#would get to see all of will’s eps in s4 of billions...and this year i Don’t feel death breathing down my neck. and the dec before that was

[diagonal-queen]

thungo thursday pt2

ep 6 (put it under a cut because this one is LONG)

fukuchi be like 'the agency couldn't possibly be smart enough to- oh wait nvm i forgot ranpo existed lol' like more than once and i think that is testament to the fact that RANPO BEST BOY

'have you forgotten? we're terrorists' ICONIC BEHAVIOUR

man and i complain about doing one 37 hour work week. after this one week the agency needs to take a NAP. AND THE MAFIA TOO. imagine there's like just no criminal activity or anything for like three days and everyone's like ?? but on day 4 atsushi and akutagawa are fighting to the death at the port and everyone is like 'ah. business as usual' lmaoooo

omg every time the hunting dogs song comes on i get so hyped lmao im like yESSS ACTION

'that man, that demon, the evillest most scawy man ever in the world....etc etc' and its just some guy doing the most coy babygirl pose a guy can possibly do

wait DAZAI WHAT DID YOU DO. HOW DID YOU DO IT

taneda btw deserved none of this he was just some nice old dude and then sigma fucking stabbed him lmao

dazai is like the personification of the perjury mechanic in drv3. 'go on lie. you gotta. lie now. cmon pussy you wont'

OH MY GOD CHUUYA

my god fyozai is so fucking babygirl. also wdym dazai?? if the two of you were the last ones on earth you should just have gay sex. its not that hard smh

oh no dazai falled down through the flore

OH MY GOD MYKOLA AND SIGMA

BESTIE??

BESTIE?????

BESTIE????????????????

BESTIE??????????????????????

B

E

S

T

I

E

?

?

?

?

?

?

?

?

dm me if you want to receive a free 2min audio file of me laughing about this (i have a headache from laughing. my throat fucking hurts so bad. i'm pretty sure it's actually bleeding. my eyes are moist with tears. BESTIE???????)

do you even needa ask why i'm here?? ⭐️❤️☺️ *voice drops 6 octaves* i'm here to murder you 👹👹👹

and then after that fyodor was just like 'teehee he's so romantic x' like bro

dazai: *turns to the camera like he's on the office* waow

i love mykola's little laugh it's so silley

omg they're actually animating him so well. bones must've seen the reception from s4 and decided to step it up 💀

dazai and fyodor are simultaneously evil grown men and bimbo highschool girls and it's such a look. 'omg ur friends are so cute <3' 'omg right???' also mykola my beloved i want to be yours forever pls

i love how bram's acting all tough like aya can't just open the casket and leave and render him thoroughly powerless lmao

omg the official anime aya and bram sillies begin. we've been waiting for this for months folks so far so good

it was already pretty funny that aya is carrying bram like a backpack but actually seeing her running with him on her back is like a billion times funnier especially since this shit is life or death. but she just got a whole entire vampire on her back no problem sjhsksjssjhj

sigma: watashi wa shiguma me: fucking superb you funky little toddler

imagine if it was a fucking prank this whole time and mykola just injected them with a slow-working sedative or something that would be so funny. like all of this for nothing sksjksjsjks and then he just stabs fyodor or something the end. boom world save

oh ok nvm the vampires can talk just fine i guess lmao. also i genuinely cant tell if im supposed to be taking this episode seriously or not. one second people are being brutally slaughtered next moment silley little guys??? such is the way of bsd i guess

'you're a failure of a woman' my dude she is literally 10 years old she is nowhere close to being a woman shut your misogynistic ass up lmao

OKAY BECAUSE ok ok listen i was wondering what music they were gonna use for bram and when i heard the ending music i was like 'ok a little anticlimactic but i understand' and then it TRANSITIONED into the ACTUAL ENDING??? 10/10

hehe. bestie

[violaobanion]

Hello, Succession Anon again with my last message til I can watch more in the who-knows-when future! Ah, the family cycle of abuse pit. A trope I shall never tire of watching!

LMAO yeah, not everyone has had a chance to be terrible yet, so currently I have some characters I only feel sorry for. I imagine that will change very easily (except for the dog I saw for like 5 seconds in this ep; BEST PUPPER, 100/10, NO DRAMA FOR THEM).

Anyway, here is my liveblog! May you enjoy my ridiculous amount of rambling, and also a light scattering of screaming. And a silly amount of em-dashes to separate scenes.

———

Kendall: [lights a cig, has one puff, then stomps it out to drama walk into a building] Arresting him for littering and for being wasteful. Jail for 50 years!

(After everything else I watched in the first ep, though, this is so far down on the 'people saying/doing bad stuff' things that it'd be a footnote on Santa's naughty list.)

———

Kendall: Does anyone want to talk to their dad?

My headcanon here is that Logan sneezed and instantly went 'Hmm, sounds like I need to call one of the little shits'.

———

Logan: [says he's excited full of an emotion that expresses he'd rather watch paint dry]

I'm beginning to see why these kids have daddy issues.

———

RIP Greg in the mascot dogsuit. It must not have been pretty or smelled good in there.

Also, I completely spaced out from what Greg was saying the moment I saw a dog. PUPPY!

———

Roman: 'Hey hey, motherfuckers!' Refuses to elaborate ANYTHING except mockery. Leaves.

I don't know whether to like him or not, but I would steal his last french fry.

———

I have no idea how to comment on Logan not only knowing about his 'surprise' party but also trying to have a say in it.

Like, relatable on the part of not wanting people in my face because anxiety. But it isn't abt anxiety for Logan, it's abt control, right? Sir, a surprise party is meant to have surprises!

———

WHAT THE FUCK IS A PREEKEND?! Why can't they say Friday; Shiv, I'm with you on this.

———

Kendall casually saying he'd give a bj without knowing his dad is in the room OH GOSH THAT POOR MAN it'd be like my fam finding my smut list. I'd jump out the window instantly.

———

Tom/Connor: casually tells a kid that he's got water pumping rights and people are gonna kill each other for said water some day

SIR, WHAT THE ACTUAL F

I can't believe 'hey motherfuckers' Roman was the sane man there, but THANK FUCK HE SHUT TOM/CONNOR UP. Well, tried to.

(Edit for Clarification: Roman called Connor 'Tom' for some reason, so I got confused and just put Tom/Connor here. RIP Connor.)

———

Shiv: What's that; Date R*pe by Calvin Klein? Roman: You wish. Shiv: …'You wish'???

SHIV, WTF. 2. ROMAN, DOUBLE WTF. 3. FORGET WHAT I SAID; JAIL FOR ROMAN FOR 100 YEARS.

———

RIP Greg, gets slammed into a door the moment he meets Logan.

Currently feeling the most sorry for Greg here; if he gets pushed out of a window at any point, I'm not even gonna be surprised.

'Yeah, that's Greg, bad shit happens to him a lot. You get used to it.'

———

Logan: Where's Tom? Shiv: He's right here. Logan: Oh, well, nevermind.

Logan, you can't just murder a man like that.

———

Kendall's ex(?): I'm just hoping [her date] doesn't leave coke smeared all over the kids' iPads.

EXCUSE ME WHAT?!

Oh, that was a dig at Kendall. Uh, I'm sad for everyone now, wow.

