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zimshan · 8 months

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august braindump: on the state of tv and heartstopper

the last year has been such a strange time for me and tv. i honestly cannot remember a time i watched less new tv shows. it’s not for lack of trying but every show/season i started, i was just dragging my heels to finish. some of that is because they’re older shows that aren’t as good as their earlier seasons. stranger things s4 took me an entire year to finish. the pacing was just wildly off to me, and that’s disappointing after the incredible structure of s1. some of that is because of subject matter. i haven’t been able to work myself up to watch outlander after the s5 finale because i just don’t have the mental bandwidth for a sexual trauma storyline. babylon berlin i stopped watching because they were threatening to kill another kid. i’ve noped out of so many shows because of the ratcheting stakes, something that i'm so so tired of seeing done just for the hell of it.

of all the shows, i probably watched the great s2 quickest because it was just so off the wall and the tone of s1 still fascinates me. but even that dragged and was partly guilt tripping to justify my hulu subscription, and i could never let my guard down because it was always going for the most outrageous grotesque thing. i’m stalled on s3 now that they’re killing off characters left and right.

i watched shadow and bone s2 like 15-20 minutes at a time in july because i just found it a snoozefest compared to s1. i legit just wanted to finish it to cross it off my list. how terrible is that? the moment i finished, i started the fame game, a bollywood show, literally because of one gifset on my dash. and watched that 4x faster than anything else i’ve seen all year. cementing my idea that the best of netflix is their international shows. but that shit was pretty dark too.

so beginning of august, i opened up netflix sleep deprived and looking for something to get my mind off my impossible deadline and fuel some writing inspiration. someone on my dash was recently talking about Heartstopper, and it reminded me i missed watching it last year when everyone was talking about it. so seeing it pop up on my netflix screen, i absentmindedly thought, "what the hell let’s see what the fuss is about" and started the first episode. and you know it did the impossible. it grabbed me from the first few frames, and i looked up 2 hours later like oh right sleep. and now i just want to analyze it like a bug. what the hell makes it work where others have failed?

the binging culture inherent to streaming tv is fascinating to me because i almost never do it. if there is one anti-binger out there, she is me. i miss the era of one episode a week on a certain night every day for years. my patience maxes out at 45 minutes every time. i think it’s terrible that shows need to be so bingeable millions of people have to watch an entire season in a weekend to get renewed. because even the best shows i can't commit to doing that for. where does anyone find the time or brainspace, idek.

i know most of the coverage and reaction to the show seem to be about representation and i agree. but there’s something about the elements of Heartstopper that just work where other tv shows lately have faltered and i want to break it down for parts. because on paper it does seem so simple. some of it really is just basic storytelling in tv. those first three episodes are key and the pacing is excellent, every second counts and the acting, editing, and music really drive the show and keep it compelling. on rewatch, i can see how the addictive quality is very much in the editing, in the music, to keep it punchy so that you never think to stop watching. but it’s also in the white space, the moments they give to the lead actors to let a moment breathe. i've been beating this drum for decades now but this show gave so many good examples of it.

several 5-minute sequences caught me thinking god that so compelling why how. the one that stood out on rewatch is the texting sequence in 102 after nick’s interception of the assault scene. there’s zero dialogue but the editing, acting, and music work together to feel the weight of the moment and then lift up from there.

all these essentials combine with something unique like the animations as visual representations of emotions and attraction and create some kind of magical alchemy. it’s been a long time since i’ve thought about it but “lightning in a bottle” describes the best seasons of tv i’ve seen: where it feels like everyone on set, all the actors, every one of the crew, writers, directors, care about the story and are working on all cylinders to do their best job. in the age of streaming, this seems to be more rare than ever and learning about mini writing rooms during the WGA strike has helped to understand why. so has seeing those checks to send home the overall state of residuals in the streaming era. to do the best job people need to be paid fairly. full stop.

so i started Heartstopper and watched 4 episodes in the blink of an eye. the next day, 6; the last day 4. then i did a thing i almost never do anymore: i looked up the soundtrack. music has always been a driver for me, a tv show that nails a score or soundtrack is always gonna get under my skin more than one that doesn’t. it’s part of the necessary ingredients for a good show for me. all my forever tv loves, music plays a central role, music that defines and sets the tone for the show and then becomes forever married to it. you can create a list of the songs and play it back and see the show unfurl again in your mind. its my favorite way of revisiting a show without actually watching it, after a good vid that is. but it works best when the music is a dead lock for the scene or character and typically this is sound driven more than lyrically driven. this show uses a 2012 era style sound i already have a strong affinity for, i have multiple work playlists from the last decade to drive me through a deadline with Foster The People, Fitz and the Tantrums, et al.

but it also did a thing i haven't seen in a long while: the lyrics were used as an extension of the script for internal character POV. in the first episode alone you have the following lyrical-visual pairs: -i'll go anywhere you want to go on charlie getting ben's text to meet -i wanna get lovesick with you on nick watching charlie run and asking him to join the team -right before i'm swallowed by my mind and cursing at the sky on charlie out of place on the rugby field before nick pulls him in to the group -what's the point of looking at the view? cause every time i do i just see you on elle and tao missing each other -the world ends it's you and me/in my head if we can be together/maybe we'll live forever on nick tackling charlie and the leaves animations around them -i see the signs of a lifetime on nick getting charlie's thank you x text paired with the flowing bird animations roll to the credits

this is vidding happening here.

so i spent a good two days listening to the soundtrack and related albums as i got through my deadline. and then i started getting some more questions about the timeline on the story (the soundtrack is of a style popular circa 2012 that i associate with 8tracks playlists even though the actual songs are a bit later, 2015 onwards) and looked up the books the show was based on. i started Solitaire after seeing it was the author’s first book and wanting to read tori’s POV after the glimpses in the show got me thinking about her elder daughter role.

then i looked up the comics when i realized the timeline of Solitaire was a year later and wanted to fill in the gaps. and wow, i’m in awe of how much of the show was already here, how much detail went into the show to match certain frames. the comics are basically acting as storyboards for the show. i used to do the most basic storyboarding for vidding a lifetime ago. i’ve recently gotten the storyboarding itch again the last few months after watching some BTS docs on TCM about storyboard artists and remembering how fascinating and underappreciated the skill actually is. there's some beautiful storyboarding out there, but it doesn't have to be beautiful, it's just got to be functional. at its heart, it's about the frame, the shot, the visual that tells the story. and a lot of that is already done in the comics and translated straight to screen.

i’m inspired learning about alice oseman’s story as a young author, how she started and finished Solitaire before graduating high school, writing the story she wished she saw on the shelves. then how she was taken with her two secondary characters and started teaching herself how to draw to visualize and bring to life their own journeys. it’s such a great example of how storytelling takes on a life of its own and how you are not defined by only your current skillset. there are no boundaries on creativity and curiosity but the ones we self-impose on ourselves.

the last few years, i’ve been thinking a lot about why some works fail to resonate while others succeed, especially in regard to book to screen adaptation. it probably started with the absolute fail that was GOT S8 and rereading THG next to the films and grown from there with my TCM pandemic focus. obviously it’s a gamechanger when the author is the showrunner and that alone is rare. the whole nature of Heartstopper as a webcomic first and driven by subscribers and kickstarter donations is unique as well. alice has built up a passionate audience to create for that helped promote the show and that makes a lot of difference.

but the streaming element is an added issue. by the time i finished season 2, my one overriding thought was wow, imagine society if this had aired 20 years ago. i couldn't help but think of the kids this show could have helped, seeing such an sincere example of queer community on screen. but interrogating that further, i know it’s a silly thought. it wouldn’t have gotten made at all. in 2000, dawson's creek kicked up hate over one gay kiss that amounted to almost nothing. my best friend at 15 came out as gay and felt like he had to pirate QaF asap as the only piece of queer rep around but something far outside of our age group. this story is age appropriate for the age that needs it. in 2023, homophobic parents are waging wars on the school board and libraries in our area for carrying books with queer representation including those of oseman's. no network would greenlight 22 episodes of a queer tumblr webcomic. netflix gave the show 4 hours for its first season in the middle of the pandemic. it only gets made in the streaming era. it is a product of the times, even if the story originates 10 years earlier.

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the picture of queer community and lifting up and supporting others is essential for the age this is targeting. i know i'm 20 years older than that target and am mindful of that. this show is not for me. but it's been a while since i've watched a teen series, probably skam, which is a big outliner in teen shows. i think from my dash i assumed the show was going to be pure teen fluff but instead was surprised how much texture it has. the love story is the focus of the gifsets, but it does sell the show short imo. the world doesn’t ignore the dark parts---homophobic bullies, abusive partners and clueless parents, trauma and its long tail, anxiety and eating disorders, the ways love and community can uplift and support but not cure. reading Solitaire i can see where it’s coming from, a dark story that starts the verse. the darkness is there not ignored but part of the journey. its presence makes the light more powerful. but its best virtue is that despite its dark parts, it’s at heart a comforting story. and i think this is an overarching reason why it succeeds as a show. the comic does right by each character and in turn cares for the reader. so everyone working on it saw the story as a comfort themselves and did right by the story. that care shows on screen.

the way Solitaire ends is a thesis statement of sorts for the osemanverse: support and lift each other up, you’re not alone and stronger as a community. it matches skam's thesis, and heartstopper continues it. that reminder is a balm to these times. it's the ethos of organizing but it got lost in isolation of the last few years. its simplicity is part of its power. part of lightning in a bottle is timing. i know some people have lived with this story for years, but after 4 long plague years, its sincerity speaks to me. i can’t think of a reminder i needed more than this story at this time. sometimes you really do stumble on the right story right when you need it.

anyway, this verse has gotten in my brain now so fair warning. heartstopper/osemanverse posting ahead.

#heartstopper #ive been stuck in bugs grief narrative for too long #this is a balm to my soul #i love it but im also breaking it down for parts #my txt #RB off #2023 #sometimes youre just running on empty and dont even realize it til a fandom blindsides you #havent done a tv braindump in ages #this is why #long post #pulling together all of my tag thoughts into one post

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carmensbroom · 3 years

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I've once again had 6 hours to process everything I saw in season 4 so I'm just gonna say my thoughts on it (hold onto your fedoras again folks)

first off, WE FOUND OUT GRAY'S LAST NAME?? I was so shocked and happy at the same time I love how everyone asked for player's real name and we ended up with gray's surname for some reason shsjsj. NOBODY ASKED FOR THAT BUT THEY DELIVERED ANYWAY

ALSO GRAHAM IS AN ORPHAN?? my precious boy *throws mommy's boy headcanon out the window*

the second episode really had me shipping carmivy they're so cute we got a girl's trip and I'm all for it

I think I may now be a dash haber stan but let's not make a big thing of it

also ivy eating the chocolate in the middle of a mission deserves an honorable mention because of her cute little tongue (I'm weird okay djsjsjs)

zack trying to bond with shadowsan and him having none of it was delightful

that fucking robot god damn bellum really thought of everything didn't she every time I thought it was gone it made a come back I literally said out loud "carmen is so fucked"

I SWEAR TO GOD EVERY TIME GRAY TALKED ABOUT CARMEN I KEPT THINKING HE WAS GONNA SAY "BECAUSE I LOVE HER" IN WHICH CASE I WOULD HAVE DIED AND NOT IN A GOOD WAY

yall have no idea how relieved I was when I found out that photo of julia was her and her (presumably) mother and NOT a boyfriend sjsjsjs

catch me making a headcanon that julia has a single mom because her father disowned her for coming out as gay based on that picture alone 😭

I'M SORRY BUT THE AMOUNT OF FLIRTING BETWEEN CARMEN AND JULES?? PLEASE THEY'RE SECRET GIRLFRIENDS JUST ADMIT YOU CENSORED THEM AND GO

OKAY BUT WHEN THEY WERE IN JULIA'S OFFICE AND CARMEN SAID "WAY TO FOLLOW YOUR HEART JULES" AND SHE WAS LIKE "YOU REMEMBERED" I LOST IT WHAT DID CARMEN REMEMBER JULES?? DID THEY HAVE A CONVERSATION OFF SCREEN? MAYBE I'M JUST A BIG HUGE LESBIAN BUT THAT'S A BIT GAY LADIES

carmen getting all worried when julia wasn't answering her phone was the blessed gay content I signed up for PLEASE THEY CARE ABOUT EACH OTHER SO MUCH

never thought I'd say this but I loved devineaux this season he was funny, he improved his treatment towards julia (I don't recall him officially apologising I must have missed something djsjsjs)

the only thing I didn't like was it kinda seemed like they were trying to hint that chase and jules were into each other and I didn't really vibe with that

all that shit with dr bellum and the crown for cleo really had me thinking cleobellum was gonna be canon what a clown I am (seriously tho the way she lost it when the crown got stolen GIVE IT BACK IT BELONGS TO HER WIFE)

look all I'm saying is: tigress new outfit in the egypt episode was hot

HER FACE AT THE END AFTER SHE GOT TRAPPED WITH ALL THOSE BUGS

I wish julia and gray could have met there's so much friendship potential there 😭

is player... is he a bit 💅 I SEE THAT PRIDE STICKER ON YOUR LAPTOP YOUNG MAN YOU'RE NOT SUBTLE

ngl I nearly teared up when player finally met carmen in person

I'M SORRY BUT JULIA'S BLUSH IN EPISODE 7 PLEASE SHE'S SO SMITTEN WITH CARMEN IT'S BRILLIANT

EVIL CARMEN WAS REALLY SOMETHING ELSE I WAS SO SCARED SHE'D BE STUCK LIKE THAT FOREVER

I mentioned this in another post but when julia was like "don't you remember me? I'm your girlfriend friend, jules" I NEARLY FUCKING CRIED THEY WERE GETTING KINDA CLOSE AND THEN CARMEN GOT MIND WIPED

JULIA TOPS JULIA TOPS I SAID IT ALL ALONG AND IT'S TRUE SHE REALLY PINNED VILE CARMEN THAT'S TOP BEHAVIOR (also this now makes carmen a bottom I don't make the rules)

kinda shocked that paper star was hardly here I don't stan her so it didn't bother me much but still it was just strange they didn't use her this season

when shadowsan whipped out the last doll and carmen had all those flashbacks to when she was at vile I nearly started crying AGAIN

I LEGIT THOUGHT CARMEN HAD KILLED GRAY DJSJSJS AN ELECTRICIAN GETTING ELECTROCUTED THAT'S SOME IRONY RIGHT THERE

gray really confused me towards the end he kept switching sides every five minutes for the whole season I wasn't sure whether to trust him half the time dhshsjs

THE LOOK ON CARMEN'S FACE WHEN SHE THOUGHT SHE'D KILLED GRAY WAS SO HEARTBREAKING AND THEN SHE STARTED CRYING OH MY GOD I'M SORRY BABY

the way she's always been against hurting people/taking lives and then she ended up hurting all the people she loves (she nearly killed zack for god sake) really hit me hard

gray's ending was... kinda weird I understood the parallel of him not wanting to complicate carmen's life like she said about him in season 2 but it was still kinda strange that they didn't have one more conversation or get any closure

I'm obviously kinda upset that carulia wasn't canon they had so much potential imo and the show isn't about romance anyway BUT I'm happy with the content we got and THEY FLIRTED SO MUCH THEY'RE CANON IN MY HEART

THE TEAM RED GROUP HUG KILLED ME IT WAS SO CUTE

kinda annoyed that carmen just straight up left zack and ivy she really just left a note and said YEET

ivy's voice crack when she read the note got me all choked up

ngl I'm still not entirely sure how it ended I had to rewatch it a few times to understand what they were trying to imply sjsjsj

would have loved to know carmen's given name but at the same time she's literally THE carmen sandiego that's who she is, it would be silly to go by a name that she doesn't connect with just because her parents gave her it

her mom being a regular citizen was kinda bittersweet I mean a plot twist would have been good but at the same time it would make the story even more complicated

*dreams of a spinoff movie where we get better closure on everything*

ACME IVY ACME IVY I'M NOT AN IVY STAN BUT DAMN IF I AIN'T SIMPING FOR ACME IVY

I know carmen didn't want revenge but I feel like chief got let off with killing her father way too quickly if I'm honest sjsjsj

JULIA BEING IN CHARGE OF FINDING CARMEN'S MOM OH MY GOSH

I feel so bad for laughing when julia got knocked out the way the cloth fell on her head sent me but when the pole hit her head I was like "OKAY I TAKE IT BACK THIS ISN'T FUNNY ANYMORE"

was not expecting julia to physically fight anyone I mean she's always been so calm and collected and then this season she was like fuck it might as well hit a few people before we finish forever

wishing carmen and jules could have hugged or had a scene together where they talked about stockholm but I won't complain it wouldn't have really made sense anyway considering they were cool with each other at the university

so glad the trailer was misleading about the coach brunt situation I really didn't want her to get a last minute redemption

another honorable mention: cleo snapping at julia "DON'T YOU DARE IMPLY THAT I AM COMMON" sent me djdjs she was just stood there like "I am but a humble history lesbian leave me be"

I think that's everything I'll probably add to it later if I think of anything or I might make a part 2 djsjsjs (I've been writing this for almost an hour now 😭)

overall I enjoyed it from start to finish. I haven't really cried about it ending yet I'm still processing everything but I'll probably have a little sob when it finally hits me djsjsjs

