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thephantomcasebook · 1 year

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I love the Daeron Dayne theory!

Re: And thus all of Team Green has to be bad guys in some way so that people can root for "Girl Bosses" and "People of Color" ... which as someone who is not white, I find that shit more racist than anything else.

I personally also can't wait for the optics of good bastards (the Hulls) played by black actors who stay true and loyal to team black, and evil bastards (The Two Betrayers) played by white actors who go comedic relief warlord, as well as, white girl (Jaehaera) gets murked for black 9yo beauty pageant LMFAO. Just a deeply unserious and disingenuous show. Will only be peeping the rest for the amazing performance of the team green actors tbh.

I also really like Steve Toussaint as Corlys but the show seems to not care for him beyond putting him in the role of Rhaenyra's wise wizard which comes with its own racist implications. He's a shrewd politician himself who was ready to pimp out his daughter but like everything else team black it's neither highlighted nor problematized as much as Otto/Alicent was. There's no way they're for real about that Seasnake show 😂

You joke, but I'm sure, at least before GRRM took over writing duty for Season 2, that was exactly what Spotchnik, Hess, and HBO Corporate had in mind for future seasons.

I mean it's now basically a well known fact that they tried to write Daeron out of the show, because, they didn't want Alicent or the Greens to have a heroic and moral son that is on par with Jon Snow and Robb Stark. GRRM had to fight (And fire a showrunner) to get him on the show, because, the people in Season 1 were so married to their political bullshit that they though Daeron's mere existence would spoil their racist algebra of "Team Black x Diversity + Pogressive Values = Good Guys! Team Green x White people + Catholic/Conservative Values = Bad Guys! Even in the parlance of GRRM's World that is not how things work.

Ugh, don't get me started on the Dragonseed Riders. I wish people would stop perpetuating that, somehow, they're all badasses. They fought like one battle - "The Battle of the Gullet" - in which both Aemond and Daeron were far from home. Then, they all pissed themselves when Rhaenyra tried to send them at Daeron. They literally threatened to quit, because, they were scared of Daeron and Tessarion. At Tumblestone, Hammer and Ulf shit their pants at the sight of Daeron in battle and switched sides so they wouldn't have to fight him. The only Dragonseed Rider who actually fought another Dragon was Adam Hull ... and he and Seasmoke got their asses kicked by Daeron and Tessarion - and yes, Daeron was piloting Tessarion in that battle, anyone who actually believes the maester about Tessarion doing all that shit on her own ... I got a bridge to sell you.

The only thing I looked forward too is Daeron and Hugh Hammer's rivalry. Cause Daeron really shows who he is by being Alpha as fuck going up against this jacked roid-rage rapist murderer on the biggest dragon in the world and sitting Hammer's dumb ass down every time they mix it up. I just love that the most powerful and dangerous Dragon Rider in the war is afraid of a 17 year old master swordsman who denies the Iron Throne twice and just wants his mommy back.

I mean if you polled any of the fans in 2018 everyone was saying that Daeron or Criston was their favorite character in "the Dance". It's revisionist history to say that Daemon or Corlys were popular when the book came out. I mean Daemon was GRRM's favorite and he became popular when Matt Smith took over the role - and he's damn good - but I'd argue that no one was that big a Daemon fan till Smith got cast. Daemon was a piece of shit who abandons his wife and young children to run off with an underage girl.

I do like Steve Toussaint a lot. I especially love that he and the actress who play Rhaenys are big fans of GOT and I love them together on the press tour. To be honest with you, I knew all the way back in 2018 that they were probably gonna race swap the Velaryons, because, even in the book House Velaryon stank of "Marketability" - You mean the House that is only ever mentioned in passing in ASoIaF and plays no bigger role except getting wiped out at the "Battle of Blackwater"? It had the stench of HBO on it from the beginning. So when they announced Toussaint as the Sea Snake, I wasn't mad nor surprised cause Corlys felt like a Corporate character from the inception.

I also agree with you that it bothers me a whole lot that somehow Corlys got a pass for doing the exact same thing to his own - much younger - daughter as Otto did and for the exact same reason. Except that I think it's much worse. On some level, I think Otto knew what he was doing was wrong and at least he never justified his bullshit with Alicent. Corlys not only did the same thing, but he was entitled when he did it. He didn't give a shit, not about Viserys or Laena. At least Otto eased Alicent and Viserys together and fostered a friendship. Corlys was just "You're gonna get Funky with Strawberry Shortcake and you're gonna like it!" like she wasn't even his daughter.

#House of the Dragon #Daeron Targaryen #Daeron the Daring #Corlys Velaryon #Otto Hightower #Hugh Hammer

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athenadcvell · 3 years

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Okay but can we talk about how amazing of an actor Elizabeth Olsen is for a sec? Like in episode 3, the way she went from that comedic, over exaggerated sitcom acting to the emotional, heartbreak of remembering her dead brother was PHENOMENAL

#I went from laughing to crying like THAT #they’re all so talented don’t get me wrong #it’s just I feel like her acting has been overlooked sm #even tho she deserved sm more credit #Wanda is a very emotional character so most of her scenes tend to be on the sadder side #but in this show we get to see the comedy and lightness of her personality #and it’s just so amazing the ways all the actors can switch from being comedic to serious so quickly #anyways wandavision is officially my fav series of 2021 #only show that could beat it is fatws but I haven’t seen it yet so we’ll see #tvd and the originals owned my heart in 2020 but I’m happy to say that my marvel obsession is back #wanda maximoff #elizabeth olsen #scarlet witch #marvel #mcu #wandavision #disney+

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supergay-supergirl · 3 years

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copy pasting my discord rave about zari 1.0 because i think it's wonderful but i'm too tired to be any more coherent than this

OK OK OK SO zari 1.0 is coming back.......... zari 1.0 is coming back

i'm literally SO EXCITED, the way they framed it makes it seem like they're going to split the rest of the season relatively equally between the two zaris which is like BRUH ok cause zari 1.0 gets erased from the timeline / trapped inside the air totem at the end of season FOUR and then is not present for all of season five (except for the finale) and then is basically not present for 6a and suddenly she's???? back??? just like that??? and she's going to be a season regular(?) again????? for context she is my favorite character and i was very sad when she got erased from the timeline

4+ more things

1) bringing zari 1.0 back is a GENIUS move. both zaris are played by the same actor (tala ashe) so it's no extra expense or hassle to switch between the two, they know z1's a fan favorite (because she's amazing), tala ashe has said she really likes switching between the two characters, it's a win win win situation 2) THE POTENTIAL ALTERNATE ZARIS CONTENT ok so quick backstory zari 1.0 grew up in a repressive post apocalyptic near future world, became a hacker, and never learned to be vulnerable, and after they changed the timeline so the apocalypse(ish) never happens, zari 2.0 grew up in a near future world very similar to ours, became an influencer, AND thus never learned to be vulnerable but in a VERY different way 2 cont) this episode showed the two of them speaking together in the totem and i would LOVE more conversations between them talking about their experiences and helping each other with their problems because if season 6 has shown anything it's that z2 is way more similar to z1 than we previously thought

3) the tarazi/tomaz siblings....... z2 and behrad is an extremely pog sibling vibe but z1 and behrad has an entirely different vibe because in the new timeline, behrad had more of z1's experiences, so their personalities are a lot more similar and in the like 2 minutes of screentime they've had together, they just click a lot more than z2. z1 talks about behrad trying to beat her high scores on video games outside the totem and i am just waiting for a scene where the two of them are playing video games together or like. getting high cause character development vulnerable z1 would totally do that

4) also steelhacker???????? steelhacker (nate x z1) is literally going to be endgame which is RIDICULOUS /pos nate spends like all of seasons 5 and 6a pining over zari and now she's just like!! back!! and they can be together!! no more pining!! no more steelhacker angst!! only happiness and a relationship built out of mutual trust and respect

tangentially related, nate was p much confirmed straight in this episode BUT in the process zari 2.0 was p much confirmed not straight which means that both zaris are baaasically canonically bi, like we knew this already but since they won't release the zarlie kiss we gotta grab onto every piece of evidence there is, the bisexuals are winning once again

ALSO in general this episode was really heavy on how representation is important on screen and like. wow it was incredibly meta and critical of the CW in JUST the right amount to come off as nonthreatening but still make a point context, the episode takes place in a sitcom filming exhibit a: zari 2.0 and nate go up for a role, zari is told that she's not what they're looking for, nate is cast immediately, zari: "finally, a win for the straight, white man" (this was the line that implied straight nate and queer zari btw), later during nate's very comedic audition he says "is this for the cw" exhibit b: zari and behrad's whole thing in the show was how seeing muslim representation on screen as kids changed their lives in huge ways, and more generally how representation is what allows marginalized kids to grow up to become superheroes (metaphorically or literally) and i think that's just a really great message ESPECIALLY for legends of tomorrow which is all about how being a misfit makes you special

ALSO just the fact that we have two (and a half?) muslim mains on the show like legends could definitely do with a bit more diversity but from my perspective zari and behrad are done really well exhibit a: in season 3 zari 1.0 is trying to train mick how to use the fire totem and he insults her for fasting and she 1) gets to fully beat him up and then 2) explains that ramadan is important to her not just for religious reasons, but because it connects her to her (dead) family and her (banned) culture and they BOND exhibit a cont: also the small detail that she asked gideon (the ship's ai) to tell her when sunup and sundown would be in her hometown, like that's really sweet and just kinda shows that someone in the writers room was putting enough thought into this to be like hmmm how does she do ramadan in a place where time doesn't exist exhibit b: in season 4(?) nate(?) walks in on zari on the floor and he's like sorry i didn't know you were praying and she's like ...i dropped an earring which i think is really funny and it was very lighthearted and normalized exhibit c: in season 5 the crew drinks enchanted wine to become immortal except zari 2.0 declines ("super haram"), everyone is very cool about it, they protect her during the zombie apocalypse while they're all immortal except her exhibit d: also in season 5, the fact that behrad is about to drink alcohol is what makes him recognize he's under magical influence, which i think is pretty cool

anyway the point of this was that i love z1 a lot and i'm very happy about this development

#legends of tomorrow #legends of tomorrow meta #lot meta #zari 1.0 #zari tomaz #lot 6x09 #zari 2.0 #zari tarazi #behrad tarazi #superspeaks #long post #dctv

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eyrieofsynapses · 4 years

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First Thoughts on YJ S4 Panel

WARNING: SPOILERS for the DC Fandome YJ S4 panel!

Okay, before I start chattering away, can I just saw how much I love this title poster? Because I love it. LOOK AT IT. LOOK AT HOW BADASS IT IS.

Warning: this first bit is a teeny bit ranty, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t genuinely love the panel. It was really fun, but I have a few gripes with the amount of information we got. If you wanna cut straight to the cheery bits, check under the cut.

So... uh. I’m not gonna say I’m disappointed? Because I’m not, this was good, we got info, it was nice to see the voice actors. But I’m... underwhelmed. I definitely wasn’t expecting a lot but this was still, mm, not as much as I thought we’d get. No poster, no previews of character designs, not a peep as to when we’re getting the new season, nothing on where it’ll be streaming, nothing as to new characters, nothing as to who’s going to be the villain, and the Q&A session was maaaayyybe 3 minutes long. Oof, guys. Thought you said you’d leave us with something that’d leave us “more than just ‘whelmed.’”

Essentially all we got was the title, and a few snippets of information regarding what the current status of the Team and its characters is. They didn’t really get the chance to talk to us at all about the actual season, either- I think Brandon spoke maaaybe three or four times? He got the title reveal, but, well, we knew that already, not that it’s their fault, but still. I love hearing the voice actors chat about their experiences and we got none of that, so that was disappointing. I’m wondering if there wasn’t some material cut, actually, because I distinctly recall seeing a clip on Twitter with Phil Lamarr talking about what it was like returning to the show, and it wasn’t in this. So what’s the deal, DC? Short-changing us on YJ again? When are we gonna get some actual news?

There is the little problem that their big reveal of the title was spoiled, oh, maybe three or four months ago, and that isn’t their fault, but it does make that revelation more of an “okay, well, glad that’s confirmed” rather than an “OH MY GODS IT’S PHANTOMS WHAAAAAAAT” like I think they were hoping. Still, that’s definitely exciting to hear, and the new title poster looks cool.

I got a “WHAT!!!” moment maaayybe three times, which is significantly less than I thought I would. There just wasn’t that much new info. But I think that’s less of a Grandon/production team problem and more of a world state and DC problem. I’m not annoyed at them, I’m annoyed at DC and at the pandemic, because I’m willing to bet their snippet was cut short by DC and what information they could’ve revealed just isn’t ready yet because of current events. Probably we would’ve gotten character designs if it weren’t for that.

As for the audio play, it was pretty good. They were definitely struggling what with having a distinct lack of people to pull from for a voice cast, but made some tongue-in-cheek references to it to take off the edge. I don’t think I realized just how many people voice for YJ until now... or how many characters each actor does. It’s a bit janky, and weird what with the arguing over who’s narrating the story (why, are they telling us the story, or are they telling it to someone else? Are you breaking the fourth wall, are you not? Make yourselves clear) but I’m blaming that on the fact that they’re more used to scripts than they are audio plays. These are different mediums, so there’s an inherent gap there; this probably would’ve gone better as an actual episode.

So, FIRST watch-through, here’s my HAPPY cheery thoughts and reactions, in no particular order! I might do a second one later, we’ll see. (Under the cut, because it’s long.)

Return of Bowhunter Security!

Clipboard makes a comeback!

The Supermartian marriage has taken place and they’re making reference to taking a long journey with Conner, M’gann, Bioship, Gar and J’onn. So... Mars? Do we finally get to see Mars?

Forager gets to be sassy! And a hilarious narrator! Which, c’mon, it’s Jason Spisak, honestly, I don’t know what I expected.

Ahahah, Jason makes the most delightful faces when he’s voicing Forager. (And a few flubs, but he’s good at covering them.) We all miss Wally, but man, he does a good job with this character. Also, hey, that’s how he does the clicks!

Rocket! Even though she had a relatively minimal presence, sigh. I’m hoping they build her character more this time, she always get short-changed.

ARTEMIS IS LEADING THE TEAM, repeat, ARTEMIS IS LEADING THE TEAM!!! YES!!!

And she also makes a reference at some point to being in this fight for ten years, which, HMM, do I hear a reference point for our time jump? They started back in 2010, so this implies that the season’s caught up to 2020. So... season one was 2010, season two was 2016, season three was... 2018, I think? So does this make the next time jump two years too, or am I off? It also takes place on February 23rd. Eh, either way, it’s absolutely not as long as a lot of people were fearing- heck, I’m thinking this might be the shortest jump yet. Yay!

I’m not sure if the Snapper Carr dialogue is cringy or hilarious. I’m going with hilarious because I’m betting this would’ve been great if it were animated. It definitely loses something without the animation.

Is... is Crispin Freeman playing four characters? Five? Will, Roy, Jim, Captain Boomerang... I think I’m missing someone, I’m gonna have to go back and rewatch this later, but wow. He switches between them so fluidly, too, that’s impressive.

Forget Freeman for a hot second, Nolan North, what are you doing, dude? Conner, Clayface, Mallah, at least one or two others, with a LOT of animal noises included... wow, okay. I definitely didn’t realize how many of these guys do two or three characters.

Phil Lamarr doing Brick, Black Manta and Kaldur all at once is definitely impressive. I’m gonna take a guess and say he likes doing Brick best. He seems to get a little grin sometimes when he’s playing the character.

Ahhh, Danica McKellar definitely likes playing Terrence Terror. Don’t ask me why, I’m just getting that feeling watching her. Villains are fun to play.

...Wolf? Where’s Wolf? Uhh, guys? Where’s our fluffy doggo? Don’t tell anyone but I’m scared.

Oooookay, that was unexpectedly gruesome. Dehydrating a man into sand? I mean, okay, it’s Clayface, but we didn’t know that till later. Eeeewww. Y’all, ik you’re going more dark, but that wasn’t an image anyone needed.

Jokes about Dadbod!Will are... hhh, cringy or funny, cringy or funny... I’m going sorta funny for now. Not enough to make me laugh, but enough to make me smile.