———

Logan: In the event of my demise (hi s4), I'm adding Marcia and leaving her my seat.

WELP. THAT'S A BOMBSHELL.

Shiv: Uh, I'm gonna need my lawyers to look at this. Logan: Sure. By 4:00, ok? Logan: Also, I discussed this with Kendall, but I'm staying in power as CEO. Kendall: Wh-what? Logan: Let's eat!

I see where Roman got his 'go in, throw shit at the wall, then leave' tendencies from.

'Fuck this shit I'm out' started playing in my head as Connor left too.

———

The longer Logan is on screen, the more I start… losing emotions. He just called rehab 'the nuthouse', and is generally insulting his son.

Logan: Is that why you're paying a billion dollars for a gay little website? Kendall: It's a portfolio of online brands and digital video content.

So Logan is Succession's Elon Musk, and Kendall is his son buying Instagram.

Now Logan's egging Kendall into punching him/mocking him for nearly crying, and poor Kendall is having a breakdown in the bathroom. Good lord, I want to hug him.

———

The past few moments they've mentioned a game, drove off in SUVs, and now there are helicopters. I have no idea what is going on.

OH, IT'S A BASEBALL FIELD. Now I know what's going on. There are so many shots of Tom holding a box, and I think that's the gift he's been trying to give to Logan. I feel sorry for the dude, and I get the feeling that's gonna sum up the show: me feeling sorry for characters.

Yep, it was a gift. Logan doesn't care. Continuing to feel sorry for Tom.

———

Tom: You need any help, any advice, just don't fucking bother, ok? Just kidding! [later] I'm a terrible, terrible prick. Just kidding!

Greg: [confused and clearly has no idea wtf is going on]

Don't worry, bro, me too.

Tom: Would you kiss me?

SIR, ARE YOU TRYING TO SPEEDRUN ANY% STRANGERS TO ENEMIES TO LOVERS?!

———

Ooh, did Kendall just go straight to the media about his family? 👀👀

———

Roman: Can you hit a ball? Kid: Yeah… Roman: Great, I will give you $1mil if you hit a home run.

WELL, THAT'S NOT GONNA PUT PRESSURE ON THE KID! But dang that is a lot of money, good on you, Roman.

———

Roman: [tears up the check right in the kids face, then gives him the torn pieces]

Roman, every time I say something nice about you, you fuck it up. I'm getting a spray bottle full of water, just for you.

EVEN LOGAN WAS NICE TO THE KID! You know you fucked up when Logan was (temporarily) nicer than you.

———

Kendall: I'm gonna stuff your mouth with so much money you're gonna shit gold figurines.

So Midas kink?

Kendall: [goes into graphic detail abt gold cages and silver d*ldos]

WHEN I SAID KINK I DIDN'T MEAN I WANTED A WHOLE ASS SUMMARY ABOUT YOUR FANTASIES, KENDALL

———

…I don't even know what to say about Logan making the kid and his family sign an NDA. Like, at least maybe the kid is getting money after all, but W O W.

I should probably get multiple water spray bottles.

———

Logan: Do we have a deal? His kids: No Logan: [instantly collapses from insubordination]

WELP. EVERYTHING WENT STRAIGHT TO HELL IN A HANDBASKET, AND THIS IS ONLY S1 E1.

———

Everyone else: [chaos, drama, and depression] Frank: [resting on a chair after getting fired]

Be free, Frank. Get away from this! …OH, THE KID AND HIS FAMILY GOT TOM'S GIFT FOR LOGAN! Like, kinda happy for the kid/family 'cause they could sell that or whatever, but rip Tom. Logan loves hurting his family more than your Brand watch.

———

That's everything from my liveblog of ep 1! Sorry for only one ep liveblog, but hopefully it was an amusing read. This is gossipy hen/Succession Anon, signing off! salutes

Hi my dear anon!

Haha I love to see your liveblogging, this was a very amusing read indeed. You're observations are pretty spot on and hilarious, and it made almost nostalgic thinking about the time when I watched the shitshow (affectionately) for the first time 😌

A few comments:

Tom and/or Greg: There's a fine line between feeling sorry for and being annoyed by these two fellas. I think you're gonna cross it many times (and hopefully soon). Still love them both btw. But god. UGH!

*sigh* What would this show be without daddy issues, amarite or amarite? 😏

I would steal Roman's last french fry too 🤣

Fun fact: Roman's "you wish" at Shiv's perfume comment was unscripted, and so Shiv's reaction is actually Sarah's reaction. For a split second she falls out of character and looks at the crew. But when you don't know, it just looks like Shiv fucking baffled. I love that for her and I love Kieran's improv. It's not the last time he does that (but sadly not all his attempts make it. One of them was even too good???)

"SIR,WHAT THE ACTUAL F" is one the most accurate descriptions of Connor I've ever heard. That man is so out of touch. Send help.

Logan is the male equivalent of a Karen 🙂🔪

Frank is love, Frank is life. That man? *chef's kiss* right there

I remember last time I rewatched this (right before s4) thinking "LOGAN COULD'VE DIED IN THE FIRST EPISODE??" and then thinking what dream scenario that would have been. But oh well!

[unproduciblesmackdown]

natch for the record these + a lot of kind Likes and replies = my victory

[steve0discusses]

S4 Ep 39: Pharaoh Can Fly (Selectively)

Guys, they’re back

Best storyboarder is back, and the visual difference between last episode and this episode is like when your art teacher picks up your charcoal and just fixes everything wrong with your gesture drawings. It’s like...I mean look at this:

I just really love and appreciate how illustrative this storyboarder is. And I say just storyboarder because this had about the same budget as the last episode--there wasn’t that much actual animation as per usual. But, all of the scenes were drawn so well, like panels out of a good manga. They just...they always nail it when they’re at the helm and I don’t know why they’re on Yugioh, but bless this storyboarder.

Plot wise, everyone got pulled into the dragon by gooey tentacles that came out of it’s stomach, don’t think about it.

Meanwhile, all of the minibosses could communicate with them and beg for help, yes, even the same miniboss who may have dressed up like Pegasus and catfished Seto Kaiba.

(keep reading under the cut)

The whole process of getting absorbed into the Orichalcos demon was a whole lot of symbolism and it was...kinda gross. Also kinda sketch. Also, for Kaiba it is a neat little nod to S1 when he had a vision that his brother was absorbed into a dragon mass.

I don’t think that the makers of the show remember S1, but either they just really like goopy dragons, or it’s a coincidence or I dunno, on purpose? Probably a coincidence.

And like I made this joke and realized...what if they actually meant to make that parallel though? This is the America crossover season, and they have referenced America’s love of trickster rabbits before with Pegasus but do they know about Br’er rabbit in Japan? Do they know? It’s a pretty Americana Deep-cut, and I have no idea how common this folktale is outside of the states.

I see anime busting out absorbing goopy masses all the time so I’m gonna assume that there might be a Japanese folklore I don’t know about which uses a similar structure (although I’m also assuming it has an extremely different history and association ((which I won’t be going into because I don’t feel like putting a trigger warning on this recap)).)

