#but putting the only black main character as the protagonist of an episode

[flower-boi16]

The Problems With Charlie As The Main Protagonist

I've spoken about my thoughts on Charlie as a character before a few times on this blog, but I think it's finally time to discuss why Charlie isn't exactly the best protagonist. On the surface, there doesn't seem to be much wrong with her, she's likable and endearing enough and she's easy to root for. But...once you look deeper, the problems begin to rear their ugly head.

1. Charlie Never Grows

The first major issue with Charlie as a character is how she never really grows over the course of the first season. The show never really gives her much of an arc...? Like, by the end of the season, what does Charlie really learn by the end? The only thing I can think of is that she was right about sinners being redeemed and...that's it.

And it doesn't really make Charlie that particularly compelling as a character, she's entirely stagnant. She does have a conflict with her father, which, while executed fine, isn't enough to make her a developed character. She only gets small tinges of development and that isn't really enough for me.

Charlie doesn't learn anything or grow as a character, which makes her pretty underdeveloped as a character. The show never really gives her any real character flaws to grow from and become a better person, she's always portrayed as in the right anyway and never challenged once. Speaking of that...

2. Charlie is Always Right

This more or less ties back into the "Charlie never grows" point I've said before and I've talked about this several times before, but it's still an issue with Charlie's character; she is ALWAYS in the right. Charlie's "everyone can be redeemed" mentality is never once challenged by the narrative, and anybody who does oppose Charlie in any way is considered as wrong by the narrative.

The reason why this is a problem is because Hazbin Hotel heavily preaches about being against black-and-white moralities, as seen with Heaven and especially Adam. Heaven is meant to be seen as bad because of its black-and-white mindset of "Sinners can't be redeemed and never will". This is put on full display with Adam, and his song Hell is Forever, to the point it literally includes lyrics like "the rules are black and white there's no use in trying to fight it".

You Didn't Know further pushes this with this line "the rules are shades of gray when you don't do as you say and you make the wretched suffer just to kill them again".

So the show wants to push a message of "black and white morals are bad", but...it's rendered moot by the fact that Charlie is purely portrayed as in the right. Charlie is completely correct, everybody can be redeemed, everyone even the most evil people who did the worst possible things can still be good, and anyone who opposes her is wrong cuz she's completely in the right...gee, for a show so heavily against black-and-white moralities...doesn't this all seem very black and white in it of itself?

Charlie's "everyone can be redeemed" mentality is just as black and white as Adam's "nobody can be redeemed", they are both extremes leaning in opposite directions, that are also both wrong in their own ways, yet the show portrays Charlie's extreme as the right one and Adam's as the wrong one.

I've already talked about this before but Adam is a pure straw character; he only exists so Charlie can prove him wrong, he cant have any real character depth beyond being a generic asshole or have a real point because the show is so dead-set on making Charlie purely in the right no matter what; the narrative never challenges her and anyone who opposes her is portrayed as automatically in the wrong.

This is not the only time this happens btw. In episode 5, Lucifer is also portrayed as automatically wrong for opposing his daughter’s goals. He himself says that “Our people are AWFUL. They got gifted free will and look what they did with it!”, and the show…never counters this, despite what Lucifer is saying…being true. The people in Hell ARE awful and it's their own fault, many of them ARE deserving of death because…well, their shitty people.

Charlie is never challenged once throughout the show and its a problem because not only does it fly in the face of the show being so anti black and white, it also wastes an opportunity for the show to develop Charlie as a character; with her learning that some people can't be redeemed because they either are incapable or uninterested in changing.

That would fit more with the show’s anti-black-and-white themes and also have Charlie go through real growth as a character as she learns that not everything is all sunshine and rainbows. But sadly, we can't really have that.

So Charlie's ideals are never challenged by the narrative and thus it not only flies in the face of the show's themes it also wastes an opportunity for Charlie to grow as a character. Now it's best to get into the next issue with her...

3. Charlie is Barely Focused On

Another big issue with Charlie as the show's main protagonist is that the show doesn't really focus on her that much, especially the first half. Now, shows don't need to focus on the main protagonist at all times, obviously giving some screen time to other characters is definitely something shows should do.

But the problem is that Charlie gets very LITTLE focus in the series despite being the main protagonist, and this contributes to the problem of her being underdeveloped. The first half of the show is especially bad at this; episode 1 Is the only episode in the first half that focuses on Charlie, but even then it's overtaken by the B-plot involving the other characters trying to film a commercial.

Episodes 2&3 are entirely dedicated to what characters like Alastor or Angel Dust are doing and episode 4 is completely focused on Angel and his arc. It contributes to the issue of the show not being able to develop Charlie that much as a character because she's constantly being overshadowed by other characters. The second half is better in this regard for focusing more on Charlie but still, for the first half of the show, it feels like Charlie is overshadowed by other characters which is embarrassing because, well, she's the main character, yet she feels like she's barely gotten any actual spotlight.

4. Conclusion

I want to love Charlie as a character. I really do. I mean, she's a part of one of my favorite character archetypes. I always LOVE over joyful optimistic characters because I just find them a joy to watch on screen, but sadly, Charlie doesn't have much depth beyond that archetype. She isn't that developed making her fail to be much of a compelling protagonist, her ideology is never challenged by the narrative wasting an opportunity for her to grow and contradicting the show's themes, and she's heavily overshadowed by other characters despite being the main protagonist.

So ya, that's why Charlie isn't that great of a protagonist...bye.

#vivziepop critical #hazbin hotel critical #vivziepop criticism #hazbin hotel criticism

[darklinaforever]

Your post about Alicent being in the center of the poster confused me. Why would Rhaenyra and Daemon be the protagonists? The main focus of the series is the Dance of Dragons. And what does it matter if Alicent is in the center? Girl, it's just a poster! There's no need to exaggerate and say it disgusts you.

Um... already, the post you are referring to is dated.

Then, even if the story is about the dance of dragons, well there are inevitably main characters, and an arrangement of the narrative roles of the characters.

There's no point pretending that wasn't the case to justify the fact that the Alicent actress is often at the center of the posters. If we follow your logic, there shouldn't even be a person highlighted in the center !

Blacks are generally the protagonists, and Greens are the antagonists.

The overall main character of this story in Fire and Blood is Rhaenyra, with at the limit Daemon as the second main character alongside her. It's just plain facts.

And if a character / actor should be at the center of the posters representing the show / dedicated to advertising it, it is the actress of Rhaenyra / Emma D'Arcy who should therefore be at the center.

It’s easy to understand, isn’t it ? Have you ever seen what basic marketing looks like for a show or something ?

Even when looking for actors for HOTD, Emma D'Arcy is not the first proposed ! Milly Alcock appears in his place for the role of Rhaenyra, while she was and will only be the actress in the first 5 episodes, unlike Emma D'Arcy, who takes over the role of Rhaenyra for the rest of the show, and who was chosen first ! Milly having been chosen in order to correspond most to Emma D'Arcy young version.

Emma D'Arcy has this tendency to be quite erased from the marketing of the show and it's shameful.

Just like there's this trend of putting the Alicent actress at the center of posters when she's not the main protagonist, unlike Emma, and I guess it's a matter of thinking she's more of a classic beauty than Emma. Either that or this is yet another sign that those in charge of HOTD are in favor of Team Greens. Or both.

And why do you always advocate non-reflection like that ? I'm not even the only one to criticize this aspect of the HOTD marketing. You want to settle for the minimum in terms of reflection ? Well, that's your business, so leave me alone.

Is this the latest thing ?

Pretending there are no main characters / protagonists in HOTD and Fire and Blood to justify Alicent / Olivia Cooke being the focus of the posters ?

Even if by this logic of non-main characters, no one should be highlighted in the center in this case ?

Seriously, you have to stop the bullshit after a while.

Especially since it's been a while since I talked about it and I've made very few posts about it.

But yes, Emma D'Arcy subtly sidelined in certain aspects of the marketing of HOTD, or not in mind when we are entitled to the list of actors of HOTD to instead find Milly, yes, that annoys me and disgust me.

#emma d'arcy #milly alcock #house of the dragon #anti house of the dragon #hotd #anti hotd #fire and blood #f&b #olivia cooke #anti alicent hightower #anti alicent stans #anti green #anti greens #anti green stans #anti greens stans #team blacks #team black #pro team blacks #pro team black #rhaenyra targaryen #pro rhaenyra targaryen #the realms delight #the black queen #queen rhaenyra #the dragon queen #the half year queen #daemon targaryen #pro daemon targaryen #the rogue prince #daemyra

[victimsofyaoipoll]

Round 1

Propaganda Under Cut

Allura

Lots of people (myself included tbh) ship klance (Keith and Lance). In s8 the creators made Allura/Lance canon (but then they killed her off and left the ending ambiguous it was weird). Anyway the fandom treats her like she's the most terrible bitchy woman ever but all she wants to do is end the war and avenge her destroyed home planet. Yeah she wasn't always the nicest or always the best, but you could argue some other characters in the show aren't either and they aren't treated near as bad as allura. people really just hate her bc Lance liked her. I don't think allura/lance are good together, but I still liked her as a character and thought she was interesting and had a lot of growth during the show. she DEF is not evil like some people portray her as in fic or talk about her in captions on posts. I've seen people say that they HATE her and that she's the worst and I'm like ??? let her live (well sort of ig she is dead now). lots of fic writers use her as the villain which is so interesting to me bc the show literally has villains like use them. anyway allura so perfectly fits the bracket description she deserves better.

