#we're rewatching the show (out of order) and this is the only time I remember them dancing while watching music videos

[blackchantilly]

RevCo in Beavis and Butthead. :)

[windcarvedlyre]

Rewatched part of ch1's trial and found something else that's really interesting in hindsight!

We're all familiar with Komaeda's FTE; over a decade later, there's still some room for debate wrt whether he was telling the truth about his diagnoses or not. My stance was already that he was telling the truth, instantly regretted it, and lied that he was lying, and I will die on that hill. I think the above lines reinforce my stance further.

Hear me out. I might as well make this a comprehensive 'Komaeda wasn't lying' post while I'm at it.

For reference, here's the entire final FTE.

The reasons I already had to believe him are as follows, ordered from strongest to weakest:

Komaeda almost died from despair disease; he was much more severely affected than Owari and Mioda. Lymphoma can weaken your immune system, leaving you more vulnerable to infections. While Komaeda's degree of illness could also have been due to bad luck, this could easily be an intentional hint about him.

He claims he's wanted someone's love all along. Again in chapter 3, after the trial, Tsumiki targets his lack of loved ones and seems to genuinely perturb him, indicating this is a real insecurity:

Behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia, or bvFTD, can have symptoms that align with a lot of his social and behavioural issues in the game. bvFTD symptoms can include saying socially inappropriate things/being rude and insensitive, rash/impulsive behaviour, empathy issues, and rigid thinking, among other things. Do I even need to cite examples of these? He can still hide things and manipulate people sometimes, but his ch4 investigation segment proves he's genuinely socially impaired. He sometimes fails to understand the emotional nuances of other people and the impact his words will have. For example:

(Though he still has moments of self-awareness and introspection; he acknowledges he's pessimistic in his introduction and worries he'll make Hinata hate him by saying weird things in Island Mode.)

Issues with memory, cognition in general, etc, are more of a thing in later stages of the disease, so Komaeda having significant social impairments but still being extremely sharp and lacking noticeable lapses in memory makes sense.

Physically Komaeda just doesn't seem healthy in general. He's pale, skinny, his hair is white (possibly fading into a pinkish brown that I could see being his hair colour in the past), and- at least in Japanese- he sounds really breathy and wheezy. I once laughed in a way uncannily similar to his ch1 breakdown when I had a chest infection. With asthma. Stage 3 lymphoma symptoms can include chest pain, shortness of breath, weight loss, loss of appetite and fatigue. If it's still stage 3 it's present in lymph nodes above and below the diaphragm but hasn't metastasized outside of the lymphatic system yet, but if it's advanced to stage 4 since his diagnosis then it may have spread to his lungs as well- having further potential to cause respiratory issues.

In his second-last FTE he starts to tell Hinata about something before he entered Hope's Peak but stops himself, not wanting to 'burden' Hinata. And leaves immediately to end the conversation. He'd just told Hinata how his parents died in front of him, showing zero awareness of how bad it was or how it would affect Hinata, so it must have been real bad for him to do this. And makes it less plausible he was impulsively repeating something from a book later, imo.

Iirc at least one spinoff manga runs with it being true, depicting him in a doctor's office during a nightmare. I'm too tired to hunt this down now; maybe I'll edit it in later.

On a meta level I just find it less compelling for the final reward for spending so much time with him to be 'Here's some actual vulnerability- lol psyche, remember he's manipulative? He might still want sympathy, you be the judge'. It would make the aborted confession at the end the only thing we can't infer from elsewhere in the game already. On the other hand, the diagnoses being real, and him trying to take it back and distract Hinata with an incitement to kill him (before also trying to confess his crush and aborting that too, he's a mess there), really really adds depth to his character.

Semi-tangentially, some people with bvFTD also develop neurological problems that affect movement- eg. making them slow and stiff. There's no evidence for or against Komaeda having this in canon afaik, and I've read it's more of a thing in later stages of the disease, but in the ch1 trial he talks about the threatening letter as if it's in his actual handwriting, and if so... it looks pretty stiff, doesn't it? Either it was angular on purpose or the writer has trouble with fluid hand movements. Let me know if he displays fine motor skills anywhere else, I guess.

The only real counterargument is that he's outlived the 6-12 months he was expected to, but:

The estimate is presumably from the cancer, which is treatable. FTD can take years and years, even 10+, to reach the later stages.

That's an estimate, not set in stone, and real people have survived after being told they have X months to live without supernatural luck.

In either case, it doesn't matter how dire the prognosis is if Komaeda's involved. If the chance of him surviving something isn't zero it will probably happen. When he finally managed to kill himself it wasn't even real.

Anyway, the thing I started the post with! Compare the lines below.

In both cases he's said something that could make others feel bad for him, immediately takes it back, and claims he did that on purpose.

But he wasn't actually lying in the first line, albeit hamming it up a little. He wanted someone to kill him. This happened while he was still pretending to be the killer, after Saionji asked him why he sent the letter. He dropped a hint about the truth and then deflected away from it, likely intentionally antagonising people to distract them from thinking too hard about what he just implied and make them more averse to empathising with him.

So what could that imply about the lines from his FTE?

TL;DR: He told the truth about having cancer and dementia, your honour. There's not only strong evidence for this but precedent for the sort of deflection he made afterwards.

[piracytheorist]

Episode 31 reactions!

Okay, first off, mind. blown. There's some VERY good action in this one!

Yor's coworkers are at the "Well, we're still better off!" jealousy stage. It's a small thing but something I can definitely see people like them do. Sharon seems to be the most passive-aggressive one, so it was a bit revealing that she was the first one to go like "Hey I got beer and sausage, I'm not jealous at all!" Our truest selves come out in the hardest times...

A very beautiful shot of the ship!

By the way, if Yor's coworkers knew what she was going through, they'd definitely stop being jealous.

Yor appears a little too nervous, if you ask me. Granted, we only saw her once before working, and when she was imagining what she'd tell Anya she sounded quite secure in her abilities. But now that she's been living in a family, her way of work has indeed changed, if anything else because she's worried they may find out the truth about her.

At first I thought McMahon had kicked her in the shin, but upon rewatching I realized he kicked the leg of the chair. I'm sure if it were the Shopkeeper he'd probably kick her leg, if not stomp down on her foot just to get her to focus.

Gram was sneezing again? Should I pay attention to this or is it just a baby being a baby?

Yor is smart to try and think how the enemy would think in order to be prepared for their plan, but she doesn't take into account the fact that some of the assassins are actual psychopaths who don't care about taking innocent people's lives in their effort to do their job. That's what being too kind of an assassin will do to you XD

And it's driven to the point even more with Yor being cute like that - and probably remembering the times she played with Yuri when he was little - and Olka saying she doesn't look like a criminal. She really doesn't. Sweetest assassin ever <3

The "mmm" Yor made at the end was the exact same "mmm" Anya made while stuffing up her face with food XD

Loid is not impressed, and this is only the beginning.

It's so fun having the actual, physical copy of the manga in front of me as I watch the episode! I notice here that when Anya talked about Yor missing, she also told Loid "You miss dinner all the time", but the anime omitted that. STOP DENYING US THINGS!

Anyway, Anya calls him out for catching feelings, and Loid is quick to drop his voice a couple octaves to show how secure he is.

I AM NOT LONELY I AM NOT.

Sure buddy, sure.

The office guys are on the opposite side of relaxing and actually enjoying themselves on this trip, going out and drinking a little too much, while the "Greys", Yor and McMahon are walking on eggshells.

The anime team obviously had enough time available for this chapter, as they have a couple of added lines from the office guys, so I doubt they omitted Anya's line about Loid missing dinner due to time issues. I wonder what might be the reason - it's not like they're trying to make us think he doesn't miss dinner? We know the guy's schedule is tight as a drum.

Anyway. Assassin-ing time and holy shit.

I'm pretty sure I gasped at this.

And the rest of the scene, of course!

Obligatory mention that it's been proven time and again that torture is not an effective means of interrogation. People can and do lie while being tortured for information, so the things they say may or may not be accurate. Torture may make them speak, but whether they speak the truth or not is another issue, unrelated to torture itself. So while there can be various goals of torturing someone (illegitimate, of course, like punishment, making an example out of a "traitor", or in very few real-life cases, gratification), obtaining information has proven to not be a feasible one. I understand the point of the scene was to show McMahon's abilities and to establish that there are multiple people on board after Olka, I just needed to say that.

I've been certain they'd go the "dumping bodies into the ocean" route. A cruise is a great setting for that!

The knock on the door was intense! Especially since it's put right after the scene of McMahon and Furseal walking back to the room, but just those few seconds of slowed down tension make you think "Oh no. It's not them. It's them".

I expected the "Oh, it's just room service!" and of course, I expected the "I didn't order any" reply.

Great animation of the attack and Yor protecting Olka and Gram though I'm begging the animators to look a bit into trigger discipline, at this point whenever I see a gun my eyes go immediately on the trigger and I go D: whenever there's a finger on it that shouldn't be

But oh, McMahon is good, and resourceful!

The assassin points his gun at them, Furseal freaks out while McMahon marches on.

We also finally see one (1) eye under the reflection of his glasses. I get that the reflection makes it easier in animation and such, but still I appreciate this detail, especially in such a moment.

And more action! Yor being a badass and at the same time caring for the baby!

"I can excuse murder in self-defense but I draw the line at scaring a baby"

THE GUY WAS STILL WIGGLING. WHILE HE HAD A DAGGER THROUGH HIS SKULL.

(probably last uncontrollable movements from his dying nervous system but still. it was fucking chilling and I love it)

Also, I can understand Yor being strong enough to break the door. But I think it takes a different kind of strength to throw an object, even a sharp one, and make the object break through the door, a human skull, and then latch onto a wall. Absolute unit.

Seeing the body was freaky, too! If I'm correct, I think this is the very first time we see a person being murdered on screen in the story.

Ah no wait we do see a guy in the second episode getting a dagger to the back and falling down. But it was much more palatable than seeing a dagger go through someone's skull and practically nailing him to the wall.

I'm gonna think about this for a long time, lmao. It was brutal!

I just noticed this on my rewatch! McMahon is wearing a ring in the shape and place of a wedding ring! He then goes on to tell the ship's services that the "mister and missus had a fight" though in the manga he says "me and my wife" so is his cover that he's on board with his wife?

And here's the same thing that shows Yor's side. She sees assassins as people doing their job and "cleaning out trash" especially in her case, not people who do this job just because they have no issue killing.

I mean, I don't want turtleneck guy to defeat Yor, but he's got my respect for now.

He also says there are other members from the gangster family on board? Just how many people did manage to get on this ship XD

The eavesdropping guy tells turtleneck guy that he sells his information equally and practically tells him good luck getting ahead, so now I'm thinking, there's another eavesdropping guy, or is he selling all his intel to other assassins that weren't there in that scene?

Also, good luck getting them to work together without getting greedy and/or paranoid, lol

Furseal was actually blushing while wearing the mask XD and the plague doctor mask on the baby!

The poison guy thinks he's some dude. He has no idea who he's dealing with.

This arc will be perfect for creepy shots of Yor, won't it XD

Furseal asks for his button back and dude! Priorities much? This button saved all your lives XD

Blonde mask guy tries to go for Olka right in the middle of the crowd like wtf and the moment Yor grabbed his hands I went like "BREAK THEM. BREAK HIS FINGERS." And then she did <3 We stan <3

That's it. That's their dynamic in one shot.

While Anya is having an overdramatic tantrum, we see how even when Twilight is trying to not be on the lookout - he even says he just has to stay away from suspicious people - his skills are so fine that they kinda work subconsciously. He spots the listening devices (I mean, there are a ton of them) and notices all the suspicious people even if he doesn't make a conscious list of all of them.

Then Twilight has a fucking breakdown over one (1) silly keychain. I mean it is a skeleton keychain so his mind immediately went "IT'S EITHER THAT OR MY OWN DEATH" is anyone even surprised

Anya is still learning how easily Twilight overreacts. And like the scene with the sandbox in the hospital, she realizes she caused him a little too much anxiety and tries to take some burden off.

This entire tension is going on and Twilight is still stuck on whether he should buy a stupid keychain. This man is incapable of relaxing, you tell him to relax and he goes like "Okay spy mode on standby, parent with anxiety mode is on".

I love how this reads a bit like "Papa considers hating frogs as much of a dealbreaker as being an assassin!"

It's so weird - though fitting - to think that Anya believes she can keep this up indefinitely. She has no idea how easily they could discover each other's identities and believes she can stop that from eventually happening. It makes sense for her age, though.

It's also a bit sad, how quick she is to think that she would be abandoned if they found out about each other. It's probably what makes her go "I have to keep this up as long as possible". Her young mind can't comprehend an alternative.

And oop! Taking part of the next chapter too, I see!

I might have lost it during these shots.

"You go around having battles" is definitely something Anya would come up with. It's why she's so hard to write and why Endo should receive an applause for how accurate to her age and experience he writes her.

Next, Twilight's biggest foe; the unreadable expression of a five six year old who is trying to take responsibility for her actions.

I love how when Twilight is facing actual danger and difficult missions he's all cool and collected. Meeting Desmond? Piece of cake. Taking down entire groups of people aiming guns at him? No problem. Anya acting unpredictable? THE WORLD IS ENDING.

However funny the scene is, it slowly drifts into a sadder territory. Twilight actually worries over Anya's mental state, and though he has no idea Anya is having the time of her life, there must be a part of his understanding of her trauma that is true. Now why he undermines completely his own trauma... It's projecting, isn't it?

Anyway, he concludes that the Handler knew from the beginning that Anya needs some vacation in order to recover from her trauma, and for some reason, instead of going like "Yo give her a break" she conjured up this entire idea for a vacation... But in reality, the Handler was only saying that in order to justify his time off in paper.

Like, the man can be so off sometimes that I want to shake him and then hug him because god I cannot imagine going your entire life like this and not even comprehending the idea of actual time off.

Anya: Have fun! Twilight: Cannot compute!

Like yeah it's funny but how am I supposed to not feel just a little bit sad with how he's completely unfamiliar with the concept of relaxing and having fun 😭😭

This is going to be a disaster XD

Anya prepares to run for it, realizes he can change and wear everything within seconds, and freezes... But then Overanalyzing TwilightTM takes control and he starts spending long minutes in front of the mirror freaking out about how his weird ensemble will manage to fix Anya's mood.

This truly is his most difficult mission. Anya is the perfect age to teach him about how sometimes he cannot control how people will react to his manipulations... and then there's the mind-reading, too.

Anyway. I love how Anya goes like "That's not how I expected to win some time but it works" and just steps back into the corridor XD

OH MY GOD

I love me a good fight choreography! Here Yor pushed Olka down from the shoulders, and at the same time pushed Furseal's knees to the front so they'd bend and he'd go down just enough to miss the sickle. Awesome!

The guy just starts a fight right in the middle of the crowd. And Yor has no choice but to stop him, Anya has to hide and also keep Loid from coming out of the store...

That IS a very interesting cliffhanger! I nearly screamed when it ended there, lol. It even ends in the middle of the page! I had to cover it with my hand to avoid spoilers XD The things I go through in this crazy experience XD

Overall, awesome episode! Though I felt that the Twilight panicking scene dragged on a bit. I don't know why. Maybe it's just that I'm an angst ho and I wanted a bit more angsty vibes from that scene. It's not bad, but maybe I still haven't realized just how much on comedy the show belongs in. It has a peculiar but for some reason very efficient balance on everything.

[butterflydm]

wot rewatch 1x8: the eye of the world

I made it before the new season started! <3

spoilers for the first season of WoT and for most of the s2 teasers that we've gotten. For the books... um... honestly mostly stuff from Eye of the World that didn't end up in the show, lol. Oh, and for New Spring, I guess.

@apocalypticavolition mentioned that Perrin's original plot was probably helping Lan track Moiraine - that makes a lot of sense! It would have given Perrin a chance to flex his heightened senses and it might have even given Lan a chance to name-drop Elyas.

Okay, wow, yay! Our Completely Old Tongue scene from Age of Legends. When this first opened and they were just... talking in the Old Tongue... I was so blown away. I was not expecting it. I think they've hinted that we might get more Old Tongue scenes in s2 as well, which would be fantastic.

I'm glad that I read The Strike on Shayol Ghul short story -- they really did pull a lot of the info from that story for this scene, so that was very cool to see.

There is definitely a lot more focus on "Dragon as father" here than in the books (and I wonder if the tragedy of him murdering his family is going to focus more on killing his kids and not solely about killing his wife, once we get into that)

And the reveal at the end that '3000 years ago' was actually futuristic and we're living in a post-apocalyptic landscape, which is a great reframing for anyone who didn't already know.

Love all our Moiraine & Rand ~bonding time~ here (for various values of bonding time, lol). Definitely curious about where that relationship is going to go over the course of s2.

Egwene and Perrin checking in with each other is a sweet moment. Yeah, things Got Weird last episode due to stress and Nynaeve accidentally telling a secret that wasn't hers, but it hasn't wrecked their friendship.

And if Perrin is the one helping Lan here (supernaturally), then Lan and Nynaeve's scene would have just been the romantic goodbye.

Ishamael notes here that he didn't think that Rand was the Dragon Reborn. It sounds like he was expecting Rand to look more like LTT did. I really do love him calling Rand "Lews Therin", poor Rand. The identity issues are only going to get worse, bb. Love that Rand starts their conversation with an arrow to the face.

"Ever since the day I channeled, I hear nothing [from the wind]" is our first allusion to Nynaeve's block, I believe.