And looking at Wikipedia, there’s people that think the original reference to moist, absorbing creatures could have even come from as far as India. Which is...fascinating to how it also developed in Africa, and then the Cherokee also made the same story independently and then it fused together here in the States to make it what was eventually made into a Disney movie that will never be released again--this is just a really old ass story, all in all, possibly like over a thousand years old.

And a FASCINATING google deep dive I won’t go into for obvious reasons but knock yourself out.

Also, lets get distracted for a sec and see how well this storyboarder drew a fitted jacket at that angle. Dear Lord, did they get reference for that or did their brain just already know that those folds would be there? You can even tell that Pharaoh has just a little bit of padding at his shoulders. Ugh. Guys this storyboarder is so freakin good at these little fitted jackets.

So, once Yugi and his friends are absorbed into the mass, where they should have died...and maybe some of them did, but I don’t know if I should add that to the Death Count because like...they could have held their breath in the amount of time they were stuck in there...maybe...Anyway, they are saved by being tossed into the figurative briar patch--by the souls all hanging out in the Leviathan’s stomach--which again makes me wonder...did they pull a folklore on us? Again, I have no idea.

Like a lot of the people in this dragon have been thorns in their side this entire season, they’ve all tried to kill them at one point--all the minibosses, Mai, Pegasus--but now they have decided to team up with Pharaoh (along with the rest of the human race) and offer whatever they can to free them from the grip of the gross dragon mass.

And like, the ending of the folk tale is that the thorny ass briar patch is also where the rabbit lives usually. It hurts everyone else, but the rabbit--the rabbit can deal with it. And likewise, Pharaoh is freakin dead. He’s at home here. He’s surrounded by spirit power, his friends and their friendship power, this is like his zone, and now he’s crazy powerful for it and will be for the rest of the episode.

And like Yami is a very trickster God (especially Season Zero Yami) so like...it does make sense that he would mirror a folk tale based on trickster Gods, even if it is by complete accident.

So Pharaoh imagines everyone’s tears as individual drops in a glass or something--it’s not a literal glass or anything--it’s just there because the only thing actually happening on screen was his hand hanging out of this dragon’s weird puss skin.

And he’s now a fully charged Sonic the Hedgehog and no longer needs Kaiba or Joey at all. Just gonna grab his God card demons and take charge of everything else from here on out.

By first exploding his buddies right the hell out of this lizard and across hundreds of feet of open ocean.

Joey decides to remind Kaiba that he lost the Battle City tournament.

Seto’s roast was actually in the show, PS. He is not super excited to be reminded that Yugi owns every card that he spent 2 seasons failing to get.

And then Pharaoh did something really, really...

...just really really wild.

OH OK.

YEAH JUST TAKE OFF.

GO AHEAD THERE’S NO REASON THIS WOULD BOTHER ME.

I mean he IS super powered right now but like...

Like...WTF?

4 SEASONS. 4 SEASONS I thought this guy was glued to Yugi like Peter Pan’s Shadow and apparently--he can bounce.

Can Pharaoh do this every time Yugi asks Tea out on a date and tries to instead make the ghost in his head do all the work now? Can Pharaoh just be like “NOPE” and then phase out of the house, leaving Yugi to actually do the hard stuff?

It really adds a level of complexity to their relationship if Yugi can get a room.

(If not a room for romance, but at the very least a room to poop in.)

OR has he been able to allow Yugi to wicked poop in peace this whole time, but the show just never felt like telling us because they felt like it wasn’t important (although it is crazy important)?

Either way I am just...floored at this character development.

Yami just let Yugi out of his sight for like...I want to say 8 full minutes. Just incredible amount of trust on Yami’s part. Incredible. Knowing Yugi’s track record, he should have died in those 8 minutes but...he was being babysat by both Kaiba and Joey.

So Yami summons the Gods and they shoot lasers--you kinda expect this sort of thing.

And this is...probably...the real reason why Dartz didn’t bother trying to attack Pharaoh 5,000 years ago.

I can still think it’s because of Bakura but like...this is probably the real reason. It felt pretty chump to just shoot a laser at the bastard. Pharaoh just had to be reminded that this is a thing he can just do. If he felt like it.

Which he never feels like doing, because he’s too busy watching Yugi’s every move, and getting distracted by High School shenanigans.

After this happens, the giant snake falls to the ocean, splitting into just sooooooo many ghosts.

Over 7.8 billion ghosts, if we’re to assume that this is most of the population on Earth.

(thinking the weird-o in the hat is probably a Duel Monsters card? The duel monsters were throwing themselves into the Leviathan at one point so this is probably like a dark magician boy or something...I just don’t get very attached to the monster cards so it was like...whatever. The cards die like constantly so who cares?)

It is a pretty set dressing. Like Christmas lights but...dead people.

We also find out that the lost family of our minibosses Alister and Raphael, have indeed spent the last many years inside the Leviathan stomach, which is pretty tragic. We get a bitter sweet conclusion to Alister and Raphael’s story--although it’s not a full on ending for either character. Their life still hella sucks, they are in therapy for basically forever.

Where is Gurimo?

I don’t know what sort of job or life these two are qualified to have now, but youknow...Marik’s boat probably has jobs available.

Hold up. Can we talk about the windows?

I know absolutely none of you care about this, but I do, not to be picky or condescending to an overworked art team, but because I just want to know what they were trying to aim for.

There’s an iron stained glass style windowpane thing going on and that’s what’s really getting me. Like...I know these guys were technologically advanced, but why did you use this WW2 background? What happened to Ancient Greece that you were doing before?

Like doing a super past with future tech is so cool to me--I love that sort of concept art. That’s going into like Black Panther stuff where you’re referencing the earliest stuff in Africa and then blending it with stuff beyond our science. But Atlantis is a real big shrug and a “listen we ran out of time and had to press print,” and it’s such a shame. It feels less cohesive than even when this show does Egypt.

And yo this show and how it draws ancient Egypt--I feel like I’ve already talked about that. I have a feeling I’m going to talk a lot more about it next season. I’ll get to it when we get to it. I’m hoping that they have more time and budget to actually DO Egypt for once. (I say knowing they won’t)

Like it’s one of those things where this isn’t a history show, like at all, and it’s very much a fantasy. I’m not going to be like those sewing people on youtube that get annoyed because their TV show doesn’t have handsewn stitching in their Victorian bodices they rented from the costume department from an LA discount warehouse. Because, yo, it’s TV, and I can stretch my own imagination because it’s acting. (although I confess, I watch every single one of those videos).

But...the potential, y’all...the potential.

Anyway, Dartz isn’t dead. He was just taking his toot sweet time getting down the steps of his Gazebo.

This is where things get very anime. I get this problem a lot with anime, I really do--and maybe it’s just me. But like...sometimes it feels like anime changes the rules during the boss fight.

That happens a lot, right? Where suddenly the final boss reveals something that like...should have been addressed way earlier? And he’s alive but you don’t get why?

Anyway, Pharaoh reacts by getting maybe way too attached to his newfound independence.

Which like...I can understand Tea forgetting that Yugi is one people that is two people all the time, but the writers as well?

And what’s kind of great about this scene is that Dartz does see Yugi as two people here. He doesn’t look at Yugi, he looks at both. When Pharaoh is like “Leave me, Yugi!” Dartz heard all of that.

