#first non recap episode holy shit

[loquaciousquark]

Exandria Unlimited: Calamity Wrap-Up (July 13, 2022)

Very belatedly, here’s the cast-full recap for Calamity. Everyone is here, including Brennan (excluding Matt) and Marisha is hosting-ish. Aabria wins her first game of rock paper scissors ever as part of the intro.

Aabria normally doesn’t care about optimizing characters, but Brennan’s alert that they would die she took as a challenge. Laerryn more than doubled Patia’s HP thanks to Toughness & her Arcane Ward. She did a lot of research to build the character as solidly as possible. Brennan’s direction to the cast to pick lots of magical items (in retrospect: OUCH) frightened Sam, who picked only a Wand of Smiles & a +1 Ring of Protection--and even that made him feel guilty. Luis asking for a Holy Avenger gave Marisha the freedom to ask for more. Brennan: “But there’s an element of verisimilitude to that though, right? These people, the movers and shakers of Avalir. ‘Can I borrow $20?’ No! These people would be fucking loaded!“ It wasn’t just a clever parenting ploy trying to wrangle children, it made sense in the world which doesn’t need an army, just a guy with a Belt of Storm Giant Strength.

Lou wasn’t as Calamity-infused as the rest; he was just excited to be on Critical Role & didn’t feel like he could just show up as a plain bard, so he did bard-sorcerer. (Sam didn’t want to do a plain bard since he’d done that before, but wanted to play something familiar at this high level. Brennan suggested the flavoring, and Sam picked his multiclass warlock patron from the first fey result on the CR wiki. Oh, Sam.) Lou used his Magical Secrets feat to get his dragon summon and the Cone of Cold, “’cause we never took a rest of any kind.” Brennan: “All the GMs out there, fuck a rest, all right? They don’t need ‘em.”

Nydas started as a sorcerer. Loquatius started as a warlock. Patia was a pure School of Enchantment wizard. She didn’t get to use a lot of her class features within the game, but the one thing she did get to clear with Brennan was that she got to use her vast library knowledge to have access to 10 extra spells.

Brennan: GMs & DMs shouldn’t be stingy when the character designs should allow for expansion. Find non-gamebreaking ways to expand character powers.

Travis walked into character creation with zero prep, despite instructions to come with ideas. He happened to be the last one at the table to describe his concept, and after everyone else was full magic, he & Brennan landed on the non-magical investigator rogue. Travis always builds characters by starting with an item. Fjord began with a pair of silver forearm bracers/greaves which he got from a costume shop. Likewise, Cerrit came from these very cool hawks (a type of handaxe) from a fighting system called Sayoc Kali in the Phillipines (wielded by a Navy Seal named Jack Carr). That turned into the Philippine Eagle, which came together beautifully with the Sightwarden elements.

Travis talks about being blown away in the first episode with how natural a rapport some of the characters had with each other (especially excluding him). He felt like he’d missed a meeting. However, it turns out there was indeed a secret meeting between Marisha, Aabria, and Lou in which they talked about their characters’ secret nasty histories with each other.

Brennan wanted to know all the ways that the 75% of the energy dedicated to the Replenishment was actually being misused, siphoned, or otherwise misdirected, and his few suggestions (lichdom, people extending their lives) paled in comparison to the players’ ideas (making the city capable of interplanar travel).

Brennan explicitly wanted members of the Brass Ring to be up to “asymmetrical amount of shady shit.” It was also funny for Brennan to hear these characters talking about how nasty they were as corrupt city officials at the same time he was emailing Luis to discover Zerxus was “not doing good. He’s like, ‘It could all burn. It could burn today, tomorrow, who knows?’“

It’s hard for Luis to be objective about a character he’s been inhabiting for so long. He wanted to challenge himself with a hard commitment to a full redemption paladin. He wanted to parallel his experience as the lonely First Knight with the connection of the Betrayer Gods’ experiences. He didn’t have any longstanding secrets--the dream happened that day. There were two times he wanted to talk to the rest about his issues: first right after speaking with Purvan, and second was during the Zone of Truth until Nydas scolded him. However, Brennan could see the desire to confess in Luis’s eyes and moved the story forward. :O Lou loved the dynamics of the conversation--Zerxus challenging others on their reticence only to be yelled at by his best friend.

Brennan loved how much Luis got into storytelling. His emails were full of notes about Zerxus’s strong convictions and ways he could be manipulated. Brennan likes that 5e moved paladins from wisdom to charisma casters because it allows for the examination of a morality system based on CHA. Zerxus took the universal truth of “everyone can be saved” and never questioned the following conclusion that “I am the right man for the job.” Luis deliberately built in this toxic trait: “I am going to change you.” However, he also felt it was important to have a fervent, unkillable hope. “Let’s have this person who is the most well-meaning, the goodest person in his own heart, and let’s give him this blind spot.”

Marisha talks about the dissonance between the players knowing the characters are being shady but having to justify them internally because they genuinely believe it’s for the good of the city.

Sam talks about Quay being the opposite: instead, he was a liar all the time; his flaw (figured out during the playing) was that he lied to himself more than anyone else. He couldn’t admit to himself that he just wanted simple things, “to be a gritty indie reporter” and to have a lady, and he hated the bending of truth required to be the Herald of Avalir.

Cerrit was a good dad for that day only--he had years of not being a good dad before this. The implication was that Wrayne and Cerrit were not doing well because he had his eyes everywhere except the house with his family. She took off looking for meaningful work and Cerrit just said, “Okay.” He put some of his fears about being a new dad into the character. Travis said he wanted to be Jor-El who got his kids out of there.

Everyone made character choices which elevated the story. The ties to Vespin & the Betrayer Gods were helpful, but everyone was corrupt in some way except Cerrit. Even Quay is introduced by influencing an election. Brennan didn’t want the viewers’ lesson to be, “that’s what happens when everyone’s bad. Not like me, who’s good.” Having a good character whose attention was just in the wrong place was also a great lesson. Travis found it fascinating that even when playing a good character whose entire job was to investigate at the end of days, he had a hard time pushing his friend the Herald on his obvious lies. 

The kids being so cute destroyed everyone. Travis picked a dad character because he wanted collateral damage; the character needed stakes. His favorite superhero is Superman (correct) because he is omnipotent and still chooses to be good (also correct, and I’ve never felt so close to Travis), but he’s also been fascinated by Jor-el, who was so prescient he could see the planet’s impending explosion but couldn’t make a ship big enough to fit all three of them. He talks about building characters with priorities: if the first priority is the threat, the job, the enemy, the second is the family, implying you have then put something above the family. As a new dad, he doesn’t know how to do that: his heart is outside his body now. He wanted to explore that conflict of priorities in Cerrit.

Luis doesn’t have kids of his own, but he likes the pretense--he likes trying to access that part of his imagination. He wanted to have a kid that wasn’t his to parallel the relationship between the Betrayers & mortals (wow!). Zerxus’s child was staying with Nydas’s family (Lou’s idea).

Sam & Aabria very quickly decided they didn’t have kids. “There’s something slightly hilarious about exes who fucking hate each other, and there’s something not hilarious at all about exes with a kid who hate each other.”

Travis is incensed that he missed out on all these coffees with other players to pre-prep character relationships. There was early discussion about Laerryn being Elias’s mom with Evandrin, but it never got cemented. There was some idea of it coming up if Elias were ever orphaned in game.

The city put a lot of pressure on Zerxus to become First Knight because there weren’t many other good options after Evandrin died. They needed the eldritch knight-oracle power of Evandrin to study.

Brennan loves playing kids. “There’s a convenience to orphans” due to their lack of attachment. See: Luke on Tatooine. He loves familial relationships because people are like gems, and certain facets only show up in family relationships (Spy x Family vibes, tbh). Even characters who tried to avoid family still had critical moments: Eadalus and Nydas, Patia and her grandfather.

Nydas was based heavily on John Hammond from Jurassic Park. The goal is not just to make the city great, it’s to make it great and show it to the world forever for the recognition. “I think, in the moment where you killed us--”

Brennan: “I just wanna say something. Matt Mercer made up the Calamity, okay? Matt Mercer made it up, and I’m over here bad-copping it--” Sam: “So you gave birth to us, and Matt killed us?” Brennan: “In a way. I’m in the delivery room.” Lou: “Well, I specifically mean when you killed us with the tree. Which is you. The tree didn’t have to be that wild. It could have just split open. And then in the fourth episode for the first second, AKA two hours, you murdered us ruthlessly. That was you.” Brennan: “All I’m saying is that everyone loves it when Matt says two-thirds of Exandria’s gone, but when it actually starts to happen and we’re making saving throws for an hour of gameplay, all of a sudden people got some shit to say. That’s all I’m saying.”