I hate to acknowledge my time in this fandom but I hate the way the fandom treated her more. Allura was treated like shit no matter what side of the Great Ship War you were on because she was always a threat to the biggest ships (klance and sheith). At best she got put into Background Lesbian or Consolation Prize Shallura (Space Mom-zoned) (She was not a motherly figure btw. She was just Black). At worst she was violently demonized for being ~racist~ (kinda not cool with the alien race that blew up her planet for a few episodes), complete with misogynistic language hurled at her (she got called a bitch sooo much). Allura was a good and cool character and the show did her dirty but the fandom was somehow worse.

i apologise for speaking the dark magicks, but amidst the voltron fandoms many, many transgressions, there were a particular subset of people who just hated this girl. the infamous klance wars of the 2010s kept this perfectly fine childrens cartoon character in the sights of shippers everywhere, and she (and her voice actress im sure) were subjected to years of petty squabble blown up to global perportions. ive seen hate, ive seen rants, ive seen fanfics that made her homophobic. girls been through the ringer, and even though voltron was never the show its fandom wanted it to be, i believe allura deserved better

Kayano Kaede

shes genuinely a really tragic character who had potential for a really compelling, effective arc concerning grief, identity, healing, and finding trust again all while going through the inherent ordeal of being 15 years old….if she werent a female character in a shonen anime 😭😭 instead she gets sidelined during the show up until her big plot twist reveal after which shes immediately sidelined again. whatever i still love her and know her to be a character of all time who has suffered more than jesus. in my experience shes perhaps the female character who like. ive seen most *obsessively* hated due to her “getting in the way” of the ship b/w the male protagonist + deuteragonist (bc of her proximity to the both of them) u woild think shes the devil incarnate and not just. 15 and traumatised 

She had a crush on Nagisa and they kissed and a lot of fans ship him with Karma so theyre mad that Kaede is there. She is super silly and nice but the fandom hates her for standing in the way of karmagisa.

she's a sweet person that was an actor and loves her sister. she is the main love interest of the main character but doesn't interact with him more than most of the other characters for a majority of the story. Often I have seen them removed from the story only to become some homophobic jerk that's desperate for the main characters love instead of letting her keep the good friendship that her and the main character had before the romance.

#poll #round 1 #allura #princess allura #voltron #voltron legendary defender #kaede kayano #kayano kaede #assassination classroom

[insufferableprotagonistpoll]

Round 2

Propaganda why Marinette Dupain-Cheng is insufferable:

She easily gets away with bad, stalkerish behavior, it always feels like she can ‘do no wrong’ unless the show wants us to pity her, and the show writers want us to think she is a quirky and socially awkward girl when throughout the series we see her be friends with basically everyone in Paris with many connections to high up places.

I get she has social anxiety but the way she goes about stalking Adrien is kind of the worst like she even has creep shots of him hanging in her room? That’s weird. I think Adrien’s going through enough without having to deal with the main character being his stalker lol. I know they’re (spoilers) at this point but in the beginning it was so sus

In the newest season, Marinette hides the fact that Hawkmoth was Adrien’s dad. This leads to the bastard getting a statue and honored as a hero after his death. Adrien now never gets to know the fact that his abusive and neglectful father was the one trying to kill him and is instead proud of him.

Her crush on Adrien is like a black hole for her character. Things she’s done because of it:

1) stolen property

2) ruined dates

3) humiliated other characters

4) has a chart of Adrien’s daily schedule for the next year in her room (this is stalking)

5) broke into his room and sniffed his pillow (also a crime)

6) sniffed, took the hair from, and tried to kiss what she thought was a wax statue of Adrien

7) convinced her parents to let her go to China. Why? Not because she wants to connect with her mother’s heritage, not even because she’s a budding fashion designer and Shanghai is considered a fashion hotspot. It’s because Adrien was there.

I started the show, watched one episode, and never tried again. I simply do not vibe with her.

shes annoyinng anf shes a stalker

I love fanon miraculous but by god she has got to stop obsessively stalking her crush and generally making a ton of other terrible decisions. I’d submit Adrien too but he’s more of a deuteragonist

More propaganda

Anti propaganda

Propaganda why Aelin Ashryver Galathynius is insufferable:

Your basic Mary Sue. Styled as the incredibly cool best-assassin in the land at only 18, she nevertheless is constantly snuck up upon, distracted by pretty boys, and possesses not an ounce of wit. In a competition between murderers and thieves to win a place as the King's Champion, she sees a bag of chocolates on her bed that she didn't put there and immediately starts eating it and gushing about how much she adores chocolate - nevermind that they just had a trial involving poison, which several of her competitors are adept at. She's always right, and other characters exist just to tell her how awesome and beautiful and wonderful she is. And then she turns out to be a super special magical fey princess!

I generally don't believe that a Mary Sue is a bad thing, but the only thing I remember about this book was how she had been in prison for years but was super young but was also still the most super-specialest assassin. And she kept reading when she should have been training or sleeping. Like, girl, this is not final exams where you can stay up all night and then roll into class in your pajamas and still squeak out a C. It's supposed to be life and death. Her character traits didn't make her relatable, they made her a moron

Heir to a kingdom plus turquoise eyes plus best assassin in the world plus protagonist centered morality

Anti propaganda

#marinette dupain cheng #miraculous ladybug #mlb marinette #mlb #aelin galathynius #celaena sardothien #throne of glass #aelin ashryver galathynius #insufferable protagonist poll #insufferable protagonist tournament #tournament poll

[broncoburro]

The three royal families of the Tri-Kingdom of Vestur have enjoyed many generations of peace on their home soil. But when the miners who supply artefacts to the magic-using aristocracy stage a revolt, the whole country (and the social order) is thrown into chaos.

If you’ve ever wondered “who are those guys you two keep drawing” - here’s the answer!  (This is by the way, only a sampling of some main characters.)

Forever Gold is a black/anthro, dark fantasy IF RPG being developed in the Twine engine by me and LSDolphin.

If you wanna keep up with occasional updates about this project, give us a follow and/or take a gander below.

It is a story about changing times and no-win political situations - as played through a protagonist put into a position of power who is particularly very, very bad at any sort of diplomacy.

While I would describe the over-all tone as dark and for more mature audiences, it is far from devoid of levity.

The gameplay mainly revolves around dealing with and occasionally manipulating powerful people and their batshit ideas, in order to secure what you think is the best outcome for your family and people. (And sometimes that involves indulging a Lord in procuring his prize hog from the middle of war zone.) 

I’m not currently committing to posting dev logs (I may eventually, if anyone were to care about such a thing), but production is underway and I love to muck around answering questions about the project, world, and characters in my spare time.

(Also, why “black/furry”? Because you can play as either human or “snout mode”. Solely because I wanted to. It’s mainly a cosmetic difference - changes in talk sprites and body language descriptions.)

My plan is for episodic releases, so... stay tuned, if you’d like. ; )

#twine #interactive fiction #twine game #furry #anthro #thank you for reading haha... its sometimes hard for me to talk in plain text about my writing #oc: dangelo #oc: lucas #oc: quincy #oc: oscar #world: forever gold #WHEW

[who-do-i-know-this-man]

Alright, looks like my dearest blorbo lost, so here's my long anticipated post mortem propaganda post for her and the 15 dollar game bundle that blew me away. For decency's sake, i'm sealing the meat of this post behind a read more, so as to not accidentally colour of the skies everyone who follows this tourney. (Or at least i'm going to try to. Tumblr is weird, and apologies if it does not work.)

One fateful day, I purchased the Bundle For Ukraine from itch.io. While I was initially put off by the seemingly bargain bin quality of most of the games, I ultimately decided it was worth it. I donated, got the games, and perused through them for anything eye catching. I found Celeste, Zeroranger, a couple of cute tools…

And a little game called Crosscode.

I was… intrigued. I'd saw this game once or twice before, and I was curious. Figuring that it couldn't hurt to try it, I downloaded the game and started it up.

Crosscode turned out to be a very good game.

And most of that was because of the main character:

Lea.

In summary, Crosscode is an action rpg game made by Radical Fish and released fully on pc in 2018, with console ports later. It follows the story of Lea, a woman who wakes up inside a futuristic MMO set on a moon in a distant galaxy, where players physically control avatars made out of a high tech substance known as Instant Matter (think hard light holograms, and that's pretty much it.), as she's guided by a programmer in order to recover her lost memories. I can go on and on about just how amazing the game is: how the plot takes a turn from "generic mmo isekai esque" to if someone decided to adapt one of the better black mirror episodes into an action rpg, how polished the combat and puzzles are, and how incredible the music is, but that's not what the main purpose of this tourney is. It's to tell you just how good of a character Lea is.

Lea is the main protagonist/player character, a rather shy woman with a real competitive spirit and a cheeky attitude, once she warms up to someone. A major part of her character is due to a major glitch in her avatar's voice module, she's mute (aside from a couple of hardcoded words her programmer friend could put in). "A silent protagonist?" you may ask me. "Like, a player avatar that is deliberately left without any strong characterisation as to allow nearly anyone to insert themselves into?" Nope! Instead of being a blank slate for projection, Lea expresses an incredible amount of character through simply inflection and facial expression.

This is only a PART of her spritesheet! Only a smidge, and i'm not even getting into the special sprites she has for certain story events.

Throughout the story, Lea has to tackle difficulties with not being able to communicate as well with players and NPCs, along with typical mmo difficulties, all while she unravels the dark mysteries of what's really going on behind the scenes of Crossworlds...

Despite her difficulties, she's always treated with respect by the game's narrative, which can be seen with the many interactions between her and the surrounding cast (all mainly expressed through her many sprites).

A few of my favourite moments of hers include:

Annoying her programmer friend:

Her reaction to her horns:

Her absolute freak out at being held by a five year old:

Her absolutely intending to get into more antics after a certain sidequest:

And if you need any more motivation to play this amazing game, here's the special reactions she gets when you turn on the New Game Plus cheat that gives you insane damage with every hit:

Yes, the devs made specific sprites just for when you play new game plus with a certain cheat.