Just kind of a neat thing that we finally have a dude that can just...see Pharaoh for what he is, but it probably won’t matter because there’s like only one more episode left of this season.

Anyway, Pharaoh and Dartz have a chat about where evil comes from...and like...it’s some Yugioh lore, all right.

So before the show decides to give us the Genesis on Yugioh and reveal where the evil of the Orichalcos comes from, or if all evil was created by Orichalcos itself (which is IMPLYING stuff about Orichalcos) the snake shuts him the hell up.

As it should. Leave that Pandora’s box freakin closed. That’s going into extended universe of Star Wars books territory (RIP.)

As an aside--pretty sure that Yugi is standing outside that tornado. Maybe it was just the editing of the episode but like...

Yo I’m pretty sure Yugi is just standing there. For the first time, it’s not his nuts getting roasted. Wow. Tables have turned so much since he was dead.

Anyway, here’s the link for new people so you can read these in order

https://steve0discusses.tumblr.com/tagged/yugioh/chrono

There’s only one left! We can do it! We can finish this season in 2020! And actually get back to recapping Full Metal Alchemist! ~~Woooo~~

Oh man that movie better still be on Netflix or I’ll have to buy it lolol.

[hawksmoor17]

Doctor Who vs. Sherlock  — S9E11 “Heaven Sent” and S4/TFP

Apologies if anyone’s already done a meta on this. The parallels are pretty blatant so it’s likely that it’s already been done.

Anyway. I decided to watch a random episode after only seeing up to S7 + S10. I wanted something highly rated, something written by Moffat — and ended up picking “S9E11 ‘Heaven Sent’”. (Turns out the episode’s also directed by Rachel Talaylay!)

The moment I start it instantly I’m like ... Oh god. I literally cannot escape TFP wherever I go.

The aesthetic is immediately similar — with a weird symmetrical barren prison setting, televisions randomly everywhere with staticky screens and glowing backdrops, a similar colour scheme ...

But then I’m like — wait a second. In any normal, relatively sane universe that part of an international conspiracy, surely this would indicate that this scene takes place in some sort of dream-like setting?

And sure enough the episode turns out to literally be constructed using the Doctor’s nightmares as fodder.

And then the more I watch the more I realise that it’s not just visually similar to TFP — the episode is in places an exact mirror of TFP/S4.

The focus of the Doctor’s dream sequence? It’s the inevitability of death.

The episode even starts with the Doctor having this lengthy monologue which is literally just “Appointment in Samarra” — talking about how no matter how fast you run, Death (”the Veil”) will inevitably catch up with you, calmly walking.

And when the creature that represents Death does catch up with Twelve he actually stops and says “I’ve just realised something ... I’m actually scared of dying." causing time to stop and he frowns and asks “Was it something I said?”

And if that wasn’t subtle enough, when time unfreezes, to escape, the Doctor jumps out the window, presumably to his death.

He then monologues, explaining what you have to do to survive death, to survive a fall:

“Rule one of dying — don’t. Rule two — slow down. You’ve got the rest of your life. The faster you think the slower it will pass so concentrate. Assume that you’re going to survive. Always assume that. Imagine you’ve already survived.

“There’s a storm room in your mind. Lock the door. And think. This is my storm room. I always imagine that I’m back in my TARDIS, showing off, telling you how I escaped, making you laugh. That’s what I’m doing right now. I am falling. Clara. I am dying. And I’m going to explain to you how I survived.”

“I can’t wait to hear what I said! I’m nothing without an audience.”

Full analysis under the cut:

Then the Doctor falls into the sea — he’s drowning. And his subconscious, through the form of Clara, starts communicating with him via chalkboard.

Clara/Doctor: “What is this place?” Doctor: “Can’t I just sleep?”

Clara/Doctor: “What did you say that made the creature stop?” Doctor: “Do I have to know everything?”

“I don’t want to die.” — “I’m actually scared of dying.”

Clara/Doctor: “How are you going to ... WIN?”

How do you win a seemingly impossible game?

Both the Doctor and Sherlock approach their situations through the lens of a sort of game — where winning means for everyone just this once to live.

It reminds me a bit of S10E2 “Smile” when the Doctor tells Bill “Do you know why I always win at chess? Because I have a secret move. I kick over the board.”

... As the Doctor is drowning after jumping into the ocean he suddenly realises that he’s surrounded by hundreds of the skeletons of people who have died before him.

Arguably a few more than at the bottom of the well in TFP.

And once he crawls to shore, he magically gets a dry change of clothes, and continues to try to escape Sherrinford the weird Hell Labyrinth he’s trapped in which is surrounded by water and filled with puzzles and TV screens (sans Psychopath Sister).

“It keeps coming, Clara. Wherever I go it follows. Why does it do that?”

“This is theatre! We’re in a fully automated haunted house. A mechanical maze [...] designed to scare me to death and I’m trapped inside it. It must be Christmas!”

The next scene/puzzle the allegorical Death monster sets for the Doctor is an exact mirror for the scene where Sherlock digs up Emelia Ricoletti’s body in TAB.

The Doctor is given a shovel and a place to dig, he starts digging, we get a transition to night, and eventually he uncovers what he’s digging for — in this case it’s a plaque that reads “I am in 12″ which is a bit of a double entendre because not only is the Doctor, the Twelfth Doctor, trapped in Hell conjured up from his own worst fears, but also the only escape is through Room 12.

And then as he’s trying to figure out what he’s missing — HOLY CRAP! THE MONSTER POPS UP! and scares the Doctor into “waking up”.

Except whereas Sherlock ‘wakes up’ at the waterfall, every time the Doctor ‘wakes up’ he returns to the TARDIS — like a sort of subconscious reset button.

It’s likely that in the same way Sherlock’s subconscious ‘base of operations’ or ‘storm room’ as the Doctor calls it is a plane, going off of ‘Eurus’’ speech in TFP.

(”Every time I close my eyes I’m on the plane ...” / “Your mind has created the perfect metaphor” etc. + TAB + TST, building upon ASiB which created that initial allegorical link between the 007 flight and death.)

“This whole place was designed to terrify me. It wants confession. I have to tell truths I’ve never told before. That’s the only thing that stops it.”

“But the thing is ... There are truths I can never tell. Not for anything. But I’m scared and I’m alone. Alone and very, very scared.”

(”Every time I close my eyes, I'm on the plane. I'm lost. Lost in the sky and... No one can hear me.”)

The Doctor realises that the only way to fend off the monster is to confess — which he manages to do at first, ‘waking up’ again, back at the grave he was digging up.

While trying to escape the castle, trying to solve a number puzzle, he questions where he is, that perhaps the place he’s stuck in is in a locked energy loop or ...

“Maybe I’m in Hell. I’m not scared of Hell. It’s just Heaven for bad people. But how long will I have to be here? ... Forever?”

“I’m following breadcrumbs that have been laid out for me. This is someone else’s game. And I can’t stop playing.”

“Just tell them! Just tell them! Whoever wants to know! [...]. I can’t keep doing this! I can’t. I can’t. I can’t always do this! It’s not fair, Clara! It’s just not fair! Why can’t I just lose!”