Moiraine tapdancing around the truth as hard as possible so that she doesn't have to admit that she physically can't teach Rand channeling. She's even willing to share one of her traumas with Rand in order to avoid admitting it! Also, I do think that Elaida's willingness to turn to violence is going to stand out a lot more in a world where teaching isn't always accompanied by brutality, as it is in the books.

haha, I totally forgot about this scene with Min and the others. Maybe because it doesn't really tell us anything we aren't going to learn immediately even without her (a nod to how pointless Min's viewings mostly are in the books? lol) but it does prompt Min to get out of the city on the wagons, I'm guessing.

Apologies to all the people who worked hard on the battle scenes but I don't ever have much to say about things like that.

Rand already getting memories (and Moiraine seeing him remember) plus Rand trying to protect people from getting hurt because they're standing next to him. (and Rand trying to give an order that Moiraine immediately ignores lol)

yeah if Lan had a companion (like Perrin) then his scenes here would have actually had some dialogue - they may have even given Rand the line about Malkier because they wanted to get the info out but it was originally supposed to come out in dialogue between Lan and Perrin.

Aww, family moment between the Agelmars. It's sweet. I honestly barely remember the Agelmars from the books, so this was an improvement. "Buy enough time to stand a chance" is going to be a big theme, too.

We also kinda get confirmation here that Darkfriends have been more effective in the show-verse than they were in the books-verse (it seems like more knowledge has been destroyed).

18. So, given what we've seen in the teasers of Ishy getting Lanfear from a seal, it seems like this specific spot is where LTT sealed Ishamael in particular (half-sealed?) and he released Ishamael fully when he cracked the seal. Before this, we only see Ishy working in people's dreams and then, in s2, he gets to actually exist in the waking world.

19. While I do see the effects of the covid shutdown and new rules in the battle scenes (and am looking forward to seeing them pop off without those setbacks in s2!); the scenes with Rand in the dream and Rand against Ishamael are perfect and I will hear no arguments against them. Rand is, ultimately, a philosophical hero and not a battle hero. He gets that wrong a lot in the books! But things tend to backfire on him when he tries to force himself into the battle hero position.

20. And we have ~the temptation~ here, with Egwene and little Joiya (and the mention of Mat, which was fascinating at the time and remains utterly fascinating; that fake!Egwene makes a point of mentioning Mat in Rand's temptation dreamworld).

21. The imagery for what Ishamael does to Moiraine is pretty much exactly like the shielding on Logain and not anything like when Logain was severed later in the episode, so I will (one last time before the new season lol) put my bet in that she was shielded. Ishamael is just able to do a lot faster than the Aes Sedai. Also when Moiraine is right behind Rand like this, you can really see how similar their shirts really are in color.

22. Min is jetting out of Fal Dara as fast as she can -- show!Min actually seems aware that she's not a fighter. #goodforher

23. But they did use needing to have Perrin in Fal Dara to give him a nice little scene with Loial that fed into the violence vs peace conflict.

24. Ishy really put in the work here (I'm assuming that it must have all been drawn from Rand's memories which, again, makes Egwene mentioning that Mat is saying he's going to make Joiya a lantern just incredibly fascinating). Ishamael waits until Rand falls for the trap to reveal to Rand what's going on (sorta). And both Ishy and Rand are working the angles here -- Ishy pretends that he wants Rand to pick the dream world and... you know, that would be useful but... he still wins if Rand fights him because that surge of Power will break his seal. And Rand pretends that he's falling for the temptation but actually is looking for Ishy to give him some clues on how to access the Power on purpose.

25. Ah, s2 setup is happening: Perrin learns that the Dragon needs the Horn at the Last Battle; and Fain was given the password to get into the fortress, which means there's a Darkfriend who knows the passwords.

26. I 100% approve of the show making joining a circle dangerous. In the books, circles are so completely underused and it feels silly because they are very low risk. People should be in circles all the time; especially when things get dangerous.

27. Lots of emphasis on fatherhood this season -- Rand's struggle about Tam being his father; Rand's desire to be a father (expressed both in ep1 and here with Joiya). We also had Siuan's relationship with her father being a key element of her character.

28. Rand loves Egwene enough to know that their paths have diverged and it would be wrong to try to force her onto the same path as him just because he loves her.

29. Very cute that Rand thinks he just defeated the Dark One. I want to give him a pet on his fluffy (currently sweaty lol) head).

30. Perrin gets the infodump from Fain instead of it being Mat. It's a good infodump, from someone who definitely, obviously has an agenda.

31. Rand thinks he's succeeded, so he leaves on his own so that he won't hurt the ones he loved. Baby. Off he goes, into the big world of Making Bad Life Choices, bless him.

32. And the poor little girl who, at least, probably died quickly? The show did such a good job with the Seanchan. Both here and in what we've seen so far in the teasers for s2. They are gonna be extremely creepy and heartbreaking and scary. You can definitely see tear-tracks on the face of one of the damane here.

[diableasura]

Now that i've watched every one piece movie that isn't a retelling of an anime arc or straw hat chase i'm gonna go ahead and indulge in the very human tendency of ranking them in order from best to worst (SPOILERS!!!!):

One Piece: Strong World. Maybe it's because this was the first movie i watched and my first experience with one piece in animation but strong world has remained my favorite since day one (though the second place is very very close i must say). The straw hats are all great and have their little moment to shine the plot is solid and they do a great job with nami, out of the four straw hats with a movie more focused on them she's by far the one that gets the best treatment. Strong world is in the perfect position of being a pre time skip movie, so it's not dragged down by the expanding cast of post time skip, but also since it was the tenth anniversary movie they put in more effort than with the previous movies and it shows. Also sanjis cowboy outfit instantly makes it top tier.

One Piece: Film Gold. I'm... kind of obsessed with this movie?? Seeing the straw hats in a heist really scratched an itch i didn't know i had but my god does it feel good. The designs really excelled here the crew looks gorgeous throughout the entire movie and tesoro's island is so interesting and fits very well in the one piece world. Tesoro is also my favorite villain of any movie, i've seen people say he's the perfect blend between crocodile and doffy and that's so true lmao. Loved having zoro as the damsell in distress, inject that shit straight into my veins i love it when the strong character is the one in need of rescue. Everyone was very cool during the heist but i remember really enjoying franky and luffy's dynamic cause lbr we're kinda starved of it in the manga so it was nice to see them interact so much here. Overall amazing movie and the only one i've rewatched out of all of them.

Baron Omatsuri and the Secret Island. This movie has become a cult classic amongst the fandom and with good reason. It breaks away from the loud spectacle of the other movies and is quieter and more unsettling and so far the only example of actual psychological horror in the lore. I've talked about this before but that final scene with the straw hats cheering luffy on even while they're being consumed by the baron and luffy struggling to the brink of death to save them changed me... I love seeing this family love each other so much!!

Clockwork Island Adventure. I know, I know what's the second movie doing so high up... but it was just so good!! It's very short but that's just a benefit to the plot and i love the gimmick of each straw hat being captured one by one till it's just luffy remaining and the one who has to free them (can you tell i love the movies where the straw hats are kidnapped and the others have to rescue them?? that's my drug). Sanji's fight in this movie kicks ass too, the animation is gorgeous.

One Piece: Film Red. This might seem like a sin, to have this movie so far down the list cause i've seen its pretty unanimously tied up with baron omatsuri as the best movie but to be honest i feel like that's just recency bias. The movie is still a spectacle and the songs slap and yes one of them was in the top 5 of my spotify wrapped this year lol. Uta is a good antagonist but i was never that hooked by her shared past with shanks and luffy, mainly because it's so aggressively impossible for it to be canon, it almost broke my suspension of disbelief. Zosan sleeping side by side was pleasing to my monkey brain and it almost made up for including st charlos in the movie seriously what the fuck was he doing there-

One piece: Stampede. The start of this movie is amazing cause they come up with the perfect competition to have all of these pirate crews on the same place but it quickly devolves into a "how many characters can we fit in" contest and the plot quickly turns into "lets all beat up the villain", which is fine! I did like seeing so many characters, at one point half way through the movie crocodile just appears out of nowhere lmao but hey i'm not complaining i love crocodile. Usopp is the straw hat who's focused on the most in the movie and i feel conflicted with what they did with him cause it just felt like they were making him go through his water 7 arc all over again by having his inferiority complex flaring up. And usopps arc was amazing in water 7 but reviving it for this movie felt a bit weird and repetitive. Despite this though i was very happy seeing him getting the focus, usopp is a painfully underrated character so having him on the spotlight is always welcome.

Dead End Adventure. This movie is a lot of fun. There's a bar fight, a secret pirate race and sanji being his sneaky self and helping out luffy during the final fight. Whats not to love?

One Piece: Film Z. Much like Stampede, i really enjoyed the start of this movie cause the monster trio get to briefly fight the big baddie together, but the plot kinda loses some steam for me after that. Also they tried to make the admirals sympathetic cause the villain is a retired admiral who was once their mentor but i really really really dont care about the marines at all so that was a bit awkward. The straw hats look stunning in this movie, i love that in the movies they give them a million different outfits and the ones from this one absolutely slayed.

Choppers Kingdom on the Island of Strange Animals. Another fun movie where all the straw hats get a moment be cool. There's a kid on this island who i found completely insufferable but i can forgive this movie cause this is also where zosan have that famous scene where they praise the other to their defeated oponent, which made my monkey brain happy.

One Piece: The Movie. This movie's biggest misstep is that sanji isn't in it, but even with this critical flaw it was still quite enjoyable. Zoro is very funny on his own but add luffy into the mix and their dynamic was hilarious. Usopp as always was great. The villain is small potatoes tbh but not really the important part of the movie, which focuses more on the relationship between the kid they meet and his gramps. The final message was surprisingly very sweet. Also sanji appears briefly in the end credits to appease me.

Giant Mechanical Soldier of Karakuri Castle. This movie is a-okay. The villains are a complete joke and it takes the crew less than five minutes to deal with them. The crew dynamics carry all of my enjoyment with this one.

The Cursed Holy Sword. Yeah... this movie commited the unforgivable sin of having zoro as the main focus and yet managing to do absolutely nothing interesting with him. Even if they did shamelessly create kuina 2.0 with saga, they could've delved into how zoro would react when two different duties (his promise to saga and his position as the crew swordsman) clash against each other... but instead we see no conflict with zoro, even though we all know this situation would be conflicting for him. They just make him scowl throughout the whole runtime and thats just not who Zoro is... Luffy and usopp are a lot of fun though.

TL; DR my ranking is:

Strong World

Gold

Baron Omatsuri

Clockword Island

Red

Stampede

Dead End

Z

Choppers Kingdom

One Piece: The Movie

Karakuri Castle

Cursed Holy Sword

Conclusion: the one piece brainrot is no joke.

[thegratefulsouth]

TBOC thoughts feelings questions reelings

This is kind of a placeholder post before I do my rewatch of DD S1, gathering things to look out for. I'm trying to find my thoughts! The things I'm missing. Little bit on Isabelle.

The most recent trailer. I know there are differing opinions over whether it is Carol or Isabelle asking Daryl to tell her a story.

All my thoughts are hinged on not really knowing what does and what does not have a deeper meaning or connection to Caryl (the boats), which is distracting, so I'm going to ignore that and just delve in.

"Tell me a story."

My thoughts go straight to Carol in Alexandria, and her reasoning that, "these people are children, and children like stories."

And Isabelle is infantile within her manipulation. She's perfectly capable of looking after herself, in the way Carol learned to. Isabelle doesn't seem to want to do that though? Not when Daryl's around. Gotta rewatch.

This is at a time when Daryl's mind is still buzzing with Carol saying, "You never have to worry about me, Daryl."

Leading into TBOC, I don't have any concerns about Caryl's feelings for each other or their loyalty. But I am prepping for an emotional journey with a Nun who recklessly lies, who could potentially feel threatened, who could not necessarily cause harm, but could maybe not intervene if it was needed. All in order to benefit herself, what she wants, despite how this might affect someone she seems to care about. That's what I see! It could be interesting. Or it could all just be a hinge. Like all the boats. I really wanted the boats to mean something.

Further referencing stories, Daryl says to Isabelle (in 1x06), "This has always been the story, ever since I washed ashore here." Cementing that his motivation to return home has never wavered.

The family thing? The promise? Home?

The promise is another hinge. Daryl knows something is up with Carol. "You sure you're ok?" She misses you, Daryl. You're not there. She needs you!

"I'll be back in about a week, I promise."

This promise is mostly used to propel Daryl's story, like he needs to return because he made a promise. (Not just because he wants to go home). There are other promises being made around this, to get to the nest, anything related to the ultimate goal of Daryl fulfilling his own promise to Carol (his happy ending).

This promise carries more weight than, "it's not like we're never gonna see each other again." It's in the same vein as, "I wish you were coming with me." In their radio call, the line cuts out, so there's no way of knowing how they might have said goodbye to each other.

So, what I think, and stay with me, is that everytime Daryl talks about the promise he made, he's just basically saying that he loves Carol. No, this is going to make my rewatch so fun, let me have this! I can't remember so much of this show I swear.

I mentioned in my DD overall thoughts, that some things are too painful to say (eg, Carol's name over Connie's in the name drop, IMHO). It's easier for Daryl to say that he made a promise, or that he has family back home, and also, nothing with unsaid looks, than it is for him to say that he left the love of his life, and he promised (loves) her, and he needs her.

"He is the the only family I have left."

This is a tying thread for me, this family thing.

Daryl says, "I got family waiting for me back home."

I have 3 points:

1. Carol is trying to convince someone to help her get to Daryl? She's trying to make her case as convincing as possible, really sell that thing with butter and icing.

2. There may be others at the Commonwealth Carol could consider family. Like who though? Ezekiel and Jerry are friends, but family is under the skin. Family was that core group. The kids aren't going to provide her with that companionship she longs for. I'm not sure on the timeline if Rick and Michonne are back yet. But my point is, Carol's happy ending is not going home to an empty apartment, she doesn't want to be alone, she tells Daryl he never needs to worry about her, with the commitment of someone who made dinner plans when they were feeling social and energetic, and now she's home in her pyjamas, and Daryl hears straight through it.

3. When Carol dreams, she dreams of Daryl and Henry. I think it's reasonable to suggest that in her mind, the notion of a nuclear family springs, and in that, Daryl is really the only family she has left. This is the empty apartment thing again, but I like having 3 points. It makes sense to me. She is his home, she is his promise, she is his family. And he is hers.

There is annoyingly a fair bit of discussion about maybe Daryl realising that he actually belongs where he doesn't belong, and that his home is somewhere else, like in France, away from his family. This is irritating because Daryl completely ignores this line of thought, instead of just shutting it down. But, also, Daryl completely ignores this line of thought, and the only thing he says of that notion, to Isabelle, at the nest, is:

"I kinda like it here. Yeah. It kind of grows on you. Feels like home."

But he says this as he's getting ready to leave Isabelle, and more significantly, Laurent, in this place, which feels homey. He's reassuring himself that he's doing the right thing by these new clingy folk who like to pull at his saviour complex heartstrings. Daryl is happy, his boat is coming in. He spends a significant amount of time staring out the window during this scene, where I'm wondering if the ocean is? It's an island right. Where the boats sometimes are? Cause the boat is his path home. The point is, he's not entirely present in this moment. Not with Isabelle and her wound.

And the very last thing he says on the matter is, "And this place feels like home to you, and I truly hope it is for both of you. But I have my own home to get back to."

Lastly, I love Caryl. I already have more than I need from this beautiful pair. But these characters deserve to be happy. They want what they want, I tell you.

[doctor-badadvice]

Let's talk about Fast Forward for a bit.

Specifically I want to talk about the main theme of that season: why? Why did the art style deteriorate so much? Why did the writing get so bad? Why did this come out before season 5 but also supposedly happens after season 5 and at the same time only occasionally acknowledges its events? Why is there a kid now? Why am I watching this when I only really care about maybe three episodes at best?

Because I was bored. But let's go with order.

I'm going to say it now, I'm still going to claim there is no season 6 in Ba Sing Se. But at the same time, it isn't all that bad actually?

Here's the thing. FF was inevitable for many reasons. TMNT, with its aliens and magic, has the potential to go on forever. However, at some point "turtle fatigue" will set in. In the 80s, this happened around season 7 which yeah, it's about 150 episodes in. For the 2003 show it happens around season 5 but this doesn't mean the higher-ups will try stupid changes to bring back the old glory.

Moreover, the show brought it upon itself. The main culprits, so to speak, are the writing's insistence on portraying consequences as much as possible (see: Leo's scarred shell for instance), as well as season 4 with its funny gory shift (see: that one episode where Baxter watches his own body fall apart which wow).

So it isn't unexpected that the higher-ups and especially the toy maker went "Kids, could you lighten up a little?" and messed up everything that was good about the show.

So this is basically why I don’t like FF. Five seasons are a long commitment. You have to sit through the ninja tribunal arc which is boring as hell, then have to be really patient and accept that there are just dragons now for some reason. Then FF comes up and it has nothing of what you previously enjoyed. The style is different, too flat and kinda clunky and ugly in some spots, nothing that happened before matters and now Cody is there.

Remember networks, kids don't want to watch other kids go on adventures in their place and it doesn't get better with age. But you do you.

So I despised FF but after rewatching the season on its own, I have to make amends in some spots.

The general impression when you watch FF on its own, without the better stuff still fresh in mind and with something to do during the dull parts, is that of good background noise.

