#which is def foreshadowing btw

[envious-dior]

avatar fic where there’s another scientist on augustine’s squad except they’re not there to study plants or the life on Pandora, they are there to only make skincare for the company they work with and sell it to rich people

i adore this to pieces i might make this into a fic (completely ignoring my miguel ohara series it will see the light one day. one day.)

[jennyanypenny]

Soo heard ya seen the georgetown palace production of cats with the female munk kinda curious on ur thoughts on whats the production like?

It was fun :o3 Im forgetting stuff already, but I do know that seeing it changed my opinions on Skimbleshanks.

Using this ask as an excuse to write down a summary for myself (not in exact song order uhhh)

Starting numbers were good. Don’t have much to say, but seeing it live and kinda close is def different from seeing 5 pixel bootlegs!! These cats are people sized!! Also you could hear the noise when they pounced on the floor. I think some of that had to do with how small the theatre was. Also Vickys solo was mostly on a pole. I thought that they wouldn’t keep the sensuality of her parts but they did!

The Old Gumbie Cat number was soo good. But that was expected from the best song in the musical. Ive already praised Munku’s actress so :o3 .The gumbie trio sounded wonderful!! But during their part they did stuff with sticks and it was definitely a bit too loud.. The guys were the mice instead of the girl kits. They made a cute little shawl for Jenny out of rope that she wore throughout the show. Rumpel and Mungo may or may not have stolen it later. The beetles tattoo was very good! I think ive already mentioned it but Munkus led most of it. Jenny did lead some of it tho. She also came in inside of a shoe-car?? Oversized light up sneaker that she was riding. Supports my hc that these cats are 3 centimeters tall.

Oki so I missed some of The RTT because im lame and I can never watch this number without looking away for a bit. Anyways, the actor was funny as hell. Made silly faces through the show. Sillabub had a “I ❤️ Tugger” cardboard sign. Very important. Bomba and Tugger were def very close. Munkus and Tugger hung out a lot too! He got a lil crown during the number from his fangirls :3 . The end bit went on for some time but it made me giggle from what I remember so it was good 👍

Bustopher Jones sounded very nice. Very jolly. Wasn’t the full song I think. Some of the cats didn’t seem to like him which lame 🙄!! (Misto and Skimble were very exited tho!). Jenny still had the crush and got a flower at the end¿. (im forgetting stuff already) Also Bustopher Jones existed outside of his song! Win for Bustopher fans everywhere.

Mungo and Rumpel were trying to be funny I think?? But a lot of it came of like those parodies of Cats. Yknow, the ones were the cat role isnt taken seriously and its like “hahah, hairballs”. Was not a fan. Hated it actually. Maybe I just hate fun idk. They were also in front being silly wayy to much. During multiple numbers. There was some dialogue at the start of their song, them asking if it was safe to come out yet instead of the usual Rumpel laughs. The two actually being scared of Mac isnt something I usually interpret, but mmm has u thinking.

Augh during one of the Scares (not sure which one) they (Deme starts and cats join in) say (not truly sing) a part of Macavity, emphasizing the hypnotizing part (foreshadowing💥). Took away some of the mystery but it didnt bother me that much. They could have made it sound better tho 😭

The Jellicle Ball choreo was a bit disappointing, but I don’t remember much uhh. The music was good tho. Misto lifted Victoria btw, if any of the 3 mistoria shippers see this.

GLAMOUR CAT REPRISE!! GLAMOUR CAT REPRISE HOW I LOVE YOU! After it I think it was just Grizz and Sillabub was there watching her from up high in the set. I dont remember if Old D stayed, but he might have.

Moments of Happiness was good I rlly liked Old Ds voice. Victoria and Jemima had a little dance at the end although this could have also happened before/during the Jellicle Ball.

Gus the Theatre cat was wonderful <33 . Such a great Jelly. One of my favorites (although I already have a lot of favorite Jellys :’3). She was sweet and her voice was nice. The number was def a bit less sad and more funny. Mmm something cute is that like 4 cats worked to place and fluff up a pillow on the hat¿ Gus sat on.

Macavity fight was very cool. There wasn’t the reveal bit. He just came in ready to fight. Demeter fought quite a bit. All the other cats (apart from Munkus [who got their ass beat like usual] and Deme) who hit Mac were all played by male actors. Munk did recover and finish it off tho (I think). Deme was also kitnapped. Definitely a suprise! There was this box they were sliding around and stuff and Mac escaped by going inside with her in it after hypnotizing her. They really played into that part. I somehow missed Old Deuteronomy being kitnapped before all this idk how.

Speaking of Macavity I loved Demeters voice. She was really good. I knew Macavity was gonna be good when I heard her in the opening number 🙏. Bomba had a deeper voice and I rlly liked the playfulness the actress brought to her. Ermm I dont remember much else.

SKIMBLESHANKS THE RAILWAY CAT was awesom. Actor was very expressive. Bustopher appears during this song. There was a bit where mungo/rumpel stole Bustophers’ watch, skimble caught them, and then Bustopher came back to get it and found skimbol with it. ‘,:-\ . Very silly I liked that part. There was also like 2 seconds of tap dancing I swear. Instant bonus points. Everybody loves Skimbleshanks for good reasons and I finally understood why.

Magical Mr Mistoffelees was fun! Its always such a happy joyful song! The Conjuring Turns!!! Holy moly. Its another experience to actually be there clapping. He first conjured up Deme at the very start and then Old Deuteronomy. They hugged a lot <33. Mr. Mistoffelees was very kittenish in this production. It was cute :o3

Memory sounded good I will not deny this! But the acting. It wasnt that emotional.. which is what I mainly like about Memory. She mostly just sung towards the audience. You didn’t really get the feeling she was angry/sad/regretful and desperate.

Grizzabella ascended on a boat. The one that is on the right of the stage in the pic.

Another number my mind was changed on is Addressing of Cats. I think I mentioned it being a least fave in a ask game and yeagh. This is why Growltiger beat it for least fave song. Very awesome. A cat is not a dog.

I enjoyed it! Genuinely never thought I would see it in person until I was much older but I was proved wrong! Also the Cats brainrot was stronger in the weeks leading up to it. (good thing)

According to my mom my dumbass missed when they went through the aisles :’( . I only saw Misto bringing Old D in his arrival. Fave performers where the ones who played Munkus, Jelly, Gus, Old D, Deme and Tugger.

[nadia-zahra]

So getting drunk while watching stranger things actually just leads to me going into full conspiracist mode and thinking EVERYTHING means smth and taking over 200 “evidence” pictures from literally only the first couple of episodes from st4 🥸

Out of all my pics I think this shiz is the most interesting:

First things first this feels a lil on the nose for stranger things. Like "expression necessary to evolution" feels like they're saying "expressing our true selves leads to acceptance and change for the better because being normal sucks ass"

The bball game may actually be st5 final battle foreshadowing along with the dnd game cause wtf is up with these numbers... like we get 20 (which from the dnd game is the winning number but from this game its a stepping stool which is v interesting), we get 11 decked out in red, and Jason and Lucas have a difference of 4 (that's revelevant cause we've seen MULTIPLE time byler and eleven have numbers surouding them have a difference of four).

Oh and this might actually be smth or just miscommunication between costumes and props...but I'm pretty sure Patrick is called #13 when he's actually #23...there's literally not a #13 on the team

The phone number murray was saying is def not what’s on the paper

The clock behind Max is literally wrong like why does it skip over 5?! Why is the 4 red?!

Speaking of Max... why all the mf butterflies surrounding her?!?!?

Guy who is #20 on team is decked out in yellow, Lucas is wearing blue, and Jason looks like Henry while framed between them and watching from afar…mmmm byler senses are tingling.....

Creepy red smiley faces that are just super clear in shots for no reason

the shot of brenner's finished cross word puzzle plus the horoscopes feels important

btw wtf was up with brenner's notes... like is that a compass or a clock in the corner of his notes??

last… THE EYES (all of them are either in green lighting or have green in them which makes this creepier)

[bohemian-nights]

So true! GRRM even mentioned recently that he would love to write a book about N so no way are they cutting her or replacing her with Rhaena.

I feel like because this show is focused on the Targ family it attracted the worst type of fans who think Targs are really gods and believe in the blood purity BS so I’m not surprised they’re into Daemyra who’re the poster child for that(no offends to those who just ship them and don’t buy into that crap but the amount of people I’ve seen on twitter making those arguments is ugh)but like exploring the relationship between D who’s a literal Targ supremacist and N a low born bastard girl and how things like class and race(I know ASOIAF doesn’t have the same construct of race as we do but N’s treatment as well as the Dornish shows pretty clearly there’s racism in their society even if the author didn’t intend did that to be the case)affect them,etc. I mean we see hints(maybe foreshadowing even?)of that conflict on the show when everyone’s scandalised over D saying he will marry Mysaria and that she’s pregnant. It also pushes her to break things off with D because she knows the consequences it would have on her while pointing out D’s privilege. Btw,I feel sorry for Matt Smith you can tell he wants D to be more dimensional and maybe the writers wanted that as well but they had no idea how to write a character like him(possibly because he doesn’t really start his character arc before he meets Nettles?)so they ended up cutting a bunch of scenes of him being more affectionate/emotional which led to Targ stans believing they have vendetta against him imo. But he was def one of the characters that suffered the most due to these time jumps the last time we see him before the first big one is him killing his wife and intending to reclaim her land but then later on he self exiles himself like why? If they wanted him to have a complicated relationship with his daughters fine we don’t really know what kind of a father he was in F&B but then make the effort of having him interact with them instead of tearing them like extras who just smile and stand around. And don’t get me started with how they treated Laena seriously WTH was that ?! You make her a black woman on the show and then proceed to have her be a second choice for her husband (with one of their daughters being ignored by him)and dying the most awful way possible away from her family while trying to make it look “empowering”.Sorry for the rant but the way the POC have been treated so far makes me very nervous about Nettles like FFS don’t treat her like a plot device and while we’re at it have her be friends with Baela and Rhaena this show needs more well developed female characters and friendships as well!

I would so love to read a book on Nettles. She(and Daemon) is/they are my favorite characters in the ASOIF universe. Her story does not end/begin with the Dance so I’d like to see more about her. Replacing her with Rhaena will not cut it.

