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crooked-wasteland · 2 months

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How would you rank every HB episode from worst to best?

This took me some time to think on, but thank you for the ask.

So all the Helluva Boss episodes ranked worst to best (in my opinion):

The Circus

I have to place the season 2 premiere as the worst episode of the entire series, simply because it cemented the direction the story was going to go with all of the worst ideas floating to the top. The relationship mystery between Stolas and Blitz gets watered down to a childhood crush based on nothing. It is love at first sight, but then the writing performs gymnastics in order to justify Stolas’ attraction after the fact. It’s so painful in Seeing Stars and Oops how the writers really want us to believe that Stolas liked him as a person first and that is supposed to be shown in how Stolas thinks Blitz is funny when no one else does, but the series of events in the Circus will forever undermine that narrative. He finds Blitz funny because he is attracted to him. Not the other way around.

Aside from the issues with the overarching story, the entire structure of the episode fails. The idea of Chekhov’s Gun is one I believe holds merit as a fundamental tool. If you are going to introduce something like theft, acknowledge the danger of the event, repeatedly draw attention to the theft, and then just never mention any sort of natural conclusion to that plot point. If anything, Blitz returning to Stolas’ home 25 years later to do the exact same thing, necessitated a coming full circle moment of that particular plot point. The failure to identify even the most basic of narrative principles that was a solid through line of character, story and themes told me everything I needed to know about how the series was going to be handled.

Stolas’ song is a poorly-performed nonsensical word salad that I found lacked any cohesion to the character in the previous episode or the next. It’s an ugly song with maybe 2 decent verses where Stolas acknowledges that this was all playing pretend, but that eventually goes nowhere.

Additionally, Stella was officially ruined as a character, which ultimately ruined Stolas as a character. By not giving Stella depth, Stolas was also stripped of any depth or complexity. His reason for staying is dumbed down to “for the child”, and Stella’s motivation is thrown out the window in favor of “she’s awful and please don’t try to make her understandable, because then what if Stolas is held accountable for anything?” Stella is too important a character in Stolas’ story, to make her one dimensional is to make Stolas less interesting. Everything is interwoven in a story, pulling a thread in one place unravels the garment elsewhere.

In a single episode, it encompasses everything that is wrong with the series, past and future.

0/10

Seeing Stars

To be honest, I feel Seeing Stars is most people’s worst episode due to some sense of denial when the season premiered and expected the show to at least continue with some kind of coherent story/timeline. I don’t think it would be as hated if Medrano had tightened up the narrative and made Seeing Stars connect to Ozzie’s more.

However, I would still put it at number 2, even if it had. Mainly because Seeing Stars is the worst sense of characterization and dynamics I have ever seen. And when you are trying to sell a character-driven story, some kind of consistency is required. This episode cemented Loona as being an abusive, manipulative, and entitled “bitch” of a person. Octavia is written like she is 13, not 17. Blitz and Stolas have the darkest timeline where Stolas continues to sexualize Blitz after being told off in the last episode and seemingly acknowledging that he defined the dynamic without any input from Blitz. Then forces him on stage despite Blitz being on the verge of a panic attack. But most of all, it has Stolas and Blitz both completely forget why they are even in this situation, because they are supposed to be looking for Octavia.

There was no lesson Blitz needed to learn, if anything he needed to be instilled with more self esteem where possible. And Stolas already had this story arc done much better in Loo Loo Land. His character actively regresses to redo the exact plot thread, but worse. Much like The Circus, Seeing Stars set the stage for what we could look forward to in regards to the series from here on out, and the utter disrespect leveled at the original 6 episodes.

That’s not even counting how the episode is the exact same plot and story beats as Loo Loo Land, highlighting the extent of how creatively bankrupt the series is.

.5/10

Exes and Ohs

If it comes to personal most hated episode, it would be Exes and Ohs for me. The only reason it is number 3 and not number 1 is because it is a narrative cul-de-sac where the larger story is not affected by it at all.

However, it is still an objectively awful episode. Starting with the premise. The whole plot is a stolen South Park joke. It’s the Steal underpants episode, stretched out into something longer, and not nearly as funny. If you are wholesale ripping off another show, that’s plagiarism. This episode is creatively bankrupt, shouldn’t exist, has no purpose and serves no benefit. People try to argue that it has value due to Moxxie’s backstory, but what does it even serve? Sure, I know it now, but not a single character does. Millie doesn’t even find out. Even moreso, Millie’s entire connection to Chaz goes nowhere and is for nothing. We never know how, when or why she dated Chaz, it's shown she hates him, but she doesn’t even kill him. The whole episode would have ended exactly the same with Crim killing Chaz once he realized the shark demon was lying about having money.

It’s not good when the major complaints of the episode are actually what is saving it from being the worst episode.

2/10

Musical Special

The retconning of this episode, changing who Fizz was as a child to try and justify his uselessness in Oops retroactively is beyond frustrating. There is so much I could go on about in terms of character, but just focusing on this episode.

Mainly, the mildly perturbing extent Medrano goes to hetero-normalize her queer relationships. Every single relationship in the series is stereotypically designed as “Protector” and “Protected”. Stolas, Fizzarolli, and Moxxie are all characters who require constant support and protection from other factors in the plot.

Stolas needed to be protected from Striker. Moxxie needs to be protected from most things in his plots. Season 1 it was the fish monster, Striker, the agents, and finally Ozzie and Fizz. Season 2 we have him needing to be defended from his father and Chaz.

This episode it's all about Fizzarolli and him needing to be defended from his crippling low self-esteem that is only relevant to have him needing to be saved from something. The flashback serves to further retcon Fizz’s personality because a strong and confident performer doesn’t need to be saved from anyone, and in order to have the codependent romance where Fizz needs Ozzie, we need to fundamentally weaken him as a person. It’s a special episode, so the argument that it doesn’t need to exist is rather moot. Regardless, the characters and story are worse off for its addition to the narrative.