Please, do yourself a favour and play Crosscode. It's like twenty bucks on steam without a sale. It's what Sword Art Online would be if it didn't completely suck. It's disability culture. It's the world's best single player MMO. It's a Black Mirror's White Christmas episode adapted into a video game.

And most of all... it has Lea.

Wow. Well unfortunately it seems that read more does not work in asks.

#asks #not blorbo poll #propaganda? #long post #really long post

[artoatsblog]

Half-Life/portal/tf2 crossover but it's a 2000's cartoon au

Gordon Freeman is our blank slate protagonist, he's 11 and just moved to town, He's bullied and doesn't have any friends until he finds out he has superpowers and it's his job to save his new town.

Chell is a goth girl who acts as (essentially) Gordon's moral compass.

Wheatley is a Mr crocker type teacher who hates Gordon and helps Caroline take over the town.

Caroline is the principal whose alternate supervillain form (named GLaDOS) main power is summoning "the all powerful nine".

They may or may not be based on the Mercs from tf2

Speeding sound (scout) is a black and white cartoon character put into the modern day, he dresses like a baseball player and in the first episode he appears in the main way of defeating him is not giving him any attention.

Powerful patriot (Soldier) is the most """Noble""" of the nine he has a skewed sense of justice and looks like a 6 ft raccoon wearing teared up army clothes he found in the dumpster probably.

Innocent inferno (Pyro) just wants to make everyone happy, granted this happiness comes from being hypnotized, but it's the thought that counts, he's/she's/they're a unicorn that looks like they're being taken over by dragon DNA, although only the unicorn parts can be seen when they're pals (victims) hypnotized to have a more "friendly" look.

Almighty alpha (demo) is a beach bum because that's the closest I can get to a PG alcoholic, He's also a wolf because... I needed another word that started with a, instead of being just connected to wizards he is one, he mostly uses his powers to hypnotize people to like him because he is very lonely and sad.

Dreaded dyr (Heavy) rarely comes to earth himself because he finds conquering humans child's Play, closest thing to a leader the nine have and looks like whatever a fat/jacked skeletor would look like.

Boastin' bronco (engineer) thinks that all humans are inferior to him, acts "real nice" to them but secretly hates every single one, he's a robot cowboy because why would you expect him to be anything else.

Medical malpractice (medic) is no angel despite his looks, similar to bronco he finds humans weak however unlike bronco he wants to improve humans by taking his favorite parts of the animal kingdom and forcing humans to be just a bit more like them, he has a human body but dove like wings, a eyeball for a head and a doctor's coat design to look like an angel's robe.

Sharp shooter (sniper) is a croc from the down under(world) doesn't talk to people and mainly stays up high to avoid being touched, He's literally just sniper but a crocodile in terms of appearance.

And finally, Shimmering shadow (spy) has the ability to possess anyone with the only downside being that the right arm is all under control of the original person he possessed, he is a pure black shadow in 2D.

#half life #portal 2 #team fortress 2 #portal 2 chell #portal 2 glados #portal 2 wheatley #tf2 #tf2 soldier #tf2 medic #tf2 scout #tf2 engineer #tf2 pyro #tf2 spy #tf2 sniper #tf2 heavy #tf2 demoman

[woodchipp]

Fortunately, that's where the posts come in.

"In a story where we view everything from Sunny's perspective, someone who's been repressing everything about this incident so deeply"

You know what other work of fiction does this exact "protagonist with repressed memories has to face the truth of having killed their loved one" plot but does it way better? Silent Hill 2.

SH2's plot twist is that its main protagonist, James Sunderland, killed his wife Mary three years before the game's events and repressed the memory of the murder, convincing himself that Mary actually died of a terminal illness she was suffering from at the time he killed her. The terminal illness is a heavy factor in the murder - because it disfigured Mary and made her confront her own mortality at the age of 25, she repeatedly lashed out at James, who tried to take care of her despite his own despair. Eventually, watching his wife wither away and being powerless to do anything about it, Mary's mood-swings, resentment of the burden she put on him and a desire to relieve her of the misery she was in drove James to smother her with a pillow.

The reason I'm bringing it up is because SH2 actually foreshadows its twist - three out of the four characters James meets throughout the game vaguely reference that James' relationship with Mary wasn't as good as James implies it was, the fourth character (whom you fight as a boss and who killed a dog at some point before coming to Silent Hill) alludes to the fact that James must be a murderer too if he is in the town in the first place, Pyramid Head's design being based on a painting of an executioner and him pursuing James over the course of the game implies James is a criminal who wants to be punished, one of the locations James has to go through is literally a prison, etc. The "Hallway" conversation I've linked in the paragraph above is used by the game to show how James and Mary's relationship worsened after she contracted her illness; as I said, the dialogue clearly implies Mary had such mood-swings pretty frequently.

OMORI doesn't have much foreshadowing for the real cause of Mari's death, nor does it have anything similar to the "Hallway" conversation to show how harsh she got with Sunny. A good chunk of the hints the game provides (Omori's Furious emotion showing a single eye similar to Mari's hanged body, Something in the Water's little hanged bodies, Something's general design) would lead the player to believe Mari did kill herself before the story swerves around in its last hour and reveals that Sunny committed manslaughter. The only hints I could call hints are the prevalence of staircases in cutscenes before Sunny fights his fears and maybe the storage room, but even then my point stands - it's just not enough.

(oh, I also remembered the "You did it" poster in Orange Oasis. Which is an optional location, thus making crucial foreshadowing very easily missed. lol and lmao)

That brings me to your next point.

"I don't really see where a direct explanation of the build-up to the fight beyond that would fit."

Black Space.

Since it (ostensibly) represents Sunny's unpredictable subconscious, you could just make it the framing device for Sunny's backstory akin to Bojack Horseman's Time's Arrow, an episode where a character's backstory memories (traumatic and otherwise) are filtered through her emotional perception of the events at the time they happened and her unstable mental state in the present day.

A very good example of how Time's Arrow manages to convey trauma without sacrificing story is its signature scene - a formative memory from the character's childhood, in which she sees her father callously dispose of her beloved toy by burning it in the fireplace while telling her to keep her emotions in check and not to cry lest she ends up like her mother, who was lobotomized some time ago and consequently became a shadow of her former self. Since everything the audience sees in this episode is filtered through the character's emotions, her father's callousness is represented by the aforementioned fireplace behind him becoming a wall of hellfire, while her mother's status as a shadow of her former self is represented by her being a literal shadow with the lobotomy scar highlighted.

That brings me to your next point.

"A lot of the build-up due to that is expressed metaphorically through Headspace and Black Space."

Where? Literally where?

What, am I supposed to see the room with the "Peter Griffin chokes on a rice cake"-like BGM as a representation of the Deep emotional pain Sunny experienced as a result of Mari's scolding? lmao

That brings me to your next point.

Again, I was talking about the game not showing us the deterioration of Sunny and Mari's relationship over the course of their practicing. You seem to have missed that point completely, but just to make something clear

The parallel you're talking about doesn't even work. Mari was dead the moment she hit the bottom of the staircase. Basil was still alive and in active danger of dying, which means that he was able to be rescued.

Mari wasn't.

"Lots of people see spaceboy as a parallel to hero but no one thinks if sweetheart (and her chase of perfectionism all throughout the game) is a parallel for mari."

Actually, a lot of people do. It's the only theory about her I've seen floating around when people discuss the meaning she supposedly has, and I've been lurking around in this fandom for quite a while now.

By the way,

>>"People aren't just filling it in themselves like fanfiction" >>proceeds to use fanon interpretations as an argument

If that style of writing isn't something you like, that's ok! Completely understandable, not everyone wants to pick through the details for things like that

Implying that the work you're defending is just Too Genius™ for your interlocutor to understand isn't a great way to endear them to your argument.

But I wouldn't necessarily call it bad writing. You're allowed to not like something without it being inherently bad or poorly made.

The inverse is also true - you're allowed to like something without it being good! What constitutes a "good" work of fiction is subjective, after all. I have my own fair share of works I'm really fond of despite how shitty they are lol

Just don't get all defensive and insist that the work you like is too Subtle and Intricate to understand when someone points out the very glaring and numerous flaws.

(also bro really said "agree to disagree" and then wrote me a giant reply justifying their opinion lmao)

@welcome-to-grayspace

#this response me took a better half of the day to get together but I had fun while writing it and that's what matters most ig #omori #omori game #omori fandom

[ramblings-of-a-mad-cat]

Damn, with your track record of unpopular opinions and hot takes, I was sort of hoping you'd be TG. Ah well lol. Have you seen the S2 trailer?

I'm not really anything.

I've certainly made a number of posts supporting Team Liquorice over Team Broccoli (I prefer to use those names as I am uncomfortable calling any faction that House Velaryon associates with "The Blacks.") and I stand by pretty much everything I said in them, but if you want to see some Pro-Broccoli posts, I can make those too. I know it's cliche to call myself "Team Smallfolk" but I really am first and foremost on their side. I've always said that this war did not need to happen and it was within the Highborns' power to stop it, to prevent the common people from having to go through The Dance. All that needed to happen was for someone to concede. That's it. Literally all it would have taken, and to her credit, Rhaenyra considers doing this.