Some Targ/Daemyra stans are willing to miss out on a fully fleshed out story in favor of Targ supremacy. There are parallels between our world racism and racism in ASOIF universe as well as classism. Writers can’t really escape their biases. I hope season 2 fleshes things out a bit because the story can be much more than it actually is.

I’m actually a Daemon stan so I think the HOTD writers do have a vendetta against Daemon. Daemon is described as less jerky to those he loves. In the show it seems like Daemon is really only there for Daemon. The only one he actually seems/seemed to love was King Dumb Dumb(Viserys), but now he’s dead so he’s got nothing.

Daemon leaves Rhaenyra alone to fend for herself multiple times. He even abandons her in a sex dungeon in the sketchy part of town. And yet she is supposed to be the love of his life? 🫠 Well I guess so since he literally murders his first wife and bangs his niece at his second wife’s funeral. At least Rhaenyra only got choked out by her man!

If I was Matt I’d be shaking my head cause the writing is just 🫠 Daemon has recieved essentially 0 character development since episode 3. Thank God Matt is charismatic because otherwise Daemon would be the least likable character on the show.

Rhaena and Baela do seem like extras/window dressing. It irked my soul when Rhaena kept calling Rhaenyra “my queen.” I understand she’s the queen, but she’s also her cousin/stepmom. It makes it look like Rhaena is the help. Some of Baela’s lines were cut which is also irritating considering the lack of screen time for both her and her sister.

The Laena situation is just 🙃 I could do a whole essay on that. The fact that you have delusional racist stans arguing that it’s somehow empowering to watch a Blackish woman light herself on fire is just🙃 I have no words. Like please go read a book on misogynoir then come back to me on it(it probably wouldn’t help, but can’t hurt to try).

That was one of the most traumatizing things I have ever watched. I am not joking when I say this. That hurt. Her book death was a 1000x more “empowering” than that crap.

What’s “empowering” for Black women is not the same for other women especially white women. Black women are rarely seen as soft, being taken care of, and loved in media.

Laena is supposed to be mixed(and the actress’s that played her were mixed as well), but the casting seemed deliberate. They picked a brown skinned mixed woman to light on fire(literally) and be someone’s unloved second choice(again not book canon, but people will gloss over this and try to claim that is somehow is). While the white woman is somehow the first choice and Daemon’s one and only love.

Having Daemon literally ignoring his Blackish kids(who by the way should look white/whiter than they do since they are at least 75% white, but the HOTD writers don’t know how genetics work🫠) is also a choice. Someone said that you could start watching HOTD at episode 7 and you wouldn’t know that Rhaena and Baela are Daemon’s daughter’s. Which isn’t far off from the truth.

You can’t make this ish up and yet people will deny it all the damn day long 🫠 They don’t have a problem with it cause if anything, it helps to solidify their wack ship. I’m going to leave it there cause I will literally start ranting all day long.

Bottom line is I hope season 2 is better and the HOTD writers see fans complaints and try to develop a more fleshed out story. I am kinda dreading what they might try with Nettles, but I’m cautiously optimistic(I love to disappoint myself). Limiting her characterization will limit Daemon’s as well since she’s his final arc, but as I stated, the writers seem like they hate him so 🤷🏽‍♀️

A friendship between Rhaena, Baela, and Nettles would be nice, but they are all supposed to be in different places during the war. Who knows what they will do.

[heartkade]

The 6th chapter of the Las Nevadas series is coming up, so here’s a list of my personal predictions & hopes!

Recap: Last chapter, Quackity changed a lot. Slime managed to become his best friend, questioned his morals, and tore down many of his walls. Heartbroken after Purpled’s betrayal and Slime’s death, Quackity managed to pick himself back up after reading the message Slime (now renamed Charlie) left for him. Reminded of the good times they shared, he resolved himself to do his best to create a legacy that Charlie would be proud of. With a lighter heart, at the end of the stream Quackity fully opened Las Nevadas.

Onto the predictions!

Because it ended that way, we’re probably gonna have the casino as a major setting. Finally getting to see all the cool redstone machines and decorations would be amazing

HINTS FOR c!CHARLIE RETURN PLEASEEE I miss the little goober so much

I think a part of the stream will def be about the Dream prison break. It was foreshadowed ever since Chapter 2’s “three horsemen” opening scene, a whole year earlier. The Las Nevadas crew was so odd, just quietly observing the chaos in the background of other peoples’ streams while dressed in black cloaks. We might find out what they were up to

c!Foolish dies again out of sacrifice, or canon kills somebody for the first time. Either one would round out his character development well

Something could happen to Fundy??? His future self (in the same black cloak) warned him in a dream about joining LN a long time ago, we still don’t know exactly why

(Btw, c!Fundy recently told c!Wilbur out of nowhere that he left Las Nevadas despite saying earlier that he’s part of it. He signed a contract and enjoys living there, so I feel like he was making that up. Still, it’s a bit confusing, so I’m hoping it will be cleared up in chapter 6)

Dream will probably target Las Nevadas. In previous lore streams he’s been suspicious, questioning Sam & Foolish about Quackity since they’re friends. He also tried ego-boosting manipulation to turn Foolish against Las Nevadas which didn’t work. A big chance he shows up, and I’m hoping for a war-scenario game of wits or fight scene

Las Nevadas crew playing among us?? Pls?? Even if they don’t I need to see the bunker being used in a serious lore it’d be so good and funny (I say that but it could actually be made scary)

Quackity and Foolish are due for an important discussion. Some things need to be said

c!Quackity keeps his word and stays with his country until the very end, no matter what happens. We can all feel death flags, don’t pretend <- I say, pretending

c!Quackity lives happily ever after. I like this one more

There will be no more betrayals. (I’ve had enough of that ok)

Kinoko Kingdom people get involved in a conflict, or their place is set on fire. The memes would become real

Jschlatt mention

Idk BBH appears and does something? He wrote a sus reply to Quackity on twt about the lore, that’s literally all I’m basing this on lol

[by-kilian]

#14 for the fanfic writer ask, please?

Btw, I am one of those who enjoy seeing/knowing that Levi gets jealous silently. XD

14) What is something you wrote in a fic that you are hoping readers picked up on but you don't know if they did? And/or, what is something that you were excited that readers did pick up on?

Oh this is such a good question. And honestly, there is *so* much I write in stories--symbolism, parallels, foreshadowing, etc.--that I can't remember until I read and remember why I placed it there.

For a current work like "Straight to Heaven," I can't write what exactly I hope people pick up on LOL because it will spoil a lot. You either questioned it or didn't, or wondered about it or didn't, BUT I will say that so far no one has, which is not a bad thing. It just means you have no idea what's to come. It's one of those "blink and you'll miss it" things because it can carry two meanings depending on interpretation, and you'll understand when you go back to read when it's done, just like how a lot of people did when they went back to LDBS.

However, I will say for the most part, I have really smart, GOOD readers. And when I say good, I mean readers who really engage with the work and guess and have fun because that's what reading should be. Readers typically really pick up the parallels between Levi and Kilian super well. They're also great at character analyses. I love seeing how people interpret the characters and their desires/wants/actions! I've def. had comments where people were on the $ about things and I just squealed in my seat over it lmao, but I can't remember anything specifically off the top of my head. I just love talking to readers to see what they think, and I'm very fortunate to have a group of great people who read my works. ❤️

Ty for indulging me, I hope you are well! Also you're not alone, Levi being silently jealous is one of the funniest things I get to write (because it's VERY on brand).

[sunsetcarnation264]

So, uh, that DT17 finale huh?

I would've made this right after I watched the finale, but I wanted to give it a bit of time to sink in fully and made sure I thought everything through before giving my thoughts on it. Not the worst finale there is, but it definitely could've been way better in my opinion. I've heard about the finale from my friends who've seen it, which from the sounds of it I already wasn't liking it, but since I've seen the finale now, how I feel about it is now concrete and set in stone and I feel the same as before. Maybe how I feel about it is in the minority side, or maybe a majority side, I dunno but I don't care. It's not the best it could've been and I'll explain why below. If you like it, good for you I guess because everyone's tastes are different, but I personally don't and I feel like the show deserves a much better finale than this. HEAVY DUTY DISCLAIMER: Just because I'm criticizing the finale doesn't mean I don't love the series, in fact it's because I love the show that I'm giving criticism and give what I would’ve done instead, and if you're anything like me and you're hella late to the party then there'll be spoilers for the finale. If you haven't caught up on the last episode, then you're not missing much honestly, but if you don't like spoilers regardless then watch that first then come back

