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eclecticanalyst · 3 years

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We’re Expecting You...To Boldly Go [part 2]

In my last post, I expounded on the similarities in the general premise and structure of The Love Boat and Star Trek: The Next Generation, two shows that on the surface seem not to have much in common but on closer examination have some unexpected similarities. In my follow-up post on this theme, I will be drawing parallels between the main/regular characters of both shows. The crew lineup on each ship can be broken down into six character functions/profiles: The Captain, The Captain’s Confidant, The Big Brother, The Two Buds, The Chick, and The Kid.

The Captain

Star Trek TNG: Captain Jean-Luc Picard

The Love Boat: Captain Merrill Stubing

“The Captain�� is...the captain! Beyond his role as the primary authority figure, he can be characterized in the following ways. Being the one to whom the rest of the crew reports, he is a bit socially removed from the rest of the main characters. While they can pal around with each other, they still treat him with a bit more deference even as he comes to be just as integral a part of their found family as the rest of them. The Captain can be rather intimidating at times—especially in the early days, when he had a tendency to be overly gruff with his crew. Part of that gruffness is the fact that he has very high standards for the people who serve under him. At the same time, however, he cares deeply for those people and is willing to put himself on the line for them, even bending the rules a bit in order to help them out of a difficult spot. He’s full of thoughtful advice should one of his crew ask for it, and is the most likely of the crew to give speeches about moral responsibility. He also has a playful streak, which he keeps under wraps but uses to mess with his crew from time to time. In terms of appearance, he’s older than the rest of the cast and he is bald(ing). He’s played by the best actor of the cast—Patrick Stewart is, of course, Patrick Stewart, I don’t think I really need to say more there, and Gavin MacLeod was a veteran actor (probably best known at that point for his role as Murray on The Mary Tyler Moore Show), able to handle both the comic and the dramatic whenever needed.

The Captain’s Confidant

Star Trek TNG: Dr. Beverly Crusher

The Love Boat: Dr. Adam “Doc” Bricker

I could have called this character profile “The Doctor,” following the same pattern as “The Captain,” but there was another aspect to Beverly and Doc that I wanted to draw attention to, beyond their being the respective healers of their crews. Both Beverly and Doc have a slightly different relationship with the Captain than the other members of the crew. They are a bit closer to the Captain, able to address him easily as a friend instead of as a superior officer if the situation calls for it. Notice that when working, Beverly will address Picard as “Captain” and “sir,” but when it’s just the two of them chatting in a more intimate setting she calls him “Jean-Luc.” Beverly is also one of the few people on board that Picard is comfortable with opening up to regarding his own insecurities or worries, while he takes more care to maintain his “self-assured captain” persona with everyone else. The same dynamic plays out between Stubing and Doc: there are several instances of Doc addressing his friend as “Merrill”—which none of the other members of the crew would even consider doing—and the power difference between the two is not as pronounced as it is between the captain and the other crew members. Whenever Captain Stubing has a personal problem, he goes to Doc for advice, and vice versa. Dr. Crusher and Captain Picard have a history, having been friends long before he took command of the Enterprise. In the same vein, Doc seems to know Captain Stubing’s past more intimately than the rest of the crew, as there are a few episodes in which the two of them discuss Captain Stubing’s alcohol addiction and current status as a teetotaler as if this is something Doc has always known about Merrill.

The Big Brother

Star Trek TNG: William Riker

The Love Boat: Adam “Doc” Bricker

So this is cheating a bit because I already have Doc listed under a character profile above, but TNG’s main cast has more people than that of TLB, so a one-to-one mapping wasn’t going to happen anyway. Doc’s “Captain’s Confidant” role deals with his relationship with the captain, and his “Big Brother” role deals with his relationship with the rest of the regulars. The fact that Doc is a bit older than Julie, Isaac, and Gopher means that even though he, like the rest of them, is under the supervision of the captain, he has a slight position of seniority over the other three. He balances the by-turns mischievous and responsible aspects of an older brother figure—he’ll tease Julie about her latest infatuation, and set up elaborate pranks to mess with Gopher, yet whenever Gopher and Isaac get swept up in some not-well-thought-out scheme, he’s the level-headed one who tries to point out that they’ve gotten carried away—or sometimes refuses to get involved altogether. William Riker is, of course, first officer of the Enterprise, and therefore has the same seniority-among-underlings position (in a more official chain of command capacity than Doc does). His big-brother-ness manifests as the poker-playing, jazz-loving guy who will do things like give Worf’s son music recordings that he knows Worf will hate one day but get actively upset and almost personally offended at the idea of Data getting hurt the next.

Not necessarily related to the “Big Brother” role, but another little parallel between Doc and Riker that I would like to point out—they are each the designated ladies’ man of their ships, yet both are able to completely switch to focusing solely on their job responsibilities the moment it is called for. (Honestly, Doc always struck me as going beyond “ladies’ man” and skirting dangerously close to “creep” territory at times, but I did appreciate how he would always drop everything the instant there was any sort of medical issue on the Princess.)

The Two Buds

Star Trek TNG: Geordi La Forge and Data

The Love Boat: Isaac Washington and Burl “Gopher” Smith

Although both the TNG and TLB crews form a group of close friends, The Two Buds are best friends. They are the two most likely people to hang out together in their down time, the two who understand each other the best, the two most sympathetic to each other’s problems and most likely to indulge the other long after everyone else would have put their foot down. When Gopher gets some conspiracy theory into his head about a passenger, Isaac will hear him out and sometimes even help him investigate. When Data wants to do some questionable experimentation on his positronic net, Geordi is there with a tricorder making sure the whole thing doesn’t go completely haywire. Data once said that he didn’t know what a friend was until he met Geordi, and Isaac once told Gopher that he (Gopher) is the only one Isaac would resign in solidarity for. All four men/androids have a tendency to get a little too wrapped up in their obsession of the week—see Isaac’s novel-writing attempts, Geordi’s holographic Leah Brahms, Gopher’s conspiracy theories, and about half of anything Data does.

Each pair also consists of one white guy and one Black guy. (Obviously, Data is an android and therefore is not technically any human race or ethnicity, but he’s played by a white guy and his artificial skin is paler than anyone else’s skin on the senior staff.) The white guy representatives, Gopher and Data, are almost polar opposites—Data is calm and logical, and Captain Picard trusts him implicitly, while Gopher is a goof who freaks out easily and who is often upset with the way Captain Stubing dismisses him (those dismissals are especially prominent in the first few seasons—Gopher does mellow out later on). But they do have some similarities, one of the most striking being that they both struggle with appropriate social behavior as well as their own emotions. This is more readily apparent with Data, of course, who is literally not human and is trying his best to understand the nuances of things like humor and love, constantly asking his friends to explain behaviors they take for granted. Gopher’s struggles are more understated—he has a tendency to make comments and observations that the rest of the crew find slightly tasteless, he goes into several anxious tailspins over the course of the show, and he at one point believes his emotional attachments to his friends compromise his ability to fulfill his job duties. Both Data and Gopher use their respective best friends—each of whom are the more level-headed of the pair—as a steadying force.

Now for the characteristics shared by those respective best friends. The Black guy’s job responsibilities root him in a specific place and often set him slightly apart from the main action. While Geordi can and does go up to the bridge on several occasions, as Chief of Engineering he spends most of his time hanging around the warp core, communicating with the bridge over the com system. Meanwhile, Isaac can be seen wandering hallways and so forth, but he spends most of his time behind the bar, whether that’s in the Acapulco Lounge, on the Lido Deck, or in Pirate’s Cove. The rest of the crew, despite having nominal work stations like the Enterprise bridge or the Pacific Princess purser’s lobby, are seen to roam more extensively. (I’m pretty sure we never see Julie’s office.) Isaac is busy serving drinks in pretty much every episode while Doc and Gopher are chatting and dancing with passengers on the dance floor of the Acapulco Lounge. The Black guy also gets the short end of the stick in the romance department. When you see a Black guest actor on the opening credits of The Love Boat, it’s a good bet that Isaac will be involved in their storyline. If it’s just one Black woman, there’s a 99% chance that Isaac will be involved in her story, and his involvement will be as her love interest. I remember one particularly glaring example of the show going to extreme lengths to avoid even hinting that Isaac could potentially do something vaguely romantic or sexual with a white woman—Julie’s hosting her high school reunion on the ship, and there are a few scenes where everyone is discoing in the Acapulco Lounge. Isaac gets out on the dance floor, and conveniently some random Black woman appears out of nowhere as his dance partner. This woman is not named or acknowledged at any other point in the episode. Over on the Enterprise, Geordi isn’t restricted along race lines like Isaac, but I find it highly suspicious that the one Black guy is the least successful in romance out of everyone on the senior staff. Geordi struggles to even start up a conversation with women he’s attracted to, let alone flirt with them. Data has a better romance track record than Geordi does, and Data usually ends up in a romantic entanglement by accident! It’s as if the show was afraid to let Geordi enjoy those kinds of relationships to the same degree as the rest of the crew, which is a different kind of restriction than Isaac’s, but still a restriction nonetheless.

The Chick

Star Trek TNG: Deanna Troi

The Love Boat: Julie McCoy

The standard lineup for both TNG and The Love Boat consisted two female main characters, thus allowing the ladies to gossip about “girly” things in keeping with gender stereotypes, but Vicki was a preteen/teenager and Beverly had a sort of matron vibe going on, which left Julie and Troi to be the respective sex appeal characters out of the main cast. The Chick has non-standard dress that sets her apart from the others and their status as officers. While Doc, Gopher, and Captain Stubing wore nautical stripes and white uniforms (and Isaac usually had a variation on this outfit, wearing a red or blue jacket), with very little in the way of costume changes whether they were greeting boarding passengers, chatting on the Lido deck, or dancing in the Acapulco Lounge, Julie had no stripes to speak of. She would wear a (feminine) uniform at boarding, switch to a casual outfit during the rest of the day, and was always wearing a gown of some sort in the evenings. Deanna Troi for her part cycled through purple jumpsuits and asymmetrical dresses, her Starfleet badge precariously pinned to her neckline. We didn’t even get to see the pips indicating her rank until she was finally given (in story, ordered into) a normal uniform in season six.

The Chick gets saddled with way too many romance plots, some creepier than others. Giving Troi something substantial to do in an episode usually consisted of making her the love interest of whoever happened to be boarding the Enterprise that week, like the ambassador with the telepathic interpreters or the quarter-Betazoid interplanetary negotiator. Deanna also got her mind invaded by a man who was interested in her, prematurely aged by a man who took advantage of her, and kidnapped by Ferengi (who have a disturbing species-wide infatuation with non-Ferengi women). I’m not as upset about Julie having several romance-related plots, as romance was the name of the game on The Love Boat and the men on the crew had their own share of romantic entanglements—but I do find issue with the fact that when Julie was in love she always seemed on the verge of getting married and leaving the ship, which was a vibe we didn’t really get from, say, Doc or Gopher when their love lives turned particularly intense. In terms of creepiness, Julie had to deal with fending off the extremely aggressive advances of Captain Stubing’s uncle, a computer programmer who rigged his dating algorithm to ensure he matched with her, and a college acquaintance of Gopher who actually came to her door to badger her as she was getting dressed.

The Kid

Star Trek TNG: Wesley Crusher

The Love Boat: Vicki Stubing

For some reason, both of these shows thought it necessary to have a preteen/teenager in the cast whose character has way more responsibility than is realistic for either a cruise ship or a pseudomilitary starship. Instead of Vicki wearing a uniform and checking in guests on the Pacific Princess, we really should have seen Julie’s or Gopher’s staff fulfilling check-in duty (Doc and Isaac were also too often seen checking in passengers, which I will say again is a duty that on a real cruise ship would definitely not fall to either the ship’s doctor or chief bartender, but we’re talking about Vicki at the moment). Wesley, meanwhile, was made Acting Ensign on the Enterprise, saving the ship way more than he should have and probably earning the ire of all the official ensigns who actually went to Starfleet Academy and were losing precious time at the conn due to Picard’s favoritism.

Speaking of Picard, The Captain has a paternal relationship with The Kid—literally in Vicki Stubing’s case, emotionally in Wesley Crusher’s. He is very concerned with imbuing The Kid with strong morals, and has a vested interest in The Kid’s upbringing and making sure The Kid has a bright future. Meanwhile, the rest of the main crew are like an assortment of aunts and uncles, being the cool, approachable sources of advice when The Captain’s not around. In fact, The Kid hardly seems to have any friends their own age. Instead, they hang out with the adult crew members and get involved in their social drama, which may or may not have always been appropriate.

Isn’t there someone you forgot?

The TNG fans among you may now be thinking to yourselves, “What about Worf?” Alas, there seems to be no satisfactory Worf counterpart on The Love Boat. After all, there isn’t really any need for a tactical officer on a cruise ship, so a warrior-type personality is not represented on the Pacific Princess crew. Other Worf characteristics would be that of an outsider, or one who is occasionally not sure if they truly belong on the ship, but everyone on the Princess seems pretty happy to be there. I guess in a pinch I could say Ace, the late-addition ship’s photographer, might serve as Worf’s counterpart, but other than the fact that Ace’s family is rich and it is established that he doesn’t really need a job on the ship to get by, I’m not sure there’s much of an “outsider” status brought to the table here. I also haven’t watched enough Ace episodes to have a really good read on his character.

Thus ends my Love Boat/TNG comparison! It was nice to finally get this analysis out of my head and onto the page.

#the love boat #star trek #tng #comparison

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sebeth · 4 years

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Earth’s Mightiest Heroes: Breakout

Warning, Spoilers Ahead…

Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes Episodes 1 &2: Breakout.

Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes is one of my favorite hero cartoons. It ranks up there with Young Justice, Justice League Unlimited, and Batman: Brave and the Bold. I love all these series for the same reason: the creators realize the DC and Marvel Universe have thousands of characters and all should be featured!

We open with Iron Man interrupting a weapons exchange between A.I.M. and Lucia Von Bardas.

Lucia Von Bardas is a rather obscure character. She is the Prime Minister of Latveria and appeared in the “Secret War” mini-series by Brian Michael Bendis and Gabrielle Del’Otto.

Is the weapons deal taking place in Latveria? If so, Tony legally can’t do anything about it.

Tony’s “Unfortunately some of it has my name on it” comment indicates he’s started his “Armor Wars” campaign against villains stealing his tech. It would also explain why Tony’s invading Latveria to reclaim/neutralize his tech. If you haven’t read the classic “Armor Wars” storyline from the 1980s, you should give it a shot. Great storyline where Tony goes to extremes to take back his technology.

I love how unimpressed Lucia is with Tony’s posturing – she’s all “whatever”! Let’s be real, Lucia’s boss is Doctor Doom – she’s heard actual scary threats and seen said threats executed. Tony just doesn’t measure up in the intimidation factor,

We switch to the “Cube” where Doctor Samson patrols the corridors of a prison. We get glimpses of the Wrecker, Zzzax, and the Absorbing Man.

Doctor Samson interviews an imprisoned Bruce Banner and notes that there hasn’t been a “Hulk incident” in 36 hours.

Samson informs us the Cube is the “most advanced gamma radiation research facility” on the planet. Banner warns the Cube is a “gamma bomb” waiting to happen.

Why are the Wrecker, the Absorbing Man and Zzzax contained in the Cube if its purpose is gamma radiation research? The first two villains are the result of Asgardian magic and Zzzax was created by a terrorist act that didn’t involve gamma radiation.

