairing over her situation and her helplessness. She can't hold in her tears when she's alone.

4. And Lan is feeling his own sense of despair here. Equally heartbreaking. Going from a feeling so deeply connected to someone to them just being gone, and not as a temporary thing but, as far as you know, a forever thing.

5. Verin and Adeleas (and Tomas) are a fun set of characters. I just found their entire setup very charming and I enjoyed everything with them. Poor Adeleas is so thirsty though, lol.

6. It really is hard to see Moiraine staying at such an emotional distance from Lan! She didn't even look at him.

7. Egwene's Journey Through The White Tower did a good job setting the new expectations for her current situation and her role here as a novice -- cleaning the Amrylin's room, enjoying the view, the little bow she gives Leane, trying not to watch Alanna having fun with Maksim and Ihvon, passing by the Warder sparring area, and ending in the kitchens. We learn here that the Amrylin is off traveling. Hmm. I wonder where she went (I mean, it's likely an excuse to not have the actress for this set of episode -- I'm guessing we'll only get Sophie for one episode, maybe two, for this season).

8. Nynaeve telling Egwene to stop smiling over doing her chores, lol. I don't think we get a 'time-stamp' yet in this part -- I think it's Perrin who first lets us know how long it's been since they parted at Fal Dara. I'm guessing that they didn't leave Fal Dara right away and needed to take time to recover before heading to Tar Valon -- I even wonder if maybe Perrin & co actually traveled with Nynaeve and Egwene to Tar Valon as an escort? Because they all celebrate Bel Tine later in this episode, so it's been one year since 1x1, but Perrin notes that he's been hunting the Horn with the boys for "five months". This would also mean that Loial could have gotten some Aes Sedai healing at the Tower. I don't think that the show will go back and address it because we are barreling forward but... things that make me go 'hmm'.

9. Nynaeve is SO ANNOYED and feels so bait-and-switched by Siuan's promises, lol. "I have enough character". Amazing, perfect, no notes.

10. I love so much how Alanna's lesson is folded into the chores! She's teaching them but also showing them useful things (purifying water is a VERY useful skill!) while also giving them an incentive to get better as quickly as possible lol. Alanna as the Charming Green is such an interesting contrast to Liandrin the Bitter Red, especially since they're both getting explored as full, rich characters.

11. Egwene takes lessons wherever she can find them -- here, we see her avoiding using her hands because she doesn't want to be helpless if someone ties her hands up again, like Valda did. Ah, we do get the "five months" timestamp here too -- five months "in this Tower", so that's not including the travel time it took to get there. That matches what Perrin is saying, so I feel like there is an implication there that Perrin & co escorted Egwene & Nynaeve to the Tower. Five months is a long time for Nynaeve to have completely failed to channel again despite being surrounded by teachers, so I understand why she's so frustrated.

12. Nynaeve drinking the glass of filthy water is just so disgusting but also perfect. And Alanna just going ??? what is wrong with that girl???

13. So... holy shit, a novice died under Liandrin's teachings. Wild that she was given permission to 'talk' to Nynaeve. I'm with Alanna on that, 100%. Liandrin should not have been allowed anywhere near Nynaeve.

14. Liandrin gives us some world updates: Hunt for the Horn declared in Illian; Trollocs raiding Arafel; and a new false Dragon is Saldaea. Thank you for the world info update, Liandrin! I appreciate it!

15. Perrin writing letters to his friends really gets to me. It makes me very emotional. I love that sense of connection getting to still be present. And Perrin has been writing them regular letters!! And Perrin is also writing letters home and asking if Mat has found his way back!!

16. Oh, hello, Mysterious Golden-eyed Tracker. Nice to meet you, Elyas.

And the way they're doing everything with Perrin is interesting. I feel like given the audience something to experience is important, rather than it being Perrin narrating what he sees/smells, especially since he hasn't talked about any of what he's been going through with anyone on-screen, really.

17. Padan Fain killing a young woman and helping slaughter an entire caravan of people who follow the path of non-violence. What was that about not being able to tell if someone's actions are evil or not, Man from The Eye of the World?

18. One of the children escaped, and one of the Tuatha'an dogs killed one of the Darkfriend soldiers protecting the young girl's escape but died protecting her.

19. Moiraine is very successfully sneaky here with Doman, making him believe she's after one thing but getting him to haggle down on the thing that she's truly interested in. And I think she realizes that Doman has something real because of his mention that he's being followed and then the whole, you know, "Old Tongue written in blood" thing. She plays him good. But then when she realizes how much danger he might be in, she gives him another ten marks to help him out.