Okay, Will’s definitely still hilarious. Literally that entire scenario with Captain Boomerang was amazing, and only made better by the fact that it was entirely Crispin Freeman. The “are you the Green Arrow fanclub president or something?” “...you have no idea” moment, the “boomerangs are better and Batman said so!” “...okay, FINE,” FLINGING CLIPBOARD, Boomerang teasing Will for his dadbod and Will answering with a wicked uppercut... ah, man. This is 100% Roy/Will Harper and I am here for it.

I can see some people disliking this humor, but personally, I’m gonna just sit back and enjoy it. YJ has some quirky humor, but honestly, if you’re part of the fandom and you don’t like it, why are you even here?

Huh, Raquel’s a vegan and nobody’s making jokes about vegan burgers? Nice!

Oh, my gods, Forager deciding that Lian and Amistad playing with the food is an educational activity is AMAZING, 100% in character, and something I really, really want to see.

(Fanartists? Fanartists, pleeeeaaasse?)

Will and Artemis ribbing each other will never get old.

...wait. Hang on. Is Will the comedic relief character now along with Forager? Is this a thing? I guess it is. If you’d asked me who out of the original Team would replace Wally as the comedic relief back when I had finished the second season, I would not have thought of him first, but I think I’m good with this. It’s definitely in character to his comic version.

Ahh, Conner and M’gann’s relationship is still... interesting. Still not sure how to feel on this one. But hey, they’re married (?) now? Uh... nice?

Nightwing’s off on some mysterious mission, hmm? I’m assuming that’s because of Jesse McCartney not being there, but I think I’m gonna headcanon that there are Other reasons for this.

Yay, Clayface getting redemption! I love this in the Rebirth Batman: Detective Comics, so I’m 100% down for seeing it here.

Tim did that for Clayface! Sweet! Not a plot thread I expected to go anywhere from that one season three episode, but one I am very happy to see used.

...more secrets. Uhh, M’gann keeping secrets from Conner is... icky... again... but granted, keeping them because of confidentiality agreements is, well, a better excuse than she’s had in the past. Still, this is getting old.

Huh, so Waller will let out the Team’s secrets if they tell anyone about Belle Reve. I think this was already covered in the third season, but maybe not so explicitly. The reactions... hmm. Of course Conner’s okay with letting out all their secrets (and M’gann’s willing to... go along with that? ...okay...?), but the others, maybe not so much? Hmm. I wonder what Dick would have to say about that one. He definitely has something to lose. Not sure about Kaldur or Artemis, though.

Jason did NOT get to make any Wally references. That makes me even sadder than if he did make one that made all of us cry. C’mon, guys. Let him have his references.

I’m always a little meh on M’gann, but hey, M’gann gets to be a 100% certified badass! Saving Clayface AND taking down a ton of baddies with telekinesis, yay!

Oh, my gods. LOOPHOLES. WHAT IS WITH THIS TEAM AND LOOPHOLES. I love them so much.

The Team signing on as Bowhunter Security- oh my gods, all of the Team in fucking Bowhunter Security uniforms- oh my gods, so very in-character, so very true to YJ, so absolutely goddamn hilarious, I wanna hug whoever came up with that. That is the BEST mental image and it is a CRIME that they didn’t animate that.

And, of course, Kaldur just immediately goes along with it. The Team’s corrupted him fully now. I mean, we knew that, but he’s done now.

Black Manta attempting to roast Kaldur for his security uniform and Kaldur roasting him back 100 times worse is wonderful. “I wear my dignity on the inside, Father. Where do you wear yours?” KALLIE I LOVE YOU

Ooooo, Artemis is inviting Roy to the Team? This should be interesting. He’s definitely not totally stable, but it seems to me that Artemis should be able to more or less keep him in check. Hopefully. She had to deal with Wally for five years, surely she can keep Roy in check?

...hmm. We’re all thinking there’s gonna be a Red Hood arc... Roy’s joining the team... Roy and Jason did have that run as the Outlaws in the comics with Kory... and this version of Roy has the sort of temper and attitude that I can just see Jason possibly getting along well with... hmmmmmmmm...

Hah, villain shenanigans. Having Task Force X argue all the time is in character and admittedly sort of funny, especially as Black Manta’s sort of pulling a Kaldur and playing the absolutely exasperated denmother. I dislike BM thanks to him being a Baddie and all, but watching (listening to?) him struggle to contain them is enjoyable if only because I like watching him suffer.

Ahh, watching the VAs is fun. It’s definitely nice to see that little view behind the camera. There’s the little smiles, the tiny grimaces at the icky bits, the responses to various bits, the way their demeanor changes with each character, everyone egging Nolan on when he’s yelling for Clayface being disintegrated... I’m sad we didn’t get to see them chat, but watching them interact while they work is fun. Pity Jason and Stephanie didn’t really have any interactions, though, I bet watching them work together would’ve been fun. Ah well. Still fun overall.

There’s a lot of variation in where they are/what setups they have. Some of them seem to have proper studios, some of them don’t but they have mics, Danica’s on the lower bunk of her son’s room with what I’m betting are several sheets hung behind her, and then... well, then there’s poor Stephanie with earbuds and what I’m betting is her phone at her friend’s house XD Also, Greg’s library is really awesome, can I steal it please?

Green title card... I know people have been positing this for a while, but Lazarus Pit? Also, the thing people haven’t talked about: Mars?! Is this a nod to the Martians, since M’gann, Conner, Gar and J’onn seem to be going there?

Lots of speculation regarding Phantoms, but that’s been going around for a while, so *shrug* I’m not gonna spend any time on that for now.

Someone’s gonna have to write this out, methinks, for further examination. We’ll see if I get around to doing that or not before Fandome ends. I’m betting someone will record it and post it on YouTube, but a written-out version of the script would be useful. If I do, I’ll probably post it, so keep an eye out.

So... season 3.9, episode 1? Hmm. Does this come directly prior to the fourth season? I kinda wanna say it does.

I have more thoughts, but I think I need to do a rewatch first, maybe in a little bit. Anyway... not what I was expecting, I sincerely miss Dick and Wally, but lots of funny jokes all the same, and lots of interesting information on the fourth season even if it’s nowhere near the amount we wanted. I might be underwhelmed but I’m certainly not disappointed.

#dc fandome #dc fandome reactions #Young Justice #young justice cartoon #young justice: phantoms #phantoms #young justice season 4 #PHANTOMS IS CONFIRMED #underwhelmed but still feeling the aster #BRING WALLY BACK PLEASE #and no we're not gonna shut up about that

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springmagpies · 4 years

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My Uncle Reacts to AoS Season 4

So, instead of getting chores done this morning, my uncle and I finished Season 4 of Agents of Shield. Here are his reactions! Enjoy! Fair warning, it is a long post because Steve had a lot of feelings.

4x01

Before the episode: I’m guessing Coulson was like “I got too close to the situation and could no longer be impartial.” And then he passed over the title of director to May or that general guy. Talbot! That’s his name.

He’s like ghost rider is all. Holy crap he is ghost rider! I didn’t realize he was marvel.

Why’d they have to break up the band?

I am concerned about the robots.

Well, ghost rider is badass.

4x02

“You’re an engineer Mack. And a small tank.” Bwhahahahahaha, that’s so true.

The director is Talbot. Ooooh, not Talbot. Someone new.

Oh, Daisy has a picture of Lincoln. I miss him.

May is not okay. May needs a nap.

I still can’t get over Mack offering that maybe they’re just ghosts. Fitzsimmons faces were amazing.

Mace is such a politician.

4x03

*Lincoln is mentioned* Owwwwwww

I love the Phil, Mack, and Fitz team up.

Wow, Fitz is badass this episode.

Okay, so Elena is amazing. That shot with the light was awesome!

4x04

Fitzsimmons moving in together, count me in.

I see where Daisy is coming from, but not awesome that she’s using her friends and then leaving.

Come on Daisy! Come home.

Heylo? Hahahahaha

Radcliffe, I don’t think telling the android it’s okay to lie sometimes is a good idea.

What’s that face she’s giving? Oh shit, is she feeling things? Is she feeling things for Fitz. That’s not good.

I don’t trust James. *moments later* Called it.

Yes, Mack, two fire dudes just fell into fireworks.

Jemma for sure knows she’s an android.

“I prefer a classical beauty myself.” Awww, Fitz.

4x05

Oh, Fitz, a high five will not fix her being mad at you. Trust me.

“I’m sure they have it under control.” *cuts to chaos* Okay, that’s the best transition of the whole show.

Robbie, please don’t go after that guy. Just keep going please. Dammit. Why can no one just follow instructions in Shield.

Way to go Jemma! But what happened with Mace?? What did he do?

May had a heart to heart with her and she’s still leaving? Is Daisy really going to leave after all of this? She can’t, right?

Robbies uncle is going to get sucked into that book. Yeah, look at his expression. That’s not good at all is it.

Well that senator sucks.

4x06

*Mace mad at Coulson* Daaaang

Fitz is so smart. He would be a millionaire if he was an inventor or something. But he just wants to help people.

Wait, shit, Eli is bad!

*Fitz, Coulson, and Robbie disappear* Oh no!!!! Wait, that’s how the episode ends! Noooo!!

4x07

Shit, where are they.

Oh, so that’s where they are. That’s not good.

“I have to phone Simmons to tell her... I’m in another dimension.” Bwhahahahaha oh no.

That’s not Mack. Holy shit!

“Oh Mack’s the ghost rider no big deal. But you can’t hear us.” Oh my god, these lines are amazing.

The dialogue this episode is fantastic.

No!!!!! Don’t give the darkhold to Radcliffe. He’s already so morally grey!!!

Fitz is going to hit Mace

Aww, Fitzsimmons

There’s some flirtation with Phil and Melinda going on.

Have we seen who’s in that photo Mack is looking at? Hope?

Oh hey Robbie, how was hell.

Ummm, is Aida building a brain? Is she corrupted. Yep. She’s corrupted. We’ve got a corrupted android. Great.

4x08

Coulson’s comedic timing is everything.

Oof, Robbie is not having a good time.

“Oh yeah, Fitz solved that” Of course he did. He’s Fitz.

*Badass Fitzsimmons duo scene* They truly are a dynamic duo aren’t they. That shot was awesome!

*Daisy looking at Robbie’s car* well, you’ve got a sweet car.

*Mackelena finally kiss* gasps. There it is!

*Aida kills Nathanson* Oh dears.

*Reveal that May is an LMD* Wait wait wait. Holy shit. Oh shit. Damn.

4x09

Aida’s so sweet to May. And she sweetly killed Nathanson like it was nothing. Not creepy at all.

Once again Mack’s lines are amazing.

Yeah, don’t attack the android guys. Not a good idea.

“Why would you want to hurt me Leopold.” Aaaah haaaa, umm. No.

“Well, Simmons has only been kidnapped twice on this planet.” Hahahahahahaha that’s hilarious.

Smart people are stupid. That’s amazing.

*Aida freezes may* AAAH, she doesn’t even know she’s a robot!

*Radcliffe reveal* O. M. G. He’s corrupted. He played them. Asshole. Dammit he read it for just a second! No!

This is a good part of the show! I’m really enjoying this.

4x10

What the heck’s in that brief case?

And Radcliffe is now super creepy.

Poor Fitz, he doesn’t know his friend totally betrayed him.

“I did this to protect you.” Awww, Fitz. I mean, let’s not make robots, but that’s still really sweet. He just wanted to protect Simmons and everyone.

*May wakes up* Jesus, god May. She’s a badass. Imagine waking up like that! God! That’s terrifying.

“I can’t help feeling like somethings off.” Yeah, May, you aren’t real.

Mace isn’t an inhuman! Oh damn.

*Fitz analyzing Aida’s head* Uh oh Fitz.

“Is it weird that I found that attractive?” Hahahahahahahaha. Fantastic.

*Coulson back in charge* hell yeah!

*May finds out she’s an LMD* Aaaaaaah! Well, that’s an existential crisis.

4x11

Does Radcliffe have more of them? Because he just happened to have May.

*May waking up over and over again* Feels like I’m watching The Good Place.

*Aida breaks a glass* That’s concerning that a robot would make a mistake like that.

*Hope reveal* Oh that’s awful! Poor Mack.

Whose the other LMD?

*Radcliffe LMD reveal* Ohhhh noooo. Poor Fitz.

4x12

Hey! I was wondering where the lanyard guys were!

“You’re going all Gollumy again” bwhahahahaha that’s amazing

“I’ve lost too much already, I’m not losing you.” Awww, Phil.

*Robo Radcliffe talks about Fitz’s past* Oh my gosh, that explains so much. Oh Fitz! Screw Fitz’s dad.

How many Koenigs are there?

Awww, baby Fitz!—Maggie

I bet that’s his real mom too!—Steve

Fitz and Simmons are cute!

*Philinda kiss* Noooo! She’s a robot!

“Sorry, you weren’t meant to last” Radcliffe you ass. You evil ass.

4x13

*Agnes reveal* Eeeek, creepy. That’s who she’s based on!

Wait, is she really Australian? Damn, she does a great American accent.

Mace really got the short end of the stick in a lot of this didn’t he.

*Shockley gets turned into an inhuman* Oooh shit.

Did they just put Shockley on the plane. The dude that blows up? Well, damn.

*Fitzsimmons realize Shockley is the bomb* Way to go dynamic duo. Now gooooo! Oh, they’re going. Simmons pushing Fitz is amazing.

Aaaaaah! Fitz! Fitz and Mace!

*Fitzsimmons hug* Awww. I know I’ve said it before but they’re cute.

Noooo! Mace! Shit they kidnapped Mace!

*Aida takes put on Agnes’s necklace* Ewwwww, creepy. Creepy creepy creepy! Aaah.

4x14

*The superior walking* He must have this ‘I’m so cool face’ on at all times.

Aww, is Radcliffe in there to be with Agnes. That’s so sad.

*Flashback with Phil and May* Aww, May is all playful. It’s before the sad times.

*Mace chained* that’s not great for your circulation.

They’re going to kill Mace. No, don’t kill Mace.

“Morales, you’re with me.” Uh oh, Morales. More redshirts with names making me nervous.

“You’ve enhanced yourself with alien technology.” Actually Fitz built his hand.

“Cool origin story, bro.” Okay, that’s incredible.

“Concern only slightly lessened.” Davis is just like ‘thanks dude.’ Fantastic.

Mack doesn’t need super powers to be a badass.

*LMD reveal* Holy shit. Holy shiiiit. They switched out all four of them??? All four??? Holy shiiiit. Fitzsimmons are all alone. Aaaahaaa.

“Even filth has a purpose.” Ewwww, and she’s leaning over him like that. So creeeeppyyy. Eewwww.

“He’s a shrink.” Oh awwww. It’s Andrew. She falls in love with him.

Well I guess Phil and Melinda’s robots can be together. Kind of weird but okay.

Oh my god, this is stressing me out!!!

‘Even filth has a purpose.” Gaaah, ewww. I’m still thinking about it.

So is Radcliffe even in control anymore? Or is he too preoccupied with the framework to care. Like, is Aida just doing whatever the heck she wants now because that’s unsettling.

4x15

Where are all of them? Oh they’re in the framework. Uh oh.

Ewwww, Aida is evil! He’s (Ivanov) alive and she’s cutting into him.

Aaah, they’ve got them surrounded. It’s so creepy.

This is some body snatchers shit.

*fitzsimmons LMD scene* *Steve biting his nails with wide eyes* oh my god that was awful.

*Steve rewinds to rewatch the LMD scene* they’re so good. And it hurt so much to see Fitz go so cold. Owwww. Because it was him and how he would act and then it just shuts off. Ugh, they’re so good.

*Jemma stabbing Fitz scene* Oh he’s thought about getting married. Oh my god, that’s so awful. So disturbing. That hurts. They’re so talented.

*Daisy LMDs* Ohhhh that’s so disturbing. This is all so disturbing. Oh my gosh.

*Daisy and Jemma scene* Awwww, they found the only other person to trust. That’s so sweet. Gosh, that was also a brilliantly acted scene.

They’re all such good actors. All of them.

God, this is all so disturbing.

*Aida kills Radcliffe* oh shit. Aaaaah. That’s so creepy.