Balder teleports to Thor in New York City. Odin has entered the Odinsleep and would like Thor to supervise Asgard while he’s comatose. Thor reacts with as much enthusiasm as teenager told to mow the front lawn.

Thor ditches Balder to first save and then flirt with Jane Foster who is a paramedic in this universe.

Iron Man lands at the Vault and deposits the A.I.M. henchmen with SHIELD agent Jimmy Woo.

The Vault was located in Colorado in the comic book verse and based on the mountains I assume its still located in Colorado in the cartoon verse.

Jimmy Woo is most famous for being a member of the Agents of Atlas team.

Jimmy asks Tony to look over the Vault’s security because there was an “incident last week”. Tony tells Jimmy to schedule an appointment with Pepper because “I’m sure whatever it is can wait”. Not so much, Tony, not so much.

Hank Pym is the creator, and apparently the therapist, of the “Big House”. A shrunken prison located in the SHIELD Helicarrier. Ultron robots act as security guards.

Mad Thinker taunts Pym that “something is about to happen” but refuses to divulge details.

SHIELD agent Maria Hill asks the Wasp if she and Pym have considered Fury’s offer to become agents of SHIELD. Janet is for the idea but Hank is against it. The duo walks past Black Widow in the hall. Janet asks who the Widow is but is told “she’s classified”.

Power fluctuations occur throughout the multiple prisons and the Helicarrier. We see Hawkeye imprisoned in a cell in the Vault.

The Vault is the first prison to lose complete power. Inmates released from the cells include the Blizzard and a monocle man that I’m assuming is Baron Von Strucker.

The Cube goes down next. Zzzax, the Leader, the Wrecker, and Absorbing Man are freed.

The Big House is the third to go down, causing it to expand to its regular size and decimate the Helicarrier. The Big House now has numerous releases: Mad Thinker, Mandrill, MODOK, Griffin, Constrictor, Red Ghost & the Super Apes, Whirlwind, and the Grey Gargoyle.

The Cube’s Power Loss causes a release of Gamma radiation which envelopes Doctor Samson.

SHIELD agent Clay Quartermain informs Nick Fury that the Vault and the Cube’s systems have gone offline and no one is responding in the Big House: “Something has gone seriously wrong!”

The Helicarrier suffers the worst of it because SHIELD has to deal with escaping prisoners while in the process of crashing.

Pepper contacts Tony to inform him of the Helicarrier explosion while Jarvis tells him the Vault’s systems have gone offline. Tony heads to the Vault since he’s closer to it.

Thor and Jane are having drinks. Jane tells Thor to be a grown-up and handle his Asgardian responsibilities – Earth will be fine. Cue Helicarrier explosion. Thor heads off to investigate.

Banner is trapped under rubble. Doctor Samson stumbles toward him – with green hair. Samson attempts to lift the rubble and transforms into a super-human physique.

I do prefer this origin for Doctor Samson instead of the comic book verse where an alleged highly intelligent man decides to randomly inject himself with gamma radiation.

Vector of the U-Foes opens the weapons storage area of the Vault, allowing a female Whiplash and Chemistro.

Hawkeye knocks out Chemistro.

Hank is not having a good time as he’s in the midst of a huge multiple super-villain brawl. Cobra is the latest villain to arrive at the party. The Ultron robots attempt to stop Red Ghost but are stopped by the Super Apes. Fortunately for Hank, Jan arrives in time to save the day.

Hawkeye aims at Whiplash only for Iron Man to storm in through the ceiling. Tony recognizes Whiplash but refers to Clint as “arrow guy”.

Hawkeye is clearly in the early part of his career – the misunderstood good guy who was imprisoned – but he clearly never fought Iron Man as Tony doesn’t recognize him.

Clint attempts to say “Wait, I’m a good guy” but is interrupted by a repulsor blast. If Clint’s identifying himself as a “good guy” why was he imprisoned? A misunderstanding – like in the comics – Natasha’s a SHIELD agent but did another woman play Clint for a fool? Or is Clint undercover for SHIELD?

Tony battles Whiplash and Blizzard, two of his regular rogues’ gallery, and Vector, who is normally a Hulk enemy. Crimson Dynamo decides now is the perfect time to join the Iron Man beatdown party.

Tony orders an evacuation of the Vault – all SHIELD agents are to leave immediately.

Nick Fury isn’t concerned with the chaos and escapees on the Helicarrier – his only priority is the Raft – the “fourth prison”.

As seen in the comic book verse, the cartoon verse, and Captain America: Civil War, the Raft is a prison off the coast of New York City. The cells are on the ocean floor.

The mass breakout of the Raft caused the creation of Bendis’s New Avengers and was clearly one of the inspirations of these episodes.

We view the Raft and it too is losing power. Baron Zemo and the Purple Man have been released along with a furry clawed creature that we only receive a glimpse of so I can’t identify. Marvel has a lot of clawed, furry creatures.

We also see an unconscious man regaining consciousness. This will be Graviton, an extremely powerful but ultimately boring villain. In the New Avengers arc, Count Nefaria was the big bad released from the Raft.

Zzzax electrocutes Banner which triggers the transformation into the Hulk.

The Leader is in the control room and observes the mass shutdowns of the superhuman prisons. He orders the Absorbing Man and the Abomination to deal with the Hulk.

Hawkeye aids Iron Man in his battle against his rogues’ gallery. Iron Man initiates a self-destruct sequence of the Vault. An effective if brutal way to deal with the villains.

Hulk, the Absorbing Man, and the Abomination battle across the Cube. Hulk grabs Sampson and leaps from the Cube. The Leader prevents Absorbing Man and the Abomination from pursuing the Hulk as “we have work to do”.

The location of the Cube isn’t established but based on the scenery I would say it’s in New Mexico – the traditional stomping grounds of the Hulk.

Fury leaves Maria as the acting director of SHIELD while he takes a team to the Raft. Graviton is fully awake and launches the Raft into the sky.

The second episode begins with a flashback from ten years ago. Nick Fury hires Franklin Hall, a gravity researcher/physicist to continue Abraham Erskine’s work on the Super Soldier project.

I’m not a scientist but isn’t a physicist the wrong type of specialist to continue Erskine’s work?

Hall’s work causes an explosion that bombards him with energy. Hall regains consciousness and realizes he can control gravity. Fury responds by gassing him into unconsciousness and keeping him comatose for the next decade.

Hall was never going to be a nice man but I don’t think you should keep an individual comatose for a decade before he’s even broken a law.

The newly awoken Hall asks Zemo how long he’s been at the Raft and Zemo replies “longer than me and I have been here for six years.”

Hall is rightfully pissed and yanks the Raft into the air.

Graviton tortures Fury but is interrupted by a newly arrived Thor. Wasp rescues Fury while Thor and Graviton battle. The distraction causes Graviton to release the Raft and it falls into the ocean. It’s been a bad day for the prisoners of the Raft and the Vault.

Iron Man requests a new suit of armor from his Chicago armory. Tony’s stuck chilling in a cornfield (Iowa, Kansas?) until it arrives.

Fury declares an “Omega-level emergency” which means that “every SHIELD agent, every Hulkbuster unit, and the entire United States armed forces” is under his direct control.

Hank & Jan demand information from Fury. Hank notes no one has heard from Hall “ever since he joined SHIELD”.

The Hulk drops Samson off at the Vital Diner, ordering chicken soup and requesting the waitress take care of Samson.

Bruce urges the Hulk to head to New York and aid Thor. Hulk agrees if he is allowed to remain the Hulk and not be “Banner”.

Janet throws herself into the fight and Hank follows after quizzing Fury for info.

Wasp gives Graviton hell. Earth’s Mightiest Heroes’ Janet is my favorite Janet. Sassy, headstrong, big heart, great costume. Also, my favorite Hank Pym. Smart, conflicted, reluctant hero and has never hit Jan.

Iron Man arrives and joins the fight.

Graviton tears New York City apart, and sends Iron Man into space.

Iron Man returns from space and unleashes the repulsor blast/uni-beam to end all blasts.

Hulk arrives in time to debate Graviton’s claim that he “is the strongest one there is”.

Thor’s comment after the Hulk’s arrival: “I didn’t realize there were ogres on Midgard”.

The united team battle and defeat Graviton.

SHIELD attempts to arrest the Hulk but is stopped by the rest of the Avengers.

Fury notes 74 super-villains have escaped the various prisons. If we assume all the villains shown, minus Graviton, have escaped that would be a total of 23. If you include the Super-Apes (who are more of mindless minions than actual villains) and assume the rest of the U-Foes and the Wrecking Crew were imprisoned with their leaders, it leaves us with a count of 32. I’m not counting the AIM henchmen Tony dropped off at the Vault because I don’t think they were imprisoned long enough to be processed in the system. We have 42 unseen villains that escaped but only 40 if you count Hawkeye and the Hulk among the escapees.

Fury asks the assembled heroes to become SHIELD agents but Hank refuses on behalf of the entire group. Hank rightfully points out Fury’s actions caused the entire Graviton situation.

Iron Man agrees the heroes should become a team but not under SHIELD’s supervision.

SHIELD discovers Graviton regained consciousness after all the prisons failed leading to the final question: “If he wasn’t responsible, who was?”

Great debut episode. I loved the fact that even though Captain America was in the opening credits, we didn’t see him at all in the opening two-parter. Very true to the comics as Cap wasn’t a founder member in the series and didn’t appear until issue #4.

I also enjoyed the various prisons and their different purposes.

The Vault was primarily but not exclusively for tech-based villains (Crimson Dynamo, Chemistro, Whiplash, Blizzard, AIM, etc).

The Cube is Gamma-radiation/other mysterious energy-based villains (Leader, Abomination, Zzzax, Absorbing Man, Wrecker, etc).

The Raft is “Oh Shit” level villains either due to powers (Graviton, Purple Man) or influence (Baron Zemo).

The Big House is the least-clearly defined in purpose but mostly contained enemies of Captain America and the Fantastic Four.

Characters appearing and/or mentioned:

1. Iron Man (Tony Stark)

2. Lucia Von Bardas

3. Doctor Doom

4. A.I.M.

5. Jarvis (A.I)

6. Pepper Potts

7. Wrecker

8. Zzzax

9. Absorbing Man

10. Doctor Samson

11. Hulk (Bruce Banner)

12. S.H.I.E.L.D.

13. General “Thunderbolt” Ross

14. Leader

15. Abomination

16. Thor

17. Balder the Brave

18. Odin

19. Jane Foster

20. Jimmy Woo

21. Ant-Man (Hank Pym)

22. Ultron

23. Mad Thinker

24. Maria Hill

25. Wasp (Janet Van Dyne)

26. Nick Fury

27. Black Widow (Natasha Romanoff)

28. Hawkeye (Clint Barton)

29. Blizzard

30. Baron Von Strucker

31. Mandrill

32. MODOK

33. Griffin

34. Red Ghost & the Super Apes

35. Whirlwind

36. Grey Gargoyle

37. Constrictor

38. Clay Quartermain

39. Vector

40. U-Foes

41. Whiplash

42. Chemistro

43. Cobra

44. Crimson Dynamo

45. Baron Zemo

46. Purple Man

47. Graviton

#Avengers #Earth's Mightiest Heroes #Iron Man #Hulk #Thor #Hank Pym #Wasp #Janet Van Dyne #Tony Stark #Bruce Wayne #Graviton #SHIELD #Hawkeye

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cephelanthus · 4 years

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how i would fix voltron (am angry again)

lance keeps the blue lion. what was up with all that 'ohhh the lion chooses jis pilot, need a bond, every pilot has a certain ESSENCE' that they just dropped in s3? bring that back. the blue i knew and loved wouldnt ditch lance just like that.

i wanna know what lances/the blue paladins essence is they never specified that in the first episodes. tell ya boi he needs to hear it.

keith can keep the red lion. he doesng need a leadership arc he sucks as team captain. hes not as obsessed with shiro either.

allura gets the black lion. she already is the leader!! she deserves it! also pink and black would look sick

shiro. actually i really liked his whole evil clone arc, but... my proposal is he stays dead. when he doed they were just like oh yeah lets revive him then and everything went back to normal except he didnt have a lion anymore and barely did anything thats appropriate for such a cool character. so i say: he stays dead. allura tries to rez him but fails. she only manages to keep his soul/spirit which black allows to stay in the... soul bond realm thingie. they can consort shiro within the mental link when they need to, and he gets along with the black lion and helps allura a little when she needs it

coran appreciation hours

lance appreciation hours

seriously lance needs an arc. he already was at 'what if im not good for anything and no one needs me', now he only needs two more episodes to develop and wrap that up and come to a conclusion and then feel better after some character development

seriously lance also needs a backstory arc. pidge got finding matt and finding her dad, hunk got shay, keith got his mom and the blades and shiro, but lance... didnt really get a proper storyline.

please give us a little more pidge and hunk content. theres six main characters they all need their screen time!!

not everything is about keith

lastly, PLEASE MAKE THE CHARACTERS JUST TALK TO EACH OTHER SOMETIMES

like SERIOUSLY when was the last time anyone had a casual conversation or was goofing around or talked about their emotions?? lance saying 'hey you should ditch me' and keith being 'haha what' wasnt very satisfying emotionallly and it was in season 3

lance doesnt end up with allura. seriously shes madr it clear before that she wasnt romantically interested, and that shit came out of nowhere just so lance could have something about him that matters since they forgot to give him character development

(remember the end when everyone got advice and helpful words and encouragement from the previous pilots? and lance just got 'haha take care of my daughter' instead of like. 'be your own person' or 'youre great' and all? im still salty)

make lotor less confusing. either make him betray them once and then get a redemption arc (because he and allura had a p cool dynamic and joint galra/altarian leaders would have been cool) OR make him try to win their trust once and then continue to be a shitty asshole. dont keep switching between the two.

just a few more episodes that care about the characters emotions instead of just politics and large scale battles

narti should have been treated better.

the other two should kiss.

also make everyone gay, and properly, not just in their backstory in a 0.1 background shot

.... at the same time i dont care about romance at all, so dont force it onto the characters

lance.

please let shiro have a break sometimes

yeah i'm mostly upset about lance.

he should have never been ditched by the blue lion that was when everything fell apart.

GIVE LANCE A PROPER ENDING YOU COWARDS. im fine with him staying with his family, thats adorable!! but it needs to come from somewhere! make him go trough a process and character development so the viewers can understand and appreciate his decision!

#..... well that escalated a little bit #it's not fair that keith gets three character development arcs and lance gets none!!!#if you set up character development then pull trough with it!!#if you make a character gay then pull trough with it!!#and PLEASE. LET. THEM. JUST INTERACT AND TALK WITH EACH OTHER.#ugh!#its been years now and im still mad #the show was so good! the animation was great! it had giant robots and transforming weapons!!#why did the writing have to turn so shitty #lance x allura really came out of nowhere i could go onto a whole other rant about it #... you dont need to react to this i just needes to let it out someday #there are probably more points bur these were my main points of upsetness.#voltron #vld #sigh.#i cant put readmores on mobile you have to deal with this now.#long post #amber talks

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osleyakomwonkru · 5 years

Text

5+1 Character Classes in The 100 and Why They Matter

So I’m spinning off a bit from @loganmarshallrps‘ excellent post “Why Killing Octavia Could Kill The 100″ because I really started thinking on all of the character roles and this is the result of that.