2/10

Queen Bee

Another special episode, so the argument of narrative value is once again disregarded. I dislike this episode for how one dimensional every female character is in this story. It highlights all the ongoing issues with misogynistic writing. Loona’s character is a wildly swinging pendulum from being antagonistic towards Blitz to being endeared with little motivation and ultimately being reduced to the caretaker of men. When she and Bee get into an argument, she only deescalates when she sees Tex be uncomfortable. The initial hostility itself is founded on nothing, Loona is immediately resentful of Bee because she’s attractive and people like her, specifically Tex. And her being sweet towards Blitz is entirely based on the fact that her relationship to him makes her look good due to his accomplishment of beating Beelzebub in a drink-off. It doesn’t read sincere, but rather she would look bad if she didn’t take care of him after identifying him as her “dad” when it suited her.

This entire episode works to assassinate Loona’s character and any hope of her being likable and growing. Everything about her motivation is purely selfish and consistently reinforced in big ways, so moving forward it will be very hard to realistically prove she does anything for not her own benefit.

The song was nice for about one minute, then it became unbearably repetitive.

1.5/10

Western Energy

This episode was altered and rewritten, which doesn’t inherently make it bad. It’s just that it was changed due to fans pointing out the glaring plot hole that is why Stella would want to kill Stolas when a divorce would benefit her more. Instead of critically assessing that question and focusing more on world building to create a logical justification for Stella’s actions, the writers shrug their shoulders and just can’t think of anything. It’s a special form of fridge horror as a writer to realize the major plot that was intended to push Blitz and Stolas closer together was so underdeveloped that when at all questioned resulted in the entire plot being unwritten. It’s transparently bad writing, but worse yet is that it is lazy.

This episode is what I use to show an example of how fans inject headcannon and plot into the series that the creators have no interest in spending the energy on. This isn’t James Cameron’s Avatar where there is a massively rich world around a lackluster story that has been crafted with such detail that it feels alive. Helluva Boss, and in extension Hazbin Hotel, have no world building and resort to the most superficial answers to any narrative roadblock at the expense of the characters and understanding their motivations. It shows resentment for not just the audience, but writing as an artform.

3/10

Ozzie's (with season 2 context)

I had to put Ozzie’s on the list twice due to this episode in specific having vastly different reads and reception before and after season 2 premiered. After The Circus, the episode loses all continuity with the original season. Stolas is pining and lovesick over Blitz, he doesn’t actually care about his wife and daughter leaving him. He just wishes more than anything to have his rugged peasant return his affections.

It is a plummet of quality and character in this episode that only comes to fruition with the understanding that Stolas has had an unreciprocated crush for two and a half decades.

With the context of season 2, Stolas doesn’t actually care about his daughter and how his affair, the marriage falling apart, their status, etc. affected her and his family. He only cares about the little boy he got a crush on, who his father rented out like a Lexus and then 25 years later Stolas demanded sex from. Stolas has a complete personality change and isn’t at all who he was the entire series to this point. Everything you thought mattered to him doesn’t, the ways we have come to expect this character to react to things is suddenly entirely different. His expectations are unexplainable and so far out to left field than what we previously established. This is one of the worst written episodes based on the major retconning of a keystone character and no effort being made to connect these changes in the narrative.

This was the warning shot we didn’t know we were given.

1/10

Spring Broken

Spring Broken to Unhappy Campers are the range of utterly ambivalence I have.

The song is poorly incorporated into the episode. Verosika isn’t ever fleshed out. Tex and Loona start off cute, and you can see a starting point of a dynamic between Loona and Blitz and you want her to treat him better while also recognizing that he infantalizes her constantly and doesn’t ever treat her like the adult she is. Could have been really good writing if it went anywhere. This episode establishes Loona abuses Blitz and does so intentionally because it gets her her way. It isn’t malicious, but immature and incredibly cruel, and there is a desire to see her become a better person and grow from this point.

Too bad.

4/10

C.H.E.R.U.B

I know this episode gets a ton of criticism for being a joke/filler episode that goes too long. And that is absolutely correct. However it is still better in that being filler, it is not seeking to be anything more than it is. It is just some dumb fun with a few jokes that come anywhere close to landing. But it doesn’t harm the characters or their stories, unlike the rest of the list up to this point

3/10

Oops

This episode is a hard one to place because I consider the first 7 of this list to be bad episodes. Then 8-12 are those that aren’t good with varying scales of enjoyment on my part. However I think Oops is neither good nor enjoyable. But it has some good story ideas that deserve some credit, regardless of how the writing and pacing consistently tries to undermine them.

The scene of Blitz and Fizzarolli in the alleyway is contrived and feels confused, but it does manage to land some points such as Fizz’s insecurity of being owned by his partner (too bad that goes nowhere and is immediately ignored in favor of Fizz NEEDS Ozzie, so essentially ownership is good actually) and Fizz hanging Blitz’s insecurity and guilt over his head.

The forced engagement, rapid fire pacing, and immediate resolution thoroughly dismantles any good points the episode started to set up. I have to admit the animation is pretty solid, people worked very hard on this for less pay than this quality deserves. But this episode struggles to find a place it belongs on my list because. It almost sees the light only to bury its head in the sand writing-wise.

2/10

Unhappy Campers

Unhappy Campers sits in the same pool with Oops and how it is objectively a terrible episode, but the portions involving Blitz and Barbie are genuinely interesting and I think relatively well done when compared to the rest of the season. Millie has some fun moments herself, though the whole portion of the episode surrounding her and Moxxie could have been cut and it would only serve to elevate the material overall. So even if she is the best part of the worst portion of the story, it still isn’t something I deem worth salvaging.

It would have been an excellent 5 minute episode.