The moment of death was when Nydas realized he had something of value to lose: a community of people doing great things. The slow moment of Laerryn casting Blight was his slow-mo realization of “uh oh, I might have been sitting on something really important” regarding the prophecy. After that, he had this single-minded impetus to try to mitigate the damage. Brennan loved seeing the prophecy incite a character to panic in real time without a saving throw. He thinks it reflects the differences in character backgrounds & Nydas’s grounded struggle in growing up on the earth vs. the elves’ air-based privileged upbringing.

Brennan thinks Cerrit’s decision to leave is right up there with the Blight & pulling the heart through the tree in terms of critical game moments. He could have completely shifted that fight or even persuaded them to stop. Travis thinks Patia & Laerryn were the no. 1 & 2 targets if he’d been there, with Zerxus behind at 3rd. He OOC thought it was a good chance for them to weaken each other before he had to come in to fight them.

The drive to get the Leywright done was because it was the best timing & would free her up to fix her marriage. “Once we get this done, we could do the little things” like visiting Quay’s home plane.

Sam reads his text history with Aabria. “Lorwyn is her first name. ... My first name is Loquatius Hambrick-Zucker.” Aabria had forgotten she’d named her something else first. Next text: “Maybe I should simplify my stupid-ass last name to something much more fey, since that’s where I’m from. How about Loquatius Seelie, implying that I’m from the Seelie court, like Elmenore. Wasn’t that something you did with Fearne on ExU?” They figured out the relationship timeline & number of years divorced, as well as the faults for the marriage. Aabria honestly thought this was just going to be a bit. They were planning to just be sniping at each other in the background for the campaign, but Sam kept coming at Aabria with genuine emotions. Sam had lightly discussed Quay discovering parts of himself with Brennan over the course of the story, but didn’t know what that would look like. Brennan had his hands off that relationship more than any other.

The scandal with Elena Tuvaris was the mark of the end of Loquatius’s reporter-y honesty.

The speech in episode 4 comes up, oh God. “The most beautiful woman in the world” makes Brennan choke up every time he watches it (apparently hundreds of times, God bless). Sam’s emotion in that moment was fully & completely honest. “I’m not a very good actor. I fell in love with her during the game.” Marisha talks about a conversation with Sam she had during C1 about roleplaying styles. She asked him about influences & callbacks, and Sam said he likes to remember what has already happened like rungs of a ladder. Marisha thinks the speech was a masterclass in being 100% informed by what had happened before. Travis reveals Sam wrote the speech in the shadows of the break in illegible chicken scratch on a legal pad. Brennan was blown away by the sheer gravitas of the speech coming from a character who’d only moments before made the deliberate decision to die, to go down with the ship--and then to transition into the Market of Wonders...

Brennan: “That is a perfect joke. I’ve been lucky enough to see a couple of them in my life. That is a perfect joke. There’s something that [Joseph] Campbell says: ‘comedy completes the realization that drama begins.’ I have not contradicted the depths of my sorrow. I have not contradicted the meaningfulness of my sadness, but I have introduced something profoundly absurd and wonderfully silly, and I am not uncommitted in the moment of doing it. It’s hysterical, and it makes it even more sad.”

Aabria volunteering to be the divorced partner of Sam was the best RPG decision she’s ever made. Marisha loved the sediment layers of trauma.

Marisha wanted Patia to be like a Kennedy. It was hard for her because D&D is built on scrappy ne’er-do-wells, and to be someone integrated in society was hard. Brennan thought she did an incredible job bookending her completely absent parents with “Happy Replenishment, Grandfather.” Brennan didn’t realize how alone Patia was until she said that Laerryn was her best friend. There was a moment where everyone was having connections with everyone and Patia was alone with a statue. That led to the in-game realization that somehow Patia’s parents had failed, which is why she’d erased (or someone had erased) them from her memory. 

Brennan consulted with Matt before linking the Gau Drashari with the Ashari. He blew up Matt’s phone in his own planning. He had to negotiate balancing the stakes of Avalir with the Primordials’ historically canon focus on Vasselheim. Matt named the Gau Drashari when Brennan asked if there could be a druid group at the mountain the Betrayer Gods would want to destroy. Matt created the idea of the Tree of Names when Brennan came to him with a story beat he needed.

Sam praises Brennan’s balance of the need of the short-form story against Matt’s gigantically huge world.

Travis heavily commends Luis for starting the story off super strong. Lou had told Luis that Brennan likes to start off with character vignettes, and Luis knew of course that meant he wouldn’t start with him, ha! Luis had asked for an encounter with a Betrayer God, but expected it to be a big distance shadow, not something so intimate that resulted in him caring for the character. Zerxus establishes attachments very very quickly--unhealthily quickly. He fell in love with Evandrin immediately and loved Elias as his son immediately. Lou was agonizing over the PC vs. NPC knowledge of Luis having had this intense encounter with Asmodeus but not bringing it up in game. Luis talks about the crazy intimacy of the Lord of Hells looking like Evandrin, like Elias, being super receptive to everything Zerxus offered. Sam thinks it was a crazy unusual bold choice and he loved it.

Blighting the tree & pulling Asmodeus through the portal were key moments for Brennan. Travis could see Brennan’s face change with delight when that happened. Aabria loves how beautifully Luis played the scenes with Asmodeus because he never asked for anything, never insighted, never Zone of Truthed--he tried to do a bunch of things that Luis mechanically knew would never work instead, like Remove Curse. There were certain things he was willing to question and certain things it would never occur to him to question.

Brennan: “In terms of being a liar, the God of Lies--I don’t flimflam a person with a steel resolve. I do what real evil is, which is I find somebody who already wants to believe. You go, ‘Is there something you’d really like to be true?’ How much does the devil even lie in those scenes? You say stuff, you say, ‘The Prime Deities did this to you,’ and homeboy’s like, ‘Yeah, sure, man.’ It’s so much him just letting you walk to where he wants you to walk.”

Travis was very creeped out by the non-conniving, non-arch evil of the devil by way of Brennan. Marisha felt like she genuinely saw something new about what Brennan is capable of. She is horrified at how manipulative he could be when he wanted. Brennan says it’s important to have high cognitive empathy and low capability of caring when the target is hurt; you have to be very emotionally intelligent and aware of what others feel/want to be successfully manipulative. You just don’t care when they’re wounded by it. Asmodeus’s manipulation of Zerxus wasn’t that he lied to him, it was that he showed up to him wounded.

Brennan had a line if Zerxus had ever questioned Asmodeus on his lies: “Yeah, I showed up to you hurt, because you guys love it when people are hurting.” Luis: “Well, a savior needs somebody to save.”

Aabria was more scared that Brennan’s Asmodeus didn’t have an affectation or accent.

Brennan had so many contingency plans if the characters had failed to end the world. He had plans where the Septarion came after them in case they tried to get the city’s authorities on their side. Sans Blight/pull, Vespin shows up and is evil, the Taxmen turn & it’s a fight at the tree: boring options. Most of the contingencies in absence of hubristic folly involve brute force being responsible for the Calamity instead. Others for the final combat included the Taxmen overwhelming them, and contingencies for if Laerryn went down in the final fight: someone would have had to make an insane Arcana check to finish her work--probably Loquatius.

Travis could not have rolled the 31 without the inspiration, the buff, the teamwork. Cerrit had atoned and focused and killed the evil, but had one thing left to do to make things right. He couldn’t have succeeded without the Ring of Brass wanting to help him escape. “It mattered that we were friends.”

After the orb, Travis texted Marisha in game “What did you do to my daughter?!” because he didn’t realize initially what Patia had sent her. Patia’s knowledge hoarding came about because Marisha mourned the loss of the Library of Alexandria. She asks Matt often what’s happened to her orb. Brennan worries about it too: “The camera stops rolling, and suddenly canon leaves you! I immediately wanted to run and find Matt and be like, is the orb okay? I’m not--I don’t have any say anymore. It goes back to you now. Is it fine? The little library, where is it at?” Marisha loves the fan theory that the library going to the daughter of a master detective was the origin of the Cobalt Reserve.

Brennan would love to come back and play Kir or Maya as an adult. Adult Kir in his mind is huge & jacked.

It was really significant to Brennan that Laerryn used her leywright to save Exandria, and for Zerxus to get his cleansing redemption power to get Vespin back for a moment. He didn’t want the story to say that science, innovation, or compassion were bad; it was all a product of a single moment in a specific inspiration. He loved the bookending of these same focuses of failure being later used for a new, more selfless purpose to great success.