Lan's thoughts on the bond are very poetic. I love him getting to talk these things over with another Warder. And Lan is very aware that Moiraine is trying to push him away and is determined not to let her freeze him out, but it's hard!

20. Nynaeve finding so much more comradery with the Warders than with the Aes Sedai (but then also that moment when she insults Alanna and they make it clear that she's gone too far). We also get a bit of a look into the Alanna-Maksim-Ihvon poly dynamics. Nynaeve does try to reach out to Egwene but Egwene is never in her room!

21. It is so funny that Alanna thought that Egwene came to her for advice on poly relationships. Egwene trying to mirror Alanna with how she leans against the cushions: also hilarious. (who does Alanna think that Egwene is having sex with, I gotta wonder, lol) Poor Egwene. Once Alanna realizes what Egwene is actually asking, though, she gives her some solid advice.

22. Nynaeve practicing Alanna's lesson on her own because she DOES want to learn but she doesn't want to fail in front of other people. And Liandrin's entire scene with her was so well done but also: wow, yikes ouch. Nynaeve's reaction to being shielded by Liandrin (getting teary; looking at her hands afterwards) reminds me of Moiraine's reaction to what happened to her at the Eye. Liandrin is also really good at getting under people's skins. Hearing the official Red policy on Warders is really a sad way to look at things, but does explain a lot (but she's also trying to get Nynaeve to react). "You saw that weave only once but you were able to copy it" - Nynaeve's a quick learner, when she can touch the Power. Such an intense scene!

23. Really liked the funeral scene. Elyas buries the brave dog who protected the little girl. Ingtar and Perrin talk about Darkfriends and revenge and grace. "All men deserve a proper burial". Perrin talking about being worried that the rage will overwhelm him (which is directly what led to him accidentally killing his wife in the premiere). "Anger won't bring my men back." But Perrin can't stop thinking about how open and warm his people were to Fain, and then Fain betrayed them all (with a smile!).

24. Lan telling Moiraine not to smile at him while they're in a terrible situation like this, and she's pushing him away. Getting two flashbacks from that -- a. Nynaeve telling Egwene not to smile about doing her chores earlier in this episode and b. Siuan telling Moiraine not to smile back in episode 1x6. This does hurt and I think it hurts Lan that he knows what she's doing, trying to drive him away, and it's still working anyway because he doesn't feel that intimate connection that they've shared for the last twenty years.

25. Us getting that lovely moment of Perrin writing the letter, and Egwene and Nynaeve receiving it, and Rand all on his own, thinking of his friends, and then poor Mat, getting tormented by Liandrin by her only reading part of the letter, making him believe that his friends don't care about him anymore. The way Egwene and Nynaeve are able to connect for a moment, and how all five of them are thinking about each other on Bel Tine (which tells us that it's officially been a year since 1x1). Perrin is a wonderful correspondent, with a very nice way with words.

26. "A dozen letters now, and not a single mention of Mat Cauthon." Liandrin is very very good at knife-twisting. Also, Perrin has sent them a dozen letters in only five months. He is a very faithful correspondent. Ugh, I was immediately gutted by the look on Mat's face. And this is confirmation that Mat has heard that Rand is dead (and from Liandrin, probably the worst person to hear it from!). Ah, we have a "six months" timestamp from Mat here, so it took Egwene & Nynaeve roughly a month or so to get to Tar Valon from Fal Dara, since they've been in the Tower for five months. Ugh, Liandrin has been picking and picking at him for six months. My poor darling. And I bet he's especially emotional over it right now because it's Bel Tine.

27. Mat can't afford a lantern this year either, and he doesn't have any other ways of getting one. Perrin almost says goodbye to Laila here but can't quite do it (that's how I'm interpreting the moment with the ring), which means that this lantern is only for Rand. And Nynaeve and Egwene also put out a lantern for Rand, to say goodbye. Then we see Rand with a lantern, all by himself in a city. We only get this one glimpse of Rand in the whole episode but it's still very emotional.

28. Love the reveal that Mat is secretly trying to work on an escape plan. Great moment to end his little scene here on.

29. Also love Lan getting some Warder therapy from Adeleas, Verin, and Tomas. Also, lol, Adeleas just wants to eat her meal. I love Verin and Adeleas's relationship. This is such a good scene.