“No more confessions. But I will tell the truth.”

“The Hybrid is a dangerous secret. A very, very dangerous secret. And it needs to be kept! So I’m telling you nothing. Nothing at all. Instead I’m gonna do something far worse. I’m gonna get out of here and find whoever put me here in the first place and whatever they’re trying to do I’m going to stop it!”

“I should have known ... The creature from my own nightmares. This place. My own bespoke torture chamber. Intended for me only. All those skulls in the water. How could there be other prisoners? In my Hell? The answer of course, is there were never any other prisoners. The stars haven’t moved. I’ve just been here ... a very long time.”

In the end — the episode turns out to be quite like Doctor Strange. Basically the Doctor is stuck in a loop where he has to kill himself over and over again to jump start a teleporter that puts him back at the beginning of the loop. All the skulls at the bottom of the ocean were his own. The only way to get out is to punch his way through a material that’s like 200 times stronger than diamond which takes him over a billion years.

The reason he’s stuck in his own personal version of Hell is because he’s trapped in a ‘Confession Dial’ a device made to try to scare a confession out of someone. In the Doctor’s case it’s the existence of ‘The Hybrid’, a half dalek, half timelord.

In the end the Doctor finally reveals that there isn’t actually such thing as ‘The Hybrid’. There is never any monster. The ‘creature’ in the prophecies is him.

rhgdkfhgsdkfdfsdkfjsdlfjds --

A bit of a ramble towards the end there, but a whole bunch of things in this episode really had me raising my eyebrows like, gee whizz. That monologue about surviving a fall at the beginning of the episode? The Samarra metaphor? The whole ‘confess to escape’ thing? ‘Christmas’? The TARDIS as a mental ‘storm room’???

Up until this point I’ve been under the impression that the only way for Sherlock to escape EMP is to kill himself like in Inception/”Amy’s Choice” — but perhaps there might also actually be an element of Sherlock having to confess like Culverton Smith kept emphasising, for Sherlock to actually face the truth of his past and admit his fears.

Has anyone else seen this ep or the rest of the season? Thoughts?

@the-blue-carbuncle​ @tjlcisthenewsexy​ @sci-fi-hero​ @deancasisendgame  

[unproduciblesmackdown]

we’ll just have to see How It Feels when billions s5 (part 1 lol) actually hits and i have to deal with the fact that i hate to even Think about consuming billions content outside of the [compilation of Just Winston’s Billions Content], even though technically i had to consume billions content outside the compilation just to create the compilation, and i felt Genuine Anxiety over [it’s saturday night bitches here comes a billions episode] whether it was a rare “and winston will be in it” saturday or a “he won’t be in it so i don’t even have to Look at it” saturday, and this time it will be 100% winston saturdays, and i Dread this, yet i was somehow able to endure even Most of billions eps in the past, b/c it always seems more Unmanageable when you’re thinking about it until it’s actually happening currently and you’re handling it, but usually that’s re: more dire things that [an episode of a show that’s kind of cursed and i kind of hate it] but i can’t explain the complexities of my relationship with billions except that it distresses me all of the time and at the end of the day i’m really just trying to look at the quant while safely assuming that canon will only cause me further suffering

[steve0discusses]

Yugioh S4 Ep 27: Joey Punches Valon to Death and Seto Kaiba buys a Car.

My favorite character is back!

THE STORYBOARDER.

Like clockwork, the best storyboarder of all of Yugioh saw in the episode notes “This is the one where we shall Destroy Joey Wheeler” and he was like “Yes! this is extremely my thing!” and he’s back at it again, destroying Joey Wheeler with such finesse.

Like it’s so hard to explain in caps because you can’t see stuff move, but this animator is so good at the Yugioh vibe--he makes these character designs WORK for him (or her? No idea the identity of the mysterious storyboarder (or team of storyboarders--maybe this was one little group they freelance out to that worked really well together? I dunno) ) they really capture what Yugioh IS in a really unique way and still remain fairly economical in the animation sense. They do not hold back on any pose, and go completely ham into this ridiculous concept of a card game where you put on a special suit and punch eachother in the face.

Mind you, it’s still a card game and I skipped all that, but man...this is such a good storyboarder and I know that next episode they’ll be gone but for now I’m just gonna bask in it.

First off, Rebecca manages to figure out Seto’s 6-letter password in order to access billions of people’s personal data off of a satellite (we don’t get to find out what the password was) and although the storyboarder is great--they did make one fatal mistake.

The bane of every Californian who leaves California. LA is like a completely different country to San Fransisco but everyone only knows of two Californian cities and assumes we’re right next door to each other.

And it’s like...no, man. I don’t have Disneyland. Do I sound like a cheerful person that lives next to Disneyland? Do I say “bruh” and smile with the force of 1000 suns as we surf the coast on the backs of Lisa Frank dolphins? No dude, I have a strong Bay Area accent that makes me sound like a dry sarcastic asshole and I wear sweatshirts to the freakin beach because it’s very cold and filled with great white sharks.

(Sorry I just had to delete like 10 k words where I compared the entire cast to US cities by saying cryptic stuff like Joey Wheeler : Seto Kaiba is like LA : San Fransisco and like it was the biggest random tangent that only makes sense to me. Quarantine brain, y’all, I got SERIOUS quarantine brain. Anyone else? Anyone else just find themselves wasting like 2 hours thinking of which cities match the personalities of different characters on a show that came out so long ago? Man I need distractions right now.)

But back to what’s happening on the show, Yami is coming to terms with Joey’s struggle about as well as Yami does.

Which is mostly Yami saying “I’m pretty sure I killed Joey in that card game with Bakura in S1 and Tea had to bring him back from the graveyard so like wtv.”

(read more under the cut)

This was like 2003??? I think I keep forgetting when this season came out but we had printers at this point. We had google maps and a printer.

I don’t think I’ve touched a map like that since the 5th grade, where we had this competition to make a hypothetical road trip across America. It was Awful, and if you won the competition to get from SF to New York with the shortest distance, you would win something like pizza and a cool engraved name plate. We did not win pizza, because I could not even unfold this asshole map.

And now we have Google so like thanks, Mrs. Lambert, it was cool, but I’ll never use that information again. I hope. It was such a vivid frustrating memory that these maps still fill me with anxiety to this day, hearkening back to my 5th grade self just desperately trying to use string to measure how many miles the freeways across the midwest contain. (spoiler: a lot)

How OLD is this kid? Rebecca’s like secretly a 68 year old. She’s secretly Mrs. Lambert.

At this point we had a swell in the music as each friend of Joey joined in to announce their willingness to risk danger and save him.

Were they...not going to join him the whole time? It just seemed like a weird thing to bring up sooo after the fact.

Yami then turned to Duke and was like “but not you. You stay here” and he was like “Oh, thank gods.”

Rebecca stayed behind because the animators don’t want to draw her. Honestly, she’s incredibly helpful and they were mad stupid to leave the only smart one in the car. But youknow...this team loves being mad stupid. It makes the show more entertaining.

As they left we had a weird aside where Arthur Hawkins reflected “Rebecca is having just a REAL hard time trusting Yami” and it’s like--Arthur Hawkins! You’ve been dumping on Yami for like an entire season, that’s why. Like don’t pretend you’re all on team Pharaoh now. Why ever stop dunking?