Bolo is dead. Matt is hereafter conscripted into doing Slavic accents for Aeorians. Or Bolo is hit by a wagon. Or Bolo was an Aeorian master spy who later worked on threshold crests. Or Bolo polymorphed into a dragon and flew away safely.

Marisha to Sam: “You were sleeping with a dragon, ha!” Brennan: “Dragon fucking! Thanks, folks!”

We end on a lovely thanks to the production crew, including the graphics team with the overlay degrading. The Calamity is here, but the Calamity is not here forever. Aabria: “So we’re alive?” Brennan: “Five of you are dead. That’s what the dice fucking said!”

And on that cheerful note, we’re out! Is it Thursday yet?

#critical role #critical role spoilers #exu calamity #calamity spoilers #talks machina spoilers #long post for ts #very long post for ts

[loveoaths]

writing log: 2021 + 2022

a recent conversation with a good friend made me realize: holy shit, i struggle to acknowledge my accomplishments, especially the creative ones. so i decided to start doing a yearly writing recap to log what work i've done, contextualize the environment i did that work in, and take a moment to just sit back and appreciate how i spent my year. this is the first time i'm doing this, so i'll be combining 2021 and 2022.

in 2021, i...

...got headfucked by illness, but kept writing.

this is not one of those "inspirational disability" things. long covid is the worst thing that's ever happened to me, physically and mentally, and that's saying something. i spent a solid two months not being able to walk, let alone think, and it took three more months for me to be able to read for longer than a few minutes at a time. at one point, my sixty-something year old mother had to hold me up so i could walk a lap around the block that i had been running months prior, and it was a super dark time. i am proud of myself for fighting for my health, advocating for humane treatment, and re-learning how to find solace and comfort and reprieve in reading and writing. i was recuperating in bed most of 2021 (when i wasn't struggling to keep my job lol) so i had a lot of time to come up with project ideas but zero stamina to finish them. i'm still not recovered, and have new chronic illnesses out the wazoo now, but i'm in a much better place these days.

...worked on 21 scripts.

includes new and old projects. my brain was scattered, but i tried.

...developed 12 new project premises.

some are good, others are dogshit. but who cares!

...finished 5 scripts.

three half-hour scripts, and two elevens. combined, that's almost two episodes of prestige television. i'm coming for your ass, tony gilroy!!!

...read 25 books.

comic books, ya novels, non-fiction, autobiographies, picture books; you name it, i read it. most of what i read went in one ear and out the other because of the covid brain damage, but i remember how soothing the act of reading a book while curled up with hot tea under a warm blanket was to my aching brain and body, and i'm glad i tried my best to read even if i knew i could barely understand. a third of this list is picture books and/or middle grade books and graphic novels because that's all i could handle at the beginning of the year. and you know what i found? a lot of those kids books are great, and heart-warming, and delightfully more nuanced than i had ever dreamed. the kids are gonna be alright.

...took 6 writing classes.

i'm glad i did this, but looking back on it this was kind of stupid. my brain was burdened by illness and my response was to... burden it more? for fun??? insane behavior. i highly recommend every course i took (chris amick's pilot development, multiple classes at writing pad, rad sechrist's project tv writing class, patricia villanuvella's 11-minute episode format class, and more) but i do not recommend taking them while your head is fucked. if anyone is interested in learning more about these courses, let me know!

...took on my first pitch project.

i was hired to help write and pitch a kids show, and learned a lot about the pitching process. mostly i learned that an upbeat attitude and a corny joke or two will go a long way. also, that the tv industry is an ouroboric cesspool constantly feeding on its own shit, but i digress.

...developed my first original show pitch.

it's uglier than sin but i love it. developing the pitch actually made me realize the concept is better as a novel series than a show, but i appreciate how much that process taught me about exploring format, structure, and the art of pitching.

...landed my first staff writing gig.

this was my proudest moment. in between numerous ER visits, doctor's appointments, health scares, housing issues, and more, i broke into the industry i love.

in 2022, i...

...was still pretty fucking sick, but doing better.

title says it all. despite losing my emotional support animal to leukemia, i hung in there. feels good.

...took on three writing mentees.

this is still the most shocking thing i did last year. i became a mentor to three fellow brown folks and i love them all dearly. i don't know if i'm a stellar mentor or anything, but i would do just about anything to help them reach their writing goals. i always thought i hated teaching, but it turns out i really enjoy working one-on-one with people as a guide rather than an instructor. my goal is to help all of my mentees break into their respective industries in the next two years.

...took three writing classes.

at this point i'm mostly taking these to meet people and learn new tips and tricks, but i still found them highly rewarding. plus, i realized i work best when i know someone expects to read what i've written the following week. nothing makes you keep a writing deadline like the pain of disappointing a peer! :D

...wrote 63,207 words for work.

i worked two staff writer gigs and seven freelance or contract gigs, and wrote more in a year than i ever have, ever. i know this number isn't high to prose writers, but a 25 page script is around 4,800 to 5,000 words. that's a lot of pages.

in total, i wrote around 22 scripts for work last year.

...wrote 50,018 words for original projects.

i only finished three scripts, and most definitely did not hit my goal of finishing my feature script, but i still finished. all three projects were complex, adult-oriented, and of personal significance to me, and it felt really good to finally finish them. i don't love all of them, honestly, but one of them got me my current manager and generated some buzz around my name that kept me employed, so i'm incredibly appreciative of the work i put into them, and the work they've given me in return.

...read 50 books.

this is my crowning achievement of 2022! i used to be an avid reader and then stopped out of nowhere for several years, but last year i fell back in love with reading, big time. i am proud to say that after a year of re-cultivating my reading comprehension and attention span, i can once again knock out a 300 page book in a day (with some assistance from my good ol' friend, hyperfixation). coaxing myself to just read five pages a day really helped me with some of the executive function issues of not wanting to pick up a book. if you're struggling with reading habits, i really recommend lowering your bar to entry. read for a minute, or read one page, or even just one paragraph. eventually the habit will reform and you'll be back to reading longer.

...wrote 51 loglines.

i struggled to come up with new, creative ideas in 2021, so this jump from 12 to 51 was startling, but highly satisfying. once i stopped worrying about whether the ideas were good, i was able to do more with the freeness that comes with happily being shit at something. and you know what? once i got the shit ideas out, i found a couple of really good ones at the bottom of the barrel.

...had a pretty alright year.

shit still went sideways, i was overworked and exhausted, and my personal life imploded, but looking back on it, i had a lot to be grateful for, and a lot of love and support in my corner, and i'm going to try to be mindful and thankful for the aforementioned as i push myself a teensy bit further in 2023.

...have a few goals for 2023.

they are:

work less, read more

write more indulgent stuff (gay porn, fic, all the nasty dark shit i like)

eat more veggies

do some fucking wrist exercises and get a desk pedaler because holy shit my joints are aging like MILK

thanks for reading.

#writing update. #writing update 2021 + 2022. #long post.

[sarah-dipitous]

Hellsite Nostalgia Tour 2023 Day 71

Wishful Thinking/The Lazarus Experiment

“Wishful Thinking”

Would I Survive the First Five Minutes??: why is this looking a lot like the one with the ghost ship? I know it’s not. Ok so no one died…I don’t think???

From the recap—I…it shouldn’t cause so many fluttery heart feelings to hear Cas say they were going to smite an entire town, but here we are…I’m gonna miss this Castiel

Ok but like…who on this show ISN’T at least kind of a dick?? You can’t just say that about the Uriel

Your dedication to the job is heartwarming, Dean…has nothing to do with the fact that the ghost is haunting a women’s shower, I’m sure

Stop. Stop. You can’t just name the fake book you’re ‘writing’ supernatural…

“There’s a Bigfoot out there dammit, and he’s a son of a bitch”

I do not remember this episode AT ALL. Wtf is happening?? I know there’s allegedly a wishing well but what are these people even wishing for??

The fairy tales episode I could handle, but this is WEIRD

I am DYING. So this Bigfoot is apparently this little girl’s teddy bear? And the Winchesters are posing as teddy bear doctors to be able to see it…this is fantastic. Omg omg omg how did I block this out of my memory?? The teddy bear who came to life, became human adult size, and is now despairing at the fact that it’s now gained consciousness…but all Audrey wants to do is have tea parties with him, but he’s DEPRESSED depressed…which the boys are calling “lollipop disease” to placate her and get her to leave for a while

I guess the safest thing is to wish for a sandwich (still got E. coli from it)

That’s… that’s a dark wish, Sam. I mean, I get it, but damn.

I bet the kid who stopped chasing the other kids asked Dean if he had a problem is the first wisher…that’s the only reason I can see for including him so far

THE TEDDY BEAR JUST TRIED TO BLOW ITS BRAINS OUT BUT IT HAS NO BRAIN JUST STUFFING SO IT’S STILL ALIVE

It’s not the engagement, that’s too obvious…oh god, she barely has free will.