30. Apologies to my dearest Moiraine & Lan, but I never have much to say about fight scenes. That scene sure did... fight. Good fighting in that scene. Their hands touching at the end got to me though. I liked getting to see Verin channel Tomas's sword to be on fire. That was pretty cool.

[mandatory-blog-stop-asking]

Star Trek Is A Failing Theme Park

Much like many others I used to be a bonafide Star Trek Discovery hater, and even though I thoroughly enjoy it now, I honestly don't regret that time in my life.

I think Discovery season 1 and most of season 2 were a little ashamed of having to be an old sci-fi show, so they kept trying to be a show about violent, impulsive, very special unique people that happened to go to space every once in a while. Which Star Trek has been, on occasion, but never in a way I personally find better than what it usually is -- philosophizing and talking about real world or allegorical drama for 40-50 minutes until a solution arises that doesn't really make anyone super happy and not everyone comes out unscathed, but the compromise means there's hope for a better solution tomorrow, and the day after that, until it works.

The personal dramas usually related to their reactions to storylines, but were ultimately secondary to the bigger pictures, and acted as bows you tie the narrative with at the end. If Kirk did not make it through the episode unscathed, that's cool, but the episode was rarely only about his demons. It could heavily relate to his demons but that wasn't the whole source of the spectacle. The Naked Time works as a way to examine characters in crisis, not necessarily as a Kirk episode where it's all about him.

Because of that, I was basically the audience for seasons 3 and 4. While Season 3's ultimate plot wasn't the most interesting thing in the world, the idea that they were now dealing with their "own version" of the galaxy, writing their own plots that didn't have to come before everything else and figuring out their own threats that didn't have to eventually connect back to Star Trek canon was a massive improvement.

The decision to interweave character drama into storylines as opposed to making the storylines about the character drama also greatly expanded upon people's roles in the ship, and you finally got to see people like Detmer or Owosekun doing shit and being useful, instead of just being on the bridge nearly unnamed. I genuinely think Season 4 of Discovery is one of the best seasons in modern Star Trek; even if it trips and falls sometimes, I think it's well worth the creative risk and I was left very satisfied after watching it.

So when Discovery season 5 turns around and tells me it's about an episode of TNG I watched once, and then they start going to a planet from an episode of TNG I watched once, and then here comes another episode where they go to an episode of DS9 I watched once, and there's more 24th century-specific stuff that's gonna happen, it's...

It's very hard to feel like we're not regressing? I realize at this point the show is very, very cancelled -- they weren't even told it was happening until they were filming the finale, but at the same time, is this really what the plan was? To not boldly go into something original, instead picking up threads from episodic shows released decades ago? What are we, Star Trek: Picard?

Now for the sake of transparency, I feel like this is might be more of a personality problem than a media consumption problem for me, because I am genuinely allergic to nostalgia. I have no respect or attachment for media whose only mission is to remind me of things that existed, and franchises that have made that their entire MO have basically died for me. Like, I can't watch Star Wars anymore. It stopped mattering how good or bad it is for me because all I see in stuff like Mandalorian season 2 is pilots for shows I'm not gonna watch, and cameos from characters I don't want to see right now. The stories are no longer the point, the point is the brand and how easily recognizable it is.

So when Discovery tells me that their last hurrah is going through the Star Trek theme park, pointing at rides I've already gone to and saying "Isn't it cool we get to say these words again? That we get to see this thing again?" I'm left cold. I don't want to see the Progenitors again. I don't want to see the Promellians again. I like seeing the Trills again, it's one of my favorite species in the franchise, but we have seen so much of the Trills between DS9 and DIS, I really feel like this is... not the way forward. This theme park is not the reason why I think about Star Trek.

It reminds me of why I stopped caring about Star Trek Online. The practical reason was me not liking the minibuys and the combat, and the game's only mode of operation being to attack -- it's a fine ship combat game and a mediocre but working third person shooter, I just don't care enough to play it forever. But the secondary reason, and the reason I think about the most, is because every single storyline is less a story and more a Star Trek reference.

It's always someone coming back, or an alt universe version of a character being introduced, or picking up on a random episode that I already watched, making the action figures fight instead of anything else. Instead of using fanservice to broaden the appeal, the only appeal is the fanservice; there is very little to Star Trek Online that isn't just the equivalent of going to Star Trek Land and looking at the Harry Kim bust again.

I keep looking at Burnham, a character I have come to like in spite of her place in the franchise, in spite of the fact that her entire conception was made to connect her to Spock, and to Sarek, and to Pike, and to all these characters I already know, in spite of the shortcomings of her original character arc -- I look at her and I see a character who has built her own path after being allowed to exist separate from the others, after being given the same chance everyone else was to be more than a Star Trek reference, and then she just knows to go to the planet of the Booby Trap aliens because that's Star Trek, we're going on the ride.