CARULIA NATION WE BASICALLY WON NOW EXCUSE ME WHILE I REWATCH ALL THEIR SCENES TOGETHER AND MAKE IT MY ENTIRE PERSONALITY

#wow this ended up being way too long #I was trying to go in order of what happened but I kept remembering other things so it's juat a big mess dhshsjs #anyways carulia is canon because I said so #really hope we get an animated movie or another short in the future #cs spoilers #julia argent #carulia #julethief #gray crackle #gray cs #chase devineaux #carmen sandiego season 4 #carmen sandiego

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theyarebothgunshot · 3 years

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I’d be very interested in your thoughts on the JIB8 cockles panel. just a suggestion for your rewatch 👀

i’ve seen the jib8 panel so many times, because it’s honestly one of the wildest things i have ever seen and i just never get tired of it.

first of all i want to give you my take on the overall vibe, and then second of all i will get into the details and link to certain timestamps in the video.

disclaimer: i am not gonna be linking to every single thing i talk about, but i will try my best to link to the moments that stand out to me the most. i have read long posts about this panel before, so not everything in this post is gonna be original or said for the first time ever, simply because there is a good chance that information has stuck in my mind and has subconsciously formed my view of this panel. this is also in no way, shape or form gonna be coherent, unfortunately. i’m just gonna hope that the cockles hivemind will be able to make sense of this regardless. love and light. and lastly, this is all in good fun, so don’t come at me if you think this is too out there please and thank you.

fun fact: i was today years old when i found out that the airbnb story took place one day before this panel. what a sexually charged weekend that was for them dude (gn).

the vibe that i get from this panel is that their moods were off before they got on stage, and where misha kind of looks tired and not 100% enthusiastic about things, jensen apparently decided to get drunk and is trying to make it look like he is thriving. yet, a little while into the panel we learn that it has been an emotional rollercoaster of a day for him, which might have something to do with the overall mood. then again, it could be that something else happened in between the autographs and that panel, who is to say?

i have talked about the d/s subtones in their interactions before and this panel makes my radar ping like nobody’s business. if my interpretation of their dynamics is right, then one could assume that jensen was being very bratty on purpose, trying to stir up a reaction in misha, and i think he probably got what he wanted (more or less. maybe he thought misha would find it more amusing than he did, or but honestly, at that point they have already known each other for nearly 10 years so odds are he knew what he was doing and how misha would react to it. it would surprise me greatly if these two didn’t work out their mutual frustrations with the day and each other after this panel ended- in the bedroom.)

i genuinely think i have never seen jensen flirt more openly and aggressively with misha, ever, and i have never seen misha in the state he was in during this panel either: tired, a little annoyed about the fact that jensen was going off the deep end and that he was not able to stop him, to the point where he just gives up and says things like ‘when in rome’ etc. let’s get into it.

the mood is set from the very first second: misha is kinda subdued, and jensen is being a bit of a clown, coaxing misha to join him in the madness, which he does to a certain extent.

we are off to a great start with not just one [0m15s], but two [0m20s] moments in which i just know in my bones they wanted to hold hands. how do i know? because i have been there my fucking self. wanting to hold hands with your crush when you are drunk and acting silly is a love language okay.

as soon as they sit down, misha tries to make conversation and jensen just starts pushing him and pushing him, [1m11s] saying ‘shut up’ and ‘yeah it’s really stupid and it embarrasses me’, but misha tries to ignore it at first and just marches on through. which is probably why i never see people talk about that little comment. it embarrasses jensen when misha sits like that? why would he need to feel embarrassed by his friend’s actions? kinda weird tbh, sounds like husband behavior to me. i have a feeling that when misha said ‘by which he means it’s an innie’, jensen REALLY had to bite on his tongue not to go all ‘you weren’t complaining this morning’ or something like that. look at his face bro [1m55s].

and then jensen opens up his legs like the little tramp (affectionate) that he is and when misha tries to stop him he just TURNS to misha with said open legs like a mad man and goes ‘here’s the thing. pick a leg.’ [2m05s] LIKE? who DOES THAT? that is insane people behavior!!! admittedly i am a cis woman and i don’t have conversations with male friends about their bodily anatomy all that often, but i legit cannot phatom that this is a normal thing to talk about with your platonic buddy. pick a leg for me to rest my dick on, old buddy old pal. NOBODY DOES THAT. it’s not even something that i would consider flirting because even though i am into men, i would not find that arousing? so it’s either an action to provoke annoyance in misha or it’s something they have discussed before or both. because misha immediately understands what he means, starts shaking his head in frustration, and actually turns to jensen as if to say ‘are you fucking kidding me right now? really? you are really doing this?’ followed by a ‘this is making me feel so uncomfortable’ aka one of the phrases they both like to use even though they never mean it.

then when jensen actually goes up to do his ridiculous mating dance and sits back down again, he automatically sits down with his body turned towards misha.

quick side note: if anybody understands what the joke was about when they talked about ‘cas has big dolls’ i would love to hear it, because that has never made any sense to me, but it’s probably a me problem lmao.

when misha goes ‘could you watch your language please’ i think that’s a sign that he is genuinely getting a bit frustrated [4m53s] with jensen even though he is obviously playing it off as a joke. right after he says that, jensen puts his fingers against his mouth, as if to shut himself up. i know that a lot of people don’t wanna read too much into body language but hey, i am writing an analysis here so work with me for a sec: i think that could be a subconscious decision to listen to what misha is telling him to do, which ties into the d/s dynamics i’ve mentioned earlier.

i know people always go crazy when misha goes ‘what did i tell him’ [5m19s] and jensen whispers in his ear. i personally think misha probably told him about the fact that they booked kansas the band, but it’s still pretty telling that that is how misha would react to the question if something he told him is public knowledge. evidently that goes to show that there is enough that misha tells jensen that cannot be shared with the public, which i thought is interesting.

now that i am watching it again, the ‘j*red would have just said it’ comment kind of stumbles around in my brain asking me to dissect it. let’s just say that i wouldn’t be surprised if they were both thinking back on the many, many times that j*red put his foot in his mouth and made a suggestive comment about jensen and misha’s relationship.

god i just cringed [6m14s] watching jensen interact with that first girl who asked a question and he just goes off on her about how twins are cool and misha is shaking his head lord oh lord and that is the minute daniella decides that hey maybe they need even more alcohol lmfaoooo it’s a lot. poor misha i genuinely feel bad for him.

and then he goes ‘real men have twins’ and looks at misha and misha is still not having it so he goes ‘it’s just a shirt’ like girl (gn) pleASE that’s husband behavior, yet again, why else would he feel the need to clarify it. ‘look babe don’t be mad or jealous i don’t mean anything by it, it’s just a shirt’ i hate him.

i just know misha would have wanted to take the apple juice away from jensen lmao.

one of the moments [9m35s] that always stands out to me is when they go ‘that’s why we don’t bring steven’ ‘that’s right, that’s why he’s not allowed’ idk how to explain it but the way that just flows out of them so naturally feels very coupley for some reason.

i think we can all agree that jensen’s reaction [12m22s] to misha’s ‘i always wear orange underwear’ story is completely fake, right? because there is no way he didn’t know that, and his reaction was very exaggerated. plus, the little gesture to make misha show his underwear? bitch, please. whipped. there was also exactly zero reason for him to come that close to misha in order to inspect the color of his underwear.

the one thing that i wonder about, though, is why misha didn’t know jensen was wearing the famous underbear briefs? but as i am writing this i realise that even if they slept in the same hotel room, there are obviously a few different possible reasons why misha didn’t know what underwear jensen was wearing that day: either jensen showered and changed in the bathroom, so by the time he faced misha again he was fully dressed, or misha had to leave their hotel room earlier than jensen, or jensen changed while misha showered, etc etc.

in any case……. jensen dropping trou in the middle of this fucking panel? absolutely batshit insane, 10/10 thank you for your service nesnej.

this [13m54s] is where shit really starts to hit the fan. jensen is OUT OF CONTROL. the long stares??? the ‘rawr’s??? ‘you didn’t even get the full picture’??? (sidenote i would love to know what misha whispered to him right after).

OKAY so. when the girl mentions j*red and jensen goes all Knowing What’s Up and says ‘oh he has had a rough time today. misha kept us up way too late last night. *glances at misha* rrrrrrr’ listen. the only reason i am not reading too much into this is because i do not believe they had a threesome with j*red but also the way he said it was very sus and my mind can’t help but wonder if they were disgustingly flirty and way too touchy feely in front of j*red whilst drunk and honestly that’s probably the case.

of course this is followed [15m15s] by the insane man saying ‘by the way they go down to here’??? and the potentially whispered ‘i’ll show you later’?????? sir i have a lot of questions. number one: how dare you?

bless this next person for this question, because she starts her sentence with: ‘people who have been together for a long time…’ i actually already made a post about this once so i implore you all to read that because i still stand by what i said in there.

it is of course followed by them both not being able to think about ANYTHING appropriate to say to the question if there is anything they only do in front of each other that doesn’t involve pants. and then misha goes ‘why don’t i just share a private moment that we had’ and jensen’s first instinct is to say ‘shit’. i mean. i am merely perceiving.

this is the moment we realise that it has been quite The Day for them, but especially for jensen, because he has been emotional earlier in the day. which, again, could explain his demeanor during the panel. trying to distract himself. notice that he gets up and shakes his legs again and goes for a drink the second misha starts to tell the story: coping mechanisms aka distraction, just like he did at the start of the panel.

the moment where he goes ‘it’s hitting me now. shit.’ really solidifies this theory for me, that he has been acting like a goofy drunken guy all panel, in order to drown out the emotions he felt that afternoon, but alas. once he started to talk about it, it still all came back to him.

i will say this though: it kind of warms my heart that he was so touched by the fact that the fandom spawned something good. makes me feel slightly less dumb for forming parasocial relationships with that man. only slightly, but still.

misha going ‘god he’s so grouchy’ [25m32s]? say it with me, folks: husband behavior. once again misha tries to talk jensen down and jensen listens (sort of). say it with me, folks: d/s behavior. and RIGHT after that jensen walks towards misha with this intense fucking stare in his eyes that makes me feel like i am intruding, and then after he gets another drink (nesnej, why?) he just. gently massages misha’s neck and shoulder before draping his arm around him? and his hand lingers when he goes to grab the keychain? okay.

insert the famous ‘when in rome’ debacle lmao misha was so done with jensen by then it’s so hilarious. the funny thing is that misha says ‘what i mean is show each other our underwear, nothing weird. you can’t look at me like that, because of what you did’, while the question was ‘what would dean and cas do in rome’ and not ‘what would jensen and misha do in rome’ but clearly, once again, the actors cannot make a distinction between the two. interesting :) it also wouldn’t surprise me if jensen has told him to tone down the dean/cas answers but now that jensen decided to fully flash him on stage misha is like ‘sorry but i am not playing by your rules after what you did’ lmao. of course, jensen’s reaction is to go back to parting his legs for misha, like he is challenging him. i mean. you can’t make this shit up.

am i the only one who thinks that jensen might be thinking dirty thoughts when misha repeats ‘what would dean and cas do’ [27m50s]? because like. that’s quite a face he is making.

when he says ‘i don’t know how to answer that’ and misha agrees, idk, for some reason i get the feeling that that’s in the sense of ‘i don’t know how to answer that in a way that won’t get our fans’s hopes up because we know what they would want and we know what we would answer but we can’t go there’.

i really feel like the final straw for daniella was the way that jensen reacted to that last question like he was gonna have another breakdown lmao and that’s why the rest of the cast and crew were pushed onto the stage prematurely. because when you think about it, it’s a pretty rude thing to do when somebody is still answering a question? but okay.

listen - the last 6 minutes of this panel are so chaotic sdjfhsjh the only thing i can conclude from it is that jensen is hella drunk but we’ve been knew. his mood changes by the fucking second. i love him and his little dance and how he sits down on the stage. i feel like i might be jensen coded when i am drunk. i too get slutty and unpredictable.

so anyways long story short: jensen was hella drunk and wanted to provoke misha, it worked, they had hot sweaty sex after this panel, and the fact that jensen got drunk enough to entrust misha with taking care of shit during the panel makes me very emotional for some reason, and i just love them a lot. thank you for coming to my ted talk.

#cockles #i am sorry this is such a mess lmao but enjoy i guess?#jib 8 #alsaurus-loves-dean #i edited in the timestamps because apparently the links dont work on mobile and just jump to the beginning of the vid. sigh

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jerepars · 3 years

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My QOTS 5x09 live reactions:

Oscar is in the “previously on”. Oscar x Jeresa team up?

SO MUCH Kote in the “previously on”. Whyyyyyy? We already had to sit through their episodes once, isn’t that enough?

James taking off that ski mask was somehow really hot

Is it bad if I want to skip through this suburbia Kote stuff and just get to the Jeresa team up lol

“Like the devil himself he lives in the shadows” uhhhhh that was a little…YA fiction-esque. Lol who wrote that line and are they serious.

If there were two very attractive people sitting across from me, dressed like yin and yang, promising me protection like that…I think I’d be very confused LOL

Konstantin Federov? Is Kostya like, a Russian hockey player? Did he play in Detroit with the Russian Five? I am howling.

an INSTRUMENT TO DEFEND OUR DEMOCRACY lol lol lol

again Devon leaves the room without being a blatantly obvious Jeresa shipper. Boooooooo.

suburbia suburbia why can’t we do away with ya?

what happened to don’t come out until I tell you to?! Do you understand the consequences of death or not?

oh good job just show the neighbors you guys have a fucking arsenal in your kitchen that’s not gonna be suspicious at all

“I am a soldado, I will never put my guard down” really REALLY we all know that’s not true this is how you guys got banished to Little Rock in the first place

“it was a big raccoon” Raccoons are adorable they look like little bandits leave them alone

Jeresa are sitting ~very close~!!!!

“in the DR” As in, in the Dominican Republic? Do people really say that? Sounds like I’m watching Big Brother and they’re talking about the Diary Room LOL

Wait what Teresa is doing coke right as James leaves the room? What if he forgot something and comes back??? Does he know? Has this just been accepted by him? This is never going to be addressed, is it?

Ooh, theory time. Is the coke...not coke? Is it something else and Teresa has been building up a tolerance to it so she can appear dead?

“I know you want things to go back to normal” BACK to normal? When were things normal? Why does half the episode have to be spent on these two?

“I don’t want to live like this anymore” You…you...WHAT? Why did you join a drug cartel? You BEGGED back in with them. Proved yourself. Worked too hard, isn’t that what you said? What did you think it was going to be like?

Do we, the audience, have to suffer through the garage sale, too?

HOW LONG IS THIS SCENE WHY ARE WE STILL IN SUBURBIA

Yeah snoop through your neighbor’s mail when the whole neighborhood is around THAT’S NOT SUSPICIOUS AT ALL

oh it’s his little girl’s team now we have to suffer through Pote’s redemption for his misogynist sexist comments from earlier in the season

Yo, why are we only meeting Domingo now? I like this guy. He’s fun. Plus he’s got cool piercings.

aaaaand he’s dead.

Oh, okay, not dead. But injured.

YO I LIKE DOMINGO

CHICHO HOW COULD YOU CALL POTE THIS IS NOT HOW I RAISED YOU

omg is KA going to tell Pote to go back to Teresa where he’s happy because she doesn’t want his spirit to die? If so, I think I might want to die.

I don’t need another tender Kote moment JFC MAKE IT STOP

BRICKS!!!! KISS TIME!!!!

“You wouldn’t let me do it, so why should I let you?” Dead. Dead. DEAAAADDDDD. 😭😭😭

I love you. SAME. (I still wish T had said it first)

So no conversation. Just straight to the sex? Okay. I guess we’ll roll with it.

The way he pauses to tuck her hair away from her face and looks at her all starry-eyed when she’s on top of him. Dead. Dead. Dead dead dead.

And then they SMILE. Can you be more dead than dead? I think that’s where I’m at. 👻

Sidenote: I don’t think we’ve ever seen this much of J’s tattoos up close. This is glorious. Lol yeah because there’s sex happening and I’m looking at the details of the tattoos hahaha

The hand on the thigh to end it before the camera pans and then fade to black. That’s great. I will accept it.

She’s touching his arm in the morning after scene. There is SUNLIGHT. This is the best lit Jeresa scene of this show’s existence, lol. Holy shit.

When does she tell him she loves him? This is obviously setting us up for a goodbye.

LOLOLOLOL James is talking about weapons and making sure she’s well equipped and she’s giving him heart eyes instead sooo is she about to say it?

SHE SAID IT!!!!!!!!!

Jeresa making out. Jeresa getting it on. Jeresa kissing after a love confession. In one episode. ❤️ 🥰 🎊 💞 💓 😘 🎇 🔥 Bask in the glory. Savor it. Let’s all enjoy this and rewatch and reblog gifs etc etc etc because it’s all we’re ever going to get. 🎁

“She’s not going in without us.” “I’ll go.” OoOoOoOo this is all part of the plan isn’t it?

But when did you have time to plan this when you spent all night making out and having sex. You must have been spent. Did you multitask in bed? 😂

Scared Puppy James :( :( :(

Wait. WAIT. This is very plot holey. Kostya didn’t know anything about Teresa’s business? He’s apparently the biggest bad-ass there is and he didn’t even vet her? He just let Oksana handle it? WHATTTTTTT

The tequila isn’t poisoned. She put something on the shot glass, probably? That’s why they had Chicho talk about how Oksana was killed at the beginning. Right?