It takes many steps backwards. The turtles are suddenly less competent at fighting where it's convenient, their personalities are more one dimensional depending on the plot and they're kinda shitty to each other for no reason. They really suffer from that serial effect where the reset button is hit as soon as the credits roll. They used to go out to murder the Shredder knowing they might die and now it's "Today Mikey really wants a new video game and next episode we're going to a fancy party with the kid dressed in the dumbest suits ever and a silly happens :)"

Splinter also gets sidetracked a lot and he's more there to occasionally call the turtles whippersnappers but again, there isn't much of a reason for him to step in anymore.

And this brings me to the villains. I feel like the turtles only work as well as their villains. They work when they're getting into a fight with a local street gang, or trying to kick an alien empire out of the planet before everyone dies. They work when the Shredder actually does something meaningful and generally speaking are going against someone actually dangerous.

The first five seasons had Shredder, the Foot, Hun, the Triceratons and Bishop. FF has an annoying wrestler whose main priority is property damage, a gang of netrunners who I wish got up to more interesting things than scalping and quoting the Matrix, literal evil twins from the tv trope literal evil twins, and the idiots in charge.

The idiots in charge are of course beloved uncle Darius and Sh'Okanabo.

These two really are something. Darius is essentially that guy from the first Iron Man movie. He's the acting CEO because the owner is a literal child. He smiles and preaches big keeping up the facade of benevolent company of the shiny Earth utopia but he has a dark secret which is that he's making guns and a mecha suit for himself and Cody takes several episodes to realize this for some reason.

You'd think Darius would stop being a threat the moment his dark deeds are uncovered since his whole thing is "evil capitalist guy is evil". But no, he's gonna go higher, he's going to ally with Shittibobo because he needs new genetically modified minions he can badmouth while fucking around all day in his sewers loft and we don't even get the payoff of Darius realizing that he's being fucked over by an alien during the Day of Awakening.

Plus because of how afraid FF is to explore anything heavier than Mikey insisting they go out to achieve explosive diarrhea from questionable junk food, even the fact that Darius is an abusive father figure for Cody has no real importance because Cody is only allowed to look sad on screen for five seconds. Remove Darius and the overall season arc remains the same.

What about the other guy? Well, Sushibooboo is the supposed big bad of the season. He's an alien who wants to kill life on Earth to steal resources. He's something beloved President Bishop goes out of his way to personally murder. But the only thing he achieves is to confirm that he's just offensively stupid.

Sh'Okanabo is supposedly an alien boogeyman who's so evil he just can't be real, right? Unfortunately, he's the literal cause of his own demise.

Since the turtles are more than content with babysitting Cody and going around complaining about historical accuracies like that one Futurama episode, they don't know who Sh'Okanabo is and after talking to Bishop they don't care to find out. Great. This means he can operate in the dark, grow his eggs and prepare to kill everyone, right? No way. In pure Sasalele style, he goes out of his way to attack the turtles, tell them what he’s up to and scare them enough to start to actively prepare to fight him.

And on top of that he wastes time to build a time machine because somehow Shredder had to return for one episode which in turn almost fucks up his plan entirely since his ship almost explodes.

So I still don't like FF because of the way the writing plummeted. A lot of stuff happens because it's convenient and often falls back into exquisitely 90s/2000s tropes (see: the obviously evil guy gets away with evil deeds because the parents/cops/people with power are blind and children are stupid, that one car race episode which is a repeat of the previous car race episode from earlier in the show, a female character who's only there to be a love interest and is allowed to be smart and cute because Cody likes them smart and cute, just to name a few). The turtles get dumber depending on the episode and there are some attempts at comedy like Starlee's shitty family that give out levels of second hand embarrassment not seen since Star Trek TNG.

But I don't hate this season entirely either. FF is just very mid and it makes me think that it could have worked as a standalone show for a while because you can watch it more or less. I'm just this isn't what we got in place of the actual show because it wouldn’t have lasted.

Still I did enjoy some things:

Torbin Zixx is fun. He has some interesting tricks, even though 60% of them only work because the turtles are written especially stupid in his episodes. Plus he steals Bishop's space shuttle which is glorious

I ended up liking Sterling a little towards the end. I still feel like his humor is a sanitized version of Baxter's but I like that he collects clips of the turtles getting hurt to watch to calm down and that he's actually always ready to throw hands

President Bishop is so stupid, yet brilliant (and I'm going to talk about him in a separate post because the worldbuilding is really something and I have OPINIONS)

Raph commenting that power armors are so last season while fighting Darius made me chuckle even though I won't tolerate this supersuit slander

This moment:

[ineffable-rohese]

Sounds like "Rose"

New pinned post! Cause some stuff needs updated. :)

Demographic info: Mid 40s white fat queer poly pagan genderfluid transmasc human living in the wet corner of North America. The genderfluid thing is newly realized and shiny and I’m sure I’ll be talking about it often over the next... while.

Personal (public facing): I'm an Aziraphale-coded hobbit. Like, so cozy and wholesome you might want to puke. I rewatch just the first disc of the LOTR extended edition because I love the Shire so much. I drink Earl Grey with milk and one sugar. (Or a good scotch, cause every Aziraphale needs a little bit of Crowley inside them, right Sheenie?) Outside of fic, I read mainly historical fiction, especially anything set in (actual, not fantasy) medieval Europe and I was at one point a medieval music history nerd. I wear cozy sweaters. I love rain on ferns and April flowers. I make soup with things I've tended and harvested. I work a Wholesome AF job. I unironically hug trees. I'm in love with the world.

Personal (in private): I'm kinky and loving it. I'm primarily a Sensual Sadist with a significant Dominant streak. I often play as a Panther. I love consensual violence, and get great joy from hurting people who want me to hurt them. 

Fandoms: I fell in love with Good Omens in 2000 when a college roommate gave it to me. It was genuinely the funniest, greatest thing I had ever read, and I evangelized about it to anyone who would listen. S1 of the show immediately became a comfort show, and it got me through a time of massive loss and upheaval. I put it on when everything was too hard and I needed something that made me feel like it would be OK. S2 - well we're all here still, aren't we? It dropped when I desperately needed One Good Thing for my brain to latch on to as I got through some intense pressure, and boy howdy did it lodge itself in me. (I’m deeply upset about NG’s actions, but I’m also not about to throw away something so personally meaningful because one asshole involved made some really shitty choices.)

Other fandoms in roughly chronological order: Star Wars (original trilogy made me a child nerd), X-Files (first real social fandom, and intro to fanfic!), Buffy/Angel/Firefly, LOTR, Doctor Who, Torchwood (the only other show I've been driven to write fic for). OFMD and WWDITS are great fun, though not obsessions. Any of these and more might show up.

My Writing: Writing Index Here I’ve written nearly 100K of fic in the past year! My writing signatures are vivid sensory descriptions and kinky smut. Some angst, some fluff, some really dark stuff. My Ineffables tend to be deeply in love but also kinda fucked up in their own special ways. I’m still writing, a bit slowly at the moment due to Life, but there’s some great stuff in my docs I can’t wait to share when it’s ready.

What I post/don’t post: This is my fun space filled with things that I find interesting and/or bring me joy. Expect lots of Good Omens, GO Extended Universe (aka anything Tennant and/or Sheen), queer and kink-related content, other fandom things, my writing including NSFW snippets (below a cut if I remember), fat/body positivity, cats, nature awesomeness, things that make me laugh. Posts I write off the cuff as I wake up in the morning seem to be the ones that get shared, for some reason. I almost never post about current events unless it’s good news. The world is full of fear and despair; I try to keep this space one of hope and joy. There will be NSFW content on the regular (because kink, sex, and other such adult activities are a joy for me), so if you’re uncomfortable with that, I’m not the person to follow.

Tags: Honestly, I’m inconsistent about tags so please don’t rely on my tags for your safety. I do try to spoiler tag things if it’s close to when something comes out, but other than you’re at the whims of my ADHD.

Yay! I bring back my cats as a gift for reading all of this.

[trelkez]

Ah, Ted Lasso. This episode was 90% mess, but that 10% sure does know how to hook me.

I wish I could go back in time to the self who went into Ted Lasso thinking it was tightly plotted, top tier stuff and say, "this is a ridiculous show, but you should watch it anyway. You'll love the characters. You will get so much found family. Just don't get too attached to any plotlines or expect anything to make sense ever, and you'll be fine." That would be a reasonable expectation for this show! Unfortunately for me, we're down to the final three episodes, so it's a bit late for me to recalibrate at this point. I am, alas, still invested in the plotlines. 

So let's get into 3.10, because … wow, is there a lot to get into.

I'm rewatching the episode as I write this (just in case I forget any of the batshit turns it took and/or parts of it turn out to have been a fever dream), so I'm going to tackle it roughly in order. 

1. Richmond's ten game winning streak

Where are we at in the season? Does anyone know?

Remember when this show had season arcs organized around some kind of football-related goal? Avoid relegation, make it back into the Premier League. It seemed logical that the goal of this season would be to win the league, but I guess we're going to get there by putting the team on cheat mode in the background and then shoehorning in some "will they or won't they" football drama at the end, which is actually very in keeping with the overall theme of this episode.

2. Nate quit West Ham off-screen

I'm so glad the guy in the apartment on the other side of my living room wall was out for the night, because I literally shrieked "WHAT?????? WHAT???????" when that "Nate Shelley Out at West Ham" graphic went up.

I didn't get to Nate in my 3.09 writeup, and it's just as well, because anything I wrote before that graphic would have been immediately rendered pointless. Nate quit West Ham off-screen. He quit off-screen.

I am going to reach way, way back to the Nate Shelley I liked in season one and say: that Nate did not deserve this shit.

It has been obvious throughout this entire season that the writers weren't interested in telling the story that season two set up. They didn't especially want to dwell on or in the toxicity that bottomed Nate out last season; they didn't want to do the harder narrative work of actually building back an unlikeable character through a slow but steady redemption arc, even though they've spent entire seasons doing exactly that with Jamie. Instead, they said, "yeah, but Nate isn't really That Guy."

Does the show regret what it did? It sure feels that way. It feels like, in the pursuit of telling a story about a good guy on an ego-fueled descent, the show went way further than it meant to and has now decided to backtrack on that by treating the whole thing like a guy waking up from a bender and going, "I did what last night? Why did I do that?" That wasn't really Nate who did those things, that was Drunk Nate! He did five shots of narcissism and got blackout drunk on jealousy, and he woke up in the morning with a new job. What wild shenanigans will ensue? 

So, sure. The only way any of it makes sense is if none of it meant anything. Fine. Even then, what was the point of sending Nate to West Ham and throwing all of Rupert's smothering, menacing glitz at him only for NATE QUITTING HIS JOB AND WALKING AWAY FROM RUPERT AND WEST HAM to happen OFF-SCREEN so they can CATCH US UP ON IT via FAKE SPORTS NEWS INFOGRAPHIC??

If they didn't show it because they felt the real rejection was in Nate going home to his girlfriend, that is very poor storytelling in a season that started out with the most literal Rupert is Palpatine visual parallels imaginable. If they're trying to say that the real climax of Nate's story isn't in rejecting Rupert, but in the amends he makes with the people he hurt, then why did they drag the West Ham stuff out until the tenth episode??? Why is all of this being left for the end, when none of the West Ham stuff has ultimately mattered at all, and pulling the plug on it earlier on could've left a lot of room for handling Nate's healing process at a slower, more organic pace?

Ultimately, this is a story about a good guy who lost his way a little and wound up hanging out with a bad crowd, and now he has to apologize his way back into the hearts of his real friends. The storytelling along the way has been wildly incoherent and had brutally terrible pacing, but if you completely disregard how we got here and pretend season one Nate just woke up from a West Ham bender, there's still time to enjoy the endgame.

3. Isaac is team captain again!

So – Isaac went into the crowd and wasn't banned for the remainder of the season? Let's close our eyes for a moment and imagine that the football gods looked upon Isaac's actions and said, "yeah, that seems legit, let's give him the smallest possible set of consequences." He was sent off with a red card. For assault. But the football gods are treating punching a fan like having a go at an opposing player! Cool. That's still, what, three games?

So even if we assume he only got a three-game ban, and keeping in mind that Richmond isn't in the Champions or Europa leagues and the FA Cup is just – not happening, I guess? So they probably don't have a ton of midweek games, which means that it's been … weeks.

But wasn't the win streak at eight games last week? So – did Isaac just – not get a ban? At all? 

Nope. No. Self, you are a Ted Lasso Doylist now, remember? Nothing that happened last week was actually about Isaac in any way, so why would there be ongoing consequences for him from that storyline? Deep breaths.

Isaac is one of my favorite characters in this show, and I'm not particularly interested in there being ongoing consequences for him from whatever that was last week, so – this is fine. Don't question it. We float on an ocean of vibes. Everything is great.

4. Why?

Why did we just take a beat for microaggression with Ted being shocked Bumbercatch is Swiss? Is this really where we're at these days, comedy-wise?

I'm genuinely not sure that anyone involved here knows how to write Ted without making him completely exhausting to be around, anymore. Is that on purpose? Let's pretend it's on purpose.

5. Do we think Nate is capable of being involved in something like that?

"Nah." – the writers, who are pretending they haven't seen season two

6. Jade

I like her so much, but I am 99.95% sure that's because she is being written to be likable, with no other discernible qualities. Who is she? What motivates her? In a season full of long episodes, was there really no time to show her existing when Nate isn't in the room? Did no one in the writer's room stop to wonder, "hey, is it at all dicey if that woman in the restaurant who dislikes Nate suddenly falls in love with him so he can be healed by the power of love?" Did no one say that out loud and hear how it sounds?

Anyway. Jade. Big fan. Looking forward to hearing all about her hobbies and backstory in the ample time remaining.

7. Dani vs. Van Damme

I have a feeling this completely random side adventure into our purest angel having an asshole hypercompetitive side isn't going to land for everyone, but you know what? Sure. Why not. There are epic tales out there of teammates facing each other in the Olympics, the World Cup, etc. and trying to destroy each other and then going home like none of it ever happened. I'm totally onboard for this kind of plot in theory! They took it a little too far with Dani breaking Van Damme's nose, but as we've established, "they took it a little too far" is the story of this entire show. 

You know what would have improved this a lot? If it had happened near the beginning of the season and kicked off a recurring storyline in which someone else now has to face Dani on a spring international break. Shoved in at the end of the season (and probably the end of the series), it loses a lot of its potential, so the placement is … strange. Instead of being an ongoing character trait they could slowly build up and make funnier in the re-telling, it comes out of nowhere and immediately goes to 11. But otherwise, why not.

8. Beard gets it

Beard is the only one who watched season two. He gets it.

It would explain a lot about Beard and this entire season if Beard used to be a time traveler, so he's the only one in Richmond immune to changes in the timeline. Maybe somewhere just out of sight there's a genre show about time travel happening, and this football team just happens to exist in that universe – so the world of Ted Lasso is constantly being rewritten, but no one notices. Ted Lasso as a Doctor Who spin-off in which no one has ever met or heard of The Doctor. 

No one but Beard, anyway. Is Beard also the only one who remembers that Isaac went into the crowd last week?

9. Uncle's Day

10/10, no notes. Every time I think I'm out, this show uses Jamie Tartt to drag me right back in.

(Actually, no, one note: Jamie was joking about Isaac being his best friend, right? That was just to screw with Roy? I'm going to assume Isaac was the choice for that line because it's so obviously unlikely given how rarely they interact, and not because the writers think Jamie and Isaac are still BFFs. It would be very in keeping with this season for them to think Jamie and Isaac's friendship is just running on cheat mode in the background, but like – I'm going to assume. For my sanity. That it's just a joke.)

The funniest part of this scene winds up being that they accidentally made it look like Phoebe was having an "oh. oh" moment about Roy and Jamie. I had to rewind that twice to figure out that she was spelling it out in her head, and not like, catching on.

I would've understood if she had caught on. Roy stares at Jamie for 10.6 seconds before he says "I love it."

10. Super League? In this economy?

+10 points to Leslie for "I hate to break it to you, Rebecca, but those children are dead."

Unfortunately, -10 points to Leslie for "who cares why Rupert invited you?" Historically speaking, Rebecca should care. Rebecca is totally justified in wondering why Rupert invited her!

Why would Richmond be invited into talks about a Super League at all? Richmond? Recently promoted Richmond? Complete lack of international play Richmond? It's sus as hell. If I were Rebecca, I would absolutely assume this was some strange plot by my evil ex-husband.

(I'm not convinced it wasn't, in fact, a strange plot by her evil ex-husband. Something is going on there.)

Super League is about the richest teams banding together to shake off the chaff. As a Spurs fan, I fully, completely understand the concept of a team that isn't actually rich and successful trying to buy into an exclusive club – yes, Spurs were involved in Super League drama; no, you shouldn't ask me about their season or we'll still be here next week while I cry on you – and we are definitely already outside the tethers of reality when West Ham is at the table, but it, truly it makes no sense.

(And even if Rupert weren't the one extending the offer, "go check it out, what's the worst that could happen?" is naive at best. What's the worst that could happen? The media finds out that Rebecca was at a Super League meeting and now Richmond is being dragged into a shitstorm, whether Rebecca decided to buy in or not. Girl, do not go in there! If you don't want to join, don't join! Why is any of this happening! Get Keeley back in the building before someone runs into a PR problem they truly cannot back out of!)