Team Broccoli have it tricky, because the show is framed around Rhaenyra, it centralizes her as the protagonist. It puts Alicent and her faction in the role of antagonists of Rhaenyra's story. Additionally...it' would be difficult to identify as a Green, because right out of the gate, you'd have to defend yourself and clarify that of course you're NOT a misogynist. The Broccoli faction is heavily associated with misogyny as they are trying to prevent a woman from taking the throne. Naturally, this doesn't mean that people who support Aegon over Rhaenyra are sexist - and if you're one of the people saying that...um, stop it. They are fictional characters in a fictional war. We really shouldn't be taking it that seriously, and it's disingenuous to act like misogyny is the only reason a fan might choose Aegon. Even the Hightowers don't really care that Rhaenyra is a woman. That's the basis they're using to seize the throne, but that's nothing more than a means to an end. If Rhaenyra were a man, they'd still want to seat Aegon, they'd just have to think of something else to justify it.

I have seen the trailers, and I love just about everything about them. I especially love how they gave us one for each team, that is genius. The only thing I don't love is how we're already getting a reduced count of episodes, from ten to eight. Particularly since this show is apparently only going to be four seasons or so, this hurts. Like, did you guys learn nothing from the last two seasons of Game of Thrones? All the negative reception they got for how rushed they felt? Even if they wanted to say, push certain battles back to Season 3 for the sake of budget, they could have stretched things out a little more, given the episodes, characters, and plots time to breathe. I don't know, it also just depends on how much content is available to be adapted.

Hey, here's a nice thing I can say about Team Broccoli. Your trailer slaps. Team Liquorice's trailer is just kind of average. Then again, the main reason the green trailer is better is because of the Aegon content. He's everywhere in this trailer and he is killing it, so I really hope this is a sign that they'll make him more important. Also, he now has the funniest line in the entire show so far. "To war then!" Like. Oh god. You absolute idiot, you slay me. Meanwhile, Rhaenyra's trailer is...fine. There's nothing wrong with it. I'm just glad they fixed Jace's hair. (And ruined Criston's, it's a tradeoff.) I love everything to do with Alicent and Rhaenys in these trailers, they really are setting up to be the voices of reason. How bout that scene of Alicent in the dress she wore back in episode one? I'm thinking dream sequence, because why would she still have that dress after all this time? There's also poor Helaena with a knife to her throat. That kills me, because I've read the books and I know what scene that is...

#Fandom Analysis #House of The Dragon #Team Green #the blacks & the greens #HotD Analysis #HotD Season 2 #Rhaenyra Targaryen #Aegon II Targaryen #Fire and Blood #Team Liquorice #Team Broccoli #Rhaenys Targaryen #Alicent Hightower #Helaena Targaryen #Jace Velaryon

[fefeman]

Oban Star Racers review

Yesterday I decided to watch Oban Star Racers, since it was a series I slept on when I was a kid and I heard a lot of good for it. So I binged the 26 episodes yesterday and today.

Overall verdict: FUCKING DOPE. 9/10

Very good series overall. It has a pretty unique art style (most notable on the humanoid characters) but it makes it work and uses it well to have pretty dynamic and expressive characters and gorgeous environments. And it's a very neatly written story, that finds the right balance between a sport fiction (racing), the overarching space opera/space fantasy narrative, and the interpersonal drama.

And the OP is pretty good and sells the color.

The plot :

(two ships preparing for the preliminary of the Oban Star Race)

In the future, humanity is set to participate in a racing competition between civilizations of the galaxy, where the winner will receive the "ultimate prize" from a sort of "god" of the galaxy. Eva, a young girl who wishes to be recognized by her father (both literally and figuratively), gets involved in this race when said father becomes the manager of the earth team... And it soon turns out the competition has way higher stakes than everyone believed.

The plot reminded me bit of Red Lines, albeit with far looser vehicle rules than it (one competitor rides a giant beetle... ONE COMPETITOR JUST FLY HIMSELF), although I don't think a more in-depth comparison is worthwhile. Ultimately they provide different experiences despite the similarities.

A more in-depth rating would be :

Story:

very well written with good dialogue. None of the 3 main storylines (racing, drama, mystery) feel underdeveloped compared to the other, and they all manage to fit right into place as the plot progresses. The only downside is some plot points could have been introduced earlier and in more detail, but this only concerns a few.

9/10

Characters:

The characters are colorful and interesting. The secondary cast have a lot of personality, with unique ship design that sometime really push the definition of "racing ship".

(one of the secondary cat... I mean cast, Para-dice)

And the recurring cast isn't left behind. They are complex and nuanced, flawed people who sometimes make bad decisions, but always act in an understandable way. Sometimes their reasoning is more implied than explained, but it's not easy to miss it.

(The short guy with black and white hair is Don Wei, the protagonist's father. The tall dude with his tits out and sunglasses is Rick Thunderbolt, a pilot for the earth team)

The only issues are that one character is developed and leaves the story way too quickly and that some are a bit too simple/one not. But it's a minority and it's probably to balance give more time to the interpersonal drama.

8/10

Art :

The art style surprises a bit, but you get used to it quickly. It makes for expressive characters, and it's stylization make the humans not feel boring compared to the many aliens.

(you may have noticed they don't have noses)

There's also some clever use of 3D here and there, but it's well integrated so it doesn't feel too jarring. And the environment are fun to look at.

(This isn't what you expect to see when you're told you're going for an interplanetary racing competition. But I really like this planet, Alwas)

8/10

Music:

The music is good guys. I put the OP above, but the ost is also great, both for actions and non-action scenes. I really like the preliminary planet's theme... it really sells the confusion of humans reaching a new world they've never seen before with a pre-fire spacefaring civilization (that uses caterpillar-powered engines).

And Prince Aikka's theme is also cool.

Anyway, for the music, I was gonna give it a 8/10, but now that I listened to them again for this review, I realize they do carry a lot of making this experience pleasant. So

9/10

Worldbuilding:

That's a very important factor if you make Sci-fan, so I thought it was good to make it a category. Oban's setting succeed in the two key point I look for in a fictional universe: It makes its own sauce, and it looks alive.

Not everything in the setting is unique, but it offers some fresh concepts or visual identity make the inspiration turn. Like, I really enjoyed Ceres' ship being an amalgam of tubes that shouldn't fly, and that he rode standing on it rather than in a cockpit.

or spirit weird anatomy that looks like an unraveled humanoid

Or hell, Oban (the planet) itself functions in a way I haven't seen yet in sci-fi. that's what I mean by "make its own sauce". I can look at some elements of it and say "Wow, you don't see that every day" and get a rush of inspiration from the new flavor.

As for the "looks alive" part, by that I meant that the series gives the impression if I put the camera away from the main plot, there still would be interesting things to see. We know a lot is going on offscreen. We only see one of the 3 preliminaries... that's a lot of teams we haven't met... And even with the one we met, there's political intrigue in their homeworld, tragedies they wish to repair, etc... It's a universe where you feel you could always find something new to look at.

10/10

So, once again

OVERALL RATING: 9/10

#oban star racers #anime review #french animation #japanese animation #it's a collaboration #science fiction #Youtube

[episodeoftv]

Prelims, Vote 5 of 8

The top 4 finales will move on to be included in the main bracket

Propaganda is under the cut, may include spoilers

CSI: NY - 9.17 Today is Life

CSI was always copaganda and admittedly NY got cancelled midseason but jesus fucking christ. Weird semi-bottle episode of cops trapped inside their station because people are protesting the shooting of a Black man as the others desperately scrabble to prove he was armed as if that automatically makes it okay. No closure for any characters other than making previously sympathetic characters look like racist dicks.

Faking it - 3.10 Up in Flames

This series finale was so underwhelming that I didn't even realize it was the finale and not just another episode. Yes, the show was cancelled early but it didn't even read as a season finale...

Imposters - 2.10 See You Soon‚ Macaroon

Ok listen so no I wasn’t expecting much from this show like I knew what I was getting into. But oh my GOD the way you could FEEL how rushed this finale was. Early cancellation‚ I believe there was meant to be one more season. (Also personally did not enjoy it bc I did not find myself compelled by Ezra’s storylines this season but he is the main character so the last scene of the entire show was something I thought was SO stupid). Also broke up the found family. Unsurprising but I’m dying out here and they couldn’t have thrown me one line? The actual structure of the majority of the episode was pretty tight‚ like if it were a normal episode it would be fine. But then they had to go and try to wrap everything up before it was meant to be wrapped up and nothing has ever been less satisfying

Jane the Virgin - 4.17 Chapter Eighty-One

context: back in season 3 the protagonist jane was married to michael. he died in a heartbreaking and brilliantly done episode, and then the series jumped forwards 3 years in time. michael, his relationship with jane and his death was always treated with respect, even as jane slowly began to fall for her old flame and friend rafael. in the season 4 finale, it seemed like rafael was going to propose to jane, which was lovely. but then the very annoying drawn out villain told rafael ""something"" that made him withdraw and lash out at jane for reasons she and the audience didn't understand. they still had sex which was disturbing considering his anger and drunkenness, and then at the end of the episode it was revealed that the information he found out was that michael was alive. he'd been alive this whole time. the last moments of the episode are jane and michael seeing each other again. this made NO SENSE considering he died in a public place from an aortic dissection (a sudden blood pressure spike from a pre-existing injury) and they had a casket at his funeral - but apparently the villain has been keeping him alive all this time!! for some reason!!! this finale not only ruined the main romantic relationship between jane and rafael for pointless drama, it also spat upon the memory and fans of michael, and michael and jane's romantic relationship. not even to mention the ridiculous drama that another fan favourite petra was put through this episode. the entire thing was full of cheap shock value moments and cliffhangers to try and get audiences to watch for the final season.