I’ve identified five character classes (classes being a term from Dungeons & Dragons, referring to a character’s key capabilities, strengths and weaknesses) that are elemental to The 100 universe. I use the term “class” instead of archetype, because this is more about their jobs in the narrative rather than their particular personalities, because sometimes they do have to function outside of their best class, and when that happens, the narrative usually suffers.

So these five character classes are: The Diplomat, The Leader, The Fixer, The Scientist and The Soldier. Then our +1 is the rarer Multi-Class Master - characters who are masters in two or more of the aforementioned classes (in contrast to the cases I mention in the previous paragraph where characters have to function outside of their best class, and therefore aren’t masters). The Diplomat, Leader and Fixer roles are the most vital to the narrative (and the ones that our main trio belong to), while the Scientist and Soldier are by their nature supporting roles.

I’ve classified our living members of Earthkru into these categories, with special mentions to some deceased characters as well.

The Diplomat

The Diplomat is a role that people may often pin as The Leader, but as you’ll see below in that section, they have different jobs. The Diplomat is also a leader of sorts, but their role is focused externally - they are the ones who represent their people to the other groups that are encountered throughout the narrative, who engage with them, and make deals for the benefit of their people. How successful they are at this is always up for debate, but they try.

As we’d expect, this is the category where we find our ambassadors Clarke and Kane. Back on Earth, the Commanders, like Lexa, would also fit this role, since they have to keep all of the clans somewhat happy. Had he survived past the first three episodes, Wells would have probably also been a Diplomat.

The Leader

While the Diplomat focuses outward into the wider world, the Leader is the one tasked with keeping order at home. Their primary concern is the well-being of their people in the here and now, rather than worrying about what might happen in the future (that’s the job of the Diplomat). This means they’re more involved in the day to day activities and storylines of the secondary characters, since out of the three lead roles (Diplomat, Leader, Fixer) they will be the ones who are around them more, since the narrative requires the Diplomat and the Fixer to be more mobile.

This is the most important narrative role for Bellamy, as well as Madi. While past Commanders would have been Diplomats, representing for all clans, since now we’ve just got Earthkru, the Commander moves more into a Leader role (assuming the adults don’t keep restricting her). This was also generally the main narrative role for Jaha, even with the City of Light plotline, because as Kane and Abby played Grounder politics games in season 2 and 3, Jaha was still focused on Skaikru (until he was chipped, and even then, he returned to Skaikru first). Roan would be another leader, though he did also try his hand at diplomacy to mixed success.

The Fixer

The Fixer is perhaps the most vital role in a narrative such as The 100 - they’re the ones who make first contact with new people, places and ideas; they connect different and sometimes conflicting parts of the narrative together, and so on.

They are the most mobile pieces on the narrative chessboard, since they’re often characterized by weak and/or divided loyalties to the different groups in play, thus outsiders either by circumstance or by choice, and that means they’re able to move between them as needed (though often still with some sort of personal sacrifices). This also means that they spend a large amount of each season away from the rest of Adventure Squad, bringing the pieces together in the final act of the season.

Fixers can also be categorized into three different types - Active (they seek out these connections on purpose), Reactive (they make connections based on moves others have made and provide course correction) and Passive (these connections happen upon them by accident).

Of our three living Fixers, we’ve got one of each type -

Octavia is the Active type of Fixer, and you can read @loganmarshallrps‘ linked post above to see more details on her vital role in the narrative.

Niylah is the Reactive type of Fixer. Some examples: She puts a human face on Farm Station’s grounder army massacre, setting Bellamy back on the right path; gives Jaha the knowledge he needs to find the Second Dawn bunker; releases Clarke from Wonkru custody so she can try to stop the ascension; wakes Octavia from cryosleep against Abby’s orders.

Murphy is the Passive type of Fixer. Generally speaking, his entire character arc has been about trying to avoid the narrative entirely, but he always keeps getting pulled back in, and this is why - he always happens across some sort of information that ends up being vital. This starts in season 1, when he’s cast out but then returns to the delinquent camp with the sickness, but is most apparent in season 3, when he figures out the Becca/Polaris connection to the Commanders before anyone else does, as well as the information about ALIE. In season 6, he seems to be back in this role again as Josephine taps him to be her way into Earthkru’s secrets.

As to our dead Fixers, there are two main ones - Lincoln and Finn.

The Scientist

The Scientist is the character (or characters, rather, since there’s quite a few of them) that is the keeper of knowledge. While the Diplomat and Leader are ideas-oriented, the Scientist is results-oriented. Their role in the main narrative is to take the pieces of information fed to them by the Fixer and turn it into something that the Leader and the Diplomat can put to use, as well as keep people alive through whatever day-to-day shenanigans are going on.

This is the class where we of course see our tech master Raven, but also the medical professionals Abby and Jackson, as well as Flamekeeper Gaia. Our list of deceased Scientists is long, but Sinclair and Monty are the biggest names.

The Soldier

As the name implies, the Soldier is the one who carries out the orders of the Leader and/or Diplomat. They may sometimes take on some minor Fixer roles, if the person they answer to is the Leader or if the main Fixers aren’t around at the time, but they don’t generally have the same connections or narrative reach. If the person in charge that they answer to is a Diplomat, however, they may also take on some minor Leader roles.

We don’t have many remaining living named characters who fall into this class, since they’re generally the most disposable of the five and would be the default classification for all minor characters. But with us still we do have Miller (who has worked as a Fixer under both Bellamy and Octavia when they’re Leaders), Indra (who has worked as a Leader under Diplomat Lexa) and Brell. Then we can take a moment for all of our deceased Soldiers, chief among them Harper, David Miller, Jasper, Monroe and the rest of the Delinquents.

Multi-Class Master

This is a special category, with three special ladies and (perhaps) one special guy.

Diyoza is the master Jack of All Trades, as it were - as long as she’s not trying to do everything all at once. Trying to do that is when she ends up failing at all of them. But we’ve seen her excel at both Diplomat and Leader, she’s been a Soldier in the past, and it wouldn’t be surprising if she also had some Scientist skills from her time as a terrorist leader. And now in season 6, she’s joined Octavia on the Fixer journey that she’s usually off on by herself.

Echo, as a trained spy, specializes in both the Fixer and Soldier classes. She has the Fixer skillset, but only utilizes it as a Soldier due to the intense loyalty she exhibits to her Leader, and thus doesn’t have the same mobility or flexibility that a regular Fixer would have.

Emori started out in the Fixer category, but her six years on the Ring have also given her a complementary Scientist skillset, and she uses this one more often now than she does her Fixer skills.

Jordan is still something of a question mark - his parents were a Scientist and a Soldier, and while Jordan certainly does have a Scientist skillset, since he’s been in Sanctum he’s been playing both Diplomat and Fixer roles instead. As the story progresses, we’ll see if he fits one category better than the others.

Now, for the story to flow well and for our protagonists to “win” (however winning is defined in the story arc), three things are necessary:

The three leads - Clarke, Bellamy, Octavia - must play the narrative roles they’re best at - Diplomat, Leader, Fixer, respectively

They must all be on the same side

They must be communicating with each other as much as possible

The first half of season 3 is the first time we have discord here - while the three of them are in their best narrative roles, they’re not communicating effectively, and not on the same side after Bellamy sides with Pike. The Pike problem is dealt with in Clarke’s absence by Kane stepping into the primary Diplomat role in Clarke’s stead, and then Clarke returns and the narrative goes on as it should for the rest of the season.

Season 5 is when everything is turned on its head. The trio had all switched roles, and this is why they end up having to flee Earth. Well, McCreary is the reason they had to flee Earth, but really the success or failure of our protagonists generally rests on the the Fixer, and in this case the Fixer was Clarke. Who shouldn’t fix anything, ever. Octavia was tied down by her Leader role, and Bellamy failed at being the Diplomat. Result? Earth go boom.

Thankfully, in season 6 everyone has returned to their usual roles, but we’re back in the same problem as at the beginning of season 3 - while Clarke is the Diplomat, Bellamy is the Leader and Octavia is the Fixer, they’re separated by distance, enmity and brain occupation, meaning that unless the three of them can unite again, we’re currently headed into the shitstorm that was the middle of season 3.

Will they be able to solve their inner discord to be able to tackle the greater storyline? Which we may not even know yet? Will one of the supporting characters have to step into one or more of the roles that usually belong to the leading trio? Could they do so successfully?

I guess we’ll see.

#the 100 meta #the 100 #clarke griffin #bellamy blake #octavia blake #character classes #leader #diplomat #fixer #scientist #soldier #multi-classing

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monsters-demons-and-ai-oh-my · 4 years

Text

What We Lost and What We Have

Chapter 9: Wookies, warnings and homophobic grandpas

In which Jack’s sneak stat is a 2, Sam has a weird story about a wookie encounter, and everybody needs a pep talk.

TW’s for this chapter: Talk about past sibling death (not of a main character)

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AU somewhat inspired by Episode 2x20 - What Is and What Should Never Be, and the season 14 storyline concerning Jack’s illness.

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AO3 Link

Previous Chapter

First Chapter

Complete Tumblr Chapter List

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Jack spent almost the whole two hours or so Castiel was gone on his phone and part of Sam was elated.

He’d drafted the same email about corporate responsibility (for the proliferation of inaccurate information on rechargeable batteries) six times now. It was incredibly dull technical writing and he hadn’t been able to focus at all.

Every line of legal jargon he managed to type was interspersed with his mind screaming.

“Say something!”

Sam had come back to the hospital with a purpose, to be helpful to hold out the olive branch to Castiel and BE there for Jack.

But ‘there’ was all he was…

He had no idea what to say to Jack. The day before had been easy enough, everything had been one long train wreck fed by the intrinsic emotions that came with serious illness. But now that things had calmed down and everyone especially Jack was not on the verge of emotional collapse? He had no idea what Jack needed from him.

And outside of what Jack explicitly needed or wanted it wasn’t like Sam had a deep well of topics to draw upon for small talk..

‘What the hell did Sam have in common with a kid literally half his age?’

“What do you say to your estranged baby brother when at his age one of your main goals was keeping the hell away from him?”

It didn’t help that Jack himself seemed to suddenly become incredibly shy, only occasionally peeking at Sam sheepishly when he thought the man wasn’t looking…

“So you like… Star Wars?” Sam finally blurted after twenty long minutes of silence.

Jack blinked at Sam in confusion at the out of the blue question before glancing at the back of his themed phone case and flushing slightly.

“I… Yes?” Jack looked a little unsure.

Sam grabbed onto the subject, “Who’s your favorite character?”

Jack’s phone buzzed in his hand and the kid glanced between Sam and the screen nervously before setting it gingerly aside.

“I think… I think Finn is pretty cool?”

Sam suddenly realized his mistake, he knew absolutely nothing about the new movies, he’d been too busy to get around to watching any of them

“Oh that’s… cool… I used to have a Chewbacca plush when I was a little kid,” Sam tried instead.

There was a long moment with no noise but the passive whirring of one of the machines and a soft cough from Jack.

“Oh?” the teenager said politely.

“Yeah it was pretty cool, original too, apparently those things are worth a few hundred dollars now…”

‘What are you babbling about now Sam?’

Jack smiled and that made it seem worth it though.

“So do you collect stuff like that or something?” he asked curiously.

“Well no, it was kind of… destroyed?” Sam huffed a little sheepish.

“Destroyed?”

“Yeah… Like I said, I got it when I was a little kid, I chewed on the fabric weapons belt until it tore off and one day I left it outside and it rained so it got all mildew-y,“ Sam quickly explained fumbling for purchase with the Jack’s interest.

Jack pulled a face, "that’s too bad…”

“The final straw though was when Dean called it a moldy sloth and I hit him with it, he tried to take it away from me and it tore raining the carpet with mildew-y stuffing…” Sam chuckled to himself.

“That’s pretty destroyed,” Jack looked mildly grossed out.

Sam missed his cue to let it go.

“Thing was though even after all that I still didn’t want to throw the thing out, I was too attached, So at six I thought it was a great idea to put this damp mildewed furry thing in a pillowcase, tie the pillowcase shut and hide it in my bed’s box spring…”

Jack’s only response was to stifle another cough in his elbow.

“We didn’t find it again until my bed started smelling like mildew, somehow it spread into the wood of the box spring and the bottom of my mattress, and the wookie… well it was some other kind of furry when my dad finally pulled it out.”

Things were dead quiet and when Sam glanced back up at Jack, he looked uncomfortable, “O-oh?” Jack said diplomatically.

‘You… really overshare Sam, for fu-…’

“Yeah… it was… nasty, sorry, that was a long time ago.”

Jack’s eyebrows drew down a little and he looked rejected for a moment. Sam wondered if it was something that he’d said.

There was another few minutes of awkward silence before Jack’s phone buzzed again and he glanced nervously between it and Sam.

“Just… go ahead I’ll… “ Sam awkwardly tapped the side of his laptop and just like that they both went back to their designated devices as if nothing had been said.

Sam didn’t know how to talk to Jack, every happy childhood memory he had was from before Jack was born and didn’t include him, and even outside of that, he didn’t really know Jack’s personality, what made him smile, what bothered him… what he loved.

Jack seemed to be cautiously trying to connect too and somehow that made things worse, like they were both going for a high five and Sam kept awkwardly missing.

‘Trying to meet in a middle that might not even exist…’

Sam quickly went back to his emails and stayed with his head buried there until Castiel got back a while later.

———————————-

“I’m so, so sorry I fell asleep in the parking lot, Where’s Jack?” Castiel asked anxiously before the door even swung closed behind him..

He looked a lot better, his hair still damp but neatly combed and finally dressed down a little bit in a fresh shirt and no jacket.

“He’s fine,” Sam quickly placated, “the nurse just… took him for an X-ray of his arm. I think they wanted to put on a cast or something.”

The man relaxed a little and sighed going back to his spot beside the bed, “right… yes, they… mentioned they might do that today if the swelling was down… I…” He brushed back his hair wearily, “was everything alright while I was gone?”

Sam shrugged, “it was just like I said, nothing bad happened because you stepped away for a few minutes…”

Castiel shot him a look and for a moment Sam worried if he’d crossed a line but the man quickly relaxed again.

“I know you probably think I’m being… paranoid, and I don’t know, maybe I am, or maybe you just can’t understand this, but Jack…” Castiel’s eyes were far away, “I don’t want to take any chances with him…”

Sam felt the same mild discomfort he had for days now, seeing Castiel vulnerable just… felt wrong. The time away had done him good but for every bit less manic he looked now he looked ten times more exhausted.

“You’re right I really don’t get it…” Sam huffed. “I mean the way I see it he’s already in the safest place he could be.”

Castiel snorted sounding unconvinced.

“I but then again I’ve never been a parent so, guess I wouldn’t…” Sam paused, he was coming off all wrong, “I don’t know… what this is like for you.”

Castiel eyed him a little amused, “I didn’t know you even thought of me that way… I… I don’t want you to think I’m some nut but who doesn’t trust modern medicine…”

“I don’t, I’m sure your not…” Sam said quickly.

“It’s just…” Castiel rubbed at his face. “The doctors were doing the best they could when my sister died, sometimes it feels like “the best” still doesn’t mean much …”

Sam paused trying to figure out whether his next words would be welcome or get him another dirty look.

“I mean, I don’t really think things are that bad…”

‘Dirty look, it definitely got him a dirty look.’