The first part of the finale starts off like any other DuckTales 2017 episode. It's Webby's birthday, everyone's keeping their eyes out for F.O.W.L. shit, and Webby's enjoying herself. After a bit everyone goes below Funso's and they end up in F.O.W.L.'s territory. F.O.W.L. sets everything up to be on self-destruct, so they gotta find them and stop the self-destruction. They did happen to do the latter, but the F.O.W.L. members already escaped with almost everything. Just almost. The gang end up finding May and June, who're clones and they presume they're clones of Webby. Now this is where I'm starting to not like the finale. Yeah, you can do clones as like a plot twist, but at the same time it feels a bit outta nowhere. Had they foreshadowed it in another episode or have it lead up to the whole "oh shit there's clones of a character we know and love" thing then I wouldn't have a problem, but this came outta nowhere and I kept an eye on possible foreshadowing during season 3 and the rest of season 2 post The Duck Knight Returns too so I would've picked something up. The only thing that could count as foreshadowing was when Beakley promised Webby that she won't keep anymore secrets from her and the harp was saying "fibbing fibbing fibbing", but that's just it. Part two of the finale, Gyro does tests on them to see who they might've been clones of. He tries to tell everyone what the results are but when Scrooge asks him, he said it didn't come up with anything for him to answer the question. Beakley thinks they're both dangerous and locks them up in a closet. Webby, being a naive little girl, wants to talk to them because they're essentially her 'sisters' and she wants to know them more even though Beakley straight up tells her not to interact with them. Webby disregards what Beakley says anyways and she frees them, talks to them, and tries to show them her family tree so they can figure out where May and June came from. May and June are basically like "ehhhh this is your family tree? Who tf are you related to besides Beakley?" yeah, as if extended family or found family still ain't family you jerks. In the meantime, Louie just wants to watch his Ottoman Empire finale which ends up being shitty foreshadowing for the last part of this finale. You'll see why I mentioned this later. They even see Lena and Violet on there and are like "okay but who're those" which Webby responds with how they're her best friends and guess what one of the two clones goes to do? One of them grabs scissors and tries to cut it. When she does cut it, Lena's like "aw hell no bitch" and uses magic on her. Webby being Webby, is completely upset about this because "that was my sister how could you do that" and runs off like how one of the clones ran off. Bitch you only knew her for like five seconds, just because y'all be related don't mean you automatically THIS close to each other like how you are with Lena, Violet, Huey, Dewey, Louie, and anybody else in the McDuck family. I personally believe that love, trust, and respect is what makes people family, not blood/DNA, adoption, or they were married into the family or a step sib/kid/etc. If they're a harmful dick (i.e. a bigot who's queerphobic and/or racist or if they're an abuser, murderer, etc.) then you don't gotta treat them like family or say that they're your family. But anyways we're probs getting off topic, point is that she should trust those who she's known forever instead of clones she knew for a few minutes. Everybody tries to find Webby and one of the clones that ran off. Webby bumped into Beakley as she was tryna find May or June (I think May tho, don't recall) and she tries to lie her way outta it but Beakley knows what's up lol. She says that Webby wants to see the clones, Webby goes with it, and the younger duck wants to know who her parents were. Beakley tells her who her parents were (which might've either been a lie or she was describing herself and a late significant other that we've seen in Webby's picture of her parents) and Webby accepts it. Cut to later when she catches May and June trying to steal the ancient artifacts that Scrooge and co. retrieved during the entirety of season 3. She's shocked that they're even doing this, they all fight each other, and May escaped while June got knocked out. Webby disguises herself as June while she takes her outside where F.O.W.L. awaited them with an aircraft, most importantly Bradford. We only find out Webby was disguising herself as June when everyone got on. Huey notices what's going on and he goes after them, somewhat hiding in the aircraft before everyone leaves for the F.O.W.L. hideout. Not gonna lie, that was a pretty smart plan by Webby. Considering they all look identical and Webby's good at imitation, she can actually get away with this pretty well. This I actually really like and I wouldn't change too much about this. When Huey reveals himself to the three, Webby reveals herself to him but tells him to play along so they ain't fucked over. Somewhat worked. Webby keeps making little slips here and there which makes May hella suspicious of her. They land at the hideout, Webby tries to get what info she can while Huey's taken away. Thanks to the help of Pepper (who I love btw and I think deserves the best ;____;), Webby ends up finding the document room where there's documents on May, June, and a third person with the codename of April. She watches it and oh, shit, it turns out Bentina Beakley actually snatched her ass from F.O.W.L. when she was a baby! What a shocker! She couldn't believe what she was seeing! This is actually fine to me, her possibly being a clone actually makes sense because she could've been a clone of Beakley. Plus it's also a huge reference to how Webby was created to be a combination of Daisy's nieces April, May, and June back in the original series, though I dunno how many people would catch that, especially younger fans who might not have done the research to getting all of the references and easter eggs here. When Beakley was brought in (essentially she knocked Scrooge out without hurting him, went to here alone to take care of F.O.W.L. once and for all just for Webby, but got defeated along with some of the McDucks), everyone leaves Beakley, Webby, and the Harp alone and Webby somewhat confronts Beakley about her past. Needless to say, Webby ain't excited about this and she gets captured and tied up. She's actually pretty depressed, which I mean in a way I don't blame her since she wanted to know if that shit was real or if F.O.W.L. was fabricating it. Cut to Huey being brought to Bradford. Apparently he was a fellow Woodchuck too, though he wasn't the best despite being the very first Woodchuck by his grandmother Isabella Finch, in fact he was the worst which hahaha yeah I can actually believe that. It does explain why he hates adventures and all of that shit, one of the only things I'm willing to accept from the finale. He talks about how he wants to complete the collection "for the better" because Scrooge and everyone else in the family were the only ones to have Isabella's lost journal. Huey believes this at first. He stops believing it once he ends up finding Gyro and everyone else who're locked up. In the meantime, Bradford drags Webby out to a sort of box along with May and June. She doesn't know why she's brought up here. When she gets close to the box, the papyrus appears because... She's the descendant of... Of Scrooge McDuck. Okay no, JUST NAH MAN. This is where my biggest issue in the finale lies, the fact that she's a clone/made from Scrooge's DNA and is technically his "daughter". Not everybody has to be related to Scrooge McDuck to be great, in fact doing this to her actually ruins Webby's character. Her trope is "found family," not "I'm secretly part of the family this whole time and not even I knew it" and this fucks with it so badly. This show is about family, and all different kinds of it. Being taken care of by your uncles/aunts instead of your parents but still having a good relationship, some kids don't have parents and they're gone for whatever reason, being loved and accepted by other family members, some families are awful and abusive, hell some families have two same sex/gendered parents with a kid who's def adopted and one might've been adopted or been from a previous relationship, and it's also how sometimes we find people to call family because we found them and they found us. Webby was the one to fill in the finding those to find family alongside her grandma, but I feel like they're disregarding that just to have a huge plot twist. Again aside from Beakley keeping secrets from Webby, there was no foreshadowing and it makes a previous episode from season two (Nightmare on Killmotor Hill) seem kinda creepy in hindsight since she's over here wanting to be Scrooge himself, and creepy overall due to how obsessive she was over the whole McDuck family in general. You could say it's foreshadowing this whole time, since some people might actually be like this before realizing that "oh hey I'm actually related to this person" due to someone being adopted, given to someone else to take care of, divorce and each parent keeps one of the kids and they don't meet again until way later in life, which in a way is a fair point but at the same time not everyone's gonna notice this even when they look back at the previous episodes. If you're gonna do foreshadowing and a plot twist, you have to do it where looking back everyone can notice little details, not just a certain group of people, and you gotta make sure it's good. Every plot twist has it's foreshadowings, and every good one has a good amount for people to take a guess. Every bad plot twist, however, is either forced in just to shock the viewers or has shitty foreshadowing that's either extremely little or none. I will make a comparison between this and Steven Universe (which if you're still watching or haven't touched yet but haven't gotten up to season five, please skip this part to avoid spoilers for the show) because in Steven Universe, there were PLENTY of hints and foreshadowing that Rose Quartz was actually Pink Diamond and it was even a theory too that Rose was actually Pink, alongside a theory that Pearl was actually the one to shatter Pink Diamond and not Rose which ended up being true in a way that both fits. This was a good plot twist that everyone can watch the show from start to end once again and notice every little bits of details that led up to that plot twist reveal. (End of SU spoilers) This, however, isn't a good plot twist. It's a terrible one and, again, forced in, messy, and there's not enough foreshadowing that can be used to be like "oh I kinda saw that coming" or "oh shit!" and think it's a genuinely good twist. Also the fact that Webby called Scrooge "Dad" T W I C E in the finale, it doesn't sound right, I even voiced out loud that OH EW THAT DOESN'T FEEL RIGHT WHY ARE YOU CALLING HIM DAD THIS IS GROSS STOP IT LIKE JUST CALL HIM UNCLE SCROOGE LIKE YOU'VE ALWAYS DONE- Oh and this is meant to be a throwback to that Ottoman Empire finale foreshadowing thing from earlier btw lol The last few things I can note about this is the fight between Scrooge and Bradford, where the latter reveals that he was the one to tell Della about the Spear of Selene (which pisses Scrooge off so damn BADLY and it's the other thing I can accept from the finale, it seems like Bradford to do that shit), and the fact that Donald almost died for fucking good due to Bradford pushing his ass into a machine that can erase anything and everything from existence when put in there. He did so with his minions, so he has no qualms about doing so to Scrooge's family unless he signed the papyrus as a contract. Not that it worked anyways, since "family is the greatest adventure of all" which Bradford didn't understand one bit lol But the finale? Not good, the show deserved so much better and Huey deserved way better because this was his season. What I would've done differently is mainly how Webby is a "clone" or whatever you want to call her. It makes no sense for all of her DNA to be from Scrooge McDuck, which raises way too many questions. Why not Beakley? Why not a warrior from F.O.W.L. with a mix of McDuck DNA? Why is Webby a girl while Scrooge isn't? You could argue that oh he might be a trans guy, which while I absolutely LOVE trans and nonbinary headcanons (due to the fact I'm a nonbinary woman myself), it just feels like a cheap escape goat of an excuse to explain that and Scrooge being trans because of that? Ehhhhhhhhhhhhh it doesn't feel right to me. If it was a combination of him and Beakley, then okay I'd get why she's like that, but it still has the problem of her being related to the family DNA-wise. Same with the clones honestly. Now what I would do differently is make it where she's a clone of someone (def not Scrooge) and make it where she has an identity-existential crisis. Who is she really? Is she this "April" character, or if she Webby like she's always known herself as her whole life? In the end, she accepts that she's herself, Webby Vanderquack, granddaughter of Bentina Beakley and an ally of Scrooge McDuck. May and June, on the other hand, are possibly failed attempts to recreate Webby, the perfect clone, in order to get the papyrus to appear which in of itself never stated it had to be a DIRECT heir to Scrooge McDuck (it just states that it requires an heir of Scrooge McDuck) like a daughter/son or whatever. You can go back to the episode "The First Adventure" to look at the papyrus if you want, but he wrote that it was to an HEIR not a descendant. It heavily supports how they changed a shit ton of things before the last season being this year instead of idk, try to make it better because they finished voicing the lines in January this year when they started doing season three around the time we got season two. Bradford gets frustrated, wondering how it couldn't have worked because HE HAS WEBBY RIGHT HERE. What he didn't realize was that it could've been someone within the family itself, one who's considered the smart one out of the bunch that wasn't Scrooge McDuck himself, someone who's also a fellow Junior Woodchuck. And that would be Hubert Duck, in which season three is meant to be his season. When he gets close, the papyrus appears but Bradford snatches it and runs off with it so he can finish up that contract he's spent FOREVER to make and force Scrooge to write his name there. As with May and June, I dunno what I would do with them, but if I rewrite the finale at some point (which I would be doing now with my mom, who watched the finale with me because we tend to watch stuff a lot, but I can't at the moment because I have a list of stuff to make and I can't afford to make it longer than it already is along with my WIP list) I'll figure out what to do with them. Overall, the finale is a 4 out of 10 for me. Not horrible enough for it to be the worst finale ever in the history of shows/series, but it's definitely got a lot of things that bothered me too much to genuinely enjoy it without getting stuck on something for too long. Again if you like it, good for you, but personally? It should've been much better and the series deserves a proper finale. If there's no surprise movie to make it better, then I'ma just pretend this finale doesn't exist like nah bye bitch dunno you lmao Besides with how messy this finale is, I hope you guys enjoyed reading my thoughts on it and I hope you guys have a great day

[tellywoodtrash]

shaadi mubarak 27 - 31.08.20

tried to make this short and sweet like i said i would, but my damn brain just won't fucking shut up while watching tellywood. toh yeh lo. almost poora lbs.