So Kostya has been elusive all season. Fucked everything up. And he dies as soon as he meets her? WHAT. Just like that. This is so deflating.

Uhhhh, listen, I get it, Teresa is obviously gonna make it out of here. But why have Kostya’s guys not shot her in the head yet? This is very unrealistic. They wouldn’t hesitate. She would be on the ground in a second.

WHAT. NO. WHY IS POTE HERE. GO AWAY. YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO STEP UP, CHICHO.

I wish Pote had died. A final sacrifice for his family. That would have been his redemption. And I’m not apologizing for anything I just said. Full offense. Not sorry.

“You had enough on your plate.” Are you KIDDING ME? Yo WHO THE FUCK DOES CHICHO THINK HE IS? Making decisions for the boss? That’s not…that wouldn’t happen, helpful or not. Teresa would kill HIM. Know your place. Wow how nice of the writers to screw Chicho up.

“I’m only legit until Devon decides I’m not” So…okay. Jeresa have definitely talked about Devon and made the sniper plan now, right? If she’s saying this?

“Can you shut down operations in New Orleans and meet us when you’re done?” “Of course.” That’s the goodbye, isn’t it? We’re still on track for the sniper plan?

“When everything’s settled I’ll send for you.” Uh. Maybe KA is safer in Little Rock. But you’re gonna leave her out in the wind for an indefinite amount of time? OKAY.

“He may not be as nice” LOL

Omg this is like the most continuous dialogue James has had all season and it’s wasted on DEVON

Personally not a fan of this very predictable James-was-still-under-Devon’s-wing-the-whole-time because I think it’s lazy writing. Very lazy. BUT I bet in James’ mind, he’s for sure been pretending and this whole time whenever he’s been sitting boo-boo faced in the corner moping, he’s been planning out how to tell Teresa and going over the plan of how she’s going to “die” and they’re going to disappear. So he could tell her and they could execute it perfectly when the right time presented itself. Right? And that’s all going to be shoved into like the last few minutes of the finale, isn’t it?

Ah okay so sniper James is going to shoot Teresa through the window to make Devon think he followed orders. They WERE multitasking in bed. 😂😂

I knew it. I fucking knew it. It’s exactly the ending to this episode we all expected.

Finale preview: soooooooo Teresa is barely in it because she’s “dead” and we have to watch Pote carry out her “wishes” for most of it until it’s safe for her to come alive again? COME ON.

#qots spoilers #qots 5x09 #qots #queen of the south #teresa mendoza #james valdez #jeresa #pote galvez #kelly anne van awken #kote #boaz jimenez #devon finch #chicho nolastname #i have opinions they are unpopular

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popculturebuffet · 3 years

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House of Mouse: Max’s Embarrassing Date Review

Hello House Mouses and welcome back to the house of mouse. Another comission by Kev and my second House of Mouse for the valentine’s season. This time we’re not tackling a Valentine’s Episode necesarily, but a romantic one all the same as fan faviorite couple Max and Roxanne finally go on a date. I always liked Max. Even as a kid when I wasn’t the biggest fan of “A Goofy Movie”, didn’t like the darker patches like the principals office scene or the Pete Hot tub scene.. though in hindsight both had legit greviances with Max... it just dosen’t make either less terrible as the principal still told an innocnet man who wasn’t responsible for what his kid did and was trying his best that his son was going to become a crminal because of one stupid but mostly harmless prank, and Pete.. is just an abusive, unlikeable and unlovable ass in both Goof Troop and Goofy Movie, and I hate how he treats his son, don’t blame his wife for leaving him or taking their daughter and dog, and am really sad he got custody of PJ somehow. And for the record this isn’t ALL petes, just this version. The rest are fine and just the right level of asshole.

Point is despite my problems with the first film, I had none with the second and even now I like it due to having some really good ideas and concepts while also being gloirously rediclous due to the loveably dated X-Games element. While I do have a spot in my heart for the Dana Hill and Shaun Fleming versions, especially the latter once upon a christmas is awesome, Jason Marsden’s version is the best by the mile having the right amount of ego mixed with self doubt to make him likeable enough to brook him being an ass to his dad a lot. He’s a good character.. and it baffles me Disney NEVER uses him nowadays. No really, the last time he showed up was in twice upon a christmas and no one liked that because he was dating someone who wasn’t Roxanne just to rehash the same plot they’d already rehashed better in Extremley Goofy Movie. I REALLY need to rewatch that one. Hmm.... gonna see if I can squeeze that one into May or later in April. That’s for another time.

But yeah while he’s at one of the disney parks, that’s it. The character just .. vanished, and hasn’t been brought back in any way shape or form. Though I could see either a Disney Plus reboot of goof troop or a goofy movie with max having his own kids. That could be intresting. Also bring Roxanne back as weirdly this episode i’m reviewing, a goofy movie and now her ducktales cameo are her ONLY apperances.

Seriously I get she’s not the most fleshed out.. but then flesh her out. Like Max she’s crminally underused and while I get her absence as a character in the sequel, the plot really didn’t need her, he still could’ve been dating her off screen. Though clearly the two worked things out and tried again as this episode came out AFTER extremely did. But did this episode work out? Join me under the cut to find out.

As i’ve decided is my standard for House of Mouse Episodes, shorts first, then wraparound, then Mickey Mouse live sex celebration. Though I will say i’ve picked up there are two kinds of formats for the show: They either use two of the longer Mouseworks shorts or just one close to 11 minute short, a medium one, and one of the little two minute segments. There might be a break from this in the future, we shall see but for now those ar ethe two standards. This time we have two longer shorts.

Pluto’s Penthouse Sweet:

I’ve mentioned in the past I dont’ really get why Pluto is part of Disney’s sensational six along with Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy and Daisy. And I stand by that: While he’s had his own cartoons they just aren’t as entertaining and creative as MIckey’s or hilarous and relatable as Donald and Goofy’s. He’s just an average cartoon dog. He works fine in tandem with Mickey, but on his own he’s just nothing and his spot should be taken by pete, who while not a goodie all the time, again the goof troop version needs to step on a rake and fall into a well.. somehow. i didn’t think my insult through. Point is pete is better. And this short isn’t BAD .. but to me it’s what some fans THINK the disney shorts are: Bland, maybe one or two good jokes but almost nothing new or intresting. As I found out last year, that’s far from the case, as a lot of the Donald shorts are still hilarious today and a lot of the mickey shorts are shockingly creative, like Thru The Mirorr where he goes .. well thru the mirror into a wonderland like world where all the inanaimate objects are alive and he can shrink and what not via astral projection, or Mickey’s Mechanical Man, which I sadly didn’t know about when I did the MIckey Birthday Special and for some reason isn’t on disne plus. In it Mickey creates a robot and has it box a monsterous looking gorillia.

How has Mickey piloting this thing but giant sized against various kaiju been a thing yet? And if it has someone tell me. Seriously with all the comics and animated series how. I’d even settle for a Wonderful World of Mickey Mouse episode. Just bring this guy back. Point is there was far more invetnion than it seemed.. at least at first as it slowly died out as they went by the late 50′s. But Pluto just seemed even in their hayday like your standard pet gets into antics thing without the creative slapstick of tom and jerry or the likeablity of sylvester who never could get that asshole Tweety Bird. This is just weak sauce and whiel I could forgive the older shorts, as their from another time and likely lead to say Tom and Jerry... I can’t forgive this which was made probably in 1998 and released in 1999 originally. Comedy had evolved a LOT by that point and unlike the Goofy how to shorts, which are a format that is immortal and still evolved to match the times and felt fresh, these just feel stale and boring and like the last Pluto short I covered this one was a chore to sit through though not nearly AS bad.

Still though the premise is about the same, Pluto’s left to his own devices, and finds a female dog, though in this case she’s VERY intrested in him. I”m also not entirley convinced she’s a dog, but instead one of Jumba’s experiments and that Lilo and Stitch later had to journey to.. wherever these shorts take place to fetch him. Or more likely the house of mouse. I mean Proud Family, Recess, American Dragon Jake Long and Kim Possible all take place int hat universe, why can’t house of mouse? Also tell me you wouldn’t watch an avengers style team consisting of Kim, Ron, Jake, Penny, Probably TJ, Lilo, Stitch and Donald Duck. If you wouldn’t i’d call you a liar because you would be.

Seriously the eyes give her away.... just look at them. Very experimenty. But before Pluto can do it like they do on the discovery channel he has to get past the guard dog.. though how he does produces the one great gag of the short, as he BUILDS A GIANT, TROJAN HORSE ESQUE PLUTO OUT OF JUNK. Just holy shit that’s awesome> It gets him inside, only for him to find his lady friend is a bit TOO affectionate and he has to escape, he does so, and MIckey wonders if he missed him etc lame button. This short was a vacuum of comedy outside of GIANT PLUTO. Seriously where’s my disney giant mecha series. YOu have five main characters, and Pluto among with MANY, MANY side characters, frmo scrooge to the boys to hopefully Della, to even possibly pete and mortimer who could have their own mech against the heroes but maybe join them in the last episode. Maybe max and pj could have some, have a father vs son thing with PJ and Pete. I”m just saying, i’d watch it. I know my nieces would watch it. I know my nephews would watch it. Greenlight it. Or i’ll make it.. somehow.

How to Ride a Bike: Speaking of the How To Shorts, as usual for the House of Mouse era ones.. this was awesome, pretty much what you’d expect, some goofy, pardon the pun, gags about goofy riding a bike and then a fun climax of him in a bike race. Not a ton to add, other than that hamster bike above is genius. Just needs some tweaking. Really funny, really simple, and really good as you’d expect from a good Goofy Short. Easily the best part of the episode.

Max’s Embarrassing Date: So this was a disapointment. Like i’d try to be nice.. but I had high hopes given this brought Roxanne back, and while the premise was stock maybe they’d do something funny with with it.

But no the plot is pretty standard, very predictable and fairly obnoxious. Max has a date with Roxanne, and is playing it cool and what not, but is worried his dad will find out.. which he somehow did offscreen. Probably Clarabelle.. I mean they do go out sometimes in this one, wouldn’t surprise me.

So Max pleads with the rest of the HOM staff to keep him away because he fears his dad will overdo things, which.. is fair and one of the few things I like> He dosen’t want him to overdo it on the mood because this is well.. a first date. He dosen’t want to pressure her or himself and just wants it to be nice and calm. The problem is it’s framed like him once again being embarassed by his dad and having to learn better.

At this point we’d had TWO movies do this already, one of which was only two years old at the time of this episode. This plot is stale as old toast even if it dind’t have goofy in it. And the twist is predictable: the HOM crew end up also overdoing it: Minnie comments on how cute they are and wants candles brought, Daisy gets them a bigger table forgetting how dates work,t hough we do get a great gag of hte 7 dwarves stacked, and Mickey while having .. some.. gopher? I honestly can’t tell who it was, usually i’m better at the cameos. Speaking of which they also have a runner of beast going on a date with Cruella Devile.

I mean is he cheating on his wife? Is she holding his wife hostage? Is this before belle because we see a post transfomratoin beast too so maybe the House of Mouse is an intersection of space and time? That’s.. actually the most resonable answer I can think of honestly and when i’m focusing more on how the hell your gag works than how funny it is, you clearly failed somewhere along the line.

Point is Mickey puts his good friend in a pothole, and not only calls max little max, which while an understnadably close family thing to do is still embarassing, but also takes pictures while their eating the spagetthi.. which i’m 100% sure was Huey’s idea nad had Mickey not interrupted, would’ve been tied up down the middle for a lady and the tramp thing. It’s his signature move. Well that and having a panic attack. That’s also one of mine the others being lettterkenny refrences and sex jokes about disney characters. But yeah this just.. dosen’t work. Them being as embarassing? that’d be fine.. if they weren’t wholly unsympathetic for not only keeping their friend from WELL INTEITONEDLY trying to help his son on his date, something his son shold have no problem with since ROXANNE’S MET HIM. AND IS FINE WITH HIM. AND NEVER CARED ABOUT YOU BEING HIS SON LIKE THE DICKHEADS AT SCHOOL. MINUS BOBBY WHO YOUR FRIENDS WITH FOR SOME REASON. My point is this plot bothers me a lot, and it makes the mickey crew come off like assholes for doing this to thier friend instead of just talking to him like a person. Especially since only ONE of them is a parent and Conviently donald is mostly absent. Likely because he realized this was going to end badly and just agreed to tie the spagetthi like huey taught him to keep his involvment in this shit show and gaslighting his best friend to a minimum.

Eventually Mickey takes things a step too far and has Sebastian almost sing kiss the girl. Max cuts him off though yelling that he just wants them to back off, he just wants them to relax and he TOLD them this, which makes them come off worse as they KNEW he didn’t want this and did it anyway and never apologize becaue apparently the first rule of house of mouse is never apologize for anything, huh huh. Goofy naturally steps in, tells them off and agrees to serve them and Roxanne finds him entertaining and gives him a nose kiss for being a good dad. He’s a good guy that Goof. Roxanne then whispers something in max’s ear at the end of the date... which gives him an audible erection. No really. And given his age is vauge here I’m suddenly super duper uncomfortable so let’s move on.

So max tells them she liked it and wants to come back.. 100% sure that wasn’t what she said but what she said isn’t fit to print and you’ve seen what i’ve said and what I put in the we’ll be right back. Point is he’s happy, though Mickey says we’ll try to make it extra special next time. Mickey.. did you do a space mountain’s worth of pills and cokea nd just forget the entire evening? Did you take some of those hangover roofies/ Why would you do that? Was that pete’s new plan to steal the house of mouse? To drug you guys and make you forget you already paid the rent? Did PJ stop him? Inquiring me wants to know.

Final Thoughts: Yeah this wasn’t a very good episode. Roxanne is wasted despite having a suitable replacment Roxanne voice in Grey Delise, with no real depth just to rehash the plot of the first and second goofy movies. And this one didn’t have an inexpilicable beatnik cafe, PJ getting laid and finally being happy for once, a standard college fraternity plot surgeically infused with an out of nowhere obession with xtreme sports that was nowhere in the first film, Goofy in an afro, Goofy finding love, That disco sequence, and a climax in which Goofy carries Brad Garret out of a fire, then Brad Garret probably kills the villian of the film who certainly deserved it. My points are this episode was an underwhelming rehash only saved by some good shippy moments and a good goofy short. It was weak, not all that funny, and not all that intersting. My other point is that an extremley goofy movie is awesome and also kinda insane and I love it for that. I’m glad I saw this one but i’m really disapointed in how bleh it was. Next time I visit the house of mouse is.. actually in a few days as Pete Does a One Man Show. So yeah already 100% better just by having THAT musical number in it, see you then and if not, there’s always another rainbow.

#house of mouse #max goof #roxanne #the goofy movie #max x roxanne #goofy goof #goofy #donald duck #mickey mouse #minnie mouse #daisy duck #cruella de vil #beast #disney #comissions

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adultswim2021 · 3 years

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Ephemera Week (2002)

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

MARCH SPECIALS!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

MAIL BAG

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

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

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

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

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

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

I’ve never had those are they good

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

In dude time, my friend. In dude time

What would be your Adult Swim dream come true?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Fucking sexist/trasphobic behavior.

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

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

Tell you more?

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

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

Are there any good podcasts on adult swim?

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

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

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

#adult swim #adultswim2021 #night of the living doo #boo boo runs wild #yogi bear #jetsons #ephemera

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sir-silly · 4 years

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The Last War fan review

So, our beloved show has ended. And while I wish things would have gone differently, I did cry with relief when Clarke looked over and saw everyone already waiting for her.

Anyway, I wanted to share some of my thoughts on the finale.

1) Going right into the title sequence kind of shocked me. It wasn’t that big of a deal, but I was just immediately like “oh.” It was a bitch-slap in the face that they left a gap in the credits for Bob Morley. Why you gotta do us like that?

2) Murphy screaming “come on” while they used the defibrillator on Emori was heartbreaking. And his little whispered encouragements were so freaking cute.

3) Clarke rampage? Yes, please! I love me a badass woman. However, unlimited ammo is a sin in writing. The moment Octavia picked up the sword was a big “oh yes.”

4) Did Cadogan not care about his son like at all? Lmao. Why is he so hung up on Callie and not his other kid (who I can’t even remember the name of). I don’t care if they explain in the prequel, that’s still a shitty parent choosing favorites. Along with his wife, like, was she not his greatest love? It was Callie? Kinda fucked up.

5) Why the fuck could Jordan figure out it was a test and not a war in 5 seconds when the Disciples were studying that shit for decades? I know he’s Monty’s son, but he’s not a genius or anything.

6) Thoughts on the test: I think Cadogan would have failed and the human race would be destroyed. Why bother asking questions if you already know all the answers?

7) Why wasn’t Gaia in the finale like at all?? Like, what the fuck. She was hunting??? For what?? That really annoyed me because I’ve grown to really like her and there was no point in her not being involved in the last episode. They seriously couldn’t have thrown her in there? Like, come on! Even Niylah was there! (not saying that I don’t like her, it’s just that Gaia has felt far more important to the story than her).

8) I do think that Jasper and Hope are cute together, and I know they spent the majority of their lives either alone or only with their parents, but GOD I can’t stand how awkward they are. Also, I know ya’ll have feelings for each other and shit, but is now really the time to be making out?? Why do people think that’s okay in literally the worst situations? I know it’s a show, but come on.