11. Is the psychic's prophecy still a thing?

So … is the show going Tedbecca? After that weird flirty moment she had with Sam earlier, the matchbook almost calls back to Sam more than Ted, but the show did make a point of having Ted pull out that matchbook a few episodes ago, and here it's directly paired with his toy soldier. 

(Honestly, slow clap for everyone who did those green matchbook / green soldier gif sets earlier this season, I thought you guys were reaching straight into outer space with that one and apparently I was dead wrong!)

Ted and Rebecca have barely even talked to each other in the back half of the season. Every week I log on here and see shippers shriveling into dust, their crops unwatered. Is the matchbook/soldier thing a misdirect, or are they going to cram a significant relationship change into the final two episodes of the season after largely ignoring them in the lead-up?

I have no idea which way this is going to swing, and that's kind of terrible, because there are only two episodes left. There isn't time left to do any kind of meaningful build. There's only time for a sudden last-minute rush of drama.

When I put it like that, I think they probably are going to shove it into the endgame. Either that, or the houseboat guy suddenly shows back up out of nowhere. Whatever happens, it is going to have a "bet you didn't see that coming" flavor, because there isn't time for anything else.

12. Roy has an epiphany

What the fuck even is this?

Listen. It never made sense for Roy to have broken up with Keeley. It was clearly something they did as a way to inject some new drama. THAT SAID, they did it, and they committed to it for almost an entire fucking season, and TEN EPISODES ON a teacher with a crush on Roy makes a way-too-personal comment about how she hopes his mess hasn't caused any damage, and THAT'S what makes him suddenly realize he needs to apologize to Keeley? THAT? Just like. Boom. Realization sets in. Lightbulb visibly goes off overhead as he mutters "fuuuuuuck" to himself. A fully illustrated epiphany!

What the fuck does this show think it's doing having Roy suddenly realize that he probably hurt Keeley and needs to apologize? 

In episode ten?????

I don't know how much time has passed, because in Ted Lasso season three time is an illusion, but at minimum – months. Months later, he suddenly realizes he might have hurt his girlfriend when he broke up with her??? That isn't character growth. That is completely fucking absurd. They needed Roy and Keeley to get back together and pushed it too close to the last minute, so they did some schoolteacher deus ex machina. Of all the abrupt plot turns in this episode, this might be the second worst.

(There's a clear winner and this isn't it, but second place? It's a contender.)

13. What happened to the corporate pixie dream girl?

So the overall implication here, between this and Trent's rumor of West Ham workplace misbehavior, is that Rupert is probably headed for some workplace harassment trouble, right? If withholding the mystery of it all turns out to be why they didn't show Nate quitting in this episode, I'm going to scream. I will literally shriek with the frustration of a thousand bad plot decisions.

14. Nate's nostalgia journey

This is, sincerely, great stuff with the photo albums and the music and the journey into the attic. There is still time to enjoy the endgame!! Disregard how we got here!!

15. Rebecca vs. Super League

Just watching this scene made me feel like I've now put in enough time on Ted Lasso to be allowed by contract to take some PTO. Ted Lasso needs to pay me for my time while I recover on a tiny island in the Outer Banks. I've earned it.

So – they thought – having Rebecca scoldingly yell "what do you think you're doing? Just stop it!" while picturing aging rich men as little boys was, like … feminist? Someone involved in this process thought, wouldn't it be great if we empowered Rebecca by making her everyone's scolding mother, and no one along the way went, wait, what? 

But then it keeps going so that we can humanize Rupert, which – what? Why is this happening? Why do I know Rupert's humanizing backstory when to my knowledge, Jade was born inside Taste of Athens?

This is the most I have ever seen Rebecca care about football. It's a lovely speech, but where is it coming from? Since when is she this invested? The only thing that rings true about this is that Super League is an ugly money grab and many, many owners do not give a single shit about their team's fans. Someone wanted to write a speech about that, so we're getting it through Rebecca, just like we got that speech about deleting your camera roll through Isaac. 

Also – the food: I know that the food is a continuation of Edwin Akufo's whole thing with Sam, but it is a weird fucking choice to put so much emphasis on Ghanian food and then reduce it to slop thrown at Rebecca.

Beginning to end, we could've done without this entire Super League story and been just fine. It isn't like this 63-minute episode required extra filler.

16. 24

10/10, no notes. They really do pull me back in with Jamie every time. He revealed that 24 and I, like Roy Kent talking to a schoolteacher, suddenly realized that I ship it. Jamie wore Sam's number?? I'm going to vid this so hard.

17. Nate's dad

I did say there was a clear winner for the episode's worst plot turn.

Nate is sad at home for one episode and suddenly his dad does a complete turnaround after almost three entire seasons? It isn't like we heard a story one time about Nate's dad and now we're getting a reveal on what actually happened there – we've seen him a lot! Nate's entire motivation set is built on his dad and their relationship!

"I pushed you to succeed so you would have more opportunities than I did" is a completely legitimate story to tell, but this has been almost three seasons of disapproval so thick that it threw toxic sludge across the entire show. Nothing Nate has done has ever been good enough. Now we're at the end, and they want to heal it so that Nate can grow, so all of that is being retconned into, "I never cared if you were successful, I just want you to be happy," and suddenly his dad is a completely different person. Boom, fixed! Definitely not the kind of thing you have to heal from over time!

I say again: Nate's story deserved better than this. By pushing this all the way to the end, they've run out of room to take their time with it, so it's just being dropped in. What a mess this season is.

18. Rebecca, do NOT do it

This season is, in fact, such a mess that for a minute there, I believed that Rebecca might actually go for it with Rupert. 

I think, more than anything, I'm puzzled by the perceived necessity of this closure on Rebecca and Rupert. I get that they wanted to give us a taste of what brought Rupert and Rebecca together in the first place – to have Rebecca to see him in that old light again before taking a step back, so she could acknowledge the past in a way that helped her finally make a clean break. I get it. But … why? Was this really something lingering out there for her to overcome?

Rebecca's entire season-long conflict with Rupert has felt like intentional backsliding for the purposes of The Drama. If you imagine that she came into this season still very fired up and insecure about her ex-husband, the arc from "I want Zava so Rupert can't have him" to "I don't care about beating Rupert anymore" is fine. But … did she? Is that really where we left her in season two?

And why did an episode in which Nate quits West Ham spend so much time breaking up Rupert and Rebecca, who were already broken up, while Nate quit off-screen? 

19. What's left?

Two episodes to go! That's so much time in which to accomplish so many things!

I said to someone last week: you know, I thought this was headed for a "Nate takes over as Richmond's head coach" place, but there isn't enough time left in the season for them to do that, so I guess he's just going to be staying at West Ham?

Turns out they can do anything, because they're just going to drop in whatever at the last minute. Nothing means anything! We exist in a world without the constraints of plot and continuity! Everything is on the table.

So, what's left to shoehorn in?

- Manchester City has been inevitable all season (ask Arsenal how that feels), and we're probably going to get some stuff with Jamie's dad there. Jamie has been one of the only characters they've consistently done right by, so my fingers are crossed they don't screw that up at the finish line.

- Will Trent ever come out to the Diamond Dogs? Maybe being out in the workplace isn't his thing, but it feels like a missed avenue of storytelling to have Trent be right there in the coaching offices, in on all the gossip and sharing and advice, and not have whatever he has going on be a part of it. That would have been such an easy way to integrate queer identity into everyday conversation over a decent chunk of the season, instead of playing it almost exclusively for drama the way they have been.

- Still on Nate's apology list: Colin and Ted? If apologizing to Ted doesn't involve the believe sign somehow, I really don't know anything about this show anymore.

- Is Ted staying in London or going back to Kansas? A lot of people seem resigned to the idea that he's going back, and a lot of Tumblr is hoping he stays for Rebecca, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's some secret third thing. Two whole episodes! There's still plenty of time for them to drop a surprise twist on us. (If he goes back to Michelle, it won't be a surprise twist, but I will turn this car around.)

- Are we ever going to learn what was up with Baz's friend who got kicked out of the pub? I really thought we were headed for some bigger integration of Colin's story, wherein it turned out that was Baz's secret boyfriend or something, but … … …?

- Is anything going to come of Trent's book? I have $5 on there being an epilogue time skip in which we fast forward to the book release and see what the characters are up to (aka the "no seriously, this is it, the show is over" ending) and another $5 on the show ending on Ted in the airport and the book not ultimately meaning anything.

Two weeks until we find out!

[broke-on-books]

☕️ + the Scooby Doo fandom in general

Hmm okay so this is a very broad question to me and that really means it's going to recieve a broad answer, especially to me as "Scooby fandom" really has differing levels in my heart etc.

For example with my friends and the smallish community of fellow Scooby fans I've found here on tumblr (the Scooby Dootuals!!!) I really love and like! Everybody is so nice and it's cool that people have various levels of knowledge about different series and iterations. Like I really enjoy that on here Scooby fans (as in, like my friends and people who regularly post scooby) have such differing levels of experience with this huge huge franchise as it makes it so much more interesting. Like we have people out there who have seen almost every episode (or feels like it) and can seemingly remember the smallest of things from them, and then we have people who weren't into Scooby as a child but are exploring it now, and then we've got people (like me) who did like it as a child and kind of know a bit of everything, with huge areas of weakness in Scooby they haven't seen, (for me APNSD, anything more than the premise of 13 Ghosts, the 80s trio minus Boo Brothers, anything past s1 of bcsd, much of the 70s era movies, SD & SD, Guess Who, SDMI details, like the list goes on, people!!! I've only seen a Scooby series in order in its entirety one time in my life and that was SDMI age like 12) while also having a few areas with greater knowledge or familiarity and a few spots where they just know a ton/are constantly rewatching. (Me with Goes Hollywood for sure) anyways I don't really remember where I was going with this but uhhh I like that my buddies and whatnot all know different amounts with many being chill or knowing a little bit of everything so we can still like each others posts and talk about Scooby with there still always being so much more to discover <3. So like basically thoughts on the besties are that besties are cool

However I know anon that by sending this you likely mean "Scooby fandom" as in people outside of this insular little bubble so let's talk about that. I think I'm reluctant to really label this group "Scooby fandom" as for ME PERSONALLY fandom really means a kind of engagement with the work beyond what most general Scooby fans do. Like what I'm trying to say is that this group of "wider Scooby fandom" liked Scooby and watched it as a child and consider themselves a fan of Scooby but they aren't rotating Scooby characters like blorbos in their mind too much. Or if they are, it's generally in the creation of like dark!Scooby aus or the live action Scooby show pitches that blow up on here every time Scooby is a topic of general coversation. I guess for me personally the line between this "Scooby fandom" and my own little bubble of people I'm chill with gets drawn based on what fans want out of Scooby. Like do they love Scooby as it is, or do they want to change the audience to create a new Scooby for themselves. Hm, I'm not really phrasing this right. What I mean is like we're all Scooby fans. If you've ever liked Scooby, at any age, however long ago, you're a Scooby fan, I'm not trying to like, gatekeep Scooby fandom or whatever. I just think that differing groups of fans have different pictures in their head of both what Scooby Doo IS and what they want from it based on their familiarity with it and how long it's been since said fan has watched Scooby.

And that's kind of wherein my frustration with "wider scooby fandom" lies. It's really in the fact that there's thousands upon thousands of these "sleeper fans" (which in my mind is really a better term for it) who awake when I or the popular culture mention Scooby, to share their opinions. And these opinions just frankly drive me up the wall. This is because when confronted with a real life Scooby fan (me) there's generally 3 things they want to talk about: 1) SDMI and how it's the greatest thing since sliced bread 2) Doesn't HBO Velma suck 3) (once they learn I like Scrappy) Scrappy hatred and copious references to his portrayal in the Gunn Movies. Plus MAYBE a bonus 4 of other miscellaneous takes that get on my nerves (stuff like Shaggy always smoking weed, Fred and Daphne splitting up together to have sex, just all sorts of things I do not for the life of me want to talk about).

So I guess my take on the wider scooby fandom is as follows: there are positives like some genuinely funny SD posts once a blue moon, or people to share things like concept art and leaks to much of the content canceled by HBO Max, but the vast vast majority of the time it kind of gets on my nerves because people always want to talk about the same few things (which I feel have been talked to death already or I highly disagree with OR BOTH) and it's just really tiring to deal with. Idk I don't think I'm going to go into it to much more here because this post isn't too coherent to begin with (I'm blaming it on like 70% of this being written before work this morning) but there's so many people out there who think so similarly about Scooby (and SO differently from how I think about it) that it feels like I'm getting talked over constantly whenever I have a discussion about Scooby with someone from this group. And that's just like not fun for me? It's just like for me, Scooby Doo is my number one thing. Like I'll be in different fandoms concurrently or whatever and I don't really read fic for scooby but I will for other stuff etc. But like scooby is always there for me like MY MAIN turned into a scooby doo blog like honestly while that's just not the case for some other people. It's very much a difference in the value and time put into the franchise, (which like you can just like things casually that's not a bad thing) it's just that it's frustrating for me talking to sleeper fans about Scooby because I get trapped (literally, like irl) in the exact same conversation that I don't even want to be having(!!!!!) pretty much all the time.

[addictedtostorytelling]

Hi aj! I’m rewatching season 3 of csi (so good btw) and I was on 03.09 and Grissom says in the beginning of the episode that he was on a date. Then he proceeded to flirt with Sara the entire episode. At this point he knows she’s got a thing going with Hank and there’s the fact he’s losing his hearing so I was wondering what your thoughts are on this date of his all of a sudden, I didn’t remember that and it surprised me 🥲

hi, anon!

so i have a few older posts that touch on the subject of grissom's mystery date, if you care to give them a look:

this one provides a broad overview of grissom and sara's s2/s3 arc and how grissom and sara maneuver around each other while she is dating hank.

this one speculates on the potential identity of grissom's mystery date. (tl;dr: i think his date is probably just some rando, rather than any character we already know on the show.)

this one gives a somewhat more humorous take on what is and isn't going through grissom's mind when he first makes the date and then later skips out on it in order to spend time with sara.

and this one focuses on why grissom feels compelled to "date other people" during the course of s3 (and what he realizes when these attempts so badly fail).

more discussion after the "keep reading," if you're interested.

__

obviously, the show gives us next to nothing to go on when it comes to grissom's episode 03x09 "blood lust" mystery date.

brass meets grissom at the initial crime scene, asks him where the rest of the team is, grissom volunteers the information that he had been on a date prior to getting called in to work, and that's about the long and short of what we're told.

never does grissom reveal the identity of his date, if the date were a first one or he had been out with this person previously, if the date were one he had set up for himself or if someone else had set him up on it, whether he were the asker or the askee, etc.

the line is treated mostly as a throwaway.

its only true significance going forward is that we as the audience are meant to contrast grissom's lack of real care at being called away from his date with the mystery person with his enthusiasm for going on a three-day "crime scene date" with sara afterward.

so.

given what little information the show provides regarding the date, honestly, there's not much we can say about it for certain.

is it a situation where grissom meets someone he finds intriguing and asks them out of his own volition? or maybe someone asks him out, and he decides to take them up on the offer? alternatively, does he maybe get fixed up on a blind date by someone else, like perhaps his mother or even catherine?

all possibilities are open—and so the situation is mostly a matter of headcanon.

however.

though we lack the necessary context to determine the identity of grissom's date or say for certain how he ends up even going out with this mystery person in the first place, i think we do have enough information to answer at least one question, namely:

why does grissom decide to go out on the date in the first place?

after all, whether he is asker or askee or is even set up, there has to be a reason why he ultimately chooses to go.

and it is a bit odd for him to choose to go, isn't it?

i mean, outside of his s1 ooc characterization, grissom has never been shown to be a "dater" in the past and hasn't pursued any romantic relationships except with sara prior to this point. so why does he opt to "put himself on the market" now—particularly given that he is, as you mention, losing his hearing? and is there any connection between his decision to date and the fact that sara is currently in a committed relationship with one hank peddigrew?

if we look at the timeline of late s2 and early s3, we find that grissom may know sara is going on dates with hank as early as the events of episode 02x14 "the finger." however, he doesn't seem to realize that sara is actually in a long-term relationship with the guy until the events of episode 03x02 "the accused is entitled," when phillip gerard alerts him to the fact.

there is no way to overstate the significance of grissom learning about sara's romance with hank coinciding with him beginning to lose his hearing, as the two situations exacerbate each other, in terms of his personal distress.

knowing sara is dating some meathead paramedic at the same time that he is himself already feeling incredibly vulnerable due to his otosclerosis, grissom panics.

fearing he will lose sara to a rival who is younger, fitter, more experienced in love/romance/sex, more socially acceptable for her to date, more able-bodied, etc. than he is himself, he lashes out, punishing sara in his jealousy.

thankfully, sara eventually calls grissom out on this passive-aggressive behavior on his part, citing his hypocrisy for first encouraging her to "get a life" outside of the lab (see episode 01x16 "too tough to die") and then resenting her as soon as she does so (see episode 03x03 "let the seller beware").

to his credit, from this point on, grissom ceases to antagonize her anymore regarding her and hank's relationship.

however, despite trying his best to keep his distance, grissom is still (privately) suffering.

as some of the posts linked above discuss, baby boy would be upset about the love of his life going out with another man no matter what the circumstances, but he is especially so in this case a) because in many ways, hank is his exact opposite, and, b) because he is, simultaneous to sara dating hank, losing his hearing. the sting of helplessly watching the girl he loves romance an "alpha male" he feels he cannot compete with is made even keener because he also fears that once he becomes entirely deaf, he will be left with nothing, having lost both the girl and the job he once chose over her.

at this point, he isn't sure what sara's motivation is for seeking companionship in someone else. does she actually like or even love hank? or is she just trying to move on from him (grissom) because he's kept her at arm's length for so long?

in his uncertainty and despair, grissom becomes incredibly lonely, particularly as he loses the ability to hear more and more of the voices around him.

miserable as he is, he wishes very much to reach out to sara and especially to get a read on her regarding how she currently feels about him. however, he is afraid to do so, supposing she will—in his mind, perhaps rightly—reject him. he also knows: for as much as he longs for her, he is still unwilling to make the necessary sacrifices he would have to make in order to truly be with her.

