#well I guess this way it’s easy to just end the episode whenever I rewatch it

[gingerwerk]

911 s6 episode 18: pay it forward

[self-loathing-angel-of-thursday2]

Beautiful Spouse’s Rewatch Thoughts SPN 15x01 Back and to the Future

“This is the last season?” Yup. Our blog is almost over

“Hopefully it’s the end of that cocksucker. I’m done staring at Nick/Lucifer. Early seasons Lucifer was fine, but he just got horrible” “that was a halfassed jump kid. Kinda funny” “Unless he was running him over” “what in the hell” “feel like we’ve been in this crypt dungeon shit before” “might want to reinforce that fkn door” “just that easy huh?” laughter

Laughter “what the fuck” “get to the point already. Jesus Christ” “they cut their hands way too fkn much. There’s gotta be easier ways” “so if they can blast away demons like that, why didn’t they know that spell earlier?” “Seems a little…” “Is this a different birthday party than the last episode?” “uh fine” “thats a lot of acid in that fkn makeup or something” “Jesus” “so now that Jack is gone, they had to repurpose his actor or something/“ “that’s it? They have more people alive on the planet right now but I suppose they keep sending them to the empty” “we never had a season on the empty” “it’s turtles all the way down. We gotta go to the empty and then what happens after that?” “just got attacked by a fkn zombie shit and you’re worried about some guy in the woods?” “wasn’t that some season 1 shit?” “well that sucks” “They’d be more efficient at it the 2nd time. I’d watch that show” “you should have picked a different brand. Fuck chamberlain” “see?” “this is why you need laser pointers. Get his attention then start banging on the glass” “get in the car and drive through the door already. Holy shit” “just kick the door down” “of course I’ve never faced off with a fkn killer clown I guess” “thanks to educational TV, I will now know how to kill one” “And we get the cliff notes version because everything came back so it’s like a little short study guide” “how would the FBI have anything to do with this?” “what?” “talking like human camel hybrids here?” “he’s doing a good um DiCaprio thing.” “just like Pokemon - walk into someone’s house and say what’s up bitch” “wanna trade? I’ve got shotgun shells; I’ll take two poke balls. and some angel grace too” “that’s a weird lens choice for that. The picture got less distorted as he went down the stairs. It was weird” “really?” “wouldn’t he already have the gun cocked at that point? He had a weird cocking sound when they were found. Seriously? What the fuck is wrong with you?” “see whenever’s it’s sam’s fault. It’s not the editor’s fault, it’s Sam’s fault” “Don’t lie to her like that” “eardrums destroyed” “that’s good” “like you do” “Michael 1.0 is in the Cage? He’s back on the loose” laughter 

Laughter “it’s absurd” “oh that’s not good” “one problem at a time” “oh he’s fkn dead” “FBI OPEN UP” “lot of screaming for not much throat” “is he going to take the cop?” “sawed off shotgun angel” “they need that for a spell or something?” Yeah they said that

“Ouch” “that would actually kill you” “could you imagine filming that? YOu’re just some make-uped chick in the pond. Holy shit that’s so funny to me. What do you do when the scene is over?” laughter

“It’s so far fetched dude” “he cocked it after the first shot and didn’t need to cock it again. It was ready to go” “are you trapping them all inside or outside?” “oh yeah more self sacrifice. Excellent” “there’s no way he could run that fast and laugh like that at the same time” “might want to keep moving. Spell’s going to fail eventually. Especially these demon ones; they’re kinda shit” “surprised Cas doesn’t have a tie clip” laughter “Thats pretty funny” “you can also go forward and backward. In a 3D maze, you could go upward and downwards, too” “This is just a maze for 90 degree corners too. There are other types of mazes. Like spiral mazes or the corn maze” “hell yeah brother. Let’s do it” “it’s fkn party time”

[theragamuffininitiative]

#brain is very: gotta tell all my favorite episodes and also make little editorial notes on my least favorite episodes

Please don't hold yourself back from sharing them!

ok as far as episodes go, bear with me, there are seven season of this show lol...

There are some episodes that are among my favorites because of small side plots that happen in them, but most that are on here take their place because of main plots. I'm going to bold my very top picks:

Pilot (it's rough, as most pilots are, but important set up)

The Yellow Truck (because heartwarming Christmas)

It All Happened So Fast (Jim 😭)

I'm Still a Cop (just stanning Pete ok)

A Dead Cop Can't Help Anyone (Ed is 🙃 and Pete is incredible)

Good Cop Handle with Care (some journalists just shouldn't)

Pig is a Three Letter Word (😩 but Jessie Smith is The Best)

Baby (stanning Jim, the moron)

Once a Junkie ( 😭 TJ)

Hostage ( PETE 😭😭😭)

SWAT (just a good intense episode I guess?)

A Rare Occasion (plot is ok, I'm here for the Reeds+Pete bit 😍)

Vengeance (solid plots, plus Walker Edmiston ok)

Attempted Bribery (my boys are Good. Boys.)

Easy Bare Rider (mostly just that part lol)

Elegy for a Pig (hhhhhh vignette of the death of an officer)

IAD (in which we stan and hug Pete)

The Search (kajdflsdjg 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭PETE)

((^^^aka the show realized in Hostage that Martin did a great job acting in agony and decided they should make as much use of it as possible through the rest of the show.)))

Ambush (any episode that puts the boys in direct peril, right?)

Assassination (same as above)

The Princess and the Pig (JIM 😭)

Back-up 1L20 (Mac deserves the world ok and Pete knows it)

Badge Heavy (😒 Charlie. 👏 Jim)

Clear with a Civilian 1 and 2 (solid, solid, we stan the Civilian lol)

Killing Ground (hhhhhhhhhhhhh don't hurt my boyyyyysss)

Suspended (JIM AND PETE ARE SO IMPORTANT TO ME)

A Fool and His Money (ehehehehe)

Keeping Tabs (this one is just so unexpectedly sweet???)

If the Shoe Fits (ehehehe plus cute kid)

Trouble in the Bank (JIM 😭)

Suspect Number One (this one hurts so much, why do i rewatch)

Excessive Force (😣😣😭😭 but so important too)

Christmas (I'm here for the tree escapade)

Operation Action (can we...can we stop trying to kill Pete please)

Something Worth Dying For 1 and 2 (...please???! also finale 😭😭)

There are so many other episodes that have little bits that are my favorite - like the toothbrush snake, all of Jim's little sideplot life capers and attempts to get Pete married, how I totally ship Pete with Juju at least to some degree, lots of other random funny incidents they have to take care of, Jim directing the drunk guy directing traffic, Pete's face whenever he encounters child abuse, Pete's spidey sense... I love Jim but clearly I'm here for Pete alright.

*"Elegy for a Pig" is hard to watch ok - I know this show is pro-lapd propaganda but it's good propaganda 9/10 times, this one just Hurts (and isn't even a proper episode really).

**Excessive Force is also very very hard to watch on the content level. This show is not overtly graphic or gruesome and it's the 70s, they don't show much. But the writing knew they didn't have to show or say much at all most of the time to get the point across.

This is already very long so I'm not going to go episode by episode for my least favorites, but the one where they end up in a ridiculous confrontation with a wrestler? Yeah that is way down low on my list lol. Essentially, when the writers wanted to show a Situation (generally based on real life incidents) but didn't have a good way to justify it happening to the characters, it loses points with me. Those boys had weapons and backup, and they're not idiots, so those episodes are not my beloved.

Also, dealing with racial issues is sometimes iffy. For example, the episode "The Militants" is... a weird one. I don't hate it. I think the writers meant well, but it doesn't come off very well and has some pretty cringe moments and dialogue where it had the opportunity to be important. Often, episodes like this feel more like they are missing the nuance and other side of the truth they're telling. (Sometimes they hit the mark better: for example, "Pig is a Three Letter Word" has the saving grace of the Jessie Smith character in an otherwise very not-nuanced look at very complex issues.) I do appreciate that the show repeatedly displays stupid racist characters being stupid and getting their just desserts.

You have to accept the hippie slang too. You just gotta roll with it and laugh a little at deliveries ok? To their credit, Pete and Jim stand up for the hippies roughly the same amount of times they end up arresting them for drugs. XD

Some people are bothered by the portrayal of female characters in the show. I'm somewhere in the middle. I think it portrays them mostly honestly as the world went at the time, and a few have genuinely great roles and characterization - sadly, not many of Pete's girlfriends are in this number. 🙈 Pete is also a bit of a womanizer but he's also pretty respectful still, he just needs help ok. Jim is great for him that way. 👏 However, there are definitely episodes where a woman has been threatened or victimized and is not treated with the concern she should be in those situations and I do yell at my tv during those moments. XD

Lastly, this show has no filler. It starts to get there a little in later seasons, but mostly it's just pop pop pop action to action. This is great, I actually love the pacing of the show. It just... it means... well it means we don't get nice little comfort scenes with the boys after most of their hard days and I would personally like a little more of that ok? (rip the end of the often cute/relaxed little credit scenes after the first couple seasons)

[end ramble, more out of steam than thoughts]

[garrothromeave]

the hell is mystreet season 6??

(warning, long post ahead)

ok so before i start this

1) ive never posted shiiiit on tumblr before so watch me suffer, im just here to talk about stuff that my friends who dont know anything about aphmau have to listen to me rant about for hours on end

2) i havent seen mystreet in like years (except season 3, i watch that frequently since im laurance and shadow knight deprived) so please bear with me because i might be completely wrong on this lol. it’s just like, pointing out things i remember

3) im sure someones already talked about this but who cares

4) im gonna do this stupid thing where i just explain myself a bit at first, if you dont want to read that just skip to the part where you see “the actual thingy:” in bold and italics 

5) mild disclaimer; i am completely aware that jessica is not a professional writer. i know that she did her best to appeal to her fans, and honestly, respect for that. while this post will come off as aggressive and probably look like hate, that’s not my intention in the slightest. it’s just... intense criticism. im sure y’all probably already know that, but yeah, just stating that anyways. i do believe that jess is doing her best, and in no way do i want to dismiss any hard work she’s done. that being said; prepare for a very strongly opinionated post.

haha watch there be 10000+ typos in this making me look like a complete dumbass

ok here we go 

one of the main reasons i stopped watching aphmau back in 2017 was the mess that was season 4. like, in the first few episodes of the emerald secret, i thought “woah!! this is kinda cool, im a sucker for mystery!” because of course i was, it was something new and something exciting. the only problem i had with it at the time was kim, but that’s just because i always found her annoying and out of place. i just didn’t understand why garroth dragged her along and honestly i still don’t to this day BUT, moving on.

anyways, as the season progressed, 13 year old me was of course just “:0!!” the entire time--that is, up until the reveal of the main villain. i remember watching the episode, seeing the reveal of ein, and then stopping. like, just for a quick break, but i was still just overwhelmingly disappointed. like, and this was the time when pdh was airing and ein just got made alpha (i think?) and i had really really liked eins character in pdh. either way, that really sucked and actually opened my eyes to a lot of things.

one of the main things bein’ the fact that this was supposed to be a slice of life kinda series that decided to take a turn to a more edgy kinda approach. which, i guess i regularly wouldnt mind? but seeing as mcd was kinda bein neglected at the time it just didnt sit right with me. BUT WHATEVER, point is i stopped watching mystreet all together at the end of season 4.

like, a whole year later my brother tells me that shit’s getting intense in season 5 + 6 of mystreet, and my brilliant self decided to give it a shot--but i refused to watch all of season 5, so i only stepped in when ein made an appearance. so whenever that was, that’s where i picked up because i didnt care enough to see 

and y’know--i honestly didn’t hate it at first. in fact, i found it oddly cool. it wasn’t enough to get me into aphmau again, but it was enough to where i was intrigued. i dont know why, but i never watched the finale, so i didnt see the ending until just a few weeks ago--but back then, i thought it was neat. looking back on it however... im just so confused. 

side note: only got back into aphmau this time around because of mcd. mainly because like, i adore the first season and the first half of the second season. and being nearly 18 now, im a lot more appreciative of plot and well-written characters n junk. 

the actual thingy:

ok back on track. imma stop spilling out my story of how i got back into aphmau, and lets just skip to what rewatching mcd made me realize of season 6′s plot and shit:

-emmalyn. how the fuck does ghost even remotely exist? if she’s emmalyn as claimed, then why have we already seen emmalyn in the mystreet universe alive? look i get that creators can do whatever they want with their stories but at the same time please provide some sort of explanation good god. and maybe they did and i just havent seen it, so if there is one--let me know. but until that day imma just sit here confused as fuck

-ok so imma just be real, the whole ‘ultima’ thing is just... not great. in my opinion, anyways. like... i saw someone mention this in another post, but if this ultima stuff was like, a really big deal, why isnt it mentioned in mcd? though i suppose since its a curse of sorts, it could be later on past the time period in which mcd takes place--but even then, how did it manage to make its way into aaron’s family bloodline? 

-WHY IS EVERYONE AT STARLIGHT ITS JUST SO CONVINIENT like what happened to this place being the most expensive shit on the planet or whatever, and how the gang happens to run into like, the werewolf trio and blaze and kai and guy and nate all of these people like god damn life doesnt WORK LIKE THAT 

-im sorry but turning people into relics? thats... thats the best you could come up with? plus, like, how does that even work? in mcd it’s established that relics are separate entitles that choose their wielder, based on a ‘personal’ connection (being a descendent of a previous wielder) or if they’re a good match personality and (i think?) moral wise. so the whole turning-people-into-relics doesnt make much sense to be honest. 

-irene really over here using her god powers to only keep her friends alive like god damn not a great god if you ask me 

-can i talk about how incredibly predictable aphmaus death was? like i just kinda sat there waiting for it to happen and when it did i literally went “haha! wonder when she’ll be revived” because god forbid we actually kill off characters 

-when aphmau + demon warlock fought in the irene dimension there was no passage of time whatsoever in the real world whiiiiiiiiich really bothers me because they fought in there for at least a few minutes

-speaking of aphmau and the demon warlocks fight does it bother anyone else that it had to be aaron who took over the fight?? like we get it hes the big protector blah blah blah but god damn it wouldve been cooler if aphmau had fought this battle as her. aaron fighting this battle was so underwhelming

-...love. like, thats the only thing thats needed to break out of a forever potion? love? LIKE YEAH, GOOD GUYS GOTTA WIN SOMEHOW, but its just so cliche and overdoneeee

-oh yeah and also when travis went bonkers and became the demon warlock or whatever, why’d he only take over katelyn and garroth?? like, zane had been influenced by the potions in the past as well? DONT GET ME WRONG--i do love some good brother edge, but uh, the demon warlock was just bein kinda a dumbass by not possessing zane too just sayin’

-can aaron please go to fucking jail for mass murder now like holy shit, he just got sent home on a fuckin boat. also why did blaze forgive him for killing him thats not even remotely realistic. then again, nothing in mystreet has ever been realistic when it comes to characters and motives and personalities, (cough katelyn being actually abusive and travis being an actual pervert) but yknow whatever

-katelyn and kawaii chan literally added nothing to the plot whatsoever. like lets be real, katelyn lost her personality the moment season 5 started and kawaii chan just kinda sits there :I

-ok im sorry this was bound to come up but cmon guys imagine laurances potential if he was in season 6 like god damn this is beyond maddening. AND YOU KNOW WHAT WOULD HAVE BEEN A REALLY REALLY COOL PARRALLEL?? IF IT WAS LAURANCE WHO SNAPPED GARROTH OUT OF HIS MIND CONTROL THING, because it would mimic laurance’s speech to get garroth to snap out of his rage in season 1, episode 100 of minecraft diaries. like how fuckin rad would that have been? missed opportunity 

-also?? why does kim/ghost know magicks?? like, if i remember correctly, emmalyn is a scholar--not someone who knew magicks. i mean, i guess research? study?? but its been established that knowing how magicks works =/= being able to use magicks. i dunno, just doesnt seem right i guess. maybe its explained, i wouldnt know (yes i know that makes me look like a dick leave me alone)

-melissa should have stayed dead. LIKE, NO, ITS NOT AS SIMPLE AS “haha it takes more than a few bullets to kill me”??? look ive got nothing wrong with melissa (cough lie cough) but yknow it would have just been cool a character... stay dead? for once? its just too fuckin cliche that shes alive god damn

-can i also just say the only good thing that came out of season 6 was travis’ dads sacrifice like damn that made me actually sad

-howww was lucinda turned into a relic. or yknow, anyone else? like im sure they explain it better in the actual show i just dont remember, but its just that easy? turning anyone into a relic? granted, a normal person wouldnt be able to produce a good relic, but idk man. IM JUST SAYING; that the only really powerful relics that aphmau should have been able to wield is the one that aaron + zane produced because shad relic and esmund relic moment. lucinda isnt even like, connected to a divine warrior. ALSO, another point, if its seriously that powerful of a relic getting one from just a magic user like lucinda, why go through the trouble? i mean i guess ofc youd want the “all powerful” one that the ultima produces but i mean damn whats the point

-ok this is just going to bother me but in one of the episodes (i think might have been in season 5 actually) where that like, guardian dude was chasing aphmau and zane and at one point they split up and the dude just chuckles at zane diverting paths and goes under his breath “youre not the important one here”, suggesting that aphmau somehow is? first of all, id argue that any ro’meave is significantly more important than aphmau was, especially not knowing much about her other than that shes with aaron. i might be missing some bits an pieces, but if i was that dude id forget about aphmau and go after zane 