9) And how the fuck did Jordan throw and catch that sword? He’s a child who’s never fought a day in his life. Unless they suddenly want to tell me that Harper and Monty were secret ninjas and taught him all their tricks, I don’t believe that.

10) I’m being pissy and bringing up things from the past, but I don’t care. Why the fuck couldn’t Harper and Monty gone into cryo? I know they were happy and shit, but I’M NOT. How the fuck did it take so long for him to get into the files for Sanctum? His ass has done that shit a thousand times before in about two minutes and suddenly it takes him 80 years? Bullshit.

11) I’m still being pissy, but how the fuck does Jordan know what a magician is? “For my first trick, I will make an army appear.” Bruh, no. Monty wouldn’t have known what a magician was either. If they weren’t being taught what a Navy Seal was, there’s no way they knew what magicians were. Calling bullshit on that one as well.

12) I was pretty surprised that the Disciples didn’t start firing on Wonkru immediately. Like, this is the war they’ve been gearing up for forever and they don’t attack as soon as possible? Also, where the fuck did Wonkru get their war paint? Do they just constantly have it on their person? Or did their asses literally spend time making their paint before going to Bardo?

13) I fucking love Miller and Jackson. They’re freaking adorable. Murphy’s flat “I am glad you are safe” was so fucking funny. Also, saving Emori in one scene just to kill her in the next is bullshit. They should have just killed her the first time and done the same thing anyway. Murphy screaming at Jackson to do something and sobbing was heartbreaking. Fantastic acting on Richard Harmon’s part.

14) Octavia putting on Lincoln’s same warpaint again was once again, so sad. I miss that man. He was too good for his own good. And while I do think that her and Levitt are very cute together, I’ll always prefer her with Lincoln. But I think that he would be really happy that she has found someone new to love.

15) Apparently whatever Echo “did” to Levitt was so forgettable that I don’t even know what she’s talking about. Bad writing. I shouldn’t forget that in just a few weeks, I should remember as soon as I see the two of them in the same room.

16) Lexa. Just all of it. There were some suspicions that she would show up for the last episode, but I didn’t really believe them because I didn’t understand how she would be integrated. I’m glad that they did bring her back, but I’m also not. It was amazing to see her back by Clarke in all of her armor and glory, but knowing it wasn’t actually Lexa was just a punch in the face. It wasn’t her mind, so it’s almost like they didn’t bring her back anyway. I honestly would have preferred if they used someone else for her Judge, because that just really didn’t do it for me. Their hug was sweet, but it didn’t even count as her returning. I personally think that her Judge should have been Bellamy or Madi instead, as they both certainly could fill the role of “the subject’s greatest teacher or the source of their greatest failure...it can be their greatest love.” This is just my preference. Believe me, I know how much Lexa meant to Clarke, but as a fan, bringing our favorite Heda back in that way wasn’t the best way to do it. As a writer, it makes sense, but it doesn’t as a fan. The writers can’t just think of what is the best storytelling, they have to think of what those watching will think.

17) I’m confused about the mindspace? Why did Clarke wake up in her solitary room with her memories painted all over the walls, but Emori woke up in the castle with a view of the desert? Why wouldn’t it have been her and Murphy’s cave? Is there a reason it was the bedroom and not the cave?

18) I know this isn’t canon in any sense, but could you imagine if Murphy and Emori fought over John’s body and she won, and then suddenly woke up with a penis? How fucking funny would that be? Just had to throw that out there.

19) Can I just again reiterate how fucking cute Miller and Jackson are?

20) I’m curious about the location of the test. Why did Cadogan’s take place on a pier, while Raven’s happened on the Ark? If it was their favorite place, wouldn’t Raven’s have been actually out in space? Like during a spacewalk? I’m confused about that.

21) I knew that Raven was somehow going to be involved in the test just because of the trailers we got for the final episode. My two guesses for who the judge would be were Finn and Abby. Though I am happy that we got to see Abby again, I would be curious to see if the scene would have played out any differently if it had been Finn.

22) Where was the full line that was given in the trailer? Because that was amazing. “We’re selfish, and we’re violent, and we have destroyed too much, but we survived.” I loved that line far more than what we got instead, which was simply, “Have we made mistakes? Yes. Clarke, me, all of us, but we were just trying to survive.” I definitely would have chosen the former over the latter. Poor choice on the editors’ parts.

23) How the fuck did Octavia and Echo go out to the field and get Levitt with Echo only being shot once? With all the bullets, the three of them should have been torn apart, I don’t care how much Indra could cover Octavia. Calling bullshit on that as well.

24) Bringing this up kind of late because I’m giving my reviews as I’m rewatching the episode, but what they had Eliza do was really fucked up. Her and Bob suffered a miscarriage during the filming of season seven, so the scene of her holding Madi and crying “my baby” is like 10 times more heartbreaking. If they made her film that after having a miscarriage mere days, weeks or few months before, that’s really, really messed up.

25) They really played-up Sheidheda’s bringing back of “jus drein jus daun” in the trailer. In reality, it was far less intense. I would have preferred what I had been expecting, which was him coming to help convince Wonkru that they would be able to win. However, I am super glad that he is dead and Indra finally got to kill him. I love how that bigass gun just turns people into mist lol.

26) The beginning of Octavia’s speech was literally like “what the FUCK guys” and it was hilarious. And I swear to god if I hear her say “we are Wonkru” or “you are Wonkru” another time, I’m gonna scream. I know it was legit the last episode but I’m sick of it by now lol. When Indra was like “I hope you know what you’re doing,” Octavia’s face was just like “omg me too” and it was really funny.

27) Bellamy. His situation was a whole problem itself. He deserved a hell of a lot better and wHY DID HE CUT HIS HAIR I LIKED IT THE LONG WAY. Anyway, you can bet your ass I’ll be writing a different ending where he didn’t die because FUCK THAT. When I do, I’ll be sure to share it.

28) I’m fucking confused about Murphy and Emori both transcending. Because, what the fuck. Emori died. The dead don’t transcend. Her mind wasn’t even in her body, it was in Murphy’s. So how the fuck did she end up alive and in her own body again. I’m glad she’s alive, but I just don’t understand. It would have made way more sense to have either not had her die in the first place, or to have Murphy, Miller, and Jackson keep pumping her heart so she technically “lived” anyway like Echo.

29) If Madi had decided not to transcend, would she still have been paralyzed? I mean, I would assume not because Levitt and Hope’s gunshots were healed, as was Emori, but I’m curious. Also, wouldn’t Raven’s leg have been fixed? Because if they only fix recent wounds and not old ones, that’s stupid.

30) On the point of Madi deciding not to transcend, why did she? Why didn’t so many other people choose not to? Like, not one Eligius prisoner or person from Sanctum chose to live? No one else from Wonkru? Why didn’t anyone else other than the main cast and guest stars not transcend? I totally understand the Disciples transcending, but seriously, nobody else wanted to live? That’s really weird. Madi and her friends really couldn’t have chosen to live on Earth with Clarke and the others? I just think it’s really unrealistic that not one single person outside of the group chose not to transcend.

31) I was really surprised that Murphy and Emori chose not to transcend, because as the Judge said, they would eventually die and not join them in the infinite. It shocked me due to their fear of dying and wanting to be immortal, but I’m really proud of them.

32) I’m disappointed that those who don’t transcend can’t have children. There were suspicions that Emori might have been pregnant (which were never confirmed), but the idea of her and Murphy having a kid together was adorable. They’d have their teeny tiny families with those two, Hope and Jordan, and Octavia and Levitt.

33) This isn’t as much me pointing out a problem as me wondering, what was Clarke going to say to the Judge when she turned around? What else did she have to say or ask? Was it about Madi? Or maybe Lexa? Or just transcending in general?

34) It’s pretty shitty that some of our questions went unanswered due to the fact that there will be a prequel. On the other hand, I live for lore, so I’m just glad that they eventually will be answered. But still, that doesn’t excuse shitty writing.

35) I want to see a stupid edit of Picasso taking the test where the Judge is Madi.

I think we all know that season seven was really not what we wanted it to be. We’ve been really disappointed by the writers and unfortunately, this is what we got out of it. I believe they really could have done a better job, but I am at least glad that everyone ended up together.

The writing was lacking. Too many questions were left unanswered, I don’t care if you’re making a sequel or not. Plot holes. It really could have been a good season if it was done better.

My ranking of the seasons is as follows: 3, 2, 4, 1, 6, 5, 7. Seasons 4 and 1 are kind of interchangeable for me in spots three and four, as are 6 and 5 in the two spots behind them, whatever the order may be.

But I still love the show. I love the characters, their development, and many things about it. It has been quite the journey and I am glad to have been a fan of the show.

May we meet again.

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haileymorelikestupid · 4 years

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this is a cooke appreciation post because i haven’t shown enough love to the convoy boys like i have scho and blake and i decided to start with everyone’s favorite feral private.

not gonna lie, first time i watched i was like this dude is not the nicest huh but i’ve since realized that he doesn’t have any ill intent, he just lacks a filter at times. like telling scho he wouldn’t make it wasn’t to be demeaning or anything he was just putting it out there, whether he even believed it or not. he’s just feral and sarcastic and at least slightly unhinged and that’s okay i love him for it.

truth is, he’s honestly so caring and attentive in his own, barely noticeable ways. first of all, no one says much to scho or stares at him or anything when he first gets on, except for rossi’s lil welcoming comment. i think there’s a couple reasons for that – they’re probably used to random soldiers showing up at random times and smith brought him so there’s no point questioning why he’s joined them so suddenly, what would they even say to him, he’s clearly been through some shit so it’s almost polite to leave him be, etc. they could have just sat in silence, uncomfortable or not, but then cooke urges butler to carry on with that story so it’s no longer silent. sure, he may have done that because he actually wanted to hear, but i think a part of it was filling the silence without questioning the dude sitting next to him and without basic small talk or anything. and, since there’s no questions being asked by telling a story, scho doesn’t need to participate, thus giving him some time to just sit without something being expected of him. maybe that’s a little too much thought and credit put into cooke asking for a story, but whatever, i like it.

as much as cooke may seem to lack a filter, when he notices scho looking at his watch, you know he’s not going to ask. he looks at butler, not scho, but when butler asks, he finally looks at scho. cooke seems like the type of guy to add on when someone asks a question he wanted to ask (i.e. you’d think he’d make a comment or say “yeah” or repeat butler’s question or something), but here, he just watches and waits. course, we’ll never know what cooke would have done or said after that, if anything, since the truck gets stuck. point is, i think cooke’s care for scho comes in the small things, like choosing not to speak or choosing to encourage another to speak and draw attention away from scho.

then, when scho goes to get out of the truck, he hands cooke his rifle. it’s such a quick exchange i didn’t notice it until i saw cooke hand it back and went, “wait, when did cooke get will’s gun?” and rewatched the scene to see it. and like ok, yes, i understand that this is a film and the whole point was for george to hand the gun off so he could get out and push the truck in a moment but i’m disregarding that for now. because that exchange was so quick, and even though we can’t quite see cooke when scho is standing at the back looking down before he gets out, i think cooke was ready to take his gun or offered to take it himself. scho barely even looks at him and then cooke is holding his gun, scho is jumping out, and cooke is following. which, also that – cooke is the only one that follows him out. it’s possible he just got out because it was more comfortable to be out than cramped in the back of the truck, but i don’t think that’s it. in the few minutes we get of cooke, he’s very attentive to scho, even just with his presence. it’s hard to say why he jumped out, but i think at least part of it was that will is out so cooke is out too in case scho needs anything. he’s got his gun already slung over his shoulder but i’m sure if scho took his helmet off or something cooke would already have his hand out to hold it.

and yeah, he’s not actively paying attention to scho in terms of body language and looking right at him, but he’s still attentive. why else would he answer to scho’s suggestion of putting it in reverse? a halfhearted answer, maybe, but it’s not like scho asked a question in need of an answer. even if he did, who’s to say anyone would need to answer? i mean cooke’s “is that a dead dog?” was a question and it went unanswered. yet he knows scho directed it towards him in some way, so a small “yeah” is better than nothing. it’s not like whatever cooke says will really impact scho, he could have said nothing or shrugged or whatever and scho would probably still tell the driver to put it in reverse. that tiny response is just a sign of his attentiveness and own form of care towards scho, even if nothing but a pleasantry or formality, at least in my opinion. it’s the same reason he turns his body as scho walks to the other side. dude’s just having a quick lil snack and isn’t even looking at the other man, but he turns to face him anyways.

when scho starts demanding the men get out, he doesn’t say anything. he may not see why the guy is yelling, but he clearly isn’t going to judge him for it. if he wanted to do that, he would have gone to butler to make a comment or not helped push in the first place. but what does he do? he helps push, and he puts at least some effort into it. rossi doesn’t even do that much at first, bless him. when it doesn’t work, he makes a valid suggestion. he looks slightly incredulous when scho denies and says to just keep pushing, but he does it anyways. then when scho pretty much begs everyone to help, he doesn’t look to butler and rossi as quickly as everyone else does. he looks at scho for a moment longer, and i think he’s genuinely concerned for the man – plus, he’s gonna keep helping to push anyways, it almost doesn’t matter if everyone else joins or not. he even moves to a spot where he’ll have to let go of the straps of the guns to push. and yeah, will isn’t the only one who wants the truck out of the mud, cooke isn’t only doing it for him, but i think his concern for schofield makes him want to help at least a little more.

we know jondalar cares and is pretty compassionate towards will, but cooke is no less so. even though jondalar is the one who helps will out of the mud, i think cooke would have if jondalar hadn’t. if you watch his boots, he takes steps back and towards will once the truck is no longer stuck, even though he doesn’t need to. once scho is up and talking to jondalar, we know cooke isn’t looking at him or trying to talk, that he makes a comment to the driver instead, but i think his presence is just his way of communicating his care and concern (whether scho receives that message or not is beside the point).

and then, of course, he gives his rifle back when they’re back in the truck. the thing about that, to me, is that everything in that exchange, from the moment he takes will’s rifle and shoulders it to the moment he gives it back, is unspoken. he doesn’t complain and he doesn’t try to give it back until they’re settled again. scho could have done everything with his rifle shouldered if cooke did it all with two, but cooke doesn’t make him. he just takes it and it’s a small act that is simultaneously meaningless and meaningful.

then everyone’s looking at scho and they all seem concerned, so imma gloss over that. but out of that interaction, i wanna talk about the “you’ll never make it”. again, i don’t think there’s any ill intent, he’s just putting it out there. as for scho’s response, i can’t say with certainty whether that grated on him a bit or if his response is also him convincing himself (or maybe both). but after a moment, cooke makes this face where he kinda pulls his lips in, and i don’t think it’s from being chastised or rebuked or anything. it’s almost akin to admiration and respect and seems to say “i hope you do”, and it’s just another display of concern and care in cooke’s own way.

his farewell is of course a mix of good luck and a very cooke-esque comment, but it doesn’t diminish it in any way. he keeps his eyes on will as he steps down, and when they make eye contact one last time, he gives him a nod that says a lot – good luck, i hope you make it, messages of respect, etc.

bottom line is that i love cooke and the way he shows how much he cares and is concerned just by being present and attentive. maybe i’m giving way too much to a character with a few minutes of screentime and whose care by my definition may just be an actor doing his job and the blocking of the scene but i don’t care, i stand by all that i’ve said. please feel free to respond and tell me what you think or if you agree or if you think i’m totally wrong, i love when people interact with the stuff i say (legit you could call me a stupid idiot and i’d be glad you responded)

ps cooke definitely has big younger sibling energy, i talked about it with @schofielded and i so think he’s a younger sibling (but probably with a big family, his younger sibling energy is different from tom’s and tom only has one sibling so it makes sense that cooke would have many, imo)

#thank you for coming to my ted talk #please discuss #i'm always so down to talk about 1917 it's not even funny #hope yall aren't tired of these yet #1917 film #private cooke #private rossi #private butler #sepoy jondalar #private malky #william schofield #lance corporal william schofield #scho #my film analysis #cooke is amazing and i love him

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ori-flails · 4 years

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Rewatching Guardian - Episode 04 Part 1/3

Episode List || Episode 03 || Part 2 | Part 3

SPOILERS for upto episode 40, SPOILERS for the novel.

The first translation is by AvenueX. The second translation is from the episode on youtube.

I love this shot so much that wasted 5 whole minutes replaying it and gushing over it.

It is not beneath me to pause and hold back tears because of the beauty of Bai Yu’s face.

I cannot tell you just how tense I was the first time I watched this. I absoulutely cannot handle scenarios like this. But now I’m just excited. This was one of the few highlights of this episode. xD

This is the start of something beautiful.U_U xD

Also what business do these two have looking this good while one is being interrogated by the other’s people? Shen Wei’s visuals... it makes me wanna scream in the best way possible.

Round 1: Shen Wei VS Zhu Hong

I’ve watched this scene a few times and I was always a little confused about Zhu Hong tapping her pen on the table like that.

Since there was no effect on Shen Wei, I’d thought maybe it was just to create emphasis on her point.

And hence I was so confused about Shen Wei’s “not fully evolved” comment. How’d he know? Why is this relevant? Etc etc.

I was just dumb and didn’t realize that Zhu Hong had attempted to hypnotize Shen Wei and failed. Got it now. xD

But Shen Wei knowing all about the Yashou Tribes: ?????