Sam quickly switched gears, “what I mean is, Jack seems better today so maybe the doctors are on the right track. Or better yet this thing, whatever it is, is just sorting itself out…”

“You didn’t hear what the doctor said last night, you don't…” Castiel sighed and rubbed at his forehead.

“Don’t you have a job to get back to… in California?” Castiel muttered wearily.

For a moment, Sam felt affronted and maybe a little hurt, but there was no real malice in Castiel’s words and the message became clear.

'Change the subject…’

“I asked for some time off…” Sam shrugged, “most of our case prep work is done over the internet nowadays anyway…”

Some of the senior partners hadn’t been too happy about it if Mr. Roman’s rather passive aggressive “I hope your family matter clears up soon,” was anything to go by.

But none of the other junior partners seemed to mind at all…

'Probably glad to have a chance to get ahead and prove themselves…’

'Part of Sam wished he still cared, but lately…’

Castiel just nodded noncommittally.

“What about you… the high school?” Sam tried, “you’re a teacher right?, how’s that going without you?”

“There’s a substitute…” Cas said simply.

“Oh…” Sam screamed internally, he thought the man wanted a distraction but now it just felt like trying to keep up a conversation with a brick wall.

“I… already had the last few weeks of lessons planned out and review worksheets written up, so while I can’t be there right now, my classes should be… prepared.” Castiel muttered suddenly, seeming lost in thought, “That’s… one thing I’ve always prided myself on… being prepared…”

Sam caught the implication but decided not to feed into it.

“it’ll be okay…” Sam said simply.

Castiel blinked at him in confusion, “I know they will, Mr. Wyatt is an excellent substitute teacher.”

‘Okay maybe Sam was lost…’

He snorted further confusing Castiel.

“What?”

“Nothing…” Sam shook his head, “Jack… he… he told me he misses school.

Castiel blinked in surprise, he opened his mouth to ask something but before he could get the words out there was a knock at the door.

"Delivery,” a voice called.

Jack appeared in the doorway being wheeled in by the nurse Meg with a new violently blue cast on his arm and a sheepish look on his face.

“Jack,” Castiel smiled relieved earning him a nervous smile back from Jack.

He seemed much more stable on his feet than the day before when he climbed gingerly out of the wheelchair as the nurse re-hung the IV bags.

“They’re taking him off the oxygen for now,” the nurse said, her tone seemed considerably nicer now that Jack was awake.

'She probably had infinitely more patience for sick kids, than antagonistic asshole family members who just act like children…’

“It’s getting easier to breathe now,” Jack said brightly, even though his pronouncement was almost immediately broken up by wheezy coughing.

“That’s um… that’s great Jack,” Castiel said gently eyes still distracted back on the nurse.

'With a pang of amusement, Sam caught Jack carefully peeking at his phone beneath his blanket when he thought his uncle wasn’t watching.’

“So um… was everything alright?” Castiel asked the nurse, trying to keep his voice chipper and upbeat.

She blinked at him sardonically, “Nope, his wrist is definitely fractured.”

Castiel’s eyebrows furrowed, “That’s not what I…”

She interrupted, “I know, but that’s all I really have to tell you, everything else is above my pay grade, you’ll have to wait on the doctor for any more papa bear.”

Castiel gave a frustrated huff glancing back at Jack who quickly dropped the covers back down over his phone and glanced around sheepishly.

'If Castiel noticed he didn’t say anything.’

“You wanna know my professional opinion on this?” the nurse quickly re-drew both men’s attention.

“I don’t know but I feel like you’re going to give it to me either way…” Castiel sighed.

“I can’t guess at what’s going on with your kid, or whether he’ll keep getting better or worse, I could get the hospital sued and lose my job and all that,” Meg shrugged, glancing back over at Jack who was sitting up in bed and playing with his phone “sneakily” under the covers again.

“But…” her voice softened, “he seems to be having a good day… so I’d say try to take today for what it is… and enjoy it.”

Sam wished her saying that did anything to calm the ripples of anxiousness in his stomach, a feeling that must be like waves breaking on the beach in Castiel…

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Dean wished he could say he changed his mind as soon as Sam walked out of the shop, but it took another day and a half…

He’d finished rebuilding the Cuevas’s Jeep’s engine block, changed a fuel filter on some Uni Kid’s car and an engine coil on another’s before he even looked back at his phone again.

No missed calls, no texts. Either everything was fine or Sam also didn’t want to talk to him.

'What else was new.’

Either way Dean refused to be the first one to call back. He’d meant what he said and if Sam wanted to act all pissy about it that was his business.

But by the next morning his familiar routine tasted like a Kahlua hangover in the back of his throat.

He was already in a bad mood at eight am when Jesse came to pick up his Jeep from the shop.

“I thought you were going to pick up this hunk of junk yesterday…” Dean scowled hands tucked in his pockets a little defensively.

“Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed…” Jesse sounded bemused waving briefly over his shoulder at his husband waiting with the truck running.

“It would have been nice not to be in a time crunch, yeah…” Dean snorted, pulling out a beer from the mini fridge in the garage’s work area.

“Sorry man,” Jesse shrugged guiltily, “I got a call I couldn’t miss. I thought you said you weren’t busy anyway. Something come up?”

“Brother’s in town,” Dean could feel the man eyeing him concerned as he sipped his morning beer.

“You want one?” Dean offered half sarcastically.

“It’s eight Winchester,” Jesse said flatly.

Dean shrugged.

Jesse sighed pulling out his wallet and fishing out an envelope of cash to pay for the repair, “seriously man what’s eating you, 'cause I’ve met Sam and he doesn’t normally get under your skin like this.”

Dean said nothing just took the money and headed towards the office..

Jesse shook his head looking half amused half irritated following him, “look, me and Cesar are meeting with a few friends at Gabe’s to celebrate tonight, maybe come by if you’re feeling less pissy past nine…”

Dean snorted handing over the cash to the teenager behind the desk, “what are you a fourteen-year-old girl? I’m not 'pissy’.”

“You’re one of the pissiest person I’ve ever met Dean Winchester,” Jesse said with a good-natured smile.

“He’s right, you’re like, super pissy…” Claire remarked flatly counting the cash out into the drawer and not meeting her boss’s glare.

Dean snorted tossing Jesse the Jeep keys, “just try the damn engine already…”

Jesse laughed and Dean followed him out to the car, wanting to remain annoyed but significantly distracted.

“What are you celebrating anyway?” Dean finally asked unable to suppress his admittedly childish curiosity.

“Retirement,” Jesse said simply.

Dean blinked in mild confusion, “dude you’re like 36…”

Jesse grinned infuriatingly and climbed into the Jeep cab, “I know right?”

He let the curiosity eat away at Dean as he revved the engine.

It purred like it was fresh off the line and Dean couldn’t help but feel a swell of pride at the pleased look on the other man’s face.

“Beautiful, man,” Jesse said patting the side of the door.

Before Dean could ask Jesse if he’d won the lottery or something he pointed to Dean and said simply.

“Nine-Thirty, Gabe’s.”

Dean shook his head, “fine, fine.”

The man smiled, gave a brief thumbs up to his husband in the other vehicle and they both drove off leaving Dean to sit with his extremely mild curiosity and confusion.

Dean rolled his eyes and tried to get back to work.

“Pissy my ass…”

He hated feeling like this.

He had his mother who was doing better then she had been in years teaching mythology at the University and his standoffish little brother who came for Christmas. That was his family.

A house that was payed off in full and the shop he inherited from John that he kept running like a well oiled machine. That was his life.

Dean had made mistakes in the past, lost people in the past

Who hadn’t?

He’d made his peace with that and moved on.

He’d decided long ago that Jack and Castiel had their own sad chapter in the Winchester’s life but it was long over. Their lives were two completely separate stories now…

'Dean was sure the kid couldn’t want the fact he was born because some guy made a mistake, got drunk, and cheated on his wife following him around his whole life… Or at least… he’d get that was a bad thing when he was older.’

As far as Dean was concerned they were better off forgetting that shitty night ever happened, and he knew forgetting was the right thing to do but people constantly questioning his every decision wasn’t helping.

Sam’s self-righteous huffing and puffing.

Jesse’s… amusement.

Castiel’s confusion over the phone.

'Don’t act like you care all of a sudden…’

Things were so much simpler when there was just vague dislike and mistrust between the two of them…

Why was he even worried about this? Castiel said the kid was doing better, that should be the end of it.

If Dean saw someone hit by a car he’d try to help, call 911, stay by their side and keep them calm until the ambulance came.

'He was a decent man, despite what Sam might think.’

What Dean wouldn’t do was follow them around the accident victim for the next six months and bludgeon and prod their family for information and acknowledgment.

Jack and Castiel weren’t family.

Not really.

Jack was blood sure, but he was blood like a great aunt who lived six states away who nobody talked to for some stupid reason no one remembered, why bring up old shit?

There was too much baggage and bitterness.

Better to leave the great dam of 2000’s infidelity up between Kansas and Indiana as a monument to the shitty past rather than go picking at it and have all the crap pour out.

‘Dean felt dangerously close to drowning in that bitterness already.’

If Sam wanted to swing an ax at that himself (like the lumberjack in business casual he looked like) Sam could deal with the resulting flood himself.

He repeated the last thought to himself until he finished up for the day, leaving Claire to lock up the building.

He was of half a mind to ignore Jesse’s offer and just head home, but…

He didn’t think the empty house would do anything to calm his mind and drinking alone was just sad.

“Screw it,” He turned at the first red light and headed towards Gabe’s.

He set his phone to silent and decided to act as if that corner of his life didn’t exist for the evening.

He was spotted as soon as he entered the Gabe’s, Cesar grinning at him and gesturing him over to the little group at the bar.

“Hey Dean, sit, first round’s on us,” Jesse called from around his husband.

It was a little bit to Cheers-y for comfort but Dean didn’t fight it sighing and sidling up to the bar.

“Whiskey, neat…” Dean ordered gruffly.

Gabe poured the whiskey one eyebrow slightly raised, “well you’re awful chipper today Deano.”

“Yeah well I don’t even know what we’re supposed to be celebrating yet so…” Dean toasted in Jesse’s general direction smile not reaching his eyes “What’s the party for?”

“New beginnings,” Jesse smiled lifting up his own glass. “Finally bought the property of our dreams.”

Dean blinked, “yeah? How’d you swing that?”

“Finally sold the old shop…” Cesar said smiling at Jesse proudly.

Dean blinked, feeling a slightly bitter pang of nostalgia. He could remember long summers going out with friends and dates to rent kayaks and buy ice cream from Jesse’s family’s old rental shack by Clinton lake.

“Business finally get that bad?” Dean felt how rude the words were in his mouth and cringed internally, but Jesse just snorted and smiled.

“Just the opposite actually, it’s shaping up to be one of the biggest tourist seasons yet…”

“So… going out on a high then?” Dean took another swig of his whiskey.

“Something like that,” Jesse shrugged.

“The Gallager kid turned 25 and he’s been working there since he was 16, we figured he was probably ready to take over,” Cesar explained.

“Wait time out,“ Gabe cut into the conversation brandishing his bar rag. "Dude hasn’t your family been running that place since most of the people in the old folks home were in diapers the first time?”

“That’s the thing though, it’s always been my family’s thing,” Jesse said diplomatically, “I only actually took over because my brother was gone, my grandpa in fact had some strong opinions on ‘people like me’.” Jesse snorted, “honestly I think I only stayed so long out of spite, that and I promised mom… I always meant to let the place go when I found someone to take care of it. It was never what I dreamed about doing…”

“Sam was the same way, never wanted to work at the shop…" Dean huffed a laugh, “He never could get along with dad… so it would have been fucking weird if he stayed.”

John had been angry; not so much at Sam wanting to go his own way but just… how vehemently against staying Sam had been. “You just can’t wait to leave your family behind can you?”

“Don’t you dare, you don’t get to say that to me, not you!” Sam spat back.

“Why wallow in the shitty past when you can just move on…” Dean muttered coming back to himself in the bar.

Jesse turned his glass in his hands looking pensive, “Sometimes it felt like that… but no that’s not really it.”

Dean’s eyebrows rose.

Jesse quickly explained, “I mean yeah there was a lot of shit there, but I grew up around that old shack, me and my brother worked there pretty much every summer after we were old enough to see over the counter…”

Dean whiskey tasted ashy in his mouth, he remembered Jesse’s big brother, he’d always been the cool older teen who’d give you an extra half scoop of ice cream when “the boss” wasn’t looking.

He’d drowned on a fishing trip with his younger brother when Dean was in junior high…

Jesse shrugged continuing where he left off, “why would I let one shithead ruin all of that?”

Dean hummed vaguely still feeling a little lost, “but you’re still giving it up now?”

Jesse nodded glancing toward Cesar, “Don’t get me wrong, if my brother was still alive… if I still had family interested in running the place maybe I wouldn’t've… For a long time I thought that was going to be my whole life.”

Cesar gently squeezed his husband’s hand and Dean felt a pang of emotion he pushed away before he could identify it.

Jesse continued, “But I have a family now and I… I just… can’t live in the past anymore.”

Dean felt more lost than ever, “Makes sense I guess, why literally live in all the painful bullshit when you have something better…”

Cesar blinked at Dean, “seriously dude why so dark?”

Dean bit back the need to find a smarmy way to tell his friends it was none of their damn business, “Just shitty family stuff…”

“Your brother?” Jesse asked.

Dean snorted, “you could say that…” he knocked back the rest of his glass. “I just don’t get that kid anymore…”

“He do something stupid?” Jesse asked.

“He’s an adult, he can do what he wants,” Dean snorted and tried to get Gabe’s attention for a second whiskey, “It’s not like we really even talk much anymore, who am I to keep him from shoving his foot up his own ass…”

“Yeah, that’s real convincing…” Jesse shook his head bemused.

Dean hurumphed and muttered a thanks to Gabe who finally came over.

“Are you two still on the same crap from a few days ago?” Gabe asked pouring the second glass.

Jesse and Cesar’s ears perked up and even Gabe’s weird brother Gadreel was watching him from across the room. Dean wondered darkly if there was any privacy left in this town.

“Yeah my own, personal, crap,” Dean said pointedly.

Gabe held up his hands in mock surrender, “okay, okay, fine, don’t talk about it, it’s just seems like whatever "it” is seems to be eating you an awful lot…"

“Yeah well Sam has that effect, he does dumb shit and you worry about him, over and over until it’s just too much and…” Dean wrapped his knuckles on the table, “maybe you have it right and it’s time to cut him loose, move on…”

Jesse pulled a face, “that’s not what I meant at all…”

“Yeah well then what do you mean, because I’m getting tired of guessing,” Dean barked.

Jesse had the courtesy not to smirk at him.

“My point is… I don’t really know Sammy haven’t seen him since he was sixteen but… make sure shutting him out is what you really want, and not just some petty shit.”

It dug like a knife in Dean’s gut, “You’re right you don’t know shit…” Dean muttered taking a swig from his glass…

Jesse smiled more than a little forlornly, “all I do know is, having lost him, if I had a second chance with my brother…” he trailed off, “Make absolutely sure you’re ready to give up your chances at this future, when you’re planning on leaving behind your past…”

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-

Oof, sorry it took me so long to get back, it’s been a crazy few months and it’s been a struggle to get back to my usual writing routine with everything going on. Hopefully, things will be better now.