-killing off derek for shock factor sucked, and i know the moment was supposed to be really sad because like “oh :( aarons dad is sacrificing himself for his son” but lets be real dereks still was a shitty father and i dont think his reasons for doing what he did was very good at all

-less about plot or more like: why the absolute fuck did the gang bring kim along instead of, oh i dont know, a life-long friend? like, laurance or dante maybe?? im sure its explained, i never saw aphmaus year or most of season 5, but god DAMN id hate to be apart of this friend group AND GOD LIKE, imagine reconnecting with an old friend who ends up getting closer to your best friends and taking priority in their lives over you (cough laurance) like god damn lol

-im just going to preface this one with: i dont remember everything that’s happened, so if im wrong i apologize in advance--but (you actually can correct me if im wrong and please do) didnt like, irene reincarnate her friends in order to give them better lives? I DONT KNOW IF THIS IS TRUE, ITS JUST WHAT I REMEMBER--however, if im correct, then:

a. why the hell would she bring back someone like zane, or gene, or ivy, etc.

b. why the hell do they all have the same exact names? first and last? again, im aware that the whole mystreet+mcd tie wasn’t originally supposed to be there, but i dont think that means such a coincidence can be excused? its just a bit much if you ask me.

c. why the hell is the fact that (as much as i literally hate this) aaron is a decedent of shad being ignored? like, you’d think that something like this would be something thats actually important, or something the demon warlock couldve taken advantage of. or are we completely erasing every other connections to divine warriors besides aphmau + irene? because even if irene did reincarnate them or do whatever it is she did, does she even have the power to sever the connections between them and their ancestors? my guess is, no.

d. speaking of irene why on earth was aphmau able to talk to/see irene, they’re literally the same person are they not? did she like, fuckin reincarnate herself without actually doing it?? BUT--i will give it to them, the demon warlock did refer to aphmau as something along the lines of being “one of the 3 parts of her broken soul” or something like that. however, my point still remains. also what are the other two did i miss that or is it never explained

now; if irene in fact did not ‘reincarnate’ her friends then please ignore that little bit right there :)

but yes, those are a few of the problems i have with season 6 off the top of my head. i would go into like, season 4 and 5 more as well, but i honestly didnt feel like it. at some point i might go into other things, like how important laurance could have been to the plot of these later seasons, or HELL, even dante. i might also go into what could have made season 4, 5, and 6 actually good--maybe... a rewrite? perhaps? but im getting too far ahead of myself, so i just leave you with this for now.

and i know that as soon as i post this 15 more things are just going to pop into my head BUT im going to try and not edit this post because why stress myself with that even more

anyways thank you for coming to my tedtalk 

[superleafygamer]

Here’s a Carly and Sam friendship analysis because I was bored

Okay so Carly and Sam are the best iCarly characters in my opinion. I’m obsessed with them so I’ll be analyzing their friendship. Let’s begin from, well, the beginning, because that’s the most convenient place to start an analysis.

Carly and Sam first met when they were in third grade. They became friends fighting over a sandwich, which is amazing, honestly. Sam originally had pushed Carly over in this moment, but from that point on, Sam has never done any physical harm to Carly since then. This shows that Sam genuinely cares about Carly, considering Sam beats everyone up. The two became best friends since that day, and have stayed together ever since. They hang out after school, get smoothies, and they even created a webshow together; iCarly.

This friendship is a perfect example of the saying “opposites attract,” as Carly and Sam are polar opposites. Carly is sweet, hardworking, and empathetic. Meanwhile Sam is lazy, unruly, and overall a jerk. Yet somehow, Carly and Sam seem perfect for each other. In fact, they even use their differences to help each other out sometimes. Sam defends Carly from bullies, Carly helps Sam stay out of juvie, etc. I’m going to further elaborate on those two examples specifically.

Sam is kind of like Carly’s personal bodyguard. Whenever someone is a jerk to Carly, or if they make her uncomfortable, Sam is quick to get at their throats and make sure they stop. Only with Carly’s permission, of course. Speaking of which, Carly is in some sort of position of power when it comes to Sam. Sam will ONLY listen to Carly, and nobody else. When Sam does something that Carly doesn’t approve of, Carly scolds her. Usually if someone told Sam to stop doing something, she would continue to do said thing out of spite. But when Carly is the one calling her out, Sam becomes immensely guilty, and then stops what she was doing. Carly doesn’t have to say much for Sam to get the idea that she’s disappointed in her actions, as she normally could just say “Sam” in a disapproving tone, and Sam would know exactly what she’s done. Carly is kind of like Sam’s moral compass; Sam can tell if she’s doing something right or wrong based on Carly’s reaction. This helps her out in the long run, due to Carly preventing her from doing anything too bad and going to juvie.

Moving on, anyone who watches the show can easily tell that Carly and Sam are very affectionate towards each other. They cuddle, give each other advice, and comfort each other when they’re upset. Carly seems to prefer physical affection from Sam, and Sam seems to prefer emotional affection from Carly, but they still appreciate both forms of affection. When Carly’s stressed out, she usually calms down by fidgeting with Sam’s hair or shoelaces, as Carly tends to feel most comfortable with someone to rely on when she’s upset. Sam allows her to do this with no complaints, and often hugs Carly to cheer her up. Then when Sam’s upset, she’s soothed by Carly’s voice in particular. She looks for comfort in what Carly has to say, and wants to be alone with her to hear every word of it. Carly makes a pretty good therapist.

When one of them notices that the other is upset, cheering them up becomes their top priority. Like in the episode “iSam’s Mom,” Carly pretends to have a panic attack in order to make Sam and her mother get along in therapy. Carly knows Sam would do anything to help her out, which is true, so Carly’s plan works. Sam notices Carly’s discomfort, and instantly gets defensive of her, so she proceeds to swiftly make amends with her mother so they can get Carly out of there. On the other hand, in the episode “iOwe You,” Sam breaks down to Carly about how much she hates her job. The reason Sam had the job in the first place was to pay back Carly(and Freddie) for all the money she owed them. But Carly encouraged Sam to quit because it was stressing her out, rather than telling her to keep the job because she wanted her money back. Sam’s happiness is a big priority to Carly, and Carly didn’t want to get the money back in this way if it meant seeing Sam this upset. Carly and Sam are always looking out for each other, and I think that’s adorable.

There are other little details that show how strong their friendship is, too, like how Sam hangs around in Carly’s apartment, with Carly even allowing her to stay the night on multiple occasions. Sam’s mom doesn’t feed her, so Carly often provides Sam with food, and openly allows her to dig into her fridge whenever she feels like it. Carly becomes somewhat motherly in a way when Sam is over, and makes her feel at home. Sam and Carly practically live together, considering the amount of time Sam spends in Carly’s apartment every day and the fact that Sam sleeps over occasionally. It’s also heavily implied that Carly and Sam have slept together in Carly’s room from time to time, because you can see them heading upstairs together when it’s getting late. They don’t seem opposed to sleeping together either, because in the episode “iGo To Japan,” Carly and Sam share a bed with no complaints or hesitation.

Carly and Sam’s friendship shines the brightest during their webshow. Carly’s the host, and Sam’s the cohost. They do everything on there together, and that’s how they like it. iCarly is a huge priority to the two of them, and it gives them more time to hang out after school. Carly and Sam do various skits on iCarly, with the most common example being “The Cowboy and the Idiot Farm Girl Who Thought the Cowboy’s Mustache Was a Squirrel.” They enjoy participating in these, and have a lot of fun brainstorming for the skits too. They’ve been webcasting weekly, except for one time in the episode “iWon’t Cancel the Show.” Sam gets arrested in this episode, which leaves Carly all alone. Carly is deeply upset about this, and doesn’t know how she’s going to do the episode without Sam, as she’s a big part of the show. Carly ends up webcasting with her older brother Spencer as the cohost, but you can tell Carly still misses Sam, especially in the Cowboy & Farm Girl skit, when Spencer fills in as the Cowboy. Once Sam comes back though, everything goes back to normal, and the two are happier than ever.

Now, this paragraph is where things get a bit more headcanon-y. Many people have pointed out that throughout the series, it seems like Sam has a crush on Carly. And honestly? I can see it. It’s a cute thought, and there are a lot of details in the show that support this. One example is Sam’s treatment towards Freddie. Freddie is Carly and Sam’s friend, who records their show. Freddie has a massive crush on Carly, and is very open about it. Sam always gets frustrated when Freddie mentions his crush, and she constantly tries to discourage him from getting his hopes up. Carly gets uncomfortable with Freddie mentioning his crush on her sometimes, so Sam beating up Freddie all the time could be seen as her defending Carly from him. Sam also possibly sees Freddie as a threat to her chances of being with Carly, so Sam’s abuse towards Freddie is probably her way of saying “back off, she’s mine.” There are also some tinier examples of Sam’s crush on Carly. These examples include Sam using various nicknames on Carly(one of them being Cupcake, which Sam used on one of her previous boyfriends frequently), Sam refusing to do anything violent to Carly despite her violent tendencies(as I’ve mentioned before), etc. But the crush thing is just a theory, and it could be nothing. Who knows.

Finally, the ending of iCarly. In the final episode “iGoodbye,” Carly’s father comes back home temporarily, before having to return to the military in Italy. Carly’s given the chance to move there with him, because he’s missed most of her childhood. You can see how upset this makes her, because she’d have to leave her whole life behind. Carly hesitantly makes the decision to go with her dad, and ends iCarly with Sam. Well, they ended it, but not really. They put it on a hiatus, with no set time for when it would be back. After this, Carly starts to get ready to leave. In past episodes when there was a threat of Carly leaving, Sam became defensive and tried her best to get Carly to stay. But this time, she knew this was the best for Carly, so she let her go. Not to say it was an easy decision, because it wasn’t. At all. Soon after Carly said her goodbyes to Spencer, Gibby, and Freddie, Sam got in the elevator with her as they left the building. She gave Carly her iconic blue remote used in iCarly, for whenever Carly needed a laugh. They said their goodbyes, and hugged each other one last time, before Carly left to get on the plane with her dad. On the plane, Carly began to rewatch every episode of iCarly on her laptop. She would miss the good times she spent with Sam, Freddie, Gibby, and Spencer, but we left this scene with Carly moving on. As Carly watched more and more episodes, she seemed to get happier and happier looking back on it all. She looked like she was ready for a new chapter of her life, and good for her, honestly. The other ending scene we got was of Sam riding her new motorcycle. Her expression was blank, like she was suppressing any emotion after the heartbreak of saying goodbye to Carly, after eight years of knowing each other. But she seemed at least slightly willing to move on the last time we saw her, as she nyoomed away on the motorcycle. And they did end up moving on, as painful as it is for me to admit. I want them to stay together😔

“iGoodbye” was the last time we saw the two together, since Carly moved to Italy, and the show ended. There’s going to be an iCarly reboot in the future, but Sam won’t be in it, so I guess Carly and Sam will never see each other again. I think I know what excuse they’re going to make for this, they’re probably just gonna say Sam moved away to live with her new best friend Cat, who is THE WORST. I would rant about how much I hate Cat and the fact that Nickelodeon completely destroyed Sam’s characterization to pair the two up, but that’s another story for another day. This is a Carly and Sam friendship analysis, not “watch Leafy cry as she talks about why ‘Sam & Cat’ is a horrible show and doesn’t deserve to exist.” I prefer to ignore the show’s existence so we’re swiftly moving on. Carly is supposedly supposed to get a new best friend in the reboot too which also makes me immensely upset, but I need to stop ranting about how much I dislike the idea of Carly and Sam making new friends, so let’s ✨not✨. I’m getting a bit off track here, so back to where I left off. Carly and Sam may not be seeing each other anymore after Carly moved to Italy, but I like to think they still communicate from time to time. Calls, texts, facetimes, etc. Their friendship was too good to just let go, and I’ve gotten very attached to them as you can tell. So I hope they’re still friends, even at a long distance🥺🥺🥺

In summary: Carly and Sam’s friendship in iCarly is ADORABLE and I absolutely love them with all of my heart, and I hope you do too. Also if you read this, you’re such a pro. You know who you are 👊😎

[adultswim2021]

Ephemera Week (2002)

It’s still ephemera week, and we’re still talking about John K. I said most of my piece on him in the last post, so don’t expect there to go full bore on this one, except I forgot to say he’s animation’s Jerry Lewis. His current stuff is basically Hardly Working. I will not elaborate, because I’m being mean to you0.

MARCH SPECIALS!

In March, Adult Swim advertised a run of one-off specials. A couple of them were already covered because they fell under the parameters of “Adult Swim original production”. They were Welcome to Eltingville (March 3rd) and Saddle Rash (March 24th).

Day in the Life of Ranger Smith | March 10th 2002 - 11:00 PM (Originally aired on Cartoon Network in 1999)

This was one of two specials commissioned by Cartoon Network re-imagining Yogi Bear. The artist what took this assignment was John K, who I REEEAALLY skewered in last night’s post, didn’t I?

This is about Ranger Smith harassing animals and writing them up for violating park rules, basically. It’s short! I remember liking it at the time! Okay, maybe I’m going crazy here, but I distinctly remembered a part at the end where Ranger Smith is in bed and he solemnly confides in the viewer that the noises of wilderness give him nightmares and then it just ends. Did I imagine this? It does end with him in bed, but this doesn’t happen in the version on YouTube (which is from the Adult Swim airing). Huh.

Boo Boo Runs Wild | March 10th 2002 - 11:15PM (Originally aired on Cartoon Network in 1999)

Boo Boo Runs Wild was another one of these stand-alone Yogi Bear John K specials. This one was 30 minutes long. The Ranger Smith short was a brief 7 minutes; I’m guessing they aired a couple Capt. Lingers or something to fill time.

This one is about Boo Boo reverting to his feral nature and causing BIIIIG problems! This special would later go on to be kind of a weird trolling thing Adult Swim would do where they aired it every Sunday for a few months, even promoting regularly. This was like 2006, I think? They’d also air it as part of April Fools. Is that Adult Swim admitting this special sorta sucks? Does it sorta suck? Again, I liked these at the time and REFUSED to actively rewatch these for this write-up. Sorry.

The Jetsons: Father and Son Day/The Best Son | March 10th, 2002 11:45PM (Originally aired on CartoonNetwork.com in 2001) Our John K rock block ends with a pair of Jetsons shorts, Father and Son Day and The Best Son respectively. This is kinda the same deal as his Yogi Bear shorts, but these were exclusive for Cartoon Network’s website. I remember watching them on there. They are as bad as you’d expect late-period John K internet shorts to be, though the second short is a superior version of Spielberg’s A.I. (in that it’s shorter).

Night of the Living Doo | March 17th, 2002 - 11:00PM (originally aired on Cartoon Network, 2001)

Night of the Living Doo originally aired as wraparound segments during a Halloween Scooby Doo marathon on Cartoon Network. It’s kinda like an episode of the Scooby Doo Movies, which shoehorned in a guest star each episode. Suddenly my man Dick Van Dyke be running a carnival and shit. That’s the Scooby Doo Movies. At the end of the night they played all the wraparound segments in one uninterrupted sitting, so the viewer could appreciate it as an actual full-on Scooby Doo episode. Night of the Living Doo functioned both as an extension of that series as well as a parody. The guests were Gary Coleman, David Cross, and the very cool band Big Bad Voodoo Daddy. It was all very self-deprecating and had jokes about the absurdity of Scooby Doo tropes. Well trod territory by this point, sure. But this is better than most irreverent Scooby Doo things. It didn’t hurt that I was a HUGE David Cross fan when this aired. Is this where I tell the stupid-ass story about getting mad at a message board guy for not liking David Cross? Sure. Okay, yeah. When this aired on Adult Swim a guy on Kon’s (hi Kon) message board posted something about not finding David Cross funny, shrugging that he didn’t get the hype. He cited this and his appearances in the Men in Black movies, and nothing else as proof for his lackluster comedy skills. It’s kinda like deeming Eddie Murphy as a bad comedian after watching Dr. Doolittle.

The point of this special is that David Cross is a little wooden and stilted, like in the old Scooby Doo Movies episodes. This poster revealed that he never heard David Cross’s stand-up or seen Mr. Show, explaining “I don’t watch puppet shows” A response that still baffles me to this day. Why Mr. Show isn’t a-- WHAT IS HE TALKING ABOUT? I’m not even sure if there was EVER a puppet on Mr. Show*. David wasn’t even a guest on Crank Yankers at this point! SO WHAT THE FUCK? To this day whenever mutual pals from that board get together and watch a movie or show and a puppet appears we make a joke about this guy. Good story? No? Fuck you.

Other stuff about this show: When it originally aired on Cartoon Network it was a little bit longer than the Adult Swim version. There’s a missing scene. I think it’s David trying to play an improv game with a mummy or something. At one point I had it on tape, but I’m not sure I kept it. Sorry.

*sorry to be coy here, but I do know of at least one puppet on Mr. Show, episode 204 there is brief footage of Grass Valley Greg putting on a puppet show for his staff. This CAN’T be the source of the confusion, can it? It’s literally like, 5 seconds.