I'm so sick of going on the same rides. Specifically, I'm sick of going on rides after they just proved that they can do something different, that doesn't need Star Trek references to exist. Please I am begging you stop showing me Picard's face, I get it, I like TNG too. But I tuned in to watch Discovery. I am not into this brand because I am into the brand, I am into this brand because it's fucking good, stop acting like I'm here for nostalgia's sake.

"Hey, what about Lower Decks? You love that show!" eh Lower Decks can do it, don't worry about it.

[tomwambsmilk]

i feel like there is hope in the finale though? the siblings (at least rome and ken and con) are out of the company and out of the ‘cage’ and there is some freedom and hope in that. they have a better chance at being happy then they would have if they stayed in the company. kendall can either die from it or be reborn. rome seems content. the worst thing happened and now they can move on if they choose

Yeah I agree! I do think there's hope in the finale! But I think the edit is deliberately structured to downplay that. I don't think that when we watch the last couple of minutes, we're supposed to think of those things as including glimmers of hope. I think they're deliberately written and performed and cut and soundtracked to feel bleak, or feel like the end of the road, or like proof that these characters won't ever change, particularly because these are the final moments of the show, which turns them into a sort of thesis for the show as a whole. (Especially on this show, which has always been so careful about its final moments, and the producers have talked about choosing final shots deliberately to convey key themes and ideas from each season). With Tom and Shiv we end on the not-handholding, emphasizing the new power dynamic in the relationship (particularly Shiv's lack of power) as well as the death of any real trust or affection between them. Roman maybe has the most ambiguous ending, but even so, we end on him alone in the bar with the martini, which is a reminder both of the loss of his relationship with Gerri and by extension the loss of the potential to be a different kind of person than he is. With Kendall, we end on the water, something which has always been a symbol of death for him - physical, spiritual, and moral. With each of them, the impression we're left with at the end of the show, the moment which becomes the show's ultimate thesis, is one of spiritual death and personal decay. Even the decision to end in the immediate aftermath of the board meeting, rather than adding some kind of brief coda which would lift the characters and audience even marginally out of that emotional intensity and despair, indicates what the audience's main takeaway is supposed to be.

And Jeremy Strong's latest interview (on the podcast I think?) indicates pretty clearly that this was intentional. He talks about the episode as an 'extinction level event' for Kendall; he also talks about questioning some of the choices as being too bleak or cyclical but ultimately relenting because he felt this ending was more truthful to Jesse's vision as the characters being trapped in "a doom spiral" or "a silent scream". In the 'inside the episode' Jesse acknowledges that there may be a future for these characters, but ultimately emphasizes that, in his mind, there is no coming back from the events of the show. So this isn't something that I'm projecting onto the show - I really do think you're supposed to walk away with bleakness, not hope.

And I just disagree with that as a worldview, and personally I think it's not even true to the actual worldview that plays out in the show, which (in my mind) has always included glimmers of hope. But then again, that interpretation is very much rooted in my own worldview. That's where it's sort of difficult to articulate my criticism because I don't think there are any serious artistic or narrative flaws in the finale. It's literally just that I disagree with the philosophical perspective Jesse has brought to this show and these characters, and so I don't like that he chose to emphasize what he did in its final moments. It's not even that he made a bad choice - he didn't! - it's just that I disagree with what it is he's trying to say.

I also don't think that choice negates the quality of the finale, btw. I do think the entire sequence of events, including the boardroom implosion, is a perfect ending. Mark Mylod talks about the inevitability of this ending, and I think he is right, and it does highlight a lot of the core ideas that have always been present in the show. I don't even dislike the final shots in themselves, all of which I think communicate key information about the characters. And I don't think I would object to this ending if there were another season, because the existence of another season would provide implicit hope. Really and truly the only thing that doesn't work for me personally is that this is where they've decided to end the entire show (and by 'this' I mean specifically those 3 shots), because that choice has philosophical implications that I fundamentally disagree with.

[politeanarchy]

Arrrrgrh, this just keeps on grinding my mental gears, and I wish it would leave me alone. Season 1 of Good Omens was the most glorious example of "Yes, and..." that I've encountered in years. Maybe ever. There were so, so many of us, all inspired to write or draw or otherwise participate in the story, adding our own ideas because it was fun.