2/10

Murder Family

It’s the first episode. It did well reintroducing the characters from the pilot. It had enough intrigue to see where it would go and how it would expand the world and characters. It. Was genuinely fun and impressive for a YouTube animation, with horror notes and black comedy. There was a sense of character that we could maybe get to know over time and see them struggle and change. It started off very superficial, which was fine.

The blank canvas of what could have been.

5/10

Ozzie's (Before season 2)

Having to remember Ozzie’s premiere after an entire season of thinking we were getting to know the characters, their dynamics, personality, wants, etc. So the personality change in Stolas is given more leeway as LooLooLand set up that he really wished he could find love and his wife and daughter leaving has changed his routine to the point he is in a depression. It even seems Stella took the staff with her in the separation and he’s genuinely all alone.

So him sitting in front of a television asking why nobody will love him makes sense and doesn’t feel out of character when given the room to rationalize and try to piece together the character from past instances. Additionally, him becoming overjoyed at Blitz calling him out is just as easy to rationalize away. I recall watching the episode and interpreting that Stolas was needy, desperate and earnest, not for Blitz, but just in general. And Blitz making himself available to Stolas is why Stolas tries so hard to make this pretend date legitimate. It also explains Blitz’s own utter disinterest in the scenario.

Ironically, looking back, Blitz feels like an Audience insert with how utterly confused and dismissive he is of Stolas’ targeted affection. He sees their relationship like the audience does: one of convenience and mutual benefit. Blitz calling Stolas out is him cashin in on this messed up coercive sex deal they have. Him calling Stolas out and using him for his own gains is only seen as fair in his eyes. And Stolas’ attempts to legitimize the date is a continuation of his own hedonistic selfishness. So when Stolas tries to leave Blitz or otherwise removes himself by covering his face, Blitz’s anger and resentment is valid. Because there’s a lot of confusion taking place at the moment, but Stolas is responsible for all of it and instead runs away.

The exact same escapist behavior that ended up with him in bed with Blitz in the first place.

This is all really compelling drama and without the codependent neediness of the second season, it ties together in what feels like a real season finale for the characters. Everything up to now was a prologue, an introduction of the world, characters and conflicts. Ozzie actually took the characters and faced them off against each other directly. Showing all of their worst traits and building more intrigue to Blitz’s past and his relationships. This was an episode of great potential when it was first released.

7/10

Loo Loo Land

I’ll be honest, the more I think on this episode the more I believe its placement is more out of pettiness than actual quality. While a song that made me invested at the time, You Will Be Okay is a poorly written musical song. Specifically in how it fails to actually build on the themes we were having presented. Because if you really listen to it, the song foreshadows how little Stolas actually cares about Octavia.

The only part of the song that builds character is the one when he speaks of how his marriage is cold and loveless and how “all [his] stories have been told, except for one.” Which one would think that untold story has something to do with Octavia. He’s singing the song for her, to her. He’s presumably alluding to the fact that she’s his only joy in life.

But the very next line is talking about Armageddon. Like the end of everything, the death of the universe, some heavenly judgement. That’s why everyone and their off brand YouTube clone was talking about Stolas dying at some point in the series. Because the song fails to adequately communicate the character and his feelings and how that wraps into the plot. It’s a pretty song to the ears, but fails as a musical.

Additionally, I feel I may still have such a soft spot for this episode in how it often contradicts the current direction the story has attempted to go. Details, dialogue, timeline discrepancies, all of that has continued to hinder the second season in trying to retcon the entire story to this lesser version of itself and Loo Loo land as an episode is just so tightly written that it has become a thorn.

All the portions with Blitz and RoboFizz are great. Great character, great foreshadowing (to nothing unfortunately), great pacing. Those scenes have some legitimately funny jokes. Stolas stole the show it seems, much to the series detriment, but the real stellar parts of the episode were for once the actual main character.

6/10

Truth Seekers

This episode would have been my favorite due to Blitz’s bad trip and the animation involved throughout. However, the fact that the show has entirely dropped the relevant and interesting portions of the episode, overused and abused Stolas’ demon design since this episode, and the animators have since been confirmed to not be paid fairly for the work they do, this gets to be number 2.

Like Loo Loo Land, Truth Seekers is a primary source of contradiction in the new direction the story has gone and a constant reminder of how little work has been put into the narrative. It’s one of the strongest episodes of the series as a whole, but it has been almost entirely retconned.

I have seen some mention of the agents returning to the story and if that does come to pass, this will be hilarious in trying to reconcile what parts of Truth Seekers is canon and what isn’t any longer. And the realization that all the best parts are the ones ending up on the cutting room floor.

7/10

Harvest Moon

Striker was an intimidating figure. Genuinely. There was a real sense of weight to this episode in the animation and visual storytelling. It’s a solid episode for what it is and far and above better than even Truth Seekers because it required Medrano and her staff to actually address the episode and make obvious efforts to retcon it. That is how solid an episode this is.

Stolas is not too creepy and dominating, but nor is he seen as the delicate princess who is always crying over some guy who doesn’t return his feelings. He is fun, and it starts the nudge towards maybe something a bit more amicable on Blitz’s end.

Millie absolutely deserved more time for her character seeing as they were staying with her family and she having an episode of standing by her husband and defending her choices in who she loves would have been far more engaging than Murder Family pt. 2, Moxxie lacks confidence and self esteem forever and always.

The song was so inconsequential. It was a funny segue with Striker basically upstaging Moxxie at every turn, but that doesn’t actually go anywhere when in regards to the plot overall.

And Stella putting a hit on her husband, to his face, was hilarious and would have been so interesting to have seen it played more than a joke. Like Stolas knows she wants to kill him, and he is just vaguely fine with that. Maybe thinking his letting her try to kill him would have her stay and not file for divorce. Have it been this macabre comedic sitcom where she’s always trying to kill him and hates his guts for being a subpar husband, but he takes it as some kind of tit-for-tat and plays along with it. She gets to send assassins after him, he gets to have sex with his rugged assassin imp. It’s a ridiculous level of absurdity that still allows for all the characters to be dimensional.