MAIL BAG

This’ll teach me to skip a day cuz this really piled up. Thanks, guys. I love all the attention. It is my favorite thing.

I never really saw oblongs as something for the hot topic set. They had Invader Zim and Squee for that kind of shit. Oblongs feel like it was always directly targeting me: the shut-in comedy nerd who would appreciate will ferrell and the sklars being in a thing. Since they ended up doing the exact same show with Janeane Garofalo and David Cross a few years later it seems like that was the goal.

Yeah, I guess that also makes sense. There were a few elements that were kinda gothy but this show was mostly just Angus Oblong ahem, clowning around (puckering mouth to stifle laughter like Chris Elliott in Cabin Boy)

What are your thoughts on the other adult animation blocks of the past couple decades? Spike's notriously failed attempt. Animation Domination. Apparently Syfy has had their own going?

Spike was irredeemably bad. People think this shit is easy. Animation Domination is sorta legit, but it’s anchored by mostly crap. That ADHD thing was kinda good and underrated. Is that still going on? I wish I were more diligent about watching/recording that. Some of them bumpers were good. Also, we mustn’t forget MTV’s oddities. They were kinda the first cable network to court Adult Animation as their thing. They deserve some kind of credit for that. I’m sure they’re doing fine.

I'm having a nice big thing of spaghetti for dinner with some chicken parm? Jealous?

I’ve never had those are they good

What does Ephemera mean? Why is this happenening? Why aren't you talking about 10 Home Movies episodes in a row like a good boy.

In dude time, my friend. In dude time

What would be your Adult Swim dream come true?

Having a complete archive of Adult Swim blocks on a harddrive like Don Giller has with his Letterman archive. Even the commercials and shit. I know of a guy who was a regular taper of the entire block from night 1 but I’m not sure he kept up with it when they went nightly. I should ask him if he still has his tapes, huh?

That or they bring back the BUILD YOUR OWN DVD thing but with blu-rays and you can make your own bumps, which was a different thing they had. THEY SHOULD COMBINE THEM. And you can master it in SD if you wanna put 10 hours of stuff on a disk.

All this is archival bullshit dork shit. Real answer: Clay Croker comes back from the dead and every block is hosted by Space Ghost. That’d be it, right?

If anyone has genuine/better answers please write in with them I wanna keep this conversation going. ‘kay?

McDonalds reintroduces limited edition Adult Swim Toys. You can get them all (plus an extra to keep wrapped for collectors purposes) but you have to spend 20 dollars at McDonalds to grab them all. This is the last day of the promotion. You have to personally eat everything you buy but you can take it home. You can only buy one of each food item. What are you getting? I know the longer the mailbag message is the quicker you are inclined to give some glib remark but indulge this one for once.

Oh wow. I’m literally going to take this seriously. I’d roll in as breakfast was ending. Get myself a McChicken Biscuit and a Bacon Egg & Cheese McGriddle, hashbrowns and a Coffee. Gobble that knob on down. Wipe my mouth with a napkin. It’s lunchtime, bitch. Big Mac, Large Fries, BIG ass soda. You feel me, dude? Lemme tally up. Okay, probably need more. 20 piece nugget. Take that home cuz I’m probably gonna have to save some for dinner. That’s probably 20 bucks right there, especially if you go to the McDonalds on Burnside where all the menu items are more expensive because of the amount of security they have to hire (did you know that different McDonalds have different prices even in the same city? I didn’t until very recently). If this somehow doesn’t satisfy my price point I get a Vanilla shake and eat it anally DURING my BIG D squirt sesh, so it’ll spend as little time in my body as possible. Wait, do I get something for this? I might do this tomorrow just cuz. It sounds like a funky thing to do

Do you think you'll open an Adult Swim mueseum at some point? You seem to be the only steward of its history.

Unless I’m hired to by a large corporation, probably not. Also I don’t think I actually have much in the way of merch other than DVDs. I stopped being a DVD completist at some point around Freaknick The Musical. Oh, I never EVER bought a Robot Chicken DVD, EVER. I literally had a nightmare once that one appeared in my collection.

Hey! Please keep us abreast any time you put more of your garbage on eBay. Maybe you can put your wedding dress on there, you big girl.

Fucking sexist/trasphobic behavior.

Check out my eBay auctions I got season 18 of NCIS up there and some other things :)

The Ripping Friends blow chunks. I don't care if a rapist or the opposite of a rapist (a virgin who volunteers, lol) made it. It sucks a high hard one like when Ozzy banged the Cheiftan's Wife in that Black Sabbath TV Funhouse cartoon. Tell me more.

Tell you more?

Name one rap song you tolerate lol. You can't say anything by weird al or marky mark.

I guess I like the song the pest sings from the motion picture The Pest

Are there any good podcasts on adult swim?

The official one hosted by Matt Harrigan is good, but I’ve only bounced around on it. I don’t know if there’s any formal recap ones. I simply don’t know!

HE'S GIVING HIGH HARD ONE TO CHEIFTAN'S WIFE? UH OH!

Buddy, you are BANNED for LIFE from my MAIL BAG! You drive me CRAZY!

[gregorygrim]

Dragon Prince Hot Takes

!!! Full Spoiler For “The Dragon Prince” Seasons 1-3!!!

So I finally got around to watching The Dragon Prince. Timely, I know, but better late than never i guess. I’m not completely caught up yet as I only got as far as S3E7 “Hearts of Cinder” in this first sitting. Considering I haven’t binged any series in almost two years, I think that’s pretty respectable. This means I won’t discuss the last few episodes here, except for a couple of things I was unfortunately spoiled for already, hence full spoilers.

These are basically my first thoughts and opinions after the binge and a good night’s sleep. It’s gonna be a lot so if you don’t care or don’t want spoilers…

TL;DR: 7½/10. Generally enjoyable, there are some aspects I’m not exactly fan of, but no dealbreakers

Firstly to everyone who told me that this was the new ATLA: you all need to rewatch Avatar stat! Like seriously. There are definitely parallels and given the cast and crew I think that’s what they were going for too (which is why I think it’s fair to compare the two), but still, no.

Secondly I love most of the worldbuilding and love that the series at least tries to give it to us in a bit of a non-linear fashion, even if it is kind of clumsy at times. I know some people are put off by expository dialogue and flashbacks, but I’m an epic fantasy nerd, I need that sweet, sweet lore to live as much as you mortals need food.

I like that there was clearly an effort made to integrate the worldbuilding in more subtle ways. For example you may initially find it kind of weird that all these different human ethnicities are existing perfectly integrated in what looks like a medieval society, until you remember from the opening monologue that the Human Kingdoms are the result of a massive diaspora following the human exodus from Xadia, so obviously people got all mixed up everywhere. It’s representation with an excellent in-world reason and that just brings me joy.

I also love the magic system(s) even though we haven’t really gone into that just yet. it really feels like there was a genuine effort made to create underlying mechanics for the magic rather than just making each spell a vaguely elemental themed ability. I really hope we’ll dive deeper into that in coming seasons.

I also like the little nods to other works of fantasy: Ezran’s ability to talk with animals is a reference to Tolkien’s world where some royal bloodlines had the ability to speak with animals, specifically birds; Primal Magic and its spells being cast with Ancient Draconic runes and words might be reminiscent of the Ancient Language from the Inheritance Cycle etc.

Thirdly the main cast is great. Callum, Ezran and Rayla are all interesting and relatable characters in their own right and as a group. I’m not going into each of them individually here, but while I think the series as a whole falls short of ATLA, as protagonist parties go I dare say this one is nearly on nearly on par with the gAang.¹

And yes, I love Bait, which I really did not expect following the first few episodes. I love his weird pug-toad-chameleon design, I love that he works like a flashbang whenever somebody says a quote from Scarface (I wish they hadn’t dropped that later on) and I love how done he is with everything and everyone at all times. I’ve only had him for 25 episodes, but if anything happened to him I would kill all of my followers and then myself.

On top of that, and speaking as someone who god knows is really not into shipping, I love Rayla and Callum’s relationship. It’s believable, it’s refreshing and it brings out the best in both characters without changing basically anything about them. Just two good friends who fell in love. A++, maybe even S tier.

Unfortunately though I can’t sing the same kind of praises about the villains. None of them are terrible (as in terribly written, most of them are pretty awful people), but with one exception they just don’t stand up to the protagonists in quality.

I could simply not take Viren seriously. Even now that is probably the single most powerful magic user in the world, he just has such strong Karen energy, every time he finishes a speech I am overcome with the urge to say “Sir, this is a Wendy’s” and it does not help the mood. I’m not even sure why. It might’ve been the voice because the guy who did Viren (Jason Simpson) also does a lot of kinda slimy characters in various anime dubs, it might be that over-the-top walking stick, idk.

What I’m saying is that as a primary antagonist he simply did not work for me. Which is doubly a shame because this kind of tarnishes the real “Big Bad” of this story by proxy. Aaravos, even as an invisible ghost, with his voice coming out of a caterpillar and next to no info on his backstory, has more style and gravity than all the human antagonists combined. It helps that he is by far the best designed character and Erik Dellums has the voice of a young god, but I’d argue even without that unfair advantage he has the potential to be a top tier villain. While he is stuck as Viren’s “little bug-pal” though he is just being dragged down.

(I’m aware that as of the final episode the caterpillar familiar is undergoing metamorphosis, probably to create a new body for Aaravos’ spirit to inhabit outside of the magic mirror, so I’m definitely hyped for more of him in the coming seasons.)

As for Soren and Claudia, I’ve got mixed feelings. This was one more aspect of the show that a lot of people compared to Avatar and while I see the parallels to Zuko & Azula, they are still very different, at least where Claudia is concerned. I’d also just like to mention that a lot of people told me that they thought the direction in which their storylines went were really surprising and I can’t disagree more. I predicted that Soren would defect to the protagonists on episode 5 right after Viren told him to kill the princes and I knew Claudia was going to stick with her father from episode 12 onward. My point is, it didn’t feel like some kind of plot twist, the way some people made it out to be, and which I don’t think was the intent.

I definitely got the sense that Soren was at least a Zuko-type character, though still not a Zuko clone, and as with Zuko I was consistently able to empathise and sympathise with him and his predicaments. I also appreciated that his dilemma is the result of his convictions and not him being kind of dense, which would’ve been all to easy and probably would’ve ruined his character for me. As it stands he is extremely milktoast, but perfectly functional for his purpose in the story and I can definitely see him evolving further and getting more interesting as we go on.

Claudia is where it gets complicated. Again, I can see the Azula parallels. But unlike that character, who is her father’s animal 110%, Claudia doesn’t strike me as a victim of Viren’s manipulation the way Soren undoubtably is. The way she talks about and uses Dark Magic, how she talks down to Soren and how even Viren finds it difficult to communicate with her, tells me as an audience member that she is an independent person. Which tells me that the cruelty and enthusiasm for causing harm she regularly displays is her own will. And that was before she straight up leads Callum on to manipulate him.

On the other hand I can absolutely relate to her devotion to her family, her big sister role (even though she is younger than Soren) and the way both the separation of her parents before the story and Soren’s injury in episode 16 must’ve affected her because of this. I know that, if my brother had become paralysed from the neck down and I knew a way to heal him, I would not have hesitated to kill that fawn either. Then again her relationship with her father is very different from parental relationships I am familiar with, so I can’t really say I see why she is so devoted to him, other than she promised her mother to stay with him years ago? ¯\(o_Ō)/¯

So basically Claudia falls into an emotional grey space for me. I can’t really tell how to feel about her either way and I’ll just have to see where she goes from here, which, while fine, isn’t necessarily great for an end of season cliffhanger imo.

Seeing as I’ve already talked about some of the show’s shortcomings, I think it’s time to dive into some of the what I would consider flaws.

Firstly this show needed at least 12 episode seasons. I have never made a secret out of my dislike for the modern short seasons and while I recognise that in the current climate in the industry giving everything full 25 episode seasons isn’t really doable, the pacing of this show, especially for the first season is just outright bad at times. It works as of the second season, but the first season alternately feels like it’s either rushing through or crawling along the whole way through.

The believability of Rayla’s and the princes’ relationship really suffers from this the most. It comes a bit out of nowhere on the boat ride and is then taken for granted way to quickly. Like Callum, seriously, this girl tried to kill you and your brother not even a day ago and you are currently cut off from all allies you have ever had until now. A little skepticism isn’t misplaced here. I also wold’ve liked if we’d just gotten a bit more of a sense of movement with the characters. I get that this is not the kind of show where we can just make an entire episode about the characters travelling and camping, intercut with plots centred around a more expansive supporting cast, but still I really would’ve preferred if Xadia didn’t feel quite so around the corner.

Another issue is with setup and payoff, which I think is partially a consequence of the pacing as well. A lot of smaller plot points are set up within the same episode as the payoff just wreak havoc on the narrative structure. A good example is the episode where they ride down the river in a boat and Bait tires to go into the water, but is saved by Ezran, who then explains the story behind Glowtoads and how they are pefect bait for large water predators. Then Bait falls into the water and is attacked by a massive water monster. This happens within five minutes of one episode and never comes up again. To me that looks like sign of rushed editing, which is probably not entirely the crew’s fault, given that they are on a schedule from Netflix, but it’s still a point of critique.

It unfortunately also manifests in the occasional line of horribly forced dialogue, often for things we can literally see happening on screen. Again, this is mostly the case in the earlier episodes, but it never completely goes away.

Finally, and this is where i get into serious issues that made me want to write this, we gotta talk about representation in this show.

First: disabled representation, meaning Amaya. Why is Amaya deaf? Because it’s good to have disabled representation.

Why is Amaya deaf and a high-ranking military officer? Because they didn’t think it through.

I know this may be a contentious opinion, but it is my belief that the purpose of representation, particularly of disabilities characters may suffer from, in fiction is to, y’know, represent people as they are in life. That includes especially the struggles they face and have to overcome, sometimes their whole life. This is not just me talking out of my ass either. A couple years ago I discussed this with several people that are disabled, specifically blind or otherwise severely visually impaired, in a different context obviously, and the general consensus was that it’s better to have representation that shows their life and their abilities as they are, rather than how they might wish they could be.

A mute or deaf person cannot be a medieval fantasy army general, no matter how good they might be in melee combat or who’s sister they are, because at the end of the day, they’re not able to give commands while they are holding a sword and shield. That such a massive logical oversight, especially in comparison to the extremely well done example of representation I mentioned above, and has so little impact on the plot that it leads me to believe, this aspect of Amaya’s character was tacked on in the last minute without being given any thought for the sole reason of the story having a disabled person in it. All this does is necessitate the existence of two otherwise entirely unnecessary characters, Gren and Kazi, both of which achieve nothing, aside from sometimes being literal set dressing.

That is where representation ends and tokenism begins.

And unfortunately this generally lacklustre attitude also extends to the LGBT+ representation on the show.

As of S3E7 “Hearts of Cinder” we have had two onscreen gay couples on the show (onscreen in the sense that both partners were onscreen and they were somehow confirmed to be in a relationship on the show). One of these, the queens of Duren, literally die in the same flashback they are introduced in, which incidentally also features them invading a foreign nation to poach a rare animal and subsequently starting the conflict at the series’ core. Not a great look.

Aside from serving as a tragic backstory for their daughter, the most impact they had on my viewing experience was that they made wonder how the fuck royal succession works in Duren. (People who know me are rolling their eyes right now because I’m bringing anarchism into this Dragon Prince review, but I’m telling you, this why fantasy monarchies aren’t compatible with LGBT+ politics in the same setting. Dynastic governments are inherently bigoted, you can’t have it both ways.)

The other couple are Runaan and Ethari, Rayla’s caretakers, although if I’m being honest you wouldn’t be able tell based on Runaan’s treatment of Rayla in the first episode. By the time we actually meet Ethari and find out about their relationship with Rayla, Runaan is suffering “a fate worse than death” (direct quote from the show) trapped in a gold coin.

I mean come on. That’s about as “technically not ‘bury your gays’” as it gets.

I think I need to reiterate here that my point is not that this show or its creators are somehow malicious. As i stated in the TL;DR: I don’t think this is a dealbreaker for liking this show. But it does demonstrate that they are prone to slipping to some potentially harmful tropes and this needs to be criticised and pointed out to them.

In conclusion, I really love this show. It’s not ATLA, it never will be, nothing else will ever be ATLA no matter how badly (and terribly) Netflix tries. But it does and should not have to be.

What it has to do though is improve. A lot of the building blocks are already there, such as Aaravos or Claudia’s development, Callum’s father, the origin of Ezran’s ability, the purpose of the “Key of Aaravos”, the true fate of King Harrow (we all know his soul is in the bird, right?) etc. Some things like the treatment of Amaya’s disability unfortunately won’t be fixable as far as I can tell, but if they at least manage to fix the gay representation I can make my peace with that.

¹ I know I said I wouldn’t go into each of the characters individually, but a) you should never trust a stranger on the internet and b) I really want to talk a bit about Callum. Specifically the “mystery” of why the hell he is connected to the Sky Primal. I write “mystery” because I think it’s fairly obvious from whence this talent came: there is only one humanoid species we know of with innate access to the Sky Arcanum and one of Callum’s parent’s is unidentified, presumed dead. 2+2=4. Callum’s father was a Skywing Elf. That’s why he recognised Nyx’s boomerang weapon. He remembered one like it either from his very early childhood (remember that he has photographic memory) or Sarai kept one and he found it at some point.