“Because you and Fitz belong together.” Thats the truth.

“Their poor base” -Maggie

“And they just retiled the bathrooms.” -Steve

Ooh, quake jump, that’s so cool.

*Slow motion quake* That’s sooo badasssss!

*Davis flying the Zephyr* Aah, Davis. Careful. He just started training.

*LMD May blows up the base.* oooh ho. Damn.

“Lincoln?” Oh noooo. That’s awful.

*Ward reveal* Whaaaaat?

*Coulson reveal* Whaaaaaat?

*Mack reveal* oh nooo, he’s got his daughter.

*Fitz reveal* Whaaaaaat? But, damn.

*Jemma reveal* Whaaaaaaaaat? She’s in a grave? Who’s in the car with Fitz?

*May reveal* is she an avenger? *Hydra logo appears* Waaaaait. Whaaaaaaaaat?

What the hell is going on. What the hell? What is this place. Are they all evil? Some of them evil? Mack isn’t evil right?

*Ivanov’s head* Ewwww creepy.

Whaaaat the helllll. As Fitz would say *does Fitz impression* what the hell?

Dammit why do I have to put the kids to bed!! I want to watch the next episode!! Gosh dang it.

That’s disturbing count: around 15

4x16

“Skye?” Skye??? Skye!!!

*Logo* ooooh, agents of hydra

“You’re on another planet this morning.” Yeah, she is. No shit Ward.

*Daisy looks up Lincoln* Awwww. Owwwww.

*Jemma jumps from the grave.* Lucky she was in a shallow grave.

They’re having a bad week.

Vijay isn’t real. He’s at the bottom of the ocean.

*Ward punches Vijay* wait, did he want him to stop talking? Hmmm.

*Coulson class scene* Aaaahhaa that’s not awful at all.

*May Bahrain reveal* oh shit, it changed that much! Shit.

“We’ve got him doctor” Radcliffe? *Fitz reveal* Ooooh nooo! Noooo! Shit, noooo! Jemma died and he went all dark. Nooooo.

“It’s a magical place.” Oh damn!

“My father used to say...” Shit, does Fitz have his dad’s influence?????

*Ward double agent reveal* Ooooooh! Shiiit. That’s so interesting!!

“This isn’t the framework this is hell” Jemma’s so pissed.

“Drones, Dwarves. Whatever.” Awww, Jemma’s heart just broke right there.

Are they stuck in the framework! Well shit!

*Fitz and Aida kiss* Ewwww. I mean it makes sense in this world because of course she’s using Fitz but ewww.

She replaced Jemma with herself. That’s not creepy at all.

“Daisy?” Aaaah! He remembers!

This place is messed up! Interesting, but messed up!

4x17

“I make my own soap now.” Bwhahahahahaha. That’s amazing.

Aww, Mack has his daughter. And she’s adorable. Oh no!

Ophelia? Oooh, she’s got her own name.

“I’d cross the universe for you.” Ewwww! Noooo. He literally crossed the universe for Jemma.

*Fitz and Aida make out* *Maggie screams and Steve shivers* But why is Fitz so hot in the framework though—Maggie *Steve nods*

“The soap made me do it.” Bwhahahahaha

*Mace reveal* Aaaaah! Mace! He’s all gruff now and an inhuman! He got everything that he ever wanted.

“And we’ll make our society great again.” Ewwwwwwwhewe!

This is so interesting! I’m really liking it!

*Mack and hope get taken by Hydra* that’s so awful! That is so disturbing!

Coulson is so nerdy, I love it.

“You’re Daisy Johnson. We’re agents of shield.” Mack remembers.

*Revealed that Mack doesn’t remember* No! Shit.

*Fitz kills Agnes* *sharp intake of breath, Steve stays silent for a very long time.*

*Mack joins Shield* Good job Mack.

“How do you feel?”-Maggie.

Steve quietly: “sick.”

4x18

I love how Mace is all scruffy and his suits all scratched.

Aaah, evil Fitz makes me sad.

*Jemma seeing Mack and Hope* Yeah, it’s an oh shit moment.

“Tell your old man all about it.” *Steve gasps* Oh no.

“I don’t know the kind of man I’d be without you father.” “That’s why I’m here.” Yep, to brainwash him.

TRIP!

*Brainwash room* Oh no! It’s the other kid too! No!

MACE! Noooo! Why would Aida do that. She’s so evil.

That’s so messed up.

*May used Terrigen on Daisy* Yes. Good job May. And hopefully it’ll heal her in the process.

4x19

Ha, Bakshi has a tv show.

Aww, mace is dead. He was a good man.

*Daisy quakes Aida out a window* *Steve laughs* That took her by surprise didn’t it.

“It’s like sipping poison...” Mmm, Fox News.

“You’re the new head of hydra” Yikes.

*Ward throws remote* Umm, you guys have limited remotes!

*Steve pauses show* I don’t like any of this. It’s interesting but I hurt inside. It hurts that Fitz is evil. Mace is dead. Agnes is dead. Radcliffe is in prison. May was evil. I’m sad.

Aww, Coulson all of a sudden became that paternal leader.

Wait, so she totally used Fitz in like every way. What a jerk.

Trips the best.

Sorry Ward. She wants to feel bad for you but she can’t.

So much Scottishness this season. I love it.

*Radcliffe yells at Alistar* yep, because you’re a worthless asshole ya jerk. Oof, he just throat punched Radcliffe.

Aww, Coulson is coming into his own.

“When this is over-“ Do I get Skye! “Do I get my Skye back?” Called it!

I liked that scene with Grant. It was the redemption that the other Ward didn’t deserve but this one did. It was nice. Also really well acted.

“Hydra giving alternative facts.” Ooooh, they’re calling them out. They are so not fans of Trump and it’s amazing.

*Coulson on the news* This is Shield’s please vote! Please vote.

That was amazing.

4x20

Yeah, I hate all of this.

This all hurts.

*Fitz talks to Radcliffe* Come on Radcliffe, please don’t betray us. Please.

*Jemma kills Alistair* Well, that’s not going to help us.

“I’m sure everything is fine.” It is not. Simmons killed Fitz’s dad.

I hate this. It’s fascinating and I hate it. She’s just made him mad. God, no.

*Trip saying goodbye* Awww, this hurts. He’s goneeee in our world. Whyyyyy.

Is Aida trying to build her spine *body being built on the other side* Ohhh. Damn.

*Coulson gets shot* SHIT

*Coulson wakes up* You’re going to have to fight a killer robot, Phil.

*May wakes up* Awww she did it! She followed him!!

*Radcliffe redeems himself* Yes! Radcliffe! Yes! Thank you!

*Fitz falls through* Thank God!

Thank you Radcliffe.

*Mack not coming with* Maggie, I really don’t like this.

Oh gosh, Fitz is so freaked out. They’re all so freaked out. Aaah, Aida!

*Aida and Fitz teleport* Well that was unexpected.

I feel really ill. Like, this hurts a lot. I hurt a lot.

It’s like The Red Wedding but drawn out over 4 episodes and I hurt.

4x21

Before the episode: I came into the framework so optimistic and it crushed me. Like I thought May was an avenger and then it was like hahaha pain.

Oh yeah! And then she teleported with Fitz. JERK!

Fitz really got screwed by the framework didn’t he.

*Coulson kills Robo Ivanov with a shield* WOAHHH!!! That was amazing! ...and disturbing.

*Coulson recounts what happened with Robbie Reyes* BWHAHAHAHAHA. It sounds so ridiculous when you recount it but it’s so amazing watching it.

Will she stop teleporting Fitz! He already feels sick!

Yeaaaah, giving Fitz his abuser back and replacing the woman he loves with yourself is not what would make him happy Aida!

“If he wanted to kill us he could just flood the place. Why is he stalling.” TO FLOOD THE PLACE, PHIL!

“I drank the bottle of Haig” “you piece of—“ *Steve can’t stop laughing*

*Mack almost drowning* Oh shit. Oh shit. Oh shit. OH SHIT.

*Fitz and Aida rescuing mack* THANK GOD.

*Jemma shoots Aida* well, yeah.

*Jemma shoots Fitz* Love ya Fitz, sorry man.

“What do we do with Fitz?” Talk to him!!

“I’m just like Ward.” Oh ho, that hurts.

“There’s only room in my heart for her.” YES! Oh shit, Aida’s not happy.

OH SHIT!

NO DAVIS! DAVIS!

*Toddler starts crying IRL over a toy* Now imagine if we gave her powers.That’s what’s happening with Aida.

*Fitzsimmons pod scene* oww

*Yoyo plugs herself into the framwork* This is a mess.

*Aida throws bottle in anger* His vodka!

*Aida and Ivanov scene* Aaah! Inhuman robot sex. Oh. Nope. Murder.

*Robbie comes back* Welcome back buddy! SHIELD shit has hit the fan.

4x22

“How do we kill Aida?” Hell chains? I’m thinking hell chains.

*Robbie waiting for Shield* Hello, back from another dimension? No way, us too!

Well Radcliffe is screwed if the framework is falling apart.

“I’ll talk to him. He’ll remember me.” No he won’t Elena. Wish he would though.

*Robo!Daisy shoots Talbot* *Steve sits with his mouth open* NO!! I mean, he could be annoying but he was a good man! And he’s been around since season 1!

“There’s a pulse.” How? Yay! But how?

“Once you say you can’t stop me. Well—“ it’s like when you say you feel safe on Survivor and then get voted off the island.

*Daisy & Robbie team up* Boom bitches!! That was super cool!

Mack’s not going to leave until Hope de-materializes. And that sucks ass.

“Robot May was much more supportive.” HA! That’s amazing.

EVERYTHING’S A MESS AND EVERYONE IS HURT AND DIE AND PAIN AND OWW AND THINGS.

Maggie: “What?”

Steve: “You heard me.”

*Aida kills LMD!Jemma* WHAT! What the hell? I feel so sick. Oh thank god she’s an LMD! But I feel ill.

Eeeewwwww the kiss Aida gave Fitz on the cheek is so disturbing.

*Jemma shoots Aida* YES! AWESOME!

*Coulson ghost rider reveal* HOLY SHIT THAT’S AMAZING! I FEEL SO MUCH BETTER!

*Aida dies* Well that was awesome and terrible and poor everyone.

They really do a great job of making you feel sick don’t they.

*Mack and Hope scene*

Maggie: “you okay?”

Steve: *wipes away tear* no.

Wait, is there more to Coulson’s deal with the Ghost Rider?

“Gave me a glimpse of the life I could have here.” Oooh! Mack and Elena! She did almost die for him. They’re in love.

*Robbie having to leave* He and Daisy couldn’t like kiss before he left? No? Fine.

*Daisy speech to Fitz* someone hug him, please!

*Diner scene* Whaaaat?

We’re in space next season!!?? Whooo!!

They’re all so messed up after all of this. I feel messed up after all of this.

#steve reacts to aos #personal nonsense #agents of shield #season 4

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rotblut · 3 years

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Thoughts on sweet home? Your rating?

GOD I AM PISSED OFF ABOUT THAT FUCKING ADAPTATION. that was a shitty way to adapt a perfectly paced, well-structured, written, and character-driven plot from the webtoon into a messy and confusing drama. and I am mostly speaking about the writing that was a big no from me. the biggest problem for me was the writing for 85% of the time. acting was amazing and have no problem with that (aside from 1 criminal). my problem was how it was written.

if I hadn’t read the webtoon i would be so confused about it all. and I know the webtoon wasn’t finished while they were shooting the drama, so why didn’t or couldn’t they adapt faithfully the first 70 chapters in the first 10 eps (season1) and the last 71 chapters into season 2 (because from that fucking open-ended cliffhanger they sure as hell want to make a season 2). and I know dramas can never be as faithful to a webtoon but still :(((((((((( that shit was insulting they came up with instead.

they kept 30% of the webtoon and said fuck to the rest of the plot that was thhere. the new written plot for the drama was obnoxious af and not needed and hardly better than the plot that was in the webtoon. characters that were in the webtoon were reduced to the minimum or completely re-written, or personalities-events switched. minor side characters were terribly dumb. also, fuck the unnecessary violence. the only new character that was made for the drama who i liked was the pregnant women (and she did a looooooooooooooooot. like they made her do a looooooooooooooooooot of stuff.) but the subplot that they specifically wrote for her??????? NAh, wasn’t a fan of that at all. the actress was amazing tho.

sooooooooooooo many fucking plotholes, the monsters conveniently disappearing and showing up when needed to show up made no sense. also fuck the director for hiring the r*pist to play a character named wook. his character was completely re-written and i hated both him and his newly written character. the only thing they kept was his name and his new subplot was fucking terrible but fuck him to the infinite for his real life crimes. (ironic how they hired a r*pist to play a character in the drama who’s after revenge and murders a guy who's a p*do and r*pist too.......................)

Park Gyu Young as Yoon Ji Su was hardly present at all in the drama the way she was in the webtoon. she was reduced to the bare minimum, even tho her character was one of the main characters but honestly she was better here than in psycho but okay......but not that exciting to me either. really liked Park Gyu Young as Yoon Ji Su too and his character more or less was the same as he was in the webtoon but in the drama he went out with a bigger banger. (also them making him an ex-alcoholic was not needed but oh well). loved the 2 old guys too they had more screentime in the drama but also at the same time they didn’t because in the webtoon they were like father figures to hyun and here it didn’t really work well because of time restrictions. Go Yoon Jung’s character was great too but she was most of the time with the r*pist so that was a no for me.

ANYWAY THE HIGHLIGHT FOR ME was song kang, lee do hyun and go min shi. PERFECT CASTING FOR THEM. PERFECT. LOVED IT. LOVED IT. WANTED MORE. WANTED A LOOOOOOOOOOOOT MORE WITH THEM TOGETHER. the progression of her being a tsundere and all cold and rough on the outside but inside she’s hurt and she just loves her big brother and hyun so much. I did enjoy how they gave her more screen time in the drama and made her more flashed out because in the webtoon she’s more of a comedic character (aside from the last 20 chapters). and I did enjoy those changes a lot and that they focused on her as the main romantic love interest for hyun. she was really perfect and she could balance the rudeness with the tenderness and the comedy with the serious scenes so well. they did give her some plot points that belonged originally to Yoon Ji Su in the webtoon. also the chemistry with the 2 boys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and I watched her act with song kang in love alarm too and i haven’t seen it there because i didn’t like the way her character was written there. but here......yeahhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!)

LEE DO HYUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!! he did what he had to do and he’s the perfect hyuk. the way he loves his lil sister soooooooooooooooooooooooo much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THE LOVE HE HAS FOR HER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! BEST BROTHER LIKE BEST BROTHHER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HIM and sang tae for best bros of 2020!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! that was a big part of his character in the webtoon and I am glad they kept that. I do wish that they would have made him sometimes even more of an asshole. wished him and song kang had more scenes together. sad they erased his otaku loving self that he had in the webtoon and for that very reason was connected to hyun in a way the others weren’t. missed the frenemy scenes between them. his *ending* (sacrifice in the webtoon) was much more meaningful in the webtoon. I mean I did cry like a lil bitch at him saying goodbye to his sis and all that because i love my siblings and i love him and it was powerful but something was missing.

SONG KANG SAID THAT HE IS AN ACTOR!!!!!!!!!! LOOK at him act and act well and I am so proud like he did his part in love alarm too but that was hardly challenging acting lmaooooo. again, i am bitter they diminished his otaku self because in the webtoon (i shit you not) he overcomes his inner greed into turning into a monster a loooooooooooooot of the time with the power of the anime-webtoon-gaming gods and his obsession and enjoyment over 1 female character and her knight sidekick. the fanboy inside him was living and the reason for him to survive that long. so I was really sad tthat hey reduced that part because aside from him playing a fps in the first few eps it was hardly important. also wished they went more into his struggle with his inner greed-filled asshole self-monster (I loved those scenes in the webtoon). his webtoon persona was sooooooooooooo rich and it was such a satisfying way to read his character progression and what made him into a hikikomori and how he struggled with his past and how he slowly overcomes it. So sad they reduced that.

also forgot about acting king Kim Sung Chul as the antagonist was amazing but his character in the webtoon had so much more depth but of course in 2 eps you can’t achieve that. still he did that!