That got a little away from me there. Basically, this episode was the strongest overall. Animation wise, writing wise, story potential wise. This episode is the most solid Helluva Boss episode.

7.8/10

#helluva boss critical #helluva boss critique #vivienne medrano #vivziepop #helluva boss criticism #spindlehorse critical #spindlehorse criticism #helluva boss

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charcubed · 1 year

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Hi. I tend to forget that tumblr exists and just shout all my thoughts about The Winchesters on Twitter @CharCubed, which is a problem, but for once in my life I'm posting something here!

Here are some broad Thoughts on where I've landed of what this season 1 finale of The Winchesters offered–

• I very much want season 2 of this show SO badly. I want to see how they all continue to build their lives now that we know tragedy need not be their end! THIS IS THE HEALING SHOW. That whole cast gets to write their own story... "the only thing that's worse than how it starts for a hunter is how it ends" is no longer the case, as Carlos already said... and Dean helped to free them? That fucks.

• In regards to those possibilities: now that Dean would no longer be framing the prequel as a story he's telling, it frees the prequel up to no longer be doubling as Dean's story through revealing mirroring–which is very much what it's been doing for 12 episodes. Now the monster plots and the storylines for those characters in The Winchesters can also be diversified, so every episode no longer has to include, for example... [checks notes] a situation where a character is literally and/or metaphorically trapped and has to confront their trauma, break cycles of violence, and speak truths to be freed. It's been very Loud and very much Like This Constantly because it's Dean's story, but now it won't have to be anymore, which is an interesting thing to contemplate! (To be clear, for those unaware of my history of yelling about this show: I love that it was Like This. This show is fucking genius.)

• Initially, this finale had some alarm bells pinging in my brain but then I parsed the Reasons for those things. Mary told John she had "Something to say," right? And then she never says it. That's a Chekhov's gun that's never fired and it's of course paralleling how Dean has "something to say" to Cas too. Them not speaking that truth is a problem. In addition, we also got a montage eerily akin to the 15x19 one. But these callbacks / parallels to s15 all loudly indicate something very specific: The Winchesters is an unfinished story, and this finale (like the rest of this show) is mirroring and revealing truths about the prime narrative of SPN. For one thing, with the prequel they originally expected to have 22 or so episodes and ended up having 13 to work with. For another... this is the START of their story, not the end. So along those lines, what can we deduce about the end of season 15? (Hint: that finale is not an ending either.)

• Speaking of which: We learn that everything Dean was just doing takes place in the ~heavenly~ time period before Sam “dies." This all functionally happened right after Dean died as he drove down that road. He is restless, unmoored, grieving, and–this is key–considers his "ending" to be an unhappy happy one. He's fucking around and finding out, looking for and unpacking (through his narration) what he needs and wants for HIS happy ending to look like. He found out about the Akrida being a failsafe from Chuck and couldn't resist meddling to save everyone. It's also worth noting that Dean says to Jack something like, "If you have to kick me out of Heaven then that's fine." Between the lines is the thought of "please kick me out of Heaven, I'm causing problems because I'm grieving and I'm not done, I don't want this 'peace' but would rather have freedom." That in itself is a massive subversion of the SPN finale, to say nothing of the previous 12 episodes we've received.

Anyway. So in terms of Dean's story, we now know that this all takes place smack in the middle of 15x20 timeline-wise. This checks out because Bobby's presence connects to him being the only one we saw in 15x20. And... what I personally consider to be Jack's incredibly fucked up or ~potentially taken over by Chuck~ vibes are, in that sense, consistent with 15x19 as well. (I'm so sorry but please let me drop this cursed "Alex Calvert playing Chuck" joke by Jensen from August 2022 which haunts me.)

So: nothing about the concept that @chuckwon at the end of season 15 has been confirmed or denied in canon at this point. The idea that Chuck LOST, as Dean says here, is simply what Dean may still be thinking (which makes sense). But nothing has fundamentally changed about the state of how season 15 left things in the prime narrative yet... largely because that's not what this story is / was about.

In terms of what this finale presented to us, I think "Chuck won" potential was all deliberately left open. And I continue to Call Bullshit on the finale accordingly. A Chuck won plot line COULD be used in a future sequel to great affect, or it could NOT be used in a future sequel. That will be totally up to the future authors / team behind that potential sequel to see what story they choose to tell, and where it all may or may not go. But until then (on that front) right now it's the same shit, different show, and deliberately literally nothing about that potential has changed.

• I LOVE all of the above now that I've parsed it all in my brain. It makes perfect sense. Much like we were never going see the gay angel pop up in this show and kiss Dean (with apologies to anyone who somehow thought otherwise?)... leaving other things open like this is fantastic and the objectively correct call. Dean's story is HIS story to be furthered elsewhere, whereas this show belonged and continues to belong to its cast of characters who must take center stage. But through this story within a story narrated by Dean himself, we learned a hell of a lot about his state of mind as it actively stands in 15x20. Or more accurately: the entire show reinforces and reiterates comprehensively and repeatedly that the SPN finale was wrong and bad and not the end of the story at all, and now canonically and openly and in no uncertain terms that that's how Dean feels too.

• AND THUS: season 1 of The Winchesters works as deeply clever and layered commentary on Supernatural's ending and presents the stepping stone for a sequel continuation for Dean and his family. It's also the beginning of a new chapter with endless potential for The Winchesters' cast of characters who are not tied to fate or main timeline.

I fucking love it here.

Truly, madly, deeply: ALL HAIL ROBBIE THOMPSON.