Season 2, for me, is instead a whole lot of "Yes, but..." I love a lot of the little bits and pieces in it. I love many of the new characters. (Job's children, yes. Mrs. Sandwich, mmm-hmmm.) But then there are so many places where the suspension of disbelief just fails, and everything falls down with a clunk. So many jarring moments of they would not say that.

I mean, blatant failure to communicate is such a standard sitcom plot device, isn't it? I remember watching TV shows when I was a kid, or a teenager, and so many of them boiled down to "Character A keeps things a secret from Character B because of reasons, and then at the end the truth comes out, and we learn that none of the plot would have been necessary if they'd just talked to each other properly in the first place. Figuring out that pattern (at about age 12 or 13, I think) was enough for me to kind of fizzle out on watching TV altogether for a very long time. It just seemed so flat and predictable.

So now we're expected to believe that Aziraphale and Crowley, who have known each other for at least 6000 years and possibly much longer, who have experienced the whole of human history, who spend lots of their time together having various kinds of philosophical discussions and arguments about morality and good and evil and shades of grey...are actually just work friends (who are in love with each other, yeah) who happen to like the same pub (Earth) and have never actually had any real conversation about the stuff that matters?

...Really?

[fzzr]

Why Do I Only Like Sports Anime When They're Weird?

In general I am not a fan of sports anime. If the show is about getting the team together to show skill matters more than expensive gear, or we're unbeatable if we just work together, etc. I usually don't even bother to sample it anymore. However, my list of anime watched and rated highly is not bereft of things that happen on courses, tracks, and unconventional fields of play. So let's talk about lesbian golfers, horse girls, and beating the shit out of people for discount lunches.

Reviews

Birdie Wing: Golf Girls' Story is a 2022 anime about the most unethical sport that doesn't involve non-human animals. Now, I wouldn't watch golf even if it wasn't boring as shit, just in protest of the amount of land and water it wastes. I will admit that if real golf was like the sport of the same name in Birdie Wing, I would be more sorely tempted. You see, the protagonist of Birdie Wing isn't just a golfer, she's a golfer who plays underground matches for money, and the mob. Yes, in this setting gangsters work out their differences using golf duels (also sometimes regular violence, but golf first). Mobsters not being overburdened with an abundance of principles, they obviously cheat a whole lot, and our protagonist, Eve, just wants a good clean game.

Her world changes when she falls in rivalry with aspiring professional golfer Aoi. From here Eve works to escape from her crime-adjacent life and follow Aoi into the world of "real" golf. Along the way she faces off with such characters as "definitely not a vampire" and "don't worry at all about how mechanically perfect my play is". Birdie Wing has everything you would expect from a sports anime. There are our two leads with their different philosophical approaches to the game as they clash and cooperate. There's the example of how two good players don't just make a good team. There are the characters who will do anything to win, and those who just want to play.

This show has some absolutely wild moments, both of comedy and of emotional impact. Homoeroticism between rivals in a sports anime is by no means innovative, but the way Birdie Wing goes about it is distinct. I don't want to spoil how it happens, but I was so invested in their relationship by episode 4 that a particular moment hit me like a sack of bricks.

Birdie Wing: Golf Girls' Story is 8/10. It's just a little violent and just a little lewd, but there are sports anime that go further. I bet they're not this funny. Give it a try, especially if you want something wacky to watch while a little drunk.

Uma Musume: Pretty Derby is a 2018 anime about an unethical sport that does involve non-human animals. Specifically, each season of Uma Musume follows the actual career of a real life Japanese race horse... except instead of a horse it's about a horse girl with the same name. Also they're idols sometimes. Don't worry about it, it only comes up a few times. Given that it's built on a substrate of real life events, it really is crazy how much they manage to squeeze out of the plotlines. Most of the charm comes from the titular horse girls, of course. They're all fun characters, and even though the themes of hard work and believing in yourself are conventional the execution is solid all around.

Uma Musume: Pretty Derby (both seasons) is 8/10. It's wholesome as hell, pretty much a show for everyone.

Ben-To is a 2011 anime about the highly ethical sport of beating people up in supermarkets. The titular bento are pre-made lunches made and sold daily by markets and convenience stores. Come dinner time, the stores need to clear out stock, so everything goes on sale. As soon as the discount stickers are applied and the staff are safely out of the way, the game starts. The rules are simple: If you get your hands on a bento, it's yours. Take only one. Speed, subterfuge, or brute force - use whatever you want to get that half-price lunch.