Aren’t Dixingren and Yashou meant to be like stuff of myths and legends? Isn’t most people’s reaction to stories about them something along the lines of “that’s make-belief”?

So how come it’s not suspicious for this human, Professor Shen, to not only know of their existence but also be so knowledgeable about them? And I get this even, but why is it not seen as strange that this man knows but does not spread the word in any way? A normal human would have his life set if he “discovered” something like this.

And for a normal human to know this much, there must have been “evidence” to prove existence of Dixingren and Yashou. But instead this “human” teaches bio-engineering and researches the “possibility” of the existence of Dixingren. What even?

And yeah, Shen Wei is a 10k+ years old Dixingren, he is Hei Pao Shi, that’s why he doesn’t do what some human in his place would do. But the SID doesn’t know that.

Is Shen Wei’s knowledge not suspicious? Why is no one batting an eye?

Back to Round 1:

That was one hell of a burn, Shen Wei.

Zhu Hong asghk I’ll send you a tube of burn cream, there there.

Holy shit, Shen Wei’s smug smile though. I suddenly see the family resemblance. (I know how weird that sounds since it’s the same actor but- just- that was very Ye Zun of you, Shen Wei. It was very attractive. U_U

Zhao Yunlan, that’s your prime suspect being interrogated there. Why do you look so proud of him and why is there such warmth in your eyes??

Zhao Yunlan’s smile had saved my heart from collapsing under the tension the first time.

Conclusion to Round 1: Shen Wei - 1, Zhu Hong/SID - 0

Round 2: Shen Wei VS Chu Shuzhi

Shen Wei’s confidence is very VERY attractive, okay?

“You can’t even compare to his toes” - CHU SHUZHI OMFG XD

It’s clear as day on Haixing that Chu Shuzhi is talking about Hei Pao Shi.

But Shen Wei? When he responds he either means himself to push his point that he’s not the criminal or he’s referring to Zhao Yunlan because that’s how he sees Kunlun even though he knows that that’s not who Chu Shuzhi’s talking about.

The reason the first option is an actual possibility and not an OOC theory is because Chu Shuzhi is saying that Shen Wei is less than Hei Pao Shi’s toes (first off all, has Chu Shuzhi even seen Hei Pao Shi’s toes? How’d he know? jk lmao xD), so Shen Wei saying this person must be a righteous hero is him saying 1) “Someone you (Chu Shuzhi) look upto will be nothing less.” and 2) “I am being truthful and am on the side of justice, a tiny fraction of what that person is.”

The latter is most definitely the case though. Kind of like “That’s Kunlun. Kunlun who is undeniably sitting right there and is not just a dream, a figment of my imagination or a distant memory I’m holding onto for dear life.”

These are the moments that show that even though Shen Wei is reluctant when it comes to politics, diplomacy and just handling people in general, he is very capable of it. It not coming to him naturally doesn’t mean he won’t excel at it should he put in the effort.

And boiiii does he excel---- I need some water.

Conclusions to Round: Draw.

Round 3: Shen Wei VS Zhao Yunlan

Shen Wei’s “Shen Wei” face is back! He looks like a very sad puppy.

Zhao Yunlan’s instincts ayyyy~

Da Qing’s instincts ayyyy~

I legit couldn’t get over the fact that Shen Wei could be this careless when I watched it the first time. This is so dumb, right?

But with added context of the past, this makes sense.

In that moment, Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan were working together just as they had during Ye Olde Haixing Era, and Zhao Yunlan was concerned for him the way Kunlun would be.

In that moment, to Shen Wei, they are Kunlun and Xiao Wei. And Xiao Wei has no secrets from Kunlun.

It’s not that Shen Wei’s careless and thought Zhao Yunlan wouldn’t notice or question it. He just completely forgot to be wary of Zhao Yunlan, who is not yet Kunlun, because of the familiarity of the situation. The last 10k years have disappeared for Shen Wei in that moment.

Dude heard none of what Zhao Yunlan said to him.

Regardless of everything,Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan are so in sync, it’s beautiful.

I will cry over this. You can pry this ship from my cold, dead hands.

I hate this case btw. It was a colossal disappointment.

(Continues in part 2)

#镇魂 guardian #guardian rewatch #guardian episode 04 #shen wei #zhao yunlan #weilan #zhen hun

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juneviews · 4 years

Text

axelle judges non bl shows > Fleet Of Time

/!\ SPOILERS AHEAD.

shitty summary: The lives of a group of five friends from high school to university.

where to watch: dramacool

grade: 5/10

pros:

- the cast is good.

- the acting was solid.

cons (buckle in kids):

- win & fang as main characters were just,,, so bad. listen I really tried to like them bc I like both actors & I knew I’d be stuck with these characters for 20 episodes but gosh, they were SO BORING! win is mister popular while fang is this nerdy reserved girl and it could’ve been okay traits for characters but they were so one dimensional and again, BORING. I’ve never seen two worse characters be put as main before.

- continuing on that, the other three characters were much better, yae and ying being my faaaves,,, BUT... they were undeveloped and straight up robbed of the screentime they deserved. (this is when I start spoiling the entire show but don’t worry you’re not gonna watch it anyway bc it’s TERRIBLE.) chiaew was a cute nerdy & introverted boy that was in a one-sided love with fang so what did they do with him? they sent him away for half the show. yae was by far the best character (and best actor in the show ngl) so what did they do? they gave him a crazy storyline where he ends up in fucking prison and ruins his entire life FOR NO REASON!!! (you can see I was mad as hell.) only ying stayed a good character until the end but even then she had barely any storyline and screentime towards the end, it was ridiculous. basically the show really put the focus on the worst & most boring characters in the show and punished the best characters with shit storylines...

- there is barely any chemistry between fang & win, it’s honestly shocking they made the whole show about them. fang legit had more chemistry with chiaew. as a couple they’re just so boring & uninteresting and I can’t believe I spent 20 episodes watch them get more terrible by the minute.

- the last five eps were REVOLTING. from all the things I’ve complained about, this is the biggest con. so after having spent 15 episodes with the boring ass couple that is win & fang, win (rightfully) realizes that fang be boring as fuuuck. but THEN he starts falling in love with another girl (with whom he has MUCH more chemistry but that’s beside the point), which is shitty af. then after making the viewer feel bad for a few eps they finally break up and the viewer thinks that maybe this boring shitshow is finally over... but wait, there’s like 3 eps left!!! we then get a lovely sequence of win losing his virginity to his new gf while fang gets r*ped ((((((((: and then she ends up pregnant with her r*pist’s child (((((((: and then win learns about it & decides he still loves fang & wants to take responsability for the baby (((((((: CAN Y’ALL BELIEVE THIS INSANITY??? in 5 eps, this boring ass show went from that to an INSANE piece of shit that uses r*pe as narrative plot twist to create shock for its audience... and I DESPISE IT. the last five eps legit made me feel sick to my stomach at how it treated its characters. even beside the r*pe, the whole “high school friend group” energy is broken & turned into a bitter and depressing atmosphere because of win’s cheating. it was genuinely the worst 5 eps of my life and the few friends I ranted to while watching them know how disgusted & shook I was. and ultimately this is what made an already extremely mediocre and (I repeat bc I haven’t said it enough apparently) BORING show absolutely disgusting and unwatchable.

would I rewatch it: NEVERRR.

This show was beyond a disappointment. It was so bad I truly regret not stopping after ep 1 when it bored me to death. I don’t know what it was trying to achieve but this? was not it sis. I legit wasted 15 hours of my life (and not 20 because I fastforwarded the whole show jcfdjhbjicohdbn) and I’m usually pretty easy to please. But this was truly TERRIBLE.

#axelle judges non bl shows #bypiningbisexuals #y'all I went IN jcdhjichdjcis #(that being said the kiss scene between win & his new gf towards the end was really fucking good)#(& probably some of the best kissing I've witnessed from straight ships in thai series lmao)#fleet of time #fleet of time the series

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choupichoups · 5 years

Photo

Press F (Instagram/College AU)

Lucas swears he’s the absolute master of undetected stalking. Or: Eliott is instagram famous and Lucas is the disaster gay who accidentally likes his post.

He smiles down at the screen, scrolling through the hilarious comments on the post. The exaggerated marriage proposals are probably his favourite because, honestly, same but he’d never be caught dead saying shit like that. Even as a joke.

Maybe.

Lucas sinks deeper into the couch, dimming the brightness on his phone screen just in case Yann happens to look over at some point. It’s not like Yann doesn’t know what he’s up to most of the time, but he’d still like to save himself from some of the teasing, thank you very much.

“Did you see that?” Yann yells at no one in particular, fully engrossed in the game they’re playing. Or they had been playing, since Lucas died in the game a good few minutes ago. He’s got better things to do anyway— like check the guy’s profile for any new updates he might have missed. Lucas isn’t exactly on top of his game when it comes to keeping up with Instagram but ever since his great discovery, he’s spent more time scrolling through the app in more recent times that his entire high school years combined.

“I’m doing another round of this before we switch up the game, okay?” Yann murmurs, already pressing the buttons before Lucas even replies. The latter shrugs, doesn’t care whether he gets to play for the next while. He’s much too preoccupied staring at the new photo he’s been graced with.

The dude, the myth, the legend. Eliott Demaury.

Lucas found out about him nearly two months ago— or more accurately, he found Eliott’s short film, Polaris, while scrolling through Youtube one dull Friday night. He’d watched the entire thing at three o’clock in the morning and promptly obsessed over it for the next couple of hours. Finding the director’s Instagram and seeing a puzzle posted on it hadn’t doused his interest either. If anything, that just made it worse. His last two braincells had worked in overdrive trying to rewatch the film and solve the puzzle at the same time.

Needless to say, he’d managed to find Eliott’s personal account in the end but the feeling of accomplishment only lasted until he saw that quite a lot of people had also found it. Mr. Demaury, has, in fact, half a million followers on his Instagram and Lucas could have probably found it easily if he’d just googled it instead of driving himself nuts figuring out what the riddle meant.

“Man, this is too hard.” Yann groans from beside him and Lucas can only assume he’s lost another round. He offers a vague noise of sympathy for his friend. “Are you really doing this right now?”

“Hm?”

“You’re really out here stalking your man during our we time?”

Lucas drags his gaze off of Eliott’s majestic photo so Yann can get a full view of his frown. “Our what now?”

“This is our time, Lucas. Best friend bonding time. 22h to 24h, it’s on the contract.”

He starts laughing, can’t help it when faced with the truly affronted expression all over Yann’s face. “What contract?”

“You signed it when you were like two years old.”

“Uh huh.” Now certain that Yann’s just talking nonsense, Lucas returns his attention back on his phone. “Legit age to be signing contracts.”

Yann doesn’t say anything but he steals Lucas’ phone from his grip and holds it out of reach when Lucas scrambles to get it back. “You don’t even follow him, what the hell?”

“That doesn’t matter, give it back!”

“So what, you just search up his profile all the time?”

“What about it?”

“That’s so sad, Lucas.”

“Shut up,” he says, snatching his phone back once it’s finally in his reach. “Imane knows this guy, I won’t hear the end of it if they get even a little hint that I’m looking at— Yann!” he screeches, shaking Yann’s shoulder with one hand while his other holds the phone up to his face.

The horror in his voice must be evident because Yann immediately straightens up, dragging Lucas close so he can take a look at the screen as well. “What?”

“Oh no… oh no no no.”

“Oh shit.”

“What do I do?!” Lucas waves his phone at Yann, almost decking him on the nose in the process. Yann stills him, shaking his head at the bright red heart below Eliott’s post. “Do you think I should unlike it? I can still do that right? He won’t see the notification, he gets a lot anyway.”

“No, man, that just makes it weird.”

“But…”

“You have to follow him.”

Lucas gives him a withering look. “Are you serious right now?”

“It’s natural! You like the post, okay, chill, next you follow. He gets lots of notifications, as you said. By the time he checks back, 200 other people would have followed him too. Wait a couple more days then unfollow and unlike.” Yann rubs at his back, sounding so sure of himself. “Then you can go back to your sad stalking ways after that.”

He shoves at Yann with a scowl, making sure to kick at his friend’s limbs as he slides off from where he’d basically crawled into the other’s lap in a desperate bid to retrieve his phone. And look where all that effort has gotten him.

“You sure that’s not weird?”

Yann throws a pillow at his face. “I already said it’s natural. Honestly if somebody did that to me I wouldn’t think anything weird of it.”

“Okay.”

Lucas hits the follow button, closes out of the app, and shoves his phone under the cushions. Whatever happens next is a problem for tomorrow.

He doesn’t go back on Instagram until well into Tuesday evening, choosing instead to finish all of his homework and maybe do a little bit of reading ahead of time for his biology class. It’s a wonder how much one is capable of getting done while avoiding the thing they usually obsess over.

But he’s only human. So letting go of all the self control he’s managed to conjure up the entire morning, he pulls up the app and slowly scrolls through the new content. He doesn’t know why he’s dreading this so much anyway— literally nothing is probably going to happen. Eliott won’t even notice the new addition to his massive following and Lucas would be able to see his posts without having to search up his username all the goddamn time. It’s a win-win.

Lucas doesn’t curb the smile pulling at the corners of his lips, even though a small part of him is a little disappointed. Not that he’s expecting anything to come out of this ridiculous infatuation anyway but knowing what Polaris is paired with that caption, the post sounds increasingly more romantic the longer he thinks about it.

So Eliott’s taken already. That’s cool. Great. But this is nice, at least, Eliott’s posts being readily accessible for him like this. Maybe he shouldn’t have made a big deal about following the guy in the first place. Only Imane seems to know both Eliott and Lucas anyway and she’s not the type to unnecessarily pry into other people’s business.

He still doesn’t hit like on the post though. He has to be subtle about this, he’ll wait a couple more posts to go before liking another one. Lucas is extra careful to avoid double tapping the screen when he goes back to his feed, no longer holding his breath for a catastrophe as he mindlessly goes through other new posts and notifications.

Which explains why he’s entirely too unprepared for what happens next.

srodulv started following you.

He clutches at his phone with both hands, forcibly shoving down the urge to scream and throw his phone out the window. He’s ill-equipped to deal with this. It’s not supposed to happen; Eliott shouldn’t have noticed him and Lucas should be free to get on with his life without knowing that some god in human form has probably seen the dumb photos he posts with him and the gang and— oh god, what did he post during that party last week again? It doesn’t look too stupid does it?

Lucas frantically skims through his own profile, wanting to shrivel up and die for every post he finds way too embarrassing to be seen by the guy.

The apartment door creaks open and Lucas throws himself off his bed, running out to the living room and most likely startling Yann out of his mind but that doesn’t matter right now.

“Yann!” he yells out, reminiscent of the panicked tone he’d used the night before.

“Huh?” Yann turns around, dropping his bag on the floor as he slips out of his shoes.

Lucas stands in front of him, holding out the phone over his head like it’s Simba. “He noticed me,” he whispers as if there’s a chance that anyone else would hear them.

“Who?” Yann looks from Lucas’ wide eyes to the phone in his hand. The screen is eye level for Yann so he merely peeks up to see what all the fuss is about. “Oh.”

And then Yann starts laughing. Lucas, personally, doesn’t find anything amusing in this situation.

“Can you stop that? I’m so stressed out right now,” he huffs, bringing the phone back down to his chest so he can stare some more at the notification that changed his life.

“Sorry, you gotta admit it’s a little funny.”

It’s not, but okay. Lucas continues frowning down at the screen, wondering if it would be too weird to mass delete half of his old posts.

Yann takes his phone away before he does anything stupid.

“You said he won’t even realize,” Lucas mumbles miserably, mind flashing back to that one stupid meme he’d posted about three weeks ago. God, Eliott’s going to unfollow in the next ten minutes.

“I’m not right about everything. Anyway, isn’t this a good thing? The guy only follows like 20 people and you’re one of them.”

Wait, what?

He reaches up, tilts his own phone in Yann’s hand so he can confirm that with his own eyes.

And okay, maybe that makes him feel a little giddy inside. Deep down. Just a little.

“Congrats, man. Not everyone gets noticed by their crush.”

“I don’t have a crush.”

“Sure.”

“Shut up.”

His phone beeps with another notification and they both look down at it simultaneously, like birds honing in on loose bread. It’s almost comical the way they gasp in unison when the notifications start popping up. From instagram user srodulv. Eliott. Eliott’s straight up just… liking a lot of his posts. Embarrassing memes included.

Yann opens his mouth to say something but Lucas grabs the phone out of his grip and runs back into his room, shutting the door so he can freak out in peace.

#elu #skam france #skamfr #elu fic #thats a lotta tags #did i make this blog just so i can post this?#more likely than you think #this is how i cope #all the au #i feel like we're all just staring into the void #waiting for the clip to drop #im gonna sleep #elu insta au #fictag

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sunlightnmoonshine · 5 years

Text

One of the greatest moments in arthdal (nunbyeol V daekhan)

I think this fight is worth a specific post. As I rewatched it I realised so many specific details they had dealt with and it was true poetic cinematography. Initially arthdal chronicles had a few Eps that seemed unnecessary but if you've been here from the start you'd know that nothing they've ever done has been pointless. Maybe viewed pointless and irritating (cough eunseom being beaten and captured repeatedly cough) but theyve never actually put in any unnecessary scenes and I think this fight between nunbyeol and the soldiers clearly depicts that.