But youknow, character development, Rebecca is going to learn the trust the ghost that possessed her crush/best friend that she’s had for 2+ years on a kid who’s been living in Japan this whole time who literally forgot who she was 2 weeks ago. You trust that ghost, Rebecca.

Or not. I mean you really don’t have to. You don’t owe Yami anything, dude. You don’t need to blindly trust idiot men, Rebecca. You just do you. Trust that instinct of “is this guy not trustworthy?” because yep. Chances are if you’re having that thought, that he’s totally not.

Storyboarder!

Storyboarder what ARE you???

STORYBOARDER!

after this followed a scene that I’ve seen gif-ed just so, so often that I assumed it was in a Yugioh Spin-off. I don’t know why I thought it wasn’t in this OG series, but I didn’t expect it to be here, in the Dartz season. But, it does make sense that this scene was under the best Storyboarder‘s direction because *chef’s kisses * it’s perfect. Every frame is a joy. The amount of sinister expressions on Mokuba, the level of sass coming off of Kaiba. It’s such a freakin shame that this man’s best work so far only lasts like a few seconds.

PS my bro looked it up and this car salesman has a wikipedia page.

He also looked up if anyone has shipped this car salesman and it’s our lucky day because this ship does not exist with any human ever in the world. Thank you, humanity. But, they DID make a wikipedia page so maybe we’re just putting off the inevitable?

I’m not even gonna cap it because I KNOW this is a gif you can easily download from everywhere but mm--this is a SOLID piece of animation. This animator is just flexing so hard, man. Yugioh did not deserve this much care and attention to detail.

Shippers rejoice, Seto Kaiba did briefly consider helping out Joey (before he absolutely drove away in the opposite direction)

(They’re clearly in the financial district already, PS. They are driving 5 ft to Dartz’ house.)

At some point Joey nabbed Valon’s card and so now he also gets to wear a bunch of stupid armor outfits.

This one is weird! It’s very Kamen rider-ish...but it’s a color scheme that feels very valentines day. It looks hard to wear. Good thing it’s animated.

I may need to capture this walk sequence though...if I still have the energy...the picture does not display his very energetic arms-in-the-air walk cycle I haven’t seen since that one Season zero episode. I dunno if it’s a reference to that, but I can’t think of any other reason why Tristan is walking like that.

This is when Mai finally shows up.

Valon lost his helmet during this fight, which lead to this:

What a good note to end on.

Anyways, I have no idea what my update schedule will look like or be, so if you’re new here and you want to start reading these from the beginning, I have a link for that:

https://steve0discusses.tumblr.com/tagged/yugioh/chrono

[steve0discusses]

Yugioh S4 Ep 23: Roland Freaks Out for 25 Straight Minutes

Oh man, took a break from the blog for a bit there because I gave myself a project to do that is 160ish color panels to draw by June 30th and um...it takes a while to do that, it turns out. Every time I’m like “wow I actually have enough time to make a buffer for the blog” I get so distracted.

But anyways, I started having some issues with my wacom tablet, my mouse is a nightmare, and so...I’m just gonna look the other way and write a recap and unplug all of the wacom stuff and just stay the hell away from whatever happened to that...tablet.

maybe It’ll be fine tomorrow?

*sweats nervously*

Thank God I didn’t buy a cintique, that’s all I’ll say. 

Anyway, lets go back to Yugioh. Where were we?

That’s right. Mokuba is checking in with my favorite Kaiba, Roland, who is currently just trying to keep the company running while the official Kaibas are flying to California.

And I’ll be honest, as I was typing this I thought “and why are they going to California again?” and it took me like...10 minutes to remember that Seto dropped absolutely everything and jumped on this massive plane in order to beat Rafael at cards to win the title “King of Games” which...Yugi had already lost to Rebecca about 2 years ago prior, but don’t tell that to Seto. Or Rebecca.

Also don’t tell Seto that the “King of Games” title originally comes from being possessed by a very emo ghost that has a tendency to set people on fire with Russian whiskey and has nothing to do with whatever shenanigans went down with Pegasus.

Honestly, I like to think that in the modern version of this show, Pegasus threw the “King of Games” line out there as like a corny joke, and when the teenagers started latching onto it like it was real, he was like “Oh what?” and left it alone because he just got his left eye ripped out of his face and was very distracted by the large amount of cultists in his basement that he suddenly needed to let go.

But youknow it’s the end of the world, Kaiba’s company is being bought out by a competitor, one of Dartz’ assassins are trying to kill both him and his brother, but he has to go to California immediately to play Rafael while he has the chance. Not sure how Alister got the tip-off that Kaiba would be flying back to California so quickly, but knowing the Kaibas, they probably jump on a plane several times a week.

I’m just still baffled that Mokuba’s doing this over a cell phone. That he was like “I better call someone.” and instead of calling the Airline or the Coastguard he’s like “I’ll call Roland💗”

I’m pretty sure Roland saw that phone ringing with Mokuba in the callerID and was like “NO NO NO NO NO”

(read more under the cut)

Luckily for Roland, everyone at Kaiba corp has to learn how to fly planes in order to pass the entry exam.

For reals though, that plane just casually bumped off a mountain like it’s in Diddy Kong Racing.

There’s a lot of levels of brother’s saving brothers in this episode. You have Seto who thinks he’s saving Mokuba, but in fact it is Mokuba saving Seto by keeping this plane afloat. And then in reality, you can take another brother step backward and say it was Roland who was saving Mokuba who was saving Seto by giving the phone to that rando, and take even another step backward and say it was this Random Guy who was saving Roland who was saving Mokuba who was saving Seto.

So in reality, no brothers were really able to save eachother, it was actually that one secretary at the desk who screamed “JUST PULL THE LEVER HARDER, I DUNNO” until it worked.

But just remember that the theme of this episode is brothers saving brothers, although Mokuba is too small to really fly this plane, and Seto is too crazy to stop this duel and Roland is not really the secret inept heir of the Kaiba bloodline, and only in my little headcanon.

And also, I just have no idea who that random secretary is.

Anyways, Alister made this thing happen on the field.

Hey guys?

How many guns do you need on a tank?

Like I...

That is a hilarious amount of guns on this tank.

Like every character designer part of me is dying right now. It’s when you’re learning Maya, and you finally figure out the duplicate tool, and you just--you just strap a billion guns on a spaceship. We’ve all done this.

But like...this gunship has a face, and that face has it’s own tiny Oricalchos.

All I’m saying is that Alister is having a hell of a time in his Maya 101 class he takes at the local community college when he’s not busy working for Kaiba Corp Airlines or busy killing people for Dartz. I want to know what grade he got on this project, because in my Maya classes the only people who were this dedicated were building weird ass warships for their games or building intense 3D My Little Pony fanfic.

Here’s a list I can think of from the top of my head of challenges Seto Kaiba either quit or completely failed outright (basically the times Seto has NOPEd out or been forcibly kicked out):

-Joey Wheeler’s many challenges and also Spanish Class (as mentioned above)

-Beating Yugi in a card game

-Not joining Pegasus’ tourney initially so he could go on a vacation.