Given the... unconventional... premise, it takes a bit of extra work to make it clear that this IS a sports anime. The freeform nature of the brawls means no single collection of sports tropes applies. It's not martial arts, but there is an emphasis on the value of personal excellence and motivation. The protagonists are solo players, "wolves", who fight for honor and always go for the most premium bento on the shelf. There are "dogs" who work as a team, and "boars" who break the social contract, so shifting alliances form even among those who normally square off. There are cross-town rivalries and places where bad blood from past events impacts the tenor of the sport. Retired players give the newcomers advice and instruct them on the philosophy of the game.

Ben-To is 8/10. (It would have been 9/10 if it didn't get distracted by anime tiddy for a few episodes). The concept is wild, the action is great, and it's just a fun time all around. It has some parts that require an elevated power level (if you know what a "fujoshi" is you have the prerequisites) so you can't show it to just anyone, but I think almost anyone can have fun with it.

OK but why though

So, why is it that I find the WE GOTTA DO IT FOR THE SENPAIS and IF WE BELIEVE IN EACH OTHER WE CAN BEAT ANYONE of conventional sports anime boring, but these all do it for me? One thing they have in common is that they're not depicting a real game being played in a real way - the unfamiliarity clearly adds something to the experience. I do think each of them shows how to make sports anime good in a different way, though.

Birdie Wing takes golf as a stepping off point, but chooses not to limit itself by the rules of reality. The tools and terms are what you have overheard people talk about when clubball is in the news for some reason, but also Eve calls out special move names and a mob boss spent millions of dollars on a reconfigurable subterranean golf course. In essence, this is a sports anime that chooses to indulge in what you might call "anime bullshit" and does it well.

Uma Musume is about running. It's truly impressive where the strategic complexity is found - different turf, different training patterns - but the sport itself isn't the source of the hyperreality. Instead, it's everything else. The characters use the actual names of the horses they're based on, so you have Special Week looking up to senpai Silence Suzuka. The designs and personalities are strong and distinct. There's nothing revolutionary about wanting to get a sports scholarship to a school in the big city because you want to play, with the school being secondary. It's just that there's this whole unstated bit of worldbuilding where oh yeah, these are horse girls who dream of growing up to be like their role model horse girls and be famous horse girl idols and horse girl champions.

Ben-To is the Chaotic Good of sports anime. It doesn't go off the rails, because it's too busy assuming you understand that of course grocery stores keep first aid stations in the back in case of concussions during the nightly refrigerator section brawls to be on rails in the first place. The freedom granted by the premise lets it pick and choose the best parts of sports anime without being beholden to the mundane things that hold the genre back. It doesn't have to deal with the heartbeat of a school year or tournament season schedule. All it takes to introduce a new twist is to brawl at a different market or have someone new show up to yours.

No seriously, why?

After stepping through all that, I think the answer is simple and a bit unsatisfying. I like weird sports anime because of the weird, not because of the sports. Weird anime are just fun, and taking something I find less fun and weirding it up means I get a bit of extra unfamiliarity from the weirdness.

[variousqueerthings]

hmmmmmmmmm -- I needed this off my chest first and then I can talk about where I’m sitting with the show as a whole moving forwards + the individual things I really did love

this season really did hit home the intentions for the rest of the show I think, which is what I thought it would/where I was saving a lot of my ideas for how I might approach the rest of the story

unfortunately the overall narrative as a whole ultimately didn’t land for me

Gen: the middle set up some interesting concepts and the last two episodes let them drop like lead (the first few episodes were very good for daniel and very bad for johnny and so-so spread across the kids)

my friend said it best: “they keep hinting at unconventionality/strong development and then they get scared and walk it back right after in favour of playing it safe and repeating the same structures again and again” (ex. sam’s dream sequence, chozen training the kids and being an obvious alt mentor for hawk, the three boys sitting on the couch and agreeing amongst one another who was going to fight in the tournament, tory coming to sam for help, the daniel/johnny/chozen/amanda team-up, etc)

people are making the same choices over and over, except at some point a switch is flipped to randomly say this time the choice is good for some reason -- this time johnny being a father will work because? this time the straight romances work because? this time it can be solved with a tournament because?

obviously I’m not a fan of johnny being a father for many reasons, but it’s crazy to me that the motivations he’s been building for four seasons -- being a father to his sons -- isn’t as important anymore

and the last thing is that things went so damn fast this season? sam needed time to figure out herse- oops, she’s ready to get into a relationship again. miguel has concerns about his family situati- nope he’s good again. daniel is terrified of silver who’s promising even wor- oh ok he’s beating him up now in front of an audience (using the quicksilver techniques???)