—which brings us to the issue of his date.

again, we don't know what the exact circumstances surrounding said date are, in terms of who his date is, who asks whom out or sets whom up, how many dates there are (if any) prior to the events of episode 03x09 "blood lust," etc., etc.

what we do know is that following s1 and his brief flings with charlotte meridian and teri miller (when grissom is written in a way that in retrospect seems somewhat ooc, as a kind of more traditional "cad about town" type), we are never told of any other grissom dates until this one.

of course, csi is a show that chooses not to focus much on its characters' home and love lives—which means that in theory, even though we're never shown grissom dating anyone post-teri miller, he could possibly be doing so, though we as the audience aren't being shown as much.

however, my sense is that if grissom were dating during s2 and early s3 prior to this point, the fact that he were would at least get mentioned, if not depicted on screen, as it would be such a departure for his character so as to be noteworthy.

i mean, we can assume that the likes of catherine, warrick, and nick are out there meeting people, going on dates, having casual sex, getting into and out of relationships, etc. even at times when we are not actively being shown that such is the case because the fact that they all possess that kind of social drive is well-established with their characters; we know they're interested in dating and having sex and even have our attentions drawn to times when they are notably "striking out" (like when catherine confides to grissom in episode 04x15 "early rollout" that she hasn't had sex in seven months).

with them, it's such a given that they're "in the dating pool" that it's more useful to mention times when they're not than times when they are, you know?

for them, dating is the rule and not the exception.

at least until warrick gets married.

but then there's sara, right?

for her first one and a half years on the show, sara is shown to only have romantic interest in grissom, and because she only has interest in grissom, she isn't "out on the market."

she doesn't go out on dates with anyone else and in fact occasionally turns down offers from other potential suitors (like super dave and greg).

for her, the rule is singledom, and dating would be an exception.

and that's why it's a big, fucking deal when in s2 she actually deviates from her pattern and finally goes on a date with a guy who isn't grissom—enough so that the deviation receives focus in several episodes (e.g., episodes 02x04 "bully for you," 02x12 "you've got male," and 02x14 "the finger"), becoming both a major point of discussion among her teammates within the universe of the show and a major plot point in terms of the narrative without it, serving as the backbone for her main character arc over the remainder of s2 and into s3.

my sense is that grissom, who, like sara, is not otherwise a regular dater, probably receives a similar treatment concerning the depiction of his love life—i.e., we're not shown him dating between late s1 and mid-s3 not because it's so regular as to not be worth mentioning but rather because it's not happening.

he's just as hung up on sara as she is on him, and so he's not "putting himself out there" during this time.

that mo only changes for him come s3—and the fact that it only changes then means that the reason his date in episode 03x09 "blood lust" gets mentioned is specifically because it represents a departure from his norms, either because it is actually his first date in about a year OR because it is one of multiple dates he goes on at this time in order to "dip his toes back in the water" after a long while spent on dry land.

in either case, the fact that he chooses to go on this date and/or to start dating in general only after sara has already done the same thing on her side is undoubtedly significant.

to my mind, not only is there correlation there, but in this case there is causation.

here is a man who is desperately in love with a woman he fears he can never have, not only due to his own cowardice but also because (at the moment) he is losing his hearing, and he supposes that once he's lost it, he will no longer be at all attractive to her. he sees her on the arm of another man—a man he believes he could never truly compete with for her affections—and can hardly stand the sight.

he wants and needs a distraction.

so contrary to what is usual with him, he goes on a date or multiple dates—not with the expectation that he'll fall in love with someone else and live happily ever after but with the hope that maybe if he just gets out of his house for an hour or two he'll be able to (momentarily) forget that his heart is breaking.

and, again, we don't know how many of these dates he goes on—whether the one in the episode is a first attempt or one of many.

but in any case, what we do know is that grissom's tactic doesn't work.

he goes out with this mystery person, but obviously whatever distraction the date provides is only minimal at best, not only because he doesn't seem very upset to be torn away but also because, at his first opportunity, who does he call to join him but sara?

we know everyone else on the team is busy, but then again, so is she.

she was at a forensic anthropology seminar—required departmental training, in fact.

maybe she is just the next person up on the "call list."

but it kind of seems like grissom picks her specifically—like he wants to see if when he really needs her, she'll still show up for him; that she will, as she always has, put him the job first.

and the thing is, she does.

she shows up, and despite the fact that she is dating hank, she is as present and invested in the work and in grissom as she has always been.

as i talk about here,

note that when sara first walks up to grissom and starts "complaining" about how he called her away from a mandatory continuing education seminar, she is 100% putting on a show, trying to flirt with him. she's not really upset about the call-in—and is in fact excited that he chose her to spend the day with—she's just being sassy to tease him. you can tell by how she makes sure to mention that the seminar was on forensic anthropology (i.e., the same topic as grissom's 1998 forensic academy seminar, where she and grissom first met and fell in love) and also because she has that kind of cocky affect going on. unfortunately for her, grissom is in no mood to flirt, atm. he's stressed, so he ends up being curt with her ("well, i'm sorry, but everyone seems to have something to do today"), responding to her playfulness with a dour rundown of a long list of things going wrong with his case so far. watch sara's face as he does so: you can see her do a sort of "oh shit. i totally played that wrong. oh shit. yeah, no, he's not interested in joking around today. okay. yikes" reaction in real time, her brow furrowing and mouth falling open as she realizes he's not sharing her same wavelength. of course, we can't see either grissom or sara's eyes in this scene, as they're both wearing shades, so i can't say so with 100% certainty, but i'm pretty sure grissom clocks sara's little recoil as soon as it happens and recognizes that he misread her "grousing" from earlier as more serious than she meant it to be. she's not actually arguing with him; she's there to help. that's why he adds a coda to soften the blow of his diatribe at the end: "i need you." as stated above, one reading of the statement is professional—he needs her to help him work the case—but the other one is personal. over the years, grissom has always used the lab/the work to represent himself when he expresses his attraction to and yearning for sara—such as, for instance, in episode 02x15 "burden of proof" when he tells her "the lab needs [her]" or even later on in episode 05x13 "nesting dolls" when he tells ecklie "she's a great criminalist, conrad. and i need her." he always makes it about the job, because that's what safe to him; that's justifiable. however, in reality, he’s using the job as a stand-in for his own self and his feelings. so he does the same thing here. outwardly, he's telling her "i need your help on this case" but on a more personal note, he's expressing that he didn't mean to be harsh to her and that he does want her around—not just in a professional capacity—because, of course, he always does. it's a sincere expression of genuine feeling, a little bit of vulnerability from him to make up for his prickliness earlier. and that's why sara smiles—because that man is so damn charming. she knows the professional meaning behind the words, but she also hears the personal one. yeah, it was probably largely luck of the draw that she ended up being the only team member who was even potentially available to come help him today, but that doesn't mean he wasn't secretly happy it was her. she knows he was. he's basically telling her as much. in this context, "i need you" is tantamount to "i want you." and she'll be damned if she doesn't love hearing him so say. cue a three-day long gsr super date, replete with all kinds of romantic overtures, sweet gestures, and eye sex galore.

for as forlorn as grissom feels to start out the case—and even in the wake of his failed date, which did nothing to help him forget his misery—once sara arrives, he can't help but start to feel better in her presence.

she's all over the case. she's pulling in leads left and right. and she's making him feel great about himself as she does so, paying him just as much attention as she always has.

now that he knows she's receptive, he can't help but do what comes naturally to him, starting to flirt—even going as far as to throw out some statements which subtly imply how connected to and even possessive of her he still feels.

i've always thought it's significant that the episode ends with the song "everything in its right place" by radiohead playing over the image of grissom smirking and stroking his chin, seemingly considering his place in the world.

"yesterday, i woke up sucking a lemon," the lyrics say. but then, to contrast with the current status quo, today, "everything in its right place."

for as off-centered and frightened as grissom has felt up to this point, in this episode, he gains a kind of reassurance that though sara may be hank's girlfriend, she's still his girl, and it makes him feel, for the moment, right, providing more of a distraction than any date with some random person ever could.

spending three days trekking all over the valley with sara at his side, solving multiple homicides, flirting with and showing expressions of trust to each other, is just what grissom needs to help him catch his breath.

and is he thrilled about sara's relationship with hank going forward? no.

and does he still have his hearing loss to worry about? certainly.

but does he have some sense that he hasn't fully lost sara yet? absolutely.

and the fact that he does makes all the difference in the world to him (which is why we see that his dynamic with her for the rest of the season going forward is very different than it had been to this point).

thanks for the question! please feel welcome to send another any time.

[mischief-lies-and-stories]

Loki Episode 1 Reactions (Less Coherent Edition)

It's been two and a half years, y'all, and what a start to the new season it was. (I've seen mixed reviews in the tag, but personally the initial reaction is I loved it.) What I apparently forgot in those two years, however, is that my in-the-moment reactions notes are not very coherent. So I apologize in advance if you aren't sure what part the note refers to. I'm going to make another post tomorrow with some more coherent thoughts around the episode and some predictions about the season in general (I'm also going to be rewatching the episode later so that might lend more clarity to the next post as well). I also cut out a chunk of my reactions that were just me screaming a character's name when they showed up, unless it makes sense for the next note to leave it in (and there were a lot of these, since it's been two and a half years since I've seen my friends).

Obligatory spoiler warning if you weren't already expecting them. Prepare for some wildness. I've bracketed [ ] some brief clarifying post-ep notes (not everywhere though).

I'm obnoxious, I'm watching the entire recap.

The editing of this recap is interesting.

The bleak theme is worrying. I don't like it. But I do love the color scheme of the logo.

SYLVIE???!!!

CASEY!!!

Okay hopefully that wasn't Sylvie.

Someone give this boi [Loki] a nap. He's had a very very very long day and it's only getting longer.

What the fuck is happening.

X-5 you've got the haircut of a cop, I've decided I don't like you.

Man, I hope we fix this time-slipping in this episode, it's stressing me out too fucking much.

Oh motherfuck. This is driving me insane. This is Sisyphean torture. [I don't remember what specifically I was referring to, so I don't remember if this is an accurate description.]

OH MY GOD I LOVE LIZ CARR I HOPE SHE STICKS AROUND [Man, Liz Carr is just hopping from franchise to franchise this summer. She's in Loki, Good Omens, The Witcher)

OH SHIT. Renslayer and Kang. If they kiss on tape I'm marking it on the Bingo.

I DESPERATELY want to know what B-15's backstory is. She's a fantastic character and I want to know how she used this personality on the timeline.

Keep that Hitler youth-looking fuck away from my girl!

Oh my god, I'm going to be watching this conversation in the hall between Loki and Mobius over and over, because I love every part of it. The panicking, the teasing, the touching, the making each other feel better. Just the entire debriefing, reuniting conversation is EVERYTHING to me right now.

"In order to do that I need a Loki Who Remains." I love this

"I have no memory of having my memory wiped." Mobius. This is Catherine Tate on Nevermind the Buzzcocks telling David Tennant "I don't know songs I've never heard of" solidarity [I understand I'm making obscure 13+ year old references but this quote lives in my head rent free]

Ugh I HATE time travel. But it makes sense why his name is OB now. Also his door is a circle.

OB IF YOU KILL LOKI I WILL END YOUR CUTE BESPECTACLED FACE FASTER THAN YOU CAN SAY "No...wait."

OB IF YOU KILL MOBIUS I WILL PERSONALLY FLAY THE SKIN FROM YOUR OWN BONES

Mobius writing "skin" into the dust on the computer lololololol

WHY DOES THIS KEEP HAPPENING JUST LET LOKI CONFESS

OB I'M GOING TO KICK YOUR ASS IF ONE OF THESE BOYS EVEN SEEMS TO DIE AT THE END OF THIS EP

HOW IS HE GONNA HOOF IT BACK IF HE CAN BARELY CRAWL [I started getting really stressed at this point. It's pretty much caps lock from here on out.]

OH MY GOD OH MY GOD WE'RE GONNA END THIS EPISODE WITH MO BITING IT AND THEN LOKI FIXES IT IN EP TWO AND BRINGS HIM BACK

OR LOKI BITES IT AND THE OTHER WAY HAPPENS

THERE'S ELEVEN MINUTES LEFT BUT I DON'T TRUST MARVEL NOT TO MAKE ELEVEN MINUTES OF CREDITS

MARVEL DON'T MAKE ME CHECK OFF THE CRYING BOX [on the Bingo Card] ON EPISODE ONE

MARVEL

I WON'T BE ABLE TO SLEEP

MARVEL

LOKI

MOBIUS

LOKI

MOBIUS

SYLVIE MY DARLING MY PERFECT LOVE THANK YOU OH MY GOD

How wild is it that Loki comes flying back from the jaws of death itself and saves Mobius from getting his skin ripped off and they land on the floor of the TVA in each other's arms, and the first thing Loki does is bring up his ex-girlfriend [I wouldn't classify Sylvie as this, but I'm being tongue-in-cheek, and Mobius did accuse Loki of falling for himself in season 1, so]

OKAY BUT I WAS RIGHT THAT WAS SYLVIE AT THE BEGINNING [Before you reply, remember I can't respond to those, and also I forgot that was the past and at the end Loki's in the future. HOWEVER, I do still think that was Sylvie at the beginning.]

SHE IS IN BROXTON HELL YEAH WHOEVER FIGURED THAT OUT (I don't remember who that was) FOUR FOR YOU HOLY SHIT

Oh Sylvie :(((

[leffee]

opinion on each season of the show and each of its plots? stuff like the expo, pet fest, and pet street. unless you’ve already posted something like that

Ohohoh seasons, huh? No, I have not posted anything like that yet. Good that I rewatch this show all the time so I remember a lot. I will do a ranking if you don't mind~ from my least favourite to my favourite season and talk about the "plots" there as well:

4. Season 1 is definitely my least favourite, but like, I still love it dearly, just out of the four I love it the least amount. I just find many of the first episodes pretty boring, just kinda nothing happens in them or at least nothing appealing to me. The songs are also hit or miss, there are a few bangers in there like Humanarian and of course Wolf-i-fied but a lot of the others are just kinda "eh". I said it before and I'll say it again, this show to me has no bad songs, but there are definitely some I enjoy less than others and this season has a lot of them. Like many things it has some "first season weirdness", or just things that didn't appear ever again. An example? This sign on Blyhte's room's door, it's from 1st episode and I'm quite sure it never appeared after that

Also characters' eyes were drawn a bit differently and many other things that I won't mention because this reply would be 10 pages long. But! It also has a lot of episodes when there wasn't exactly main emphasis on just one pet but all 7 of them (sometimes less) were doing stuff together, and those are by far my favourite kinds of episodes. Also bonus points for that Vinnie's voice I mentioned a few days ago, his voice in season 1 was different and I liked it more, another bonus for having quite a few good Vinnie episodes. Another plus for the fact that I think Vinnie and Sunil weren't potrayed as best friends yet (It's actually hard to determine, but I think the writers didn't intend to make them best friends then, my personal theory is that they only decided that those two would be best friends after releasing "Door-Jammed"). Again, I love them together of course, but I crave Vinnie interactions with others too and after that he was with Sunil basically all the time.

But you know how I know for sure it's my least favourite season? Because when I rewatch lps I always leave it for last, unless I'm going by the order of episodes. Plus it has my sleep paralysis demon Minka, look at her

Terryfying.

And last thing - "plot". Well, this season didn't really have an overarching plot, but since we're talking about like last episodes that the season is building up to, I personally really like the last episode of 1st season. As I said, I like when an episode doesn't exactly super focuses on just one character but everybody has something to do.

3. Season 4 - on one hand it has some banger episodes but on the other there are some that I don't really rewatch until I rewatched everything else (aside from season 1). It also had this weird distinct feeling to it? It was lps for sure, but it felt different than previous seasons, it's hard to explain, sometimes it was a good thing, sometimes a bad one. It had some banger songs though with my favourite being Hearty Time Pet Food Jingle the one that Zoe, Sunil, Vinnie and Penny sung, absolute banger!! It actually doesn't have any songs that I feel "meh" about, they range from "good" to "absolute banger" Now that I think about it the reason why this season felt different might be because there were a lot of quest pets, seriously, they were in like every other episode.

But what really brings this season down to 3rd place is the finale. Again, I liked it, but man, it felt wrong that the pets were separated for the finale. Genuinely, they all should have went on that plane with Blythe, you can't just separate them like that :( not for the last episode ever. Yeah, opening a whole street was grander than the Pet Fest or Pet Fashion Expo, and good for Mrs. T :), but really, the pets not being all together is just all kinds of wrong. Of course, it was also the last ever episode and yes, yes I cried when watching it for the first time and then when rematching it a few more times ;-;. Overall my least favorite of the season finale episodes. It did bless me with cat-boy Vinnie though, so that's good :} oh and that expression, priceless!