27.08.20

life mein kya chahiye, bas itna support aur laad jitna KT's whole family is barsaofying on this 40+ year old man.

oh and garmaaaaagarammmm moong dal kachoris.

oh ho his shaadi is seveeeeeeerely sore topic.

KT gaining lotsa SM clout with shayari he picked off the floor at some random shaadi he made a PR appearance at.

this man's whole life is a rampwalk, huh.

preeti talking about her DIY'd dresser is the most animated i've ever seen her.

lol preeti running to hide when she sees someone she knows will talk to her #relatable

awwww man preeti getting validationnnnnn about her poetry.

OMG I HATE THIS DUMBASS MUSKURANE KE LIYE ROKDA NAHI THOPDA LAGTA HAIIIIII LINE

"meriiiiiiiii sharmeeeli fannnn" haaaaye, cuteeee.

tarun and rati have made an appearance and thus is it time to fwd liberallllllly.

YESSSSSSSSSSSS IM HEREEEEE FOR PREETI TELLING TURN TO FUCKKKKKK RIGHT OFFFFFFFFF AND STAY IN HIS LIMITS

i hate rati too, but i hate her a little less than tarun.

YESSSSSSSSSSS KUSUMMMMMMMMMM IS HEREEEEEE.

lol her fangirling over KT's dimples is such a mood.

"nihaar hi toh rahi hoon, kaunsa ghar chod ke bhaag rahi hoon inke saath?" snort i honestly love her the mosttttttttt.

sumedhhhhhh is also cutest. good son, good husband.

"beendini, thari maa itni nazdeek reh-re, ki cheenkte wahaan hai, cheetein yahaan padti hain" HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA

kusummmmm is a hardassss but totallllly adorable mom. i'm so glad juhi and her get along.

ouff mother india and her tarun ki khushi. so wasted.

lol KT's khaaai ka depth is getting deeper with each retelling.

preeeeti, why so adorable.

"signal toh humara hamesha green hi rehta hai!" THIS INCORRIGIBLE MANNNNNNNNNNNN

oh man, every time iktara plays, my heart gets the feelz.

28.08.20

lmaooooooo kusum is coming at the same time as KT.

WHY DOES THIS MAN TALK LIKE A WHATSAPP FORWARD FROM THE GERIATRICS IN THE FAMILY

lmaoooooooooo pooooor preeeti and the desperation on her face trying to get rid of himmmmm.

OMG THE STATUE MOMENTTTTTTT. MY HEART!!!!!!!

good lord he's literally such a maan na maan, main tera mehmaan.  

hahahahaha the kali mirch on his photo.

I AM LITERALLY PREEETI, HE TALKS TOOO FUCKING MUCH. BAS BHI KARO BHAISAAB. NO ONE CARES ABOUT YOUR FITNESS REGIMEN HERE.

OHNOE KUSUM IS HEREEEEEEEEEE

fwding all this rati tarun chanda crap.

KT and his ainvayiiiiiiii ke assumptions.

gosh such bad green screening of kusum and the neighbourhood.

OH GOD THIS ROKDA THOPDA LINEEEEEEE

WILLLLLLLLL KUSUM AND KT MEEEEET?!?!?!!?

phew.

ugh why does preeti have to touch her feeeeeeet every timeee?!?!?! it sucksssssss.

I LOVE KUSUM. SHE'S SO NO NONSENSE!!!!!!!! SHE KNOWS EXACTLY WHAT THOSE FUCKHEADS HAVE PREETI HERE FOR.

die in a fire, tarun.

blah blah fwding all the chori waala drama.

29.08.20

i think i should just skip this whole ep.

ok just skimming.

juhi Knows. juhi is best beti.

ugh tarun i hate you so much.

this doesn't look like a luxury car to me? and it's def not an SUV.

ok blah blah fwding.

fully relate to KT's current breakdown. THE BIGGEST LIE IN THE WORLD IS THAT YOU STOP GETTING ACNE AFTER PUBERTY. FUCK ADULT ACNE, WHICH HAS BEEN CREATED BY THE DEVIL HIMSELF.

coffee aur honey nahi, tea tree ya neem lagao.

i hope this mom of KT's is gonna be nice to preeti.

blah blah blah fwding these assholes' drama.  

skimming, and honestly, the fact that rati looks more contrite than tarun!?!?!? i want to murder him so fucking bad, it's not even funny.

MAN WHERE CAN I GET A FAMILY THAT HYPES ME UP THE WAY KT'S DOES HIM?????? NO WONDER HIS CONFIDENCE IS AT 300% ALL THE TIME.

KT is so pure. sniff. please god star plus, you've ruined every single male lead over the last few years for me, please can i just have him?!?!?! PLEASE I'M FUCKING BEGGING OVER HERE.

oh no naach gaana, fwding.

what's the fucking deal with his marriage anyway?!?!?! biwi bhaag gayi ya.... MARR GAYI??!! like.... WHAT'S THE WHOLE MYSTERY?! I DON'T HAVE THE ENERGY FOR A WHOLE OTHER RAIMA KINDA THING NOW. NOT IN THIS FUCKING YEAR OF 2020, WHERE EVERYTHING IS ALREADY TOO MUCH.

back to fucking tarun and his garbage. fwding.

thank goddddddd, juhi's here. she's a personification of "kaleje ki thandak".

btw, what's juhi's profession?

juhi is purestttttttttt. human sunshine! (quite literally, in this outfittttt.)

oh ho, ainvayi ka dupatta misunderstanding.

LMAOOOOOOOO THIS FUCKING OVERDRAMATIC FUCKER.

yeh lo ji, pehlaaaaa lift bhi ho gaya show ka.

31.08.20

the subtitle people need to decide the spelling of preeti's name once and for all. all of last ep it was "priti".

ugh tarun and rati are back.

lol kusum grumbling about juhi being a working woman.

what's up with priyanka? why's she forever grumpy?

lmao kusum is literally every desi mom - LAD MARO SAAARE!!!!! (helpfully providing the weapons also.)

thankfully sumedh is here to save the day.

arre waaaaah. gold frameeeee mein chadhwa diya bete ne photu ko.

wasn't KT in the center in the pic? why's kusum in the middle now?

sumedh foreshadowing the preeti/kusum brotp!

hahahahahahahaha kusum coveringgggg preeti up with the wall hanging.

ugh don't wanna watch this KT scene if it's with tarun/rati.

oh ho KT. such ainvayi ke assumptions.

oh boy, juhi has walked in hearing the suicide allegation.

god KT just leaveeeeee instead of stirring the pottttttt.

yessss, juhi is taking tarun's class.

YES ALL OF IT IS COMING OUT. TARUN KI KHAIR NAHI. JUHI GONNA STRAIGHT UP SHANK HIM IN THE FACE.

ok if juhi doesn't do it, i swear to god, imma ghusofy into the screen and do it. i don't think i've hated a character as much as i hate tarun.

beta ho toh sumedh jaisa ho, warna na ho.

TARUN FUCKING DESERVES TO BE THROWN INTO AN ACTIVE VOLCANO. MY GOD WHAT A PIECE OF SHIT.

god preeti, drop this fucking flop. he's a sunken cost.

YES PLEASE PREETI, FUCKING LEAVE.

sumedh has finally had enough. good. wish he'd headbutted tarun on the way out tho.

oh dang, juhi might still do it. she's the real warrior in that couple.

RATI KO AYAAH KI PADI HAI. SERIOUSLY.

kusum + sumedh had a wholeasssss conversation aankhon aankhon mein.

LMAO WHAT A WEIRD MOMENT TO FOCUS ON THAT PIC WITH KT IN THE BG.

ok aaj aur kal ka lb kal post karoongi (coz i don't want a whole new month's lb mixed up in the previous one's.) chalo byeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

[aldbooks]

Desperada

...

What the everloving hell did I just watch?

Beware the salt... also the GIF use lol

Basically... I fucking hated it. The entire time I watched it, the majority of the words coming out my mouth were some variation of “what the fuck? This is excruciating!” I honestly can’t believe I actually watched it twice 🤦🏻‍♀️

Ok so, first we start off with some quality Lukanette and even Marinette’s friends are all “Wow! Marinette and Luka are so cute together. What a good match they make. Maybe she should give him a shot instead of Adrien?!”

But then of course, Adrien shows up!... with Kagami. And Marinette, predictably, becomes Disasternette. At this point, we’re not even two minutes in and I already kinda wanna turn it off.

So then the gang goes above stairs to see what’s going on and Disasternette becomes even worse when Jagged Stone asks her to help him find a new guitarist. Everyone of course expects her to say Luka, cuz duh. But no. She picks 🥁... Adrien.

Who doesn’t even play guitar.

Then Jagged says “what about that kid wearing my face on his shirt with the guitar strapped on his back?” (Lol) and Mari’s like “oh, of course!” Cue short lived sigh of relief, cuz it’s immediately followed by “Luka can let Adrien borrow his guitar!”

At this point I’m actually kinda angry. Because not only are they once again making Marinette look like an absolute fool, they made beautiful, selfless Luka look like a complete push over because he just gives the guitar to Adrien to please Marinette. Wtf??

And still, we’re not even four minutes in. At this point, I know this is going to be a very long episode.