On top of that the name “Callum” or at least the pronunciation is clearly derived from Latin “caelum” meaning “sky” or “weather” and I already mentioned that Ancient Draconic is just bad Latin. It’s not very subtle. Unless they pull a complete 180 concerning the lore about Primal Magic he’s definitely going to be a half-elf, which would also just so happen to make him the perfect mediator between the Human Kingdoms and Xadia. Hmm, it’s almost as if they are planning ahead.

My question: How the fuck did that happen? Or rather: how did that fuck happen? I don’t think even Harrow knew or he probably would’ve a) paid more attention when Sarai advised against poaching the Magma Titan, because obviously she’s gotten around Xadia more than him, if y’know what i’m sayin’ ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) or at least b) put it in his final letter to Callum. Unfortunately we know basically nothing about Sarai except that she was a soldier alongside Amaya and already had Callum before marrying Harrow. So does Amaya know? This is probably the most interesting plot thread in the whole story and as far as my friends told me it’s not going to be touched on anymore in the last two episodes than it already has thus far, which is basically not at all.

[cadomoisspokenfor]

Legion Rewatch Notes,

Chapter 8:

The Revolution

Aw man, how unfortunate what’s happened to Clark. I feel soooooooo bad. I mean he was just humble div 3 agent, doing his job, gaslighting marginalized individuals, participating in a genocide. How cruel of those bad bad mutants to injure him so badly. He was only actively about to kill David. What could he possibly have done to deserve any of this?

In other words, the Clark propaganda is not working on me this time. At all.

Maybe don’t participate in a genocide? Idk :/

I normally hate when people type in the passive aggressive way I have been for the past few paragraphs, but goddamn, Clark deserves it.

He’s not quite as damaged... but he’s kind’ve like old David here, from the over-medicated living with Amy timeline. Again, not quite as damaged as that though.

Clark considers mutants a “threat to democracy.” 🙄 “Moral panic” I guess?

“The second I walk outta this room, i’m going to war.” There’s that word again. Clark could just... not, and they’d probably have more time to figure out how to safely eradicate Farouk. But because he doesn’t and David busies himself with peace treaties, Farouk escapes and continues to be a problem for the next year. Clark has a family. A husband and child who love him to death. And he chooses war over them. This pattern will repeat in other character. Technically this isn’t even the start of it.

Suit change, new cane, same Clark. This really doesn’t change anything, does it? He could go through the rest of the series in the suit he wore before and it wouldn’t make difference. The valiant hero dressing for an expected victory over their long time (relatively) rival, only to be stopped immediately by an unforeseen development. This pattern will repeat... tragically.

Considering Farouk!David woulda just dusted them, it’s probably nice for his friends to see the real him is much less violent. He just stacks em like a Jenga Tower, no need for anything more.

Also, Wilhelm scream from one of the soldiers.

He’s also talking strangely. In an almost too calm voice. Measured. He talks like this a few other times, but I think those times have sadder context. Maybe they reflect on this moment. He talks like how he talked when Farouk was mind-melded with him, but his intentions aren’t evil this time around. I guess this is just his “fully in control” voice.

Clark’s literally shaking where he stands.

The zoom in to Clark’s blind eye is reminiscent to previous zoom in’s to Walter’s foggy eye. I guess Clark has taken on the role of Walter, artificially. Makes sense since he’s now the main D3 representative/antagonist like Walter was before.

“I don’t care if you save me, or the world, if you don’t save yourself.” David will eventually choose himself over the world, and Syd. And Syd will hunt him for it. Goes to show how much things change in s2.

“You know the most dangerous thing about schizophrenia?”

“You’re not-“

“The most dangerous thing is believing... you don’t have it! That’s the trick, the mind killer, your disease convinces you you don’t have it. So, for example, one day in the hospital you meet a girl and she has some friends, and they tell you you’re not sick. You have superpowers. And more than anything you wanna believe it because that means you’re not crazy! That means you can fall in love and live happily ever after. But you know if you believe it, if you surrender to the hope and you’re wrong, then... you’re never coming back.”

“I’m here. I’m real. The power is real. You gotta accept it, otherwise we can’t move on.”

“I was in Clockworks for six years. Drugged, doing nothing. Contributing nothing. And now, finally I can be useful! I can help! Don’t you get it? I am so sick of myself. This only works if it’s not about me.”

“David...”

So... that’s a lot. David believes being crazy means he’s not allowed to fall in love, or be happy. He said the same sentiment to Amy before Clockworks. This whole season and this episode especially push David into his full “I’m not insane, I won’t believe you if you tell me otherwise” mindset. At the very least that’s the stakes we’re playing with. If David fully gives into the hope, even for a moment, he believes there’s no possibility for recovery. No possibility for love or happiness. Why even try after that? It’s life or death for him. “If the choice is between life and death, I choose life.”

I know this is all already known and talked about and circulated 100’s of times over in various fan circles, but it’s probably the most important line for David’s character (the speech, not the Farouk quote). It’s very ableist, yes, but at least in the moment it’s coming from someone who’s just being too hard on themselves, and not ya know, being actively validated by the show.

2 episodes ago David talked about being worried about an “invincible” feeling. The dangers of mania.

We also know from that episode that David is more at peace in a calm, responsibilityless setting (with Syd) than he is out in the real world. David’s gonna take on a ton of responsibility, some of it’s gonna draw him away from Syd. At multiple moments throughout the show David has known his own mental health better than any of the others, and even warned them about potentially dangerous slopes he could fall down without their help. Despite this, David is pushed further down a path he tells them is dangerous and is still blamed for what happens in the end. I feel like Oliver’s line from ep4 is relevant here again, “We are the root of all our problems. Our anger, our confusion, our fear of things we don’t understand.” Everyone wants David to be something other than... David. A hero, a god, there projected image of a perfect partner. Not just... David.

Man, the more I realize about David’s self-awareness in s1 the madder I am at Syd for saying all that ableist stuff to him in s2 as if he wasn’t already down on himself 24/7. “It never occurred to you that you’re the problem not the solution?” It’s occurred to him like 5 times by now and has been shut down by you at least 3 of those times. I don’t understand.

What’s strange is... to my recollection David doesn’t believe he’s invincible at the end of s2. Or that he’s not sick.

“Saint David.”

“I’m not saying that. I make mistakes.”

“Say you’re gonna let them kill me if I don’t let them turn me into something different. Something easy. Something clean.” He sounds sinister here, but it is an indication that he knows he’s not perfect. In fact it sounds like he’s trying to appeal to Chap 1 Syd’s mentality. Your disorder is what “makes you you.”

So what’s the message here?

“We can’t just kill people. Or is that who we are now?”

“That’s who they are.”

The justification for killing here is that they’ll kill them if they don’t. Div 3 will kill Summerland if Summerland doesn’t kill Div 3, is what I meant. David has a similar justification for killing Shadow King in s2. Well, he has a LOT of justifications for it, but that’s one of them. Syd doesn’t hear it then either. She does attempt to kill David herself though. I don’t quite understand where the line is.

“He was gonna kill you, twice.”

“With that kind of thinking wars would never end.”

So... he shoulda just talked to The Shadow King when they were both powerless? Talking is what ultimately ends their fight in s3... hmm...

Cary is more humane to their POW than Melanie and Ptonomy are.

The show doesn’t necessarily say it was Cary’s fault for leaving Kerry. Either way though, Kerry needs some space.

Melanie calls David a “world breaker” and outright says now that he knows that’s what he is, div 3 doesn’t stand a chance. I suppose... knowing that... is why they so readily team with Farouk. They stood no chance otherwise. Even then, at least hide him away till after the intervention.

David’s floating meditation pose is seen more in s2 and A LOT more in s3.

He puts the onus of ending the war on Div 3. As if to say, “If things get violent again, it’ll be on you, not us.”

People keep talking about “gods” “waking up” and “realizing they don’t have to listen to us/them anymore.”

When Clark says it David’s first response is, “Isn’t that the history of the world?” But it’s a red herring (or something else) cause he follows it up with, “People of different nations, different languages, learning to live together?”

Clark is afraid if mutants gain power they won’t show humans mercy or equality. This is a common belief among fascist. The “they’ll treat us like we treat them” argument. Only it’s rarely self-aware, and it isn’t here either. Clark genuinely believes he’s not doing anything wrong. It’s all somehow in “self defense.”

Ah, so Farouk and Syd are connected psychically. He entered her mind whenever she entered David’s. He psychically affects her at multiple points throughout the series.

Syd here is convinced to help The Shadow King by The Shadow King. And while he’s wearing a mask at that. Yeah yeah, this pattern will repeat. But still, Syd gives in relatively quickly here. Perhaps she just... doesn’t fully trust Summerlands capabilities? They are legitimately trying to get rid of Farouk, but Farouk has proven time and time again how dangerous he is. Or maybe the “unmake soup” thing is just that convincing to Syd.

Clark’s still standoffish, but he’s slowly becoming more cooperative.

Syd rolled a 4 on that hero speech. She needed at least a 7.

I legitimately NEVER noticed before that Syd secretly turns on the lab camera feed for Clark to watch. They weren’t trying to show him that.

David gets a chance to look back at his whole life and recontextualize everything.

David straight up halts Farouk’s theme. If Clockworks Podcast is right and he can hear that whenever Farouk shows up, this would be evidence of it. Alternatively, he was halting Farouk, and the music halting was for the audience. A fun subversion of expectations.

David describes him and Farouk as, “The Sun and Moon.”

Division 3 sees it. The monster they saw on infrared. Clearly a separate entity from David Haller. Clearly of a different disposition than David Haller as David Haller has acted very differently and non-hostile compared to when they saw him roaming those HQ halls. The monster and David are not the same. They see who their real enemy is now.

It seems evident there was no chance of David beating Farouk on his own here. I wonder why? Was it true? Is Farouk just too ingrained in his mind? Cary said he was like a, “Computer virus. Learning his systems, bypassing his defenses.” Maybe Syd remembered that, and that’s why she believed Farouk. Cause Cary had already said something similar before.

Clark could've escaped, but he stayed, then tried to help fight Farouk.

I feel really sad Oliver got possessed. It never occurred to me before he could even tell Melanie he remembered her. Melanie’ll just go on thinking he never remembered her for a year.

And thus it’s established. There are “good mutants” and there are “bad mutants.”

No one checks on Ptonomy :(

The Lenny that’s talking to Oliver here is still just Farouk.

Did the orb go back as far as it could? Or was this time specifically chosen? If it was chosen, it was probably because it’s very soon after Farouk had been expelled from David’s head, and before the big race for his body starts.

[chesapeakestripper]

I did it! I made a rough floor plan of the parts of the umbrella academy that we get to see. no basement yet because it’s just two rooms, really; Pogo’s bedroom and the kitchen/dining room. Thought process and analysis from painstaikingly going through several episodes and rewatching the same 10 seconds of staircases below the cut. Also, for now I’ve only marked doors that were visible at some point, but there are most likely a lot more doors and walls in spaces we just never got to see.

First floor:

Second floor:

Third floor:

entrance hall and living room were easy, we saw those rooms about a million times, i don’t think i need to explain them.

then we have the part with the children’s bedrooms. I know we all saw the big cut through the house while everyone is dancing, which places these rooms on the second floor and also directly next to entry hall. I firmly believe they just put the rooms together in a way that was convenient for them for the following reasons:

windows are a thing. no matter how hard i tried i could not give the rooms the windows that they have when putting them where they would be if allison’s and Luther’s rooms were where they showed them

 the  red stairs on the first floor in that shot would end in luther’s room

also the red stairs are on the same floor as the bedrooms and only go up, not down

they fucked up the sides and switched Allison’s and Luther’s rooms

in s1e02 when vanya walks through the house. she goes through a hole in the wall on the second floor, on the plans i made it’s the ‘door’ in the bottom right corner. she ends up on the green stair case and walks up to five’s room. in the episode where klaus gets kidnapped, Diego enters the same green stairs the same way and then walks down to get to the bedrooms

the red stairs only go up, not down, which is a typical first floor thing

Theeeen i just had to watch and rewatch all the scenes with the bedrooms to figure out how they go together. again, biggest issue where the windows, there’s a lot of them in weird places; my solution was to add a lightwell behind the bathroom. another solution would be makind the hallway between the entry hall and the green stairs longer and adding a proper courtyard, maybe even THE courtyard. I decided against that because diego gets from the bedrooms back to the main hall really fucking fast when he’s running from Chacha and Hazel.

there’s a hallway that just goes somewhere, but we don’t know where, but it could be another staircase - based on the fact that diego comes down the green stairs and then walks around a few corners first instead of just emerging through the hole in the wall opposite of the bathroom that leads to the green stairs. when i noticed that hole and the stairs behind it i had a small aneurysm because i had placed the green stairs somewhere in the hallway next to the bathroom before. it is very much a possibilities that there’s two sets of green stairs, which would change everything, but we see a good chunk of that hallway ending in very dark doors in Diego’s fight with Hazel and Chacha. Also i was already two days into making this plan when i noticed that maybe there’s two very similar looking but not identical green staircases so i decided to say fuck it and just work under the assumption that there’s only one.

the one thing i sort of kept from the dancing scene is Grace’ second kitchen on the 1st floor. I assume that it is where i wrote it down based on the window and the direction it was facing in that shot as well as the fact that it’s supposedly right next to the green stairs.

on the second floor I put Reginald’s Office, the adjanctant living room and hallway we see in Allison’s flashback in ep1 and the tiny room and different hallway behind it where it is because while it could technically be anywhere in the whole block, 42 bedroom 19 bathroom hargreeves estate it looks too fucking similar to the entry hall and living room to be far away from that part of the houses imo. also whenever someone goes there or comes from there they get their through the 2nd floor part of the entry hall so it’s heavily implied to be on the 2nd floor. i figured out the placement by making sure that all the windows are on an outside wall and not hitting any established walls, stairs or lightwells. it’s not more than an educated guess, really, but it fit there rather well.

then we have five’s room in the attic. we can see that that’s where it is when Vanya looks for him in ep2(?). we can also see the green stairs again, as wel as enough windows to know which way it’s facing. considering that ben had to sleep somewhere and there’s no more doors downstairs i guess his room could be the one next to five’s.

I think that the spot in the attic where Allison likes to sit when she’s upset may be where i put it because if I’m upset i wouldn’t want to run through an enormous house, but walking up the red stairs twice to get there seems doable. the other thing that we know is in an attic is reginald’s bedroom and the surveillance room, because both have a roof pitch. while the surveillance room could arguably be anywhere in the multiple buildings reginald’s bedroom would fit beautifully over his office both for his convenience and because he has a protruding window in it just like his office does.

if you have any questions feel free to ask! I’ll try to answer them

[cerberus253]

Me and my friend are confused by one moment in the case of Drago. I wonder what you think about this. How did Section 13 manage to capture Drago? He is not defenseless. And the shot of Uncle's magic, it seems, only stunned Drago then for a short time (he grumbled in pain, was conscious). And Drago wouldn't let anyone put a muzzle on his face! Plus, he had fire magic. Maybe they gave him sleeping pills? And I wonder ... what did Drago think, what he felt and did while in the cell?

Had to rewatch that part, and I find Drago’s pitiful pain-noise funny. Just, it didn’t sound like he was in pain, it just sounded like he passed out from exhaustion from partying too hard XD

Anyways, I sometimes thought how in the world they captured him so easily. My best guess is that when Uncle shot him from so high up in the air, he was sent flying backwards and fell unconscious seconds after hitting his head and back on the ground (I’d also like to point out that Drago leaped with full force towards the Chans, but Uncle’s magic, which was coming from the opposite direction, immediately sent him flying backwards just as hard. So, ouch).

From that point, it was either Section 13 came to pick him up, or the Chans brought him to Section 13. In both of these situations, Drago could have been unconscious the whole time, due to the previous fighting, the direct shot to the chest with power force, and the smacking of his head on the ground, but only the former could have the possibility of him being unconscious for only a short while. Either way, they most likely put him in some sort of immobilizing... thing that either limited his movement through inhibiting nerve impulses, or something like those ancient Chinese devices where the more you moved, the more pain it inflicts on you, so it encourages you to stay still. The latter paired with exhaustion would be the easiest reason, at least to me. Or maybe it’s all three, I dunno.

Putting the muzzle on him would be easy to guess with he was still unconscious, but in a situation that he wasn’t, there were more than enough people to pin an exhausted Drago down long enough to put it on him, or the immobilizing device could have been placed on him first so he couldn’t move a lot anyways. Whatever way they got it on him, I’m pretty sure Section 13 made the muzzle out of fire-proof material, which is probably the easiest thing to get since they profession in the supernatural department, which would also explain the immobilizing thing being a thing.