My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! - 2.12 My Graduation Ceremony Happened...

incest

True Blood - 7.10 Thank You

so much wrong (really) with this show (which i love) but that final fucking image just does me in! sookie, our protagonist, who's been battered back and forth between stubborn heroine and hapless waif for 7 seasons seems spends her final (on-screen) moments sitting at her table surrounded by loved ones - which would be heartwarming if tara (abused for 6 seasons and then fridged, thanks alan ball) wasn't missing, a woman wasn't sitting next to the groomer she married (they meet near the beginning of the show when she is 17 and he is almost 30, they start dating immediately), and sookie were sitting at the head of her own fucking table. it's nice that sookie gets what she wants - she's tough but pretty milquetoast (don't get mad at me! i love our twee fairy vixen!), and she really has wanted to just be cozy and settle down this whole time. it makes sense to close on her enjoying a semi-mortal evening with the people she has left. but to leave on her tropily pregnant (even if it's in character - if it were just the pregnancy it wouldn't irk me so) and centre her nameless, faceless husband in the final frames of 7 seasons that have been (for better and way worse) about nothing but sookie? despicable! it's the series finale i've hated the most, but in some ways it's almost perfect because it totally exemplifies the political identity crisis true blood has for 7 years. edge vs. wholesomeness, agency vs. damselhood, change vs. status quo. it's such a disappointing result of the struggle that not only sookie (a character so many fans hate for her simultaneous stubbornness, ditz, and naivete - and who i love btw!) but the writers struggled for (sorry) 7 seasons. it's like witnessing your dear, baby faced, precocious & clever kid relative exit an intense emo phase only to become corporate law student. it's the cold fear that can only be induced by a white teenager with a briefcase. it's the slump end to a potentially fruitful struggle. in this sense it feels inevitable...but does it HAVE to be?...at least bill died.

The Who Was? Show - 1.13 Julius Caesar & Bruce Lee

the show got cancelled before season 2 released EVEN THOUGH it was certainly meant to have a season 2 so i will never see my silly blorbos ever again, nor will we be able to see who ate those grapes. It has been 5 years and I am still not over it :'(

#prelim #wfprelim #wfpoll #poll #polls #csi: ny #faking it #imposters #jane the virgin #my next life as a villianess all routes lead to doom #my next life as a villainess #true blood #the who was? show

[this--is-serious-business]

Cunty 80s cartoon vampire cosplay test

Oh whoops? Did I suddenly become obsessed with the main character from an 18 episode 1980s hannah barbara cartoon and couldn’t stop thinking about him until I wore his face??? 

Maybe..

Anyway here is a shitty tutorial for a Drak Jr. cosplay from the show The Drak Pack (1980). 

Step 1. The Inspo 

Important things to keep in mind: He has a white face, huge lower lip but no upper lip, purple eye shadow, and Frank-N-Furter eyebrows. 

You can see why he captivates me...

Step 2. Going Ghost

Start with your gross flesh and throw on some talc (joke)

Step 3. Cut those cheekbones

Obviously in the cartoon he doesn’t have contour but I have hamster cheeks and innocent eyes. 

I used a bruise(y) purple color that I mixed with white to get that snatched corpse look. Go for masculine shape with shadow under the cheek bone, temple, nose, and under your chin. 

Step 4. Drak Jr.’s Iconic Lips 

One of Drak’s numerous powers in the show is making his upper lip completely disappear when he transforms into a vampire. To replicate this, put white makeup on your upper lip and add contour below your lip line in a square shape (you’re making a false shadow).

Then add a cool pink lipstick over your lip line on the bottom lip.

Step. 5 Everything Went Wrong

This is where I fucked up with the eye makeup and smudged the black with the purple. I’m sure everyone can do this better than me, I’ve only been trained in stage makeup. 

Anyway: White lid, purple upper lid, and a small black line. Eye liner optional...

Step 6. GO HOG WILD

Throw on some diva eyebrows, the most angular you have. A better artist would have glued their eyebrows away, but it’s finals week leave me alone. 

The brows pull the look all together

Step 7. Make a bad cosplay and have fun showing your roommates the most obscure cosplay known to man. 

Truly I wish I owned a cape, but I don’t. So go along with the color blocking I’m trying. 

Now here’s the cosplay in a better outfit haha

An important part of Drak Jr.’s appeal is that he looks like the evilist and most cunty protagonist ever invented, so lean into smirking. 

#drak jr #cosplay #drak pack #drak pack 1980 #tutorial #makeup tutorial #kinda #I'm going to Slayyy Dr. Dread #These niche vampire boys have HANDS #It took me 24 hours to become obsessed with a character someone help

[tiptapricot]

Alright. Finally getting my thoughts together about Mando S3 episode 6! Forewarning this is a very critical and disappointed view on the episode, however I do try and be as nuanced and explanatory as I can, as just like with the rest of this season there is so much potential, so much I almost love, but it’s just not carried through or is handled in a way that makes me confused and frustrated.

This is somewhat organized, but not overly edited, so if things jump around a bit or if there’s typos, excuse me. Other than that, let’s get into it.

So this episode brings a first two seasons side quest vibe to stuff, which personally I enjoyed as I think those side quests (while many ppl see them as filler/a distraction from the main plot) are more ab exploring our characters under different stressors and circumstances and seeing how they act/react as a result. The design for Plazir was gorgeous and intriguing, and it was fun to see Jack Black and Lizzo and Christopher Lloyd. Similarly to a lot of people I had a “HEY I KNOW THOSE GUYS” moment, and it made me smile and laugh.

But then you get into the plot and I just. I was so icked out and uncomfortable and baffled at how it was handled. Plazir is, as it’s set up, an absolute fucking dystopia. Star Wars has never been good with its droid issues, something that always makes me extremely mad and uncomfortable, but beyond the Solo story, I think this may be one of the worst handlings of those issues yet.

I’ll be sharing ideas with the video “The Traegedy of Droids” by Pop Culture Detective pretty consistently in passing here, so please check it out if you haven’t or aren’t aware of what I’m talking about with “the issue with how SWs handles droids.”

The mini plot of this episode is, in summary, our main protagonists helping to carry out a targeted physical oppression of a droid revolution in order to maintain the droid’s enslaved class status and allow the citizens to continue living on free labor. Not only that, but the revolution and fighting back is revealed to not be a choice, but a drugged reaction from an evil human source. The droid bar literally called The Resistor is not, in fact, an underground place for droids to find community and power and push back (despite the fact that it proves they have off time and desires for relaxation and comraderie) but a place for our mains to be reminded that droids actually just love being an enslaved class, and that oh yes these violent push backs actually make them look bad, and what if they’re forced not to work anymore? No they care about their oppressors and couldn’t imagine fighting back. Action like that has to be forced out of them by humans and is unnatural to their regular existence.

And none of this is framed in the dystopian way it should be. Plazir and it’s leaders and citizens are not framed or presented in a negative light, and the moral is not put on helping the droids to not be the forced labor class for a whole planet. The interesting and terrible ideas presented are taken at face value of how the ruling class sees it, and we as the audience are meant to root for Din and Bo as they chase after a droid Din harassed into fighting back, who is running for its life and defending itself, who they kill. We are meant to be happy when they shoot it, feel triumph, see these outbursts the same way those on Plazir/our mains do. We are meant to see droids as both the enemy and as rightfully subservient.

And that’s. Absolutely fucking wild? Similarly to Solo and L3, I cannot fathom the thought process going through the writers brains while setting up a plot that focuses on droid revolution and freedom, only to treat it as a joke, or to end up condemning droids to a fate worse than death/to a content slave class. And all of this, again, our protagonists go along with.

Bo and Din never once question droid rights or sentience, never once go “oh hey we should actually help these guys out.” They stop the uprisings, Lizzo knights Grogu, and the story goes along its way like it was just an unimportant side quest, and not a nightmare. The mains don’t care, the writers don’t care, the world is telling the viewer not to care.

This is exemplified, unfortunately enough, with the use of the cameos. That reaction of “Omg haha! Lizzo! Jack Black! Mr Lloyd!” add to the comedic/trope-y framing of this episode. The acting was great, this is not against the actors present, I was happy to see them, but their presence added to the episode’s unserious/comedic/don’t think about it too much tone. Seeing celebrities we like takes the focus off of the content of the plot and onto “Haha people I like!” And that sours their presence for me.

And like. Droid stuff not being serious has always been around, with protagonists playing into/joking about droid oppression right from the original trilogy, but hating droids has within the mandalorian itself been built up to be unreasonable and a flaw.

Din is droid-racist. That’s been part of his character since the start, and it has been something he has grown with, that the story has attempted to show him working against despite his prejudices. Yes, he is not over his hate for droids, trusting a few will not change his views on them all, and his actions still being violent and prejudiced this episode are not totally out of character. But he’s been shown to be working on that, and the issue comes with the fact that these actions are not seen as an issue past being impulsive. Kicking a line of workers until one lashes out, saying “if they’re programmed right they shouldn’t mind,” threatening to kill a droid bartender, not questioning forced labor, being excited to kill droids, are all framed as funny or correct or just regular “fighting before talking” type characterization, and not as the deeply flawed and bigoted actions they are.

I’ve seen people in fandom saying “well it’s because of his battle droid PTSD” “din still hates droids that wasn’t resolved” “he’s not just going to be fine around the droids that killed his parents” and like. Yeah, sure. But that doesn’t excuse the actions. They should still be seen as a big fucking issue, as him acting grossly out of line and holding up a “one bad experience means the whole group is bad forever” mentality. Not just a character quirk or something funny or an excuse. The best I can liken it to atm is racism from war vets against the group they fought against. You may be able to understand the distrust and trauma associations but hey guess what! Doesn’t excuse the racism/xenophobia/etc.! But the plot and story framing sure does, and it’s been effective, because the fandom has been doing the same thing too! And it’s. Wild to me!