Hang on, it IS that guy who wished for the engagement?? Then what’s the deal with the mean looking kid???

Can’t believe they hit the invisible kid with the car and…

Oh, THAT’s the point of the mean looking kid. Give him super strength and make him yell “KNEEL BEFORE TODD!!” because…of course his name is Todd. It’s the perfect name. Dean just tried to “with great power comes great responsibility” him and got hit in the face for it

Hoooooooly shit. Hope just got Sam electrocuted out of nowhere.

Oh. Oh, Todd. Aw, but Dean helping him not be bullied anymore anyway.

Sorry, there’s a lot of moving pieces in this episode

Oh no…Dean DOES remember EVERYTHING from hell, and he thinks there’s no helping him and he just has to live with that and shoulder it all alone. I hate it.

“Been On My Mind…”: Nope. 7.

“The Lazarus Experiment”

God…I both can and can’t believe how quickly he tries to just dump Martha…🙄

Ahhhh!!! Mr Saxon mention again 💖

I love that all moms are suspicious of the Doctor

It’s weird to see non-Mycroft Mark Gatiss

Oh, are there—are there some side effects to extremely literal anti-aging?? Who would have seen that coming

Marthaaaaaaa!!! The Doctor does not deserve you and how clever you are!! Bravo you collecting a DNA sample from Not Mycroft

God, I know his DNA is constantly being rewritten but this hurts to see…I mean, kinda. These two aren’t necessarily good people, but the betrayal she suffers…

I think in my 20s I was annoyed with Martha’s mom being this concerned, and maybe she’s still being a TINY TINY bit overbearing (Martha was only gone 12 hours as far as she knows but still thinks there’s no way for Martha to become a doctor if she doesn’t focus??), but she’s not completely wrong

Man, I wish Tish was as suspicious of weird shit as her mother…

Ok but I wouldn’t trust the guy who shaded the Doctor either!!!

Oh he’s a MONSTER monster. Bug ass — I mean big ass scorpion looking thing with a terribly CGI’d face holy shit (bug ass really came from me not looking as I typed and it was too funny to let go)

The face doesn’t even look like Mark Gatiss either…..

Is this dude working for Mr Saxon?? That’s the only thing I can think as to why he’s so invested in this Doctor smear campaign

Honestly, this part in the cathedral is beautiful and haunting. You can almost feel bad for the guy…

Taking your sweet old time with that organ, aren’t you Doc?

Is he actually dead this time??

I wish Tish could go on just one trip. I think she’d like that

Episodes Since the Doctor’s Last Attempted Genocide: is it 3 now? This was probably a bad segment. I have a hard enough time keeping track of just the regular day number

#hellsite nostalgia tour 2023

[gnjb]

48 minutes until the new fake motion episode

#first non recap episode holy shit #i’m gonna lose it #stop i know it’s not gonna be good i shouldn’t be this excited #but actually it’s gonna be soooooo good and cool and amazing and perfect

[tsuki-sennin]

Mina-san, bonne lecture~! (Tsuki recaps his feelings about Kamen Rider Saber, a personal essay.)

So, Saber... what a wild ride it's been, huh? Just a quick heads up, this is very long and rambling, and also contains spoilers for everything in Saber. It's fine if you don't wanna read all this, but I just wanted to get my thoughts out there.

TL:DR, Kamen Rider Saber's an undercooked hot mess I absolutely adore, warts and all.

Speaking as objectively as possible, it's a 6/10. Probably closer to a 5 than a 7... it's not great: All the different plot elements are cluttered and weirdly paced; character focus is disjointed and clearly biased toward certain characters, leaving great ones like Kento and Ogami, interesting ones like Kamijo and Hayato, and underdeveloped ones like Sophia and especially the Shindais in the dust; not to mention its balance of comedy and drama is off, and while both are very effective, there's a lot of mood whiplash that can take you out of the story. I also feel like a lot of the easily avoidable character conflict could've been easily resolved, even in universe, by simple conversations. Be careful Fukuda, I think Inoue might sue you if he finds out you've been biting his style and doing it worse.

Rider shows have a very frustrating tendency to drop cool form ideas and not do anything with them, and I don't think it's ever been more the case than with Saber. There's a similar argument to be made with the majority of Heisei Phase 2 after Gaim, but wow. The suits are expensive to make without just straight up recycling everything, I get that, but man, I really wanted to see more Wonder Rider forms. How come Touma got all the fun, eh? Of note are the Blades King of Arthur forms (which look amazing by the way), Espada's Jaaku Dragon forms (one of which I even drew last night), even the non-elemental random Wonder Ride Books all have awesome design elements that go tragically unused. Even if the other Swordsmen just kinda have the ones they do get to use slapped onto them, that's at least something. Touma also just straight up only uses Diago Speedy twice and never again. You have cool props guys, don't waste them like that!

Speaking of waste, Espada, goddamn. Since most of the Wonder Ride Books are Story Type and he needs one very specific Story Book to transform, he doesn't get much of... anything, really! No Wonder Rider forms like Blades, Lamp Do Cerberus being exclusive to Ganbarizing, only getting to use the Ride Gatriker like once, he even spends the second and third arcs as a completely different Rider, then once he comes back he doesn't get a King of Arthur-granted upgrade or even a Necrom Espada form. ...at least, not yet anyway. I'm holding out hope for Espada x Necrom and the eventual Saber V-Cinemas. Extra Rider stans, we will be well respected someday.

The Unreal Engine CGI used for fights in early Chapters was pretty good but wow it feels disconnected and they really drop it quick. I feel like if the animators had more freedom to use as many forms as they want, we'd have gotten a lot more mileage out of the books beyond... decoration basically. I actually really liked the CGI sequences, they felt creative and were fun to follow along with.

The soundtrack is pretty great on its own and conveys what it needs to, but they seriously overplay the orchestral themes. It honestly feels kind of... stock at times. I think my favorite parts of the score are when it winds down, since it feels a lot more natural and lets the cinematographers and actors speak for themselves.

As awesome as I think Falchion's design and the Mumeiken Kyomu are, The Phoenix Swordsman and the Book of Ruin comes up short as its own standalone thing. You'd think 30 or so minutes of non-stop action would be awesome, and it almost is? It's as good as a typical episode of the series with a higher action budget, but it kinda drags on a bit too long; and although I think Emotional Dragon looks cool, it feels a bit tacked on. Coming off of the incredible Zero-One REAL×TIME, it doesn't give you much room to breathe, which Rider films are typically great at handling. I also thought the resolution for the kid's subplot was kinda forced. He does an okay job at acting considering his age and doesn't overstay his welcome, but I really don't see how 20 minutes of violence and action is enough to convince him to be brave enough to go play with the other kids. 5/10, it's closer to a 4 than a 6 and I think that maybe Zero-One should've stood on its own if they really had to push back Kiramager Bee-Bop Dream because of the pandemic.

Alright, with all that said... As imperfect and undercooked Saber was, like Ghost I can consider it a personal favorite, 10/10. Call it a guilty pleasure if you want, but holy hell it's just the show I needed. Takuro Fukuda has a talent for creating fun, wonderful characters and utterly fascinating worldbuilding and concepts. It's a shame he doesn't utilize them fully, but hey!

The action and fight choreography are pretty top notch as usual. Lots of beautiful shot composition and set pieces, and plenty of great angles to help keep up with the extra busy action. I love watching the suit actors perform and they deserve all the respect in the world for their hard work in those hot, sweaty, and heavy costumes. Their visual design is also top notch, with lots of unique and fascinating forms and cool weapons I desperately want to play with despite being broke, all with spectacular finishers and hype jingles with the voice of Akio motherfucking Ohtsuka calling them out. A real feast for the eyes. Not a single bad suit among them, yeah I said it, fight me.

The crossover specials are soooo good too.

-I went over my feelings on the Zenkaiger crossover episodes in a separate post (good luck finding that btw), but to sum it up, they were great character moments for Zox and the Shindai siblings with lots of great screwball comedy and some good old fashioned meta humor.

-The Ghost crossovers are great little side stories all about how Daitenku Temple somehow had the Ghost Ijunroku Wonder Ride Book? I genuinely have no idea why it was there, or how Makoto had the Specter Gekikou Senki, and as far as I remember neither of their origins are explained. Did Luna or Tassel hand them off to them and told them to wait for a sword guy? And why do these generic French Revolution Gamma villains working for Danton get their asses handed to them so easily by Kanon, who literally just became a Rider? I thought that Makoto deciding to adopt all the Kanon clones into his family was both hilarious and adorable though; considering all the crap they went through, I think it was a good ending to this plot. Gimme Espada x Necrom already Toei/Bandai/Fukuda/whoever I need to yell at, give Kento things to do, I beg you.