And seriously, I really hope we get a season 2 because I adore all of the prequel's characters on their own merit and I want to see what their story can become :')

#the winchesters #spnwin #spnwin meta #the winchesters meta #dean winchester #GO LITTLE ROCKSTAR. FUCK SHIT UP #chuck won theory #chuck won meta #char writes things #ON TUMBLR? NO WAY.#I will likely reblog this to the chuckwon blog eventually

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queermania · 8 months

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Hi what are your thoughts on Lebanon? (the episode not the town hehe)

the first time i watched it i loathed it. now that i've had time to sit with it, i've really come around. i think it has a couple flaws, one of them fatal, but i still like it.

it's first flaw is that it's too ambitious. there's not enough time for what it's trying to do. the town as a character is a really neat concept and one they could've gotten a whole episode out of (and they should've). and the concept of john coming back for a day is also a really neat concept, and again, something that needed at least an entire episode to breathe. smooshing those two together makes it all feel underdeveloped and rushed.

the second flaw, and the one that is fatal in my opinion, is the john and mary of it all. i know a lot of people are bothered by sam and dean forgiving john and having nice family moments with him but i'm not. those were moments that they earned, not because john deserved them, but because the boys did. sam didn't need to have another shouting match with john. he'd already come to understand why john did the things he did. he'd already forgiven him. hell, he'd already forgiven him to his face even if john didn't know that was happening (in 5x13). this just let sam have closure.

the same is true of dean. dean didn't need to yell at john and tell him all of the ways he fucked up. i mean, the fact that john ruined their lives is already pretty clear. dean is in his forties and is living in a bunker and still hunting. but dean got to look his dad in the eyes and say, "this is my life because i chose it and it may not look the way you think it should but it's mine. i don't need your approval." he got to choose the family he built for himself over his dad and that's so so special to me.

none of that was about forgiving john, or even forgetting everything he did. it was about closure.

the only one who let john off the hook was mary. john gave her children the exact life she didn't want them to have and he did it in her memory. he turned her into nothing more than an effigy to mourn. she's been told, to her face, that what john did to her children was child abuse..... and she has no thoughts about it? i didn't need to see sam and dean yell at john and spew every hateful thing they ever felt because i already knew how they were feeling. i'd watched over fourteen seasons of it. but mary's surely complicated feelings about john are never addressed at any point in the show and that's fine up until the moment they bring john back to stand in front of her, face-to-face. i know there wasn't enough time in the episode to get into it but that's a problem. you cannot load the chekhov's gun of john and mary being forced together for breeding purposes + have mary learn of every horrible thing john ever did to the children she didn't want to be hunters, all in her name, and then not pull the trigger. you just can't. and it never gets addressed before or after this episode either. it's just a glaring neon sign. and it makes the whole thing feel like john apologia.

all that being said, i do love the idea of the town as a character and what it reveals about sam and dean. i loved seeing sam and dean have those moments of closure with their father. i loved seeing a glimpse into an alternate timeline. i loved the utilization of cas and zachariah. i loved that in the end dean chose cas and jack over his father. there was a lot of good in the episode.

#replies #anonymous #1413 #s14

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heavensickness · 1 year

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Honestly there would be no stories to tell without allegories, symbols, metaphors or intertextuality. We as humans wouldn't have the collective grandness of storytelling, which is the foundation of the interconnected nature of human existence. Since the first human left their fingerprints on a cave wall or sang the first song about their homeland to our current timeline where there are hundreds of genres of books, plays, music, dancing, movies, and games, we all have been trying so desperately to tell the same thing: I am. I exist. I want someone to know I exist. That is why I am telling you this story. I want someone to hear and understand. Even though the mediums of storytelling change from era to era and culture to culture, this desperate attempt stays the same. That is why we need universal hints and patterns to share with each other, because the storytelling is a cry for community. Al-Khidr who discovers the Water of Life and Gilgamesh who searches for the Exilir of Life. Prometheus and Victor Frankenstein who both committed the sin of defying Gods by giving life to a human. Eve's apple, Persephone's pomegranate, and Laura's goblin fruit meaning the temptation of a maiden. Chekhov's gun will fire at some point, sooner or later. The curtains are blue, because the protagonist feels melancholic and isolated. And this isn't so because the author commands you to perceive things this way, it is because it is in human instinct & collective memory to recognize these patterns. It isn't about what the author tells you, but about what you recognize from the story.

However, this doesn't mean that enjoying a story always requires analysis and hyper attention to the details. You can read a 600 pages novel or watch a 3 hours movie without paying attention to the bottom of the surface, and still enjoy it. And that is alright. What I am saying is that these seemingly insignificant details that some people despise or push away are an accumulation of humanity's shared memories and experiences, and the importance of symbols and metaphors is a solid fact that can never be debunked or abandoned. They will exist as long as we exist.

#shitposting #literature #?#actually literature isnt the only means of storytelling like i made this post with visual novels in my mind but yeah #about writing

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dude1818 · 5 months

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Just had another theory. Back in episode 3, when it was explained that both Robin and the Doctor disappeared after Kiruko's surgery, I immediately thought it seemed plausible that the Doctor also bodyswapped with Robin in order to cover his escape (especially since Robin would be out to kill him after that stunt). That seemed supported by Robin's time spent working as a doctor with the Immortal Order. By the time we got to the Kiruko/Robin confrontation at the end, though, there were no explicit references to it, so I dropped that idea

However, I never realized what was going on with the timeline while I was watching the show. My initial assumption was that the Doctor fled to Takahara after Kiruko's surgery, not that he was at Takahara pre-Calamity. My dad pointed out that the Doctor must be Dr. Sawatari from Takahara. I never thought about which person he might be, but by Chekhov's Razor, it seems obvious that the Doctor is the one named male doctor from Takahara