Oh and one more thing worth noticing. Thank fuck they didn't add a new pet as a regular day-camper, I would have hated if this happened. I have no problem with new guest pets, but a new pet main character? Oh hell no, there's 7 of them and 7 of them shall remain. They might have done it, but they haven't, and thank the stars for that.

What's really important here is that it was the season that finished lps and that's just thw biggest crime.

2. Now this is really hard to choose because I really really like both season 2 and 3, the difference is really small, but I think I will go with season 3 as second best. Well, what's not to like? It doesn't have season 4 off-feeling yet but it has season 1 vibe, just better. It has so many great episodes, either because they follow my beloved "all characters do something together and there's not much emphasis on just one of them" formula, but also because it has some great episodes when Vinnie is one of the main characters (Sleeper, Two Pets for Two Pests [oh my beloved], as well as kinda Why Can’t We Be Friends?, The Very Littlest Pet Shop, Hamster Hoods). And the songs, the songs! I'd say season 4 has overall better ones but season 3 has many good ones as well like Hangin' by a Thread - the underappreciated masterpiece. I know we all think about Wolf-i-fied when thinking of Vinnie and Sunil duet and sure, nothing beats it, but hangin' by a thread is so so good too, pls.

As for the pet fest? Yeah, it was pretty good, I do like that it had some sort of build-up, that's not something I need but it sure is cool to do so.

Oh oh this season also had the episode where Youngmee (<3) discovered that Blythe can talk to pets, which in my opinion was pretty epic, grounded because all in all it's just a normal world, and yet still kinda awesome. I actually really like this episode. Heck, I think I like all episodes from this season, aside from maybe a few that I'm more "meh" about.

Season 2 my beloved 😩. It has so many good things about it. First of all, it doesn't have many guest pets, nothing against them but overall I prefer just the regular ones. Second of all, it has Sunil's sick day which just deserves an award on its own. And the songs? Oh the songs! I mean, come on, this season might not have wolf-i-fied but it has such masterpieces as Two Times As Cute, Chez Paris, Dance Fu Fighting, Biskit Twins Rhapsody, Cyril McFlip and most importantly All Around The World. My goodness what good songs, I wanna eat them. Yeah, I think this season has more "meh" episodes than season 3, but the good episodes are SO good, I especially love the episodes in which Blythe and the pets fly to other countries, they are all just really good, you know?

And oh my God the finale was the absolute best, this is actually the epioode/s that I usually start rewatching from because I love The Expo Factor so so much. I mean it had Delilah? And a banger song? And nice complex yet not too complicated plot? All pets and Blythe together? Hello? Truly one of the best epiodes this show has ever seen. Not to mention that there was some build-up to it to which is always appreciated.

So here, my thoughts on each season. I could honestly say so much more because you know, each season has 26 episodes, so it's pretty hard to gather them all together for judging, but I tried my best. Speaking of which, if that's something you're interested in I'd be more than happy to talk about whatever episode individually, I mean, it would give me a good reason to rewatch once more (nah, I would do that anyway actually) and share my silly thoughts.

[calliethetrekkie]

Star Trek TOS S01E14: Court Martial

Original Thoughts

"It was okay. It’s a pretty standard kind of episode that you could get from any courtroom drama airing at the time, but with computers and space. We already kind of got this in The Menagerie, although this one thankfully doesn’t use any pilot footage. Otherwise, it was fine. Nothing great or interesting, but fine for what it is. Not much else to say."

Rewatch Thoughts

As my original thoughts can allude to, I didn't have much of an opinion on Court Martial. It really didn't help that The Menagerie came first in the airing order, so it really felt like we'd already gone through something similar with Spock. Funny enough, The Menagerie is the next one in the production order, and I'll be reviewing both parts together. But we need to handle Kirk's court martial first.

Now, having watched it in the proper order, this was a LOT better than I had remembered. Like Galileo Seven, it's a nice change of pace. We're primarily on a Starbase and in a courtroom. We have no galactic threats or crazy going-ons aboard the ship. We are dealing with the Starfleet bureaucracy, and we have Kirk's career, everything that he's worked for, on the line as he tries to defend himself against what looks like an iron-clad case against him.

This is a good one to look at if you're trying to analyze Kirk. We've been watching him for fourteen episodes now, so we have a good idea of the kind of person by now. We know that Kirk wouldn't purposefully kill one of his own men, at least not without some kind of just cause and certainly not in his right mind. We saw just last episode how he was doing everything possible to find the Galileo crew down to the very last second and despite superiors telling him to quit. This is a man who puts his crew first and foremost. We've also seen how he handles pressure and duress, and if anything it seems to make him more effective than he normally is. So him jettisoning a crewman either on purpose or in a moment of stress? It's hard to believe.

That said, we know that Kirk is not infallible. He is capable of getting stressed and making mistakes. He is very much capable of being wrong. Thus, while we know that he wouldn't lie on a report (well... regarding one of his crew's death at least...) and we don't want to believe he would jettison someone even on accident, we know that it's plausible. He himself is so certain of his own actions and we can tell that he means it. When he believes in something, he doesn't back down until given enough proof that he's wrong. He only falters when he sees the footage of him pushing the jettison button, and even then he knows that it's wrong. He knows that his chances at that point are bad, but he stands by what he believes.

This also gives us a glimpse of Kirk's life before the Enterprise and how he is perceived by those within Starfleet. We'll learn more about what he's like in the Academy in Shore Leave, but even here we see that his old classmates don't seem to have a great opinion of him. Sure, they think that he got a crewman killed, but IDK... with what we find out later, I can imagine that he wasn't well-liked. We also find out that Kirk knew the crewman, Finney, who had instructed at the Academy, so that could also play into some of his old classmates' resentment if he'd also been a teacher to them. It goes to show that Kirk ain't exactly Mr. Popularity among some of his peers.

But outside that, Kirk seems to be held in high-regard by most. While his superiors hold him accountable and go through the proper process, no one seems to want to have Kirk court-martialed. We hear of all his accomplishments during the trial, and it just shows how hard he's worked and how much he's put into his career. This is his life, and he's given every aspect his full dedication, and it's clearly recognized. The prosecutor Areel Shaw, an old flame of his (pretty sure that would make her illegible to be on the case in the real world but meh) even tries to help him prior to the trial, wanting him to know what he's up against and get the best defense he can. No one at that trial wants to prosecute Kirk, but it's their jobs and they have to. Kirk himself wants it to happen because he knows that he's innocent, so if he has to risk court martial and losing his command of the Enterprise, so be it.

Then of course Kirk's crew support him. McCoy was in his corner right from the start and, even when grilled by Shaw, remains insistent that Kirk would not give into duress. Hell, when he thinks that Spock is playing chess while Kirk is about to be sentenced, he is flabbergasted until Spock properly explains why. He never wavered on his belief in Kirk. Speaking of Spock, despite being the guy in charge of the computers and having no proof otherwise, he too believes in Kirk. He notably is reluctant when he arrives with the computer logs that implicates Kirk. Under testimony, he can't explain why even when he himself was the one processing the data. But to him, a man of logic, he finds the notion that Kirk would act as he is accused impossible. Even the Personnel Officer clearly hates having to testify against Kirk. Even Finney's daughter Jamie, despite her outburst at the start of the episode, believes Kirk after hearing all the testimony and reading her father's letters. When Kirk testifies on his own behalf, full of conviction and certainty, you can see why so many follow and trust him. In that instant, you want to believe him as much as Spock and McCoy clearly do.

As it turns out, Kirk indeed didn't kill Finney. It was all a trap via Finney himself. We find out that Kirk had logged about a mistake that made, and apparently he's blamed him for being reprimanded and left at the bottom of the promotion list ever since. We can assume that prior to that they were somewhat close, Finney even naming Jamie after Kirk. Kirk of course only did his job as Finney almost got the ship they were on, the Republic, blown up due to his negligence. Accident or not, that is a biiiig no-no. Finney put himself in his position, but he chose to blame Kirk, and seeing him rise through the ranks angered him. So much so that he made his whole convoluted plot of framing Kirk for negligence, messing with the computers, and planning to destroy the Enterprise and killing everyone on-board just to get back at him. The man is clearly mentally unwell, seriously, how did it take until TNG for Starfleet to have proper counseling on board their Starships?! Still, it goes to show how for all the respect that Kirk has gained, he has also gained plenty of resentors.

I think getting a glimpse of how court proceedings in the TOS universe are handled is fun to see. We see how reliant it, and much of the world in fact, is so reliant on computers. For all that we see how much technology has evolved and become useful (well compared to the 60's anyways), we also see the show on multiple occasions continue to insist on the importance of one's humanity. Cogley, Kirk's defense attorney, is someone who sticks to the old-fashioned way of doing things. He has hundreds of books on law and outright refuses to use a computer. This and his somewhat quirky personality makes us pretty worried about Kirk's chances.

But as it turns out, Cogley knew what he was doing. His conviction and belief in the law, in those books he's studied, is very strong and it pays off. He wants the court to remember what Kirk has accomplished and let them hear him speak, knowing that nothing would be stronger. Then when presented with the evidence that the computer is wrong despite resting the case, he convinces the court to hear him out and not ruin the life of an innocent man. Even in the future, this is the kind of lawyer we need. One who truly believes in the law and pursuing what's right, not just going by what a piece of technology says. In a world where we're growing more and more reliant on computers and the emergence of AI technology, I think that this is insanely relevant.

It's an enjoyable episode. It's a good glimpse into some of the inner workings of Starfleet and shows just how much Kirk has worked to gain all of his recognitions and place as Captain. It shows us just how loyal that Spock, McCoy, and in turn those serving on the Enterprise are loyal to him. Sure, Kirk's made some enemies, such as Finney, but he earned his place. His speech when speaking for himself was so freakin' good and excellently delivered by Shatner. Oh, and Kirk has an ex that he seems to be on good terms with and even got a 'one more for the road' kiss from haha~! I didn't expect much of anything from this rewatch, but it turned out to have so much there and I enjoyed it~

Original Rating: 3/5 Rewatch Rating: 7/10

[My TOS Reviews]

[TOS S1 Reviews]

[Previous Review] / [Next Review]

[diseaseriddencube]

braindumping about the hayase clan (even though I should really reread/rewatch the series before trying to analyze any of these guys bc it's been a while)

hayase: I'm kinda ambivalent towards her, she was kinda just the nasty iphone bitch when she showed up at first, but also just serving her role for yanome to control the villages or whatever. I never would've thought to interpret her reaction to Fushi as love or a new obsession, so that came out as a total plot twist to me later on, feels like a whole different character tbh, at first it just feels like she's doing her job.

so she shows up again, arguably cooler looking. and you know what, I love a good yandere, she's kinda badass and terrifically creepy, though her motives still just don't make much sense given her introduction in the series. does she love Fushi? does she just want to control and own him? does she want his children (<- the real answer right here)

most people hate her solely for the rape scene, and they are totally valid for that, unfortunately I am a freak and that kinda just makes me like her more— UH so she's kinda based for offering to let Fushi kill her so much, I respect her willingness to die in order to be 'immortal' even if only in her aspect rather than fye.

the fact that she fucked another man at the end, totally cheating on her waifu Fushi, just to have kids and make the rest of this series hayase hell is not something I can respect smh

she's a greasy haired menace to this franchise and I respect her commitment

hisame: idk lol she showed up for two episodes idc about her. goodbye stinky indoctrinated cult child 😍

kahaku: I was actually thinking of rereading while making a kahaku analysis essay but never got around to it... so we're going off memory here, though he is a character that needs precise introspection. I don't really like him at all tbh, I try to understand him, but I don't really like him for the most part. his backstory is simple and good, a boy in a line of what's supposed to be women, compelling. he has his funny moments, he's truly devoted to helping Fushi and not being weird about him (until he gets weird about him)

I think what makes me dislike him is his insistence that Fushi is a woman so that he can be straight and love Fushi only under those conditions, it's a very annoying way for an Unconditional Love character to act. it's low-key kinda gross like "she[Fushi] just hasn't opened up to her own femininity yet" like bro???? Fushi can be whatever they want, it almost sounds transphobic if it weren't for context 😭 the insistence on she/her regardless of whatever form he's in, and his own admission that he 'feels more like a boy I guess' is just kinda hhhnnnmmnmgghhg yeah

and remember how he promised not to be weird... yeah well that proposal scene went downhill so fast ;_; it almost feels out of character, and I guess we're supposed to blame it on the Hayase Insanity Gene kicking in? but it just ends up feeling like he was a liar this whole time and wasn't as respectful as he seemed. he acts well afterwards, but still,, yikes dude.

I appreciate his care for Fushi's mental well-being when nobody else does. I appreciate how hard he fought in the war, and it was really unfair of Kai to keep him locked up. that ending scene is really interesting, because he is Very Okay with killing his comrades and then just insulting them (look at messar's haunted face how could you say that to him) and I guess we'll never know if it was him or Lefty that attacked the immortals in the kitchen. he sounds like he's lying and making excuses to justify it, ough Fushi it was my left hand it wasn't me I would never (he would)

I don't blame him for ripping Fushi to shreds there (because it was definitely Lefty) though he was a little creepy about it two seconds before, like damn boy you look like you're about to commit a hayase rape scene when Fushi is vulnerable-

his suicide is pretty noble and I'd love it if it was an act of ending his bloodline... if it weren't for the fact that his bloodline comes back 💀

mizuha: ah mizuha, I don't know what to think about her at all. I suppose she needs a heavy analysis too. her introduction chapter was incredibly strong, I too, struggle with a heavy need for absolute perfection and a wish for death, so I instantly figured I'd like her. but she kinda just spirals downhill after that....

I'd like to take a moment to applaud the Hayase clan, one centered around having straight sex with a guy to get preggers, has so many gay descendants. mizuha x hanna literally being canon is ✨✨

mizuha is kind of a slow burn into madness, which makes her better than hayase becoming a yandere out of nowhere. like she already starts off with Issues, and doesn't seem like the happiest or most stable person that you could trust. but she's also a more normal modern girl with her own relationships outside of Fushi, she's more compelling that way.

her murdering her mother and not remembering it, yet being so weirdly casual about it and showing hints of the Hayase Insanity Gene when Fushi shows up, it's interesting stuff

when they're hiding out, the way she just demands all these modern amenities from him just makes it seem like she's lived a very privileged life, and she probably has.

I like that she wasn't instantly in love with him upon meeting either, she has her own love interest, but Lefty influences and controls her and has its own directive.

side note but I really really love the nokkers' shift into becoming parasites that control the bodies of depressed people so that they only feel their happiest moments... or in Mimori's case just suicide them for them 😍 can I get a nokker please-?

okay I kinda forgot everything that happened in between so I need to reread. but she slowly gets more influenced by her nokker and the rest of the nokker cult basically. she's a damaged teenage girl, being influenced and controlled by something with a millennia long goal that's beyond her.

the section where she's kept underground is pretty interesting. is it the nokker? or does she not care about herself anymore, she seems to have given in to their goals. I need to reread this in particular so I'll stop talking-

I recall she left on her own at the end, which was very mature of her. good riddance to mizuha :)

I think something a lot of people miss when analyzing or talking about her is her speech bubbles. I'm sure the anime will not do anything with that, and it'll become entirely ignored by the fandom. but if you're reading the manga, in Japanese or in English, look carefully whenever she's speaking. her font changes when it's her or the nokker speaking.. this is something that's incredibly important to check when you're analyzing her behavior vs what she doesn't remember/what the nokker says and does

izumi: can't talk about Mizuha without mentioning her mother, she is honestly one of my favorite descendants, simply because she's trying to break the line and get out of the cult. she's level headed, she's a good woman. even her bad mother behavior of the way she treats mizuha, is often just her forgetting due to the nokker's control over her, her obsessive picture taking especially

doro: I've seen her for one chapter and I would do anything for her, best hayase descendant by far she is a little lab coat science girl and she is so sweet and I love her I love her so bad there better be so much doro content in my future, my beautiful mud girl 🥺🥺🥺

Lefty: does left hand count as a hayase member? probably yeah. there isn't a lot of personality to it, but it's interesting that it's just some random nokker that borrowed into some insane person's arm and decided their goals aligned. so it fights against other nokkers, but can also be willing to betray its host if needed. it learned to write and speak and mimic because it was asked to do so. it wants Fushi carnally, it wants Fushi to dominate it hdhgggsfjjdd why did it say that 😭 (yes it was the font thing with mizuha again, the nokker wanted Fushi to dominate her so bad)

I'm sure someone else could do a much better analysis of Lefty than I could, I never paid much attention to it...

anyways I should finish my rewatch of s1 that I've neglected for a while now (watching it in German 😍 and then watching s2 subbed because I hate Bon's German voice)

[the-rewatch-rewind]

Another special guest episode!

Transcript below the break.

Rosemary

(singing) Pulitzer and Hearst, they think they got us.

You going to put my singing on there as a teaser?

Jane

Yes. Yes I am.

Hello and welcome back to The Rewatch Rewind, the podcast where I count down my top 40 most frequently rewatched movies. Usually these are movies that I love for my own personal reasons, but for this episode, I will be joined by my sister Rosemary to talk about one of her comfort movies, which is #32 on my list: Disney’s 1992 historical musical Newsies, directed by Kenny Ortega, written by Bob Tzudiker and Noni White – who I just learned are married to each other, so that’s fun – and starring Christian Bale, David Moscow, Bill Pullman, and Robert Duvall.