I can go on and on but anyway. the ost was nice, i don’t even care about the sometimes tacky looking cgi because that wasn’t really the problem here and i expected something like that. but MY BIG PROBLEM WAS THE FUCKING WRITING FOR THAT DRAMA and for 80% of the time it failed me deeply and it hurt because i wanted to love it and i do like some aspects a loooooooot but fuck it was a mess. alice in borderland did it better. LIKE THEY DID A LOOOOOOOOOOOOT BETTER. and will i gif it? YES. disliking a lot of aspects of a drama doesn’t stop me from not giffing it. but i do wish the writing was better. I’ll give it a 3/10 because they fucked up way too much when it comes to the writing.

#cutie #anyway i was dumb my expectation were too high. should have known better.#frage #lemme gif tomorrow the 3 faves!!!!!!!!!!#lemme know how you liked it #hugs you a lot and <33333333 #my mind had it all planed out better.... maybe 3 seasons of 10 eps each....... anyway the dream is a dream and that's that on that #will likely not gonna get a s2 (I HOPE IT WILL NOT) and they better give human class a s2

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potahun · 4 years

Text

Personal top 5 in Wo Men De Ge / Our Songs, Season 1

After finishing all 12 eps of the 1st season of “Wo Men De Ge” / “Our Songs”, I am listing my personal top 5 pairs of “Young Singer x Old but Gold Singer” teams in the show, mostly just to have an excuse to gush and recommend some of my favourite performances from this beautiful, beautiful music show.

5. Xiao Zhan x Na Ying (and Angela Chang) - Team: Na Zhan Dui

What I really liked about them: The fact that they challenged many styles! Perhaps it’s because Xiao Zhan is currently an actor and not specialised in any music type, but their performances were among the most diverse. They did rock, disco, old Chinese classics...Singing-wise, Xiao Zhan does nice switches to falsetto, Na Ying’s voice is broad and with its own feel, and Angela Chang who replaced NY for a few eps has such a special and beautiful voice ugh. But what I liked most about them is probably Na Ying herself. Her outspoken personality and sense rly got to me and she was my favourite “Model Singer” in Group B. She was also so open to accompanying XZ in trying new styles and to put an emphasis on performance (as in, the visual aspect of it) to help XZ out. I think for someone who’s not currently a singer, he got very lucky she was his partner.

What I found to be a pity: Xiao Zhan sings pretty nicely, but it’s true that when you have Ayanga and Zhou Shen next door, it’s pretty hard for his voice to stand out. A few times, I found myself feeling like Na Ying or Angela was carrying the song single-handedly and couldn’t rly notice his voice anymore. Angela’s voice especially stands out, so sometimes, it feels like what I remember most from Na Zhan Dui performances is Angela’s great voice and the visual effects. Also, maybe it’s because he has to manage his image a bit more than the other young artists, but Xiao Zhan did come across as quite nervous during the entire show, including during many of the performances. If you only watch him based on this show, he comes across as just a very polite young person (with a pleasant voice).

Favorite performance(s) from them:

Gen Zhe Gan Jue Zou / Going with the Feeling (not rly a performance but the song with which NY and XZ got “blindly” paired up, and somehow the song in which he was the most relaxed imo)

Jun Gang Zhi Ye / A Night at the Naval Port (classic lovely song. Imo it was the song in which their voices matched up most seamlessly)

4. Xiao Gui x Luo Qi - Team: Wang Zha

What I really liked about them: I knew neither of them before the show, but felt like this team truly tried to make a new sound each time and to mix modern elements into old songs (which fits perfectly with the show’s theme). Luo Qi is so open to Xiao Gui’s suggestions and so humble about trying things outside her comfort zone, even though she is the senior. They also had a really nice old sister-little brother relationship, full of mutual respect, and it was kind of refreshing to have the young artist be like ‘it’s ok, it’s ok’ and being the encouraging or optimistic one in the team. Among the younger artists, Xiao Gui is the only rapper, so being on this show could be pretty challenging but Luo Qi being so open to trying new things made it work. She really went outside her comfort zone, and I loved this team for it. They are also both really pleasant - mostly quiet but polite and comfortable. All-round lovely pair.

What I found to be a pity: In a way, because Luo Qi was so accommodating and humble, sometimes it felt like Xiao Gui might have overpushed her a bit? Perhaps he could have been a tad more considerate, but we don’t see much of their interactions and overall they do seem like they have a good relationship.

Favorite performance(s) from them: Hui Lai / Come Back (the way the rap got mixed into this song feels so very natural)

3. Ayanga x Fei Yuqing - Team: (God Xiao Ge team names are hard to remember) Yun Dan Feng Qing

What I really liked about them: Well of course, the voices and the singing technique. haha I did not know Ayanga before this show, but HOLY SHIT. Not a musical actor for nothing. HE CAN SING. And he can sing so many styles, too. He is GOOD. Watching them, I thought, shit, among all the young artists we saw, only he could have been paired up with a senior like Fei Yuqing (and perhaps Zhou Shen, but we’ll come to him later). Their voices are distinctive, but the style in which they sing have certain similarities, so they match quite well. Basically, this is a team based on talent, skills and experience. They only sing songs that sound like classics but holy fucking shit, I loved the way they sang them. Other than the singing - and this is not a team thing - but I was rly surprised to find out that Fei Yuqing was quite funny. Individually speaking, both he and Ayanga were entertaining while remaining ever so pleasant. They were real pleasures to watch.

What I found to be a pity: I thought there was a lack of team chemistry, which could be in part due to how they got paired up, but yeah, they just never really felt like a team, more like two very polite and courteous singers who decided to work together for a few performances. Also, I am absolutely not surprised by it, but I guess, since it’s the Fei Yuqing, both young artists were fully accommodating him and not the other way round. It is not a bad thing in FYQ’s case because his singing is beautifully amazing and hey its his last show anyway, but it would have been fun to see more sparks here and there.

Favorite performance(s) from them:

Juan Zhu Lian / Rolling up the Beaded Curtain (haha are you ready for pure skills to fuck you up? I liked Juan Zhu Lian before, but this version is incredible)

Xin Yuan Yang . Hu Die Meng / New Mandarin Duck. Butterfly Dream (again pure skills but also the harmonising. a+++)

2. Liu Yuning x Ren Xianqi - Team: Jie Tou Pai Dang

What I really liked about them: This team is one of the teams that felt the most like a team. They have similar past experiences and I liked that they had a chill older brother + reserved younger brother chemistry. I also liked that they both seem to be people who are passionate about different aspects of music (like singing yes, but also music arrangement overall). Ren Xianqi was so open to letting Liu Yuning express what he wanted / add in the elements he wanted to each performance, or have LYN’s band be in charge of re-arranging the songs. Before this show, all I knew from Ren Xianqi was his “Xin Tai Ruan”, but I found him so lovely and nice during the whole show! He only had kind praise for all the other artists, was positive throughout, and well, Group A only had lovely "Model Singers”, but RXQ stood out in this respect. He and Liu Yuning had such a comfortable dynamics and many of the songs they sang happen to be all-time favourites of mine so of course bonus points. Singing-wise, I love Liu Yuning’s voice. It’s not like he can hit super high notes or anything, but this guy rly gets the right feeling out of each song through his voice. All in all, I loved the team.

What I found to be a pity: Literally, the only thing I find to be a limiting factor for this team is Ren Xianqi’s voice aaaaa TT. It felt like he struggled a bit at times, and compared to other senior singers, his voice doesn’t have as much of a distinctive feel, which I thought was a pity... Some of his uh...moves during some of the performances also felt a bit old-fashioned, but I think I can live with that.

Favorite performance(s) from them:

Tian Ya (the song...the arrangement...the spirit...the LYN’s singing...)

Ai Jiang Shan Geng Ai Mei Ren (mainly because this song is one of my all-time favourites and you cant go wrong with it, but this is not my favorite rendition of it either)

1. Zhou Shen x Li Keqin - Team: Qin Shen Shen

What I really liked about them: EVERYTHING FUCK HAHA. ok so. I started this show with pretty even feelings for all the teams, but if one team really grabbed my heart from ep. 1 onwards and threw it into the fire pit, it’s these two. GOD Can I even talk about them neutrally?? Chemistry-wise...where did they even get all this chemistry? No one knows. On stage, I don’t know if I’ve heard two voices that match as well as theirs when they harmonise before, but if I did, I don’t remember. Zhou Shen’s voice is high and floating like some kind of ethereal mermaid’s, while Li Keqin’s voice is so stable, so warm it’s the perfect match. But the chemistry off-stage?? It’s even more incredible??? If Liu Yuning and Ren Xianqi are like a pair of older and younger brothers, what are Zhou Shen and Li Keqin? No one knows, and certainly not them. All the terms have been thrown in: match made in heaven, perfect match, a couple that separated and had a child (thanks LKQ) but also father and son, ‘someone who likes music’ (what?)....but basically, everyone on the show agrees that their chemistry is uncanny and it’s not stopping them from continuing with whatever they’re doing. This team basically has it all and they know it: Singing skills and technique? they both have it. Passion for singing? They both have it. Perfect chemistry? They have it. Stellar and complementary sense of comedy and humour? They have it. Theatrical smoke as their only visual effect on stage? They have it (jk). Every episode that they’re on, I am laughing and smiling from ears to ears and thanking the heavens that they got paired up. Why are they like this.

What I found to be a pity: The fact that I can’t buy an album from them as a duo? hahaha OK, perhaps just the fact that they stuck mostly with ballads (except for Ye Lang Disco) and so I would have loved to see more sparks from them. But this complaint is also very empty because it’s not like I didn’t thoroughly enjoy every single ballad they sang...haha haha....Ah, one thing I found to be a veeerrrry slight pity is that, as ZS himself says, he’s quite insecure. In contrast, LKQ is quite optimistic, so it makes for a lot of comedic clashes in this respect (annnnd it becomes a thing I like about them again). OK ok one thing is perhaps that ZS’s jokes can be a little bit borderline, but honestly, they receive each others’ jokes so well it becomes part of their charm and chemistry.........I guess I’m biased....ok....I'll shut up

Favorite performance(s) from them:

Tian Xia You Qing Ren / All the Lovers in the World (oh my God oh my God oh my God thank you Zhou Shen for choosing this song)

Ye Lang Disco / Wild Wolf Disco (?) (BECAUSE THIS IS Qin Shen Shen AT THEIR FINEST: ABSOLUTE DORKS WHO SLAY AT PERFORMING. Na Ying mentioned this as the inspiration for her and Xiao Zhan’s disco challenge, and that’s for a GOOD reason.)

Honestly I thought Zhou Hua Jian should be there somewhere, because I am a HUGE fan of Zhou Hua Jian songs, but I did feel like his performances were a bit...slapdash in this show haha. And Yi Qiao seems very nice but most of the time, I didn’t feel her presence as much, and it felt like I was enjoying the performance because no matter what, ZHJ’s voice is fucking good. I also found it to be a pity that he had to constantly remind the audience about points and voting - in the beginning it was funny, but by the end it felt a little repetitive - and that some of his comments could be a little bit borderline and clumsy. So not in the top 5, but his team’s performance of “Qi Shi Bu Xiang Zou / In truth, I don’t want to leave” did make me cry. A lot.

Anyways, overall, I rate this show 10 / 10 and would encourage anyone who likes music to watch it! I know many people who watched the show are international Xiao Zhan fans, well, if so, you’ll see a lot of him at least! (and your attention might get snatched by some others if you’re not careful)

#wo men de ge #xiao zhan #na ying #zhou shen #li keqin #zhou hua jian #fei yuqing #ayanga #wang linkai #luo qi #liu yuning #ren xianqi #our songs #long post

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vaguely-concerned · 4 years

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Some more mass effect andromeda thinky thoughts as I run around heleus getting some achievements!

- the murderous angaran ai is genuinely so fucking funny. “How are you feeling here on Aya?” “I hope you die” “Is there anything we could do to make you more comfortable?” “BURY THIS PLANET UNDER FIRE AND ASH” “o.oookay. Goodbye then.” “I HATE you.”

- I hope I never become irresistibly moved to write mass effect andromeda fic b/c there really is no other description for a good 70% of the expressions reyes makes than :> and how could one capture that in words

- as mentioned I’ve been doing a bit of achievement hunting and in the process I’ve been switching up a lot of gameplay stuff from how I handled it the first few times around and let me tell you it’s baller as fuuuuuuuuuck -- it just looks so awesome and is so satisfying between the maneuverability of the jetpack and biotic charge and the effects. special shoutout to what happens if you biotic charge a frozen victim enemy and the biotic pull/push combination. (throwing people around like ragdolls is actually so much fun I’ve kept doing it even after I unlocked the achievement lol)

- lol lol when you get meridian online there’s the montage of every planet coming back to life, right? well the one on kadara is from inside kralla’s song, with umi looking out at everything that’s happening. and all I can imagine is her jaded-ass voice going ‘what the fUCK did that asshole kid do now I only just cleaned up after the bar brawl he started with his krogan grandpa and now he’s rearranging the entire fucking planet right from under us goddess I need a drink’

- the implication that reyes ‘cards so close to my chest you won’t even know I’m playing’ vidal just does not shut up about how amazing ryder is to anyone who’ll listen gives me so much life. when you try to be mysterious and laidback but the human pathfinder is so fucking cute tho Y____Y (also go watch his scenes if you’re being standoffish with him the entire time -- he clearly wants ryder to like him so much right from the beginning, he’s doing so much work to no avail and I feel sort of bad for how funny I find it haha. interesting that it really does seem to be an emotional thing as well as y’know the practical/tactical benefits of having the pathfinder on his side. methinks the charlatan might be a bit lonely there behind all his masks lol)

I think this is why I’m willing to give him some benefit of the doubt too, despite all the cloak and dagger stuff -- he’s so immediately drawn to ryder, who you can never make a bad person, really. something in him must respond to that, if potentially only in the ‘attracted to traits I do not possess myself’ way hahaha

- I love sam. so so much. some of the open world implementation is still grating (yes sam. yes I know I can mine this area for resources through my mining interface. we’ve been doing this for a hundred hours sam. you’ve been right here with me the entire time sam. please sam), but he’s SUCH a good and I’d argue underutilized concept (emotionally at least) and the best boy. the fact that he can get SARCASTIC on you fsdhfjsadh he’s growing and learning! he’s doing so from inside your brain which is kind of unsettling but also SO COOL! there’s something about that level of intimacy, of always knowing there will be someone there with you in your head that is super interesting and deserves to be examined more fully -- both how it could be comforting and how it’s r e a l l y not how people or ai are generally designed to work lol.

he also gives us a unique link with our dad and I wonder if the writers would have explored that in more depth if there’d been more development time -- it practically SCREAMS out an invitation to get to play/see things from alec’s POV in short bursts, like the memories you unlock except you could go through playing it as him since sam is common to both of us. (see my ‘our dad comes back through either kett or remnant nonsense in the sequel and we need to find some way to connect with him’ idea. it would be. amazing. listen alec already looked at the ethical guidelines involved in creating ai and went ‘huh interesting ideas but not for me thanks!’, don’t tell me he wouldn’t have left some loophole in so this could happen)

- reyes literally says ‘the cavalry’s here’ when we get to meridian and I for one love him more than words can express (he also asks us if we’re okay in sort of a sweet/worried way right before we get to the control room. aw buddy)

- like we don’t think of them like that because we’re in control of them and see all the stumbles and awkwardness and how young they are all the time, but damn the ryder twins must look like something else to everyone in andromeda haha. they literally stride around like demigods restoring entire planets. on voeld spring non-metaphorically follows in their footsteps. shit dude if we’re talking realpolitik here the angara must feel p r e t t y nervous about this -- there’s no one saying they can’t turn off the vaults as easily as they turned them on. I hope we get them somehow teaching the angara how to do it too, on a smaller scale at least, as a show of good faith or something in a sequel, because that power imbalance is disconcerting

- I’m glad sam and I have such similar priorities whenever we’re on kadara. ‘maybe mr vidal would know. perhaps we should ask mr vidal about this. mr vidal said something relating to this pathfinder maybe we should speak to him’ . yeah sam i know the feeling, same (it does undeniably read as sam having a bit of a crush which is. hilarious?)