-I haven't actually seen Super Hero Senki since it's not available for subbing yet, but apparently there's a Journey to the West plot starring the Taros and Ohma Zi-O and I want to see that so badly.

Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra? Yoohei Kawakami? A match made in heaven, that's what they are. All of their themes are absolute bangers. All of them. Almighty, Kamen Rider Saber, Sparks, Taju Rokou, all excellent and empowering pieces. Rewrite the Story, Will Save Us, and The Story Never Ends are all amazing inserts done by the cast, and it makes me wish we had even more of them to help break up the monotony of the score.

The characters are what easily make this show such a great watch though. For the most part, they have great personalities and chemistry, consistently fun and interesting scenes, well acted and... sometimes well-written development, and deeply investing personal stakes.

Narrating it all is the delightfully eccentric Tassel/Viktor, portrayed by Romanesque Ishitobi "TOBI" of the Paris-based Les Romanesques. I was utterly confused by his presence at first, wondering why there needed to be a narrator when the story would've been perfectly fine without it. He even got a special spot in the opening despite having no stake in the plot despite seeming to live in Wonderworld, who the hell is this guy? But then I thought "OH MY GOD, HE'S THE MAIN VILLAIN USING TOUMA AS THE HERO IN HIS OWN TWISTED STORY, THE BASTARD". I thought it'd be some subversion of expectations, true form, "That Was His Mistake!" shit. Trust me, it made a lot more sense in my head. I'm very happy that they didn't do that, as I grew to love having male Yuuka Kazami as my narrator, and when he was shown to be actually important by being friends with Yuri my mind was blown. And doubly so when I realized just how deeply necessary to the plot he really is.

Rintaro/Blades is up there as one of my all time favorite secondary Riders, since his curiosity is always consistently funny and adorable, his forms are all gorgeous and impressively designed, his relationships with Mei and Touma are absolutely sweet and compelling to see unfold, and his arcs about becoming willing to call out those he views as family and coming to terms with his feelings of inadequacy and both moving past and using them to strengthen himself are always great lessons to pass on to kids. ...even if they took like 10 goddamn episodes to be conveyed in what could've been 5, but hey, Takaya Yamaguchi does a stand-up job all throughout. Rider veteran Eitoku's refined, almost logical movements with the Suiseiken Nagare absolutely beautiful to see in action, and his final form having the same white and blue color scheme as Zooous's base form is an amazing touch I don't see appreciated enough.

Mei Sudo's also absolutely wonderful, serving as the perfect emotional core of the story, responsible for most of the funniest lines, sweetest character moments, and some of the most deceptively compelling drama. Asuka Kawazu brings the perfect energy for such a dynamic and well rounded character, and absolutely nails her scenes of quiet turmoil. As much as I would've loved her to become a Rider, I don't think she really needed to. She's already done so much to help, and as cool as it would've been to see her pick up a sword and fight alongside them as Espada, Calibur, or Falchion she's already endeared herself to me as one of my favorite supporting characters in the whole franchise.

I can't get enough of my homeboy Kento Fukamiya/Espada. Like Rintaro and everyone else for that matter, he also suffers from Saber's pacing issues; and like his predecessor Valkyrie from Zero-One, he doesn't get a proper upgrade aside from his Wonder Combo, instead becoming an anti-villain using a completely different powerset and shifting the Raimeiken Ikazuchi out of focus for the Ankokuken Kurayami, and I feel there's a serious missed opportunity to see him use Jaaku Dragon with Alangina. However, Ryo Aoki's performance is probably among the most easily praiseworthy in the whole cast, managing to convey both Kento's kind and knightly stoicism as Espada and his emotionally unstable despair as Calibur perfectly, in conjunction with Yuji Nakata's experienced and expressive stuntwork.

Ren Akamichi/Kenzan's a dark horse favorite for sure. I remember back when Saber was first picking up, people hated this breezy mad lad for being such a simple character at first. Overly concerned with strength? Black and white world view? Annoyingly energetic? Agh, real-feeling character flaws, I hate them, get him away from me! But then y'all came crawling back. Eiji Togashi's apparently a bit of a rookie actor, and it really shows with some stilted delivery and the way he sometimes bobs his head when giving his lines, but man he improves dramatically as the series goes on. His inexperience ironically ends up really selling his character development, and his unexpectedly beautiful relationship with Desast is special evidence of that. The Fuusouken Hayate's three modes and Satoshi Fujita putting them to excellent use through his stellar acrobatic movements are also really cool.

Why did Luna have to be a child for so long? Does Wonderworld not age whoever inherits its power? Well since Luna randomly becomes an adult in Super Hero Senki and some of the final episodes, I guess so? Miku Okamoto does a fine job for a kid actor, but she's basically done all the heavy lifting for the whole series and doesn't give Mayuu Yokota enough time to get a feel for her character as an adult. How did she choose Touma to inherit the power anyway? Does she just subconsciously decide to trust him with it upon seeing how kind and passionate about storytelling he is? Well if that's the case, why didn't Kento get at least some of that power too? He's just as important to the merchan- I mean Luna-chan, isn't he? Why did Tassel pick her over someone who isn't a literal child who'd be understandably terrified about basically becoming an embodiment of storytelling?

Sophia also kinda suffers from the same problems. Rina Chinen's voice is very pleasant to listen to, but she doesn't really do much beyond serving as a source of exposition and support. I think her dynamic with Mei's adorable, and given her kindness I can certainly understand the respect Northern Base has for her, but she doesn't really contribute a whole lot. If she could use the Kurayami and become Calibur all this time, then why didn't she take it from Kento and Yuri and do so earlier when Kento decided to go back to being Espada? I know she's not much of a fighter and as the closet thing the Sword of Logos has to a leader after Isaac's death I'd understand not wanting to put her at risk, but considering Storious is destroying the world, and she's very evidently kicking a lot of ass in the first part of the final battle even in the basic Jaaku Dragon form, I think it would've helped a lot, just sayin'. Tassel at least has the excuse of being unable to interact with the real world, but Sophia obviously didn't just be put in charge of Northern Base just because she's a pawn in Isaac's plans right?

Ryou Ogami/Buster is also a victim of the disjointed character focus. I have no problem believing he's an excellent father and fighter thanks to Yuki Ikushima and Jiro Okamoto, respectively, but he feels a bit flat and simple in comparison. His rivalry with Desast is randomly dropped, his wife doesn't even show up until the final episodes, he's kinda sidelined in terms of action a whole lot. I imagine that must've sucked for the Rider Dads out there. He does get to star in his own manga, and that was pretty good, so I guess I can't be too mad.

Tetsuo Daishinji/Slash fares better though. Hiroaki Oka, being a Kamen Rider fanboy himself, manages to make him among the most relatable characters in the series. Not only are his hyperfixation on swordsmithing and anxiety played surprisingly believably, Hirotsugu Mori letting him cut loose is extremely cathartic and hilarious, and you really feel for him when the Onjuuken Suzune becomes the first victim of Calibur!Kento's sword sealing.

Yuri/Saikou's another dark horse favorite, for me at least. "Oh great, Avalon guy's got even more merchandise to sell, I wonder what his Sword of Light is- it's himself. Well... that's different." I admit, I didn't like him at first. He felt like he was there to fill out character dynamics in the absence of both Rintaro and Kento, I thought his gimmick was too silly even if his design and jingles were bangers, I didn't particularly care for his power set. But then XSwordman came around I totally got it. He's an endearing, hard-working man trying his best to catch up on all the cool shit he missed, unafraid of experimentation, ready to throw down at a moment's notice, serving as a wonderful bit of consistent support for our heroes, a truly knightly individual, an absolute Chad. and goddamn does he make me worry. Tomohiro Ichikawa, I salute you good sir.

Even if they fall short compared to the rest of the cast, the Shindai siblings are at least cool enough to not wanna write out entirely. They kinda devolve into comic relief after they become allies, something that villainous Riders from Chase onwards are very prone to doing, and it's especially awkward in their case because I think that they kinda get off scot-free for obeying the obviously sinister and crazy Isaac for so long, as well as driving a wedge between a lot of people and threatening children in Reika's case. I think their sibling dynamic is nice though, even if Fukuda recycled it from Makoto and Kanon and has some... questionable possessive undertones as a result. It's cool how they're basically foils to Touma and Rintaro though. The dispassionate and methodical Reika/Sabela is beautifully played by Angela Mei and her moments of emotional depth are fascinating to watch. Her Rider form is a thing of beauty, and its use of literal the Eneiken Noroshi's smokescreens and Yuki Miyazawa's precise and deadly stinging strikes are a joy to watch. And while Ken Shonozaki's not given the best direction as the undercooked plate of 7-Eleven fried fish that is Ryoga/Durendal, he manages to sell him as an experienced and hardened warrior with an awkward side that's especially evident in the Zenkaiger specials. His goddamn RWBY weapon that is the Jikokuken Kaiji is absolutely sick, I'm a sucker for transforming weapons and its combination of time and water powers is really cool, especially with Yasuhiko Amai's deliberate and forceful acting in the suit.