So, now the introduction to this episode’s akuma, Desperada. I ain’t mad it. Cool costume design, semi legit reason for akumatization, also, we now know what that random akuma from the Gamer 2.0 episode is that we were all like who the heck is that?

Fast forward a little here: Mari has a bit of an ah-ha moment with Tikki like “omg why did I give the guitar to Adrien? Why am I like this?” (Unfortunately it isn’t the development we’re hoping for though, as we find out very soon)

There are some quality Lukadrien moments as they both try to hide from Desperada and help Ladybug.

There’s a moment where Luka plays his guitar and both Ladybug and Adrien go all dreamy eyed, which I loved (Lukadrinette for the win) but my salty ass kinda wanted Adrien to see Ladybug getting goo-goo eyed over someone else and get jealous. Lmao

Anyways, so Lucky Charm gives her a gong and we all know that means it’s time for a new miraculous holder. Yay! Of course it’s obvious now this is Viperion’s episode but there’s a moment of confusion (and an epic face palm) when Marinette is all “I know the perfect person for the job! 🥁 Adrien!”

Seriously? Wtf.

Upon hearing that Ladybug wants to give the miraculous to Adrien, Chat Noir distracts Ladybug long enough to destransform so he can accept it.

Also see here how he pushes Luka back into the locker like “why don’t you just stay here 😉” so she won’t think to give it to him instead, when she can’t immediately find Adrien.

So Adrien and Plagg debate (read: Plagg tries to talk some sense into his idiot holder who completely ignores him cuz “omg ladybug needs me!” Um, yeah dipshit, she needs you to be Chat Noir) and for a hot minute I think we’re gonna get Snake Noir. But, Adrien wants Ladybug to fall in love with him as ‘himself’ 🤦🏻‍♀️ So never mind.

Also for a hot minute I think Adrien is going to actually do the right thing and refuse, but of course not, because this is ML...

Side note: Adrien’s acting when he opens the box and pretends to be surprised to see a kwami is on point.

Side side note: I don’t know what I expected Sass’s transformation phrase to be, but it def wasn’t “scales slither” 😒 and also, his transformation sequence is terrible and that costume is a travesty. (His end pose also kinda reminds of the gif of the guy from Road to El Dorado aggressively playing the mandolin😂)

Anyway, so for basically the first time ever, we actually see Ladybug explaining the miraculous rules and powers to the new holder. Adrien tells a corny joke and basically acts just like Chat, to which Ladybug giggles

Again I think Adrien is about to do the right thing when Ladybug basically tells him to his face that Chat Noir is an unnecesary part of the team; so, naturally, he doesn’t.

Basically both of these kids act like selfish little shits so they can spend time together. For once I’m actually very proud of Plagg for calling Adrien out. “You’re supposed to be saving Paris, not flirting!”

What happens next is a montage of Adrien epically failing to save Ladybug with the Second Chance (do I sense a metaphor here? Is this foreshadowing? Ha! As if). He finally gives up the miraculous and good lord, thank you!

Then we find out he failed over 25k times before he finally made the right call...

So Luka shows up and of course it’s Adrien who is all “Luka should have the miraculous” not Ladybug (because she can’t actually chose Luka herself for anything) And of course Luka just stands there while she kisses Adrien and thanks him for his help, blatantly letting Luka know he was the second choice (def a metaphor). *sigh*

Luka’s transformation of course is hella dope. I really wanted Ladybug to have an “oh no. He’s hot” moment, cuz let’s be real...

Also, why is Ladybug suddenly completely cool with civilians knowing the identity of a miraculous holder???

We’re now over 17 minutes into the episode, nearly the end, and I’m just now realizing that the episode where Luka is introduced as Viperion, isn’t even about him.

Luka then, after a couple of tries, actually is the one to figure out how to win, proving he was the right pick for the snake from the get go. He plays the damn Lyre, because of course he does, and they use Ladybug’s second Lucky Charm (a saddle btw. What the actual hell. This is some more weird, 50 shades type shit (see Reverser)) to defeat the akuma.

Back on the boat, Jagged again apologizes for being a diva and instead of getting some resolution to the Lukanette mistreatment at the beginning of the episode, we get Kagami once again being all “better step up Marinette before I steal your man” which is just the cherry on the cake really

Other notes:

- in my opinion, this entire episode was essentially Adrien/Ladrien fan service

- as another poster astutely pointed out: Adrien acted basically exactly the same while Aspik as he does when Chat Noir, essentially blowing up Tom’s whole theory about Chat being the “real” Adrien

-Master Fu: this miraculous should be given to someone who won’t abuse it

Ladybug: gives it to Adrien- who proceeds to abuse it

- all I think we learned from this episode, is that both Adrien and Marinette need to get over their obsessions with Ladybug/Adrien because it severely impedes their ability to make rational, sensible, non-selfish decisions.

Also, that knowing each other’s identities really isn’t a good idea. Yeah I hear you, “what about Oblivio?” In Oblivio, they literally knew nothing about each other, other than they cared about each other and they worked well together. There was no ‘hero worship’ ‘he/she’s so perfect’ mentality to get in the way, just good old fashioned trust. So does knowing who the other is actually work for them?

Ha! I’ve been dying for a good opportunity to use that set

I don’t think I’ve said it before on here, but def in my comments on my fic I Wanna Be Bad: I loved Adrien when this show started. Of the cast of characters, he def had the most potential. Lately though I’ve kinda given up on him.

He’s had zero growth. In fact, some times I think he’s actually gone backwards, especially as Chat Noir. He’s become increasingly petulant and childish and hasn’t learned a damn thing about respecting Ladybug’s boundaries or how to take being a hero seriously. It’s honestly killing the love square for me.

The writing on this show in general has become atrocious. For instance, this episode (according to reported production order) takes place after Silencer. Meaning Mari sat there and listened to Luka confess to her twice, and then goes and says he’s “just a friend” (yes, literally. She pulled an Adrien) and continues to humiliate herself for a guy who’s openly shown an interest in another girl.

It’s so painful to watch. Just as it’s painful to see Chat continually rip his heart out for LB even when she keeps turning him down.

Enough is enough already. We get it. Let them move on. Just because they date other people, doesn’t mean they won’t still end up together. That’s called reality.

[mobu-time]

Read the tag and out of curiosity, how would you pacing the broccoli arc for season 3?

lmao I'm sorry you probably weren’t asking me to go so hard on this but uhhh this is my favorite arc and I've got some opinions

Here’s how I’d love the arc to be paced

Episode 1: Youkai Hunting

-Chapter 93

-probably include and end with the Has It Begun? My Era? panels from Chapter 92

Episode 2: Future Prospects + Carried Away

-opening from chp 94 (the youkai getting pulled into the broccoli)

-Chapter 92

   --skip right over has it begun bc it was in ep1 and go straight into next scene

-Chapter 94

-end with dimple leaving after the “eat shit, dimple” smackdown I guess

Episode 3: The Psycho Helmet Cult Part 1(things start to get weird)

-Chapter 95

-if they wanted to, this would be the episode to add in a new scene with Tsubomi or remind the audience that takenaka was a character at one point

   --basically as just a bit of prep for the other two arcs

-either ends where vol13 ends (teru setting out for the broccoli) or ends where the teru fight cuts off (just after dimple reveal)    

   --I think ending with the dimple reveal is the way to go, plus this way there’s a fight scene in this episode and not two in the next one       

Episode 4: The Psycho Helmet Cult Part 2 (things go wrong fast)

-Chapter 96 and 5-6 parts of Chapter 97

-The quest to destroy the broccoli

-The teru v mob fight

-probably end just before or after dimple actually shows up

Episode 5: Dimple and Mob

-The rest of it   

   --@bones pls do go ham with the dimple v psycho helmet fight

Here’s how the episodes fit into your mp100 season patterns, which are Very Correct btw      

I big agree with you about having the youkai hunting as the first episode. It’s a super solid way to start the season. It’s also especially funny bc this chapter starts with a parody of the show’s usual introduction to psychics, replacing “psychics” with “youkai hunters”. It’s a good piece of mob growth+slice of life, at some point Amakusa wonders if the broccoli is attracting spirits that want to use its life energy or whatever (foreshadowing), plus inukawa (who plays a bigger role later in the season) is in it.   

For the second episodes, I would def say it’s just fun stuff for most of the ep, but I think another thing the second episodes do is that they end with something that sets up the third episode and is usually the start of a big chain of events. S1: join BIC, S2: reigen puts up the website, S3: dimple leaves      

Future Prospects is important to include here bc it’s an easy way to reintroduce mezato and the psycho helmet cult plot. It’s also some of Serizawa’s only screen time this arc and we can’t let it go to waste.  

Ep3 is still mostly a mob character study, bc a lot of the chapter is mob dealing with being (or suddenly not being) recognized as the psycho helmet cult leader + reacting to the spread of the cult’s influence in general.

Ep4 is the beginning of mob’s concrete The Broccoli Must Be Removed quest, which continues into Ep5      

Ep5 -Dimple was a friend r.i.p.

Side Note: I desperately want the omake adventures of Hoshino and Asahi to be referenced in some way. Maybe when the shiratori brothers show up they can have a “what are the other awakening kids up to rn?” 10 second bit.  

And now here’s the reason WHY I organized things the way I did, but it’s under a read more bc this post is already too long

So full disclosure: the reason I paced the broccoli arc the way I did is entirely bc it’s my favorite arc and I want them to take their time with it. It’s also an arc that requires a LOT of setup before getting to the payoff, so I’d like the arc to be more like 4-ish episodes instead of the 3-ish episodes you predicted. This isn’t an arc you can just kind of start. Part of why the separation arc worked as well as it did was because they were subtly setting it up all season with little comments here and there between reigen and mob. It wasn’t something that just happened one day. They had to lay the groundwork and build off of it, and this arc isn’t much different. 

Another thing is that the vibe of this arc is one that will take some effort to establish. The slow, creeping influence of the psycho helmet cult is unsettling, and then suddenly getting caught up in the effects of the widespread brainwashing is even worse, but in order for those feelings to really come across we have to spend time with them. Slowly realizing that something is very wrong and then being horrified by it is something that, unsurprisingly, has to develop slowly. And by ‘slowly’ I mean spreading it across two episodes (3-4) instead of shoving it all into one. 