- the fact that alec ryder thought ellen responded to his bad boy act in any way when what really charmed her was that he was a great big nerd <3 it’s kind of nice to see a fictional marriage that seems to have just been. nice and stable and chill? just two intellectual equals who like and respect each other very much and not a lot of drama until alec went full alec and started developing rogue ai instead of watching his wife die lol. again I would love for the sequel to involve ellen finally waking up and being like ‘death? trying to claim MY husband? I do not think so, I can die he can’t he’s not leaving me behind’ and helping out and you realize that the reason they were soulmates was that under the relatively rational and unemotional surface they’re both, at heart, batshit crazy mad scientists who are insanely devoted to each other. imagine it tho! the people of andromeda realize alec ryder is back from the dead somehow and doing some Shit out there, they put a ton of resources into curing ellen’s disease because their best shot is something to do with the implants she made, hey presto we’ve got all ryders on the board and in play.

- just want to make it clear that I’m still sad about avitus rix and hope he’s having a good day

- do you think ryder ever asks sam to read something to him ‘aloud’ in his head if he’s anxious and can’t sleep. or just to talk at him about something boring until he nods off. again the possibilities inherent in the concept!!! he has someone who’s closer to him than any other person could be, what’s that like?

- *me sticking to my sidewinder pistol the whole playthrough even though it’s laughably inefficient* I just wanna feel like a cowboy bioware please work with me here

- the male ryder voice actor has such amazing comedic timing, there’s a lot of reaction stuff out in the field he absolutely nails. I enjoy the female voice too and I like how much emotion she manages to convey towards the end of the game especially, but there’s a casual comedy in male ryder’s voice that can’t be beat. (well, it’s not hawke levels, but then nothing ever is, that’s too much to ask)

- I love vorn and kesh so much. nerd krogans unite & make out

- I still want to sit peebee down and have a long serious talk with her about emotional abuse, maybe give her a hug :( fuck kalinda

- this game does not get enough credit for how stunningly beautiful it is, it all got buried under criticism about the animations and it’s a fucking shame. the last few vaults you go through are just mindboggling in scale and visual uh striking-ness. it makes me so sad to think there won’t be any more of it D:

- I really like this mainly casual + logical dialogue options ryder I’ve found; it makes him sound like a younger and more irreverent version of his father, but also softer and less closed off and much more willing to show affection for his family especially.

- i wonder if different people’s individual SAMs will take on a certain tone/unique pattern when they’ve coexisted long enough. have I mentioned. how much I want a sequel to this game

- one last reyes note because don’t look at me okay -- I wonder how much we’re meant to read into ‘being honorable never got me anywhere’. on the one hand I’m fully prepared to believe he’s never even tried doing anything the honorable way in his entire life lol but on the other there’s also some interesting potential in the interplay of that sentence and ‘to be someone’. (there seems to be a deep fear in him both of powerlessness and of being truly seen/recognized -- he equates secrecy with safety pretty explicitly -- which seems... telling? of what I don’t know but telling all the same hahaha) like he might be saying he’s tried doing things the ‘right’ way and it didn’t work and the price was too high, so he just went for this instead with the ends low-key justifying the means. hmmm. :Ia (this is what happens when I get Attached to a character with like an hour of screentime my friends, and I’m already primed to give my entire heart away at the sound of nicholas boulton’s voice)

#mass effect #mass effect andromeda #I'm sorry about this my brain just won't shut up about this suddenly so here we go #reyes vidal #meta

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0poole · 3 years

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Humor in Writing

Most of the time I feel like dismissing what might seem like “faults” in writing because I haven’t actually made anything myself, and especially haven’t gotten any attention to what I make, but every once in a while something really ticks me off. Of course, I still try to take it with a grain of salt because of my lack of true experience in writing, but considering I’m hoping to actually become some degree of a writer I feel like it’s worth actually trying to explain what I think is a fault with things and why.

There always seems to be one specific thing that bothers me a lot when reading/watching stuff, and it’s the hard switching of tone from comedy to sincerity, or something similar to that, or vice versa.

Honestly, even though it sounds like the motive of a cartoon villain, I kinda think there’s too much humor in the world. It’s probably just entirely driven by opinion and preferences, but I feel like so many people are striving and looking for comedy that it hinders so many other things. I feel like, both in real life and in writing, having so much humor everywhere creates a pretty big gap between that tone and sincerity, which is pretty much always needed at some point. The big line between comedy and sincerity makes it so much harder, emotionally speaking, to feel good about the switch. I’ll try to explain…

First of all, this whole line of thought, even though I’ve been thinking it forever, was spawned by me watching Epithet Erased. Took me long enough, because I’ve seen some of the characters around and really loved their designs, but I finally watched it all, and I gotta say… It was interesting. Also, this is probably just going to be very ranty and opinionated but I will (hopefully) have something more valuable to say after. But, anyways, for one, it felt just barely too close to some of the premises for the stories I’ve thought of in various ways, but I guess that’s just bad luck on my part. Second, I feel like its humor really brought it down for me. Some episodes felt so long winded (although not necessarily “boring” I guess) because I felt like I got the joke they were trying to tell relatively quickly after they started it, but carried it so far. It didn’t help that, at least for a few of them, some of the characters felt like archetypes that I’ve seen a lot around the internet, or at least were simple enough that I understood what they were instantly, and when they are carried out through long character-focused moments it felt like nothing was happening. I feel like some of the characters are fine enough, even if I may not like them, but Giovanni and Indus were the two big ones that I thought had a little too much time given to them…

But more relevant to what I’m trying to say, sometimes the writing jumps way too far from the very comedic tone it’s trying to put out and into it trying to be sincere. The worst case of this was when Sylvie met Mera in the museum storage, and Sylvester tried to out Mera’s nightmares, only to see that her nightmare was the reality she was already in. With the scene change, and Indus becoming more serious with Molly, it felt like a good enough departure from the usual comedic tone to warrant the deeper motive of the character. But, then, of course, they had to trash the whole tone by adding the line about her also being afraid of ducks. There was absolutely no good reason to warrant that line and I will die on that hill. Not only was it just humor, but it was spontaneous “random” humor, and so on… I honestly hope people could just understand where I’m coming from there by how out of place it seems. I feel like the only defense they could use, apart from “just liking it,” would be that it’s comedic relief, but I genuinely feel like since practically the whole thing up until this point was comedy there was absolutely no need for comedic relief. The scene itself is like the opposite of comedic relief, like “Sit down and pay attention” or “Turn your brain back on” or whatever. The climactic point of the scenes before it were reached, meaning the sincere conflict there should be focused on, and apart from that one tiny little line it worked well enough. The fact that it was so tiny and insignificant is basically why I hated it so much. They literally could’ve just scratched it off of the script and only good things would have happened.

Something a bit similar happened before when Molly revealed her backstory to Giovanni. It wasn’t quite as bad, but when a scene goes from comedy to “my mom’s dead and my life sucks” you do feel the shift a little too quickly. I feel like it’s not as bad because it could just be Molly’s character, seeing the tragedy of her life as just sort of normal and not really that remarkable, meaning she’s more likely to just randomly bring it up.

But I definitely wouldn’t be going off this much about it if there wasn’t at least a little bit more. Zora was literally the reason I wanted to watch the show, because I saw a drawing of her a while back and thought she was just some random OC, but when I heard she was from this show I instantly wanted to watch it a lot more. I think the same thing happened with Molly, but I think I knew she was from the show to begin with. Anyway, Zora was the main character who I loved from the get-go and loved even more the more I learned about her. She’s such a perfect amount of diversion from being a generic cowboy in the little design details, while still being 100% cowboy material. Then, when I saw that her power was “Sundial,” or more generally just time powers, I loved it. The big thing that seems little conceptually is making her key term “sundial” instead of just “time” or whatever, because of how much it relates to her cowboy-ness, with it being associated with the “sun” people often associate with Death Valley and the Wild West and whatnot. Not to mention, it’s just a cool power.

But that’s kinda the thing, though. She’s so insanely strong. She could literally kill anyone on a whim. I don’t see how anyone could be cracking jokes in her presence. It’s kinda more general of a gripe, but when she aged up Howie it was borderline terrifying, and yet… right after, they’re cracking jokes again. It’s just so jarring. She could have literally reduced him to dust, and they’re so casual about it. I know Percy is supposed to be kinda blind to some obvious things, but I feel like even she could see the horror. That said, though, Percy is also one of my favorites. Her powers feel so natural yet interesting for what she is for some reason.

Frankly, the visual character designs alone for this show are all really good. Whether or not I’m into the writing, I can’t deny that the show kept me coming back just because it feels so good to just look at it, you know? The minimal animation, vocalized stage directions, and top-down scene view was really interesting to watch, since I’ve never seen it before, and seems like a perfect way to produce more content with less budget. It made everything feel super crisp and tidy, despite being animated so simply. Not to mention that the general lack of animation meant the few scenes where there was traditional-level animation felt really good. The voice acting was also amazing, (again not directly tied to the writing) especially when the voice actors carried their character and emotion from the scene into the stage directions, instead of just reading them out plainly. And, at the very least, the premise of the show is also really interesting (at least to me, mainly because I created 2 stories with a similar idea without even knowing anything about it. Simplified, specific superpowers are just perfect for character designing, you know?)

But I am kinda acting like the writing was bad, but it really wasn’t all things considered… I’m just not really into comedy, and when the comedy I don’t like is paired with writing and practically everything else I do like it doesn’t sit right with me. Considering this idea and some of the story beats were adopted from a DnD(-esque?) campaign, I feel like it’s much more fine. Frankly, I’m surprised I didn’t realize it sooner. Once I read about that, everything just fell into place. I’m not really into DnD either, though…

So, I feel like there are things to gain from thinking about this. While Epithet Erased is still on the mind, I feel like I’ve realized something about the juxtaposition of comedy and sincerity, that being that comedic characters can exist in sincere surroundings, and vice versa. Zora specifically could be one of these characters, because she’s so powerful that she probably sees everything around her as trivial, while the other characters have more sincere reactions to her obscene power. She could easily crack a sick joke that no one laughs at because she’s the only one who can find humor in whatever’s going on. By contrast, the thing about Mera’s fear of ducks was a product of the scene and not of the character, so it just ruined things. Nothing about it was made to be funny to the characters, it was made to be funny to the audience, even though the audience should be in sincere mode then.

Another character that I think works like this is Charlie from Hazbin Hotel, who is the sincere personality in a world of complete and total insincerity. She’s basically a more unique kind of straight man (despite being neither straight nor a man), who are always the grounding in comedic casts, like Squidward in Spongebob. I guess in sincere stories there are comedic relief characters, and in comedies there are straight men. You know, these are probably all things other people have figured out already… at least I can feel good knowing I sort of reached them on my own…

I think a good solution for stuff that’s primarily meant to be a comedy is to make it almost entirely comedic, at least with the inclusion of a straight man if needed. The big name that comes to mind is good ol Monty Python, the backbone of 14 year old boys’ humor style. At some point I realized why I like the humor of The Holy Grail, at least above other comedic movies, is that they don’t hold back at all. At no point whatsoever do they pull back the veil and put in a sincere moment. And, of course, since I can basically recite the entire movie from memory I think it did wonders. I think when it comes to comedies like this, trying to be too sincere at certain points makes it feel even less sincere than if it didn’t have the sincere moment at all. This might be a product of the 00s American family-rated live action comedies who all feel like they fall into that same boat, where the entire movie is hijinks, but then at the very end they pull that all back and have something really impactful happen, with the idea being having some shoehorned message about “family” or whatever. I can group so many movies into that category that it feels almost corporate how many there are like that, and because it’s both overdone and geared towards too generalized of an audience, trying to capture the comedy-lovers and sincere-lovers, it really just fails in both ways. Or, maybe people love them because they’re just barely bad enough to enjoy it in a so-bad-it’s-good sort of way. I dunno. If I wasn’t a little nostalgic for the time those types of movies might be my all-time least favorite.

But I’m a stick in the mud who hates comedy so I’m not really equipped to tell anyone how to do it right. Instead, I feel like there’s some seriously untapped potential in other forms of “feel-good” tones, like casual lightheartedness and just plain fun. I feel like those two things really work towards creating sincere stories that are still enjoyable, and not just one shot of sadness after another, while still having a dash of impactful emotion in them.

I feel like this is where Pixar really shines. People say “It’s not a true Pixar movie if you don’t cry at the end” because I think Pixar movies are great at making the audience lower their guard, and when the moment is right, hitting you right in your heart to make you feel the right emotions. For example, what I’d call my favorite movie of all time (for intents and purposes, if not for real), Inside Out, is all about emotional sincerity, where it’s trying to get across how it’s okay to feel sad, even though the world around you tends to say happiness is always what you want. For most of the movie, it’s a pretty casual romp around the inner workings of Riley’s mind, with some jokes thrown in (because it doesn’t have to be completely without jokes). I’m not really sure how to explain it, but the various jokes in Inside out feel like they’re sort of blended with the interesting workings of this fantasy mind-world, like the fact that earworms are just the little blobby workers in our minds sending the memory of the song back up to the control panel for the hell of it, or that our dreams are a product of a Hollywood-like place in our minds. These things definitely are there for humor, but something about them feels much more fun than just any kind of generic comedy.

Then, I feel like the most important thing about fun and lightheartedness is that they feel like they blend so much better with the sincere moments. Obviously if it’s too quick it’ll still be bad, but I think it’ll be much less bad than with comedy. Maybe you could think of it like a spectrum with pure comedy at one end and pure tragedy at the other, with fun and lightheartedness just barely crossing the midpoint towards the comedy side. Since there’s less of a gap between it and tragedy compared to pure comedy, it feels less jarring. Plus, it just feels more reasonable logically speaking, since comedy sort of puts up this insincere barrier to sort of suspend the disbelief that the events in question are supposed to be taken seriously, which makes breaking that barrier harder once it’s established. With fun and lightheartedness, there may be an expectation of it sort of maintaining itself but there isn’t as much to say there isn’t something hiding in the background. In Inside Out at least, throughout Joy and Sadness’ journey they are pretty determined to get back to the control panel to save Riley, but they’re for the most part confident they can do it (or, you know, just Joy’s confident), so they sort of interpret the world around them in a more casual light, but with that lower-level need still there. But when Joy falls into the abyss of forgotten memories and the hopelessness sets in, you feel it much more, because it was sort of already there to begin with, and it was just made perfectly clear at that moment. I think Bing Bong’s emotions during the scene also make it pretty emotional, since he’s being casual about his death while also being sincere about his sacrifice for Riley’s sake. Not to mention his inner sadness was outed while talking with Sadness.

I feel like if I were trying to write an actual essay I could probably phrase all this a lot better. I just think there’s a ton of value to lightheartedness in stories, as opposed to comedy, for the sake of “feeling good.” Pretty much all of my favorite things have that tone to them to some degree, like Wander Over Yonder, my for sure favorite TV show. It definitely feels fun in a way that can elicit laughs, but it’s not a lot like “This is a joke and you should laugh” most of the time (Disregarding the Evil Sandwich, my least favorite character in the show). I also think Steven Universe succeeds very well with that tone, creating an extremely comfy atmosphere when it comes to the less climactic episodes.

I also vastly prefer the lighthearted resolutions to the conflicts in lighthearted stories. Frankly, I am infinitely more likely to cry to a comfy and happy resolution than I am to the actual sad parts. I’m not really sure what it is about them, but I guess the characters finally being happy again after emotional turmoil warrants a happy-cry. I swear, if I think too hard about the scene where Riley finally admits her sadness to her parents and just sits in their warm embrace, I tear up. It feels so much better than hijinks-danger-hijink resolution.

But yeah, the stories I want to write the most will all inevitably have that sort of lighthearted flair to them, unless of course I choose to go more inherently serious with a story. There’s nothing wrong with that either.