Once I realized that, I think Robin's reaction to Maru showing up in episode 13 is the clincher. Yeah Maru was out for blood, but for Robin to immediately drop everything and run away, no blustering or cockiness? That seemed uncharacteristic. I think Robin, as the Doctor, thought that it was Maru's brother who found him. I don't know anything about Maru's brother, but I was spoiled that he shoots [redacted] later, which seems like a pretty asshole move out of context. It would not surprise me that Dr. Sawatari fears for his life a lot more from Maru's brother than from a random angry teen, or even that he's possibly a herald that Tokio's around too

#obv the horrible monster experiment they find in the water treatment plant matches the Doctor's MO #but it could've just been related to the real Robin's time with the Immortal Order #disclaimer: i'm anime-only but have been spoiled on random things from the manga #heavenly delusion #tengoku daimakyou

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insomnicbypasser · 5 months

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So hi fun fact im a big ben reilly fan, and i got super excited when i saw that he was one of the people going after miles at the end of smatsv

Even though hes mostly played for laughs and stands as the comedic relief for quite the serious trio with miguel and jess, hes one of the most tragic characters (in my opinion of course) in the spider man comics

I feel like the writers didnt have him in the last part of the movie for just a couple of quick, haha angsty man who talks about his every action jokes, i have the idea that hell come back at some point during smbtsv as a sort of chekhovs gun

Just thinking about how much ben could be a point of comparison to miles current situation at the end of the movie, a double who has no place exsisting in this timeline or new york

#ben reilly #miles morales #smatsv #smbtsv #a little sad with how much he was played for comedy #his original debut in the comics was so serious dude has actually been THOUGH it #also dont get me even started on ben and miguel #“my counterpart almost/did die and i took over/ thought about taking over their life after they were dead because i deserve their happy end”#the potential comparisons make me want to bash my head through a wall im mentally ill

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felixcloud6288 · 2 months

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Higurashi: Time Killing Chapter 6

The situation from last chapter went from bad to worse to quickly being okay. Goon #2 wakes up when Akasaka is already dealing with Goon #1, but Akasaka takes him out real quick.

Then Ooishi pulls out his Chekhov's Gun and points it at Goon #1. Goon #1 decides to shoot Akasaka in the leg, grab Goon #2 and make a run for it. Goon #1 mentioned last chapter he was ordered to not kill anyone if possible and it looks like he obeyed that order.

That vision Akasaka had while he was unconscious, it was kind of mesmerizing. I wish I knew what Rika said.

Ooishi straight-up told Akasaka they get paid whether or not they did a good job.

So Irie and Takano have been working in Hinamizawa for at least 5 years.

Is that a poster about cavities?

Just like what happened with Teppei last arc, the dramatic conflict ended quickly and without much flare. And just like last arc, some paranormal feeling events start happening right after.

Every phone line Akasaka finds has been cut and he's hearing footsteps following him.

The inciting incident to this arc was the kidnapping. But the very first chapter made it clear the actual premise would revolve around Rika, her mysterious death, and learning who she truly is.

And now the kidnapping event is resolved. All that's left is to figure out the truth about Rika.

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Spoiler Discussion

That dream Akasaka had made me think of the space between timelines that Rika always finds herself in when she dies.

While it could just be a hallucination he's having because of his fears over what Rika warned him about, I wonder if he may have slipped into that space between timelines.

If so, I wonder if the girl who spoke to him is actually Frederica Bernkastel.

Akasaka said he didn't regret his actions despite Rika's warning. She probably called him a fool for not listening to her. That does seem to be a theme with him. Her words never reached him even when he heard her. It's only fitting that in this dream, he cannot hear her at all. It's not like he was ever really listening.

#higurashi no naku koro ni #higurashi no naku koro ni reread #higurashi when they cry

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superheroes-or-whatever · 1 year

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Star Trek/Green Lantern: Stranger Worlds (2016) #2 art by Angel Hernandez

#Pavel Chekhov #Manhunters #Angel Hernandez #Dc #comics #comic books #Comic art #Star Trek #kelvin timeline #movies

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paperstorm · 1 year

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WHY HAVE THEY NOT SENT OUT INVITES? also are they gonna fire the Chekhov’s gun of divorce/ annulment timeline (since Iris has once again disappeared off the face of the earth) versus dream wedding venue open spot timeline, because they can’t really do either if the guests don’t know what date the wedding is

For a show that is so hopeless at sticking to a coherent timeline they really do seem to enjoy setting up stories that establish a strict timeline just so they can then mess it up 😂 Given that the first four episodes all took place within about a week it was plausible at the beginning of the season that the wedding could be two months from 4x01 but I don’t think there’s any plausible way at this point less than two months have past, when you factor in the time it would take for both Carlos and Marjan to heal from their injuries. Marjan was shot in the stomach and then walked around bleeding for like an hour, she would need at LEAST a few weeks before she could even be back on desk duty. Is it some kind of masochism? Maybe the writers enjoy us clowning them.

#911ls asks

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sodiumlamp · 4 months

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Picard

Actually, this is one of the better episodes, but I couldn't turn down this screenshot, as it encapsulates my feelings on the show as a whole.

S2E3 has some pretentious title like "Dissertations on a Thesis" or "Futute te Ipsum Pt.1" or "Moonbeam Hootenanny". I call it "the one where Elnor dies and it doesn't really mattter." The gang manage to travel back in time to 2024 where they hope to locate some "watcher" that the Borg Queen believes can help them undo the changes in history. But Elnor got shot before they could make their getaway, and he dies while they try to get the ship landed.

Some issues I have with this:

It's kind of dumb that all the bad guys' weapons were set to vaporize, yet when they shot Elnor is just blew a hole in his chest near his shoulder. We know the weapons were set to vaporize because when the good guys manage to get them that's what happens when they shoot the bad guys. Sure, the good guys might have changed the setting during the fight, but why would the Romulan-hating fascist dudes show Elnor more mercy?