This arc, more so than most of the others, is driven by a complicated combination of emotions that can very easily be misunderstood if they aren’t displayed fully. I know this because when I was reading this arc for the first time I read through it too quickly, and had to start over because I didn’t pay enough attention to what was going on and confused myself. One of the only weaknesses, imo, that the anime has is that they have to cut stuff out. This is usually fine, but sometimes it can have a significant impact on the audience’s understanding of a character. It’s something that happened with ritsu’s arc. It wasn’t really That much different in the anime, but a few lines were cut here and a few shots were skipped there and the result is that ritsu’s fall is a bit harder to actually understand. At least for me, somehow the manga only has a few more lines and yet it makes ritsu’s character and his whole character Arc much clearer. 

I feel like something similar happened in the anime with dimple. There isn’t much aside from a few cut omakes and punching Suzuki in the face that’s significantly different, but a decent amount of time his lines get cut or altered a tiny bit over the course of the series and ultimately the result is that manga dimple is a slightly different, and slightly fuller, character than anime dimple. Idk fam I just watch people’s reactions and I worry that the fact that dimple actually has feelings that can potentially be hurt isn’t something the anime-onlies are prepped for. 

If the anime doesn’t take its time in this arc, and decides to cut some things here and there the way it has in the past, it runs the risk of 1. Being all around harder to follow, 2. Feeling out of character, and 3. Not hitting nearly as hard. Feeling out of character is the riskiest part of all this because mob and dimple ARE acting out of character. That’s the point! They both get carried away and they fight and they do and say things they shouldn’t and usually wouldn’t do, but if it isn’t clear that that’s what’s happening then their behavior can feel confusing or even disappointing. 

One more thing. I love mob psycho fight scenes. I really do think they’re some of the best I’ve seen, and there are a lot of fights in this arc I can’t wait to see animated. It can kinda become a problem though if emotional content screen time is sacrificed for action content screen time. Not to beat a dead horse (or cat in this case), but, uh, *cough* mogami. I’d rather they go ham with the animation in the confession arc and spend more time in this one on the other stuff. 

There’s just a fuck ton of shit that happens in this arc and fitting it all in before episode 6 without rushing anything is gonna be a process. It’s possible, but it’s really gonna take some planning.                

[thebulletinhamilton-quotes]

1, 2, 3, 4, and 10 for Hamilton asks!

A/N: @crackerqueen-ineedsleep thank you so much for the ask!!! I really appreciate it!!! Thank you!!

1. Your favorite character.

(I’m 95% sure I’ve answered this but I don’t mind. It’s fun!)

Disclaim: the views expressed are my opinion and not relating to object facts. Thank you.

UGZgH. I love this musical SO much, it’s so hard to pick. I know my favorite character which is... Eliza Schuyler!!! Homegirl has the most time in the musical and every time she sings it’s magic!! And without OG Eliza Schuyler Hamilton, the musical wouldn’t exist due to her due diligence of making sure Hamilton got credit for his work.

(Please don’t make me do a top ten, it’s too hard. (I’m kidding btw, I’m just being dramatic AF))

2. The song that gets stuck in your head.

*snickers*

Non-stop.

I’m sorry but that song plays on repeat in my head more times than I should care to admit. I do go through weird periods of time where I listen to Burn a million times (I recently discovered first Burn and it’s!! Amazing!!).

But yeah just thinking about it....

After the war, I went back to New York—

I’ll stop...this time.

3. The character you’d chill with.

I’m not gonna lie, I would love to chill with Lafayette. Mostly to hear him talk forever. He is a hero of two worlds. Also, I think he would be happy to hear about all the monuments dedicated to Washington. Plus, he’d want to talk about all the stuff that’s happened since he passed away.

If Laf wasn’t available, I got a list of historical figures I would def chill with. I would only chill with Ham if Eliza was present though. Hamilton’s temper is 110% infamous. He gotta away with it cause he was so hot.

4. The real person you would chill with.

Well my family member got to meet Tamar Green so...

I dunno. I think I would want to meet with Ariana DeBose because she is one of the inspiration for the blog name. I had read an interview she did talking about how her role in the ensemble was different than everyone else’s. She had to do a ton of foreshadowing and essential plays a role in both Burt’s and Hamilton demise. She made a remark that everyone else in the ensemble would be like “what are you doing?” Or something like that. I would probably just chill and listen to her talk about the imagery and talk to her about being on broadway and if she plans on playwriting.

10. The part you’d play of you could.

Honestly? I know I can’t act worth anything so I would want to play as the Bullet. I use to be able to dance (not as good) so it would be a real treat to learn those moves in the ensemble. I don’t think this gets said enough but without an ensemble a show would fall apart. Little parts are just as important as big parts. Everyone who works on a musical deserves just as much recognition as the stars.

(I use to think Eliza Schuyler but I could never ever reach the god talent like Alysha Deslorieux, Ta-Tynisia Wilson, Denée Benton, Lauren Boyd, Julia K. Harriman, Rebecca E. Covington, Morgan Anita Wood, Rachelle Ann Go, Sharon Rose, Marsha Songcome, Hannah Cruz, Charnette Batey, Philippa Soo, and more)

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE ASK!! I enjoyed answering your questions!!

Guys my inbox is open so send me an ask! I love to hear from you all! :)

[setsuntamew]

Kingdom Hearts 3 Liveblog: Part 1

As promised, all spoilers will be under a cut! My understanding of Japanese is very limited, but even with that in mind, there will be plenty of gameplay spoilers and some plot summaries. For now, all "screencaps" are taken with my phone, since I don't wanna spam my PSN friends with spoilers >< Sorry for the low quality shots!

So, for some context: I'm the one doing all the actual playing while Liz (dragonofeternal) and Pat (arahith) watch and provide commentary. I know very minimal Japanese, but the two of them know enough bits and pieces to translate the menus and get the gist of cut scenes. So while we're obv missing a lot of details, we've got a general idea of what's going on! However, this also means that I only have so many pics, because I was doing the gaming. Liz has a more detailed liveblogging experience going on over on their journal, and Pat is just dying of emotions (tho we're pretty much all doing that). 

oh my god oh my god oh my god I honestly lost my mind just over the download. I didn't plan this is advance btw; I only realized I could buy digital games on the Japanese PSN a few hours after the game released in Japan, because I have no common sense I guess lmao.

IT'S REALLY HAPPENING!!!!! AHHHHHHHHH!!!! The opening was super gorgeous which like, yeah, I knew it would be from trailers...but seeing it actually happening on my TV??? SO GOOD. It's an extended version of the trailer too; it's got more scenes in it!! Also the only thing (so far at least) that blocks sharing of screenshots/video. The stained glass beginning is done differently than previous games, with floating screens showing clips from past games as your way of choose what to value versus what to give up. It is SLICK as fuck!! And then the big fuckin shadow that you fight (because there's always one....allways) is mirrored and different and it's in a world of pure sky. It's beautiful. It's enough to make me wish I had a 4K TV and PS4 Pro, tbh.

.........uhhhh excuse me? Fuck you Nomura I wanna play the god damn fucking video game please just let me into the fun fucking part of the game!! XD Anyway, the first world was Olympus and I spent most of it figuring out the controls, aka fucking everything up because X and O are reversed in Japanese. I knew this even, from play Final Mixes 1 and 2 back in the day, and yet? Still fuckin it up hardcore XD It's so much fun to play though, which is something I'm probably gonna say a ton of times, but it's true. Since it's the first world, it is technically the "tutorial" world but it doesn't feel like one. Learning all the new play styles comes organically, and it's all very intuitive- especially considering I can only understand about 30% of the instructions they game is giving me. I love Hercules; it's my favorite Disney movie. I nearly burst into tears of joy when I got to explore Thebes because holy shit it felt like walking through my favorite Disney movie??? It felt like it was crafted with such love and care...There was a lot of thought put into KH3, and it shines for it. I wish it hadn't been such a long wait but also? It's done so well, it was worth it. Also, controlling a giant magical pirate ship is the dopest thing ever and I would like to kill basically all heartless with that now. The magical Disney rides as an attack system works even better than I had hoped :D It's my favorite new addition so far. Going to Mt. Olympus was fantastic as well!!!! The whole time, Liz, and I were making jokes about how Sora was gonna have to apologize to Hercules for breaking all of the stuff in his dad's house, and I think Pat almost had a hernia when I started breaking things in Hephaestus's forge.

Finishing up Olympus rewarded me with my boy Riku!!!! He's been my fave since KH1 and just...hello Riku :D I fucking hate demon towers but playing as Riku was slick. It definitely reminded me of Aqua in 0.2, and it reflects the growth he's had versus Sora having to start all over again.

......why are your pants so awkward lookin though??? Like that's an......interesting bulge :T Please...please wear your pants differently in the future...

Aaaaaand my other boy, Ienzo!!!! I just about screamed and jumped out of my seat in excitement; I somehow didn't expect to see him quite so early!! I'm a little disappointed that we haven't gone to Radiant Garden so far, but cell phone Ienzo is more than enough to keep me satisfied. I loved him asking Aeleus if he wanted to talk to Roxas, too, because fuck that's adorable?? Too cute. Too good. If anyone makes Ienzo cry I will fight them. FUCKING TWILIGHT TOWN IS GORGEOUS I DIED FIFTY TIMES FROM JOY (but not during the massively overpowered demon tower fight because I'm good at video games). It was so fucking good to get to go back and see it lovingly rendered in high def. I almost immediately went to find the crack in the wall, got upset that someone had apparently fixed the glaring hole in the wall, and found a back way to the forest through the sewers :D

Remy is adorable??? Like I didn't get good enough shots because I was just too into the cut scene, okay, it was cute. I was very sad that they left him behind (and pleased when apparently Scrooge decided to employ him later, because he knows what's up).

Hi sorry I have to go cry??? Forever????????? Because apparently I wasn't ready to see the Twilight Town mansion without being a big fucking baby! I just...it breaks my heart. These kids and their tragedies hurt me deeply and just. It hurts so good.

R O X A S!!!!!!!!!!!! sobs sobs please help him Sora ;w;

Pence has hacked into the mainframe :D

NOT.