With regard to the really big claim I made before about there being too much humor in the world, the themes of Inside Out, and what I said about comedy’s insincere barrier, I really think the world as a whole would benefit from valuing humor a little less. It feels like there are so many situations where people sort of want to maintain their good feelings with humor instead of more directly dealing with issues in a sincere mindset. For example, if people say something disagreeable (but not insane), It feels like too many people resort to making jokes at that person’s expense and not dealing with the issues directly. Obviously if someones saying some insane bullshit it’s fine, but when the more reasonable takes that are just barely put under the same umbrella as the insane shit are made fun of, it really deepens the trench between the people of different opinions. Of course, humor isn’t the only thing deepening that trench, but it really feels like one of them a lot of the time.

Apart from that, I feel like using humor as a way to distract from general negativity and negative emotions like what Inside Out sort of warns against can be pretty detrimental too. Obviously happiness can still be around, but putting up that kind of barrier between you and the necessary sincerity for emotion with comedy just makes the unpleasantness of the unpleasant stuff that much more unpleasant. I’m saying this one at least out of personal experience, since I have sort of developed to be too subconsciously against super sad and sincere real world scenarios. I haven’t personally felt too many of them myself, but I definitely feel myself blocking off some of my own emotional vulnerability, especially around other people. I can consciously talk against it, like I’m doing now, but I feel like it’s going to take a long time for that barrier to really break. Is humor to blame for that sort of thing? Maybe, with a dash of toxic masculinity and other buzzwords people often avoid for reasons I mentioned in the last paragraph.

Even though this one is much more unreasonably generalizable than the last two things, I feel like the popularity of self-deprecating humor across the internet also (probably?) takes a toll on some people. Obviously some people might just use it to their genuine benefit, but since it seems so common surely some people are putting on a self-deprecating face to get along, and eventually maybe even believing what they used to joke about themselves. Either way, it might be a product of an extreme departure from any kind of narcissism, making being self-confident and self-loving just that little bit harder for people.

But, while I’m not the most equipped to judge writing, I’m even less equipped to actually debate for the existence of all those things, so just know I’m kinda speaking with my heart and not my brain here. People obviously want and need different things, and I’m probably just projecting. Hell, maybe that’s me self-deprecating to not make me seem weird to everyone else. I dunno.

No matter what, all this reliance on humor really just shows who is and isn’t funny. Sometimes, people really need to get a grip. Frankly, I don’t think I’m that funny either, which is why I’ve kind of had the humor beaten out of me by one too many awkward silences after a weird joke in my elementary/middle school days. I guess that’s my cartoon villain origin story.

#rant #rambling #opinions #writing #humor #comedy #epithet erased #poole #etc

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sealers100 · 4 years

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PART 2: A (brief) review of every Donald Sutherland movie (so far)

Wowee welcome back. Yes I’m still on this shit and I intend to finish it because this is probably the most fun I’ve had in quarantine apart from working night shift at a waffle house. (I wish I was kidding) I will admit this one might not be as long as the last post but I promised to deliver so here we go for part two.

Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors

I had way too much fun with this movie! The story was unique and entertaining with a creepy twist without being so scary I can’t sleep at night. It’s got not only Donald, but also Sir Christopher Lee AND Peter Cushing! Like you can’t get any more badass than that. The acting is pretty great and the music goes hard (there’s a whole segment about a musician and I’m nerding out). Donald is maybe 29 or 30 years old and its one of his earliest (his 4th) film credit and oh goodness his segment is just too much. This is definitely a must see for any Hammer Film fanatics or Sutherland fans, You’ll love it!

The Dirty Dozen

Talk about a throwback to my childhood. Again an old army movie I remember watching with my parents (however watching it again I probably shouldn’t have). The movie itself its great if your into things like Tora Tora Tora! and Kelly’s Heroes. Not a whole lot of Donald in it but what we do get it so worth it. For a “serious and professional” actor, he plays silly and weird soooooo well. I will admit this one isn't nearly as lighthearted as Donald’s scenes might make it seem. It’s an actual war movie with heavy emotions and lots of violence and is quite sad at the end (no spoilers don’t worry). It might not be one to make you cry but you can’t help feeling bad for his character. Personally I loved it but its a classic in my household so I’m a bit biased.

Start The Revolution Without Me

I quite literally choked on my coffee watching this one. Gene Wilder and Donald made a surprisingly hilarious pair and it worked so well!!! I already can’t get enough of Gene so of course this one is probably one of my all time favorite movies across the board. Basically its a switched at birth situation and takes place during the french revolution. I won’t give away too much but if you liked anything by Mel Brooks you’ll love this one. I really can’t say much without spoiling the funny bits but if you’re having a bad day, do what I did and curl up in your onesie with a bag of popcorn and let the laughter ensue.

Act of the Heart

(tw: self harm/suicide mention) Let me start out by telling you how hard it was fro me to find this damn movie and how ecstatic I was when I finally got to sit down and watch it. For anyone who doesn’t know me, my background is in vocal performance and I did a lot of work with the episcopal church in college as a soloist for churches, weddings, events and stuff so getting to see Donald as a CONCERT DIRECTOR just made my little heart explode. I was constantly geeking out at the musical parts and even got a bit of concert anxiety for the main character, Martha Hayes. She falls in love with him but of course he’s a priest (again) but this time he actually leaves the ministry for her. The movie itself is good (and the music gets my seal of approval as well) but there’s a quite a bit of triggering stuff so this one might be a bit difficult to watch for some. I will say some of these movies are quite hard to find and I had to scour the interwebs for them so if anyone wants a watch for anything on either of these lists, don’t be afraid to message me.

Little Murders

Okay so this one will be quite short because Donald is in it for a whole 10 minutes but he should have gotten a fucking oscar for it because I have never been so amazed and shocked by one of his roles as I was with this one. The movie is great if you’re into Elliot Gould (and his hair omg). But jesus Donald stole the ENTIRE MOVIE for that one brief scene. You can find clips of it on youtube just go watch it. Hell I’ll probably post it on my blog later. It’s honestly the best thing ever, and I want it played at my wedding.

Steelyard Blues

What is it with directors and casting Jane Fonda as a prostitute? I’ll never know but Donald probably had a hand in that decision because he’s the executive producer. The movie is not great by any means but its definitely not boring. Again something about him being silly and dumb he just does so well and its so jarring in this one how silly he can get. I quite enjoyed it actually and its a real change of pace for him because while I like his character, I don’t have a whole lot of sympathy for him like I did for character’s like Casanova. I mean really he doesn’t hold back in portraying Jesse Veldini as an absolute fucking moron but I think we’re supposed to laugh at his misfortunes because they genuinely are funny (I think I just like watching him suffer) And it’s really entertaining. Again, I think Donald could have easily had a career as comedic actor but it’s nice to see how easily he can switch moods.

S*P*Y*S*

Another Donald and Elliot movie and this one is pretty hilarious too. (I’m loving these funny feel good movies) The two of them are CIA spies who aren’t stupid but definitely got the short stick in their agreement with the Russians. The plot makes sense but the way it’s gone about doesn’t really click. The Dynamic between him and Elliot is always fantastic and fun to watch so it makes up for the lack of sense this movie makes. Sorry this one couldn’t be longer but there would be much to say without writing a synopsis and I’m too tired to do that for any of these.

Day of the Locust

WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT! I mean jesus christ this movie was a horror show. The film itself is fine, its a great movie, but oH mY GoD!!!! Let me start by saying I didn’t watch the final scene with him in this movie because its fucking brutal and I just knew it wasn’t gonna be the kind of thing I’d needed to see. (Or anyone) Yeah I’d issue a few trigger warnings for this movie. OKAY so Donald’s character is named Homer Simpson (I’m not kidding) and my god I thought I had low self esteem, he’s literally the saddest most miserable and lonely character I think I’ve ever seen him play and he gets used by Faye Greener (Karen Black) who can go sit on a cactus for all I care, I hate that she’s the main character and the way she treats Donald is HORRIBLE AND I HATE IT. God this movie messed me up for a straight week afterward and I’m still not over it. He cries a lot in this one and just stooooooop please I can’t take it I know his character isn't accurate to the book its based on but it just makes me feel bad for him seeing Donald’s character slowly being destroyed by the toxic people around him icanttakeitanymoremovingon.

The Eagle Has Landed

I don’t know the first thing about the animosity between the Irish and the English all I know is that they don’t get along sometimes and Donald’s character this time is I think a NAzi SymPathizer?? I could be wrong but he does help them try to kidnap Winston Churchill (weird). There’s a strangely deep romance between him an a 19 year old girl (uh?) but it doesn’t really come to fruition. Overall it’s a hell of a spy movie and with fantastic performances from Robert Duvall (no I wasn’t able to recognize him) and Michael Caine. It’s a fun movie and Donald’s accent is of course, awful (just the way I like it) and steals the show yet again.

The Disappearance

Interesting fact, Celandine (the main character’s wife) is actually played by Donald’s real life wife, Francine Racette. So it makes for quite an interesting dynamic between the two characters that feels very realistic. This is a hitman movie that takes place in I think Montreal (hard to imagine a lot of Canadian hitmen) And has a surreal feeling about it through the whole movie. Again this was a difficult one to find at first and there is actually two version. One being 80 minutes and the other being 100min. I’m not sure why it was split like this but I’ve seen both versions and they aren’t missing anything they’re just structured differently. It does feel a bit weird watching love scenes knowing that she is is actual wife but it does feel very realistic. Overall the movie is pretty good if you want to see lots of him and his wife. Don’t worry I’m sure their relationship is a lot better than what’s portrayed in the film!

National Lampoon’s Animal House

If you don’t know the story of Donald and this film, here it is. He was originally offered 2% of the films earnings to be in it. Thinking it would be a flop, he refused and asked for his usual flat rate of 45,000. The film was a his and his 2% could have easily been upward of 1.2 million, and this was back in 1978. He later quoted this as one of his biggest regrets of his career. Overall his scenes are quite short but oh so funny. (This list is either very serious or very funny) I like to imagine he put a lot of himself into this role. I definitely had some professors like him in college.

Threshold

Come to think of it, I watched this one so long ago I think I forgot to put it on the last list I did. I was really surprised by how genuine this movie felt. Like everyone really put a lot into this movie but it didn’t get nearly the recognition it deserved. Its a medical drama so that probably why, but it’s got an adorably young Jeff Goldblum and I can’t help but love him and Donald in every scene they’re in together. They play off each other pretty well most of the time and I didn’t really see anything wrong with this film other than it might have been on the lower end of filming budgets but it wasn’t a bad movie. It deserved better.

Ordeal by Innocence

I wish I could say the same for this movie. On it’s own its an alright film. On it’s own the soundtrack is fine too. But when the put the two together It was jarring as hell. The acting and story were okay and could have been fine alone but the soundtrack really broke any chance this film had of being taken seriously. I would have loved to seen it just on it’s own. Donald’s character is for once a genuine kind of ass that I really don’t like but it’s Agatha Christie, all her characters are assholes. This film really had potential but it shot itself point blank in the foot with the music.

A Time to Kill

Jumping forward to the 90′s, this movie is a classic based on a John Grisham novel and wow did I get invested! Donald isn’t in the film a whole lot but he does feel like an integral part of the plot and I really enjoyed him and Matthew Mcconaughey on screen together. Along with Samuel L. Jackson and Sandra Bullock. This movie is just fantastic and I normally don't like court dramas. Now what’s also interesting that not only is Donald in this one but so is Keifer. Sadly these two don’t share any scenes together and I don’t think they really got to work on set together except maybe once. Also Keifer’s character is a horrible racist. If anyone gets in your face about confederate flags being “heritage, not hate” show them this movie, Kiefer will take care of that one..

Space Cowboys

And last but not least, possibly my favorite one on this list. Everyone in this movie has the best film dynamic!! It’s funny, it’s endearing, and even kinda sad at times. The whole film feels genuine between all the lead characters, especially with them al being easily over the age of 65. As for Donald, He’s a smooth talking, dirty old man who hits on anything that moves but I’m sorry it just cracks me up. I don’t think this one should be taken too seriously but I just can’t help but fall in love with this movie. Cowboys, Space, Clint Eastwood and Tommy Lee Jones mean-mugging while Donald laughs and chases after women just makes my day.

Okay this one might have been a good bit longer than the last one so the reviews had to be a bit shorter this time. I would do some research for a lot fo the more serious film on these two lists just because I don’t have the time to issue trigger warnings for every film. I may put out a part three, at least I’m going to try to but I’m working 12 hour days lately so I don’t have as much time to watch stuff as I used to but I’m sure some of your guys do. If you’re having trouble finding a film don’t be afraid to let me know and I’ll do my best to hook you up with some *quality* content. I know I’m having a hell of a hard time finding his older credits and the movie Blood Relatives (at least a version in english) Let me know what you guys think, if you agree or disagree with my opinions. Have fun watching!

#Donald Sutherland #still not tagging every movie #I may end up with a dedicated side blog one day who knows #movies #film

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kayeanalyzes · 4 years

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Meet and Greet with The Queen of Filipino Horror Films

Six Degrees of Separation from Lila Cuntapay: Film Analysis

Known for her many horror films, the story follows Lila Cuntapay, a bit actress who got nominated for best supporting actress after many years of working in the film industry.

Before watching the film, I have known the actress Lila Cuntapay due to her appearances whenever All Saints’ Day hits the television shows (Goin’ Bulilit, TV Patrol, to name a few). To many people, Cuntapay is iconic, and has been dubbed as the “Queen of Filipino Horror Movies'' due to how she looks. In this particular Mockumentary directed by Antoinnete Jadaone, the film basically explores the life of an actor who always is an extra on films and the struggle of getting yourself out there in the industry.

The film opens with a sequence of random people getting asked who Lila Cuntapay is, and then cutting to Peque Gallaga, a well-known film director, in an serious interview on how he met (or saw) Cuntapay on the set of Shake Rattle & Roll. Right off the bat, the film sets this mood for a documentary film even though it is not. During this, I quite expected this film is gonna be the type where we explore Lila Cuntapay’s acting life in a way that is serious and direct to the point in ways most documentaries do. Though after this scene, we are immediately set up on another scene where Cuntapay is on an imaginary stage winning her award, immediately breaking this expectation for me. This type of serious mood on the first go that will get switched to the light-hearted and funny scenes feels like it either breaks it for us or helps us understand what are the underlying messages of the film, which I really liked. This sort of pattern that is being followed throughout the film is, I think, a very powerful combination to use since it gets us, the audience, more engaged with the film while watching. It gives us a sort of an understanding of what the movie is gonna be about as a whole while also setting us up for the film's unconventional funny moments that are related to Lila Cuntapay’s character in this film that we can enjoy.

In saying that, I think that there are many moments in the film where we are set back to feel and know what it is actually like to work as an extra for films and shows, hitting us lightly with reality by subtleties with how Cuntapay is acting. While there are many funny moments in this film, there are also many scenes where we can see how hard it is to breakthrough in the industry despite having many years of experience of being in it like Cuntapay has. Moments where Cuntapay is waiting for a call and then not getting immediately taken care of at a shooting shows exactly that message. There seems to be a message that “typecasting” is a thing in the show industry, and for most actors, it is somewhat a norm for them to get into that type of casting every time they work and it greatly influences their future works outside that genre they get cast the most as well.

As much as I enjoyed the light-hearted moments, I really wanna commend how Lila Cuntapay acts on these certain hard moments the most. Her behavior and personality shows so much through these scenes, that we cannot help as an audience feel for what she is going through when it happens. It makes you empathize with the situation and the character and it is told in a greatly effective way just by her acting itself. You can see how wide her acting range is in this film and how she can be passionate about her work.

Like many Mockumentaries, it has its moments of comedic pieces for us to enjoy and laugh about while also having that hard hitting scenes that makes us face and analyze what the film is getting across. This type of Mockumentary, I feel like has equal parts comedic themes as well as serious themes that are sort of mixed together and blended so nicely together, that you cannot really tell whether which scenes are “true to actual life” or not. It is in that way of thinking and sequence that you will realize how effective the film is when you watch it.

Storytelling wise, Six Degrees of Separation from Lila Cuntapay is cohesive and consistent with how they tell the story. Because of its pattern of building the story, it is easy for us to take what this film is about but not in a way that everything is handed to us straight in the face. I think that the build-up on this film as a whole towards the ending is the most hard-hitting to watch. It really did set us up to feel this sort of attachment and assurance towards Cuntapay’s character and her goal that as soon as the moment arrived, it will hit you right in the feels. With how this was set and how it was shown to us, it was greatly effective and will definitely leave you shocked or at least have that “I knew it!” moment towards the end.