#SPN #Supernatural #Castiel #Sam Winchester #Jack Kline #Dean Winchester #fanfiction #whump #humor #Jesse Cuevas #Cesar Cuevas #Claire Novak #kylermalloy #flightoftheseraph #family drama

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xanderuwu · 6 years

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for whom it may concern; here’s a letter

i wrote this long fucking rant about voltron, enjoy (click here to view on google docs)

My name is Alexander, I’m 23, and here is my sob story. I’m a bisexual trans man who grew up in a tiny village where people believed that being LGBT+ was just as bad as being a child molester. I spent the first 20 years of my life hiding my truth because of the fear & shame that was ingrained in me as a child; I was disgusted by myself. I have never gone a week in my‬ ‪life without contemplating suicide - I’ve tried to kill myself 9 times, the first time was when I was 8.‬

‪One of the main things that kept me afloat during my childhood & teen years were stories in any medium; film, TV, books, I swallowed them whole & they kept me sane. But they never made me feel goof about myself or my life. I didn’t experience the impact of good representation until I saw the first season of Glee in 2009 when I was 14 (that show went downhill as it went on too, wow). One of the main characters on Glee was gay & had an arc in the first season where he came out to his father, & his father … embraced him.‬

‪… I remember crying in bed, watching the coming out scene over & over in shitty quality on the Youtube app on my old iPod. I had never seen anything like it. Sure, I’d seen LGBT+ people in media before, but they were always either stereotype-ridden jokes, or they led miserable lives & never got a happy ending. & in so so so many cases … they died. Or their partner died. Or they got AIDS. Or they were framed as disgusting degenerates.‬

‪I’d never seen a parent accept & embrace their gay child. I had never seen a gay character who “made it” with loving friends & family. It gave me courage, it made me hopeful.‬

‪Hope is the most powerful powerful tool we have when it comes to suicide prevention within the LGBT+ community. Every day, thousands of people toe the line between life & death, & THAT is why our representation is so important. Yes, it helps normalize LGBT+ people to the cisgender & heterosexual audiences, but you have no idea how much hope & joy can blossom in the hearts of vulnerable LGBT+ people from good representation that shows LGBT+ characters being embraced & loved, finding partners, falling in love, getting that happy gay ending we so rarely get to see in media. I’m certain that that gay kid from fucking Glee of all things, saved me from the brink a few times.‬

‪In December of 2014, when The Legend of Korra made Korra & Asami the romantic endgame, I cried. Cried for all the LGBT+ kids who would, perhaps for the first time, feel good about themselves. I also cried for the child in myself who still struggles with the shackles secured around his feet from a childhood of isolation & self-hatred, because he needed it too. & then we got record-breaking amounts of well-rounded LGBT+ representation on Steven Universe, a show that not only features same-gender romances, but also explores gender & challenges toxic masculinity. & last year, Disney Channel, the fucking DISNEY CHANNEL, had a character on Andi Mack come out as gay! Freakin’ DISNEY, man! & Korra was on Nickelodeon, Steven Universe is on Cartoon Network - those are all huge traditional television broadcasters where shows have to be assessed by a whole lot of boards in order to make sure they’re suitable to broadcast.‬

‪Netflix, on the other hand, has more freedom. Many of their live-action shows have had explicit LGBT+ representation. Watching as more & more mainstream TV shows & films with prominent LGBT+ characters get released makes me believe in the change, from when i was a kid in the early 00’s to now.‬

‪I first encountered Voltron: Legendary Defender in the form of gifs, fanart, & screencaps on Tumblr. The first thing that caught my attention was Allura’s design; she’s gorgeous & I’m weak. I found out that she was from the Voltron reboot which, not gonna lie, sounded kinda dumb to me at first. I watched Voltron: Defender of the Universe as a kid, not because i’m old enough to have been a child in the 80s, but because we were a family with six mouths to feed & no disposable income that could be spent on cable TV. So we got public service television, & they ran a lot of cartoons from the 80s because they were cheap to license I guess.

Anyways, I was obsessed with VDOTU (we’re using abbreviations now because this is getting stupidly long & typing is hard) as a wee lad, Allura was my favourite character because she had long hair & a pink uniform - as I said, I’m weak for pretty people. So in late June of 2016 I watched the first season of VLD & I was so pleasantly surprised. VLD is animated by Studio Mir; one of my favourite animation studios, & the show has writers & producers who have also worked on Korra, so that, in addition to the show being distributed by Netflix, made the possibility of clear-cut LGBT+ characters & storylines seem more plausible. ‬

‪I loved the first season of VLD. I very quickly latched onto Keith & Allura, but as I kept watching I found myself adoring the whole team. Having Pidge be a girl was cool, & I was so excited when I found out that she was voiced by a gay actress! & whoever came up with the idea of making Allura, Hunk, & Lance brown deserves a high-five. ‬

‪(We’re getting to the real meaty LGBT+ rep rant soon, just stick with me here because I wanna talk about some other gripes I have with this show first).‬

‪So, we had a show with a diverse main cast of characters, good writing & pacing, a good balance between character & plot, & gorgeous animation. I was excited to see the second season.‬

‪However, the second season was when some of the show’s main flaws popped up for the first time. That nice balance between character & plot from the first season seemed to have driven right off its tracks and straight into a bio-hazardous lake. In the first season, each character got a fair amount of attention, but in season two Hunk & Lance were just … barely there? Keith is my favourite character & I liked the Blade of Marmora stuff, but Keith’s amount of screentime came at the expense of other characters, especially Hunk & Lance. Having Keith’s entire arc in season two pretty much only involve himself & Shiro did every character a disservice. & the reveal that Keith was Galra was so underwhelming. We only saw two characters react to Keith’s alien heritage. The episode with Keith & Hunk in the Weblum was lovely, but we haven’t really gotten team bonding episodes like that since season three so :/ And oh God, the whole subplot of Allura, a black-coded character, being “racist” against the Galra is a WHOLE other mess that I don’t think I can adequately explain. Just, why. ‬

‪Season three was good, the balance between character & plot seemed to be getting back on track & the lion switch-up made for some good character development, especially for Lance & Allura. Episode four was a mess though like y'all could’ve been just a liiittle more sensitive with that kind of stuff. Also it is embarrassingly obvious that in the first two seasons, Allura was portrayed as being around Shiro’s age & the two of them shared moments that seemed to be hinting at a future romance - until, suddenly in season three Allura is at the same maturity level as the other paladins? What, is it because that was when you decided to have Shiro be gay because you weren’t allowed to kill him after season two, & so instead of doing Shiro/Allura you started pairing Allura with Lance? That’s just absolutely stellar mate.‬

‪Season four - character/plot balance swings off the rails once more & to this day it hasn’t been recovered. This was the season where y'all’s plot became way too fucking convoluted & too damn big! The plot takes so much room, OF COURSE character development suffers! Season five had the same problem, & whoops Allura has a new love interest! It’s Lotor, a grown-ass man! Great! Totes loved it!‬

‪Season six had some good moments but again, y'all’s plot left no fucking breathing room for the characters! Also, Lance’s crush on Allura is suddenly True Love now? At this point you need a fucking Excel sheet to keep track of the plot & subplots. Lotor was an asshole all along & betrayed Allura? BITCH WE BEEN KNEW! Lotor’s betrayal could be seen from miles away. Bad.‬

‪SEASON FUCKING SEVEN HERE WE GO.‬

‪You ruined Keith’s entire character. Plain and simple. Keith & Shiro’s backstory was the highlight of the entire season. And in those flashbacks we see Shiro’s BOYFRIEND! Shiro is GAY! Shiro being gay & having a partner was revealed at San Diego Comic Con in July, & fans were so fucking happy. Remember at the start of this monstrosity of a letter where I talked about LGBT+ representation in media igniting hope? That was what you saw from fans after SDCC; pure joy & hope. It was amazing, people cried because they were so happy! & the showrunners said we’d learn more about Adam & get to meet him, shit I was so hyped!

Was Shiro, the character who has struggled the most in the show, going to get a … happy ending? As a gay character? With his partner of the same gender?‬

‪…‬

‪Y'know,‬

‪There’s still probably hundreds of thousands of LGBT+ kids who are growing up in a similar environment to where I grew up. They feel the same way I felt. That … indescribable loneliness that pierces through your bones, the self-hatred & hopelessness that weighs too much, you are the deer and the headlights is every person whose approval & love you need most. ‬

‪& then you see someone like you in a story, & they are happy, they aren’t alone, because people like us aren’t destined to be tragedies.‬

‪It gives you hope.

‪VLD could’ve given that to people y'know? And maybe that’s the saddest part, that instead they chose to kill the man Shiro loved, & thus put their only remaining confirmed LGBT+ character through even more suffering. ‬

VLD killed 50% of their confirmed LGBT+ characters. ‬

‪Imagine if they’d killed 50% of their female characters.‬

They killed Adam to show the gravity of the situation, to show that with war comes death. But LGBT+ viewers don’t need that reminder. We die every day. We know war, we know that war walks hand in hand with death.‬

‪And we didn’t even really have any feelings about Adam aside from “Shiro’s boyfriend!!!” We only got a tiny snippet of his & Shiro’s relationship. From a basic storytelling standpoint, killing someone like Colleen or Sam Holt would have been so much more effective because we know a lot more about Pidge’s relationship with her parents than we know about Adam & Shiro.‬ Adam’s death fell flat because we never knew him or his & Shiro’s relationship.

‪So why did they decide that the gay characters had to lose? VLD could have made something beautiful, something that would help people. But you didn’t.‬

‪Why didn’t they?‬

‪And why, in the same season, did they suddenly make Allura show signs of returning Lance’s feelings, despite her having shown zero romantic interest in him for over a third of the series? Why did they push Keith & Acxa together, two characters who had never spoken before this season? ‬

‪They take away the prospect of a same-gender romance, & then shove some half-assed straight relationships in our faces? It’s as if they’re doing this to be intentionally cruel.

‪Even if Adam somehow returns, that doesn’t repair the anxiety & hurt they caused their LGBT+ fans. With this season, VLD gave us the same age-old tale we’ve been told since we could understand words.‬

‪Happy endings belong to straight people. Gay people are doomed to live through tragedy after tragedy until we die young.‬

‪I believed in this show. I honestly thought the slow-burn romance would be Keith & Lance. Already in season one they had the “bonding moment” that was a textbook example of how to convey romance through visual storytelling. In that scene, Lance said “We are a good team” to Keith, & that was supposedly just bros being bros? But in season six, Lance says the exact same phrase to Allura as a flirty line, so what’s the deal here?

Are Allura and Lance the slow burn? Allura had never shown interest in Lance before now, when she suddenly noticed that Lance is … nice? What … is this? Honest to God, what is happening? VLD really decided to do the guy-likes-girl-girl-doesn’t-reciprocate-but-if-guy-keeps-trying-she’ll-like-him-back-eventually thing? Ah yes, If you flirt with a girl & she ignores your advances, you shouldn’t stop & move on, you should keep pushing, that’s how VLD staff want people to treat women I guess.‬

‪Keith & Axca … looked at each other three times & now they’re in love. Very good slow burn, I cried, 11/10.‬

‪Had the straight romances at least been well-developed I might’ve been slightly less angry. But no, you killed the man Shiro loved & then presented us with some gourmet heterosexual nonsense - no really, where are your Michelin stars because this hetero bullshit is top notch, truly.‬

‪I’m not saying this as a bitter shipper. I’m saying this as someone who invested so much time into your show, only to be severely let down. VLD has had some incredible episodes, but season four & onward was a massive display of incompetent storytelling. It’s as if seasons one through three were created by a different team!

Not to mention the showrunners themselves, who have consistently been dismissive of valid concerns from fans, & when given chances to confirm that Keith & Lance’s relationship was strictly platonic, they instead remained vague, instilling hope in fans - giving people false hope to string them along so they’ll keep watching your show is cruel.‬

‪There are so many other things I could say here, but I’m running out of time.‬

‪Y'all could’ve done extraordinary things with this show & these characters. You could have made something amazing, your show could have been remembered as a trailblazer. But instead, it’ll only be remembered as a clusterfuck & as an example of what not to do, for future creators to learn from.‬

‪I don’t know how or why y'all ended up turning your show into a damn mess. I don’t really care. I just wish you hadn’t exploited the fragile hopes of LGBT+ people.‬

The only thing that can save y’all now is if season eight makes me physically shit hundred dollar bills so I can buy a fucking boat, sail to the middle of the ocean, and just scream for a good six years or so.

Thanks.‬

#xander.txt #queue #voltron

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jordoalejandro · 3 years

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The Fifth Annual List of TV Shows I Saw the Past Year

This is another weird year for the list.

For one, a handful of shows are still on some kind of COVID related delay or hiatus.

Two, I dropped quite a few shows. Some I just bailed on because I had no patience to watch another season of them. Some shows I never got around to because I had an Apple TV+ free subscription that came with my iPhone and that ran out and I didn’t pay to renew it. (Here’s my quick review of Apple TV+: the quality of the shows is good but the quantity leaves a lot to be desired. You could probably pay for a month and binge through everything you have any interest in.)

Three, a lot of shows that I’m reviewing here have seasons that aren’t finished. They’re still going. Most are at least close to finishing. Some that have just started I’m going to wait on and review on next year’s list. But a handful of shows on this list are chugging along. I’m trying to factor that into my reviews but it's obviously a bit unfair to the shows. On the other hand, who cares?

So it’ll be a list with fewer entries, comprised of full seasons of shows and shows I watched most of. The list must happen, though. However it has to happen, it must happen.

Here’s the list of shows I’ve watched since the last Emmy Awards.

41. The Equalizer (Season 1 - 2021, CBS) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - The Equalizer is a fascinating show. You know how with some shows people will say the show is fully realized from the pilot? It’s usually presented as a good thing -- a show that knew what it was from the start and executed that vision. The Equalizer is that but in a bad way. It’s a show that from the pilot has felt like it was already in its tired ninth season, trudging along, writers and actors and everyone just going through the motions because they’re trapped in their contracts. There’s nothing fresh about this. No life to it. Uninteresting plots. Weak dialogue. Characters -- both heroes and villains -- that you’ve seen a thousand times (the nerdy IT expert, the troublesome teenage child of the main character, the generic good looking older white guy boss figure, blah blah blah). A show that’s already in late-stage syndication mode.

40. The Flash (Season 7 - 2021, CW) (Last year’s ranking: 49) - Speaking of late-stage syndication mode, The Flash has been in a creative tailspin for several years now. A big part of the problem is they just have no ideas left in the tank for villains on this show. This leads to them either reusing old ones (which doesn’t have a ton of dramatic impact -- we’ve seen The Flash beat all these people before), or digging through comic canon for the ones they have left (they’ve been unused this long for a reason). The other problem is it turns out running fast as a solution to every issue gets old very quickly. The producers must have felt this, and having gotten tired of telling Barry he has to run faster than he’s ever run before, they’ve switched it up and are now telling him to love people harder than he’s ever loved them before. Beyond the structural problems, the show is just not working on a very basic level. The writing has gotten super corny. The acting seems off. They’ve introduced new characters that are not working. The Flash had my worst rated episode this year and the weird thing was, it wasn’t even a mess of an episode. Like, functionally, it worked. It went from point A to point B and all that fine. But the problem was the titular Flash took off in the first few minutes of the episode to have sex with his wife on an island (not a joke) and didn’t return until the last few minutes of the episode. In between, viewers received a very boring, very boilerplate episode of The Flash, starring one of the new side characters it’s incredibly hard to care about. And she interacted with some even more to-the-side side characters and had some relationship issues with them and on and on until they inevitably saved the day in the end and it was so dull and so pointless that it made me say out loud, “What is this? Why am I watching this? Who could possibly care about anything that is happening on screen right now?” I felt that a lot during this season of The Flash. That was the only time I felt compelled to articulate it, but I felt it a lot. And that’s not a great place to be with a show.