At first I thought that Harim was merely a character added to compliment Chaeeun and Nunbyeol because we can't really have a story without a family yknow. His presence served so much purpose. From being the one that contributed to Asa hons death to that guilt making him adopt Nunbyeol, to blocking her abilities to teaching her sword fighting, to training Chaeeun to become a doctor, to being a representative figure of the lack of loyalty that surrounds arthdal. Only he was on the victim end concerning the last point.

He's more or less caused the existence of an all powerful neanthal and saving her more or less indicates that the neanthal line might continue for at least a short while.

What's specifically so stunning about this fight is just the filming and the way it's portrayed. The ep was more or less hinting that Mugwangs death was near but they'd actually suggested that it would be Nunbyeols doing many Eps earlier. When tanya initially said he'd die under the crescent moon it was merely a curse a powerful one at that, not a prophecy. The prophecy revealed itself that day when she was trying to escape and with Chaeeun and Nunbyeol and she had the prophecy when Nunbyeol was close (I cant believe it didn't occur to me that nunbyeol might be the one to kill him when it's been staring me in the face the whole time). What adds to this is nunbyeol already fought him once with her sword fighting but her repressed self couldn't handle it. It makes it all the more better when she unlocks her self and really shows them what a neanthal is capable of. The added explanation from that other soldier happening along the way of the ep perfects it because its an inherent forewarning. And bam we've the hiss and the blue eyes and blue veins and absolute perfection that was her fight. It opened with such glory legit cut a body perfectly in half but the pure gold of this moment was the look on the daekhan forces faces.

For the longest time they've viewed themselves as the strongest. They've been under the impression that Neanthals are long gone and they've been proud of it solely because they think they had a role to play in it. The fear that suddenly overtakes them in those few minutes was displayed so magnificently and it depicts just how weak the daekhan forces are. They've used brute strength and useless reason to take lives over and over again and they've been proud of it. One might view this as because they are part of "tagons" army and this delusional ideology they've got going that by following him they are somehow stronger and powerful and worthy of their actions. Regardless the way that all comes crashing down in a matter of minutes.

The choreography of her fight was astounding, you could see the rush of strength like a moment of ecstacy. Perfect swordsmanship, perfect expression. Prior to her unleashing it all the helplesness that echoed though. You could see and feel the pain, their screams, their cries and Nunbyeol in particular being dragged like a rag doll because she's relatively weaker only makes her rise so much more stunning.

I'll remember Mugwangs eyes of fear for a long time to come. I've been waiting for it no doubt but the way they handled it was so astounding, the poetic cinematography. He was an unapologetic piece of shit until the end although he had countless moments to make amends and thats what this show is about. It gives people the chance to make the right choices, gives them the chance to be good just like life does but then depicts just how arrogance and selfishness and all negative emotions get in the way of it. Mugwang has been a villain from inception, whatever conscience he had is long gone so it makes sense that he didn't beg for forgiveness only that every mistake he made was reflected in his eyes and that he was completely helpless about it. It still amazes me how he simply followed orders because he revers tagon and knows taealha is his trusted comrade. His reaction however would have been completely different had he known Tagon was an igutu and that's what's so perfect he dies just like that serving a master he actually knew almost nothing about. Makes his life seem even more worthless really.

Arthdal chronicles has been cruel from the start. The merciless killing of innocent Neanthal, the burning of children of Wahan the endless pain caused specifically by the the Daekhan forces all reflected back on its perpetrators in a matter of minutes. I don't know the name of the other soldier who survived that fight but he more or less is a representation of what the entire force is about to feel. That fear, all of it coming back to them. It was so gratifying watching them have a taste of their own medicine. Him fainting by the end of it adds to what the daekhan forces really are. They are wimps disguised in brute force and strength.

I'm curious to see what will set aside Mubaek and Yangcha. They've so much potential to do more with their lives, Mubaek in particular. If he'd just opt to be more of an action taker than a watcher. He's hesitating too much but that's perfectly fine given his character. He's stood by and watched as the neanthals were killed, while the wahan were killed and now I wonder what else he'll stand by and watch. Had he been more forward with his actions he might have been able to save two dear people to him. Asa hon and Mugwang. It's too late now and his characters potential is going to be tested.

Praise to Arthdal Chronicles for delivering such fine characters. There's so many memorable ones that each own their moments regardless of whether you root for them or not regardless of whether they are in the light or the dark or even the grey area - arthdal chronicles gives you a fine set of people that represent what our world is like to this day

#arthdal chronicles #kdrama #Neanthal #Saram #Nunbyeol #Mugwang #Daekhan #This ep has me in awe #I love how it's only gotten better #I've many thoughts about this show that need to be written down

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janiedean · 5 years

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I have to tell you something but PLEASE, please, don't be mad. I love Brienne, and I loved her with Jamie, and I'm mad and sad that they didn't get to have their happy ending...but I don't think his ending was shit. Or OOC. First at all, book!Jamie is not TV!Jamie: his relationship with Cersei is different, not as sick or manipulative. He loves his siter and is loved by her in a more "helthier" way: in the show she told Tywing the truth about them, and it's huge considering the love for power1/?

He watched her lose their 3 children, he learned about her walk of shame to get back to Tommen, he witnessed Robert’s humiliations. I think he would have stayed with Brienne if she knew his sister was safe, but he couldn’t be happy if his siter died and he did nothing to save her. He needed to be that person, otherwise all his growth would be lost, and he would have dragged Brienne in his spiral, and he didn’t want to make her miserable. To me he is still an honorable man, bc when there was a chance to do something, he did it: he killed the king to save KL, he fought the dead army, but over and over he said that the Lannister army didn’t stand a chance against the dragons or the Dathraki, he was not a fool. His speech was not about NOT CARING, it was about knowing there was nothing he could have done. He did good, he was good, and till his last moment he tried to be honorable, he tried to be the person Brienne inspired him. P.s.: Still heartbroken that he died, but I think there is some poetic justice with Cercei crashed by the symbol of the power she tried lo long to hold.

anon, I appreciate that you’re being nice and I appreciate that you’re trying to find some sense in this entire thing, but… okay, I’ll go over it and please don’t take me as *me* being mad or whatever but I don’t think a few things were clear here so I’ll try to do it now:

jc in the show is not healthier. it might be different, but it’s not and the fact that it might have been less obvious doesn’t mean that they didn’t drag that toxic mess out for four seasons when it had no reasons to exist. now: I was down with looking at it until s4 because that was book canon and I can deal with book canon. I had to look at three more fucking seasons of that toxic abusive mess happening and I don’t know if it’s obvious or not, but if I have one thing, like one in the universe that I can’t deal with, that I hate and that makes me feel sick more than anything else it’s emotional/psychological manipulation. and show!jc has that in spades and I can’t. like, as it is right now I’m pretty damn sure I’d take reading explicit thramsay fic that ends horribly with annexed detailed fanart than even rewatching five seconds of a scene where those two are in the same frame and is2g if they had kissed at the end of 8x05 I’d have thrown up. please for the love of everything if you think it’s better than book canon your prerogative, but don’t come at me informing me of that because I can’t. especially not right now;

I honestly can’t give much of a damn about the stuff c. suffered when 80% of that is her damn fault and I’m especially talking about tommen who only did that because she gave zero shits about his opinion in anything but we’re supposed to think she’s a good mother or that she cares which makes me especially sick because people have decided that for her out of nowhere when we all know how much leeway they give catelyn for that and I’m honestly done with it, and maybe it’s not inconsistent that he’d care, but it’s inconsistent how they wrote it;

because I mean if they showed some half-regret over leaving brienne or she was mentioned or if the entire thing was addressed instead of spending four episodes building it up and then did in four minutes what it took six feet under an entire season to do with nate and brenda back in the day is bad writing, has no consistency, it also murdered tyrion as a character because I can’t believe that in the span of two episodes he goes from I’m happy that you’re happy to WELL I DON’T HATE MY SISTER SO MUCH JUST GO TO PENTOS when ah, wait, c. sent bronn to kill both of them?

also ‘who ever cared abotu the innocents’ or whatever the fuck that line was??? wow, that’s all this asshole has ever cared about in canon to the point of losing his reputation for it not counting c. or tyrion at least in the very beginning of the series when everyone thinks he’s an ass, and I have to buy that this episode was halfway decent writing?

also: even if I was okay with jaime’s ending - which I could have been if at least it amounted to something because that entire episode was a plot hole after plot hole (where’s widow’s wail? he waves WITH THE FAKE HAND??? WTF??, did he ring the bells so he actually helped destroy the city without knowing dany would lose her shit through jon connington’s ghost possessing her? if bran didn’t rat him out bc he had A ROLE TO PLAY what was the damned role since he hasn’t done anything until now that warranted it??? just the first four) and he didn’t even… help cersei or take her out like he literally was there to just give her some basic human comfort and rocks fall everyone dies, what’s the sense of it?? -, anon, this entire narrative leaves brienne horribly;

because sorry but in the best of chances she’s not pregnant and someone lies to her and tells her jaime went there to stop cersei and tried to be honorable (which given what they made him say about not caring for the innocents makes it bad writing but nvm) and she can think okay, I waited years for the right guy to trust/open myself to and then he left me like that but at least he did it for a good reason now will I ever trust anyone again, maybe, and I assure you that getting over such a thing is not too easy, but that would be the best option. mid-bad option: she still thinks he did it for the right reasons but she’s pregnant so hey, she has an illegitimate child from a man who left her like that to go into a senseless death making her believe she was wrong about him and breaking her heart and she has to play single mother in tarth without him or maybe she can hedge knight along with the kid or leave him with pod or smth but that doesn’t look good on jaime either. or worse, she’s pregnant and she finds out he went just to die with cersei and didn’t even mention her or anything to tyrion along the way so she did all of the above…. for a guy who at the end of it as the narration puts it just went back to die with c. and a kid he didn’t even know might be real or not when she could have given him what he always craved/wanted/needed and left her like that? like, anon, even if it was a good ending for jaime, there is no bloody way that brienne gets out of this mess of a season with a dignified ending unless they somehow manage to pull a miracle out of their arses and sorry but their writing has been so bad that I honestly doubt it, not even david milch showing up like the calvarly could salvage this crap of a finale, and for all characters tbqh, not just them;

on top of that, sorry but it passes the message that brienne, only rep. in this show for nonstandard attractive people who spends years thinking she’ll never find love and suddenly thinks she can be happy with the guy who also fulfilled her greatest dream and opens herself up to him putting her vulnerability on the line (and while I don’t really think the whole virginity thing is that much of an issue since she actually did manage to give it to the guy she wanted it does mean something in this context)…………. shouldn’t have done it because wow, left like that without a second thought and without being addressed in the next episode at all by at least tyrion who has spent the previous four episodes either admiring her or trying to get her and jaime together never mind jaime? wow, I mean, I surely signed up to see the character I always saw myself in getting this shit treatment by people who obviously didn’t understand either her or jaime at the bottom of it for as much as I still think 8x04 did it right until the end?

anon, I appreciate your optimism about that narrative, but this episode was so badly written that it managed to about destroy the narratives of characters that weren’t even in it (sansa and brienne, and let’s not even discuss sansa because lmao), to have every single person but davos and possibly jon but meh behave ooc given what half of their lines said if not their actions because even if we take jaime’s actions as your reading (legit) what they made him say was still atrocious and ooc and same for tyrion, let’s not even touch dany or sandor/arya or really anyone that wasn’t davos. I cannot, in all good conscience, find anything good about this mess because it was badly written. period. even if we decide that the plot and motivations were fine and we try to make them make sense the way you did, the execution was shit, the dialogue was shit, it looked like they weren’t even trying, it did a disservice to every single character that was in it except davos who was there for five seconds to smuggle stuff and I honestly, honestly, cannot even find the force of will to try to make sense of it.

this entire season has been a gigantic plot hole, it wasn’t coherent within its own narration see ep. 2 clashing with ep. 8, 90% of what happened post 8x02 was for shock value without giving a single fuck about making it look in character and making the characters behave nonsensically - and I don’t mean just jaime, I mean all of them to serve the undoubtedly wtf shocking ending they have in plan for us which if I guessed already I’ll hate with the force of a thousand suns, and I’m honestly done with trying to make sense of this thing because nothing makes sense anymore. I appreciate that y’all are trying but I give up. I can’t make sense of a narrative that goes like ‘we’re doing this because it’s cool and if it doesn’t add up with everything we did before who gives a fuck’, and I honestly can do without trying to find a silver lining in a show that has totally twisted the message of the books and turned into an angst fest for which everyone has to be miserable at all costs or it’s not good tv, and that’s the last I’m going to say about this specific matter because:

a) I’m tired, b) I want to finish my spitefics and ignore this mess ever happened and concentrate on doing something that makes me happy, c) if I just keep on thinking about how bad this was IN GENERAL I wish jaime was my #1 problem I just feel worse and I don’t need it, d) the fact that they did brienne this dirty and she wasn’t even in this episode is really leaving the worst sour taste in my mouth and it’s already bad enough that I have to hope her ending is only 80% crap and not 100% crap, I honestly can’t with discourse that tries to find any basic sense in how this episode was conceived and executed beyond my problems with jc, jaime’s writing and the fact that they managed to get wrong one of his three most basic character traits that has nothing to do with brienne or jb for that matter.

thanks for being polite and nice about this and I swear I’m not mad but I honestly can’t with this episode and I would appreciate if from this point on anyone could refrain from trying to make jc sound better than it is where I can see it/where I can’t blacklist it because it’s really not a good idea right now. thanks again and have a possibly nicer than than mine. ;)

#Anonymous #ask post #only slightly less toxic than chernobyl's ruins #anti-cersei lannister #anti-cersei #anti-lannincest #anti-jaime x cersei #got negativity #game of thrones spoilers for ts #jaime x brienne for ts #otp: i dreamed of you #guys i get it but no #and now i'm going to do some work see y'all later

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winstonhcomedy · 5 years

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“Dope A-F” - 7/11-7/29- “Birthday Heckler, Winstmas Games, DC, and Amazing Shows”

Only a few days behind. That’s ok because I know I can catch up. Definitely doing way better than I was. It has been a chill week. I am still trying to adjust to losing my dad, and just trying to still enjoy comedy. So let’s hop right into it!

7/11

There were a couple of open mics this night. There was The Camel hosted by Jameson Babbowski right after work, and then after that will be Garden Grove which was going to be guest hosted by Brandon Beswick.

I headed over to The Camel right after work. I got there about 4:10 and ordered my dinner. I got to catch up and talk to the bartender/owner for about an hour. We talked about music, and the band my brother was in He is a super cool dude. A few more comics show up while I am waiting.

Liz and Mu were headlining so they both got there relatively early. There were a few comics from the standup class I subbed in. I got to ask them if what I was saying was helpful at all, and they all said it was. So that helped me feel pretty good about it. Anne Meng showed up as did. a few others comics. So we had a good hang going on.

Jameson finally gets there and sets the lineup. The hang continues for a bit and then the show starts. The first few comics do pretty well. There is an ok sized crowd. Better than the last few I had been to. I grabbed my light from the car because the first few comics you couldn’t see. We get it set up and then Mu goes up and has a really hot set. After him Liz goes up and she does pretty well too. She has a super drunk heckler during her set. She did a good job of not losing her shit on him, but he was just yelling the worst stuff. It kind of derailed her set.

After her were a few more comics. Then it was my turn. I had a good set. I did mostly new. I also did some dad material too. it is all coming together. I really enjoyed this set. People seemed to dig it, and I was able to really have a nice strong set. I’d give it a B.

I then hung out and watched the rest of the show. Most everyone did ok which was cool to watch. Legit 3/4 of the audience left right before the final guy which kind of sucked for him. He is new and he powered through it. After the show I grabbed my light and headed to Garden Grove.

It had started to rain so I put on my raincoat once I got to Garden Grove. I check in with Beswick and he lets know I am third. Mike Engle is there as are a bunch of my friends. Ry Mather, Jack Gerow, Jesse Pearlstein, Dylan, and Anthony Thompson all showed up. It was a super dope hang. The crowd was light, but the people there were really excited for comedy. There were a few people int he corner who were pretty loud, but for the most part everyone was at least attentive.

Brandon hosted and really started to try and work the audience over to get them ready. he ended on a pretty good pop, and I think he did a super good job hosting. After him the first few comics went up and did ok. I went up and just tried my material. I had a good but not great set. For the room I did well. I didn’t go into crowd work for the most part and I just did my new jokes for like 7 minutes. This felt good. I love just doing jokes at the open mics, and then being able to flex my crowd work muscle on other shows. I’d give this set a B-. It was super productive. If I had done crowd work I would have done better, but I wouldn’t have gotten as much out of it.

After my set I kind of just hung around for a long time. I talked shop with everybody. There were a few more comics from the class who asked some questions and hung out. It was cool to see them out at mics watching, and a few did some sets.

We had a nice long chat outside about comedy specials. This is always the best. Just like 30+ minutes talking about who we like and why we like them. Comedy is the absolute best shit in the whole world. After talking forever I said goodbye and headed home to pass out. I was super tired.

7/12

I didn’t do a set on this day. This was the day I was using to celebrate my birthday with my family. I just went over to my brother’s, hung with my nice, had a nice dinner, watched a movie, and hung out all night. It was everything I wanted. Just like 10 straight hours being with the one’s I love.