As a whole, I think that this film is amazing to watch and it gives good perspective to those actors who are not often in the main spotlight, and are only on the sidelines when it comes to movie productions. After watching this, I feel a sense of more appreciation towards those extra actors and actresses because I know they are just as important as the main leading characters on shows, but they are often taken for granted. With this film, I think you would get that sense of sentiment whether or not you work in the same industry which I think is greatly important as I feel like it is the message of the film itself.

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thecrazyanimegirl · 5 years

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Winter Anime 2019

And here is the seasonal review! There were some amazing second seasons, mob psycho, kakegurui, fukigen na mononokean, but also some great new ones!

We try to give our opinion on the new anime this season without too much of a synopsis (you can get that anywhere) and just our comments ~ Of course, your view of an anime might be different, but we hope we made it easier for you to decide what to watch next (＾▽＾)

{ Winter ‘18 } { Spring ‘18 } { Summer ‘18 } { Fall ‘18 }

Adorable Food Goddess

Totally expected just food and more food, but it actually has an interesting plot. It’s also hilarious and the main girl is great, funny and capable! Which rarely happens in this kind of genres. So it’s a big plus! So, romance, food and laughs, a good combination ^^

Boogiepop Phantom

Somewhat weird at the beginning and through the middle and the rest... xD BUT it has that interesting eerie aura that keeps you yearning for more and go through till the end. Also, keep in mind if you plan to watch this that you should begin with the 2019 version first and then switch to the older one since that is the chronological order of events (also try to remember the names of people because the art style is different so that you don’t suffer like me xD).

Dimension High School

This one is really special. A stupid kind of humor some people (like me hehe) might enjoy, but others will consider utter rubbish. The mix of 3D and animation is weird and the whole story is a bit dumb, but it somehow works in their favor. If you like stupid humor, you might like it. You can tell right from the first episode because all the rest have the same feel to it. (I don’t regret watching it, it did make me laugh and I actually looked forward to relaxing a bit watching it every week ^^ just don’t expect anything amazing)

Domestic Girlfriend

A romance and drama story about a boy in love with his teacher and then he tries to get over it by sleeping with a girl he meets. Soon, both of them become his sisters due to their parents marriage. It is angsty and has a lot of drama, and even more unresolved complexes considering their sexuality, affection and relationships. Also, who let these teachers be teachers? haha. It’s a drama, sometimes too awkward and slow, but there is a lot of fanservice with the girls for those interested and the story develops in an interesting way that makes you continue watching it. It also does well in portraying the characters development and the more psychological side of the story.

Dororo

Amazing and ingenious! Loved it! One of the best this season. It is a bit on the darker side and has some gruesome scenes, but it’s extremely interesting, the story is well paced, the battle scenes are great and there are some heartwarming ones as well (also Dororo is precious). Looked forward to this every week! Beautiful and compelling to watch!

Gen:lock

A mecha story done right! Rooster teeth never disappoints! Maybe it doesn’t fit in this list, but it’s still amazing and interesting! The characters are also extremely different and lovable ~

Gotobun no Hanayome

An anime about a guy being a tutor to his harem that happen to be quintuplets. Not really that interesting, but not too terrible. It’s okay for one episode a week, but probably couldn’t binge watch it though.

Grimms Notes The Animation

It’s pretty generic anime, but that doesn’t mean it’s not good, just doesn’t have the wow effect. It doesn’t stand out, but the idea behind it all is good! The main characters venture into the world of different stories, everything from Little Red Riding Hood to Alice in Wonderland and show an alternative side to the well known tales. Cute and amusing, just not binge-worthy material.

Kaguya-sama: Love is war

A not so typical romance story where the two protagonists really seem to be made for each other, but their pride keeps getting in the way xD There is also the funny commentary from the narrator that quirks up the already comedic scenes. Definitely worth the watch, it’s hilarious! (I looked forward to this anime and it even exceeded my expectations!)

Kemurikusa

Okay, we really loved this anime. The first episode was confusing, but the more you watch the more interesting it becomes. It has a really interesting and imaginative plot. Everything is really well done, from the characters to the world. The only thing that will probably deter people the most is the animation, but you get used to it with time and it’s worth “suffering through” it for the story ^^

Mahou Shoujo Tokushusen Asuka

Once again there is a dark magical girl anime in the season! The plot is not too deep but interesting enough if you are into this kind of story. The only difference is that this anime leans more to the military type of battle, rather than just magic. Be prepared to see lots of blood, boobs, tragic backgrounds and some yuri teasing!

Meiji Tokyo Renka

A typical otome of the season. The MC is pretty blank, but they tried to make it lovable by giving her cute traits like tripping (all the time) and loving food lol But aside from her and her main guy, the side characters are pretty sweet and interesting (they are the reason I continued watching this)!

So well, a sweet romance story, but the bickering of everyone else but the main couple is priceless!

My Roommate is a Cat

This anime is really fun to watch if you own a cat (or are a passionate lover of felines) because you can easily relate to the daily life of Haru. You get to see her reactions, from the point of a cat, on various situations and easily laugh or cry over the fun and sentimental things she goes through with her owner (who is also very relatable). A lot of feels, a lot of cuteness, loved it! Both easy going and filled with emotions and character growth.

Near Death!! Ekoda-chan

A 3 minute anime about Ekoda and her everyday life. Each episode has a different director and voice actor, but they all do a very good job portraying Ekoda. It’s short so it doesn’t get boring, even though the episodes are sometimes completely random and sometimes they are incredibly relatable. Overall, liked it ^^

Psychic Princess

Still haven’t watched enough episodes to truly say it’s amazing, but so far it is! The main heroine is finally capable and independent. She can fight and speak to ghosts and will let no man near. It’s still a romance story, with plenty of datable guys. And it’s also very funny ^^

Shingeki no Bahamut: Manaria Friends

15 minute long episodes that tell the story of two (girl)friends in the Mysteria academy, in the SnB universe. The plot isn’t connected with Virgin Soul so you can watch it even if you haven’t seen the other seasons. The plot is somewhat yuri oriented and concentrates mainly on school life.

The Promised Neverland

Probably everybody knows about this anime, that is just how good it is. It will always leave you on the edge of your seat. It is really interesting and well made. The characters are great, the plot is great. Loved it!

The Rising of the Shield Hero

Not your typical I-got-teleported-into-another-world anime because in the very first episode there’s a really good plot twist. It’s really interesting to follow the character development and each episode leaves you yearning for more. Although everyone seemed hyped for this anime adaptation, I didn’t think that it would leave me so amazed at the very beginning and excited to see more!

Dropped: Ueno-san wa Bukiyou, Kouya no Kotobuki Hikoutai, Endro!, Cost of Smiles

#winter anime 2019 #dororo #the promised neverland #kaguya-sama: love is war #my roommate is a cat #adorable food goddess #boogiepop phantom #dimension high school #domestic girlfriend #gen:lock #gotobun no hanayome #grimms notes the animation #kemurikusa #mahou shoujo tokushusen asuka #meiji tokyo renka #psychic princess #shingeki no bahamut: manaria friends #near death!! ekoda chan #the rising of the shield hero

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casual-eumetazoa · 4 years

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mmmmmmmmmmmkay... gotta say Words about the episode, I guess

things I liked:

the show looks good, I’ll give them that - visually/aesthetically very pleasing, the music is amazing (I still miss Gold but I am starting to like this new guy a lot), everything seems modern, expensive, high quality

the theme music is wonderful and the title sequence slaps; love that shit! feels classic and brand new at the same time, and very Doctor Who; probably my favorite title sequence combo of the entire new run

the TARDIS design is gorgeous, like I cannot stress enough how much I love it; again, probably my favorite of the entire new run, and definitely top three of all that were ever made; it feels like a hybrid between Tenth’s TARDIS and Eighth’s TARDIS - bold, creative, beautiful design; on a related note, loved that “fixing the TARDIS” bit; I hope the fam will spend more time inside the TARDIS this season

the actors are giving their best; I feel like C was a huge waste of Stephen Fry, but perhaps it was a deliberate decision (because maybe Mr Fry wanted a cameo but did not have time for more scenes);

Whittaker is good - idk if that was a move on her part or the writers/directors decision, but her Doctor feels calmer, more natural now; she is still quirky and mysterious and herself, but she feels more like a person, you know, and not a bunch of facial expressions and voice inflections thrown together

the companions are good too - Yaz is finally getting attention, and God, Graham and Ryan are like my favorite thing now! their dynamic is just a pleasure to watch; you can make a ‘comedic duo’ compilation just out of this episode alone

the new monsters are definitely my cup of tea; strange, spooky, not full on horror movie scary but still threatening... *chef’s kiss* I loved the twist of them getting through the TARDIS door - that has never happened before, I like that; I like how the Doctor quietly freaks out about it as well, cause she hates not knowing something and hates not being in charge; that scene where she keeps asking the creature and when it finally replies it is just mocking her? good shit right there; wanna see more of these guys for sure

and after some reflection, if you take it in isolation, I do love the final airplane scene; like if I just look at it as a piece of TV/storytelling, I think it is a really good scene; it’s loud, it’s chaotic, yes it is kind of all over the place but it is engaging, and the reveal was out of nowhere and predictable at the same time but I still enjoyed it; and yes it is a stupid cliffhanger but like... it’s Doctor Who! it has always had stupid cliffhangers and I for one respect that decision

things I didn’t like:

oh God... the writing; like I am sorry, okay, but that writing is bad; and it is so confusing to me cause the story overall was good in my opinion - the pace was okay, the events made sense, it has an actual plot, etc - but the writing is still bad? I think the dialogue is the worst by far, but the way the scenes were stitched together is really awkward as well; it feels like it has been written by a talented but severely inexperienced writer who understands more or less how a story is supposed to work but has no idea how to edit

specifically what annoys me is that the dialogue and, to a lesser degree, the sequence of events feels very superficial and forced; it’s not elegant, and it’s not surprising, and it doesn’t feel natural at all; the actors are giving their best but how the hell can you have a good delivery of those lines???

I wanna rewatch it already to give particular examples but the two things that come to mind are C explaining the whole deal with the aliens (telling instead of showing anyone? especially after you’ve already shown it???) and the interview with Lenny Henry’s character (again, telling instead of showing much?); and idk, the dialogue in general is just... eh, it annoys me that I can’t quite put my finger on why it is so bad - but it is so bad, that initially that thing alone made me dislike the episode

and this is double annoying because I know that Chibnall is a good writer and can write excellent dialogue and put scenes together with no problem, and also because, traditionally, Doctor Who has always had great script editors that should have fixed this; like how do you give a dedication to Terrance Dicks and not fix these awkward fucking lines?? I am confusion

things I am unsure about:

the whole spy thing; initially was very excited about it, because I thought we would get a very Third Doctor era thing, but no, that was just a straight up James Bond knock-off; like, don’t get me wrong, Thirteen in a suit gives me life too - but they could, idk, Doctor-fy the whole thing a little bit? throw in some gaffs and alien words and the Doctor going “oh I was a spy so many times”; instead it felt kinda, idk, not integrated enough; like it made sense for the story, but not for the show overall

also I think that the episode had too much action; that car malfunction at the beginning? entirely unnecessary, could have replaced it with a conversation (Thirteen trying to get info out of the driver for example) and get better results; the motorbike chase? looks very cool, also unnecessary and could have been cut to twenty seconds easily; like, come on, this is Doctor Who! I want good dialogue, not Marvel-level action scenes

and now the most controversial thing... the Master; ufff, I have very complex thoughts about this

I’m not gonna lie, I do like that they are back; I think it was too early to bring them back, and it feels like a solely “for the views” decision with little to no creative thought put into it, but damn I love the character; the actor is great too - that being in disguise with no physical disguise bit? love it! like, in retrospect I can see how much he (the Master) must have enjoyed playing the sweet innocent bloke; and that switch in the final scene... that’s some good acting right there

I am kinda conflicted about his style in general, like I would have preferred for him to lean more on the Delgado side of things - more gravitas, calmness, but still with strong chaotic dumbass energy - but I do understand that the Master has to mirror and contrast the Doctor simultaneously, and this sort of more Simm-like delivery (more in the direction of bananas) works better for Thirteen, especially now that she is less awkward and more calm and collected; I like the homage to classics as well, like that tissue compressor thing, that was really good; and yeah the Master is hot again... nice

also the whole “the Doctor is still being secretive about her past” thing is really working for me - I’d love to see the Master slowly destroying whatever image she has built for herself and thus creating enough conflict between her and the fam to go on for the entire season

but having said all that, if we come back to the decision to bring them back... is Chibnall sure about that? because from what we have seen so far, it feels like we have cancelled out everything that Moffat has done with Missy; we’ve had such an amazing character arc with her in Capaldi’s era and now it’s all gone? now we’re back to blowing up planes and killing the Doctor? why?

I am still holding on to hope that this is an earlier, pre-War incarnation of the Master that somehow slipped in to this timestream, but that seems unlikely; another way I could digest that was if the Master has lost their memory and doesn’t remember being Missy, which would make for a nice eventual reveal of the memories coming back to them and him being like “oh shit” - but if Missy’s entire character arc has been retconned, I am definitely not a fan

also, overall, I feel like Chibnall retconned one thing about the Capaldi era that I really loved - he brought Doctor Who from a proper serious drama (as one part of the show, obviously) to all cheesy, goofy, silly sci-fi nonsense; and like, has Doctor Who been cheesy in the past? definitely, and for most of its history, and I won’t complain about that; but this? this feels too cheesy, especially in contrast with Capaldi’s era; like please, Chibbers, can we please see some drama? if you’re going for the whole quality TV show feel, can we also get proper good dialogue and heightened emotion and higher stakes? cause I think you can overdose on ridiculous in Doctor Who

summary:

honestly if the writing - especially the dialogue - was actually good, this would have been a very good episode, an 9 out of 10 at least; but as it stands, those lines are spoiling it a bit too much for me, so I’ll give it a solid 6 out of 10

I know it is a part one of a two-parter so I won’t make any solid and final judgments yet, especially about the Master and the feel of the series overall; all I can say is that, again, if you ignore the dialogue (which I hope is a random fluke and will go away), this sets a benchmark for series 12 higher than series 11; so I am cautiously optimistic about it, and actually excited to see the next episode, but God do I have high standards now, having consumed a lot of Doctor Who media...

and now that I’ve said approximately 563 highly controversial things, feel free to rip me to shreds I guess - or agree with me, who knows

#doctor who #dw s12 #dw spoilers #spyfall #paradox nerd post #text post

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superoddgaming · 5 years

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My Top 10 Games For E3 2019

E3 2019 is on the horizon and you know what that means; endless predictions and guesses and what the hell is gunna be going down from the 8th to the 13th apparently.

A bunch of companies are having their own showcases and conferences except for Sonyand I believe EA this year but I’m not really gunna run through all of the different conferences I’m more so just gunna run through the games that I am most excited about.

10// Session

It’s been almost a decade since we have seen a good skateboarding game on console or PC. Skate 3 released in 2010 and since then nothing has been able to dethrone it as the last well executed skateboarding game.

Tony Hawks Pro Skater sure as hell didn’t even come close. If anything that game made us have even less hope for the genre. But then along came Session, announced at 2018’s E3 slated for a late 2019 release on PC and Xbox.

I hope that we get to see more of Session during Xbox’s conference along with a look into a campaign for the game as well as a final release date.

9// Animal Crossing

I am the most excited about this one mostly because of the Switch’s portability and this will be the perfect drop in drop out game to have on the go with you.

I’m really hoping for an Island or vacation themed one this time around, I think that would be so cool.

8// Control

Control looks all kinds of bizarre, creepy, fun and holy shit the physics they have in this game is just absolutely crazy.

Destructible environments, almost everything is interact-able and they really showcased it at the end of their trailer and where she picks up the projector and shoots it at the wall and each of the boxes and papers all act independently.

I am amazed with this game both technically and from a story standpoint, it looks like a descent into madness mixed with a little government conspiracy.

I’m really excited to see where this one goes and it does look like it will be another PS4 exclusive. Sony is KILLIN IT with the single player experiences.