Now, arriving at the cell. Again, they probably have some super special material that makes up the bars so he couldn’t use brute force to break them, including all the security that (potentially) is there during that time could probably gang up on him. The only thing that refutes these thoughts is when he escaped in Episode One of Season Five. My best thoughts on it was because that was a special day for evil, it probably super powered him up for a little while, and so he had the strength to get out the way he did. Now, why did he not have his muzzle on when he could still clearly breathe fire and hurt people? Easy answer: For plot :V I jest, but really we’re going to have to pull strings here because although that really probably was the answer, we won’t settle for that. Anyway, two reasons what could be it: 1) He was being a good boy and learned not to use his fire so he could get special privileges (highly doubt), or 2) Section 13 probably got sick of risking getting so close to him all the time to take off and put it back on whenever he needed to eat or something, so they just hired special guards that were solely for him and they wore fire-proof stuff, and then they just left the muzzle off. Oh but wait, when he finally did destroy the door to his cell (because of limited time super power from evil day), why were there no guards in front? Ummmmm, well, Section 13 didn’t seem to know the super power evil day was a thing AND it would power up Drago, so maybe they thought they could leave him alone for a few minutes? Or he did embody being a good little boy and gained some trust with them, so sometimes they would trust to leave him alone? The former seems more likely than the latter.

So, I guess in short, when he got blasted and sent to the ground, he fell unconscious long enough for Section 13 to get there, put him in immobilizing things, and quickly muzzled him. I don’t know when he became conscious again, but it probably was before he arrived at the headquarters. Why? I dunno, i just like to think of him being bound in the back of a truck with a dozen armed guards just staring at him when he wakes up and he’s all like “SON OF A--“ Anyway, they kept him muzzled while in prison for a while, then they decided it was too risky to get close to him all the time to take it off and put it back on, so they kept it off, but had guards wear fire-proof suits around him. One fateful day, they left him alone for a few minutes, and not knowing this special evil day and what it does, Drago finally broke out.

Now for what he did with the time he had in his cell. Firstly, from the outfit change, he was probably there for so long it kind of became like a “home“ to him, which does happen to real life prison folk because they’ve been there for so long (oh my God, do you think he’s been there for so long he knows some guards’ names?? Like, “Lay off the donuts, Frank! You’re eating so much you’re becoming one!” and “Hey Carl, maybe you’d be better at your job if ya didn’t drink every other night! You smell worse than an overused gas station!”). We could also safely guess he thought about his father a lot; ya know, like their relationship, why he’s doing what his Dad says even though he’s not in the position of giving out orders, etc. Drago decided to betray his Dad during his prison time, we know that as a fact. He probably also thought about how to escape, but he may have been turning up dead ends a lot, so he decided to be patient and wait until the time is right, which so happened to be that super power evil day paired with him being alone for a little bit. I wonder if he knew about that day all along and actually planned it all out early on... That either suggests he’s got a super good memory, or he asked for a calendar in his cell... or just saw one from afar. He did seem kind of “prepared“ at that break out moment...

Anyway, what else he did while he waited, I dunno. It could be any other thing a prisoner does: Exercise, build muscle, make bets in table games (Oh-ho, Chinese Checkers?), watch TV, beat up guards who gave him an unnecessarily hard time, be an annoying asshole just to piss off the guards for shits and giggles, etc. Knowing Drago, he would have been aggressive and pissed to the core for the first days or weeks at the place, but from all that alone and thinking time, he figured he’d be there for a while, so might as well make the best of it. Or SEEM like he knows he’s going to be there for a while. Either way, he found amusement in some shape or form so he wouldn’t go too crazy.

[xsecretblastsx]

2x02 - Never Been Marcused

Here we are on a new recap, sadly we say good bye to the hamptons on this episode, but it seems fitting considering is the start of fall after all. 

This one of those episodes were I barely remember what happens except for a few scenes here and there from my first watch, so it almost felt like watching a new episode. Anyway here we go.

As usual recap under the cut:

Thoughts I had while watching the episode:

Akward morning after talk between Dan and Serena, not my prefered way for the start of an episode, but what can I do

Well they are kind of cute here, I’ll admit. Though I’m kind of glad Serena’s first instict wasn’t to get back together right there and actually acknoweldging their break up had a lot of reasons behind it.

Blair looks super cute riding that bicycle, so picture perfect. Too bad is only on paper. That Marcus guy is super boring.

Blair can be like “Revenge is so 12 hours ago” but Serena’s is all of us being like “Sure Blair, you totally love Marcus and all of this has nothing to do with Chuck ofc” 

I’m not sure if being refered as “ a perfect post Bass palate cleanser” can be taken as a compliment. And just like magic a wild Bass appears.

I’m just here to enjoy the akward moment every single boyfriend of Blair has to endure whenever they realize that Chuck Bass is going to be a relevant part of said relationship.

“For England” Marcus your nation is surely going to be proud of you for acting like a total englishman and accepting to be civil with Chuck Bass, the guy who just totally manipulated you into inserting himself in your date.

“Blair Waldorf a fling... you’re not exactly low maintenance” Serena speaking words of wisdom.

I guess abstinence (on Serena’s side mostly) was hard for Serena and Dan, otherwise I can’t understand why they’re acting as if keeping their hands to themselves is so difficutl, they never seemed that type of couple in S1.

Blair called him Charles, I guess she was pretty mad. 

That whole sequence of Dan and Serena fooling around on the Jitney is soooo extra, and so unintentionally funny.

Nate’s family drama is never ending, though imagine the tragedy it must be for any UES to lose their money. Auch.

Surprise! Nate’s fling is actually the Duchess.

This whole dialogue: “No offense but don’t you think you’re a little outmached?” “As a guy. Blair wants to be a princess (>.<) and your greatest achievement is owning part of a burlesque club” and the cherry on top “Oh you know is love when you star talking like an assasin” Oh Nate Archibald, I love you. 

Also apparently Chuck did spend tme with Bart from time to time, is kind of hard for me to imagine them playing Squash though.

Chuck keeping noble secrets from Nate. That’s love.

Hi Rufus... and Vanessa

Oh Marcus, giving so much intel to his new “best friend”.Also I kind of like the polo/vest combo Chuck’s wearing there. Weird.

“I have to present myself as crown jewel, sorrounded by other smaller slightly flawed gems, but quality stones nonetheless” this is such Blair thing to say haha.

“If you can’t find common ground wiht a dictator I don’t know who can” The added commentary is really making this episode for me. 

I’ve never related more to Blair than this moment where she express how great it is that Serena’s free from Dan.

I just love when we get to see how much Chuck actually cares about Nate, selling his shares of Victrola is no small deal.

Nate and Vanessa! I still can’t believe how much I don’t mind, and actually kind of like this ship.

I kind of would love to see Anne Archibald doing her shopping at Salvation’s Army.

I love the combination of that suit with that shirt Chuck’s wearing, the color really suits him. I don’t know why but I’m noticing his wardobre much more this time around. Figures. I do remember thinking the first time around he was going to try and seduce the duchess. Now that would have been another akward moment of “Sorry Nate”

Serena looks so pretty here, even if I’m not that fan of her outfil. 

“So she can warn me about the effects of too much botox” auch.  Chuck: 1, Blair: 0. and he’s definately enjoying it.

I so wish Rufus had gone to tour again. He deserved to live that dream to the fullest.

“A lowly Waldorf” wow. Even I was hurt by that. 

I love it when the GG voice oveer points out how ridiculous everything is. Case in point: “Chuck and Blair’s dates are mother and son, and Nate and Blair are exces, and Nate and the mother are in a book club?”

I get why Nate is mad at Chuck for not being upfront about the money, because it’s not easy addmitting that kind of problems in their wordl and even less accepting that kind of help, but Chuck’s intentions were good. Fact is he always helps Nate anyway he can.

The fact that Dan and Serena’s plotline this episode was basically just trying to resist each other, and I can’t help but think that this was the show’s way of trying to make them be more “chair like”, you know intense chemistry and sex appeal. As if.

“if the best version of the situation is I’m going to become Blair’s father in law I think is just time to move on” Now imagine that, thanks to Nate for putting that horrifying thought in my head.

And this is the start of Nate Archibald the gigolo.

“Oh my effing God” same Blair, same. Props to Nate for still acting so rightous and being all like “I don’t have anything to explain to you” 

Blair telling the Duchess how things are going to be now... You go baby Vamp!

“I’m gonna turned it in a novel” so I guess this throway line was the start of “Inside” 

Rufus beyond anything was first a Dad, the Humphrey kids got the best dad in the show, the kind of Dad any of the NJBC would have love to have as a parent, and yet they feel they were the unlucky ones.

That last scene between Chuck and Blair is such a display of chemistry a lot of ships wish they had. and the literal definition of what eye sexing each other means. 

I feel so bad for Nate and Vanessa right now... with the add visual bonus of her sadly blowing the candles for a date that wasn’t. Feeling sad for Vanessa, now that’s new for me.

So this episode while there are moments that I really liked and it did kind of move the plot forward in some points, it also fills a lot like a filler episode and like I don’t really have much to say about it. Maybe because these storylines while I don’t hate them I don’t particularly like them either, in particular this chapter of the Serena and Dan saga this episode feels such a waste of time, they’re basically stalling because they really don’t want to have the difficult conversation of why they broke up and how they can fix their issues, and so to keep avoiding they distract themselves with taming their unrestrained need for sleeping with each other... sorry but what?

I’m not saying there’s no chemistry between Dan and Serena, but their relationship in S1 except for like 1 or two scenes was very much rooted in cutesy moments, tenderness, and how Serena was better with Dan (ugh) and how he wanted for her, not only because she was super hot, they never acted like “oh it’s so hard to keep our hands from each other, and we can’t resist this atraction” that couple were Chuck and Blair, so on this episode I just can’t buy it, it seems forced, almost as if the show wanted them to be more exciting and outrageous... to keep them as the main couple of the show as they were suposed to be, after all at this point of the show while Chuck and Blair were getting more traction, they hadn’t really overtook the show as they eventually did. It also felt part of the “omfg” vibe the show was going for, that scene in the Jitney was so extra, though in my case rather than getting me into them just made me laugh. 

Nate storyline on the other hand is the one that really went places this episodes. It turns out his family is on the brink up bankrupcy because all the legal issues his dad is facing, and because his grandfather won’t help he and his mother are a very precarious situation wich leads Nate to seek help. He tries going to Chuck but on one hand he doesn’t really now how to explaint the situation, and also Chuck’s apparently really busy with scheming his way back to Blair. Except Chuck because he knows Nate is going to refuse him and he can’t help but help him either way sells his shares on Victrola and gives the money to Nate’s mom. Of course when Nate finds out he gets mad, because pride and also because he hates that Chuck lied to him about Victrola and to be fair it hasn’t been that long since they had a big fall out because Chuck wasn’t honest about stuff, so there’s that. Still, I feel I must take a moment to point out how much Nate actually means to Chuck? He loves that club, it’s a place with a lot of sentimental meaning too for a lot of reason and yet Chuck doesn’t hesitate to part with it if meants helping Nate. I know Chuck makes plenty of mistakes and awful things during the show, but these kind of moments are always kind of overlook and I just feel that’s unfair because only focusin on the worst of him, reduces him to this one dimensional villian, and in reality Chuck is one of the most complex characters on this show. These kind of moments are an example of his many layers.

So back to Nate, he ends up going to Vanessa, and I just feel this rewatch is turning me into a Nate and Vanessa shipper. Truth is I never hated this couple, but I was a bit meh to it, in part because Vanessa annoys the hell out of me for the most part, but I always thought she was less annoying with Nate. I like how she just sits and listens to Nate, and I think this is something that his best friends are not always the best at, Chuck tries but he’s more the type of friend that goes into action, he does what is need to do in order help rather than the heart to heart talk, and Nate and Serena’s friendship at this point while getting there, is kind of akward still and also there’s always some crisis going on her life that prevents her for being fully there, and Blair and Nate well.. they weren’t ever the talking type. So Vanessa helps with that, also when the show started Nate wanted in someway to detached himself from the UES and all it’s expectations and so Vannesa was that needed breeze of fresh air, and while she can be as judgy as Dan, I always felt she made more of an effort with Nate to be understanding than Dan ever was with the UES. So I like them, at least for now. Too bad Catherine happens and while Nate was really into the idea of having an affair with her this episode he realizes that’s an awful idea (the fact that she has a step son that’s older than him and is also dating Blair is admiteddly gross) but it’s a desperate time, and she offers him her help... and so we got Nate the gigolo, and that last scene in the taxi when he cancels on Vanessa made me sooo sad.

Lastly we have the Chuck and Blair part of the story, it’s always fun to see them scheming, and Chuck’s tactics these episode are rather sucessful at first and it’s mostly a display of him knowing Blair so well that he’s able to get the upper hand on all of her efforts to get on the Lord and his family good side. I should feel bad for her, in the sense that Chuck’s ruiningin her plans and it’s not fair because if he had showed up to Tuscany everything would be different. And yet I’m kind of glad he gets on her way because truthfully, this is just one of those times that Blair is trying to show herself as something she isnt’ in order to get a guy, and also climb higher in the social hierarchy, and it pains me because at the end of the day is just Blair not accepting herself, like Serena keeps pointing out through all the episode, just show the real Blair sure, she’s anything but low maintainance but there’s a lot of amazing in her that can make her shine to anyone. This plot also reminded me a bit of Blair and the prince storyline and also (because this party was trying to be very pretentious and sofisticated) that saloon thing she did with Dan in Season 5 and just remembering that gives me nightmare. So really not a fan of these particular scenes. In the end she ends up gaining the duchess via blackmail, which I like because I hate the Duchess so I’m all for Blair showing her Queen B side in full display and after this episode I missed it. It’s also the basis of that great moment at the end between her and Chuck in the Van der Bass kitchen, which is easily the most memorable thing in the whole hour and only for that I’m glad this episode exists. The chemistry and sexual tension  of this whole scene is amazing and it puts to shame all the Dan and Serena “can’t keep their hand of each ohter” scenes, this is how is done. Sorry Derena.

Random bits I noticed:

The Pierces song playing in the background at the start of the episode, “Boy in a Rock and Roll Band” always puts me in a good mood for some reason.

That pearl headband Blair’s wearing at the party were so popular here for a while, I loved it so much back then, I sort of wish I had one now.

I loved the “Summer 08″ collage the Humphrey’s had in their loft. It also had this phrase “ I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality... I still believe that we shall overcome” by Dr. Martin Luther King. Kind of relevant isn’t it?

Having and episode ending with a shot of  the NYC skyline at night, while New York, I Love You but You’re Bringing Me Down playing in the background... these are the kind of details I love. 

Ending with a Chuck pick because I really like this suit

[kristallioness]

2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019

*arrives a month late*... Happy 2021 to all of you, my dear followers! *raises a glass* It seems that my tendency to finish my artwork or personal posts on time has only gotten worse over time (I blame work *lol*). Oh well, better late than never, since there are things I would still like to take with me from this extraordinary year of 2020.

It is cringeworthy that I have two huge red X-s this year. But after I'd put these puzzle pieces together, I remembered far too well what was going on in my (work) life at the time, so it's completely understandable why I didn't have the time nor the energy to draw at all during those two months.

What were those typical statistics that I wrote about again to compare the years? *goes to read last year's post*.. Oh, right! In 2020, I managed to finish 3 full digital drawings (from the months of April, July and December) as well as work on several sketches. I wrote 28,154 words worth of fanfiction (oohh, that's a lot better than previous year), plus 3,126 words in English (I dare say I wrote an equal amount in Estonian) for the prompts I got during UYLD (making the total 31,280 words, which is quite impressive!).

I finished reading the 1st Kyoshi novel in the evening of the 20th and slightly past midnight on the 21st December (barely before the holidays, but I set this goal for myself and I did it!). Am already looking forward to starting with the 2nd part some time this year. Besides that, I ordered and received all the other new Avatar books that came out (3rd part of "Ruins of the Empire", "Katara and the Pirate's Silver", "Legacy of the Fire Nation") as well as BOTH Avatar series DVD sets (I still can't believe I found these on sale on some random online store in Estonia, but these are now among my most prized possessions!).

I finally started my Avatar rewatch last January, but merely got to the Ba Sing Se episodes in Book 2 (I need to continue with "The Earth King") and now it's been 5 YEARS since I last saw Korra. Reading through my journal personal posts from last year, I know far too well that it's not about rushing through it as fast as possible. Instead, I should enjoy the ride and continue watching the episodes when I'm well rested and in the right mood. That way I'll end up feeling much more at peace.

As for the entire year as a whole? I don't think anyone in this world of ours was prepared for the way this decade would begin - with an uncontrollable pandemic, the virus of which is randomly attacking and threatening to wipe out the weakest amongst us. If any of you (or even if you know someone who) have lost a loved one to this plague, there is not much else I can offer but my sincerest condolences! Me, my family, friends and colleagues seem to have managed to avoid catching it so far. *spits 3 x over her shoulder*

I had such high hopes for this year in so many ways. Event-wise I was looking forward to watching the Eurovision Song Contest in May (where Uku Suviste was supposed to represent Estonia for the 1st time ever after so many unfortunate failures to get selected as the winner of our local competition), the European Football Championships in June (asking my colleagues which countries they support, perhaps make fun bets / guesses with them to see whose team would win the matches), the Tokyo Olympic Games in July-August, the President of Estonia (Mrs. Kersti Kaljulaid) coming to visit my hometown to celebrate our Victory Day by taking part in the parade together with the Defence Forces (after 15 years *sigh*)...