I knew I had a big show tomorrow, and would only get the first part of the day with them so I wanted the night before to really be special. I missed my dad so much during dinner. He would have loved everything about it. I’m glad I was with the one’s I love the most.

7/13

For my birthday I was headlining a show at Intermission Beer Company. Liz Carr was running a Virginia is for Lovers comedy show. So all the performers had to be based or born in VA.

Before all of this I spent time with my family. Enjoyed my niece’s company, and then went to Hardwood to watch Alex Jonestown Massacre play a cover set of Anti Flag. It was a super fun benefit show. I got to chill with Kenn for a bit, and see a few of my other friends before I headed over to Intermission.

I got to Intermission and Liz was there. I checked in and we caught up. Trayvon Fulton was also down from Philly. I haven’t seen him in a while so that was nice. Newer comic Heather Joyce was also on the show. Then Brock Hall, Alida Harper, and Jeff Simmermon also showed up.

Jeff was down from NYC and I was able to link him up with Liz to do a spot. The lineup was set, and people had started to show up. It looked a little light at first but then people started rolling in. I had a couple friend from high school come out, and I had about 8 people from work come as well. I love when they come. It makes me want to try even harder.

I got to chat and catch up with them. We talked and hung out before the show started. But the time the show began the room was almost completely full except for the one table at the very front.

Liz went up and did ok. She was followed by Heather and she got some pretty good pops during her set. She is super new and I’ve honestly only seen her perform at intermission. After her was Brock. He had some of his one liners work pretty well, but because he didn’t take a set list up with him he got off stage a little early. Which is ok. Then Alida went up and this was when I started to get in the zone for my set. I was supposed to do 20 to 25 and I wanted to do really well since my friends were there along with a ton of other people.

I went outside and stretched, and ran over myself et in my head a bit. I jumped up and down and tried to just get as loose as possible. Halfway through Alida’s set Jack Gerow showed to support and that meant a lot to me.

Alida got off stage and Jeff went up. By this time the front table had filled up completely. So the room was packed and Jeff went into his act. He did really well. He is a good comic and an even better dude. He handled the crowd a bit. He didn’t go in on them too much, but they were heckling a bit, and throwing him off of his rhythm. He had a really fun set, and was killing it.

After he got off stage. Liz gave me a wonderful intro and mentioned it was my birthday. I get on stage and immediately go into my act. The table at the very front had been filled by a dude and four girls. He was absolutely wasted and had been interrupting a lot throughout the night. He wasn’t being a dick on purpose, but it was affecting the show.

I had just walked in on him in the bathroom so I apologized for that while also shitting on him for not locking the door. Then I got to know him. I asked his name and he said it was Cody but he stood up when he told me. He didn’t have a job, but had a lot of money so I asked him what his dad did for a living. I also made fun of how he was acting the whole night. I

then asked the girls with him how they knew him. They wouldn’t answer. They were so embarrassed by how he was acting. He was absolutely super upset they didn’t have his back. I asked one of them if they were his gf and she said hell no. He looked at her shocked. This was the first he had found out about this. I started to feel bad so I apologized, and joked around. The crowd was loving it. I was killing.

He started vaping and I had to get him to stop. I joked around with them some more and then went into my act. Everything was working. It felt so good to be doing so well. I was having a hot one. I’d do a bit and then address the crowd a bit and then go right into the next joke. I did about 35 minutes and it was all working. I closed really strong, and honestly got a good fun video out of it. I hope the audio turned out well because I can’t wait to rewatch all the crowd work stuff. I’d give this set an A.

After my set they sang happy birthday to me, and I got to hang with my friends. I said thank you and all of my goodbyes. Then Cody drunkenly drove off with the other girls in his car. So we told the owners and we all kinda hung out before heading out. I then got dinner with Jack Gerow and we talked comedy for a long time. It was a blast and a great hang. Then I headed out with my coworkers and saw some other comics. It was an awesome birthday. I finally headed home to get a good nights sleep because I had a lot of driving to do the next day.

My first birthday without my dad had all of the ingredients to be a horrible time. I miss him so much. I didn’t know how it was going to go, but all I knew was he would want me to have a great time. I am so thankful I have my friends, coworkers, comics, family, and loved ones to be there for me and make surety birthday was as amazing as it could possible be.

7/14

The next day I got in my car and drove to Virginia Beach to the all day VB Strong comedy show and benefit at the Virginia Beach Funny Bone. It was 12 hours of comedy to benefit the shooting that happened in VB recently.

There was a huge number of comics and they ended up raising over 20 grand. It was a killer event and I was really glad to be a part of it. I ended up stuffing my face with wings and catching up with some friends waiting for my set to start. I was on the 6 o clock show, but I got to the see crowds for the 3 pm block and it was pretty full. It was so cool to see the community come together for a good cause.

When the 6 o clock show started Mike Easmeil (super dope VB comic) was hosting. He along with Rick Bruner (GM VB Funny Bone) are a couple of the dudes who were in charge of putting this whole thing together. I went up after Mike. It was about a half full room, and we were told to work somewhat clean. So I did my best.

I had a solid set. My material was working. I was cleaner than most. People connected with me and I was happy with the response I got. It also felt good to be doing a set for a good cause. I’d give this set a B.

After I got off stage Terry O’Quinn from Lost (does Improv) came over and said hi and he dug my set. I immediately texted my friend Kenn who loves Lost. This was a cool moment. I said goodbye and thanked Rick and everyone else. I then signed a poster that all the comics were signing and hit the road.

I headed to Cozzy’s because I was headlining Sunday Funnies. Mindy Ess was hosting it this week. I get there right as she is finishing up. There is a nice little crowd of about 20 non comics there. Which I am excited about.

A bunch of my friends are on the show. Francesca, Anne Meng, Richard Woody, and Paige are there. Also local comics David Vega and Wyatt Bowman were also doing spots. Wyatt and David went up first and they did ok. The crowd wasn’t really popping. Then Francesca, Richard, and Anne also went up. They had varying degrees of success. They just didn’t seem to really want jokes that much. Also the stuff they did and did not laugh at was weird as hell.

Paige went up and had he had a pretty good set too. He was able to get them on his side and kept working them. It had its down moments, but he was the first to really get any good pops from the audience.

After Paige it was my turn and I had a blast. I did about 20 minutes of crowd work. I started talking to this dude who had the name Mario Alfredo Lucero. I got some big pops talking about what a great name that was, and that he should have a pizza shop. I then talked to his wife, and also bounced around the room. I got some good pops throughout. Legit was doing the best I could have done.

At the end of my set I did 5 to 7 of new material. I knew it wouldn’t work as well as the crowd work because it was new, but I am trying to not just do crowd work at these tough shows. I figure if I do 75% crowd work and kill it is ok to bomb with 25% new stuff. I want to do well, but also want to work out material to get even better. So this was the strategy I used. It worked well. I’d give the whole set an A-.

I got off stage and said my goodbyes. Paige road down with Richard so he rode back with me. On the way back we go to talk, and then also we got stuck in traffic forever. After dropping him off I headed home and passed out!

7/15

I went to work today. Afterwards I kind of relaxed around town and watched some TV. I didn’t do anything too crazy. Tonight was The Southern but Chris Alan was out of town so JR was going to be guest hosting.

I get there right around 8 and it s a super light crowd. There is also only around 11 comics. So everybody is going to get about 7 minutes which should be fun.I get to hang out with a bunch of my friends. JR, Jack Gerow, Paige (showed up halfway through), John Marg, Sam Padgett, Samantha Wood, Luzader, Jericho Zornes, Johnny Rad, and some others I am sure I am forgetting. I was up like 7th. It was. fun hang and I was ready to get the show rolling. I walk in the back and change out of my shorts and put on a new outfit (because I can’t perform in shorts).

The show starts and I am recognized by this girl who tried comedy a few years ago. She had me talk to her standup club in college. I was so new I never should have done it. I was only like two years in and was trying to be edgier. My thoughts on comedy have changed dramatically. So it was going to be cool for her to see my material since hopefully I have evolved as a performer.

JR actually did some crowd work. He was a little aggressive. It was like he was channeling Chris. He did a pretty good job of getting the show rolling. Then Jericho went up. He had a pretty good set. People were doing ok. No one was really killing, but we were having a really good time. Eventually Johnny Rad went up and he did pretty well. He started shitting on Jericho. They were busting each other’s balls and that was fun.

After him was a new comic. He brought a table of people and he wasn’t terrible. He seemed nice and it seemed like he had worked really hard on his material. After his set it was my turn. I got up and made fun of Jericho and Johnny Rad bullying each other. I talked to the new dude and gave him a comic to check out. Then I just went into a bunch of new material. I have to sit down and write some of this out, but for the most part it was a really fun set. The new stuff was working, and if it didn’t work I at least know why. I’d give this set a C+. I got some good pops, but overall if I had stuck to crowd work it definitely would have gone better.

After me a few more comics went up. Sam Padgett had a good set too. She was all over the place. It was fun to watch. She forgot one part of a joke and said the wrong thing, but she played it off super well. She got some big laughs and it was fun to watch.

I then went outside to hang a bit. Paige eventually got there and we talked for a while. It was super fun, but I was exhausted and headed home. I ate some cereal at the house and then passed out!

7/16

During the night my grandpa was rushed to the hospital. They thought he was having a heart attack. Luckily he was ok, but I was planning on doing a podcast after work so I cancelled it before I knew he was fine. I got to work two hours late because I didn’t sleep well.

After work I went to therapy and got to have a pretty helpful session. Really struggling with missing my dad. Like it is not getting any easier. Honestly my brain tries to forget it even happened, but that is impossible. I also had to tell my therapist I couldn’t afford to come once a week. Which sucks, but I can still go every two weeks so I think I will be ok. If I realize I need once a week I will have to find a way to get a few hundred more dollars out of my budget.

After this I txted my friend Kenn and we grabbed a quick dinner at En Su Boca. It was a lot of fun. I love this dude to death and wish I got to see him more. I really cherish our friendship. We can talk about everything and he has always been there for me. I have become a lot more mindful in the time I have known Kenn and I hope that I have also been a positive influence on him as well.

After dinner I headed to meet up with Jason Kusterer. I just watched him play video games for a few hours. I just felt bad, and wanted to be around friends. It was a super fun hang and hopefully we can do more,

I drove us both to Mojos. I got to catch up and joke with Dylan and Ryan Mather. Carlton K showed up. There was a pretty good amount of comics so we were all going to get 5. Mike Engle was there as well. Claire Hakala was the bartender this week, but I don't know if she is going to get to do it from now on.

The show started and I went up second. Ry Mather was hosting and he may take over the show. He did a good job hosting and then Kusterer went first. He did half jokes and half a sweatlist. His set went pretty well all things considered. He made me laugh.

Then I went up and bombed my dick off. The dad stuff wasn’t working. Neither did my brand new joke that I like a lot. It still needs work. No one gave a shit what I was talking about. I wasn’t likable on stage, but I didn’t resort to crowd work and I just worked the bits. I’d give this set an F. It legit felt terrible.

I then hopped off stage and drove Kusterer and I to Fallout. I get there and there is an ok sized crowd. Maybe 10 people who weren’t comics. I am up in a few. Brock Hall, Danny Dunlea, Jack Johnston, Jack Gerow, and some others were there. Jarvis was hosting.

I didn’t watch a lot of the sets. I kind of just chilled. No one was really cracking them while I was there. There was a new person who went up and they had brought a table. I go up a few people after them.

I go up and honestly don’t enjoy my set. I do better than Mojos though. I do dad stuff, and the new joke works better. I know there is a way to get that joke to hit really hard. I need to just sit down and write. I am horrible at that. The rest of the set goes ok. I closed kind of weak, but honestly it was a learning experience. A very productive set. I’d give it a C-.

I go in the back and ask Kusterer if he can find another ride home. Jack said he would give him a ride and I head home. It is a long sad drive. I am in my thoughts the entire time. I get home and pass out. I don’t really feel good about comedy, but I feel good about the people in my life from comedy. It is an odd feeling.

7/17

I get off work and drive down to Norfolk to meet up with Nick Deez and Ryan Dix for their podcast. I am in traffic for what feels like ages, but I finally get there. I love doing podcasts. It is a ton of fun. I usually get to let loose, and there is no pressure since I am not the one hosting it.

I get to Nick’s and we start the DeezDix podcast. I ended up just ball busting. The first 20 minutes Ryan Dix was getting pretty heated. Apparently he had no idea I was busting balls and he was getting pretty upset. In hindsight that is hilarious, but he was definitely taking offense. After that part though everybody got into a rhythm and it was a pretty fun hour.

We made fun of Nick’s pop collection. We talked about Ryan making Gundams. Also we went over my fear of being serial killed ( a dumb irrational fear, but a fear nonetheless). It was a solid and fun podcast.

After this I headed to Hampton to perform on Wyatt Bowman’s show at Stuft.. It took me a while to find it because my GPS was acting up. Once I got there I saw it was a pretty dope spot. It had an actual stage, and it was legit packed. It was nuts the show actually started on time.

Wyatt Bowman went first and had an ok hosting set. People were laughing, and also paying attention,. After him was Torrey Huggins. He got some good pops up front. Some nice laughs. I could tell the crowd wanted to crack, and they were so close. I like Torrey a lot. Good dude, and works his ass off. I respect the hell out of that.

Then it was Nick Deez. Nick had an ok set. He had them early, and lost them a bit. The crowd was weird. They wanted to laugh, but when they weren’t into it they started to talk, and go back to their meals. Nick also works hard, and is another good friend of mine.

Then Justin King goes up. He couldn’t get them to connect with him. Justin is a dude I like a lot. He is also a comic that has an edgier take when he is on stage. They just weren’t the type of crowd that was digging that. He didn’t bomb, but you could tell the people were a little tight.

I go in the smoking room to talk to Nick and Torrey. They are kind of going over their sets, and just decompressing from the room. Another comic comes in the room and tells Nick and Torrey an audience member grabbed them when they were going into the bathroom. The audience member asked him if they were a comic and they responded yes. They then said the audience member said well I hope you are way better than the first few comics.

So I am in my own head trying to get ready for this set. I don’t really know why this comic said that. I don’t think it was malicious, but it was just weird. It didn’t seem like a joke/ball busting, and I just felt bad for the guys. These two dudes are obviously aware they didn’t have their best sets. This isn’t a constructive comment and a thing that could have been saved for later when they could have appreciated it. Like I said I was already in my own head, and I can only go off of my own personal experiences, but right after I am off stage is not when I would want to hear that.

I am getting ready to go up. I don’t really want to honestly. I saw how the first few sets went and I didn’t really feel like doing crowd work. I know that is what would work, but I didn’t want to fight this crowd that hard. I talk to that comic before going up and they’re like you’ve got to be loud and dirty because that is what this crowd wants.

I knew what I needed to do to succeed, but I didn’t want to do it. So I made the decision to just do my jokes, and really sell them. I put faith in myself as a comedian that my jokes would work. There was a crowd. They had shown they wanted to laugh. So why wouldn’t my jokes work?

I went up and had a really hot set. I felt really good about it. I did ten minutes of just material and I was destroying. Everybody was into it and there was no table talk. I had everyone’s attention. I did all teaching material, and it was really fun to do. I wish I had recorded, but alas I did not. I felt like I had gotten the show back on track, and done my job. Which felt good since I was just doing a guest spot I asked for since I was already in the area. I love being able to follow through when I ask for something. I’d give my set an A-

I leave and head to Cozzy’s to get a quick set in before going home. This is the open mic that Nick usually runs, but since he had a show he had Addison Hall running the mic.

We get there and there is like 5 audience members and the rest comics. It is a low energy kind of night. A few people go up before me and do ok. The people in the audience seem to enjoy the show so I am ready to have a good time.

Nick goes up and does ok. He has a new premise he is working on that made me laugh. I’m excited to see where that joke goes. After him it is my turn. I go up and just do new stuff. It is working ok. I know some of it needs work (all of it does), but it feels good to try new and get some laughs. I lost the crowd in the middle when I worked out dad material. The audience members weren't on board. It did not matter how good the jokes were (could have been perfect) they weren’t into it. So I closed with a few different things. It turned out ok. I’d give my set a C-. I learned a lot, but didn’t do as well as I wish.

I grab my stuff and head home. Unfortunately I left four of my notebooks so I have to wait until this coming Sunday before I can get a chance to get them back. I have a friend who is going to snag them and I am eternally grateful. I drive home, and then pass out.

7/18

I was stoked for today’s show. Kenny Wingle asked me to be on Buckin Comedy at the Funny Bone. It is going to be a fun time. The lineup is going to be me Klingman, Bounce Adams (doing a guest spot), James Paulk, Kenny Wingle, and myself. Then we are going to do sex with me is like at the end.

The room is about half full, and we have been having a pretty good hang. It was nice to catch up with James. I don’t know him very well, and have only worked with him a couple of times, but it was nice to see him and talk. He has some more free time now so he is getting back into the comedy game a bit.

Wingle was running a little late, but the hang before the show ruled. Wingle finally shows up and we start the show. Klingman goes up and does ok. It seemed like he was nervosa to swear, but once he did he really got them locked in toward the end of his set. Bounce went up and had a very strong 5 minute set. Very rarely have I seen him not do well. His 5 minutes is kind of undeniable. It is good to see, and it gets the crowd going.