7// Biomutant

I have had my sights on Biomutant for what it feels like years now. I have eagerly been watching and awaiting more news and insider looks for it. It looks like so much fun, it’s got style, zany humor, really funny narration and the game play looks really promising.

Not only that but the world that your creature exists in is really fascinating with all of these spliced creatures all over the place and interacting with each of them to find out how the world went to a over-polluted corrosive wasteland is sparkin’ some interest in me.

I have a feeling we will get another gameplay demonstration as well as a release date but I’m honestly not expecting this one to come out until 2020 or 21.

This is one of those games that I’m fine with if it takes forever to come out just because I really want it to succeed.

6// Outer Worlds

Space is yours to explore, for a price. Impossibly cool looking monster combinations, beautiful unearthly landscapes and a crazy cast of characters on top of that and you got yourself a new favourite to sink only what I can assume will be over a hundred hours.

They showcased some game play for it and the writing is just awesome. The fact that they has the crowd and myself laughing without and voice acting done in the game yet is a testament to their comedic writing.

What I love most about this game is there’s no real good and evil. You play the game how you want to play it. If that means going along with the story and being a boring upstanding citizen you can do that.

If that means literally murdering actors because of a terrible performance and then disintegrating the director you can do that. Either way you are still rewarded in some fashion for your quests and I just think that is so cool paired with all the other face swapping goodness.

5// Pokemon: Sword & Shield

This will be my first Pokemon game in probably a decade. The last one I played was I think was Ruby and Sapphire.

I’m hoping that Pokemon gets some love during the E3 Direct and we get to see a little bit more of the Region and possibly a look at the starter evolutions.

Y’all know I’m #grookeygang for life. Doesn’t matter what it’s final evolution is look at that little bastard.

They look like they are introducing more RPG elements and the Pokemon franchise could use a refreshing new implication of their pattented Pokemon formula. Hence the reason I haven’t gotten a Pokemon up until this release.

Here is to hoping that they showcase more of the technical improvements beyond just content. I do have a feeling some of the millions of Pokemon IP’ currently being released might get talked about instead though.

4// Cyberpunk 2077

This will come as no surprise it’s in my top 5.

It’s in everybody’s top 5.

It’d be doing this game a dis-service to not have it in your top 5.

CD Project Red, the people who made the Witcher 3, have been working on this game for a millennia now and last year it was showcased and said to be playable from start to finish at that point.

I think we will get a final showcase of all the polishing and finishing touches they’ve put on the game and set it up for a release window.

And I mean what’s not to love about this game?

The concept of cyberpunk the style alone is already badass but a whole dystopian world set around that and knowing that Project Red can do with world building, questing, dynamic abilities and interactions.

If you ask me I don’t think it’s going to be coming until late 2020. This is a game that NEEDS to be perfected. It needs to have a good release. People have been anticipating this game for years, including myself.

My wallet is going to be so empty...

3// Astral Chain

This is what I want to see from Nintendo!

No more Sequelitis, finally an interesting fully developed IP and it looks absolutely badass.

The world, the intricate fighting system, badass robo-cop persona’s on leashes, being a cool ass detective.

This game just looks amazing. We need to see more of it. We know almost nothing about the story so far or even how expansive this game is shaping up to be.

YOU GET TO RIDE ROBO-DOG MECHS! whats not to love?

But hey it’s directed by the dude who did Nier Autmoata and that game was a hidden gem for a while. I’m really hoping this game get to bask in the spotlight a little bit more.

I want this game to be successful so bad. As fun as the Mario and Zelda games can be I know that the Switch can have some serious independent releases like this one.

Astral Chain my just be the trendsetter the Switch needs to prove that it’s not just the Mario console, it’s something that can hold it’s own up against the Xbox and Playstation.

2// The Evil Within 3

This is my wildcard.

I know next to no one is anticipating this game but I LOVE THIS FRANCHISE.

I love the world they have created, the resident evil vibes, the terrifying distorted monsters, the twisted visuals that send a chill down your spine.

The ever looming threat of always being hunted, watched or taunted. The Evil Within masters the atmosphere of never feeling truly safe. You are always on guard and that makes for very interesting game play in a horror narrative.

There was worlds of improvements made between the first and second game and I loved each of them dearly. We were left with a couple unanswered questions at the end of the second game and I really want to see the story come to a close and finish off the trilogy.

I’m not expecting and game play or even a release window but at some point during Bethesda’s conference I really really want to see this pop up. We know they’re not announcing the new Elder Scrolls so there is definitely room there for a surprise release.

This is just me being really really desperate for a third game, the second game had such an incredible world and we saw the characters grow so much it would be a shame to see all of that get stuck in just the second game.

Not to mention that this is the most fun I’ve had playing an actually scary game in a long time. Let’s make it happen Bethesda

1// Square Enix: Avenger’s Project

The long awaited and incredibly mysterious Avenger’s project form Square Enix is the cherry on the cake of this E3.

Square Enix is hosting their own panel and while I know majority of it is going towards the 7 remake and possibly a new final fantasy announcement they would be just plain dumb to not have this ready to announce.

With the MCU concluding it’s current phase with Endgame now is the perfect time to showcase this project. It has been two years since we had the teaser and people were going bat-shit then, imagine what would happen now.

The crazy thing is that this will be the first part of a multi-game deal between marvel and Square Enix which means that this game will just serve as the starting block.

We have seen Marvel make an incredible comeback into the gaming universe and they may be doing exactly that. Creating a gaming universe to pair along side their cinematic universe. This one just might surpass PS4 spidey though. It’s got some serious hype going behind it and we might just finally get to see it at E3 this year.

The Wrap-Up

Anyways that is my top 10 list for this years E3. Are they the biggest announcements or releases? Not by a long shot!

But they are the ones that as of right now I am the most excited about!

Are there anything that you think I’ve missed or forgot about? Are you one of the only other Evil Within fans that want a third instalment?

There’s gotta be someone else out there wanting this as bad as I do!!

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stevenuniversallyreviews · 5 years

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Episode 88: The New Lars

“This looks weird, but don’t jump to conclusions.”

Island Adventure is my lowest-ranked episode of the series, but it’s not my least favorite. All in all, I actually enjoy watching it. The problem, as I explain in greater depth in the review, is that it conveys a horrible message about consent in teen relationships and lionizes Sadie for a bevy of abusive actions, ranging from emotional manipulation to physical assault. And that makes it worse to me than an episode that I just don’t like watching. This is a kid’s show, and it’s not great for a kid’s show to espouse harmful message to kids, particularly when consent is such an important issue in the real world and in Steven Universe.

The New Lars isn’t nearly as bad, but it’s important to compare the two upfront, because both of them rely on the same conceit: Lars is a jerk, so it’s okay when bad things happen to him. The tricky thing is that seeing jerks get their comeuppance is an essential trope in comedy, so it should be okay for bad things to happen to him, but this is the second time that “bad things” involve ignoring Lars’s consent in a way that isn’t inherently comedic. There are fantastical elements to both stories, but forcing someone to do things that they explicitly don’t want to do is a bit more harrowing than, say, getting squashed by a falling anvil. Both episodes are from Raven Molisee and Paul Villeco, two extremely talented animators that I usually love (they did Mirror Gem and Rose’s Scabbard for Pete’s sake), and I wish I could get into their heads just to figure out why they’re so into abusing Lars in a way that evokes actual abuse.

Fortunately, a lot of my problems with Island Adventure aren’t present in The New Lars. We get a crucial slippery slope element to Steven’s behavior that Sadie’s early-episode subterfuge doesn’t grant (we learn that she hid their only way off the island immediately after arriving). Yes, he’s prying a bit too much into Lars and Sadie’s relationship in the first scene, but as soon as he mind swaps he states his determination to “respect Lars’s body and his privacy.” His good nature is his undoing, as he’s unable to play it cruel with Lars’s terrified parents or play it cool with Buck and pals. And it makes sense after seeing positive reactions for following his gut that he takes it over the edge to try and meddle in Lars’s love life. It’s not right, but it makes sense.

(It requires a Steven from a different era of emotional immaturity as well, but this team also did Sadie’s Song so I’ll count their restraint here as a victory.)

((Bear in mind that they also did Warp Tour and The Return and Keeping It Together and Message Received in case y’all think I’m just gonna sit here and pretend Molisee’n’Villeco aren’t amazing.))

Most importantly, Steven apologizes for his actions. If Sadie had shown an ounce of real remorse in Island Adventure, all would be well. The issue isn’t characters behaving badly, because this show would be garbage if everybody was perfect. The issue is not acknowledging bad behavior, and even rewarding it while piling on the victim of it. This episode knows that Lars is the wronged party and that Steven did a bad thing, even if he had good intentions, and in doing so teaches a lesson about consent instead of showing abusive behavior and shrugging it off.

It’s notable that Steven never does anything like this again. Just three episodes later in Kiki’s Delivery Service he accidentally enters Kiki’s dreams and is flustered and apologetic right away despite doing nothing harmful. The best way to make lessons stick is for the characters themselves to learn them, and a big part of Season 3 is showing how Steven has been shaped by past episodes.

And it turns out, a story about how Lars is treated is exactly what I needed. Because after nearly ninety episodes of the series, this is the first time I’ve actually liked Lars as a character. For the whole episode. I’ve always felt something was missing from his generic meanness, but everything clicked when I realized that the self-awareness that fuels his awkwardness is only a small part of his problem: he’s too aware of his status as a side character to be happy.

When Mayor Dewey acknowledges that Beach City is a magnet for disaster in Political Power, it’s a great gag that reveals hidden depths about the character. Lars’s bitter “Every day in Beach City is weird, that’s why I hate it here” is similarly revelatory, but about a character we’ve seen much more of. Lars has been the brunt of weird suffocating plants, a weird mouth-burning prank, a weird island trip complete with weird invisible monster, a weird haunted lighthouse, and now a weird body hijacking. He’s also witnessed the ocean weirdly disappearing and Beach City under siege from a weird space eye and a weird space hand, alongside who knows what else. And the kid who’s always bugging him to hang out is himself weird. This weird kid just took over his body and everyone, including Lars’s own parents, took the kid’s side. Of course Lars sees magic through a sour lens.

It’s so much easier to empathize for someone as ornery as Lars when there’s a good reason behind it, and noticing just how lousy life can be when you’re a regular person in a world of magic is a great reason to be ornery. It’s an excellent contrast to his former friend and fellow frustrating character Ronaldo, and allows Lars to grow within the context of a magical show. I’m not saying Lars is only irate because of this situation, people can be jerks just because they’re jerks and he’s a jerk in mundane situations, but after so many episodes where he seems to learn something and then goes right back to being a jerk, it’s such a relief to get this kind of depth.

And seriously, thank goodness Matthew Moy is still capable of emotional range after spending so many episodes voicing a jerk. He shows it off a bit when Lars admits he’s depressed in Island Adventure (which would’ve been a better character moment if it went anywhere in that episode), but voicing Lars as Steven must have been a blast. Even as a kid, it always bugged me when mindswapped characters switched voice actors, because that’s not how voices physically work and I was a stickler of a kid. Moy shines as an exuberant, doofy, melodramatic invader in his character’s head, to the point where you can tell when Steven is being himself versus when he’s trying to impersonate Lars. That ain’t easy!

On top of this, Moy still shows his practiced mastery of Lars’s crabbiness spectrum. I like his withering asides about Steven interrupting his workday, even though I’m all about deducing the laziest animal (Koala all the way by the way, sleep>slowness on the lazy scale), and I love his reaction upon waking up, where his justifiable fury with Steven is ramped up further by his family and peers backing up the kid. As in Joking Victim, Moy shows off his flair for comedic screaming, which also ain’t easy.

What’s doubly nice is that Kate Micucci also gets a showcase of her growing character that isn’t Sadie’s Song. While we wisely avoid too much detail about the exact nature of their relationship (not just because this is a kid’s show, but because it’s none of our business) Sadie is done with Lars’s nonsense, and I love hearing such decisiveness from the Big Donut’s resident wallflower. This episode could have crashed and burned if not for Sadie’s fed up reaction to “Lars” declaring his love for her, and Micucci sells it perfectly while still making the most of Sadie’s shyness in asking Lars to hang out in the first place.

This is also a great episode for other townies. Onion gets a hilarious cameo, and the Barrigas give a sterling first impression as loving but beleaguered parents. But come on, we gotta talk about the Cool Kids. Right off the bat, we get definitive proof that they’re not big on Lars (especially Jenny). It’s not shocking that such a jerk would be unwelcome, but it speaks well of the group that they keep giving him chances, and that Buck is quick to think the best of Lars when given the opportunity. It’s well-established that these are good kids, considering how awesome they are with Steven, but The New Lars shows that they’re even better than we thought they were. And we get a zany off-screen dance competition subplot.

I’ll be honest, I was shocked by how much I liked this episode on rewatch. Season 3′s midsection contains a cluster of episodes that I’d literally never rewatched since they first aired, so I let a bad first impression shape my views a little too much. At that point in the show I was so done with Lars that I wasn’t willing to give him a chance, but knowing where his story is finally going made me reevaluate his behavior here. Because things do get sort of different for him now after numerous false starts. He’s still gonna be a jerk and make mistakes, but seeing what his friends and family think of him seems to jolt his system in a way Life Lessons With Steven couldn’t.

Knowing where a story is going isn’t enough, though; if it was, I’d like Sadie’s Song a lot more than I do, because I am all in on Sadie Killer and the Suspects. I think I was so against Steven’s actions in The New Lars that they loomed larger than the part where he and the show acknowledge that he was wrong. I rewatched this three times for my review, because I was all primed to dislike it again and want to give episodes like that a fair shot (which, yeah, meant I slogged through Sadie’s Song multiple times, you’re welcome), and the apology just makes everything better. I can focus more on the episode’s strengths, which are stronger than they first looked, and appreciate that this is a story about a kid making a mistake and learning from it. I wish Island Adventure had concluded with a similar realization, but I’m thrilled to see a show grow in its storytelling.

We’re the one, we’re the ONE! TWO! THREE! FOUR!

Again, this was a surprise. I don’t wanna overcorrect and put it in my Top Fifteen or anything, but man this is more solid than I remember. Goes to show how far hindsight and a solid apology can take a story. If you’re like me and didn’t like The New Lars back when we were lousy with new episodes in the Summer of Steven, give it another chance.

Top Fifteen

Steven and the Stevens

Hit the Diamond

Mirror Gem

Lion 3: Straight to Video

Alone Together

The Return

Jailbreak

The Answer

Sworn to the Sword

Rose’s Scabbard

Mr. Greg

Coach Steven

Giant Woman

Winter Forecast

When It Rains

Love ‘em

Laser Light Cannon

Bubble Buddies

Tiger Millionaire

Lion 2: The Movie

Rose’s Room

An Indirect Kiss

Ocean Gem

Space Race

Garnet’s Universe

Warp Tour

The Test

Future Vision

On the Run

Maximum Capacity

Marble Madness

Political Power

Full Disclosure

Joy Ride

Keeping It Together

We Need to Talk

Chille Tid

Cry for Help

Keystone Motel

Catch and Release

Back to the Barn

Steven’s Birthday

It Could’ve Been Great

Message Received

Log Date 7 15 2

Same Old World

The New Lars

Like ‘em

Gem Glow

Frybo

Arcade Mania

So Many Birthdays

Lars and the Cool Kids

Onion Trade

Steven the Sword Fighter

Beach Party

Monster Buddies

Keep Beach City Weird

Watermelon Steven

The Message

Open Book

Story for Steven

Shirt Club

Love Letters

Reformed

Rising Tides, Crashing Tides

Onion Friend

Historical Friction

Friend Ship

Nightmare Hospital

Too Far

Barn Mates

Steven Floats

Drop Beat Dad

Too Short to Ride

Enh

Cheeseburger Backpack

Together Breakfast

Cat Fingers

Serious Steven

Steven’s Lion

Joking Victim

Secret Team

Say Uncle

Super Watermelon Island

Gem Drill

No Thanks!

5. Horror Club 4. Fusion Cuisine 3. House Guest 2. Sadie’s Song 1. Island Adventure

#the new lars #steven universe #su #steven universally #review

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