also... unfortunately this season was so straight, it was as if they saw all the ways we were reading the previous two seasons as Very Gay and desperately tried to course correct -- similar to the first point “hinting at unconventionality” we had these little moments where there was some really interesting dynamic that didn’t have to be queer to be clear, but did make things clear about the focus of the narrative

miguel and robby and hawk had several interesting moments around the idea of what they represented as “champions” (miguel and robby in particular had some interesting things to work through and getting to see that over time would have been great) -- but then robby is going back to tory and miguel to sam (hawk was a secondary character which actually served him very well imo, in the sense that he wasn’t tossed into pointless drama directions)

tory is obviously sam’s foil and has been for the past few seasons, and it was particularly obvious in the dream sequence of this exact season... but then they weren’t really important to one another for the rest of the season (apart from a single moment of sam helping her fight kim da eun, which was then a moment replaced by devon, i guess)

daniel and johnny and chozen and amanda had so much when they were onscreen together in different constellations, but then johnny had to constantly be pulled back by this pregnancy plot and chozen apparently has always been desperately in love with kumiko?

[ceterisparibus116]

When you talk about DDS2 being a bit unbalanced, I take that to be short for "they tried to do two seasons of material in one and that caused both plots to be shortchanged. There's not much in the way of threads connecting the Hand and Punisher plots either, especially when Karen and Foggy have little to do with the former."

YES. I kind of appreciate having Frank and Elektra in the same season, since they complement one another thematically. With Frank, the question seems to be, "When is killing okay?" With Elektra, you've got that plus the added question of, "How does a person's background/attitude mitigate or aggravate the issue of killing?" and I find that really, really cool.

But the Hand - ugh. There are so many valid critiques, starting with racism, ending with that they're just, overall, boring. The Hand is only cool, to me, when we're following one or two individuals, like Nobu, whom we can understand. Plus, watching Matt destroy like 10 ninjas at once just makes me feel like the whole thing is choreographed and the outcome is guaranteed. It's not gritty and there's no tension.

But I'll rant about the Hand another time.

Again, thematically, I think it's possible to write Frank and Elektra in the same season, and that could be really cool. Especially writing Frank, Elektra, and Matt all having to team up for some reason, which would really contrast their different approaches. (I think Frank would not be a fan of Elektra's glee with killing, for example; he kills because he thinks it's justified, but she kills because she enjoys it.) That could lead to some great philosophical questions. But they'd have to, y'know, interact.

And then, as you've mentioned repeatedly, the series suffers because we don't get to see the other characters interacting. Imagine Foggy reacting to Elektra not just in an angry "Why did u not tell us about her and why did u let her ruin our case" kind of way, but also confronting Elektra about how she broke Matt's heart! Especially since, now that Foggy knows about Daredevil, it would be totally plausible for Foggy to hear (either from Matt or Elektra) about what she did in Sweeney's apartment, and I would love to see Foggy fired up over that and protective of Matt. Not to mention I'd love for Matt to see that, to feel validated and cared for by his best friend. Just - agh.

I might need to write that scene myself since whump/flufftober is over.

And then of course there's Karen! Her approach to Frank illuminated so much of her character, and I'd love to see that also explored via interactions between her and Elektra, especially if they aren't love-triangle-ish. I think Elektra's skills and bloodthirstiness under the direction of Karen's quest for justice would be so powerful.

But alas.

Thanks for the ask!

[oncerpotter2018]

My Thoughts On Attack on Titan Season 4 Part 1 (SPOILERS)

I'd convinced my sister to watch Attack On Titan with me and soon she and I were hooked and dragged into the world of the Titans. What we weren't prepared for was the many moral and philosophical decisions we would also have to make while watching this show. My sister had never seen Attack on Titan before and it was her first time watching it. And as she watched more of it the more we zoomed pasted the seasons. Along the way I cried but it wasn't until I we watched Season 4 that the really water works started.