Real talk though, getting to see Hayner, Pence, and Olette again was so fucking good, and watching Pence be a useful nerd was A+ for sure. And just basically everyone being like yeah Sora can't work technology please keep him away from it forever, thanks. It's good. It's good shit!!!!

Something about this shot feels very melancholy, and I while I don't think it was what the end of this cut scene was supposed to feel like, it feels a bit like foreshadowing.

Speaking of problems...I know they were talking about something serious in this scene, but Liz and I kept re-dubbing it with cracky bullshit and so now it makes me giggle. Oops!! Seriously though, it's like "Hey Ansem, maybe stop checking out teenagers? It's getting kinda creepy, even for us villains." "But they're so cute..."

I'm so sorry I'm like this.

Aaaaaaand I'm gonna cut it here, with this fantastic Xemnas face! See y'all next time with Toybox, Kingdom of Corona, and potentially Monstropolis, depending on how much time I have to write at work today :D

[sillyfudgemonkeys]

Persona Q2 ideas

Well alternate to how I originally typed how I wanted it to go down.

So like....The P5MC’s PQ silhouette was shown with P3 and P4 colors behind him (edit: btw this is what I meant). So I feel like PQ2 is def going to be a crossover of P3xP4xP5. But the question now is “how” are they going to execute it.

Scenario 1: It’s all three of them together, GIANT cast. RIP characterization (probably, assuming they didn’t shove it off only like one poor writer like last time, which I doubt with this one).

Scenario 2: It’s actually only going to be P4xP5 or P3xP5, one or the other. 

Scenario 3: And the one I recently just thought and think it’s the most likely to happen. It’s still going to be a P3/4/5 crossover. But it won’t be a 3 way crossover. There will be 2 routes, a P3xP5 route, and a P4xP5 route (P5MC is the MC for both). Instead of switching Leaders/MCs like PQ did, we keep the MC/Leader but we switch half he cast. 

Scenario 4: Branching off of Scenario 3 (and ngl kinda rooting for scenario 4), but adding da Pokemon twist to it. PQ2 will release two versions at the same time, kinda like a Pokemon game. One will have P3xP5 and the other will be P4xP5. Both games will have two routes each (so four routes in all). P3xP5, will have a P3 side and a P5 side, P4xP5 will have a P4 side and a P5 side. It’s possible both games will be connected somehow, maybe even foreshadowing future games. This, scenario would also explain why they’ve been so tight lipped about this game, it’s been like a year and we got nothing on this game so yeah. The fact it might be two games (and maybe they want to be cute with the whole 2 part in PQ2). Plus they’re basically pokemoning it atm with P3/5D so.... 8U

Ah just an idea, it crossed my mind a while back and yeah. 

[thedisneyfanartdidntdie]

PvP Chapter 1: Drowning Versus Dreams

Sparknotes:

Opens with foreshadowing; "he" and "she" are drowning but there's a will to defy death bc of "he, and she, and the course of one year."

Minnie's late to drill & humiliated. Gal pals are introduced - Daisy seems like a bitch lol but she's loyal to Minnie, Clarabelle so far is eh, Millie is a total mom friend.

Minnie sneaks into the Museum and is clearly accident-prone (love that about her character, def need to emphasize her "screw-up" side/beginnings to show character development).

First interaction with Captain Mickey is HILARIOUS; I love how he looks her over unfazed, talks to her without looking up, and makes the comments about the "peashooter" and the handcuffs - this whole interaction shows he's clever and a "bad boy hottie" I feel like.

How Minnie captures Mickey is charmingly funny; his poor stomach!

Thoughts:

I do think it's important to mention how Minnie thought of Mickey initially as handsome "in a rugged sort of way" because it shows she did have an instant attraction to him - even if it's just in his looks; little moment like this just makes their eventual love story feel more authentic. It also adds honesty to the love she denies having for him; between this and the feelings she has for him before he tricks her, it shows her initial love was real, and makes the journey more genuine - and more frustrating.

I really like how Mickey isn't instantly attracted to Minnie; granted this story is primarily told from Minnie's perspective so it's possible he had a similar first thought - he does say something like "a pretty thing like you [shouldn't be this annoying]," which is fucking hilarious btw - but Mickey not being immediately attracted to Minnie (or at least not showing it) makes his eventual intense love towards her authentic.

Crazy thought, but an adaptation of this story told from Mickey's perspective would be *amazing* - in my head canon I could see this happening as a skit/tv special or even just DixieMame (one of the executive producers of the film series) writing it as her own book like how Stephanie M's "Midnight Sun" after the success of her Twilight series.

only thing I would change is more time giving some insight to the museum - for visual sake - and maybe even some more background to why/how Minnie is such a "screw-up."

This chapter is very short, probably only took me 10/15 minutes max to read, so this scene/chapter in a film should be very short.

[thefudge]

TLJ thoughts, post-viewing

sooo, i have a lot of feelings about a lot of things. also the subtitles didn’t prepare me. for a lot.

this movie is made up of many quiet, non-verbal moments and rian johnson lets those moments sink in and dwell with you and that’s great

rey exploring the workings of the force, for example. there’s a really cool sequence where she’s trying to find out who her parents are and she lowers herself in the embodiment of the dark side and it’s very trippy and cool. it’s not rushed and it’s v atmospheric. she gets the incentive to do that thanks to kylo. his revelations about luke and his general aura of “troubled darkness” inspire her to dig deeper.

i think what i liked most about reylo was its sense of gratuitous intimacy. what i mean by this is that they seemed to connect without effort, without having to manipulate the plot to make it fit. they seemed be in their own little movie, dealing with things beyond the usual surface level of star wars ‘good vs. evil’. kylo’s philosophy about letting the past go is definitely flawed, but the way the movie frames reylo, they do seem to “let go” of their surroundings and circumstances when they’re together. it’s sort of timeless. 

i will say, i don’t think the romance was that "romantic”, if that makes sense? and i think it’s a good thing. their bond is very real, but it goes beyond “romantic drama” and your usual hero/villain trope. it has shades of that, ofc, and there is palpable sexual and romantic tension, imo. but i sensed something more mature and interesting between them. it could go either way. do i want reylo to have a future in ep 9 and after? yep. is it possible they won’t? also yep. mainly because kylo let rey down. and here’s the kicker: it’s not rey that really rejects him. it’s him that rejects rey. because she tries quite a few times to bring him over to her side, and i think her anger and sadness stem from the fact that, ultimately, kylo didn’t choose her, and ergo the light. he’s still v much conflicted and i think she can sense that. but rey is hungry. she wants all or nothing. she can’t have half of him. so she doesn’t reject him as much as tell him straight up that she won’t stand for being second. for instance, she expects him to fold to her side immediately after taking down snoke. when he doesn’t, she’s quite literally in tears. this hurts her on a deeper level than “oh no, the dark side won and the resistance lost an important ally.” no, this feels like her parents all over. leaving her, deserting her. that’s how i read it, tbh. 

and kylo does some reprehensible shit in the latter quarter of the movie, lol, like i won’t woobify him, since i like my antiheroes to be antiheroes.  but he's not quite villain level?  if u look at snoke, if u take that cool, collected snarky asshole - that’s a villain. he knows who he is, and what he wants. kylo is hopelessly confused and always looking for validation. he tells rey that she’s the one always looking for father figures - but oh, benny ben. it’s actually you. he wants someone to really see him, and that’s why he’s drawn to rey. but just to clarify: he doesn’t have it in him to kill his mother. he has an open, unambiguous chance and he stops. he is willing to destroy her when she stands behind walls and is shielded by the resistance. yet when she’s in the open, no. that was my read on it. 

his fight with luke is...very much one-sided. luke appears as a force-hologram to fight him and kylo just wants to obliterate him for very, very personal reasons. kylo is not the cool, collected new emperor who is going to “kill the past”. he lives so much in the past that he doesn’t even realize luke isn’t even there. 

and btw, kylo doesn’t kill luke, though he wishes he had. early on we get this foreshadowing. when the first force-bond happens between him and rey, he goes “no, you’re not doing this. the effort would kill you.” meaning that, to transport yourself through space via force (without a bond) takes a looooot of energy. luke goes on a suicide mission, basically. he knows using the force like this will kill him. he’s almost having fun toying with kylo at the end. 

when kylo realizes he’s a force-hologram, luke smiles and says “see you around, kid.” not exactly anakin vs obi-wan, if u know what i mean.

and then back on the island, we see luke peacefully give himself over to the force and vanish. it’s v tranquil and quite satisfying and the original star wars theme is used so well, imo. do i think we could’ve had more of luke? sure. but he went out on his own terms. that’s the whole point - kylo didn’t kill him. he killed himself.

again, i want to emphasize that kylo is still very much an antihero, dipping his toe into villainy (and failing - which makes him more angry, which only makes it harder to be the villain he wants to be haha). he’s not a Good Guy. many posts will crop up in the tag about what a poor, lost soul he is. yes and no. rey actually understands him when she closes the falcon door on him. she knows him and appreciates him. he will never really be ben solo and that’s a good thing. trying to be ben solo so hard is what got him in this mess. he isn’t supposed to be a Good Guy. so no, i don’t want him to “turn” (see my thoughts on “turning” below). i want him to truly move beyond the past and reform himself on his own terms, just like luke. because hey fam, luke isn’t a Good Guy in this movie either AND THAT’S GREAT. anyway, i certainly won’t be romanticizing him (kylo). he’s a compelling antihero who definitely has baggage and trauma (luke did try to kill him as a boy, though he has a wildly dramatized version of the event lol) but he is also someone who has to help himself. ultimately, rey’s goal isn’t to “save” him but to push him to save himself. honestly, if kylo had followed her and “turned” and reluctantly joined the resistance, it would’ve been a total let down and a betrayal of his character. him “turning” wouldn’t help him. he’d still have that darkness and that anger inside of him, multiplied. boy needs therapy - aka working through his issues, not ignoring them and joining the Good Side. 

Other things I liked: 

- admiral holdo’s arc - beautiful, well-done and surprising. laura dern kills it. 