Like I get many people don’t think about stuff, because again that’s how the world frames it, but you gotta? You gotta see the messages being pushed here?

And from a narrative standpoint you can’t just introduce a storyline like this without dealing with the implications it therefore burdens the story with discussing. Otherwise you end up with something reductive, trivializing, and at its core really really ideologically gross, which is what we got here.

This also doesn’t even touch on:

—The further use of the amnesty program in a way that doesn’t fully dig into the messed up results or the irl parallels to operation paperclip

—Ugnaughts being the only organic labor class we see besides those monitoring security, another group that’s framed as loving to work on the things the ruling class don’t want to, and also living in the dark underground

—The implications of direct democracy and non-militant societies being seen as weak and unreasonable

—Leaders finding loopholes in their laws to intact violence into a revolting class without having to answer for the repercussions of rule breaking

Mainly because I don’t have the brain to unpack all of it. But hey! Just shows how much they introduced with no real thought of how big a can of worms it opened up from a political and social perspective. Something that while a constant in Star Wars at this point never makes it alright. It’s lazy and shows the underlying racist/capitalist politics running through most main pieces of the universe, of which this episode I’d say is probably Mando’s most outright example of. (There are exceptions, Andor being a huge one, but lord is that an exception with everything around it)

And like in concept a neo-noir detective story/procedural with the mando cast sounds awesome, that’s one of my favorite genres, but this was just good old fashioned copaganda and race/class fumble episode with no real nuance, point, or lingering effects on our characters and their view of droids. When I’m fully able to say Detroit become human did a better job handling the ideas of robot sentience/freedom/uprising/changing sides, I think you need to take a good hard look at your story.

So just. That’s that part of the episode. And that’s already so much, but then we have the ending/it’s ties into the overall plot.

From the start we get no real explanation for why Din is with Bo and no one else, what the fallout of the armorer’s decision and reveal of Bo’s place in things had on the covert or on Din and Bo. We just jump in. Then you have Din and Bo showing their individual leading strengths in the episode, the balance between diplomacy and action, heavily implying some joint ruling need, or even showing Din finally showing leadership skills.

But then we get to the final scene with the Axe and Bo fight, and I’ll say I loved that combat! Beat each other up! It was great and I think shows their competence and the statement that fighting makes in mando culture, as well as asserting Bo’s place leading her group. But then we also get two really fucking stupid things.

The first is Axe saying Din isn’t a real mando because of blood even though that? Has never really been a staple of the culture??? This opens up an idea that the night owls have different views on Mandalorian culture than the larger consensus that understands it as a religion, a culture, a people, but not a homogenous group with direct biological descent. Foundlings are huge! So where is this coming from? What’s the background there?

It muddies up a lot of character stuff, culture stuff, and the analogies Mandalorian culture has to real life groups like the Jewish community, various Indigenous and colonized communities, etc. As with so much of this season, Mandalorian culture and politics is begging to be explored, to be fleshed out and dug into in a deeper way than it has been already, and even with new ideas the writers decide to use, it’s given almost no focus. It’s frustrating and disheartening.

Second, ofc, is the Darksaber hand off. I have talked previously about one of the largest issues this season being the writers wrapping up Din’s arcs and plots with no real focus or fanfare, and this was another slap in the face in that regard. Officially, every single important thing from the end of S2 has been wrapped up either in a spin off series that shouldn’t even have had sm Din focus, or in the second episode of the third season. Everything that poised Din for a huge character arc at the end of season 2, at a fundamental change and exploration in himself, has been tossed aside. And it makes no sense to do that. So let’s go through them each!

1. Grogu. Throughout the first two seasons Din and Grogu’s relationship was a focus. It was about Din breaking rules and getting into danger to save this kid, his drive to protect him, to connect him with his people, and then to save him from Gideon. We get that line “He is more important to me than you will ever know,” and then Din has to give him away. This sets up exploring how Grogu has changed him, how that relationship has affected them both, how Din now operates without him.

But then he was reunited with Grogu relatively easily, and there has been no focus on how the newfound understanding of Grogu’s importance to Din affects their relationship now. He hasn’t even recognized himself as Grogu’s father yet, and there’s been no real bonding moments past some in the first two episodes and the background shallow cute moments in others. There’s been no side interactions of Din asking about what Grogu learned, or treasuring having him back, or reflecting on his place as a parent, or making sure he doesn’t lose him again. In episode 6 Din even leaves Grogu with strangers he’s just met for the entire episode and that has no fallout or recognition, despite one of them being an ex-imperial.

2. Breaking the creed. Throughout the first two seasons, again, Din’s faith and his adherence to the CotW’s beliefs are a huge focus. From episode one and on we get variations of the question “Why don’t you take off your helmet?” “Just take off your helmet” “don’t mandos never take their helmets off?” And we see Din is willing to die rather than break that, rather than not be Mandalorian anymore in his eyes. But he does anyway. For Grogu. A testament to not only his growth because of him, but to his commitment to Grogu over all else.

And he is in some ways hopeless because of that. He willingly takes off his helmet again to show Grogu his face before he says goodbye, because he is all Din has left at that point, all that matters in the moment.

But, of course, there is no lasting effect. Bathing in the waters, built up to be a season long arc, was aborted to being finished in episode two with relatively extreme ease, and even then, had no lingering focus on what being redeemed meant for Din. There was no questioning or clinging to faith, no discussions of how much this meant for him, no lingering on the bathing (because it was turned into a rescue action scene for Bo’s story!), no discussion of how being accepted back and cleansed affected him. One of the largest parts of the character since his introduction is. A footnote.

3. The darksaber/ruler of Mandalore story. This one’s just. Nothing. Also resolved retroactively in episode 2, and with no plot presence otherwise. To start this out, no I didn’t think Din was going to have this great rise to being Mand’alor, that was never really where the plot was going in my eyes. But no matter where it should’ve gone or what it should’ve been, it should’ve been something. Yes! He doesn’t want it! So show us why, show us what that responsibility or implication means to him, why his sect of culture doesn’t care about it, why he doesn’t believe himself to be the one to rule or unite. Make him giving it up feel as earned as if he’d kept it. This is one of the most frustrating aspects of this episode and a final straw in my vendetta against the writers.

The dark saber doesn’t even make an appearance between episodes two and six, it’s that unimportant. There is no conversation with Paz or the Armorer, who both know Din has it. There is no discussion about what it means with Jedi vs Mando history, or with Bo Katan about her history with it. This therefore makes Din having it pointless. It did nothing beyond maybe some combat scenes and the brief Butt up against Paz in BoBF. Another case of more actual plot engagement being in BoBF than the main show. There was no point for it to change hands to Din, because him having it changed nothing, made no one grow, made no one think. It affected Bo, which I’ll touch on again in a bit, but the story blooming there could’ve come around by many other means and was not tied to Din at all.

But before I dig into that aspect, the amount of times I’ve seen “Din never wanted the saber that’s why hes finding an easy loophole to give it up” “Din likes being a side character” stuff is so!!! Like!!! Yes! He doesn’t want it he doesn’t want action and responsibility and he doesn’t care about it but he is not making choices he is not real he is being written lazily! This is the writers not wanting to engage with their own character that they built up and created and set the arcs in motion for.

A show can have multiple mains, can shift character focus, but “The Mandalorian” at its inception was referring to Din Djarin and there was no precident for that focus to completely shift. This isn’t a show that changes protags every season, he used to be a shape in the title, is on the merch and the branding. And if there is meant to be a protagonist shift it has to be gradual, and to still involve his development in the impact on that other character. The explanation of “Well it’s called The Mandalorian not Din Djarin” just makes me really mad cause yeah? It is? But it’s also called Star Wars and not Luke Skywalker but we still understand he is the main protagonist, even if other characters develop and are present alongside him.

And there’s no excuse to sideline Din, because the truth is he does have growth to get, he does have arcs to explore, the only reason he’s so flat and has nothing to work towards right now is because the writers threw that away. Specifically in ways that did not make sense from a character or writing perspective.

And why is that? Because they wanted to write someone else, they wanted to write Bo Katan.

Which is exciting! I love Bo as a character from what I’ve seen of her. She is complex and flawed and has a deeply fucked up past that’s intrinsically connected to Mandalore and it’s future. That is a fascinating character to work with, and I don’t mind her being more present in Mando as it tracks for the goal of bringing Mandalorians together. But! This plot is not doing her justice either.

Throughout this season Bo has been dragged along through the shallows in her own journey. There has been no discussion of her past, of Death Watch’s terrorism and torture and murder, of Satine, of her several past attempts to lead Mandalore, of her history with the civil wars and with clan Viszla and with so much more. Which is wild, because you’d think a season which has chosen to focus on her would? Give a shit about her? Would actually engage with the character she is and what she brings to the table?

Instead she’s been handed every plot point, reduced to a girlboss leader, and her rise to getting the saber again is not only forced with no real discussion or nuance, but she’s once again been given it on a technicality. Just as Din giving up the saber is not a decision and shift earned by development, Bo getting it again isn’t either.

And as I mentioned earlier, she was affected by Din getting the saber in that it led to her people leaving her, and led her to question things, but it being Din having the saber means nothing. The same thing would’ve happened had anyone else gotten the saber, or had it been vented off into space or lost or hidden or whatever. By giving it to a specific character, that begs for interaction over that ownership, for discussion and reflection and connection with that character.

And yet there has been nothing. Bo and Din have had some good interactions, yes, but the development the show seems to want for Bo, seems to want the audience to be rooting for and going along with, is not being shown.

To make all of this more basic, the issue with this episode and this whole season thus far, is that it refuses to engage with its own ideas to a fault. It doesn’t want to get its hands messy, doesn’t want to untie the complicated and fascinating and fucked up knot it’s tied for itself. Instead it’s slicing through all of those Gordian style and leaving us to wonder about what might’ve been, about what the story seems to want to be.