I will always remember my last big event, which took place when life used to be "normal", so to say. It was the 102nd anniversary of Estonia on the 24th of February, when I took part of all the most important celebrations in Tallinn on our Independence Day, FULL-TIME (whenever I scroll through my Facebook timeline, I see the photos I uploaded of that day, my heart melts and I smile fondly). But the day after that.. utter hell broke loose. We had our first infected person in the country.

I will also remember the last day I went to work in "normal" conditions. Friday, the 13th of March (typically my lucky day-number combination): I missed the tram I wanted to get on in the morning, at work my team received great news that one of our colleague's family had grown bigger by a new tiny member the day before, we had our last team lunch together, we discussed the safety measures that we should take and joked about what might happen next week, I took the bus home instead of the tram (as the tram's route came from the airport and that place was considered to be more dangerous and with a higher risk of catching this virus).. It was another 2.5 weeks later by then (since the 25th of February) - Estonia (along with the rest of Europe) went into full lockdown.

The beginning was frightening and people were on edge, nobody really knew what to do nor what was gonna happen next. But in time, things began to shake into place and everybody developed a comfortable routine for remote work, including figuring out how to get everyday things done (such as grocery shopping). I found solace in taking photographs of various beautiful bird species, who began to fly around and serenaded me during spring, visiting the trees around my "nest" i.e. rented apartment (with a pair of them ACTUALLY building a nest in the chestnut tree right beside my window, thus turning me into a protective godmother of their chicks).

To be honest, I was awestruck by the positive / surprising aftermath of this lockdown: how the world / environment began to heal itself from the pollution that was normally caused by humans. I was taken aback by how dead silent our usually loud capital became in my neighbourhood (I could only hear trams passing by my house according to their schedules, practically no cars whatsoever, streets were empty of people.. absolute silence).

By May-June, things started to look up in Estonia (as well as the rest of Europe) and people were allowed to start travelling / moving around more freely. During my vacation in July, I managed to go to my last (open air) event (for the rest of the year) under these new "corona" conditions and ended up having a blast at the Open Farm Days in my home county for the first time.

Our country's shining moment came during the first week of September, when we hosted the first ever Rally Estonia of the World Rally Championship (WRC), where our very own Ott Tänak and Martin Järveoja won. The event was so well organized and successful that nobody caught the virus nor did the spectators / participants spread it to others, which surely must've helped in ensuring us a spot in the WRC calendar for 2021 as well.

The remainder of the year was rather dull, with the exception of the US Presidential elections in November, when we were all holding our breaths that Joe Biden would win (congratulations, my American friends!). This eventually led to the painful downfall of THE WORST government the Republic of Estonia has ever had, and to the rise of our first female Prime Minister, Kaja Kallas (both happening in January 2021, I couldn't believe it all spiralled so soon, ha-ha!).

Anyways, during the last 4 months, work was very stressful and driving me nuts, so badly that when I eventually went on vacation before Christmas, I had a slight anxiety disorder that wouldn't let me relax for several days (luckily it went away just as quickly once I began to take it easy and managed to get some proper rest / sleep).

In hindsight, I kind of get this weird feeling as if I saw this whole thing coming, given how actively I was living my life throughout 2019. My final year of the 2010's was so full of important events and personal achievements. It's almost as if something mysterious inside was driving me, telling me to visit all the places and do all the things I wanted to do, cause I wouldn't have this sort of a chance again for a very long time.

This must be the main reason why I am thankful for 2020 for going the way it did. Sure, I'm disappointed that a lot of events were cancelled, that so many people have had to leave this world so soon due to this unpredictable disease.. But I think there are so many lessons to take from what came out of all of this. I believe the world needed some sort of a restart or break, given in what direction we were headed (politically, economically, environmentally, socially etc.). I'm just sorry it's had to come with such a high price of innocent lives.

I have even higher hopes for 2021, given how amazingly January has already passed for me and my country, and what is to come in my hometown in February. Let's take the lessons learned from 2020 with us and keep on heading back towards the "normal" lifestyle we used to know. Except this time, let's improve our ways, put all the hatred behind us, be more considerate, keep a distance, stay safe, but still try to make the world a better place for everyone. Thank you so much for reading, for remaining by my side, and for your support and love throughout the years, my friends! I hope to see you all alive and healthy at the end of the white metal ox year of 2021! *virtual hugs*

[sasuhinasno1fan]

Skating with you- Lukadrien June day 22

So this is really description heavy and you can blame Cirque du Soleil for showing their ice shows, who of which I feel in love with and would kill to see and this book I read when I was really young that I always think about when I think recital about a girl learning how to skate and their first recital they did. The scene from Crystal is here and I could rewatch this part over and over and not get sick of it. I just kinda kept thinking of Adrien in Crystal’s position when I was watching the clips every now and then. Also, Luka lifting Marinette with complete ease during the Frozer episode? You can’t tell me I shouldn’t have him do that with Adrien. How could I not. So yes, Marinette and Adrien know who each other are, they’ve moved on and honestly, the poor girl needs a support system now that Fu is gone and if it has to be Adrien and they need to break the rules to do so, so be it. Besides, Marinette is the guardien now, is she really gonna take the Miraculous away because she knows who Adrien is? Anyway, hopefully you enjoy this, I know it’s pretty word heavy. @lukadrien-june Recital

Adrien focused as he was tugged on the leg to head to the person lifting him in the air. Usually when he pulled out the ice blue camembert and turned Plagg into Plagg Glacier, getting thrown in the air wasn’t an issue. He usually landed on his feet and even with skates on, he never felt unsteady. However, he was his normal self and the person lifting him up had dropped him more than enough times. He might have skated longer than Adrien, heck he was practically a professional, but he’d almost dropped Adrien pretty much in ever rehearsal.

Philippe, the owner of the skating rink, had a friend in the Crystal Cirque du Soleil show and he wanted to do a small tribute to them since their next show in France was going to be at his rink. Adrien hadn’t seen it, but he saw clips, his favourite being what he called the Family and Classmates act, where Crystal appeared in her family living room and students from her class appeared before everything went spinning at the arrival of the business men. Maybe it was the music or that last small showdown Crystal had with the businessmen as she tried to break free, but he could re-watch that clip over and over again. He was extremely excited when he heard that was the scene Philippe was going to do. There weren’t going to be any acrobatics or such, it was going to be replaced as much as possible by skating since he didn’t want to risk people hurting themselves. Adrien and his friends had come during free skate time only to realise Philippe was doing auditions. He told them to stay, since free skate would still happen after the auditions were over. So, he sat there, listening to everyone chatter about other things as he watched the skilled skaters perform. Philippe had a group of them doing the standoff part between Crystal and the business men and he could see they were having problems with where the person in the front of the line had to grab Crystal’s leg to pull her back and pick her up safely.

Adrien knew how to do that. After finding out Marinette was Ladybug not long after she became the new guardian, which had been mostly due to stress and Marinette blurting it out during a minor panic attack, (and also included a deep and heartfelt talk about moving on from each other and how it was better for them now that they weren’t putting each other on pedestals) there was an Akumatized skater with dreams of joining the French Olympic team, who’s sadness of not making the cut was taken advantage of. They pulled out their skater sides in order to dodge the girl whose main attacks where focused on her incredible spins as she came twirling towards you like a tornado. Adrien had been skating by, his back leg outstretched from a jump when Marinette grabbed his ankle and yanked hard to pull him out of the way when the Akuma made a sudden turn and almost knocked him over. She even used his tail to send him towards her with a Cataclysm, similar to how Crystal was sent to her partner who did a waist lift near the end of her standoff with the businessmen. To help them practice on any occasion where they needed to use the ice potion, they’d been using free skate and Adrien had gotten good at being pulled across the ice.

So, Adrien offered advice and showed the person how to do it. He made sure to point out he wasn’t a professional and he’d just been working on this in his free time. He did it with the group and when he got picked up, he just went with it. He might have been doing the lifts with Ladybug, but his body naturally just went to what he would feel Marinette do if he ever lifted her when they did the waist lift. He hadn’t expected after for Philippe to beg him to do the show with them. He tried rejecting the offer, but all his friends who’d watched him egged him on that he ended up saying yes. His dad didn’t even have an issue with it, which was surprising, so instead of going to fencing, he came to the ice rink to learn the skating choero. The other skaters were nice to him, helping him whenever he had questions but one skater, the guy doing the same waist lift, didn’t like Adrien.

Case in point, like right now. The guy grabbed Adrien’s waist and lifted leg, and Adrien put his hand on the guy’s shoulder. The minute he was lifted in the air however, he felt too unbalanced and it was either topple off and onto the ice or let himself fall into the guy’s arms. He chose the safer option.

“What the hell!” he yelled, dropping Adrien onto the ice on his feet. “You’re supposed to be up in the air, not falling on me!”

“You were going to drop me anyway. I was unbalanced and I took the safer descent.”

The guy scoffed. “You were fine. You keep doing this. Why are you even here if you’re not going to take this seriously?”

“Angel, easy.” One of the female skaters, Juliette said skating up to them. “Phillippe told you already not to lift him so fast so he can get his balance. You need to remember Adrien does this for fun and he’s a guy. They don’t usually get lifted into the air, so he’s not used to this.”

“Why the hell was he hired then?”

“Because he knows what he’s doing. We’re professionals and we couldn’t figure out how to do that move but he did.”

“Whatever. I still say pretty boy here shouldn’t even be involved. He has all the opportunities in life but if he messes this up, that’s it for us.”

Adrien rolled his eyes. People from Cirque du Soleil came to practise one day and after Adrien buttered them up a little, seemed very interested in the group who learned hard choreo with ease and changing adaptions. Even not so heavenly Angel was guaranteed a job with them. besides, his only opportunities were the ones his father picked out for him.

“You’re being ridiculous. You know what, I’m taking five until you get your head on straight. Come on Adrien.” Juliette pulled him away, muttering about how some people were pig headed. “Don’t listen to him. You’ve gotten good but you know you’re limits best and if messing up that drop just to save yourself from falling on the ice from a height is what’s best, then we’ll just have to go with it.”

“Thanks. It would help if I actually felt stable when he lifted me.”

“Well you’ve never done a lift like that before. It’s too bad Paul, the guy who lifted you during auditions couldn’t do the show. You’ll get it.”

Adrien skated to where his friends were sitting in the stands. Marinette, Nino, Alya, Kagami and Luka had showed up to show him support.

“That guy needs to take a chill pill. He does realise your dad might kill him if he drops you right?” Nino said, passing Adrien his water bottle.

“He just constantly seems to be in a bad mood. I’m surprised Hawk Moth hasn’t tried anything.” Alya said.

“Don’t give him ideas.”

“He should be focused on making sure you’re ok when he lifts you though.” Kagami said. She enjoyed getting away from fencing practise to get the chance to make friends. She had easily inserted herself into their friend group thanks to Marinette’s help. “that girl is right. You’ve never done something like this before.”

“Guess this is what I get for showing off.” Adrien said, sharing a look with Marinette. It was extra practise for when they fought on ice since he was a shield for Ladybug, but he’d rather go back to free skate if he was going to be putting up with the verbal abuse from Angel.

“Have you gotten any practise with him?” Luka asked.

“For a guy with a heavenly name, he’s kinda the devil. Refuses to even consider it. He just tells Philippe he can do it and because Philippe is so concerned with getting everything else right, he leaves us to our own devices.”

“That doesn’t seem very safe. I know it’s kinda a small performance to showcase a small thing from the show, but you’re not a professional at this. If you can’t get the chance to do it properly, you could hurt yourself.” Luka said.

“I know, but a lot of these skaters are working on other projects, so I don’t feel right asking them for help.”

Marinette perked up. “Wait a second. Adrien, you can practise with Luka! He can do lifts really well.”

That was actually true. According to the Couffaine siblings, they used to do pair ice skating when they were young to help Juleka’s confidence. They didn’t compete anymore but whenever they came to free skate the two would show off. And Luka had lifted Marinette easily that time they, Kagami and him had come skating that first time.

“I mean, if I was taught how to do the lift properly, I could probably do it. If that’s ok with you.” Luka said.

“Yes actually. That would be great. Juliette!” he called. When the silver haired skater came over, he asked, “Do you think you could teach my friend the lift I need to do with Angel? He offered to help me practise.”

“Of course. I’m actually free after practise if you don’t mind giving up your free skate time.”

“Sounds good to me.” Luka said.

“Perfect.”

When practise was over, Luka joined him on the ice and Juliette had him run with her the showdown part, so he knew how it went.

“So, Adrien has two lifts right next to each other. The first one is pretty simple. Same leg that’s used to pull him back is the leg that gonna stabilize him in that short lift. That same leg is gonna be the one you grab to lift him. He’s gonna straighten it when you lift him and that leg is going to be the thing that helps you keep him balanced until you feel like you can do it with just the hand on his waist and you let go. When you lift him, he’s going to keep his hand on your shoulder. The idea is that you both feel when you’re stable enough to spin with just your hand on his waist so you can let go together, preferably at the kinda climax of the part of the song. You two have to work together in this, think you can do that?”

Well Luka was Viperion and he and Chat Noir worked well together. He hoped it still went that way when they weren’t wearing their masks.

They went slow, Juliette gently pushing Adrien to Luka so he could get the timing of when to lift when he had Adrien and so Adrien knew when to push off. It wasn’t perfect first obviously. Sometimes Luka went to slow or too fast and Adrien wasn’t ready and took them both down in his panic. But Luka seemed to have loads of patience and was able to help Adrien figure out when to push off so Luka could lift him.

“Perfect!” Juliette said when they managed to do the lift with no mistakes. “Ok, don’t spin yet, find your balance first and I want you two to let go of each other.”

Adrien decided to take a leap of faith and trust Luka had him balanced and lifted his hand from his shoulder. He felt Luka let go of his leg and with minimal shaking, held Adrien up with one hand. Ok, Adrien knew he had some muscle from fencing and hero saving, but he didn’t realise just how strong Luka was. It was kinda hot.

Adrien told himself to control his bisexualness. It did not help that after his breakup with Kagami and the extra time he spent on the Liberty when skipping obligations, he was starting to notice how good looking Luka was. He seemed to have a type for strong, dark haired people with kind hearts.

“There you go. Ok, now let’s try it with spinning.”

Luka seamlessly let him fall into his arms before placing back onto the ice.

“Was that ok?”

“Yeah. I knew you wouldn’t drop me.” Adrien admitted.

“Well, not that hard when you’re so light.”

“I’m not that light.”

Luka shot him a smile. “You’re about as heavy as full-grown cat.”

Adrien fingered his ring. “Must be around cats often.”

“I’m fond of black ones and tend to find them around me a lot.”

Marinette mentioned she thought Luka knew. The fact that he was lightly poking at it but still made him feel safe probably said something.

They tried it again, this time with the spinning. They went slow at first, Luka looking up at him to see how he was before they picked up speed. By the end of it, they managed to get the lift down with minor stumbles.

“That was amazing! You two did so well. I’m very impressed.” Juliette complimented, their friends cheering by the stands.

“Well it helps when you have an amazing skater.” Adrien said, looking at Luka, who actually looked a bit embarrassed.

“Well, couldn’t leave you in a lurch.”

“It’s a shame you can’t do the show with Adrien. He’d probably feel a lot safer with you lifting him in the air.”

The two shared a smile before a scream broke out and an Akuma appeared.

“You think you can replace me pretty boy?”

Angel, of course. Adrien glanced at Luka, knowing Marinette would feel better if they split their potions between the Miraculous holders that were with them now. He hoped the same teamwork they just showed stayed with them in the battle.

                                              ________________

“You know, Chat Noir and Viperion have pretty amazing chemistry on ice.”

Adrien flinched as he heard Alya say that. Like Spider Man, Alya still managed to get footage of battles even when she was involved. During the fight with Angel, or Ice Demon as he was called then, they spilt into pairs to work together during attacks. He meant to stay with Ladybug, but they got separated early on and Viperion had caught him when he got knocked off his feet. Luka skated with the same ease as before and the two had managed to come up with a plan to keep Ice Demon distracted so Ladybug could use her Lucky Charm and get his item. Like they’d been practising earlier, the two worked together with ease.

“Like, I know Chat and Ladybug are really good together and Chat seems to work well with any of the other heroes but there’s something amazing about the way he and Viperion worked together.”

Marinette glanced at Adrien, shooting him a smirk. “Yeah, like they’re one.”

He rolled his eyes. With knowing each other identities, it was easier to talk during patrols and he let it slip how he thought Luka was cute. He expected Marinette to be uncomfortable with it seeing how she dated him, but Marinette jumped at the chance to tease him.

“Luka and I decided we were better as friends. Even after I got over you, it just felt like I couldn’t really fully be with him and it wasn’t fair. I’ll admit, I never would have thought to hear you call him cute. I wonder what he thinks of you?”

Marinette loved to tease him now that they were much more comfortable with each other.

“Adrien.” The blond looked up to see Phillippe coming over to him, looking upset. “Angel pulled out at the last minute. I’ve called other backups, but they all have other shows. I can’t even get my friend to lend us one of the people from the show to help. We might have to cancel the recital.”

Humbling as it was to call it a simple recital, Adrien knew that this was big for Phillipe. The performance was to showcase what would appear here with the Cirque du Soleil company and drum up business for Phillippe.