39. Riverdale (Season 5 - 2021, CW) (Last year’s ranking: 50) - Here’s a little insight as to how stupid Riverdale can be. Between episodes three and four of this season (episode three was what would’ve been the season finale of season 4, which was cut short by COVID so at least it's not wholly random, in fairness), Riverdale did a seven year time jump. This seven year time jump landed them in the year… 2021. They shifted everything that happened in the first four seasons of their show, including dozens upon dozens of current day pop culture references, about a decade into the past. And why did they do this? So they could change a few things and then basically keep telling the same exact stories they were telling the first four years of this show. Just stupid nonsense. Stupid nonsense all around. Which, to be fair, I actually used to look forward to from this show. I’ve argued here that it’s at its best when it’s being as stupid as possible, but this year the nonsense just doesn’t seem inspired. They’re recycling some plots. The actors seem checked out. Maybe all the years of nonsense have finally taken their toll on them.

38. Batwoman (Season 2 - 2021, CW) (Last year’s ranking: 43) - Batwoman lost its main actress in between seasons, which obviously put it at a difficult crossroads. In my opinion, the wise thing to do would have probably been to recast as best as possible and carry on. Instead, the show chose to go a different direction and cast a new person to play an entirely new character. There was maybe a way this could work, but you likely have to retool the entire show to get there. Instead, they changed nothing but the main character and inserted her into the middle of the old character’s world, forcing her to have the same supporting characters and deal with some of the same storylines the old character was dealing with. This led to a lot of story beats where new Batwoman had to interact with old Batwoman’s family. What was in season one drama between Batwoman and her sister, or her father, became drama between the new Batwoman and this crazy lady she just met, or this guy she barely knows. As you might be able to guess, this added an air of “who cares?” to the proceedings. Also, the whole season essentially became an origin story for new Batwoman, which was a problem because that’s basically what season one of the show was. It wasn't super engrossing. That said, let me put aside the issues raised there. Having to recast your main actress is obviously a tough situation. They didn’t handle it well, but it was tough. Here’s why this show is still all the way down here on the list: bad execution. Week in, week out: bad plots, bad dialogue, dumb subplots, forgettable villains. A lot of the same issues that are plaguing The Flash. The show is simply not executing. It’s like these superhero CW shows don’t know how to do writers’ rooms over Zoom.

37. Everything’s Gonna Be Okay (Season 2 - 2021, Freeform) (Last year’s ranking: 47) - I said last year I didn’t know if I liked this show or not. I think the fact that I’ve put it near the bottom of my list for two years in a row has answered that for me. It’s a kind of fascinating show in how, I guess… aimless it is. Floating from one scene to the next, one plot to the next, one episode to the next, no real driving force. A comedy that’s not really funny. A drama that isn’t very strong. A few good moments in a season of ten half-hour episodes. Would I have watched a third season? Yeah, probably. Not in a hate-watch way, but also not in a like-watch way. I’m glad it got canceled because it means I’m free of it. Would I recommend to other people any of the shows I’ve seen from Josh Thomas? No. Definitely not. Will I watch whatever Josh Thomas writes next? Yeah, probably. Though I can’t say why.

36. Soulmates (Season 1 - 2020, AMC) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - This was a short Black Mirror-esque anthology series that ran out of interesting stories to tell surprisingly quick. Like, third episode quick. This show’s problem is that, while Black Mirror has freedom to tell lots of different stories, Soulmates is restrained by its premise: a short time into the future a company creates a test that can match you to your soulmate with 100% accuracy. It’s not a bad premise, but you can sort of imagine how it would constrain the storytelling possibilities. The test matches you with someone surprising, the test matches you with the wrong person, etc. etc. The whole thing was only six episodes and it felt repetitive even within that small amount.

35. Debris (Season 1 - 2021, NBC) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - Debris was created by J. H. Wyman, who did a lot of work on Fringe, one of my favorite sci-fi shows ever. Unfortunately, Debris was just a pale imitation of Fringe. The characters weren’t strong enough. The ideas weren’t intriguing enough. The episodes were often flat. They just didn’t have enough action or drama or horror or twists or whatever you might be hoping for from a show like this. They’d have a lot of walking around and looking at stuff and people talking about the stuff that was happening and then they’d kind of just peter out. A real disappointment.

34. The Walking Dead: World Beyond (Season 1 - 2020, AMC) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - You know how teenagers can often be the worst characters on a TV show? How they can exist just to act bratty and make really stupid decisions? Well, imagine a whole show of that. I’m half-joking. It’s not that bad. There’s some fun stuff and it works as a companion piece in this series of shows, but for the most part, it’s a lot of watching teenagers make really stupid decisions and almost getting themselves killed.

33. Stargirl (Season 2 - 2021, CW) (Last year’s ranking: 36) - Speaking of teenagers making really stupid decisions and almost getting themselves killed... Stargirl is a bit of a strange show. It’s kind of lighthearted, but also weirdly dark (more children die in this show than died in all the other shows I watched this year combined). It has some interesting characters and some absolutely ridiculous ones. Some fun episodes, but what also feels like quite a bit of filler. It’s not bad, it’s just also not great.

32. Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist (Season 2 - 2021, NBC) (Last year’s ranking: 20) - The first season of this show was about a handful of things, but the big emotional throughline was about Zoey dealing with the impending death of her father, who had been diagnosed with an incurable neurological disease. While the other plotlines in the show could be hit or miss, there was always emotional meat on that bone, so to speak. Well, minor spoiler alert I guess, but her father died at the end of the first season from the aforementioned incurable disease. I didn’t realize it at the time, but the second season of the show really laid bare how important that throughline was to the whole thing. Without it, the show felt rudderless. There were a lot of pieces of plots but nothing really anchoring them the way her father’s storyline did. Plus, there was a lot more love-triangle stuff, which wasn’t the most original, compelling plot the first season and grew even more tiresome in the second. The show sort of became like late-stage Glee for me, where I stopped caring about the plots and just listened for the songs. That more or less worked with Glee because almost all the people on that show were excellent singers. It works much less on this show because maybe (generously) half the performers are good singers.

31. MacGyver (Season 5 - 2020-2021, CBS) (Last year’s ranking: 26) - It was a pretty weak final season for MacGyver. They abandoned some interesting storylines from last season in a disappointing way. In fairness, it’s because last season got shortened by COVID and I guess for whatever reason they couldn’t find a way to pick back up where they left off. But still, they had a tough time regaining the momentum after they lost it. The cancellation was without warning from CBS, too, so there’s no real conclusion to anything. Just an average season finale that suddenly became a series finale. Tough way to go out.

30. Bob's Burgers (Season 11 - 2020-2021, FOX) (Last year’s ranking: 38) - I was looking back at my episode ratings for this show from the last two years and realized they were pretty similar. Both last year and this year, there was only one episode per season that I thought was pretty good. There was also one episode each year I thought was awful. And then, basically, there were 21 episodes each season that were fine. Just fine. A few laughs. Nothing really engrossing. Worked well enough to keep me entertained and not much more.

29. The Walking Dead (Season 10B - 2021, AMC) (Last year’s ranking: 29) - The eleventh season of the show is currently on-going. That’ll be on next year’s list. This is just for a grouping of six episodes that aired earlier this year. They were extremely forgettable with the exception of two episodes. I enjoyed “One More” quite a bit and I really liked the Negan origin story episode: “Here’s Negan”. Probably one of the best episodes they’d done in years.

28. The Blacklist (Season 8 - 2020-2021, NBC) (Last year’s ranking: 39) - A slight improvement for this show from last year. A handful of average episodes, a few very good ones. A really fascinating choice made at the end of the season that makes me interested in seeing what next season will be like.

27. The Moodys (Season 2 - 2021, FOX) (Last year’s ranking: 46) - I described this show last season as “likeable if not particularly funny” and said if it was to come back, the writing would have to get sharper. That remains pretty accurate. The writing was slightly better, though not enough to make this a truly good show.

26. Falcon and the Winter Soldier (Season 1 - 2021, Disney+) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - This show was way too overstuffed to really work well, which seems a poor choice made in the writing process. It has like a dozen different ideas it wants to touch on and doesn’t really execute any single one of them in a satisfying manner. The real shame of it is there was a good show in here if they just chose to keep things simple. The best episode by far featured Falcon and the Winter Soldier going on a mission with Baron Zemo. That was it. They went to a shady bar of villains and did some spy stuff. Blew some stuff up. Fought some bad guys. That’s the show! Sticking with a core of that and cutting the 20-something unnecessary side characters would’ve gone a long way.

25. Archer (Season 11 - 2020, FXX) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - The show returned to its spy satire roots and started clicking again. It’s not at the level of its earlier peak seasons, but it’s still reliable for some good laughs.

24. The Great North (Season 1 - 2021, FOX) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - Solid animated comedy from two of the writers of Bob’s Burgers. It obviously borrows a lot from the style and tone of that show. I do find The Great North a little fresher. The writing is a little sharper, the stories are a little more interesting (but it also isn’t in its 11th season like Bob’s Burgers so it’s not a wholly fair comparison). It slots in nicely with the other FOX Sunday animation shows.

23. The Simpsons (Season 32 - 2020-2021, FOX) (Last year’s ranking: 37) - I essentially write the same thing every year about The Simpsons. Some highs, some lows. I felt the quality of episodes this season, for whatever reason, was generally a little bit higher than last, thus it’s up here.

22. Duncanville (Season 2 - 2021, FOX) (Last year’s ranking: 34) - It didn’t make the huge leap in quality I was hoping for, but it was consistently above average this season, with a couple of flashes of excellence.

21. Snowpiercer (Season 2 - 2021, TNT) (Last year’s ranking: 14) - Decent second season for this show. Started a bit slowly but picked up in the back half. Sean Bean was a good addition to the cast. If it dropped in quality from season one, it might be because I liked this show as my stupid summer show and season two aired during the winter. High possibility this affected my opinion of it.

20. Chad (Season 1 - 2021, TBS) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - This isn’t a show for people who can’t handle cringe comedy. It lives there. And if the joke isn’t landing, which sometimes it doesn’t on this show, then you’re just trapped in a scene. But! But the jokes often do land, and when they do, they are very good. It’s also occasionally a touching show. The main character is a little dick, but the show also has a lot of sympathy for him -- he’s the son of immigrants trying so hard to fit in in middle school, to be what he perceives to be normal, in a battle with his own identity, in some of the most difficult years in a teen's life. You hate him but you also feel for him and want him to win. It’s a show with a little more depth than I thought it would have coming in.

19. What If…? (Season 1 - 2021, Disney+) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - You know how it is with anthology shows: you win some, you lose some. The show is better at coming up with concepts than executing them, I think. Episodes feel a little rushed (generally because they’re trying to tell a movie’s worth -- or sometimes multiple movies’ worth -- of story in half an hour) and sometimes they feel like they just end because they've reached their time limit. Overall though, it’s a fun way to just try different things in the Marvel Universe.

18. Family Guy (Season 19 - 2020-2021, FOX) (Last year’s ranking: 24) - I barely even write blurbs about Family Guy on these lists anymore. It’s very consistent. This is around where it ends up on every list.

17. Alex Rider (Season 1 - 2020, IMDbTV) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - Fun fact: I watched this show as part of an online paid focus group thing. I’ll just tell you what I told the people who ran the focus group. It’s good. It’s sleek and well-made. It moves just a little too slow for a spy thriller but not to the point of being boring. The show does need a little more life though. Some more quips and liveliness. It’s pretty preposterous on a conceptual level. A teenager is recruited into MI6 to be a spy and save the world. Don’t play that too seriously. Everyone understands this is teenage James Bond, so be that. Lean into it.

16. Prodigal Son (Season 2 - 2021, FOX) (Last year’s ranking: 28) - A fun second and final season for Prodigal Son. They only did 13 episodes for this season so they got to do a little more long term storytelling and fewer cases-of-the-week (this show handles those well anyway so not necessarily a bad thing). The bummer is that the show got canceled without much warning so they didn’t get to wrap things up, leaving on not quite a cliffhanger, but a fairly open-ended note.

15. Legends of Tomorrow (Season 6 - 2021, CW) (Last year’s ranking: 11) - The only show on the CW that seems to be in control of what it’s doing. Not as good a season as last season, but still quality work. Good characters, funny, imaginative.

14. Fargo (Season 4 - 2020, FX) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - First time on a list for Fargo since the very first TV list I wrote in 2017. An impressive hiatus. I will say, I do think this was the weakest of the four seasons of Fargo. It took way too long to get the train rolling, though when it did, it got much better and delivered four really strong episodes at the end of the season. When it’s on, Fargo can fire on cylinders in storytelling and characters and dialogue that very few shows on TV can match up with. This season’s issue was that it took far too long to be on.

13. 9-1-1: Lone Star (Season 2 - 2021, FOX) (Last year’s ranking: 35) - I've really come to enjoy this show. I think this show found a groove in season two, putting out pretty consistently above-average episodes. It still has a lot of over-the-top silliness, but the characters are strong and most of the plots work.

12. Superstore (Season 6 - 2020-2021, NBC) (Last year’s ranking: 25) - Superstore was one of the few shows to incorporate COVID into their storylines in a natural way and manage to find humor in the situation, so bravo for both attempting that and succeeding at it. Behind the scenes, the show lost their main star, America Ferrera, at the start of the season, which should obviously have been a tough blow to take, but the rest of the ensemble stepped up and the show continued on without missing a beat in quality. Then, after filming nine episodes, they learned that this would be their final season, so the producers transitioned really well into endgame mode, crafting a strong backstretch of episodes to wrap everything up. I would guess with all the behind the scenes stuff and shooting this whole thing in the midst of a pandemic, this was the most difficult of the show’s six seasons to create. The fact that they were able to deliver such a satisfying finale through all of it is very impressive.

11. Fear The Walking Dead (Season 6 - 2020-2021, AMC) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - I’d say this season was not as strong as last, but I still found it very good, and generally more enjoyable in recent years than the original flavor Walking Dead. A fascinating story choice at the end of the season, setting up an intriguing seventh season.

10. Animal Kingdom (Season 5 - 2021, TNT) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - Not the strongest season Animal Kingdom has had, but the show is still one of my favorites. This season is sort of about the characters searching for their identity in a new world, which is interesting in its own right but perhaps not as much as pulling off daring heists? I get the sense this season is doing some prep work in anticipation of next season, the show’s last. I’m predicting a very good final season.

9. American Dad! (Season 18 - 2021, TBS) (Last year’s ranking: 23) - A return to form for the show. Much improved over last season for me.

8. Love, Victor (Season 2 - 2021, Hulu) (Last year’s ranking: 5) - Just a minor step down in quality from the first season, I think mostly because the show lost a little focus. Season one was about Victor’s journey to self-acceptance and coming out, season two was more about dealing with the fallout from all that. There wasn’t a super-strong throughline. But still a very sweet show. Funny. Romantic. Very enjoyable.

7. Mr. Mayor (Season 1 - 2021, NBC) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - This show is going to be good. I’m calling it. It already had a very strong first season with one of my favorite comedic episodes of any show this year in 1.6 “Respect in the Workplace”. Tina Fey and Robert Carlock behind the scenes, a very good cast in front of the camera, this show is set up to become one of my favorites.