I love a lot of the concepts this season, I love what it could be. I love the characters and the world and the religion and the politics, but I have to actually see what is set up, what is set in motion, what is built, to feel like I am watching the show I loved at the start.

And though it’s not as relevant to this episode, it feels relevant here: This should’ve been a Mandalorian politics season, not a new republic politics season.

Yes, they are intertwined, but at the moment the new republic development feels like a main focus, meant to set things up for further installments in the franchise or retroactively explain pst choices, and the mandalorian culture a side focus, and this has caused a detriment to both. Neither gets explored in their full complexity and nuance, and the story feels unfocused and weirdly disjointed as a result.

I’ve seen people upset by the great divide or presence of fandom negativity lately and I get that, but I feel there needs to be an understanding that people aren’t hating just to hate, this is a serious disappointment with the tanking quality of the show and it’s lack of commitment to itself. When something doesn’t deliver on what it markets itself to be, what the writing lays a basis for, that breaks trust and engagement and enjoyment, and leads to people being pissed. It happens. You can still enjoy the show, while also recognizing there is a boatload of valid criticism and issues and flawed messages that are making people uncomfortable, disinterested, and angry.

And having expectations doesnt devalue those criticisms either. I’ve seen a lot of talk of like “you wanted it to be something it’s not” and while that’s true in some cases, I had no solid ideas for this season beyond… what it showed it was going to do. And I am trying to engage with the ideas it is presenting. Again, I like the hypothetical arc at play, but the execution just. Isn’t it for me. The writing quality isn’t good and isn’t smooth and as I hope I’ve laid out, isn’t living up to its own potential or ideas.

So. Yeah.

I just want a show to be what it was begging to be, what it set itself up to be, what the characters and plot threads are wanting to be, but aren’t able to reach in their entirety. I want stuff that makes sense, that makes me think, that isn’t bigoted and lazy and frustrating. But I haven’t been getting that. And that really sucks.

TLDR: a train wreck in motion, but it was carrying cargo I would’ve loved to see.

#the fruit is talking again #the mandalorian #the mandalorian spoilers #the mandalorian season 3 #the mandalorian critical

[damn-daemon]

A Witch of No Importance Main Characters

Aquila Black The main protagonist of AWONI, Aquila is the twin of Sirius. Her story begins after the fallout of his disownment, and the consequences she faces for not joining him. Having an innate talent for spell-casting, Aquila is Orion's favorite child, which often brings her into conflict with her mother, Walburga, who would prefer to see Regulus in that coveted position. She considers herself "neutral" when it comes to the brewing conflict, but after Dumbledore recruits her in his investigation, she comes to realize she's always been on a side, and it hasn't been the right one.

Lauretta Buckling Friend of Aquila, Lauretta is the definitive Ravenclaw. Her nose in a book more often than not, Lauretta is top of her class in everything (save for that rubbish Divination). She has read through books far beyond the skillset of students in their year, and owns copies in several languages. While she appears apathetic with an air of superiority, she cares deeply for her friends, and won't hesitate to put someone in their place should they cross a line. After Hogwarts, she would become a world-renowned Curse-Breaker.

Marlow Barkley Three years younger than Aquila, Marlow is a third-year Hufflepuff with a penchant for starting chaos wherever she goes. She is also the official Hogwarts Quidditch commentator, known for her flair and occasional bias. After graduating, she would join the Order of the Phoenix before moving on to The Daily Prophet. She struggles with the aftermath of the war, and the blame she places on Dumbledore for everything falling apart in her life. She is the story's "interlude" character, helping transition between parts, before her subplot intersects with the main story.

Hattie Yates Another friend of Aquila's and a fellow Slytherin, Hattie only ever has one thing on her mind: Quidditch. An infamous Beater for the Slytherin team, there hasn't been a match that ended without at least one unconscious opponent since her third year. This has given her a bit of a god-complex on the pitch, but the student body has embraced it. Outside matches, Hattie is a ball of energy with no filter and not a care in the world. After Hogwarts, she would join the Falmouth Falcons, where her talents continued to garner attention.

Owen Ossett Head Boy during Aquila's sixth year, Owen is a serious and determined Ravenclaw. If it involves fun, expect Owen to not be present, or so his fellow students say. Coming from a long line of Aurors, Owen was expected to join their ranks. He, too, would join the Order, and suffer from violent episodes long after the war's end. When Aquila successfully frees Sirius from Azkaban, Owen leads the hunt to bring him back, bringing him to the point of obsession.

William Alabaster Ignatius Fiddlewood A Muggle-born several years older than the others, William is an Auror. At least, on paper he is. Due to what many consider to be a "lowborn" status, William has been denied promotion or any sort of activity in the field, despite the fact he excels in anything he gets his hands on. Quiet and unassuming, the Ministry suspects nothing of him even when he's helping Aquila behind their backs.

Sirius Black When they were ten, Sirius and Aquila made a pact to leave home together. When that day finally came during the summer before sixth year, Sirius thought Aquila would honor it. Instead, his sister chose their family, and he can't bring himself to forgive her for it, or even hear her out. What would follow were years of assuming the worst of his sister, which comes to a head during the war when he sees her working for the other side. He never would expect her to rescue him, or to see how wrong he had been the entire time...

Remus Lupin After Sirius left home, a letter from Remus made it to Aquila's possession. What followed was a summer's worth of correspondence, with Remus being the understanding listener that Aquila had needed from her brother. When Remus and Aquila return to Hogwarts, they come to realize those letters meant more to one another than they had imagined, and the ill-fated love affair that would follow would shake the foundations of the Wizarding World.

#a witch of no importance #aquila black #marauders era fanfiction #marauders era oc #remus x oc #probably the most complicated fic i've made to date #help #yes i pulled in some old ocs #they were collecting dust #ben barnes will always be Sirius to me #also he and Aquila actually look related #Remus fancasts never impress me #the closest to Remus in my head is Westley #so I gave him the role lol

[insufferableprotagonistpoll]

Round 3

Propaganda why Marinette Dupain-Cheng is insufferable:

She easily gets away with bad, stalkerish behavior, it always feels like she can ‘do no wrong’ unless the show wants us to pity her, and the show writers want us to think she is a quirky and socially awkward girl when throughout the series we see her be friends with basically everyone in Paris with many connections to high up places.

I get she has social anxiety but the way she goes about stalking Adrien is kind of the worst like she even has creep shots of him hanging in her room? That’s weird. I think Adrien’s going through enough without having to deal with the main character being his stalker lol. I know they’re (spoilers) at this point but in the beginning it was so sus

In the newest season, Marinette hides the fact that Hawkmoth was Adrien’s dad. This leads to the bastard getting a statue and honored as a hero after his death. Adrien now never gets to know the fact that his abusive and neglectful father was the one trying to kill him and is instead proud of him.

Her crush on Adrien is like a black hole for her character. Things she’s done because of it:

1) stolen property

2) ruined dates

3) humiliated other characters

4) has a chart of Adrien’s daily schedule for the next year in her room (this is stalking)

5) broke into his room and sniffed his pillow (also a crime)

6) sniffed, took the hair from, and tried to kiss what she thought was a wax statue of Adrien

7) convinced her parents to let her go to China. Why? Not because she wants to connect with her mother’s heritage, not even because she’s a budding fashion designer and Shanghai is considered a fashion hotspot. It’s because Adrien was there.

I started the show, watched one episode, and never tried again. I simply do not vibe with her.

shes annoyinng anf shes a stalker

I love fanon miraculous but by god she has got to stop obsessively stalking her crush and generally making a ton of other terrible decisions. I’d submit Adrien too but he’s more of a deuteragonist

More propaganda

Anti propaganda

Propaganda why Aelin Ashryver Galathynius is insufferable:

Your basic Mary Sue. Styled as the incredibly cool best-assassin in the land at only 18, she nevertheless is constantly snuck up upon, distracted by pretty boys, and possesses not an ounce of wit. In a competition between murderers and thieves to win a place as the King's Champion, she sees a bag of chocolates on her bed that she didn't put there and immediately starts eating it and gushing about how much she adores chocolate - nevermind that they just had a trial involving poison, which several of her competitors are adept at. She's always right, and other characters exist just to tell her how awesome and beautiful and wonderful she is. And then she turns out to be a super special magical fey princess!