“What if someone took his place?” Adrien said, not even thinking. Actually, he was. He was just hoping it paid off. “Luka was practising the lift with me yesterday and we got it down. I think he could do it.”

“Yes, yes, call him!”

“Call who, where’s the fire?” Luka asked, his guitar case on his back. Adrien’s guess was he came from his delivery job. He always carried his guitar with him on his job.

“Ah Luka! Angel ended up dropping out and I’m short a performer.” Phillippe said.

“Did he now?” Luka asked, sharing a look with Adrien. Most Akuma victims didn’t give up on what they loved because they thought it’d be giving into what Hawk Moth wanted, but Angel had thrown a huge fit when he was saved and stormed off. Adrien hoped that he wouldn’t stop skating.

“Adrien said you learned how to do with the lift with him. Would it be possible for you to do the performance with us?”

Luka shrugged. “I don’t mind. If it helps.” Luka went stumbling back with how hard Philippe ran up and hugged him.

“Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you.” Luka patted Phillippe’s back while sharing a look with Adrien.

The day of the recital, performance, showcase, whatever they wanted to call it, it was right before free skate began and €5 got spectators online access to get first in line to buy tickets for Crystal. Adrien could hear his extensive fan group screaming his name.

“Ready?” Luka asked, looking rather good in his suit. He had Marinette to blame for that.

“I guess. At least I know one person won’t drop me.”

“I try my best.”

And of course, he didn’t. they even managed to let go of each other on the music. He felt out of breath when he skid across the ice but he was sure people couldn’t tell with the huge smile on his face.

“Thank you everyone! What you saw today was an edited part of something you can see at Cirque du Soleil’s ice skating show Crystal, which will happen here. Your tickets today will give you access to early ticket sales. I am very lucky that my dear friend is part of the cast and I’m sure you can ask any of these performers about how much they enjoyed, including Paris’ very own Adrien Agreste.” He gave a small smile to the people. He then noticed Luka skating up to him and handing him a bouquet of flowers. “And Luka Couffaine. These two were our youngest performers. Please, a round of applause.”

He pulled Luka down, “Thanks. I’m sure they would have given us the flowers in the change rooms.”

“Who said they were from Phillippe?”

Oh. Damn it, with the smirk on Luka’s lips, Adrien was sure Luka was clued into his minor (it was minor, and he wouldn’t hear of it from Marinette, Plagg or even Tikki) crush. He hoped he wouldn’t have to deal with anymore ice type villains with Viperion soon. He had a feeling Luka would want to test something if it came to that.

[ducklingdraws]

My Idea for a Scooby-Doo! Reboot

So a while back, after noticing that Scooby-Doo: Mystery Incorporated was on Spectrum On Demand, I decided, "Hey, I'm gonna rewatch this show." I don't know why I did it, because I rarely ever rewatch shows. I'll watch reruns, but never have I actually decided to rewatch a television series. But, I did it for Scooby-Doo.

And frankly, I had forgotten how good the show was. It's honestly really dark, while also being absolutely hilarious; and in its humor, the show actually does really unique things with the Scooby-Doo gang, with the biggest example being this show's version of Fred Jones. It's wild. But in my opinion, the thing that really makes this show what it is...

...is its story. I feel like the story and characters are fuel for this show in a way that feels different from other shows, somehow. I don't really get it, but that's the way I see it.

So, seeing as there's all these serialized cartoon series nowadays, and Scooby-Doo is always getting rebooted in one way or another, I figured... what if I rebooted Scooby? If I had the opportunity to reboot Scooby-Doo and the only Warner Bros requirement was "just make it," what would I do with it?

Without further ado, this is To the Future, Scooby-Doo!

First up: The Premise

To kick things off, I'll discuss how the show is set up. This version of Scooby-Doo is set in the future. Technology has become more holographic and stuff like in the movies, but fashion hasn't evolved to be nothing but latex bodysuits yet. Flying cars are real but not very widely used, and clothes can tell the time.

On the biological side of things, prosthetics are holographic as well, and incredibly easy to attach. It's almost like having your original limb. Food is healthier while also being more environmentally friendly, and animals have been genetically modified for a very long time. They have been allowed to mate, which has eventually lead to many domesticated animals being able to speak!

The main setting is a large port town known as Port Intrigue, where all sorts of goods are traded, and many people lead peaceful lives. It's a nice place, and a lot of the economy is structured around it. There are other important trade cities like it, but Port Intrigue may be the most powerful.

It's also probably the weirdest, because in true Scooby-Doo fashion, no one can just "be a criminal." Heck no! Where's the fun in that?? If you're gonna try and get money through illegal fear tactics, you've gotta do it in style!!

And for some reason or another, the police get a little help with solving a lot of the more, uh... colorful mysteries. Help from a group of kids attending Intrigue High...

Next up: The Scooby Gang!

So here's the big part! All of my redesigns of the classic gang! Let's kick it off with:

FRED JONES

So this version of Fred is definitely toned back from various recent versions of Scooby-Doo, particularly the DVD movies and Mystery Incorporated. He's a lot more laid back, and has a sort of "cool guy" persona.

One day a long time ago, his parents, 2 great scientists, didn't pick him up from school, and apparently they mysteriously disappeared. So since then he's been living with Shaggy. At Intrigue High, he is in the theater program as a Tech, so he's good with pulleys and ropes and other various behind-the-scenes theater things, which makes him really good at making weird Rube Goldbergs - and traps, whenever the need arises. But when would Fred ever need to build a trap?

NORVILLE "SHAGGY" ROGERS

...Y'all can excuse the scribbles in the lower corner, right?

Anyway, this version of Shaggy is just as uptight as he always is, but instead of that only being attributed to mystery solving and creepy ghoulies, it's evolved into some much, much greater!!!

He's the mom friend now.

Y'know, telling everyone to watch their eating habits and be careful of opening soda cans because so help me if you scratch yourself...!

Long time ago he lost his arm so now he has one of those cool prosthetics. The trauma of losing it though has made him extra cautious, and a bit of a scaredy cat. Of course, he's willing to do whatever it takes for his friends, just like the Shaggy we all know!

He still likes to eat and is a bit of an amateur chef, participating in the culinary club at Intrigue High.

VELMA DINKLEY

This is my rendition of Velma Dinkley. She's still the smartest one of the group, and good at technology, but is also a boxer! She's not just strong, but also strong willed!

The Dinkley's have a long, long history of scientific endeavors, and Velma's father is a great scientist as well! Though really, it's more of a hobby for him.

Velma lives with her younger sister Madelyn (who some of you might remember from Abracadabra-Doo) and her father, Victor.

This Velma is snarky, yet quirky. She's got a real go-getter mentality, which everyone can't help but to respect.

DAPHNE BLAKE

Daphne Blake is a bit of a softie. She was never very forward with making friends, but developed a clique of her own with Fred, Shaggy, Scooby and Velma.

Her house used to be the gang's main hang out spot, but after the kids moved on to high school, they haven't been over to her house at all.

Daphne likes to draw, and really wants to be a fashion designer. In fact, she's a part of Intrigue High's costume design team for the theater program!

SCOOBY-DOO

Scooby-Doo has been part of the Rogers family ever since he was a puppy, and Shaggy was a little kid. The two have been basically inseparable their whole lives, with Scooby even attending school with everyone else.

He likes belly rubs, scratches behind the ear, and food. So in other words, he's the same Scooby we all know and love! Still fearful, but dedicated to his friends, including...

MEASLES

Shaggy and Scooby may have been buds since they were little kids, but before Shaggy, Scooby had Measles.

Since they're both GMO animals, they both have the ability to speak human language, which they would use to try and get food. Eventually, Measles was able to get Scooby into a good home with the Rogers family. Unfortunately, Mr and Mrs Rogers couldn't afford to take care of Shaggy, Fred, a dog, and a cat, but Measles promised to visit Scooby whenever she could, or that they'd at least see each other around. And she's kept that promise! Even to this day, the gang will sometimes find her in random locations, like... the Theater Program's costume box?

Measles has a lackadaisical, yet somewhat snarky personality, but definitely cares for her friends. It just may take a while to show it.

Last up: Everything Else

Uh, hm. I guess this is the generalization of the show.

Well, it's a giant celebration of Scooby-Doo. The gang wears different outfits, rarely wearing the same one in consecutive episodes. And each outfit would be pulled from a previous Scooby series (yes, including *shivers*... Get a Clue).

Also, other characters from previous series and Scooby media are not only in the show, but play decently sized rolls. For example, I already mentioned Madelyn Dinkley, but there's also Red Herring from A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, or Mayor Nettles and Sherriff Bronson Stone from Mystery Incorporated (they're married from the start this time!). Even the dreaded Scrappy Doo makes his return at (what I imagine to be) the start of Season 2, hopefully to redeem himself and not be relegated to a tired joke about "lol Scrappee sux XD"

Flim-Flam is back too, but is rebranded as Frida McScam, the fast talking troublemaking free spirited girl who takes everybody's crap and spins it in her favor (and also might be psychic).

Scooby's family tree is mentioned, and his parents even have a major role in Season 1.

Just a whole lot of Scooby-Doo trivia and stuff. Stuff that I imagine the people working on the show would be way, way better at remembering and putting to use than I am!

As for the overarching plot?

Well, what futuristic setting would be complete without aliens? I imagine the aliens would be a race of owl creatures known as the Willawaw (another Scooby reference because I hope this show is FULL OF THEM). Basically, these aliens are the bad guys, both in the show proper, and in a lot of the show's backstory. They're like myth villains, or greater scope villains, or something.

I was even thinking like, when the gang ends up running, rather than using a recyclable run cycle from a side view, everyone could have brand new running animations, like to distinguish them all as unique. Although I guess that's what the running cycles were... but the chase scenes are a lot like Mystery Inc, where they were a lot more action packed. It could be great! And of course, everyone would use the classic running style at some point throughout the show, because that seems to be tradition for Scooby-Doo.

This was a really big post! But if you read all of it, thanks a million! I hope you liked the small amount of art within, or just the idea in general! Maybe I'll even draw my reimagined takes on the other characters some day. But for now, I'll leave at this.

[fringerewatch]

Fringe Rewatch #18: “Ability”

“Ability” (Season 1, Episode 14)

Written by: David H. Goodman

Directed by: Norberto Barbra

Originally Aired: February 10th, 2009

Glyph Code: OLIVIA

Boy, it’s been awhile. I haven’t ran this blog in 5 years and I left the rewatch off at “The Transformation” where we ended the John Scott arc. While some believe “Bound” (Episode 11) to be the start of the second half of season 1, since it comes after the winter hiatus, I have always believed The Transformation to be the end of the first half of season 1 and Ability to be the start of the second half, especially with the debut of Cortexiphan. And what a start it is. 

I feel Olivia Dunham was heavily inspired by Clarice Starling, being a capable and clever agent who is always doubted, looked down upon, and both with being a woman in a field populated by men. For that reason it made a lot of sense that there was a bit of a Hannibal Lecter vibe with David Robert Jones in his debut (episode 7) Jared Harris is fantastic in the role, though “Ability” does change a bit. He feels like a combination of Hannibal in the way he tests Olivia but also has a little bit of John Doe from Seven as unpredictable and playing mind games with his captors. In fact, the scene of David Robert Jones surrendering himself to the FBI is almost shot for shot from John Doe surrendering in Seven. And this being a a couple months after The Dark Knight, there’s some Heath Ledgar Joker trickery thrown in there as well. 

There’s a lot in play with “Ability” we find the ZFT manuscript, DRJ is suffering from his transportation, we get the mention of Liv and cortexiphan, the ending with the lights, and Walter realizing he wrote the ZFT manuscript. There’s...a lot. 

The episode starts out a bit weird with a recap of the ending of “Safe” (Episode 10) and possibly the scariest pattern event yet with the skin covering up your eyes and mouth to kill you. That is some scary stuff and I’m glad they eventually bring this back in season 5. Jones goes into a tank to help his body process the transportation effects. While Walter and Astrid work on the case of the human sewing shut skin, Olivia cutely asks Peter if he as a “weird connection” to find the ZFT manuscript. Peter indeed does have a weird connection (he always does) and we get to meet Edward, a bookstore owner who will creepily have Olivia as a coffee table in season 5. Charlie and his partner Tommie, who has an unusal amount of close ups and dialogue for a character we’ve never met before so you just knew he had to be working for ZFT or was going to get killed, find evidence to where DRJ is hiding just as DRJ makes his Seven inspired surrender. 

Sanford continues to be a thorn in the side of Olivia and Broyles when it comes to questions DRJ and throws in a “We don’t negotiate with terrorists” line. Maybe one day I’ll talk about the show using very specific terminology like terrorists attacks and negotiating with terrorists, which is a very post-9/11 world (In their defense, they are the FBI) and then using the world trade centers as a visual to represent the alternate universe. Back to this episode, Olivia once again has to find concrete evidence for the bigs in the FBI to let her do her job. A raid on Jones’ safe house leads to Olivia finding a drawing Jones made of her and, you guessed it, the death of poor old Tommie. This death leads to Sanford giving into Jones’ demands and Jones performs an elaborate experiment to get him and Olivia some alone time. He leaves a package for her to complete the, now iconic in my mind, light test. 

And this is where the episode gets really interesting. In a rewatch, we of course, know that Olivia was indeed used in the cortexiphan trials and we know why Jones wants to use Olivia’s powers for his own gain, and we know that Olivia does posses the power to turn off the lights. However, back in 2009 (or whenever you first saw this episode) “Ability: is playing mind games with it’s audience the same way Olivia believed Jones was playing her. Does Olivia actually have powers? Could she really use her mind to turn off the lights? Or was this all a game just to mess with her. If it was a game, what was Jones’ goal? Just to put doubt in her? I know Olivia makes the argument that Jones just wanted to get close to Walter and the episode ends with us knowing Walter may have written the ZFT manuscript, so it would make sense why Jones wants to see Walter, but it also wouldn’t really excuse why Jones has been quite obsessed with her. But if Olivia did really turn off the lights, that means she has powers from this cortexiphan, and that opens a lot of doors. Doors that we’ll eventually go through as we continue the rewatch. Again, it seems a bit silly today to think of this episode’s light test and be of course Liv has powers! But only 14 episodes into Fringe’s story, we have seen weird stuff, but Liv with some kind of super power was a pretty big leap for the show. It’s easy to see how audiences would think Jones was just screwing with her. 

The light test also allows Olivia to have a heroic moment. We’ve seen Liv be a badass and can take down the baddies, but we haven’t seen a lot of Olivia being a hero. Her decision to stay and try to turn off the lights with her mind, something she doesn’t 100% believe, is a heroic mark. It’s also a bit of her maybe being drawn into this idea that Jones might not be telling all lies. The shots going back and forth between her and the lights before they finally start to go out is probably the most intense scene we’ve had so far. Also, I don’t think enough is said about Peter’s decision to leave and then go back and watch Olivia turn off the lights. If she couldn’t turn them off (and thus going with the idea that Jones didn’t set it up for the lights to always go off with 2 seconds to spare) both Olivia and Peter would have died. You can make the argument that he wouldn’t have been able to get far away enough, so either way he could’ve died, but I feel like this episode is part of Peter embracing the weird, that anything can really happen, and him really caring for Olivia and can’t bare to just leave her alone. A nice touch was him standing behind her, but not giving her vocal encouragement, and still allowing this to be her moment. 

Then that finale! Olivia gets word from Nina that there were cortexiphan trials in Jacksonville and we can see from her face, that there’s now a real possibility Jones was telling the truth. Walter has been gazing over the ZFT book with great interest and we notice how the y is indented in the book. Walter uses his typewriter to confirm his suspicions, that he wrote the ZFT manuscript. This is some scary stuff considering ZFT’s terrorism and gives the audience a reason to start to mistrust Walter. For one, he can’t even remember the things he’s done, and we know his experiments have crossed a moral line. I feel like this is a bit downplayed in the next episode (and possibly putting fuel to the fire that some of the fringe episodes seem to be a bit out of order) but it was a great little clue to the larger Fringe story. 

And that was “Ability”. One of my absolute favorites from season 1. This really feels like the show finding it’s voice and getting into the meat of the story. Jones continues to be a great villain, Olivia is emerging as a reluctant hero, the relationship between Olivia and Peter grows, and we’re not sure exactly what Walter has done. It’s a solid 10/10 episode, no real complaints from me. 

Next week, we’ll continue to “Inner Child” an episode that does feel a bit out of place after this heavy one, although that could be the point, but also an episode that is incredibly important to the Fringe story. 

[emoshinso]

What Makes Purple Boy so Weird?: Notes on the storytelling strategies employed in Shinsou’s introduction arc

*By ‘weird,’ I mean intriguing/interesting, but in a break-the-mold kinda way.

This really has no objective other than I wanted to break down what makes Shinsou’s intro arc so impactful. Specifically, the buildup before his quirk reveal.

As heroic and well-intentioned as our boy is, the creators do a very good job creating an air of ominous suspense before revealing his true character and quirk in his match against Deku. Up till then, it’s like they wanted us to think Shinsou was a bad guy...