6. Mythic Quest (Season 2 - 2021, Apple TV+) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - Mythic Quest is a fascinating show. For 90% of its episodes, it’s just a very good workplace comedy. And then, every now and then, it just uncorks a truly fantastic standalone episode. Season one did this with episode 1.5 “A Dark Quiet Death”. The show also released a quarantine episode called, appropriately, “Quarantine” that was probably my favorite COVID-related TV episode, one that should serve as a nice time capsule for this period at some point down the road. Season two was an improvement in quality overall from season one, and it also featured a tremendous two-part standalone story (episodes 2.6 “Backstory!” and 2.7 “Peter”). It’s a funny show with good characters and a surprising amount of heart.

5. The Other Two (Season 2 - 2021, HBO Max) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - Great, great satire of the entertainment industry. Excellent characters. Fantastic writing. Often hilarious, but it also has some depth to it when it comes to matters surrounding the core family.

4. Brooklyn Nine-Nine (Season 8 - 2021, NBC) (Last year’s ranking: 7) - It’s only appropriate that this show ends up here in its final season. I once wrote about this show that I was never excited to see it pop up in my DVR, despite really enjoying it when I actually got around to watching the individual episodes. This final season was essentially a bunch of very special episodes. The show felt it was obligated to tackle all kinds of important real world topics instead of just being a goofy sitcom. It didn’t really work and it made me once again unenthused about starting up an episode. And yet, the show’s actually plotting within episodes and joke-writing ability is so incredibly strong that once I started the episode, I found myself really, really enjoying it as always. The series finale is a great example. Super obvious character arcs, things you saw telegraphed from basically the beginning of the season, and yet, the episode was still pitch perfect. Hilarious and moving and exactly how you'd hope for a show to wrap up. Stuck the landing brilliantly. This was a show that always succeeded in spite of itself. In spite of its premise and its core identity. It succeeded because it was always one of the sharpest written shows on television. Its final season was no different.

3. WandaVision (Season 1 - 2021, Disney+) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - I really enjoyed the early episodes of this show, where they went to great lengths to capture the setting and feel of various past eras of television. They did an incredible job with the sets and costumes, and beyond that, even the writing was very good at aping the styles of the eras being portrayed. But as much as I enjoyed the early episodes, I really loved when the show took a turn and slowly unfolded into a piece about one character’s loss and grief. A tremendous second gear. A fantastic show overall.

2. The Mandalorian (Season 2 - 2020, Disney+) (Last year’s ranking: 2) - A tremendously fun show. Didn’t lose a step from season one.

1. Loki (Season 1 - 2021, Disney+) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - Loved this show. Not just from a storytelling perspective. On that alone, it’s an excellent show. Some fun mystery stuff, some mind-bending stuff, clever, funny writing, great characters, solid drama. Beyond that though, I was just loving everything I was seeing and hearing on screen. The sets -- everything from the TVA headquarters to alien planets -- look amazing. The costumes are great. The music is superb. The show just had everything firing on all cylinders. It was brilliantly done.

So there we have it. Like I mentioned, some of these shows are still going on and have a few episodes left in their seasons. I might come back and do some light editing on this list if any of those shows do something truly surprising in a good or bad way in those final episodes but the likelihood is they probably won’t do enough to wildly change my opinion of them.

Or, if you’re reading this in the future, maybe I’ve already done that and that adjusted list is the list you’re looking at!

Wow.

Mind. Blown.

- - - - -

Annual Lists of TV Shows I Saw the Past Year

#reviews #Annual Lists of TV Shows I Saw The Past Year

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officialotakudome · 3 years

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New Post has been published on Otaku Dome | The Latest News In Anime, Manga, Gaming, Tech, and Geek Culture

New Post has been published on https://otakudome.com/thus-spoke-rohan-kishibe-anime-review/

Thus Spoke Rohan Kishibe Anime Review

A new spinoff from the JoJo world staring mangaka Rohan Kishibe is out on Netflix. Thus Spoke Rohan Kishibe adapts the spinoff source of the same name into an animated series of horrifying tales lead Rohan experienced prior to and sometime following his meeting of Josuke Higashikata, Koichi Hirose, and Okuyasu Nijimura. Rohan tackles curses, ghosts, and ghouls in what’s hopefully the first half of a two part adaptation.

Thus Spoke Rohan Kishibe is a 2017 shounen OVA adaptation of the original 1997 manga of the same name. It is produced by David Productions and licensed by Netflix for streaming in the US. Four chapters have been animated and are available in English and Japanese audio.

Editor’s Note: This review may contain near complete to complete spoilers for Thus Spoke Rohan Kishibe and it’s source material (main and namesake).

Former JoJo antagonist turned protagonist Rohan Kishibe takes center stage in a new spinoff.

Originally debuting in Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 4/Diamond is Unbreakable, Rohan started off as a villain antagonizing Koichi while pretending to be his friend. Upon meeting Josuke Higashikata and learning what happens to people who insult his iconic hairdo, Rohan while not completely turning into a hero does end up becoming a valuable asset to the Joestars of Morioh. As Koichi prepares to depart to Italy (starting the events of Golden Wind), he asks Rohan for a favor who instead decides to tell him and the others about his supposed encounters with the supernatural.

JoJo focuses on it’s beloved horror elements in Thus Spoke Rohan Kishibe.

THE GOOD: The initial source to Thus Spoke Rohan Kishibe is eight chapters long and ran from 1997 to 2018 with chapters being released several years apart from one another. The anime follows a similar production schedule with the first four episodes being released within a year from each other except for the last two which were both released in 2020. The four chapters adapted in the anime are “Millionaire Village”, “Mutsu-kabe Hill”, “At a Confessional”, and “The Run”. In the first episode (in Netflix’s order) Rohan encounters Koichi who asks him to use his stand Heaven’s Door to force fluent Italian into his life story as he’s getting ready to head out to the country on behalf of the Speedwagon Foundation for a mission. Rohan decides to tell Koichi of his own time spent in Italy following his meeting of the former and the other Joestars. Rohan learns that a young man had been cursed after accidentally killing a homeless man having overheard his story when he incidentally posed as a preacher in a confessional box. The curse relays that the homeless man shall come for the young man as a cursed spirit to kill him during the happiest moment of his life. Several years pass and the young man has become insanely wealthy with a family, one day while out with his daughter he’s suddenly attacked by her who has been possessed by the homeless man now seeking his revenge. The young man tries to claim that the homeless man’s death wasn’t his fault, so the homeless man says they’ll let faith decide. He challenges the young man to catch popcorn that his daughter was eating in his mouth three times after tossing it in a high distance. The young man succeeds twice following distractions from pigeons, however on the third try he fails and has his head cut off. Rohan is about to question the validity of the man’s story before he’s stopped by the man explaining that he had switched identities with a loyal servant through surgery and the servant was the one who was killed by the spirit. It is then revealed that the servant having been tricked has also cursed the man along with the homeless man swearing together to curse him on the day of his daughter’s happiest moment in life as he continues his escape. Following this story, Rohan meets with his editor, Minoru Kaigamori asking for an advanced for work on his latest manga shocking him. He explains that he lost his money purchasing a huge piece of land in Mutsukabezaka rumored to be haunted, but scheduled for road work. He purchased the land in an effort to prevent the supposed spirit from being scared off. The supposed spirit belongs to Naoko Osato; a woman scheduled for an arranged marriage by her wealthy family but is visited by her lover Gunpei their gardener who she accidentally kills after an argument gets physical. Gunpei’s body seemingly continues to pour blood no matter what she did. When her fiancée and father come to visit Osato panics and hides the body while clearing the blood. The wound pours blood years after Osato marries everyday requiring her to clean the spill.

In the present, Rohan heads to the property where he meets a young girl. After a discussion with the girl she trips and suffers a surprising fatal wound. Rohan is stunned to see her body bleeding out profusely like Gunpei in the story. Using Heaven’s Door he looks into her past learning she is the child of Gunpei & Osato and is suffering from the effects of a generational yokai curse. Rohan rewrites the girl’s past erasing the curse and saving her life. He decides to use the story as inspiration for his new manga. Later he meets up with another editor of his, Kyōka Izumi who wants Rohan to accompany her on a trip to purchase a famous villa where the owners are notoriously strict on manners. They arrive and pick up a lost baby bird & are then greeted by doorman Ikkyū. Upon entering the home Ikkyu immediately notes that they have already failed to respect the three main rules. Kyōka begs for a second chance, but gets a call informing her that her mother and boyfriend died in a car crash together. Rohan also finds the baby bird has been killed. He quickly uses Heaven’s Door on Ikkyu learning that the villa has a direct connection to mountain gods who rewards those who succeed in following the rules and punishes those who don’t with a sacrifice of something precious. Rohan’s use of his stand causes another break in the rules which gives Kyōka a heart attack. Ikkyu gives Rohan a chance to redeem himself and Kyōka if he can properly eat an ear of corn. Rohan passes and tricks Ikkyu into failing to remain respectful of the house rules reversing the infliction of the mountain gods on Kyōka and her family. The final story is told from the perspective of male model Yoma Hashimoto who works out at the same gym as Rohan. He quickly rises to fame & success while forming a rivalry with Rohan following a competition back in the past in which Rohan cheated to win. Yoma becomes obsessed with improving his physique and steals money from his girlfriend for more high end equipment. After showcasing strange behavior on top of the stealing she kicks Yoma out. While in the gym alone Yoma challenges Rohan to the same competition they had before which is accepted. Yoma increases the stakes by breaking the glass window behind them as the speed on the treadmill goes faster killing whoever stops first. Rohan attempts to grab the remote controlling the machines, but is stopped and has his fingers broken by Yoma. The speed continues to accelerate as Yoma’s body changes. Rohan uses Heaven’s Door and learns that Yoma killed anyone that got in the way of his training including his girlfriend. Upon further investigation Rohan realizes that Yoma has become the avatar of speed god Hermes. As Yoma wins the competition Rohan uses his stand to force Yoma to stoop his treadmill instead seemingly killing him. Rohan shows regret for feeling forced to kill Yoma and likely earning Hermes’ wrath causing trouble in the future.

Thus Spoke Rohan Kishibe is an eye-opening experience in just how expansive the potential of the JoJo world can be. And as we’ve seen with recent arcs for the franchise mangaka Hirohiko Araki is not afraid to experiment with his work. Part six, Stone Ocean acts as a soft reboot for the franchise completely upon it’s climax redesigning several fan favorite characters as well as successfully introducing a new wave of main characters in between. While Rohan is focused on an already established character itself, it does build the world of JoJo without a dependency on stands. Instead opting to tackle the more supernatural elements that’s spread throughout the centered world. Something that’s consistently praised in the JoJo fandom is Araki’s use of horror for more dramatic scenes in the series. This is where ‘Rohan’ gets most of it’s inspiration from. It weirdly fits for Rohan to be surrounded by non-stand related supernatural phenomenon oddly fits his character being a mangaka and all. It’s also been suggested that Rohan is also an avatar for Araki himself within the series.

Thus Spoke Rohan Kishibe breaths new life into a decades old franchise.

I mentioned early that Rohan while a good assist to the Joestars isn’t a full on good guy, but Thus Spoke Rohan Kishibe explores his more human side. He’s still an asshole, but he has a heart when it counts even going out of his way to save one of his editors who’s nearly killed from mountain gods. It shows his development is continuing to grow after the end of the Kira arc when he expressed his sadness for Reimi Sugimoto finally being able to move on following Kira’s defeat. ‘Rohan’ also introduces the potential of gods possibly being used in the JoJo franchise. I’m not too familiar with the spinoff material over the main canon so I wouldn’t know if they haven’t already done this. But I do think it’s odd for Araki to reference gods twice in the spinoff if he wasn’t considering having them be apart of a main storyline or spinoff down the line. If anything ‘Rohan’ proves that JoJo can indeed exist without the use of stands, as it did with Harmon before. Thus keeping the franchise’s ability to stay fresh vast and wide. In regards to the new characters introduced there’s not really much to them they were more or less minor plot devices to either introduce the story or move it forward. If Araki wants to continue with experimenting on giving other characters their own self-contained stories this could always be changed in the future.

Old favorites have small speaking roles in Thus Spoke Rohan Kishibe.

THE BAD: While not likely it’s possible that the four out of eight adapted chapters could be all there is. At least for quite a while. The COVID-19 pandemic heavily effecting the anime industry aside David Productions has been quite busy these days picking up series after series for adaptation efforts, And it’s significantly slowed down how much work they can do on the JoJo franchise. If you were expecting some decent interaction between Rohan and the core cast you’ll be rather disappointed. While some characters have voice roles in the spinoff this is very much the Rohan show and they have maybe a combined five or so combined minutes of screen time with him. Speaking of limited appearance, Josuke Higashikata does make an appearance in the spinoff. Two in fact, but they aren’t voiced which is odd. Story wise it makes a bit of sense as Rohan kind of despises Josuke so maybe it was intentional? Or maybe they couldn’t schedule Josuke’s Japanese VA for the spinoff to do lines and just cut him from having a speaking role.

New characters and experiences opens JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure into a world with limited Stand use.

OVERALL THOUGHTS: Thus Spoke Rohan Kishibe feels like it’s job was to be more than “just another spinoff” and it succeeds with flying colors. It not only properly represents it’s namesake, but it also provides the JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure franchise with a multitude of doors to open for experimentation into new directions and the potential move away from Stands in the near future. There’s tons of JoJo material outside of the canon which could and should be animated in some point in time, including a sequel novel to Golden Wind which people still debate on the canonical relation it has to the series. It’s nice seeing a series that debuted in the 80s still having some more tricks up it’s sleeve to captivate viewers almost forty years later. Otaku Dome gives Thus Spoke Rohan Kishibe a 95 out of 100.

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blue-rose-89 · 6 years

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Voltron: Averting cliches is the writers game....

A chat I had with @honeycombpuppy and @i-love-voltron-stuff has got me thinking of something that I don’t think a lot of people have pointed out. When it comes to watching this show the writers have been going out of their way to avert the common plot lines and cliches we have seen in shows many, many times. They have even done it in ATLA and LOK. Here’s a list of twists and storylines we would normally expect only for the writers to turn it around and say “Fooled you!”

[Long post underneath......]

What has currently happened:

1. Pidge is revealed to be a girl.

What we expected: Everyone freaks out about this revelation and start treating her different because she’s a girl.

What really happened: No one cared because they either figured it out or they knew all along. They accepted her and she hasn’t been given special treatment.

The writers have said that the reason they gender flipped the character was that aside from it being a diversity move, they wanted to show that despite the big change Pidge the still the smart one of the group except she’s girl a now. Her gender identity has nothing to do with the character.

2. Ullaz’s Sacrifice and Allura’s response to said sacrifice.

What we expected: Allura to have a change of heart and start considering that not all Galra are bad.

What really happened: Her opinion on the species has (understandably) not changed. Her response can be summed up as “I don’t care. He’s Galra so I say good riddance.”

I won’t lie when I saw this episode the first time my brain was saying “Ungrateful bitch. I get where you’re coming from but geez.”

3. Keith revealing to be half-Galra

What we expected: Everyone is accepting.

What really happened: There’s tension between Keith and some of the characters. Hunk behaved ignorant and insensitive ( there’s difference between being ignorant and being racist. Hunk was being ignorant and he got over it) about Keith’s heritage while Allura practically shun him. As far as she was concerned Keith was dead to her over something he had no control over.