The fight scene just looked dumb. They put a lot of action scenes in this show, and indeed Elnor seems to be in this show solely for doing cool ninja moves, but apparently Raffi, Seven, and Rios are just as capable. The thing is, Star Trek never needed this sort of thing in the past. A dropkick or an open palm strike was usually all the roughhousing needed. The bigger problem is that the fight scenes in Picard all look the same, and they do them often, which just makes them even less worthwhile.

They probably killed off Elnor since there wasn't much he could do in 2024, and this raises the dramatic stakes of the mission. Elnor's only chance of survival lies in the uncertain possibility that fixing history will somehow undo Elnor's death. But removing Elnor from the story also highlights just how unimportant he was to it from the start, sort of like Zhaban. Raffi is really upset about Elnor's death, which seems weird because she didn't seem to care about him at all in Season 1. True, she's had a couple of years to get to know him, and they're both in Starfleet, so they have something in common, but we never got to see any of that. It's just like all of the other interpersonal relationships in this show.

Once the team gets down to business in 2024, things get a little smoother. This is familiar ground for Star Trek, and I was going to compare their search to a particular episode of one of the older shows, but really, it reminds me of all of them. I suppose, in particular, this is a lot like Dax keeping a low profile in the days leading up to the Bell Riots, or Paris trying not to let Sarah Silverman find out too much in 1996, or Chekhov falling down and hurting himself in Star Trek IV. None of this is very innovative, but it's inoffensive, I suppose.

On the ship, Jurati has to connect herself with the Borg Queen to get her back on line so they can find out what they need to know. This could hypothetically offer some insight into how the Borg think and communicate, but it always comes down to the same old crap. "Assimilation" this, "resistance is futile" that.

The doctor who treats Rios is pretty cool, and so is the security guard who insists he was more fun than Kevin. This is kind of a bad thing, because the whole point of sending Star Trek characters to the present day is that our time is supposed to be a dyptopian nightmare for them. Except the world in Star Trek: Picard is already a dystopian nightmare in Season 1, and that gets replaced with the fascist timeline we saw in the beginning of this season. So life in 2024 is almost like a vacation for these dopes. I mean, the ICE arrest Rios, but that's not much worse than what he's been dealing with in his native time. At least we expect the ICE to be shitheads. What's Starfleet's excuse?

#mike watches picard #sheer fucking hubris

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henrysglock · 1 year

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i love all your theorizing about henry, but how likely do you think it is that it'll actually become canon? bc like, i'd prefer spending time with main group of characters, the party, the teens, joyce and hopper, and seeing their arcs. and i definitely want a satisfactory ending for henry's arc, but i have a hard time picturing a huge twist about multiple henry's and deep diving into the creel family and brenner and time travel, etc in s5. esp bc s5 is supposed to be a lot shorter than s4. idk i'd just love to hear your thoughts!

Oh I’ve been waiting for this one!

Yeah, no, they’re definitely not going to take time to lay out every detail and deep dive into every aspect of characters’ relationships to each other. Are we going to get details on the mechanics of it? Probably not. Are we actually going to return to the fucky NINA sequence? Maybe, maybe not. I don’t know!

However…there are plenty of concrete details they have to explain, many of which point to a canon time travel/alternate universe twist.

They have to explain Henry (?) turning back the clock, because they made a point to show us that. They spent a great deal of time on that specific shot.

They have to address Alice’s death, because they explicitly don’t show it, there’s no way Henry (?) physically could have done it if he was trancing Victor the whole time.

They have to address the discrepancies in facts between Henry’s (?) retelling of the 1959 massacre and Victor’s retelling of the same night.

They’ll likely address the discrepancy between the description of the rabbit scene and what Raphael is portraying on screen.

They’ll likely address the 1979 Massacre weirdness too, because they explicitly don’t show Henry (?) killing anyone but the first set of guards and 002…and we also have an image of a blood-free Henry (?) looking at the dead children in confusion.

To do all this, they’ll most likely address the content of the newspapers re: Henry and Edward Creel, especially with so much twin imagery and the concepts of twinners/alternate timelines.

I think they’ll allude to a lot of the fucked-up bits of the Creel-Brenner relationships the same way they used subtext to tell us the kinds of abuse that were done to Henry and El in Brenner’s lab (i.e. the framing of the electrocution scene, the 3 legged Papa drawing, Brenner’s mannerisms with the children). I don’t think they’ll have the time to actually lay all of it out explicitly, and for some parts…they legally/morally can’t and shouldn’t lay it out explicitly.

So…There are a handful of things the Duffers must address, but they definitely won’t explicitly address every clue and the mechanics of everything/every detail. They simply don’t have time for all that within the structure of the season. However, they don’t have to flesh it all out to make the twist work! They really only need a handful of well placed shots; the whole thing could realistically be wrapped up within the same span of time as the NINA twist sequence…that was a huge twist too, and it took a relatively small amount of time. They had Cali, Hawkins, NINA (not memories), and Russia all happening at the same time as the NINA memories thing, and they made it work. They can definitely do the same for a time loop/alternate universe thing when all we really have going on in ST5 is a) the battle against Vecna, and b) the search for Max.

Hell, they’ve already set us up for it with multiple Chekhov’s Gun details in ST4! They kind of have to address it, at this point.

That said, they definitely won’t flesh out every single relationship with backstory re: Henry within the frame of the TV show…That’s what the play is for ;) The First Shadow my beloved…come home to me…

#asks #thanks for this one!!#henry creel #st5 predictions #stranger things

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alovelyburn · 2 years

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Just thinking about the Casca Apostle theory...

This is whole speculation, not a real prediction although I do think it makes sense with the story and would fit the tone of the story very well.