Daichi Kamijo/the Second Calibur, for as brief as his story was, was a pretty cool starter villain. Hiroyuki Hirayama brings this poor bastard to life in a genuinely touching way. I love how as Calibur he goes full force on his creative use of Wonder Ride Books for attacks, and his debut as Jaou Dragon got my blood pumping. His end is also deeply tragic, and I really felt for him when he realized just how badly he fucked up. Hayato Fukamiya also does wonders for the backstory, and while he also doesn't get much to work with, Mitsuru Karahashi makes his regrets and love for Kento feel genuine.

Legeiel and Zooous are both very intimidating and entertaining villains. On top of being just the right balance of goofy and threatening, Kairu Takano and Koji Saikawa's stage presences are both very strong, and their mixture of camaraderie and in-fighting is extremely believable. Zooous's rivalry with Rintaro feels incredible to see through to the end, and although Legeiel doesn't get quite the same treatment, Elemental Dragon had such a cool debut that it more than makes up for it. Their final fights are also absolute spectacles. I don't think their sympathetic angle works even close to as well as it does with MetsubouJinrai or even the Gamma, but I get it, power corrupts, and you probably feel a lot of sadness and regret for things you've done when you die unless you're a right bastard.

Isaac/Master Logos/Solomon is kinda generic. As wonderful as Keisuke Soma is, he doesn't get much dimension to work with. The result of that is while he nails being as smug and punchable as possible, he feels almost... comically generic. Genta Umemori from Shinkenger was full of personality! He was also basically some guy, but he was fun, he felt connected to the rest of the cast! Meanwhile the only real time we get to see Isaac's depth is when we see him crying over his failures. I almost appreciate him being unapologetically evil though, since I've seen way too many shows where redeemed villains get off scot free for way worse things, and some where they outright demand you to sympathize with them despite them doing nothing to warrant it.

Bahato/Falchion surprises me by not just being a movie villain whose actions affect the main plot, but also being a movie villain who actually gets to appear in series as a recurring threat! ...and it's not a particularly great showing on his part, sadly. Masashi Taniguchi does a wonderful job with what he's given, but his character feels like a retread of Eternal without any of what made Katsumi Daido a compelling and frightening villain. I'd like to believe Yuri when he says that he used to be a good person and a hero to the people, but I can only hear so many anime villain monologues about the pointlessness of life and the beauty of destruction before I can never take them seriously again. ...I think that's his biggest problem, actually. I thought he was an overall uninteresting and generic villain in the movie, and the cartoon nihilist he's shown to be in series is only a small step up. He still feels like filler. If only there were a far better written and much cooler villain who takes on the Mumeiken Kyomu after his de--

Desast is probably one of the finest anti-villains I've ever seen in recent years. On top of an absolutely badass character design and the excellent combination of Kazuya Okada/Danki Sakae's suit work and Koki Uchiyama's stellar voice acting, his story being so thoroughly intertwined with Ren's makes their shared journey and bromance a borderline Shakespearean tragedy. His struggle for identity despite Storious treating him as nothing more than a failed experiment and the Sword of Logos treating him as a mere monster really gripped me, and the way he uses what little time he has left to encourage Ren into blossoming on his own is absolutely beautiful. I think his enmity with Ogami is criminally underexplored in series, considering he killed several of the previous Riders and how Ogami's in desperate need of screentime.

Then there's our main villain, Kamen Rider Storious. Robin Furuya brings an incredible amount of charisma to this character, expertly portrayed as both a sinister, manipulative bastard , and as a lonely, tragic figure that arguably makes him feel even more villainous. Speaking as a struggling writer myself, it's easy to feel stuck in the idea of "fuck it, who cares, maybe everything is predestined", but I can't imagine what it's like to know that as the truth and carry it with you for all that time. All of your grand ideas have roots from your experiences, and you're not the only one who even could have those experiences. It's easy to just fall into despair and give up trying, but would that make you happy? Sure, Storious is sadistic, he may be fulfilling his goals, he may be ungodly powerful... but it's not enough for him, is it? All of his friends are gone, one of them even at his own hand, he probably doesn't have any idea what to do after he destroys all the world's stories, Touma even reached his full power before he did, and his downfall is so predictable that even a blind person could see it. He even seems to welcome it, what's up with that? But then I realized... OH MY GOD, HE'S THE MAIN VILLAIN USING TOUMA AS THE HERO IN HIS OWN TWISTED STORY, THE BASTARD. He's so far gone, he's so desperate to stick it to the Almighty Book, he's willing to twist the archetype of the Hero's Journey so hard, it snaps in two. What I think is interesting is that he's ironically trying to chase the trend of "edgy superhero story" that became super popular in the 21st century. The Boys, Brightburn, Kamen Rider Amazons, The Sentry, No More Heroes, Magical Girl Site, even mainstream comics from DC and Marvel... Surely Storious must've seen the cruelty and tragedy these stories are filled with, but he chooses to go through with trying to force the world into this direction anyway. Did they, along with seeing the ever-popular tragedies of legendary playwrights and bleak satire of the twentieth century fuel his despair?

And yet... there's one who stands in determination against his ideals.

Our hero, Touma Kamiyama, the titular Kamen Rider portrayed by Syuichiro Naito and Kousuke Asai, he speaks to me on a personal level. There're plenty of jokes to be made about his procrastination in early chapters, his godless fashion sense, and him doing the funny run up the slope, that's all fine and dandy, but I rarely feel so connected to a character the way I did Touma. The struggle to create, find companionship, live your life, reach out to others... these're things a lot of people struggle with, and of course you see them depicted a lot in media about creators, but Saber gets to the root of what the greatest thing about storytelling really is. Giving people hope, while using the pain of the past as fuel for the future. Sure, Storious may be right about how every story has been done as far back as human civilization gets, he may even be right about how any spin or creativity humanity has is outright predestined. It should be pointless to even try, right? That's where Touma Kamiyama disagrees. He didn't spend all that time fighting and creating just to give up at the idea of predestination. His novel writing-fueled creativity in his early training, his devotion to his friends that let him surpass Kamijo as Dragonic Knight, his compassion for the Primitive Dragon that let him combine their powers to destroy Legeiel as Elemental Dragon, his resolve that let Xross Saber dethrone Solomon, and his passion for the craft of storytelling that let our heroes channel their wishes into Wonder Almighty... all stemming from the belief imparted onto him by his predecessor that "Hope lies beyond your resolution." And that you decide how your story ends. He may not be the greatest Rider to some, he may be as lame as others think he is, he may not even be my favorite, but I have no issue calling Touma Kamiyama... Kamen Rider Saber, one of the all time greatest carriers of the Kamen Rider name.

The final chapter's definitely not as great as some other Rider finales, but goddamn. Primitive Dragon consciously choosing to save Touma is so sweet and such a great emotional payoff, I loved jamming out to the opening theme while our boys lay the smackdown on Storious. Wonder Almighty's a fitting final bit to close the main series out with, if not exactly a great one. I think the cover is great, and the book's body is a lovely shade of candy apple red, but I really don't like how its pages are just the covers of the other books copy-pasted onto onto the pages, that feels lazy. Maybe if it were a panorama of all the books' characters, I'd like it a lot more as a symbol of how unified the Swordsmen are, but eh, what can you do? On a related note, does this mean all the "last episode extra final forms" of the Reiwa Era are gonna be named after their series's opening? That's a neat idea.

I felt a lot of feelings seeing all those video messages of Rider fans all across Japan talking about their favorite stories, and how their passion and fond memories help reshape the world. Mei's monologue at the ceremony about is also really touching and- IS THAT A HUMAGEAR!? :O

Y-yeah dude, it is! Wow, where have you guys been for the past 48 episodes?! Are you guys doing okay? How come you're like... the only one here? Is the technology of Hiden Intelligence only really that prevalent in that very specific metropolitan part of Japan and they're just not coming around much over here? Is it like Dragon Ball where anthropomorphic animals are just vibin' with humans while the heroes are off kicking ass? Apparently he's played by Hasegawa Keiichi, who wrote this episode and had the award ceremony named after him. ...is Hasegawa Keiichi a HumaGear in this universe then? Did he set up this award ceremony in Touma's honor? If so, why is it named after him? Did reading one of Touma's books lead to his Singularity? I know this is just a cameo, but... god, I have so many questions that probably will never be satisfactorily answered.