-We’ll just assume he’s only taken like a bunch of random college classes but only got an honorary degree

-Chess (like he was a Grand Master at one point but wtv, cards exist now)

-Didn’t arrest the Big Five or remove them from his mmo so they freakin died in there.

-Being the actual owner of the Millennium Rod

-Every time Yami tells him that they should be friends

-That whole story line where he was dating a dragon in a past life

-fulfilling that prophecy of killing Yami in the present timeline to end the world

-attempting to blow up his own battle city tournament before it was over because he didn’t win

-Getting all 3 Godcards

-When a possessed Tristan appeared over a mountain top to duel everyone and Seto just went “I’m out” and simply walked away

-Flying a blimp from point A to point B without it setting on fire

-Getting his Dad to build an amusement park

-Just anything to do with Noah

-the existence of magic in general

-every attempt he’s had to rebrand Kaiba Corp as “funtime games inc I swear we don't make tanks anymore, stop looking at all the tanks”

-Seto Kaiba’s entire Destiny storyline this season that he has gone way out of his way to get away from.

And like I’m sure there’s more, but I feel like half of Kaiba’s MO is that he is either Too Good To Bother With This or he has Lost Everything Very Dramatically. Mokuba at least has the right idea, by being one of the few people who has beaten Yugi Muto by peacing out halfway through the duel and stealing all Yugi’s stuff off of Yugi’s side of the table.

Anyway, despite it being like...5 seconds since we saw Roland in a weird cyber room in what I assume was Japan, we now see him with his head pressed against the glass of this helicopter being like “BOYS NO NOT AGAIN WHY”

And youknow, Roland was just trying to do the right thing, but he accidentally made things a million times worse by just showing up.

And so Alister was like “well I better crash the plane now with this gust of green energy that destroys all mechanical equipment.”

Really not sure how Alister was planning to leave this plane after this duel was over. I don’t know if he thinks that far ahead.

this isn’t even a joke I made up, Roland really did run up to the pilot and was like “Just throw down some ladders! That should work!” and it’s like...Do you not see the giant ship covered in a thousand guns right now, Roland?

And then Alister and Seto decide to have a fight about ethics where they’re both pretty wrong.

I mean it’s not the exact line but yes this is basically what Seto said, point blank, and I was like “well...at least he owns it.”

So cards happen, dragons get played (so MANY dragons) and because we had to end this arc, Alister loses the duel as we kind of knew he would.

And then Mokuba, because he knows no other life, sees an asshole older brother in pain and just wants to adopt him.

Enjoy that trauma tossed onto your already megalith sized trauma pile, Mokuba.

Elsewhere, the legendary dragons have started syncing again, which is a weird thing that they can do that none of these guys have any control of.

Mostly it just irritates whoever is holding these cards at the time.

But behold! the glory!

The glory of three tubby dragons wielding a plane!

It’s what Kaiba always wanted but he had absolutely no idea he was doing it. Will anyone tell him that he managed to summon three dragons to fly him around the sky like a mamma bird? No. No one bothers to tell him that his wildest dreams just came true.

FYI There were other stills of more of the dragons and the plane, but I kept pausing on instances where it kinda looked like they were humping the plane so I gave up.

But, at least we all get to meet up, around the smoke coming out the back of this giant plane that now...will just sit here...until someone sues KaibaCorp over it, I guess.

Like a soccermom, now Roland gets to give the whole frenemy crew a ride with...copters or whatever.

I dont’ know how Roland got here, y’all.

This happens a lot with animated shows, youknow, there’s a lot of plot threads, a lot of scenes and episodes that get freelanced out and outsourced, and people who make these shows aren’t working on the whole thing at once, they’re just going off of director notes--so there’s a good chance they had no idea that Roland...just shouldn’t be here.

But it’s OK, I enjoy whenever Roland is panicking in the background. He’s good set dressing.

Seto does not give any more explanation of this corpse.

And then, sprinting as fast as he could out of his copter comes Roland, who does what Roland does best. It’s this moment where you would usually see a parental figure reveal how much they care and adore their little children. But because it’s Roland, and these are the Kaibas, he instead takes this moment to reveal exactly how inept he is at the very last second.

Never change, Roland. I love this massive green haired disappointment.

Anyway, I’m not sure when I’ll get the next update out, since I’ll be knee deep in drawing art I don’t need to draw, but just know I’m not dead. Usually I post fanart or whatever, but all I have is this Dartz I started drawing but he just has so much hair that I don’t think that one will ever get even remotely finished.

But anyway, if you just got here, this is a link to read these from the start.

[unproduciblesmackdown]

diefordarkseid replied to your post: read this quote yesterday & naturally immediately...

milo jsyk i have yet to watch this show beyond the clips you’ve been posting of winston but the more i read your posts about him im like “wow i like and relate to winston billions kinda sorta”

scully have you ever Partaken of this really convenient just-under-15-min Youtube Compilation of all winston billions’s appearances to date (seeing as tragically s5 debuts in a couple days, which is why i’m even less capable of shutting up about winston billions than usual, and btw wrol has said that of the 7 eps we’ll get [seeing as production was interrupted by pandemics but at kind of the best point @ which it could’ve interrupted] he is in every single one) like i truly forget if i’ve ever linked that

i realize there’s a lot going on with no context but it’s a delight all the same

and i absolutely Love winston billions (tragically, see: being cursed w/ this series lmao) and yes big relate. i mean you know how wrol Cannot play a heterosexual Or neurotypical character......his can’t-be-straight vibes are radiating same as ever and i am Very Adamant that winston billions is Definitely autistic, that struck me even when all the content we had was his s3 appearances lol. 

also the fact that wrol gets so many Deeply Insecure characters to play lmao, that was pretty much the gist of his originally-meant-to-be-one-off Botched Interview Scene lol, taylor tells him he’s Too Self-Loathing, which they then have him basically confirm in his next appearance way down the line, which they Allegedly started writing as soon as wrol was filming that original would-be cameo lol.........we love the insecure low-self esteem wrol roles!!! he continues to nail it, he’s like yeah i got this

winston is also unusually Earnest and Honest, especially considering the show he’s in, and like, this guy is Putting In Effort to communicate and also connect with the people around him, which is not many people so far b/c he’s mainly interacted with taylor (which is Not a problem lol) and had fleeting interactions with his other 3 Named Coworkers.......he’s a touch ~sensitive~ lol like very prone to kind of capitulating to others’ Feedback, really into Taylor’s Validation which, why wouldn’t you be, but it’s a lil like “haha oh no” considering his and taylor’s first encounter was him annoying the hell out of them and them slamdunking him so hard he just goes off and presumably Has Depression about it until they get back in touch with him months later. Winston And Taylor Dynamic is essential considering a) virtually all winston’s scenes have been with taylor and b) asia kate dillon is Amazing and so is wrol of course and c) Their Communication(tm).....we are obsessed. this is a whole other extremely long tangent about taylor and winston’s mutual respect and ability to Get each other and willingness/ability to communicate well, which means A Lot considering like, everyone else finds winston offputting and does Not communicate well with him, and many people find taylor (at least initially) offputting for different but not-that-different reasons, and taylor often has to struggle for very conditional and transactional “respect” from others (they do get Some genuine respect, thank fucking god) but after his first meeting for taylor involves them reading him for filth and giving him despresso, the next thing he does is show up both Saying and Showing he’s listened to them and he’s clearly trying to Work With Them and they Work With Him and god the essays all about this scully.....the Essays......the Winnie N Tay.............the [they should absolutely fuck] and the Tayston...........