It’s 1899. The streets of New York City echo with the voices of newsies, carrying the banner on every corner, bringing you the news for a penny a pape. Our story starts the day David Jacobs (David Moscow) and his younger brother Les (Luke Edwards) begin their newsboy careers and team up with experienced newsie Jack Kelly (Christian Bale). But soon after, the head of the newspaper, Joseph Pulitzer (Robert Duvall) decides that in order to increase profits, he needs to further exploit the newsies, so David and Jack decide to lead a strike.

This movie is truly bizarre, and I don’t think I’ve ever quite figured out how I feel about it. I’ve somehow managed to watch it 16 times, and most of those viewings were either directly or indirectly because of my sister, so without further ado, let’s talk with Rosemary about Newsies.

Hello!

Rosemary

Hi!

Jane

Very excited to talk to you about Newsies, because the only reason that it made it onto this podcast is because of you.

Rosemary

Yeah, that is my fault, I think.

Jane

I don't think I would have watched it again after the first couple of times we watched it if you hadn't gotten into it.

Rosemary

And I don't really know why I loved it so much.

Jane

Yeah, I don't really either, but I think we should tell the listeners how we were introduced to this movie because we were introduced to this movie in the weirdest way possible.

Rosemary

The weirdest way.

Jane

So why are we even there? Why did we go to this Kid Court thing?

Rosemary

So we did this summer camp. It was like a day camp where it was kind of like mock trial. And it was for like 10 to 14 year olds or something.

Jane

It was the summer of 2003, because then you did it again the next year but I was too old.

Rosemary

OK. Well,  roughly for like 10 to 13 year olds, putting on a trial to figure out how to be lawyers or something. I think like the premise of the camp, like it was somebody's dad, that was a lawyer and he like, it was through the parks and Rec department. And it was just like a summer camp day camp class and it was a week long class to teach young ones about what it's like to be a lawyer and kind of like, get people interested in criminal justice. And they based it on a movie. And so the premise of the camp was they showed a movie and then had some sort of trial, like a premise of a trial. And we were supposed to play like the lawyers and the people themselves and put this trial on for the parents who would come and be the jury at the end of the week.

Jane

Yes, and why they decided to do a trial based on Newsies, I don't know.

Rosemary

No idea. It is the most random thing they could have picked in 2003. Like this movie that came out in 1992, like 11 years later, we're like, let's do a mock trial on if Jack Kelly or Pulitzer should... I don't even remember the premise of the trial.

Jane

I think it was trying to decide if Pulitzer should go to jail for cruelty toward the Newsies or something. Because I played Pulitzer.

Rosemary

I played Jack Kelly.

Jane

I'd forgotten about that.

Rosemary

Because I had to call you Joe all the time, because that was really cool. Because that's what Jack Kelly did.

Jane

Oh man, I forgot about that. I just remembered that I had a beard made out of construction paper. Because I remember we were trying to argue about whether Weasel had any culpability. Or if he was just taking orders from Pulitzer. But the thing the thing was like we had never heard of this movie before.

Rosemary

We had never heard of this movie and we also were not that interested in becoming lawyers.

Jane

No, so that's, why were we there? Was it because, because, OK, so as we're recording this, my Chicago episode has not come out yet, but it will have before I release it, and the friend that I will talk about in that episode came to this camp with us.

Rosemary

Correct.

Jane

So was it because she wanted to do it? Is that why we were there?

Rosemary

Truly I don't remember.

Jane

For some reason we're at this like mock trial day camp for preteens, and for some reason that makes even less sense, we're doing a trial based on this movie that we never heard of before, and I remember, so it was 2003 cause that was the first year that I was keeping track of my movies and we watched the whole movie. But then we like were watching bits and pieces of it again, but I didn't know how many times to count it, and I remember that being like a real dilemma. And that's kind of a running theme with this movie is a lot of times I'll just watch certain parts of it. So I don't really know how many times I've watched the whole thing. I would count it if I watched most of it. So the the counting might be a little off on this.

Rosemary

Oh dear.

Jane

Anyway, we watched it and we did a trial and the trial made no sense because none of us understood the movie.

Rosemary

Or how to do a trial.

Jane

Yeah.

Rosemary

So anyway, I remember the first day of camp. We're in this like classroom in the Community Center, and they dim the lights, they bring in this TV on wheels, and we watch Newsies. And it was like nothing I'd ever seen before. Like it was singing, dancing teenage boys from 1899, going on strike, singing about it. And I don't know, it was like a mesmerizing experience. And maybe also because, like, we watched it in a group setting and nobody was really that familiar with the movie, I don't think, and we just watched it and we were supposed to like really get into it so we could do this trial. So I remember like watching it with my senses on alert being like, OK, what's the trial going to be and how are we going to defend them?

Jane

I just remember like not following the plot of the movie at all.

Rosemary

Oh.

Jane

Like I liked the singing and dancing, but I did not know what was going on.

Rosemary

Huh.

Jane

So I had a a hard time with this trial because I was like, I don't even understand what happened in this movie. I don't super remember watching it for the first time that vividly, so I think I might have like, just zoned out. I just remember, like when we were doing the trial, I was like, I don't even understand what's supposed to have happened in this movie, so I don't know what we're doing.

Rosemary

(laughing) That's fair.

Jane

I mean, I got that they went on strike. I just didn't really understand, like... there were too many little like intricacies of like what exactly they were protesting and stuff like that. I mean, now I know what it's about, but at the time I just thought, This is weird. I don't understand this movie.

Rosemary

I also remember because we would go back and watch different clips from it because that was our like evidence, it would sit on the DVD menu for long stretches of time, and this one girl in the class she like made this whole dance routine for the, like, menu music that we listen to over and over again.

Jane

Oh yes.

Rosemary

So I think about that. Every time I watch it on DVD.

Jane

I I do remember that. But I don't remember a ton about the mock trial. I just remember that it was weird.

Rosemary

It was weird. Somebody made a poster of brass knuckles.

Jane

Oh, yeah. (laughs)

Rosemary

Um, and... I was supposed to be Jack Kelly, and that's pretty much all I remember.

Jane

Yeah.

Rosemary

One of the witnesses was this random person that was where the milk jugs got knocked over.

Jane

We never actually see that person in the movie.

Rosemary

He's not in the movie. They don't exist.

Jane

Somebody decided to be the person whose milk jugs got knocked over. I realized to the listeners that this is going to sound weird, but it's like weirder than you think it was based on what we're saying.

Rosemary

Yeah, none of this makes sense.

Jane

It almost feels like it didn't happen, like I made it up, but I know that it happened because that's how we got introduced to this movie. But then I don't remember why we watched it again after that.

Rosemary

So how many times did you watch it in 2003?

Jane

I counted watching it twice. Then I watched it again in 2004.

Rosemary

OK. So I know that we rented it from Hollywood Video.

Jane

Oh, OK.

Rosemary

Because they had like, one copy of it. Because why would you need more? And I just remember being like, I need to see this movie again, and one day we were at Hollywood Video and got it. So that must have been the 2004 watch? Because I imagine you counted it twice for mock trial.

Jane

Yeah, I think so.

Rosemary

So we would get it from Hollywood Video and then I think the library had a copy of it that wasn't very good. And then eventually I got it on DVD, which I think was probably in 2005. When we got our DVD player like that was the year of the DVD's right?

Jane

I think so.

Rosemary

I think I got it then.

Jane

But I also feel like I remember being like at work and talking to someone about it and saying that we didn't have it on DVD. And then they got it for me at the same time that we got another copy because we ended up with two copies of it on DVD.

Rosemary

Oh well, maybe I didn't get it in 2005. I definitely had my own copy when I went away to college.

Jane

Yes.

Rosemary

Because I took it with me.

Jane

Yes. Because I think that that someone gave you a copy and one of my coworkers gave me a copy. That would have probably been like 2009.

Rosemary

Yeah, that makes sense. OK, I don't know.

Jane

It was a long time ago. But like your friends were also really into it.

Rosemary

Yeah, I was kind of like, my circle of friends kind of overlapped the theater kids ,and it was big in the theater kid circle. And this was like my like middle school friends. And so we would frequently watch it, like at sleepovers or hangouts or whatever, we would just turn on Newsies and have, like, a whole sing along.

Jane

Yeah, because I remember like being really annoyed by it for a while. And that was like your thing that you did with your friends. And I was like, this movie is so bad though.

Rosemary

Oh, I didn't know that you had that period of time.

Jane

Yeah, and then I don't know, I I kind of came around to it eventually and like, I mean, there's parts of it that are definitely bad.

Rosemary

No, like full disclosure: this is not a good movie.

Jane

No, but it is enjoyable.

Rosemary

(laughs) When it comes down to it, it's not good. Like the acting isn't very good, the singing is fine, the editing needed... it needed to be shorter. It's a very long movie.

Jane

Well, it's almost like it's like two different movies because there's, like, the musical, and then there's the drama.

Rosemary

Mm-hmm.

Jane

The whole, like, Pulitzer part doesn't fit with the rest of the musical because, like, he kind of seems like he's in a completely different world, which maybe was intentional. I don't know. But I feel like it's kind of like they were combining two different types of movie into one, not very well.

Rosemary

Yes.

Jane

But also what's funny about it is that, like it was a total flop when it came out. I think it was like the lowest grossing Disney live action film to date. Or one of them.

Rosemary

Which doesn't like.... it's not a great movie, but that just doesn't feel right. Like, it's fine.

Jane

But the thing is that like then it became really popular later and it's like kind of a cult classic. And so they... the initial box office loss was made up by video rentals, once it came out for home viewing. And now there's like this whole group of people that absolutely love it. I mean, and then it was turned into a Broadway musical, like way later, because it was super popular.

Rosemary

Yeah, in like 2014 or something?

Jane

Yeah like in the 2010s. And so it's just really funny how it was like when we first watched it, nobody knows what this movie is, and then like a few years later, everyone was like, Oh yeah, I love Newsies! And I was like, what? You know about Newsies? I thought that was just our thing. And now it's like, oh, OK, everybody knows Newsies, but most people I think are maybe now more people are familiar with the stage version.

Rosemary

Yeah, especially since they've filmed it and it's on Disney plus, and you can watch it anytime you want, so...

Jane

Yeah.

Rosemary

I think they're different. I think the choreography is really fun and exciting in the Broadway stage show because they have Broadway dancers to do the choreography and not Christian Bale, who I don't think is known for his dancing.

Jane

No, oh, it's just so funny that Christian Bale is in this movie. Like, can we talk about how random that is? Like, he's not a musical guy.

Rosemary

But he's a good singer.

Jane

Yeah, no, I think he does a good job. It's just very not on brand for him.

Rosemary

Nope, but he was also like, a child.

Jane

It's true. And then, like Pulitzer is played by Robert Duvall, and he doesn't get to sing, even though Robert Duvall could sing and sang in other movies. So I do like that the stage musical gave Pulitzer a song. I think it makes him feel more part of the story.

Rosemary

Well, yeah, that needed to happen. And then Ann-Margret is randomly there?

Jane

Her character did not need to be there. I don't understand why her character was there.

Rosemary

Why was anyone there?

Jane

But like, the music isn't great, considering that it's Alan Menken. Like, he wrote much better songs.

Rosemary

But it's fine.

Jane

Most of the songs are pretty good, but Ann-Margret's songs are bad. Like, they are bad songs and I don't know why they're like that because because they change that character a little bit for the stage musical, and gave her different songs that are actually good. And I'm like, why couldn't the movie have good songs for this character?

Rosemary

Um... yeah.

Jane

But I actually do love Carrying the Banner. I think that is a great opening number.

Rosemary

It is!

Jane

The rest of the movie doesn't necessarily live up to that start, but I love that. But there's other good songs.

Rosemary

I mean Carrying the Banner is great. King of New York is fantastic. Seize the Day is fine. The World Will Know is a good song. And it's a play on The World.

Jane

Oh yeah, they do enjoy that pun.

Rosemary

They like that a lot.

Jane

The newspaper is called The World, and so they, like at one point, one of Pulitzer's assistants is like, “It’s like the end of the world. Oh, no. I didn't mean that!” There's a lot of that in that movie.

Rosemary

So it's really just... I mean, even Santa Fe is not a bad song.

Jane

That's true. It's that the songs don't save the rest of the movie and the dancing could have been better. I think that's the thing.

Rosemary

But see, we need to talk about how Kenny Ortega, the director/choreographer, was kind of ahead of his time with this movie. Because, had it come out ten years later or 15 years later, like when High School Musical came out, Kenny Ortega's Magnum Opus, it would have been way more popular. Like, the world was not ready for a musical of teenage boys in 1992, but they were ready for a musical of teenagers in 2004.

Jane

Also like, I wonder if this had been a Disney Channel original movie instead of a theatrically released movie, would it have been more popular?

Rosemary

Well, and they probably would have edited it better if it was a direct for TV movie because it's so long and if it was a Disney Channel original movie, it would have been shorter and a little faster pace. And possibly better. Like maybe they were, they were trying to make this Mary Poppins-esque feature and maybe didn't realize that that was not what they should have been shooting for.

Jane

Well, and it it is long, but it feels longer than it is.

Rosemary

Yes.

Jane

Which is not what you want.

Rosemary

No. (laughs) Like there's so many things that don't need to be in the movie, and I say this as a person that loves this movie, but it's like, pick up the pace, man.

Jane

Yeah, it definitely drags. And I think a lot of musicals have this problem where there just aren't enough songs in the second act. But if it was going to be as long as it is, they needed more songs, like good songs, not just High Times Hard Times, in the second act.

Rosemary

Yeah, that doesn't help because it's like the second act needs more songs, and then the songs that are in the second act are not good.

Jane

Yeah, it really loses steam.

Rosemary

It does. We haven't talked about how Bill Pullman is randomly in this movie.

Jane

Bill Pullman is great and also that they completely changed his character for the musical and turned him into a woman who has a romance with Jack.

Rosemary

Yeah... I mean that's much more like Hollywood, Disney romance. And so it's kind of weird that they didn't do that in the movie version.

Jane

Well, so also like the character of Sarah.

Rosemary

Oh, geez.

Jane

There's like two women in the whole movie that are actually important. There's Medda, who has the horrible songs, and then there's Sarah, who is David's sister, who kind of has a romance with Jack. But it's very forced. It's just like kind of stuck in there. I- there's no reason for it to be there.

Rosemary

No. They were just like, I guess this movie should have some romance in it.

Jane

Yeah. And it's like her, her character is completely underdeveloped and all that. But also like, I don't remember when we read this, but at some point I was looking up facts about Newsies and people were talking about how it kind of seems like Bill Pullman's character, Denton, and David have, like, romantic chemistry? And now I can't unsee it.

Rosemary

Mm-hmm.

Jane

It's a little creepy because I don't know how old David's supposed to be. I think he's supposed to be a teenager, and Denton is a grown man, but there's just like so many moments between them, that's like, oh, this is interesting.

Rosemary

Yeah, they're very flirtatious with each other and are having a good time, and it's... it's just a little odd that they staged it the way they did.

Jane

Yeah, and I don't know how intentional that was or what they were trying to do with that. I didn't notice it before I read it, but it's it's there.

Rosemary

Mm-hmm.

Jane

But I mean, I know it's based on a true story, but I'm not sure like how much they were trying to stick to the true story and how much they were just going off of the basic premise of like, oh, these newsboys went on strike this one time. Because I don't know if, like, they're based on actual people or if they just decided like, OK, we're just going to make up some Newsies, because that might make a difference. Like, maybe there really was a reporter like that who hung out with them and, I don't know. But yeah, Bill Pullman does his best.

Rosemary

He always does his best and we are grateful for that.

Jane

He's a good singer!

Rosemary

He is! Yeah. I have definitely watched the special features on this movie a few times and there is one that's like all about the historical, like the true story of the Newsies. Um... I don't know why I'm saying this, because I don't actually remember so. But there's a special feature on the DVD if you have it, so you can go check it out and learn your history of the Newsies. There is audio commentary from Kenny Ortega throughout the whole movie as well. That's a treat.

Jane

I don't think I've ever watched it.

Rosemary

I definitely have.

Jane

Yeah, I believe you.

Rosemary

You learn little fun facts, but you don't actually have to watch it with commentary with Kenny Ortega. If you're watching it with me, because I will tell you when things come up.

Jane

It's true.

Rosemary

I'm like, did you know this fun fact that I just happened to know? Like I'm doing my own commentary on it. But I was thinking about, like, why did I like this movie so much? Like, why did it have such a hold on me from like 2003 to 2012? Like, why was this my go to comfort film? Why could I spend the whole day like watching it and the special features and going on IMDb to look up the actors? And I don't know. It doesn't make sense knowing like, who I am as a person and the things I normally like and things like that like it's it's kind of odd. But I think I enjoyed the like sense of friends who are family and that camaraderie and these boys have nobody but each other and they care about each other a lot. They know each other's quirks and idiosyncrasies and accept them all into their little family. Like they live in that boarding house together. And I'm sure it's, like, very idealized. And like they were very poor and hungry and cold and probably stinky, and it probably shouldn't be, like, romanticized, I guess. But I think I was really drawn to that like, sense of community that they had. And they're fighting for something. And I think that the little like social justice warrior in me was like, yeah, we just all have to be friends together, and then we can like, change the world.

Jane

Yeah, that makes sense. I I definitely agree that I I enjoyed the ensemble aspect of it, but I like always wanted more from the side characters. Like I want like a whole TV show of just like them hanging out.