It is my turn and I go up and I feel like I am doing ok. Some jokes are hitting, and some aren’t. Everyone is having some fun, but it isn’t what I want. I have this one lady int he front row who keeps screaming every time I say anything. I finally address it and get a huge laugh. I”m like, “I am so happy you love what I’m doing, but every time you scream everyone in this crowd hates me.” So she stops, but I know I am going to have to revisit her situation.

I go back into my set and it is doing ok. It is like a wave. I”ll get a huge laugh and then a chuckle. Which isn’t bad, but I just want to be killing. I go back into the crowd and talk a bit more and I finally go back to the drunk lady. Her name is Theresa and she’s a prison nurse. I bust her balls because of how drunk she is and I ask her about the craziest thing that has ever happened at work. She said she can’t tell me because it is a “penis story”.

So I go into a long thing about how she has to tell me. I thank god for sending me a heckling angel. After she tells the story, and I bust her on it some more I get off stage. The crowd work killed, but the material did ok as well. I’d give my set a B-. After this I went and got a weekend of work and talked to Jason (RVA Funny Bone gm) about what steps he thinks I need to take to kind of get to the next level.

James and Kenny go next, but during this time I am in and out because I am eating. I called my mom to talk a bit. I miss my dad a lot. He would have super enjoyed this show. The show is going well, but I am ready for sex with me is like to happen.

At the end of Kenny’s set he brings everybody back up and we go into the game. They love this way more than they liked the standup portion. It is crazy and filthy and dirty. I got a huge laugh on almost all of mine. I felt like I was on fire. Everybody had good ones, and even when they don’t work it gets a laugh because we are busting balls. I’d give this portion of the show an A. It was a crazy fun time.

After the show I say goodbye, and get some pictures with audience members. I grab what is left of my dinner and head out. I watch some tv and pass out. This was a successful day.

7/19

The next day after work I went and met my mom. I had been booked to do a private birthday part for the mom of one of my best friends from high schools. It was a 50th birthday party and mom was invited. It was good for mom to see her friend and meet new people. I had a blast catching up with my buddy Steve. He asked me to be his his wedding and of course I accepted.

We had a good time eating and just talking. I was supposed to perform for about 10 to 15 minutes outside beside their pool. Everyone had been drinking a bit, but it was supposed to be a clean show.

I went out and it was super warm. I get brought up before everyone is outside. So I stall a bit and make small talk. I do some jokes and get some laughs. It is just weird since it is outside, and everyone is pretty far from me. I do my act and it goes ok. Not great, and not terribly. People liked it, but they weren’t vibing with me. I didn’t get the same energy I was putting out. I’d give this show a C. It was fun, but it wasn’t amazing.

Honestly the bet part was seeing my old friend, and meeting his fiancee. It was a truly awesome time. I grabbed mom and we said our goodbyes before heading back home.

7/20

The next night I was booked by Var to perform on his Comic Shop show. It was my first time doing comedy in a barbershop so I was pretty excited. I had heard the last few were pretty fun, an dI think I am the first white comic who had been booked on it.

I get there and get to talk to Var. It was nice to finally get to have a conversation with him. Then Mike Jay, T Harris Jr, and Chris St. John showed up. We were hanging and shooting the shit. It was a lot of fun. Then Jayron showed up as well.

The show started and this dude Juice went up. I’d never heard him before but he didn’t really click with the audience. He got some laughs, but he was super unpolished, and you had to work for their attention.

After him it was time for T Harris Jr. He was outside having a smoke break or something. So there is this weird lull in the show. I stand up and motion I am ready to go up. So he brings me up. I go into my act and start busting balls. There is legit like 5 people on their phones and this one chick not smiling at all. I got some ok pops. I am proud of the set I did and I had some good crowd work moments. I didn’t really crack them, but I did do way better than I expected due to how the crowd was acting.

I definitely learned a lot, and it was cool to be the dude that was ready to go at any moment. I’d give this set a C as well. I could have done better, but I didn’t. I adjusted as well as I could, but honestly half of the audience didn’t seem to give a flying shit about the show. The people who were into it dug it and that’s all I can ask. I talked and hung for a bit before heading out to hang with some friends. I then headed home. I was ready for a day off.

7/22

The next night I drove all the way to Charlottesville for The Southern. I set everything up, and got to catch up with the GM Danny, and Jeyon. We talked about future shows, and I was ready to try some new jokes.

Then the power went out. That is right the power went out. So we waited until 7:30 to make the call, but we ended up cancelling the show. The few comics that came out all decided to go to Applebees and grab a bite to eat. It was me JR, Kenn, Chris, Johnny Rad, and Jaye.

We had a good meal, and talked comedy and all types of other shit. It wasn’t the same as doing a mic, but it was better than doing nothing. Afterwards I headed home and passed out.

7/24

I had off the previous night as well since there were no shows in town. So I was really excited for today. I was going to hit up two open mics, and also check out my friend’s at the funnybone.

On my way to work I hit a pothole and messed up my wheel. I called roadside assistance and the dude who came was a dude who was a fan of mine. I had met him a few times. He called and was like are you from Richmond. I told him no, and he was like oh that is weird because there is a comedian who has the same name as you. I was like yea that is me.

He was super helpful. His name was Richard and as soon as he said his name I remembered him. He got my spare on and I went to my grandads shop. I needed a new wheel they said so I was stuck with no vehicle.

So I drove it on the spare to my uncle’s body shop. I dropped it off and had my aunt/uncle on my dad’s side pick me up. We went to lunch and had a really good time. Talking about dad and everything else. Then they drove me to my mom’s car at the dealership where dad used to work. I grabbed the vehicle and headed home. By this time it was too late to really do anything so I hunkered in. Another night without comedy is a huge bummer, but I know I have a lot of shows the rest of the week. I did some writing and passed out.

7/25

I was stoked to finally be able to do some comedy this week. I had The Winstmas Games and a super good lineup. It was going to be team Charlottesville vs team Richmond. I had Chris Alan, Paige Campbell, and Heather Kilburn going up against Patrick Buhse, James Muñoz, and Brandon Beswick.

I got there crazy early to set up everything. I am hoping for a good turnout, but the summer is tough. You never know what is going to happen. Some of the comics start to show up and we get the hang going. I have about 8 or 9 people on the guest list so at least there will be a few guaranteed there.

I am also excited because Kyra Elizabeth of Kyra Elizabeth Photography came out and was going to take some pictures of the show. She does killer work, and it was awesome that she was willing to come out! I can’t wait to see the pics!

We start the show a little late and eventually we have around 30ish people there. This isn’t terrible, but I am definitely disheartened. We start the show and I start to bring everyone out. The energy is pretty weird for the first 20 or so minutes. Like good jokes aren’t getting any laughs. So everyone is trying really hard.

Eventually the show picks up and becomes really fun. The crowd enjoyed it and we did a good 70 minute episode of the show. My only problem was I felt like I was getting talked over the entire night. Which is incredibly frustrating when hosting. Like the thing I am best at is sitting back, and waiting to have a response to some of these jokes and I wasn’t getting n opportunity to do that.

I knew if I kept trying to do it then it would only hurt the show. So I was more silent than usual on the show. We still had a great show I just didn’t have as much fun as I usually do. I kept the games moving, but as far as making my own jokes I didn’t get a chance to do it.

Beswick and Muñoz did really well. They kept trying to one up each other. Buhse had some killer callbacks. Heather was pretty silent. She didn’t have much to say, but when she did she had some pretty funny lines. Paige and Chris both also did pretty well.

We ended with Sex With Me Is Like and that seemed to go well. I might do this going forward because it guarantees the show ends on a laugh. I’d give the whole show a B, and my own personal performance an F. I really didn’t enjoy it, and I felt like I sucked.

I hung out with some friends a bit after and then headed home. I had a long weekend ahead of me.

7/26

The next day after work I hopped in my car and headed up too DC. I was going to be working the Improv the next few nights. I get off work an hour early! I’m hoping I miss traffic, but this is not the case. It took me 3 hours to make an hour 45 minute. It was miserable.

I finally get there and park and walk to the club. I am stoked. I am hosting two shows in the lounge. It is the standup showcase. The lineup is myself, Alex Scott, Ross Benoit, Paris Sashay, and Tony Woods. It is legit one of the best lineups I’ve ver been a part of. All of these folks are killers.

I’m chilling in the back and the comics start to show up. The hang is pretty fun, and Alex Scott and I start shooting the shit. Then Ross gets there. We talk about our upcoming show on Thursday, and just generally catch up.

The show is pretty packed. It is almost sold out. I am hoping it is a pretty fun crowd, but I haven’t gotten to so standup since Saturday and I feel so damn rusty. The show starts and I go up.

I do an ok set. Honestly it was just weird. I didn’t do poorly and I opened them up. I just know I could have done better. I stumbled on my words a little bit and it took me longer to connect to them. I honesty just need to be more confident, but I am so scared performing in DC. I’d give this first set a B-.

After me Alex goes up. He has a pretty good set, but they are still a little tight. Same thing for Ross. They’re all doing better than me, and it isn’t a bad crowd, but it just doesn’t feel like they’re loving the show. Then Paris goes up and she had a killer set, which was followed up by Tony Woods have a good one as well.

All in all it was a fun show, but I really hoped the next crowd was going to be better. I just wanted to step up and provide an even better show than the first one.

I chill for about an hour waiting for the second show. People start to file in and the pre show energy is awesome. They seem ready to go. It is also getting pretty full. I am way more confident than I was the first show. The first show reminded me that I know how to do this.

The second show starts and I go up and have a dope set. All of my stuff is working. They clicked with me from the beginning. I was smiling more, and we were all on the same page. There were moments I didn’t feel perfect, but for the most part it felt like I knew what I was doing again and deserved to be there. Hosting in the lounge can be tough. It is a different vibe than the main room. Sometimes they are crazy loose, and other times they are tight af. I am so glad this was the former. I’d give this set an A-.

The rest of the show goes great. Everybody is killing. Alex Scott kills, Ross murders, Paris slays, and Tony Wood absolutely destroys. He brings the house down. From top to bottom it is one of the best shows I have ever been on.

After this I head over to Big Hunt. I hang with Dom Rivera, Lafayette, and a few others. We are shooting the shit and hanging out. Andrew Cook comes out and is looking for someone to go first. I volunteer. I love going early here. No just because the audience is still there, but because I love the idea of getting home relatively early.

The show starts and there’s a pretty good crowd. Sami Sfeir is hosting and he has a solid opening set. He brings me up and I have a good one. I try a few new jokes and one goes over really well. I also get my R. Kelly joke to work the best it has in a while. I can’t wait for this to be the only thing I do. I’d give this set a B+.

After this I walk to my car. I hop in and drive to Fairfax. I get some snacks from the 7-11 and head to my buddies house. I get there and TJ gives me one of his Pony Gang t-shirts. It looks super dope and I am psyched. We watch a few episodes of Last Chance U and then I pass out.

7/27

The next day I pretty much just slept. I am trying to get caught up on how little I have slept the last month. TJ made burgers and we talked a bit before I went and took another nap.

I head into DC and go straight to the improv. There are less comics on the show tonight. It is just Ty Davis, Alex Scott, Ross, and myself. Matt Brown had to drop off because he was featuring at Magooby’s.

The show is absolutely packed. It looks like it is going to be a light crowd, but like five minutes before show time people start to pile in.

I go up and this might be the best show of the weekend. Everything works and feels good. I have a hot one and even try a new joke. That even works and I am just feeling it. I bring Ty Davis up and she kills. Then Ross, and Alex both destroyed. We had a super killer first show.

After this show ends a little early I am just hanging out talking to the staff. They say the second show is sold out so I am anticipating a fun one. I was wrong.

I hated my set. I felt like I was bombing my dick off. I felt like no one was enjoying it. I’d get a laugh and then nothing. Then I’d get another laugh and then nothing. It was just awful. I was so upset about this set. I’d give it a D. I am better than this and I can do better than this.

Everyone else after me did well. They had to work a little harder than they did in the first show, but I felt like I didn’t know what the hell I was doing. I felt like a hack. I hate comedy when stuff like this happens. You can do well and then the very next set it looks and feels like I have never done comedy before.

After this show I headed to Big Hunt. It is an incredibly light crowd there for the open mic. But Sean Patton who was headlining left and was like, “ladies and gentleman that is how you don’t headline a room.” He said he felt horrible the entire weekend about the shows. This made m feel a little better. If this absolutely hilarious dude who is headlining feels this way then it is ok for me to.

I get to go up 8th. Dylan showed up and we get to chill a bit. It is always fun to talk comedy and see him. We chat about our shows, and then start to watch. I get to see some of my friends go up like Lafayette, Denise Taylor, Ross, Maddy, and a few others. They’re all doing pretty well. The crowd is hard to crack because they are all wasted and there is only like 15 of them. I tell myself I am going to try some new stuff when I go up.

I go up and I actually do pretty well. I get some pretty big laughs, and I tried a handful of new things. All but one of the new things worked. My energy felt good, and I just felt comfortable. I definitely felt like this was a very productive set. I really want to keep working at it and moving my way up the chain here. I’d give this set a C.

As soon s I am off stage I grab my stuff and say goodbye. I dipped out and started walking to my car. I have off tomorrow and I was so excited to just pass out at home and wake up and relax.

I get to my car and have absolutely no traffic the entire way back home. I get there around 3 and watch a little tv before passing out. I am ready for a day off.

7/29

Today starts pretty good. Get to go bowling for a field trip at work which was killer. Then I get a fb message from Kyra and she sent me some absolutely amazing photos of The Winstmas Games. At least it looks like the show was amazing. Legit hope she does some more because I was extremely impressed.

After work my mom picks me up since my car has been out of commission. She drives me to go grab my car and the bill ends up being half of what we thought. I ended up needing two wheels, but they sent one that had a flaw in it and they let me keep it for free. So I basically got two wheels for the price of one. Which is amazing and honestly I really needed it.

I grab my car and head up to Charlottesville. I met Keaton Ray for dinner. We talked comedy and about when his show was coming back at The Bridge. We go over some bits, and destroy some Jack Browns. Samantha Padgett and her significant other Lucy show up. We talk to them as we are leaving and tell them we will see them soon.

We head over to the Southern and I start to grab all of the PA stuff. I also take down all of the chairs, and get the tables moved. I don’t set the PA up yet because last time I did the damn power went out. So I just go and kind of relax as other comics show up.

JR shows up and he sets the PA up. A few people show up an hour beforehand and they aren’t even performing which is pretty cool. Some people brought friends and we have a pretty big lineup. John Marg showed up. As did Jack Gerow, Kenn Edwards (after I left), Jake Snyder, Paige (as I was leaving), Dylan, Sam Wood, Sam Padgett, Jack Johnston, and a lot more.

The hang is super fun. I go outside and Sam P called me over. She was being hassled by a weird dude trying to get a hug and sell her some drugs. It was sketchy af so I just chilled next to her until she was able to move.

Chris and I shoot the shit and are riffing inside before the show starts. It was nice to just kind of unwind and bust balls. It had been a minute since we had been able to do that. I really missed it.

The show started at around 8:15 and we had an ok sized crowd. Chris goes up and is having a fun hosting set. He actually tried some new jokes, and was busting everybody’s balls. As he went on I started to feel pretty sick. I don’t know what it was.

I honestly think a lot of it is stress from my dad. I haven’t slept much, and I have been having horrible stomach problems due to anxiety. I also think the greasy burger and fries I ate (as delicious as they were) did not help the situation.

Over the course of the show more and more people show up. I am up fifth, and before that I am running to grab chairs until we have a pretty awesome packed house for the open mic. Dylan went up first and he had a solid opening set.

Then a few more comics went up. They all did ok. The crowd had been enjoying it and kind of hot, but they hadn’t really popped yet. There was a gay comic from New York who said he used to do comedy in the 80s. He defiantly had an 80s vibe, but he also had a few jokes I enjoyed. I hope he keeps coming out.

Then it was Sam Wood’s turn. She goes up and I start to get mentally ready to try and have a hot set. I want to do better than I did the last day in DC. So I get new jokes ready, and I just want to go.

She brings me up, and people start to get up to talk and get drinks. So I am just patient and bide my time. I ask a few questions and use the first minute or so to just get people on my wave length and have them ready for the show.

Once people are settled in I proceeded to have a really good set. My jokes were working, and I was able to get some stuff tighter than it used to be. I also did some crowd work I really enjoyed. I got this one dude involved and pretended he was one of my favorite porn stars. I kept calling him Mike Rod and he was there with his mom. It was a lot of fun.

I’d give this set an A-. There were like one or two things that didn’t get the pop I wanted, but overall a great set. I got some big pops and woke up the crowd. I felt like I did my job, and at the same time got to work on some new material.

After my set I started to feel incredibly sick. I had to leave. I hung around for a few more comics and talked a little bit, but I couldn’t take it anymore. I packed my stuff up and said goodbye and headed out. I caught Paige on the way out and told him I felt shitty. After this I hopped in the car and headed home. I chilled for a bit with my mom and then just passed out. I needed it.

I AM CAUGHT UP AGAIN! You can’t keep me down laydees! I am defeating this damn blog one way or another. I refuse to not do it. I need to write about some other stuff that isn’t just my shows. I will figure it out baybees! Until then I love you so much and thank you for reading! See ya soon! xoxo

#comedy #jokes #standup #bomb #dc #charlottesville #richmond #va #rva #cville #comedyrva #improv #gameshow #podcast #hilarious

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