Part commentary, part analysis 

Just kinda… finding an excuse to rewatch the Sports Festival arc while focusing on Shinsou’s perspective.

this post goes from his first appearance in episode 15 to the beginning of episode 20

in the future, I plan on dedicating an entire post just to his fight against Deku - but in the meantime, this one centers on the buildup before his quirk reveal

So, if you’re interested, read on! If not, I understand. This is gonna be one heckin nerdy ramble. oh gosh im so excited

First Appearance: Episode 15: Roaring Sports Festival 

Confrontation with Bakugo

First, some background on what’s going on right before our boy shows up: The day after Aizawa introduces the sports festival, a bunch of kids from the general studies department show up at the hero class’s threshold, right? There’s no explanation as to why. They’re all kinda just... there (psst it’s for the drama. Large crowds create intrigue.)

Dekusquad mutters collectively, wondering if the general studies kids are scouting the competition… The general studies kids don’t really answer or react. They just keep gawking awkwardly. (psst once again: it’s purely for the drama)

Enter: Bakugo. Trying to leave for the day, but those damn gen studies kids are in his way.

“Move it, extras.”

This prompts a reaction. From one student, at least. 

“So this is Class 1-A? I heard you guys were impressive, but you just sound like an ass.”

First time we see Shinsou: pushing his way unapologetically through the other general studies kids. First impression: he already kinda looks like a jerk. Him being at the back of the crowd also makes me think Shinsou didn’t exactly jump at the chance to size up 1-A after school like his classmates, but eventually gave in and followed them over a bit later. Then after that “extras” comment out of Blasty Boy, he decided to retaliate. A jerk with a bit of a proud streak.

”Scouting the competition? Maybe some of my peers are, but I came to let you know that if you don’t bring your very best, I’ll steal your spot right out from under you. Consider this a declaration of war.”

What a drama queen.

That’s all he says. That pretty much concludes his first notable appearance as a character

His appearance essentially serves two purposes: 1) to (fleetingly) introduce him as a character 2)  to establish how resentful the general studies department is towards 1-A

It’s important to note that he didn’t get any of those usual name + quirk tag thingies that occasionally pop up whenever a new character is introduced (or as a reminder for recurring characters)

AND he never introduces himself (he just straight up declares war and falls silent, the little shit xD)

Point being, forget his quirk, we don’t even learn his name right away. For all intents and purposes, he’s just that random purple asshole who declared war for no good reason

And as soon as Shinsou delivers his little war monologue, Tetsutetsu shows up, shouting loud and a n g e r y. His and Bakugo’s little shouting match quickly overshadows Shinsou’s cold declaration, making it even easier for both the other characters and the audience to forget about Shinsou pretty quick. Despite that very conspicuous purple hair, the chronic insomnia, and the WHITE PUPILS.

I know I kinda forgot about him - the first time watching, at least.

Sports Festival Opening Ceremony

The next time we see Shinsou, he’s walking into the arena with the other 1-C kids, who are all looking pretty dejected about being forced to participate in a competition rigged to make them look inferior:

“We’re just here to make [the hero kids] look better...”

“Yeah, I can’t wait for this to be over...”

It’s a key reminder that Shinsou is one of these kids, and by all logic should be thinking the same thing. But his expression is hard to read: 

Is he bored? Tired? Ready for it all to be over like those other kids? Or is he steeling himself to make good on his declaration of war?

We don’t really get a chance to find out. Not until MUCH later...

Todoroki’s Ice Trick

The next shot we see of Shinsou is my absolute FAVORITE. After getting through the tunnel to the obstacle course, Todoroki uses ice attack. It’s super effective, but somehow there’s still plenty of students who dodged it including our boy Shinsou

A LOT is going on. We see shots of all the different students who evaded Todoroki: Yaoyorozu, Bakugo, Aoyama (lol), Ashido... the montage ends with Uraraka, who makes a comment about waiting for the right time to show off her quirk, and hence alludes to someone else who’s trying to be sneaky:

“So they are good at using their powers, huh?”

What I love most about this scene is first time watching I LITERALLY DID NOT QUESTION the fact that he was being carried by three other students

I chalked it up to him being a charismatic figure in his class who somehow convinced his fellow students to carry him as part of some elaborate grand strategy

And hey... I wasn’t wrong?

Also interesting to note how none of the three non-brainwashed students around him seem too concerned he’s hitching a free ride on their classmates... they’re all too busy dealing with Todoroki’s ice

Point being, between Todoroki’s flashy ice attack and the other students’ equally flashy evasive maneuvers, it was pretty easy for us as an audience to overlook that one purple-haired kid who decided to play cavalry battle a little early. The inclusion of the extra kids stumbling around him in the frame also helps him blend into the background. All this seems very intentional on both the animators’/Horikoshi’s part AND as part of Shinsou’s grand strategy. 

Episode 15 ends with us still wondering what this guy’s deal is...

Episode 16: In Their Own Quirky Ways

We don’t see Shinsou at all this episode, which both builds up the suspense and leaves me with a lot of questions:

Q: How did he get past the robots? (Theory 1: By using other kids’ quirks and directing them like his own personal quirk army 2: (more likely) waited till a path was clear and ran through)

Q: How did he get past the chasm? (Theory 1: Again, by hitching a ride with a kid with the ideal quirk 2: Human rope?)

Q: How’d he get past the MINES?! (Theory: By brainwashing other students to walk ahead of him and clear a path)

Regardless of how he got through the course, the ONLY glimpse of Shinsou we get is when Midnight goes over the rankings in the race. Shinsou came in 27th, by the way, not that you’d even notice because the camera cuts off almost before you even see him in the rankings. (I couldn’t even pause it that fast) I have no idea if that was intentional or not, but man does it fit the mood:

This is also the first time we see his name.

But it’s so fast literally no one could’ve actually read and retained it without the help of a quirk. I know I didn’t. BUT I remember from the first time watching, this one tiny glimpse of the random purple asshole with the derpy ass smile ranking so high was enough to make me start wondering just what this guy’s deal was...

It was enough to get me curious. But I wasn’t invested quite yet. 

Also, in retrospect, my absolute favorite thing about this screenshot is all the other contestants look angry/disappointed by their ranking EXCEPT FOR SHINSOU. Nope, he just looks like a smug little asshole happy to be the ONLY rep from Class 1-C.

And that further adds to the suspense...

Episode 17: Strategy, Strategy, Strategy

Once again, we only get glimpses of Shinsou this episode. But they’re crucial: 

1: Him smirking as the rules for the cavalry battle are explained. Makes us wonder, as an audience: why does he look so confident when everyone else is gritting their teeth over this? What advantage does he have?

(Notes brought to you by 20/20 hindsight: He was probably so confident because he literally had his pick of teammates. As soon as he asked anyone about teaming up and they answered, boom, they were on the team. I would guess he intentionally picked teammates that wouldn’t stand out (no offense Aoyama,) so he could hang around and not call attention to himself during the cavalry battle, both from other teams and from the commentators.)

AND WAIT. LOOK HERE:

2: Once all the teams have coalesced, they’re all just kinda standing around haphazardly, or facing each other slightly to talk strategy... BUT NOT SHINSOU’S. They’re all facing the same direction he is. Yep, you guessed it... they’re already brainwashed.

3:

At the ready with his team. This also marks the second time we see his name. But it’s not announced, it only appears in tiny letters/kanji in the scoring bracket. Also note that his teammates are definitely all brainwashed now, but we wouldn’t be able to tell unless we were looking for it. Aoyama really doesn’t look too different lol

4:

Before the episode ends, we get our first glance at the scoreboard. The game’s already been underway for a bit by now, and Shinsou’s team is at 0 points. Which means Shinsou most likely let Monoma take his bandana to avoid being targeted later in the game, and therein, avoid attention.

End of episode 17. Still no name (unless you were super attentive), and no quirk.

Episode 18: Cavalry Battle Finale

Between the Todoroki vs. Midoriya and the Monoma vs. Bakugo showdowns, there’s so much drama happening it’s no surprise Present Mic didn’t pay much attention to Team Shinsou...

...and that really left me wondering... What were they up to this whole time?

Quick glance at the scoreboard tells us he’s still at zero, and he stays that way for most of the episode again:

BUT. WAIT FOR IT.

HERE’S THE SCOREBOARD RIGHT AFTER PRESENT MIC ANNOUNCED THERE WERE ONLY 11 SECONDS LEFT:

TETSUTETSU STILL HAS HIS POINTS.

Which means...

TEAM SHINSOU MANAGED TO SWIPE THE POINTS IN LESS THAN 11 SECONDS.

Just look how smug he is about it too:

“In third place is Team Tetsute- wait, what?! It’s Team Shinsou! When did they come back from the dead?!”

Point being, Present Mic is so surprised by Shinsou’s comeback he almost says the wrong name. Thanks to all the drama radiating off of Monoma and the Traffic Light Trifecta and Shinsou’s strategy of staying out of the fray until the last possible second, he pulled off a victory without anyone even knowing who the heck he is or what he can do.

This also marks the first time his name is stated clearly enough to catch.

Also note his confused (and frightened) teammates behind him. How ominous...

Little by little, we’re getting hints at who he actually is as a character, which up to this point, still looks a lot like ‘first class jerk’

that smug grin gahhh

Episode 19: The Boy Born with Everything

Okay, here’s where things get  s u p e r  dramatic. 

First half of the episode is dedicated to Todoroki and Deku’s little confrontation, so gives us more time to forget about our purple son...

Second half jumps into discussing the next round: sixteen contestants remaining, waiting to be divided into one-on-one matches. Things are progressing smoothly until....

OJIRO WITHDRAWS. 

Everyone’s shocked, why the heck would this kid pass up on the chance of a lifetime? Ojiro explains it’s a matter of pride for him:  “It just wouldn’t be right. I barely remember anything from the cavalry battle until the very end of it. I… think it was that guy’s quirk.”

“Wait, who was Ojiro with again?” 

Again, no one seems to remember. But once Ojiro points him out, the camera pans over to Shinsou, who looks away. As if he’s worried about getting exposed. Interestingly enough, however, Ojiro doesn’t immediately reveal what Shinsou’s quirk is (which also might have to do with his personal honor code), instead just presses to withdraw:

“Everyone gave their all in Round 2, but I was just someone’s puppet. I don’t want to advance if I don’t even know how I got here.”

‘Someone’s puppet’? That’s ominous as hell...  but once again, it doesn’t fully reveal what Shinsou did. Ojiro could’ve been speaking metaphorically for all we know at this point. But it sure makes us start wondering what the heck’s up with this purple guy, and just what his true motives are...

Later on, once the full bracket’s announced, Izuku looks at the lineup. He’s initially more concerned about the prospect of facing down Todoroki, but then he remembers he’s got a whole match ahead of that: “First I’ve got to worry about this Shinsou guy (whoever the hell he is...)” As someone who  l o v e s  to collect and analyse data on heroes and quirks, it probably bothers Izuku to no end that he knows absolutely nothing about his upcoming opponent. 

“Izuku Midoriya, that is you, isn’t it?”

To top it off, SHINSOU SNEAKS UP ON HIM. I mean, in all fairness, it probably isn’t even that hard to sneak up on Izuku, given how lost in his head he gets. But again, it helps build that aura of suspense: Shinsou’s the type of character to sneak up on people. He’s also the type to stay out sight, use clever strategy instead of shine in the limelight like a typical hero in the BNHA world would. In all fairness, he’s acting a lot like a villain would.

Izuku: “You’re the guy from before, from general studies?”

Shinsou: “A pleasure. So, are you excited?”

Once again. Doesn’t even properly introduce himself. What is with this guy and introductions? And before Izuku gets a chance to respond, Ojiro intervenes, covering Izuku’s mouth with his tail and leaving Shinsou to smirk and walk away.

Izuku: “Ojiro, what’s the deal?”

Ojiro: “You can’t say a word to him.”

These are the first real clues we get as to what Shinsou’s quirk actually is and how it works. but we still. don’t. get. full. disclosure. 

The scene cuts to the side games / preparations of the remaining contestants for the final round: 

I really appreciate the sheer amount of dread on Izuku’s face. 

This is a meme. We all have Shinsou to thank for this meme. At this point, we can’t even hear what they’re discussing, we just know it’s making a nervous boi  e x t r a  nervous...

A few scenes later, and we finally get what we’ve all been waiting for:

“Whoa, he looks kinda scared in that picture, doesn’t he? It’s Izuku Midoriya from the hero course!!” 

VS.

“Hitoshi Shinsou from general studies, who really hasn’t done anything to stand out yet…” 

Once again, Present Mic reminds us just how much of a dark horse Shinsou is. Discounting a few strategic bits and pieces, two whole rounds have passed already, and we still know next to nothing about him. It’s interesting to note how Present Mic explains the rules of the match too:

“The rules are simple: immobilize your opponent or force him out of the ring!! You can also win by making the other person cry uncle. Anything goes… so don’t be afraid to put your morals aside and play dirty!”

Which Shinsou does. 

He starts playing before the match even begins, already trying to get Izuku to talk:

“So you can just give up, huh?”

Izuku doesn’t respond, so Shinsou continues:

“In a way, this is a test of how strong your spirit is. If you know what you want your future to hold for you, you can’t worry about what other people think.”  

Present Mic: “READY?!”

“That monkey was going on about his pride earlier...”

Present Mic: “BEGIN!”

“...but I just think he’s an idiot for throwing away his chance like that.”

Shinsou started playing even before the match began, and he started off by saying a whole lot of incendiary things: 

Why would you care what other people thought of you? (In a world where pro heroes depend on popular appeal for their livelihood, that’s not something a typical aspiring hero would say...)

“That monkey... is an idiot” (insulting a former teammate... not very hero-like) 

Who cares about pride? (People who say that often hint they’re willing to get their hands dirty if the ends justify the means... again, not very hero-like)

In retrospect, of course we know Shinsou’s primary motivation for saying all those things was to elicit a response from Izuku, but at the time... it just made him look like a jerk. Maybe even a jerk with a potential villainous streak...

Regardless, it does get a rise out of Izuku, and that’s when it finally happens. 

We openly see Shinsou use his quirk for the first time.

Izuku freezes.

Everyone’s shocked. But even then not everyone understands what’s going on yet... even Present Mic seems confused, even possibly chalking it up to stage fright:

“Huh?! What’s the dealio? This is the first match, it should start out with a bang! The fight has just begun and Izuku Midoriya is… completely frozen?!”

AND THAT’S WHERE EPISODE 19 ENDS.

WE STILL DON’T KNOW SHINSOU’S QUIRK.

Yes, we’ve seen it in action, we can infer, but it still takes a whole episode to put a clear label on it...

Episode 20: Victory or Defeat

Way to build up the suspense with a corny episode title am I right

Present Mic introduces us back into the fray:  “Izuku Midoriya is completely frozen?! He’s not moving a muscle! And what’s with that look on his face? Could this be a quirk at work? Hitoshi Shinsou seems to have Izuku Midoriya completely stunned!”

Let’s take a quick inventory on just how sh00k everyone is:

Concerned frens. I was too the first time I watched this. I think we all were. Our baby Izuku’s been frozen by the weird purple jerk who we don’t really have any sympathy for yet.

Even the pro heroes are stunned. They don’t seem to have any idea what’s going on either, which suggests maybe they haven’t seen a quirk like Shinsou’s before...

BUT what really gets me are these guys. I’m pretty certain they’re all general studies kids. Shinsou’s classmates. Meaning they KNOW Shinsou. And assumedly they know his quirk too, since that’s like the second question that comes up whenever you meet someone in this universe, right after “What’s your name?” YET THEY’RE JUST AS SHOCKED AS EVERYONE ELSE. Which makes me wonder... what if Shinsou never told his UA classmates what his quirk was?

Regardless, it builds up the suspense even more. 

And at long last, as the crowd still sits stunned, Aizawa steps in to finally answer all our unspoken questions:

“Since we’re on to the individual matches, I had some information compiled about our final competitors. Shinsou failed the practical exam to get into the hero course. Since he also applied for general studies, he probably figured that would happen. His quirk is incredibly strong, but that entrance test consisted of fighting faux villains. It gave a huge advantage to those who had physical superpowers they could show off. Despite his abilities, Shinsou never stood a chance at passing.”

He never stood a chance beCAUSE...

*cue ambient unsettling music*

Izuku turns around and starts walking out of bounds.

EVERYONE FLIPS THE HELL OUT.

All Might, watching from the sidelines: “What is this power?”

And finally, thanks to Aizawa’s data, Present Mic tells us:

‘When an opponent answers his question, it flips a switch in their minds, forcing them to do whatever he says. Not every question does it though. He only brainwashes when he wants to.” 

There it is.

After five episodes of ominous, behind-the-scenes buildup, we finally have it. I don’t know about everyone else, but I was blown away. Looking back, it made total sense, and I had no idea how I didn’t figure it out beforehand, (maybe someone did, lol, I am kind of a dumbass). But, main point here: Shinsou’s intro had a lot of great suspense built into it, culminating in his match with Izuku, which reveals not only his quirk but also his true character (which I’ll talk about in a future post - specifically how Shinsou’s backstory reveal completely flips our perception of him). Along the way, we had plenty of opportunities to forget about Shinsou, discount him - at least in favor of our already well-established favorites - and most importantly, type cast him as villainous. But all that turns on its head the moment we learn what he can do - and as I’ll talk about later on, when we find out his true intentions.

What a brilliant intro. 

And he knows it too. Just look how smug he is.