- benicio del toro!!!!! no small parts with this man. he is delightful. imagine rick from “rick and morty” but way hotter lol. he was probably my favorite addition, after rose. he’s the middle-ground guy, he’s more han solo than fucking han solo. he doesn’t believe in good guys vs bad guys and he shows both finn and the audience that the two sides err because they believe their path is the only path. he perfectly encapsulates the very real contradictions in modern-day ethics and how our “pure and wholesome” activism often shields us from some terrible truths. he does have a semblance of a heart underneath his cynicism but i love that in the end he doesn’t suddenly discover the power of friendship with finn and rose. he’s a jaded asshole with shades of good, who’s probably seen some rough shit. BUT, he has this super cute moment with rose before things go to shit regarding her necklace and it’s !!!!!! it shows how much he understands human nature. i kinda ship them. aaaanyway. i definitely think he will return, his arc is not done. 

- ROSE TICO SMILING AND BEING HAPPY. ROSE TICO RIDING THAT KANGAROO CREATURE AND ENJOYING LIFE. i treasured those scenes a lot. she’s a great combo of feisty and childlike, tough and innocent. gosh, she reminds me of bonnie bennett so much ;___;

- general hux. yall, it’s true. it’s all true. hux may have won me over. hux in TFA was just a lite over-the-top villain imo. but here??? he’s such a fun, dynamic character, rian gave him a lot of fun, humorous moments. and honest to god, he’s also given some humanity. when kylo takes over, he is genuinely affected and disturbed by his level of aggression. and he’s....idk, much less evil in this one. probably because of the humor. he just seems like a man dead-set on fulfilling his mission, brainwashed to the core. and underneath the brainwashing, he seems to be your average overwhelmed white dude. i don’t think he’ll be redeemed or anything but...it’s weird how at the end of TLJ he is probably the MOST reasonable dude from the first order???

- there’s this great little message about failure. i think here TLJ was inspired by Rogue One. because a lot of the characters in this movie learn to let go and accept defeat. you can’t always save everyone, you can’t always fight back. sometimes, the brave thing is to retreat and treasure the ppl you love. so i def liked that.

- GODDAMN GHOST YODA. i honestly thought i’d hate it because...gimmick, amirite? but that scene with luke was SO emotional and also funny and visceral and just - i was a bit teary-eyed, ME, THE GRINCH. i was suddenly nine again, watching star wars for the first time. ANYWAY. 

- luke skywalker deserves a separate entry. mark hamill did so much with this character in the last few scenes. also some of the stuff he says about the force in this movie is legit beautiful and i love how he criticizes the vanity of the jedi - because this was what was missing from the prequels. anakin fell because the council was tone-deaf. the jedi are often responsible for their own doom and so they must always be vigilant - which is a goddamn thankless job. i love that luke acknowledges this. 

-luke/leia moment. GAAAAH. HE KISSES HER FOREHEAD GOODBYE AND SHE KNOWS HE’S NOT COMING BACK FROM THIS. I DIED.

- in that order of business, leia finally FIIIINALLY gets to show off a bit and use the force in a pro-active manner. it’s also clear to me that episode 9 would’ve been the story of her and “ben” and i think she would have been the catalyst for his eventual development. but sadly, we’ll never see that ;____; 

-there is some gorgeous cinematography and visual direction in this movie. particularly in the third act, on that salt planet? the red trails? shivers. 

-i didn’t hate any of the new creatures like i thought i would??? probably because they were used sparingly and with a sense of humor.

Stuff i kind of didn’t like:

- phasma. phasma, phasma, phasma. WHAT was that??? like tell me that wasn’t anticlimactic as hell. she was, sadly, a pointless character. unless she somehow survived the fire and destruction, which i doubt, i really don’t see the point of casting wonderful gwendolyn christie just to stand there in armor. 

- MAZ KANATA. is barely in this. i call bullshit. 

-sigh, okay so i loved rose to death, but her arc revolved way too much around finn. on the one hand i get it, on the other hand.... i was hyped because ppl were saying she gets this big moment to shine. and granted, imo, she shines every moment she’s on screen. but i think her climactic scene was... *fart noises*. it’s completely centered around finn. she saves him basically, and it’s definitely heartfelt and lovely but also...it’s finn’s moment 100%. because it’s him who has to learn about his own worth. i do think they make a good team and i ship them a little bit, but the one-sided kiss was not satisfying and i’m tired of having to watch my darling woc give their love and devotion freely, only to be  tertiary characters in their own story. like, imo, it should’ve been rose who flew straight into that cannon and tried to take it down for her sister. she should’ve been the one determined to take it down. and it should’ve been finn to save her and tell her they must find meaning in other things. finn definitely cares for her and in the last scene we have of him, he’s tending over rose and waiting for her to wake up BUT. will rose ever be number one for anyone, like the white girls, i wonder? eh, i’m probably just grumpy old aunt. she does get to have an internal world, she’s a believable human being, she matters. the thing is, white girls in these movies can bend their little finger and they’re considered worthy and complex. rose has to jump through hoops to be seen the same way. anyway.

- i liked poe dameron’s arc, which is “hey, maybe i should stop posturing and listen to women more lol” which is “learn when to retreat and stand down” but...honestly, you hire gorgeous oscar isaac who can give you real emotional weight and you just...kinda under-utilize him. yes, he did a lot of stuff, but he...didn’t take time to internalize it. this dude feels like he’s got a lot of demons and conflicting desires and a rich inner life, yet we only skim the surface of that. like, he’s aways in go-mode, we rarely get a quiet moment with him. like pls fix this, episode 9. 

-luke’s reaction to han’s death is pfffffffffffff. maybe we’ll get more in a deleted scene? 

- also....can we stop pussyfooting and legit talk about han as a dad? because they keep hinting he wasn’t a good one, nor a very good husband to leia. but...it’s very unsatisfying to keep hearing about it without good storytelling to back it up. 

- the world-building & the origins of the first order. i had problems with this in TFA and, big surprise, i still have problems with it here. basically, why has the first order taken over the new republic? how did they gain support? were there remnants of the old empire that survived and thrived as the first order? what about the knights of ren? luke mentions kylo took some students with him when he destroyed the jedi temple, so....what about those guys? like, this very fraught and war-torn landscape doesn’t have a solid history. how did A become B? why is every corner of the galaxy oppressed? why are some planets thriving more? are they all arm-dealers??? i find that hard to believe. yeah, we have the expanded universe for that, we have books and comics etc. but i need these movies to give us a sense of their own universe. i’m...still not convinced. 

-lolol, snoke dies like a bitch. and it’s so anticlimactic and duuuumb. dude, a five-year old coulda seen that coming but your ancient super powerful ass couldn’t? laaaame. he’s like “oh, yes, i sense no more conflict in you, kylo ren. just a deep certainty”. YES FOOL, because he’s decided to remove u, because he’s confident he wants rey, and not you, by his side. it was soooo lame. but i guess we had to remove him to make the audience think kylo was turning good for a second there.

-which reminds me... and you probably saw this coming, i hate the idea of “turning”. rey keeps talking about ben turning to the light. and this verb annoys me to no end. it’s made clear that they both already have a lot of light and darkness in each other. it’s about finding balance. where’s my grey jedi??? episode 9 pls????

Extra Reylo stuff i didn’t see mentioned which i adored: 

- during their first force-bond moment when they sense each other, kylo ren runs out of the medical unit and into the corridor like a goddamn luckless teenager, expecting to see rey pop up in a prom dress.  it’s precious. i love awkward!kylo. also rey tries to shoot him bc she thinks he’s actually there and kylo bends down, thinking he was shot. it’s a rly cool moment. and it doesn’t feel malicious like, he doesn’t expect anything less from her. 

- there’s so much charged electricity between them and it’s not all sexual. it’s kinda mystical and i dig it. i’m weirdly reminded of xavier and magneto??? as in two enemies who have such a rich history and whose bond transcends human morality. 

-OKAY. i saw no one talking about this but THAT GODDAMN SNOW WHITE SCENE. so rey decides she’s going to turn kylo to the light because that’s their one hope of defeating the first order etc. luke tries to stop her, but she’s like i’m going after my man. okay. she gets on the falcon, then she puts herself in this casket-like pod and AND. we get this lovely, breath-taking sequence of her arriving at the first order base, slipping gently into the hangar in her casket. and she’s def nervous. AND THEN. she looks up through the glass and there’s steam at first and through the steam we see kylo’s face, looking down at her wistfully. IT’S SO WEIRDLY FAIRY-TALE WTF. and then ofc the guards come in to shackle her. BUT JESUS. the prince looking into the casket to find snow-white WHAT ARE THESE AESTHETICS. it felt like a nod to the infamous scene in TFA where he carries her bridal style. it’s very fairy-tale-esque. 

- i love that in the scene with the multiple reys, when she reaches through the mirror to see her parents, the shadowy figure who appears and touches her hand seems at first to be kylo and then she realizes it’s herself. i also love that she talks to kylo about that experience. GAH. 

- i just rly loved that there was so much humanity in their interactions.

Reylo stuff which sort of bothered me/left me wanting more: 

- like excuse u rian,  during the praetorian guards fight, i needed more moments where kylo looks at rey and is worried for her sake. i needed that fight to be a bit more visceral and about the two of them and their survival. they do fight together and it’s great but then...they’re sort of separated and carry their own small battles (i did love how rey saved him with that lightsaber throw)

- the whole “you come from nothing, you are nothing.” yea yeah, he’s a dummy who doesnt know how to express his feelings, he’s mr. darcy x 1000 of faux pas. but i still think adam driver’s acting went a little much there. the way he delivered that line was a bit off for me. ofc, he follows it with “but not to me”, because he’s basically proposing to her, but i needed a bit more, an extra line from him confirming her importance. or maybe no extra line, but a bit more feeling. did i mention i love wrecked!kylo? the “please” killed me haha. 

Final thoughts:

- enjoyed it more than i expected to, and it does operate with way more nuance than TFA but it stiiiill fell short with some characters. it didn’t have the weight of rogue one for me, but it’s more lighthearted and entertaining, which i appreciate, cuz it reminded me of my childhood. and ultimately, whether we like it or not, disney does operate on nostalgia. all in all, it’s a worthy star wars movie, 8/10. rian deserves an A-. (he also wrote this thing and whoaaa...i wonder how much more ambiguous and dark this movie woulda been if he’d been given full non-disney freedom)