When we finally gotten to watch the back story of those we didn't know about. We had gotten to know about the people over the sea. How these people were nothing but human. Both Eldians and Marley. Everyone had their own stories, dreams and hopes. I cried when I found out that Reiner, Annie, Bertrolt were just children used to find the Founding Titan and broke through Wall Maria. They were children of war, made to believe that beyond the walls that they live in were their enemies. That in the island of Paradie, they were told they were the "devils" and told they were bad people.  I understood the pains of all of them. And from the beginning I too judged Annie, Bertrolt and even Reiner for what they've done but after knowing where they were from, what they were taught and what they have seen, I felt sorry for them. They didn't know better, they only were meant to believe what they know because others told them too. Fear of the unknown lead them astray and led them on the wrong path. Both sides of the ocean were living in fear and acted upon it with hatred. Its this action that will eventually kill humanity in the end.

When it came to Sasha's death, I cried. I didn't want her to die. And a bit of me wanted to rip Gabi apart but I understand why she killed her. I may still not forgive her but I am not going to pull her down to the depths of hell for something she didn't understand. She only saw what Sasha did and acted upon it as she was taught. A life for a life. Gabi let her hate and anger and fear take control and she became what Eren had become. She had abandoned all of her moral judgment and humanity and all was left was the monster. She tainted her heart and turned it black as coal. She saw the only means of seeking justice was through bloodshed. She was blinded by what she thought was right, that the ideology she had spent her whole life being taught was true. What she didn't relaised was the human side of Sasha. The funny side, the goofy side, the bright sunshine who loved to eat a lot. She didn't gave them a chance to show that they aren't a threat. She pays for that heavy burden. It wasn't until she met Sasha's family that she finally realised all she believed and what she had been taught was a lie. And yet she still refused to see the truth because the lies she had been fed with had been embed in her mind corrupting her heart and soul.

There were so many other moments of humanity being as cruel and as unkind. It felt like nothing has changed. Even today, we still live in fear of the unknow. Shove people away because they are different. Put "walls" to keep people away. We a blind of others and like the Marley and Eldians, we are only taught what we want to hear not what we are meant to be told. The whole 16 episodes so far taught me that humans are the most dangerous animals of all, hate and fear will always be with us. We'll never see eye to eye. And countless more people will die through our ignorance and fear. Its this that makes this season for me so human, so down to reality and how much it can relate back to our own modern times. There will be people who will betray us, try to push us away or bring us down because we're not like the rest but somehow, we must push forward no matter what.

There's something about understanding how everyone feels and how they view each other. How it relates back to our own society. We place invisible walls up so we don't talk to each other. We judge other people before we get to know them, we all ready judge their character without seeing their faces or get to know them as a person. Its the same with both sides, one side sees them as the devils, the other sees them as monsters. But the harsh reality is that they are both in the wrong. There is no good or bad people, no heroes or villains, there is just humanity. Eren became the monster he hated the most. They thought he was humanity last hope but what they didn't know, and I'm quoting my sister here, is that inside that Titan was a human being. A human being with emotions, a human being with a heart. It's a human being who can feel anger, pain and hurt and fear. It's a human being who can be just as destructive without being a Titan. He is the human being who can hurt his friends. Take away what little trust they have left in him. Eren, from my understanding, became who he was because he just wanted to be free. Free from the suffering and pain and anger and hatred. He just wanted take it all back but his ideology is not maybe in the right place.

Speaking of Eren, when Connie asked why did Eren laughed when he mentioned that the last words Sasha spoke was meat. I get it now. He laughed because at the mention of the word meat took him back at the time when she took the meat from the store room. He remembered how her dream was to live through his hell so they start a farm. It was the shock and the memories of the old days that made him laugh. I didn't feel like it was cruel laugh, it felt like a laugh of denial and hurt and disbelief. It was the kind of laughter from the shock of the realisation that Sasha could no longer achieve her dream. I know this because I laughed too. I was sitting alone on my bed and thought about the exact memory and suddenly I found my self laughing. Laughing how silly it was to be crying because deep down she isn't dead, that she'll live her dream. But I know she is somewhere up there now, eatting all she could.

Then there's Levi. The man who always remained strong, saw his comrades transform infront of his very eyes. I have never seen that look in his eyes before, its fear and yet it is also pitty. Its the "I'm sorry, its my fault" look. It was a tough decision for him, but he had to make the sacrifice. He had to make the hard choice evne if it means to lose those closest to him. I really hope Levi is alright. I hope at least he survives because he isn't called humanity's stronger solider for nothing.

So, in the end of watching all 16 episodes so far, I thought I whatever may come next, I know I'll end up crying once more. Know more people will die and it will be all over soon. And to end the story means that there's still a new beginning to go. I hope that there'll be a time when humanity will be free from hate and pain but only time will tell. All I can say is that this first half of the season ended with so many more questions then answers and I seriously wish winter 2022 would come soon.