ANYWAYS ugh god we love him and wrol Does What He Does and gives the character depth and nuance and [the energies....the vibes] when nobody fucking asked him to, which is why he was originally just meant to come in and film the one minute long scene, but they liked him so much they wrote him in more episodes, and then in more episodes throughout s4, and then So Far Every Episode of s5 that we can get thus far. and i haven’t watched billions either!!!! i Have seen material outside of the Winston Content, and i Know Of material i have not actually watched, but i cannot bring myself to like, actually watch the series normally and in full lol. taylor is a main character which is absolutely deserved but i fairly loathe like all the Other main characters (including the two supposedly central ones lol.....a nightmare) and what i don’t dislike, i Simply do not care about lol........like, if i did actually watch it Properly? i’m sure it’d be fine and i’d only Sometimes want to slam my head through a wall. i know this b/c i’ve watched a couple eps almost in full (the last couple eps of s4) but like, i do not have to, so no thanks

but winston is So Good we love him and we have so many Thoughts and he is very relatable b/c like. wrol just Gives These Performances and goes above and beyond to make this seem like a fleshed out person before anybody even asked him to lol. or winston would have only ever been Quant Kid 2 in one scene in ep 3x03. and there are even other things we can derive enjoyment from, or we’d be way deeper in hell than we are already. such as: taylor mason, which is akd really honestly being so good an actor they’re carrying this show lol they very truly elevated this series by a lot singlehandedly. Their Performance/s......which is why it’s fucking brilliant that Wrolliam and Akd are scene partners virtually all the time. together they are just killing it, by which i mean, us. that’s why we’re here really, we went and discovered how amazing their scene/s together in ep 3x11 were and it was like hmm. i think i will never shut up about this for A Year And Counting

[unproduciblesmackdown]

thinking about ways that rian and winston are similar / comparable below the surface even though there’s the Emergent difference where apparently right off everyone’s fine with rian, vs. how with winston it’s like “everyone hates him at first* and then it takes his coworkers at least a year to get over the fact he seems weird and/or slightly grating/annoying/offputting/Whatever and start giving him normal, pretty-disdain-free treatment” (*rian seems to Not hate him at first, as even with the “capitalist douche” comment (in the course of arguing to Not Fire him) she hardly seems to find winston insufferable or whatever)

anyways so first of all it’s fun how rian turned down working at axe cap previously and is asking in the middle of her interview why she should change her mind. while winston’s axe cap interview involved him Flipping The Script all “i should interview You” and asking What’s In It For Moi. if i’m going to really stretch things here, i can also make a comparison between winston saying “let me put this in your language,” which would indirectly acknowledge he speaks a different language, and rian.........god.............saying the stuff about. swick. and well winston also saying yas queen which means he is not straight but also is Probably a point of Meta comparison: that both winston and rian are 20-Somethings and the show is going to make sure we know it via their dialogue in their respective axe cap interviews. and then soph pointed out how the [aspect that had changed since their presumed First Interviews (rian’s unseen one where she turned down the job and 3x03 for winston where he was rejected)] was Taylor Mason.....them trying to start their own fund and recruiting winston to facilitate that, and them starting an impact fund and recruiting rian to facilitate that, and rian presumably rejected an offer from Just Wendy prior to this but accepted when taylor was involved, and winston was fine to meet up with just taylor and code in a basement for just them and then sign on to the new fund headed by just them

also besides the “that’s what i always say” Point Of Similarity, there’s the fact that winston attends math meetup (regularly i guess, though we wouldn’t know seeing as it was just sort of implied and not mentioned again) b/c it’s stimulating(tm) and in 5x01 we have tuk talking about how mase cap quants at least Theoretically want to talk about math over breakfast, which might not mean winston specifically, but he’s the only named tmc quant and the Main one and also responds, so.......tl;dr winston seems to find it fun to talk about math at any point, and here’s rian just bringing up Math as a casual conversational topic during this after (market) hours social event, and doesn’t seem to be finding winston a whole cringe loser for trying to connect on that point

meanwhile also it’s not exactly the peak Personable(tm) move for mafee to make a casual remark to winston and then rian cuts in to say that his math sucks (which, handshake emoji maybe with winston going “no way you understand it” in 5x03, which seems like it was more friendly ribbing than anything, especially as a) winston was sure not going “hmm well he has a point” at the “some of Them Can’t [do the math], mafee” remark in 5x01 and b) in 5x02 when mafee was telling dollar bill that he’d needed the Math/Algorithm stuff broken down for him, who did that, b/c 5x02 seems to establish (and 5x05 seems to confirm (how many layers of parentheticals can i get on)) that mafee and winston Talk Casually) which is a little pedantic, as winston can be (e.g. “it’s pronounced ‘owned’”) and like, it’d be easy for mafee to just give a Look like how everyone’s been reacting to winston with Looks throughout s4 (and still does, just not the tmc people so much) but he doesn’t really seem that bothered and the focus shifts to winston going oh Word, math........

also like i don’t know that mafee talking about Bad Luck here wasn’t just a figurative expression more along the lines of like, this is how i’m pointing out you don’t have a drink for whatever actual reason, although rian’s tangent treats it literally as being definitely about the concept of luck, and winston sure can take things slightly literally / otherwise kind of misinterpret the intent behind a metaphor or nonliteral remark, which is handshake emoji for the tendency of his Own metaphors / references (which he doesn’t seem to use as much as is average on this series) to be critiqued or dismissed or whatever, and how people seem to react to him as being clueless / less competent for this perceived literalness, like oh he’s a human computer but doesn’t have Real ~intelligence~ which like, might also be a theme in this ep lol where oh we need people with hard skills And soft skills and what even ever

and then on another note, in the scene with rian and winston and taylor and wendy, this is Rian’s First Day and she’s in the process of setting up her desk, and she jumps into a conversation between a longtime employee and the ceo (i think? are they still a ceo if it’s a subsidiary. well you know what i mean) and whatever wendy is, the two people who hired her, and argues for the continued employment of this rando deskmate. and also calls him a douche in the process. and dare i say that this move could be seen as a bit................cocky????

natch i think that rian’s more dialed-back demeanor and dry delivery is easier for ppl to roll with than winston, who has some more dramatic flair and a lil excitable in the moment, but they Both have this approach of being fairly humorous (intended to be, by them) like e.g. there winston goes with a spin on wendy’s comments.......and really Ultimately winston is pretty chill as well, after all of that he just goes right back to work at his computer like it’s just another thursday, and after the treatment he got in 4x11, apparently by 4x12 he was like “yeah w/e i’m good” lmao like. maybe he Shouldn’t roll with these things quite so much but this is billions and either way all winston’s personality and dramatiqueness doesn’t really mean he’s not also relatively laidback here

anyways just throwing this all out there while it’s still pre-midnight aka pre-5x06