Rosemary

Oh yeah! I definitely made-up back stories in my head of a lot of those background guys because they're really good background actors and they did a good job getting like this whole crew together. And I'm like this part is what's truly fascinating is these people that are all part of this story that aren't the Jack Kelly or the David, but they don't want to pay $0.10 more for 100 papes.

Jane

Yeah, and just that they have such pride in what they're doing.

Rosemary

Yeah!

Jane

The whole “Headlines don't sell papes, Newsies sell papes” thing is cheesy, but it's nice, like they're like, yes, we're doing something important. We're bringing news to people and... the movie kind of like glosses over this to the point that I didn't even notice it at first: the whole like branching out the strike to other child laborers?

Rosemary

Yeah.

Jane

That kind of confused me because it's like there's so much that drags and then that, they kind of rush through that in one musical number. But they were really trying to help stop child workers from being exploited, so they have pride in what they're doing, but they also recognize, like we are children and we are being worked way harder than we should be, and this is the last straw. And I think that's really cool. I don't know if that's actually accurate to what actually happened with this strike.

Rosemary

I don't think it was like one strike changed everything but, part of the whole like, labor rights movement at the turn of the century and like safe working conditions and limits on working hours and working ages and stuff like that. And I don't think they did a bad job of telling that story.

Jane

No, it's just they could have done a better job.

Rosemary

For sure.

Jane

But I also think that part is like one of the most moving parts of the movie now that I like catch that it's there. The World Will Know Reprise, I guess is what it is. Where they're like, waiting for people to show up. And they're like, oh, it's just gonna be us. Nobody else is listening to us. And then like that whole group of people come in to, like, stand in solidarity with them. I love that part.

Rosemary

When you've got a million voices singing,

Jane

Who can hear a lousy whistle blow?

Rosemary

And the world will feel the fire and finally know.

Jane

It's like to a certain extent, the reason that I watched this movie is because it's, like, so bad it's good in some ways.

Rosemary

Mm-hmm.

Jane

But also like there are parts of it that are actually pretty good.

Rosemary

Yeah!

Jane

There's a lot of like they almost got there, but it just I think they didn't quite know exactly what they were trying to do, like what story they were trying to tell, and it gets a little unfocused.

Rosemary

But also like, as you said, like the Newsboys take pride in being the ones that deliver the news? Those young actors at the time, took like huge pride in being in that movie and in the special featurettes of like, what was it like on set? Like these teenage boys were like having a great time and were really proud of their, you know, their singing and dancing and bringing this story to life. And maybe Christian Bale doesn't like to talk about it anymore, but you know who among us likes to talk about what we did when we were 16?

Jane

Well, and like Christian Bale is by far the like most famous one of those kids like now.

Rosemary

Oh for sure.

Jane

A lot of those people are still working and some of them are like have done other things that I know about. But like in terms of name recognition, if you named the other actors that played the kids, like Christian Bale is on a completely different level of fame than the rest of them.

Rosemary

Yes.

Jane

And I think even at the time he was, like, embarrassed to tell people that he was making a musical. And I think like everybody else was just like, yeah, of course, we're making musical. This is fun. And I think he was kind of like, this is beneath me. But I mean he still did a good job.

Rosemary

Yeah.

Jane

But it's not a typical Christian Bale movie.

Rosemary

It definitely is not.

Jane

But it’s the only Christian Bale movie that made it in my Top 40, so what does that say?

Rosemary

Something. But I think you know like why did I, why was it my like comfort movie? But it it really was for a time and truly, it's baffling, I don't know.

Jane

Yeah, I mean, it doesn't always have to make sense. A lot of times you just, a movie makes you feel good, so you watch it. Like it doesn't have to be for a particularly deeper reason. I think that that's totally fair. And I think, that that part of why I keep returning to it, is it like makes me think of you, so it's comforting for that and there's a little bit of nostalgia from back when you were watching it constantly when we lived in the same house. So yeah, I don't know. And I don't think we have to know why we watch it a lot, but it is strange. And just like, thinking about trying to tie it into the theme of the podcast of like watching it from an aroace perspective, the worst part of the movie is the romance, and most people agree about that. So it's like, OK, I'm watching it for the, for the friends and most other people are. So I think that has something to do with it, that like, it's more about friendship and camaraderie than romance. But then it's just kind of like, oh, but we need to have romance in here cause there's a female character, which I hate so much.

Rosemary

Yeah, I mean, I would have loved like, we could have done a side story of like those girls that were working in the sewing factory or whatever?

Jane

Oh yeah.

Rosemary

That come to the strike or whatever? We could have had a whole side story about them and their friendship and their camaraderie and all of that to talk about their experiences. And kind of just make it a movie about friendship, which it mostly is.

Jane

Yeah, yeah, definitely.

Rosemary

And fighting the man.

Jane

Yeah. Well, and then there's the whole thing about the children's refuge.

Rosemary

Yeah.

Jane

And locking kids up and all that.

Rosemary

The commentary on the pipeline to prison system.

Jane

Yeah. They don't get into racism at all like...

Rosemary

Yeah...

Jane

They have some characters of color, but it's more colorblind casting is what it feels like. But it is definitely a commentary on, like poor people just getting locked up, and there's a little bit about like disabled people because there's the character of Crutchy, who at one point they're doing strike activities and they're kind of, I don't even know. They're, like ripping up newspapers and stuff like that. And everybody gets away except for the kid who can't walk very well. I don't know what his condition is supposed to be, but it's interesting to see how different characters treat him and that, like the other Newsies, are like, yeah, he's our friend. And then the people in power are just kind of like, let's throw him away and beat him up and stuff like that. I don't know if they were trying to say anything in doing that. But I think it's interesting to see his character and how he's treated.

Rosemary

Yeah, that they at least included him, when they didn't have to, like, have that representation at all.

Jane

Yeah, I mean it, it would have been better if he was played by an actor who was actually disabled.

Rosemary

Well, yes.

Jane

That's too much to ask for now, let alone 30 years ago. So...

Rosemary

Yeah... yeah. I mean it's like it is rich versus poor. It is, you know, the powerful against the not powerful, and you know the way that adults treat children, and don't take them seriously and kind of want them to disappear unless they're doing something that makes them money.

Jane

Yeah. And I think that that actually is why Ann-Margret's character is there because she is like, she and Bill Pullman's character are, like, the only adults that really support them and take them seriously. And so I think it is kind of important to show that like, I mean, the kids are doing most of it on their own, but they do have some support and it comes in unexpected ways. You know, romanticizing David and Denton kind of cheapens that a little bit. It is it... they just have weird moments together.

Rosemary

They really do.

Jane

I think ultimately it's not intentional like he's just supposed to be helping them because he wants to support their cause. And he gets silenced temporarily, and it's interesting how they show that like he feels like he has to follow the rules because he'll lose his job and stuff, and these kids have very little to lose because they don't have much. And so it's interesting the way they showed that that like he's kind of ready to give up, but then the kids talk him into staying and fighting.

Rosemary

Doing what's right.

Jane

Yeah, they're they're ready to go on without him. But I like that he comes back and joins up with them and helps them rally all of the other child laborers. So yeah, it's it's an uplifting story. Like it does make you feel powerful in a way. I just, they miss what they're trying to do a few too many times that it, like, doesn't quite work. But there's moments that work. It's just it's a weird tone of a movie, like it doesn't know how serious to be, and I think that part of that is good. Like, I think it's nice to have a balance of like, the lighthearted musical numbers and the actual, like, really tough messages. But I just, I don't feel like it strikes the right balance somehow. And I'm not sure how, like I don't know how it could be better. I don't know exactly how to solve the problem of Newsies, cause I think the the musical like, I like the movie better just because... the thing I don't like about the musical is that they changed the words to the songs that they kept. Like add new songs? Great, but why did you change the words just for the sake of changing the words? That's my biggest gripe with the musical.

Rosemary

And can we talk about the line, “both the Delanceys pee in their pantsies” because like, what is that? I'm personally offended by that. Like what? Who wrote that?

Jane

Like there's no reason to change the words to that song because it was already a pretty good song. But then that they changed it to that of like, what? Oh, also another thing that I was going to mention is that so Alan Menken wrote the music and Howard Ashman was going to write the lyrics, but then he died. And I don't even remember who wrote the lyrics. Sorry person who wrote the lyrics.

Rosemary

Jack Feldman.

Jane

OK, I don't know, did he write the lyrics for the stage show? The reason that I bring up  the Howard Ashman thing is, I feel like if Howard Ashman had written Newsies lyrics before he died, people would have felt less OK messing with them because like, he's such a legend. But I don't know. Maybe maybe I'm wrong about that.

Rosemary

I think he did both. Jack Feldman.

Jane

Yeah so it's almost like they recognize, like, OK, the movie didn't quite work, so we're going to try and make the musical work better, which I think that ultimately, overall, it does work better in telling the story. But, they incorrectly identified certain things that didn't work and changed things that didn't need to be changed, and that irritates me.

Rosemary

I feel that.

Jane

It makes it so I don't want to listen to the cast recording because they changed the words to songs that didn't need the words changed. But the new songs they added I think were really good. And the the songs they took out were not missed, so there is that. But they didn't need to change King of New York.

Rosemary

Sorry, I'm now reading an article about Newsies. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh.

Jane

What?

Rosemary

The tea!

Jane

Oh dear.

Rosemary

Apparently there were behind the scenes drama because Christian Bale and the girl that played Sarah, Ele Keats, they started dating during pre production, but then they broke up right before filming.

Jane

Oh dear!

Rosemary

And so they weren't even, like talking to each other before they had to film these scenes of them being like, “I'm in love with you!” So maybe that's why it doesn't work.

Jane

That's definitely part of it. I was also reading that Sarah was supposed to have a song, but then they cut it.

Rosemary

Mmm.

Jane

Because her character does like very little in the movie. Like...

Rosemary

Yeah, she does nothing.

Jane

We don't need her to be there.

Rosemary

Apparently Howard Ashman died the day before the first songwriting session for Newsies.

Jane

Awwww, so sad. Yeah, so I don't know. I mean, again, I like a lot of the songs in the movie and I think that they have better lyrics than the Broadway versions of them. But I wonder how different things would have been if Howard Ashman could have written the lyrics for these songs, but. On the one hand, like I keep saying, like the movie doesn't work, they should change stuff, but also I do kind of love it the way it is. I love that it's broken and and a little bit of a mess. That's part of its charm. And it's sad if you think about some of the issues too hard, but it doesn't let itself get too sad, so it feels uplifting. And I mean it has an encouraging ending. They won, but it's unclear exactly what that means going forward other than that the price they have to pay for the papers is what it was. But also OK. That was the part that really confused me when we watched it the first time. I didn't understand like why raising the price was hurting them because I didn't realize that it was the price-

Rosemary

Of the distribution apparatus?

Jane

Like the Newsies had to buy the papers and then sell them? I like kind of missed that whole thing. So I was like, what exactly are they fighting for? Also, it makes it so much more complicated because it was two for a penny, and then they were raising it 10 cents a hundred. It's like so much harder to get the right change for the number of papers when it's like that. So for that reason alone, they shouldn't have raised it.

Rosemary

It just wasn't a good idea and one that was just sort of thrown out there during a brainstorming session. And, um, they just ran with it.

Jane

It's a really good indication of how big companies operate because the other idea that was thrown out in that brainstorming session was that they cut the salaries of the people at the top and they're like, “We can't do that!”

Rosemary

Mmm-hmm.

Jane

That's still a thing of like we gotta exploit the lowest workers who already are struggling to eat, while the people in charge are making more money than they could spend in several lifetimes.

Rosemary

And it's a Disney movie, is it?

Jane

Yes, it's it's it's a good point. The message does kind of get lost because it is a Disney movie and it's like Disney is in control of the entire entertainment world now it feels like.

Rosemary

Mm-hmm.

Jane

But they're still like, “Oh yeah, no, we champion the underdog. We definitely pay all of our workers fairly.”

Rosemary

Mm-hmm.

Jane

So... yeah, I don't know. It's hard to explain what we love about the movie because it is objectively bad.

Rosemary

It's objectively not good, but I wouldn't say it's objectively bad.

Jane

Yeah, that's a better way to put it, because there's definitely some great moments in it.

Rosemary

It's definitely watchable, especially if you fast forward some parts.

Jane

Yeah, well, that's why it's hard because a lot of times I would just like go through and watch the good songs and skip everything else.

Rosemary

So when was the last time you watched Newsies?

Jane

I watched it last year.

Rosemary

Oh. Why? (laughs)

Jane

I don't remember why. I watched a lot of movies last year. Last year was the year I watched the most movies since I started keeping track. I might have, like, convinced Mom to watch it on Robert Duvall's birthday. I know I did that once recently.

Rosemary

That checks out. There it is. Not Ann-Margret's birthday?

Jane

No.

Rosemary

Not David Moscow's birthday? Not Pulitzer's birthday?

Jane

Apparently the movie came out on Pulitzer's birthday.

Rosemary

Oh! Interesting.

Jane

It's just funny because it's like, Robert Duvall is this big star who's been in a ton of things, and like, this is the movie of his that I've seen the most?

Rosemary

Well, and apparently according to the special features, he like got super into the role and read like a 500 page biography of Pulitzer, and like, was really into the character and everything, was fascinated by the character. And I'm like, well, maybe for Pulitzer's biopic, but that's not what this is.

Jane

Yeah he's not in enough of the movie to justify it. I will say one of my favorite parts is when he makes all those like adding machine noises.

Rosemary

Yeah.

Jane

That's pretty great. I I do enjoy that.

Rosemary

Yeah, so he tried to stay true to Pulitzer.

Jane

You gotta respect that.

Rosemary

And maybe we do need a Pulitzer biopic one of these days.

Jane

Yeah, I think he's a little bit old now. Is he still acting?

Rosemary

Is he still alive?

Jane

I think so, but he's very old. Yeah, he's 92. Also, we haven't talked about Les, but I love Les. That kid!

Rosemary

He is so genuine.

Jane

He is dedicated. Both the actor is dedicated to being in the movie, the kid is dedicated to the cause.

Rosemary

He’s dedicated to being dedicated.

Jane

He really is. And I love the part in The World Will Know Reprise before all the people show up when they're singing and they're just like, yeah, whatever. And he's like, NO! He's like into it. Like, how dare you suggest that we would give in? He is dedicated to the cause from the get go and he is like, very devoted to Jack, and he's like “Jack knows what he's doing” and all this stuff. It's just, while I think that Sarah could have easily been eliminated, I love that Les is there. I think that he's he's a good addition to the group. And again I would love a TV show of just everybody hanging out.

Rosemary

We didn't talk about Spot Conlon either.

Jane

Oh my gosh. Scott Conlon is iconic and they OK, that's another thing I have a problem with the stage show about: they almost completely eliminated him from the stage show. He’s like barely there

Rosemary

But they did get a song for the Brooklyn crew.

Jane

Yes, but it’s very short. And that's like the only time we see him. Like I couldn't even tell which one was supposed to be Spot Conlon, cause it's just a bunch of people singing about Brooklyn. It's interesting that they kind of get into a little bit of the like politics within the Newsies in the different boroughs and stuff, but they don't explain it well.

Rosemary

No.

Jane

It's like a little bit lacking.

Rosemary

But it's also kind of like, you're just, like dropped into this.

Jane

That's true, and you're kind of following David in that sense, of like he gets dropped into this world and he doesn't understand it at all. And nobody really wants to, like, sit him down and explain it to him. It's just like, figure it out.

Rosemary

Yeah, because they don't really, even like sit down and explain it to themselves. Like it's just the way things are and like, he's this newcomer and they're just, like, catch up!

Jane

Yeah. It's like there's just, it's such a a weird thing of, like, some of it is like, yeah, this is really interesting. And then some of it's, like so boring.

Rosemary

Mm-hmm.

Jane

The pacing is weird.

Rosemary

Mm-hmm.

Jane

There's parts that are boring that don't have to be boring, like the story isn't boring, that they're focusing on. They're just focusing on it in a weird way.

Rosemary

They're just not telling it well.

Jane

Yeah! It's like there's so many things that almost work, but just don't, and I don't even really know how to explain it, which is why I keep floundering about it. But yeah, it's it's just a strange movie that is fun to watch.

Rosemary

There you go. Sums it up.

Jane

I definitely would have completely forgotten about it after that Kid Court if you hadn't gotten back into it.

Rosemary

It just... had a hold on me.

Jane

It did, and I think that that's great. There's lots of movies like that for me, but most of the movies that are in my Top 40 are because I enjoy watching them by myself. And this one I I'm sure I have watched it by myself, but usually I watched it because you wanted to watch it. So...

Rosemary

You're welcome.

Jane

Thank you for keeping this movie in my life.

Rosemary

For carrying the banner.

Jane

Carrying the banner.

Thank you, Rosemary, and thank you to anyone who is still listening. That was a fun chat, although I don’t feel like we were particularly coherent. Then again, I don’t know that there is a particularly coherent way to talk about this movie. Even though we were pretty critical of it, I truly believe that everyone should watch Newsies at least once, so if you’re still here and you haven’t seen it yet, definitely do that, and hopefully you’ll understand.

I’m going on vacation so there won’t be a new episode of The Rewatch Rewind next week, but I will be back the week after, so make sure you’re subscribed or following so you don’t miss that. When I return, I’ll be discussing the first of three movies I watched 17 times. As always, I’ll leave you with a quote from that next movie: “A pleasant little foursome. I predict a hatchet murder before the night’s over.”