Like everyone else I hated her treatment towards Keith. If I were in Keith’s shoes and there was no war going on I would leave and not turn back.

4. Allura’s “You’re dead to me” treatment towards Keith.

What we expected: Someone to call her out on her behaviour.

What really happened: She called herself out and apologized on her own.

The one complaint I have with this scene is the transition between the apology and the scene that came before it. One second she’s giving Keith the stink eye for volunteering on the suicide mission as if to say “I don’t trust you, it’s in your blood to betray us. I won’t miss you.” to “I’m sorry.” I wished we had a scene where it was vaguely hinted that she started to feel remorse. Oh well.

5. Keith becoming the Black Paladin in Shiro’s absence

What we expected: Keith to become a permeant replacement no matter how uncertain he is of his “destiny” because all of his past incarnations have been the Black Lion’s pilot. Heck, the “Lone Wolf becomes the leader no matter how unsure he/she is” is a common story line.

What really happened: Keith rejects being the Black Paladin because not only has Shiro returned but because he said it himself “I’m not meant to pilot the Black Lion.” He’s not running from his “destiny” he just doesn’t want it. He never wanted to be the leader. Why must it be forced onto him?

This post sums it up a lot better than I can. Keith can be one of the few characters that gets to reject his so called “destiny” without any huge consequences. Keith is already one of six chosen ones to pilot Voltron, he doesn’t need to be a “super duper chosen one”.

Now onto the speculation part.........

Here’s what might happen down the road....

1. Keith’s attempted sacrifice in S4

What we expect: Everyone to praise him for putting the mission over the individual or it gets swept under the rug because a sympathetic Keith gives him immunity to criticism from both the characters and the viewers.

What might actually happen: There will be consequences because there’s no guarantee that Keith sacrificing himself was going to help the coalition for the long term. There’s no way that the Paladins are going to be okay with it.

There is an interview that confirms or at least strongly implies that Keith’s actions in the S4 finale is something that’s not going to be ignored for obvious reasons. Let’s hope that S5 delivers on that.

The whole Shiro clone/corruption/whatever he is debate

What we expect: Shiro’s a clone or he’s corrupted. I’ve even seen a theory that suggests he’s from an alternate reality.

What might actually happen: Perhaps a combination of both. He can still be our Shiro whether he’s one of many defected clones or his soul is in a clone body because as far we know about Quintessence, which is basically life energy, cannot be copied. The Galra might need to use his soul to make the body work. Whatever it is the writers can potentially avert the cliches that come with a clone story.

And last but not least......

Team Voltron and the Lion switching

What we expect: The switch to be permanent because promotion=better character development, Black Paladin=True hero of the story and is better than every one, and “That’s how the original did it. We must abide to the original source material.”

What might actually happen: The Paladins will go back to the S1/S2 lineup once everyone figures out they all have leadership qualities and that they can all contribute something to the team instead of the Black Paladin calling the shots because he said so. Zarkon had this belief and look where it got him.

When you’re on a team there is no “I’m above you because I’m the leader.”. It should be “We all work together no matter what our position is because we’re all equal. There is no official leader”

As you can see the writers have made it their mission to make us think outside of our expectations and be open to other possibilities. Nothing is set in stone because “it has happened before.”

#voltron #voltron legendary defender #vld #voltron season 5 #voltron speculation #voltron theories

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tribeworldarchive · 5 years

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TRIBE SERIES 2 - LATEST REPORT - Week 5

Production of Tribe Series 2 entered its fifth week from Monday 6th September. The series is being shot with one shooting block being filmed every two weeks (each shooting block is made up of 4 episodes). In the first four weeks of production, the first two shooting blocks have been filmed, which represents the first 8 episodes in the series. The multi-episodic schedule maximises the quality and quantity of footage filmed during the production. Most television and film productions do not shoot scenes in the chronological order that the scenes are laid out in scripts - for example, there may be one scene in the shopping mall, then the next scene outside on a beach, the next scene back inside the shopping mall. Instead, the approach is for different scenes that are set against the same locations and backdrops to be shot at the same time. Using this process, it is possible to shoot several different scenes from several scripts at the same time - otherwise if scenes were shot in the order as they appear in the scripts, this would involve lots of travelling back and forth between different locations, which uses up a lot of time and resources. Cast members in the Tribe therefore learn lines of dialogue and scenes for their characters from different scenes in different scripts in the same shooting block, and film these scenes at the same time. Scenes in a shooting block based at a railyard, for instance, would be filmed on one day while the cast were located at the railyard, scenes at a beach would be filmed at the same time on a beach location. This is the most efficient production process and contributes to the excellent production values of the series on screen. Even then, it still takes six months to shoot 52 episodes of footage and you can imagine how long it would take if there was not multi-episodic shooting! Last week there was a combination of location based exterior scenes and interior studio scenes, with the furthest exterior location based about 12 kilometers from the Cloud 9 Production Centre. There was also a parallel shooting day on Thursday and Friday of last week involving two units, with one unit shooting interior studio scenes and another unit shooting other interior scenes at a different studio location. In addition to the clearly "visible" cast of characters in the Tribe, their make-up, hair and costume, locations, and animals, there are also elements in the "background" that all must be planned and co-ordinated. Sets and locations must be designed and `dressed` according to storylines in the scripts, and this is done by the Art Department. The Cloud 9 Production Centre has a vast collection of props that have been built up over the years and all these background elements contribute to the look and feel of the series, as well as supporting storylines. Last week alone, the following props (excluding costume and make-up items and accessories) were used in the production - radio cassette player, CDs, shopping trolley, cards, photos, dirty glasses, leftover food, messed up furniture, flaming torches, containers and bottles, bowl of porridge, spoon, bedside table, cloths, candles, a list, a hammock, mud, cutlery, crockery, decorations, tableclothes, trestle tables, hot drinks, computers, files, keyboard and mouse, desks, electrical equipment, a computer, video player, videos, plates, camera, cups, tea pots, bowls, doors, magazines, signs, fishing rods, and books! Last week, also saw the introduction of make-up and wardrobe tests for all the cast. They along with the entire production team are very keen to keep the series fresh and original from storylines to the look and feel of the series and the fashions and make-up is an important factor. The cast generally do not have a say in their "look" which is determined solely from their characters` perspective, but overall each member of the cast has always been very pleased with their wardrobe and make-up design and believe that it is very much in keeping with their own particular characterisations which often help them portray the roles they are cast to bring to life. An updated wardrobe and make-up design brings a lot of speculation and even anticipated excitement for all the cast, who discuss who might get what look and very often surprises are in store! Overall though, few members of cast are disappointed and all this week are absolutely thrilled with their updated wardrobe and make-up design. They are also very supportive of each other and are very much like a tribe in their outlook and the way in which they interreact. Each `looks out` for the others, the older members are rather like big brothers and sisters to the younger ones - and many observe the cast to be like a family. The cast and crew work long hours to fulfill an arduous production schedule so weekends are vitally important for all members of the team to relax and indulge in their favourite pastimes and hobbies. Most of the cast do what most of their fans do. They listen to music, watch television, go to the movies, read, use computers, but unlike most of their fans, the cast live and work within the confines of filming which means that they also have to do homework on their time off as well as learning lines and "going to bed early" to ensure that they are well rested and fresh for their early calls. Some weekends the cast are released so that they can travel home to visit their families while others have to remain within their Cloud 9 homes with their houseparents, which is determined by the production schedule. Those left behind indulge in as much recreational activities as possible. On Saturday, for example, Meryl (EBONY) took Jaimee (CHLOE) and Sarah (PATSY) shopping while Caleb (LEX) and Michael (JACK) practised some songs for their forthcoming recording session. Dwayne (BRAY) likes to paint and sculpt and finds this a very relaxing way to switch off. On Sunday, Meryl, Jaimee, Sarah and Caleb accompanied John Williams and Matt Prime (the songwriters and producers of the Tribe album) along with the Executive Producer and his family for a brunch and a long walk on the beach. Bob the dog was present and spent most of the time running in and out of the surf and sea. Dwayne stayed behind to finish his painting while the other members of the cast were able to discuss the recording an a relaxed atmosphere - as relaxed as it can be with the Tribe becoming well known in New Zealand, which means that members of the cast are often recognised and asked for autographs, which they are pleased to do if time permits, as it is important for them to stay in tune with their fans. We can assure all Tribe fans that weekends are also spent (along with any spare time during the week) with the cast reading their fan mail and personally responding to as many as they can. The weather in the fourth week of shooting series 2 (Monday 30th August - Friday 3rd September) was: - Monday - mainly fine with light winds - Tuesday - showers clearing during the day, southerly winds - Wednesday - cloudy, with northerly winds - Thursday - showers with cold southerly winds - Friday - mainly fine with light winds

#The Tribe #Location Report #Tribe 2 Location Reports #Matt Prime #John Williams #Bob

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linestv · 5 years

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Top 30 Episodes of 2018

Lots of shows had great seasons this year, but plenty of ones that didn’t end up making the cut had great episodes still worthy of recognition. This list is all about the episodes the very best episodes of the year, where everyone gets a fair chance to show off.

10. BoJack Horseman - “Free Churro” (S05E06)

BoJack Horseman often goes to very dark places, and this has to be one of the times they’ve done it the best. A 25-minute, almost uninterrupted eulogy is delivered throughout this episode, and it’s truly remarkable. Will Arnett’s voice work is absolutely on point, and the writing manages to keep the eulogy fresh and interesting throughout to the point where you won’t notice 25 minutes have gone by. It’s a real achievement, and it deserves a spot on this list.

9. Wentworth - “Bleed Out” (S06E03)

Wentworth delivered it’s season best episode early on, but that doesn’t take away from it’s greatness. It serves as an exit episode for beloved castmate Nicole da Silva, and it wraps her storyline up in the most satisfying and emotional way possible. Everyone in this episode is at the top of the game, with some tense and emotional moments throughout. No one could have wished for a better final episode for such a memorable and lovable character.

8. One Day at a Time - “Not Yet” (S02E13)

One Day at a Time’s second season finale ranks among it’s shows top episodes, and with good reason. It’s a very emotional journey where even though the end result is predictable, the very last few minutes of the episode absolutely blow expectations out of the water with one hell of a memorable moment. Everyone in the cast gets a time to shine here, and they all utilise it to the best of their abilities. It’s a perfect closer to the show’s best season yet.

7. Sharp Objects - “Milk” (S01E07)

Sharp Objects was fairly unimpressive throughout it’s entire run, but the finale was exceptionally well done. The twists and turns from the previous episodes finally culminate into one big explosive finale, with Amy Adam’s best performance in the episodes yet at the center. The rest of the cast also pulls their weight, and the episode ends with a mindblowing reveal. If only the rest of the season was as good as this finale, but I’ll take it.

6. Atlanta - “Teddy Perkins” (S02E06)

Atlanta is another show that is often unimpressive, all the while feeleing like it tries too hard to be something special. Teddy Perkins mitigated that trend, and actually created something noteworthy. The focus is completely taken away from the main cast, and instead on one member and his unusual outing to a strange place. Here Donald Glover actually gives a great performance, and the writing and directing cap the episode off as a wonderfully crafted detour.

5. The Good Place - “Janet(s)” (S03E09)

The Good Place had a rocky start with the third season, but ended up still delivering the best comedy episode of the year. D’Arcy Carden pulls a Tatiana Maslany in this episode, and she does it so phenomenally well. The entire episode is on her back, and she completely delivers in all aspects. The way she embodied the characters that weren’t her own so perfectly is truly special. Add some hilarious dialogue and the usual great Ted Danson, and there’s nothing not to love about this episode.

4. Castle Rock - “The Queen” (S01E07)

Castle Rock was a very uneven show, which generally felt like a bit of a slog. It was always interesting, but never quite reached greatness. Until The Queen, that is, where Sissy Spacek delivers an astounding performance as Ruth Deaver. It’s a great character journey to be following her on, and the entire road is very well written and directed. It’s easily the most memorable episode of the show, and absolutely it’s best.

3. The Good Fight - “Day 485″ (S02E12)

The Good Fight was consistent as heck in it’s second seasons, but it was easy to choose the standout episode. Day 485 may be the shortest episode yet, but it’s paced strikingly well. The entire cast is in it to win it in this fast paced, often hilarious journey throughout multiple courts. The episode is constantly moving and throwing new things at you, while never losing track of the main goal. It’s expertly crafted legal drama, and I love it.

2. The Haunting of Hill House - “Two Storms” (S01E06)

The Haunting of Hill House’s sixth episode is an undeniable achievement for the directing team of the show. An episode with three long takes is bound to be one of the standouts of the season, but luckily the writing and cast were also great to back it up. The character drama built up throughout the previous episodes finally comes to a head, and the chemistry is off the charts. A nice contrast is added between the flashbacks and current times too, if you needed anything more to get excited about here.

1. The Americans - “START” (S06E10)

The Americans’ series finale is without a doubt the very best episode of 2018. This is what we’ve been waiting to see for six seasons, and we finally got it. This finale did not disappoint in any way, and tied everything up flawlessly. The now well known garage scene is also one of the best scenes of the year, and it all has to do with the greatness of the ensemble in this show. The writing and directing made sure the emotional gut punch of the episode also came through, and to top it all of there were some fantastic soundtrack choices. This is the series finale everyone wanted, and it was delivered without question.

The top 30:

1. The Americans - “START” (S06E10) 2. The Haunting of Hill House - “Two Storms” (S01E06) 3. The Good Fight - “Day 485″ (S02E12) 4. Castle Rock - “The Queen” (S01E07) 5. The Good Place - “Janet(s)” (S03E09) 6. Atlanta - “Teddy Perkins” (S02E06) 7. Sharp Objects - “Milk” (S01E08) 8. One Day at a Time - “Not Yet” (S02E13) 9. Wentworth - “Bleed Out” (S06E03) 10. BoJack Horseman - “Free Churro” (S05E06) 11. G.L.O.W. - “Nothing Shattered” (S02E07) 12. American Crime Story - “House by the Lake” (S02E04) 13. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel - “Vote for Kennedy, Vote for Kennedy” (S02E09) 14. Killing Eve - “I Have A Thing About Bathrooms” (S01E05) 15. Legion - “Chapter 14″ (S02E06) 16. Barry - “Chapter Seven: Loud, Fast, and Keep Going“ (S01E07) 17. Pose - “Love Is The Message” (S01E06) 18. Wellington Paranormal - “Zombie Cops” (S01E06) 19. Good Girls - “Pilot” (S01E01) 20. This Is Us - “The Fifth Wheel” (S02E11) 21. Sneaky Pete - “Switch” (S02E10) 22. Happy! - “The Scrapyard of Childish Things” (S01E06) 23. Jane the Virgin - “Chapter Eighty-One” (S04E17) 24. Get Shorty - “Selenite” (S02E03) 25. Counterpart - “The Sincerest Form of Flattery” (S01E07) 26. The Expanse - “Triple Point” (S03E05) 27. The Chi - “Pilot” (S01E01) 28. Brockmire - “Broadcasters Jinx” (S02E06) 29. Claws - “Scream” (S02E04) 30. BoJack Horseman - “The Showstopper” (S05E11)

2018 had lots of great episodes to choose from, and hopefully that trend will continue throughout 2019!

#top30 #episodes #2018 #TV

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