Overall, if I had to compare Saber to anything, it'd probably be Sam Reimi's Spider-Man trilogy. It's awkward, stupid, overwrought, undercooked, illogically written, scattershot, cheesy as fuck, and has a tendency to squander its otherwise fine execution; but the sheer passion for storytelling, sense of spectacle, deeply fascinating characters, and belief in the ideals set forth by the cast, crew, and fans are absolutely admirable. Improvements would certainly make it an overall better experience, to be sure, but there's something deeply captivating about how wonky this series is. Seeing everybody get their happy ending after all they've been through felt extremely gratifying though, and I may have to wait another for the epilogue to and then wait for Revice, but... man. I'm hella proud of our awkwardly-emoting, fashion disaster novelist and all of his heavily flawed friends for carrying the Kamen Rider name on to the future. Here's hoping Revice will keep it going.

Alright, that's everything I wanted to talk about. Sorry this was so long and ramble-y, I had a lot to say. I'll probably be liveblogging Revice as episodes of that come out, so... look forward to that, I guess. See ya.

#kamen rider saber #long post #tsuki talks #personal #kamen rider #whew #ok bye have a nice day

[itsclydebitches]

RWBY Recaps: “Gravity”

Good lord, folks. Buckle your seat-belts because we’ve got a lot to get through this episode. I think this is my longest recap to date, so settle in.

Episode Eleven’s “Gravity” starts out simple enough, focusing on the two fights we’d set up during “Out in the Open.” First up, Ironwood vs. Watts. Overall this fight does a really excellent job of showcasing their different fighting styles. Right from the start Watts is pointing his gun forward to take a clear shot at Ironwood, whereas Ironwood points his backwards to use as a surge of momentum.

He’s going to do this frequently throughout the battle, constantly using his gun to maneuver in the air, slow falls, regain his balance, and change directions, a much more complicated series of choices than the one-off shots we see Ruby use with her sniper rifle. This is partly because Ironwood seems to have a much larger supply of bullets---some sort of energy/dust ammo---than Watts does. His steampunk-esque gun holds only nineteen bullets, requiring him to keep track throughout the fight. Which is always a fun trope but sorry, Watts, you can’t compare to the king.

Thus, with limited weaponry available to him, Watts is forced to get creative with the arena itself. We see him manipulating gravity, shooting up columns of water and fire, and making use of his own pathways between platforms, all in an effort to throw Ironwood off and catch up unawares. However, Ironwood is, frankly, the much better fighter. He was right last week to assume he could handle Watts even though he sent three off to tackle Tyrian. He’s able to recover much more quickly and learns from any mistakes, as evidenced by his ability to hit Watts dead on while in the air the second time he takes out the gravity. When they come together in hand-to-hand Ironwood easily dominates, no doubt thanks not just to his military training and huntsmen lifestyle, but also in large part to his prosthetics which I would assume grant him more speed and power. Throughout the course of the fight we see Watts consistently take more damage to his aura and he’s unable to sense when Ironwood is sneaking up on him. After that little maneuver, Watts (presumably) grows reckless and lets off his last three or four shots in a random barrage. All of them miss.

This emphasis on emotion continues when they land back onto the main stage with Watts shouting, “You never appreciated my genius, James! You just stood atop it and called yourself a giant.” Oh, did Ironwood actually do something horrendous in the past? Is there something juicy that would explain---though not excuse---Watts’ turn towards villainy? Nah. He quickly follows that up with, “You chose that fat imbecile over me!” referring to Pietro. So... nice one, Watts. Crazy arrogance, willful ignorance of Pietro’s own, clear genius (anyone who can create Penny is no slouch), as well as a bit of fat-shamming on top of it all. No sympathy from me.

This moment emphasizes how unhinged Watts is becoming though as the fight turns against him. Even when he manages to setup a head shot Ironwood reveals, “You’re smart, but you’re not the only one who can count,” referencing that Watt’s emotions got the better of him, leading to him wasting his last bullet before it could be of real use.

...except not. I’ve got to admit, I was very pleased when all of this---or at least this particular moment---was merely a plan to get Ironwood to let his guard down. Watts is way too smart a character to be done in by the “You got too emotional and that made you sloppy” trope. So kudos there (even if it remains to be seen whether that Pietro comment was really his motivation, or just another part of the plan). Instead, he uses Ironwood’s confidence in his victory to trap him with the rings that control the arena, essentially pinning Ironwood’s non-prosthetic arm through the energy shields he’s been using. We can immediately see that the parts that have touched Ironwood already have horribly burned the skin.

And that ends up being Watt’s downfall. Not stupidity on his own part, but his lack of understanding of Ironwood himself. He assumes that this truly is a trap for him, rather than another sacrifice. After all, what fool would ruin their one remaining arm to stop him? Watts himself wouldn’t. Don’t pull, he cautions Ironwood, not “unless you’re hoping to add more metal to that body of yours.” Watts goes so far as to turn his back on Ironwood who then makes the sacrifice we all knew he would. One burned, useless arm later and he’s free.

I would like everyone to keep this moment in mind. Namely the utter devastation of it. I’d go so far as to say it’s as bad at Yang losing her arm in Volume 3. Despite seeing it bandaged later, Watts at least thinks it will be a complete loss if Ironwood sacrifices it. He’ll need to “add more metal,” AKA replace his arm, so though he obviously still has it in the following scenes, we don’t know if it will ever be functional again. Just as important, Ironwood had to choose to do that to himself. That wasn’t a horrific, but ultimately clean cut done in a moment of surprise. That was a conscious decision, a slow pull through all that pain, and then having to finish your fight immediately afterward. It’s a very different kind of psychological trauma, no better or worse than having someone take your arm from you by force. Throughout this volume I’ve seen a lot of fans being critical not only of Ironwood’s main decisions, but just his overall attitude as well. Too strict, too stern, doesn’t smile enough, yells sometimes, etc. basically associating someone who isn’t all sunshine and smiles with someone who is “bad.” Ignoring for the moment that we can say the same thing about many of our group---notably Yang---I have little doubt that I’ll see similar posts after this episode. Writings in the vein of, “Ironwood is unhinged! I can’t believe he yelled and hit his desk like that!” So everyone just keep this moment in mind and ask yourself how calm you’d be if you’d sacrificed your arm like that all of half an hour ago. And then found Salem’s calling card on your desk. And then came to the realization that the allies you trusted have been lying to you from the start. And then Salem herself appears to mock you. And then your city is about to be overrun. Basic summary of the rest of the episode: holy shit. So yeah. If Yang is allowed to be angry and upset after losing her arm, or just angry in general like she is in the later half of “Gravity,” I think we owe it to Ironwood to let him be angry too. I have a lot of feelings about the utter insanity he’s been forced through with little to no support and if he wants to take all that out by hitting his desk once, by god I’d say that’s a good coping strategy given the circumstances. Both the writing and the fans tend to erase trauma once you’ve passed age 25. The girls have every right to be upset, to break, to not trust people because they’ve been through a few months of hardship, but Ozpin isn’t allowed the same after a couple thousand years of that. We’re going to see the same hypocrisy later in this episode---the group can be upset about lies but Ironwood is not---and I’m hoping (against hope) that the fandom doesn’t make that worse by sweeping this injury under the rug. It’s horrific and absolutely has a bearing on his inability to keep his cool with the group immediately afterwards. We’ve long passed Ironwood owing them endless reassurances and calm responses. 

Anyway, Ironwood still manages to finish the fight because his remaining arm is his robotic one, giving him the strength to easily drag and raise Watts into the air one-handed. He dangles him over the edge of the arena, announcing that he will “sacrifice whatever it takes to stop [Salem].” A clear bit of foreshadowing for his decision at the end of the episode. Watts responds that he hopes he does.

We then move to the Tyrian fight which, on the whole, I don’t think was done quite as well. Granted, there are a lot of enjoyable and badass moments. I like that Clover’s first act is to announce that Tyrian is under arrest, maintaining the law that Atlas (and Ironwood) works to uphold. It doesn’t matter that Tyrian is a crazy serial killer in league with an immortal sorceress hell-bent on destroying the world. Even crazy serial killers have rights and are given the option of surrendering, even when everyone present knows there’s exactly zero chance of that happening. It’s the principal of the thing and the ability to say, “We gave him a chance.” In a world overrun with inequality, this is a small but important attempt to level the field. If you do something wrong you face legal action and those rights are announced to you. Same for Tyrian. Same for Team RWBY. But we’ll get to that.