OKAY SO THE THEORY THAT CASCA WILL BE THE ONE WHO MAKE THE SACRFICE WITH GUTS’ BEHELIT AND TURN INTO AN APOSTLE

This is a theory that I hadn’t heard at all until my return to Berserkdom a few months back. At first I had a hard time with it for two major reasons:

1. In most theories it took place too early in the timeline to really work for me. Because the thing is, Casca turning into an Apostle would be a gut punch the likes of which Berserk hasn’t had since the Eclipse. That’s definitely a third act type of plot turn, and we seem to be sliding into the third act right now, so it would have to be later than right now.

and

2. I just didn’t think that there was enough going on to catalyze it without it coming off as kind of floppy. Don’t get me wrong, realistically she’s had enough bullshit happen to her, but I guess I was just having a hard time imagining what event could trigger it to get that deep.

The abduction plot obviously took care of the timing issue I had.

But what I have now realized is that it also provided the necessary “shit gets real” catalyst to trigger that level of drama.

Let me explain!

(Obviously I didn’t come up with this idea, it’s just the specific variant on the idea that came to mind because it works for me whereas others didn’t feel quite right, IMO.)

So as we know, Guts has had this behelit since the beginning of the series. That makes it essentially a Chekhov’s Gun - it has to be fired by the end of the third act. Someone is going to have to use it.

Meanwhile, the other thing that’s become a Chekhov’s Gun is this concept that Casca may not want what Guts wants -

Now of course we eventually find out the issue - she has her emotions and memories of the Eclipse (well really everything from leaving to rescue Griffith forward) locked up in her thorny heart. The thorns haven’t come off.

Which makes the potential return of those memories ANOTHER Checkhov’s Gun - it’s got to happen at some point.

So obviously as of now we’ve seen that a major catalyst for those memories returning is just looking at Guts.

It happens every time she looks at him, which is obviously why she can’t.

So now we have three major powder kegs simmering, all of which have to blow at some point before the end of the series. A behelit that needs an owner. A dread warning that what Guts wants may not be what Casca wants. And all of Casca’s worst experiences and memories locked up inside her heart, unconfronted, waiting to be unleashed.

Dramatically, it didn’t really “feel” right to me for her to just get her memories back, lose her shit and turn into an Apostle. Even though it’s psychologically valid, it doesn’t strike me as.... narratively satisfying? Because I feel like something that big needs to be teased and revved up to, not unlike how the Eclipse kept coming up and being referenced and hanging over their heads for like 6 or 7 volumes. Not saying they would need to foreshadow it for 7 volumes but just something more than occasional vague references to her perhaps not wanting the same thing as Guts, for example because without that it would feel kind of like it came from nowhere. This is especially the case for someone like Miura who always wanted everything to be as dramatic as possible - Casca and Guts only got together because he thought it would be more dramatic, etc.

NOW. When Guts asks Flora to teach him how to activate the Behelit so he can summon the Godhand and instantly be killed fighting them (lets be real here), Flora tells him that the behelit will activate for its intended owner “at the very moment that the owner craves their power.”

So, when would someone crave their power?

How about when they find themselves in a city with someone they dearly love and no memory of all the horrors that were inflicted on them, and then their former lover arrives to save them, but looking at him causes awful flashbacks at which point she realizes that she’s literally surrounded by people who have raped (or tried to rape) and traumatized her as well as the murderers of all her comrades?

-Guts, who she loved but who attacked her multiple times and tried to rape her.

-Griffith, who she loved and who had all of her comrades killed and then actually did rape her.

-The Apostles?! WHO ARE NOW GRIFFITH’S ARMY? Guys, if she’s in Falconia, she’s not just in there with Griffith/Femto, she’s in there with the Apostles who slaughtered the Hawks and gangraped her into madness. And they’re all reformed and largely trusted members of the regular army of Midland now? I can’t imagine how this would feel to her.

-Hell, even her son literally shares Griffith’s body so she can’t be with him AND get away from Griffith.

There’s no... respite for her. No safe place. Even Guts attacked her, so what’s she supposed to do?

Feel powerless?

This would also...

-Pay off all the Casca/Griffith parallels. Of which there are many - Guts’ resolution to stay with her because he didn’t stay with Griffith and as a result everything went to hell, for example, or even just her position as the “leader” of the Hawks even when there are no Hawks left to lead. But also:

-This sneaky reference to Guts’ departure from the Band of the Hawk in Chapter 359: A Wall, in which Casca is placed in Griffith’s position on the ground, looking away.

I also do think that panel is meant to indicate that Guts is ultimately going to have to do this alone, whether literally or metaphorically. I wouldn’t be surprised if he ends up leaving the rpg party behind, which would make sense as well since Miura had said it was time to focus on Guts and Griffith’s relationship again.

Oho, but you may say, she’s Branded, Branded people can’t Sacrifice.

NOT SO MY FRIENDS.

Not only does Flora specifically note that it could be Guts’ behelit, perhaps, but...

Slan suggests it, and given that she’s one of the Godhand I daresay she’d know how possible it is.

In fact, what if all these things with Guts being named as a potential user of the behelit (including that bit right there, as well as Flora’s comment, etc) is meant not to foreshadow Guts using it but rather to let us know that a branded person can in fact use it so that we’re not confused if Casca does it. We already kind of know it won’t be Guts because Miura had said that he didn’t want Guts to get a bunch of powerups or lose his humanity because that would defeat the point.

And if you know my commentary about how Casca is basically just used to spark changes in Griffith and Guts’ relationship which this theory may seem at odds with... But it’s not, because obviously if Casca ends up going apostle because of the Eclipse, it furthers the tension between Guts and Griffith as it’s Griffith’s fault that this would have happened to her. Also, it could put Guts into a position where he has to decide whether or not to kill Casca, which seems like a terribly horrible Berserkish situation to put him in.

Long story short(lol too late): Right now if I had to pick the person that is likely to use it, it would be Casca. That’s just based on where we are now, though, things can always change, thoughts can always drift.

And that’s all!

#berserk meta #ariel talks about berserk #im a bit nervous about posting this #for some reason #but hey live dangerously

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