I generally don't believe that a Mary Sue is a bad thing, but the only thing I remember about this book was how she had been in prison for years but was super young but was also still the most super-specialest assassin. And she kept reading when she should have been training or sleeping. Like, girl, this is not final exams where you can stay up all night and then roll into class in your pajamas and still squeak out a C. It's supposed to be life and death. Her character traits didn't make her relatable, they made her a moron

Heir to a kingdom plus turquoise eyes plus best assassin in the world plus protagonist centered morality

Anti propaganda

Propaganda why Dean Winchester is insufferable:

Really mean to Cas (called him a child, zero respect for him, calls him family and casts him out when the angels are looking for him), and an absolute dick to Jack (threatening to kill him CONSTANTLY)

>Was a misogynist (loved to call women skanks, bitches, hoes)

>Used gay as an insult multiple time during the show's run (idc if he's gay an homophobic, that's still insulting)

>Beat up his brother for being possessed

>Beat up his brother for losing his soul (not his brother's fault)

>Used dubious consent to get his brother possessed in a different unrelated possession incident after possession was being used (badly...this is supernatural after all) as a metaphor for SA

>Threatened to murder his brother when he was hallucinating (yay we aren't ableist)

>Locked a child up in a box

>Threatened to kill the child he locked up in a box

>Made a creepy, sexual comment about a barely-legal high school girl

>Got the woman and kid he was living with memory-wiped

misogynistic scumbag. theres also a few different times that dean finds teenagers sexy with the most recent and prominent example that i can recall being the scooby doo crossover episode in season 13 where hes super into daphne who in the version they chose for the episode is 15-16 and is interacting with her as if shes a real person cause they got magicked into the episode. he treats everyone around him like shit and the only time the narrative agrees that thats a bad thing is when he has the mark of cain put on him and hes acting no differently than he does usually its just now acknowledged that hes treating others like shit. ive been rewatching the show for shits and giggles with a friend and wow he really does not treat anyone well but i wanna focus on how he treats sam for a second cause dude's hobby seems to be ignoring what his brother wants and lying to sam about doing stuff that directly concerns him the demon blood and souless things are reasonable cause those were both Bad for sam but theyre still part of a wider pattern and the most prominent example of this being when dean tricks sam into letting gadreel possess him and actually gaslights sam about it with the whole ordeal ending when its revealed gadreel lied about who he was and while possessing sam murders a friend of theirs. his voice is just also stupid as fuck im sorry this is just petty but he just sounds like hes trying so hard to be gruff n intimidating but he just sounds like a kid pretending to be batman

Dean’s list of sins is crazy long because of how long the show ran, but the key thing for me is that post-locking Sam in the bunker (season 4 I think?), I just can’t enjoy their relationship anymore. I normally love their sibling dynamic, but Dean’s ultimate worst past-the-point-of-no-return moment for me was demonizing (pun intended) his little brother for being “addicted” to demon blood, which only happened because of a series of events that were either Dean’s or someone else’s fault, not Sam’s. I also really dislike how the fandom treats Dean like this angel (pun intended) who has done no wrong and even tries to justify the MULTIPLE times he’s beaten up and otherwise abused his little brother. Canon Dean is like the polar opposite of fanon Dean: he’s homophobic and racist (jokes about a Black man being sexually assaulted in prison), misogynistic (take a shot every time he calls a woman a slur and you’ll die of alcohol poisoning), and abusive.

#marinette dupain cheng #mlb marinette #miraculous ladybug #mlb #aelin ashryver galathynius #aelin galathynius #celaena sardothien #throne of glass #dean winchester #supernatural #supernatural dean #insufferable protagonist poll #insufferable protagonist tournament #tournament poll

[williamsockner]

Urban Fantasy Bingo

1. Main character dates a serial killer but the show thinks he’s just a complicated bad boy 2. Codependent siblings 3. Rampant unintended homosexual tension 4. Incest 5. Creepy dolls 6. Exploitative shots of dead teenage girl’s corpse 7. Narrative unsympathetic when bitchy teenage girls gets murdered 8. Parent or significant other in law enforcement 9. Shady big pharma 10. Ugly and/or disabled girl with no personality flaws 11. Amnesia 12. Black best friend (bonus points if gay) 13. Love interest with no personality besides fucking and sports 14. Love interest with no personality besides being embroiled in supernatural bullshit 15. Someone dies during sex 16. Main character commits rape but narrative refuses to acknowledge it as anything but angsty manpain behavior 17. Randomly excellent episode in an otherwise lackluster show 18. Writer’s room fetishist on display 19. Bodyswap/bodysnatch/shapeshift/possession 20. Everyone cares about the blood feud 21. Hundred-year-old urban legends or local history shockingly relevant to small town youths 22. Narrative clumsily attempts to make serial killer sympathetic 23. “the ugly one” played by a hollywood ten 24. Mortal threat to a character’s life during a sports game 25. Murder at prom 26. Super special chosen one and/or ancient prophecy 27. Writers convinced that remorse is the same as redemption 28. Love triangle 29. Snarky put-downs towards clear sources of inspiration 30. Love interests swap because the bad boy character was too interesting to the audience 31. Musical episode 32. Fictional classic monster actually existed in-universe 33. Character witnesses an alternate timeline where they didn’t exist and/or died 34. Character comes back as a ghost but gets no speaking lines so the show could save on the acting fee 35. Evil twin 36. Reincarnated true love 37. Super sexy high femme who’s actually 200 years old 38. Manic monster dream girl 39. Weird hybrids 40. Masquerade ball 41. Characters in class receive a lecture on a topic relevant to the episode 42. Flashback episode 43. Villain has a weird kink 44. Illegitimate lovechild 45. Abusive parent has a favorite child 46. Someone cuts their palm for a blood sacrifice 47. Someone sacrifices a pet for an evil ritual 48. Black witches have more power 49. Scene at the morgue 50. Teenage alcoholism 51. Regular alcoholism 52. Visible manifestations of someone’s guilt and/or plot exposition in the form of dead loved ones 53. Dead perfect significant other 54. Characters get caught doing something and give transparently fake names of celebrities or pop culture references 55. Musical sequence that exists only to show that an actor can dance, sing or play an instrument 56. CPR brings someone back to life and doesn’t break any ribs 57. Character discovers secret power at last second before they almost die 58. Secret society has a ritual to decide who is the head honcho monster 59. Incongruous musical choice 60. Someone has a dark side/evil blood/a prophecy that they’ll go evil 61. Someone turns into a violent sociopath because they lose their soul and/or humanity 62. Somebody bleeds out the eyes or mouth, or has a nosebleed that someone else has to call attention to 63. Significant other hunts what you are 64. Halloween episode 65. “You tried to kill me and that takes grit, I’m proud of you” 66. “There’s nothing on the other side when you die” especially if we know ghosts exist 67. Inconsistent ghost rules 68. The enemy of my bigger enemy 69. Head in a box 70. Cold opening of teenagers getting eaten because of a dare, bonus points for haunted house 71. Racist one-off criminal encounter 72. “Cool costume, bro” to an actual monster 73. Halloween costumes significant to role character plays in the story 74. Wise mentor figure with colorful past and parental affection towards protagonist 75. The one normal guy who keeps getting pulled into bullshit 76. Everybody in the cast dates each other as the writer’s room tries to figure out what the fans want 77. Immortal character put in a box 78. Non-human has to pass as human…badly 79. Ancient character has to adjust to modern day 80. Random regular human with an axe to grind 81. Bait and switch big bad at the end of the story, turns out to actually be a main cast member having a meltdown after taking out villain 82. Head of the secret council actually an evil puppet master 83. Police scanner 84. Debilititis 85. People randomly discovering superpowers around puberty 86. Character that main character hates for no good reason turns out to be evil all along 87. Plot-relevant celestial event 88. Someone telekinetically forces people to turn their guns on each other or themselves 89. Badly-pronounced French 90. The apocalypse originates in this small podunk-ass town 91. Unreasonable hometown pride 92. Latin as the mother tongue of magic 93. Local police covering up for high monster murder rate 94. Single parent is overworked medical practitioner 95. Guardian is not yet ready for this level of responsibility 96. Someone turned out to have a child they didn’t know about 97. Weird pregnancy (bonus if no sex actually happened) 98. Someone’s kid gets aged up to skip working with a child actor 99. Somebody sends their child “away” to keep them from getting embroiled in the bullshit and then they get embroiled in the bullshit anyway 100. Descendants of an immortal 101. Resurrection with no consequences 102. Resurrection or healing with consequences will haunt the protagonist 103. Protagonist has at least one dead parent 104. A friend of the main cast dies in the pilot 105. Candlelight vigil for a high school student 106. Fucked up mother-son dynamics 107. Daddy issues 108. “Fear makes the meat taste better” and/or “I like to watch them scream” 109. Souls get sold and/or girls get married to Satan 110. Deal with the devil turns you into a ticking time bomb 111. “you worded your wish wrong” 112. Alternate reality without magic 113. Real-world religions or spiritual practices treated as monsters of the week 114. All myths contain a grain of truth 115. Someone attacks a wedding 116. Mundane who really wants to be a monster 117. Redhead 118. Feral child raised by wolves 119. Bitchy cheerleader 120. Characters go undercover at a school 121. Mental institution episode 122. Protagonist framed for murder 123. Cold open of dog-walker getting eaten while dog runs away 124. Show starts off with missing or murdered girl 125. Animal motif or animal companion 126. Non-human but non-animal sidekick 127. “The council sent me to give you exposition” 128. Secret society of hunters 129. The Corporation 130. Death by bees 131. Jumpscare 132. Douchebro thinks he’s getting seduced but is actually about to get eaten 133. Siblings have pronounced disagreements over how to feel about their absentee parent 134. Deep South 135. Magic can solve everything except cancer 136. Beautiful sprawling mansion 137. Musical sequence intercutting one couple having sex and someone else dying or doing something else dramatic 138. Safehouse and/or bunker 139. “s/he was just trying to protect you” used as a justification for abjectly abusive parenting 140. Family with oodles of generational wealth 141. Groundhog Day Episode 142. Random skull in dark place 143. Someone punches a mirror 144. Black blood 145. Weird eye color signifies supernatural status 146. Wicker Man episode 147. Pagan gods 148. Faith healer 149. Couple going on a date gets eaten 150. Someone gets murdered in a church 151. Villain boasts that “maybe that works on wimpy monsters, but not me” 152. Chasing the murderer through a house of mirrors 153. Diner 154. Episode titles named after songs or famous books 155. Supernatural war 156. Getting out of a Faustian bargain 157. Someone wakes up tied to a chair at an insane dinner party full of corpses

#this bingo list made possible by our extensive research into #charmed #teen wolf #grimm #witches of east end #riverdale #mayfair witches #supernatural #pretty little liars #trollhunters #ahs: coven #wolf pack #haunting of bly manor #hemlock grove #vampire diaries #first kill #lockwood & co #carnival row #anyway you're welcome!