For now, we see Qrow attack first and like back in Volume Four he and Tyrian are pretty evenly matched. The tide doesn’t turn until Robyn and Clover come into play. Throughout this exchange we see a lot of cool combos among the three of them. Tyrian will block an incoming arrow with his tail only for Clover to snag it with his hook. Robyn can get another arrow to perfectly bounce off the walls and then Qrow’s scythe, hitting Tyrian dead on. Clover can dive between Tyrian’s legs, giving Qrow the opening he needs to attack. It is, as said, pretty badass... almost a little too badass. Personally, I would have appreciated them messing up once or twice. They’re all professionals, yes, but Qrow and Clover have only had one fight together. Robyn, meanwhile, wasn’t even allied with them until an hour ago. This is a situation where skills shouldn’t really trump, “We’re three very distinct people who don’t know each other’s fighting styles well, trying to attack one guy in very close quarters.” There should have been some screw-ups. Especially when we take semblances into account. What, are we supposed to assume here that Clover’s semblance just conveniently overrides Qrow’s? That no mistakes---let alone anything bad---will happen in this fight despite the fact that it’s an extreme parallel to Volume Four? That whole battle emphasized, “Don’t come closer!” because when people fight near Qrow bad shit happens. Now, he fights with two other people in a narrow alleyway and there’s not a single repercussion. Based on their travels looking for the geist, I don’t buy that Qrow’s semblance is just conveniently inactive while near Clover. Even if I did... that’s not a very good writing decision. To me, it’s just more evidence that Rooster Teeth doesn’t understand its own rules/doesn’t know what to do with an ability like Qrow’s. It causes problems only when they explicitly want it to. Then, miraculously, it’s no longer in effect.

Still, we’ll acknowledge that RWBY had a lot else it wanted to accomplish in this episode, so the need to power through this fight is somewhat justified. I personally would have had the entirety of this episode be the two battles---I was shocked when both ended just eight minutes in---but I’m obviously not the one writing the show. Thus, instead of an episode devoted to both the action and the emotion of confronting our two main villains this volume, Tyrian loses his cool after getting punched in the gut, manages to catch Robyn’s arrow in his teeth... 

But it’s a bomb. 

Down he goes. Fight’s done.

Which leads us into the second half of the episode. I want to preface this with a short acknowledgment before we go any further.

Did these last ten minutes give me what I’ve been looking for since the beginning of Volume Six? No. It’s easy to assume it did because all the pieces are there. Ironwood is finally angry about the secret keeping. The Ace Ops are criticizing the group left and right. Surely this is the “The group is capable of making mistakes and they should be called out for it!” that I wanted, right? Not really. For the simple reason that there is a massive difference between:

A story that acknowledges mistakes as mistakes. The characters either grow from this lesson or dig in their heels and are painted as being in the wrong for that decision.

and

A story that takes what the audience (me) perceives as mistakes and frames them as justified choices. The characters do not grow because they’re 100% sure they’re in the right and those who would criticize them are painted as in the wrong. 

“Gravity” is so far into that second option I don’t think the series can come back from it. Does the group face criticism? Yes, but every single time the writing insists that it’s undeserved criticism. It paints the group as the underdogs facing unfair odds, rather than equals---with all the responsibility that comes with that---facing criticism that they need to own up to. Absolutely nothing in this second half implies that the group is going to learn from their mistakes because they, and the writing, still insists that they weren’t mistakes. Which is precisely what we’ve gotten before. Cordovin might criticism them, but Cordovin is in the wrong. Winter might criticism them, but Winter is in the wrong. Every time a character goes, “Hey, you shouldn’t have done this” the group responds with, “Yes we should have!” and the story backs them up. Yes, you should have attacked Argus. Yes, you should have stolen an airship. Yes, you should have lied to Ironwood and spilled the secret to Robyn. Yes, yes, yes. That’s the takeaway every single time. The group is never in the wrong. Others just think they are and those others are painted as cruel, militaristic, unhinged characters.

It’s not at all what I was looking for. Just more of the same.

So that’s the preface. In terms of what we actually get, Ironwood returns to his office with his arm bandaged and in a sling, carrying Watts’ bag, only to drop it when he sees the queen piece on his desk. He calls Winter asking, “Was anyone caught entering the school grounds while I was away?” and when she says no Ironwood has her race off to the Winter Maiden, unknowingly leading Cinder there in the process. “Now show me where you’ve been hiding her.”

We then cut to the group where the trouble begins. They’re not just curious about why Ironwood is recalling them with Mantle still in need of evacuation, they’re actively questioning it. This is the attitude I simply don’t understand. The group acts as if Ironwood is deliberately screwing everyone over when they know better. This is no longer the beginning of the volume where they thought he was some horrific dictator hell bent on destroying his own Kingdom. This is just an hour or so after, “We should tell Ironwood!” and the happy-go-lucky ‘We trust him now’ moment. Even less time after Ruby stared up at him in awe with, “He’s doing it.” They had reason to trust him before they even made it to Atlas. They were given even more reasons in the form of Ironwood sharing his secrets, early licenses, and being allowed to work on the tower. They then still waited until Ironwood was doing everything they wanted before giving him some of that trust back... but the moment he stops doing precisely what they want---we want to keep evacuating Mantle---he’s deemed suspicious again. 

I mean seriously, is the group that dense? Are they incapable of thinking to themselves, “Wow, something must have happened if Ironwood is recalling us before evacuations are complete,” which is precisely the case. The scene tries to frame it as “Group Good” and “Ace Ops Blinding Obeying Orders Bad” but that aspect doesn’t even come into play. There’s nothing blind about it. It simply takes two seconds of critical thinking skills to realize that something really awful must have happened back at the Academy that trumps what you’re doing in Mantle. This is what I mean by the writing being biased. Before we even reach the fight in Ironwood’s office it’s trying to paint him as potentially cruel, potentially suspicious, potentially abandoning his people, look how worried our heroes are about this secret decision he’s made... when all that requires ignoring some really basic deduction in order to reach those assumptions. Remember that intelligence is a plot device in RWBY. If they want Ironwood forced to spill his secrets, he’ll randomly start talking about them in front of his enemies. If they want Ironwood painted as the villain, the group will randomly be incapable of realizing that maybe, just maybe, something went wrong on the home front and you’re needed there.

Things just get so much worse from then on. The group splits with JNR going off to find Oscar and, admittedly, I was shocked we got that at all. I mean yeah, it’s setup for the final reveal at the end of the episode, but the fact that anyone remembered Oscar was missing---let alone happily went off to find him---was still a surprise. So only Team RWBY heads back to Ironwood’s office where they find him (rightfully) panicking over the queen on his desk. Weiss tries to baby him, acting like he’s freaking out over nothing, when all these characters should recall precisely what Ironwood himself points out: the last time we saw this symbol it was a message that Beacon had fallen. He’s not paranoid here. He’s entirely justified in his panic. Ironwood likewise points out that they may have been duped into bringing thousands of people into Atlas as easy targets and Vine agrees, setting up that the Ace Ops are on Team Ironwood throughout the course of this conversation. Not out of blind loyalty, but because he’s right. That is a concern. That may be the plan. We do need to try and do something about that. Team RWBY, however, isn’t convinced.

That is, until Ruby realizes that the chess piece is made of black glass. Which means Cinder left it. Normally I’d congratulate her on that deduction---it is the one smart move we see Ruby pull this whole episode---but I just hate what follows. Namely that Ruby and Ruby alone controls her team’s opinions on a situation. Again. We saw it back in the snow, then again when Blake announced in the elevator that they’d do whatever she wanted. Team RWBY is the one who blindly follows their leader, not the Ace Ops, the only exception being Blake and Yang going rogue in regards to Robyn, but we see that hive-mind mindset here again. Ironwood brings up a good point? Nothing. Ace Ops support that point with more logic? Nothing. Ruby supports it? Oh, suddenly Weiss and Blake are taking this seriously. Suddenly Yang is fired up and ready to do whatever is necessary. Ruby controls the room. It’s only when she’s on board that her teammates decide this is worth getting riled up about.

Which, as I’ve said before, is a horrible way to write a diverse group. Especially when the writing is trying to paint the Ace Ops as mindless soldiers. For all their claims that they just have to follow orders, they’re the only ones parsing through this situation and coming to their own conclusions. It’s just that their conclusions do end up aligning with Ironwood’s which is the “bad” take in this scene. Team RWBY, however, waits until their leader makes a decision and then simply rides her cloak tails. The day that Blake, Yang, or Weiss legitimately disagree with Ruby---not a token “Are you sure we should keep secrets from Ironwood? We’re not actually challenging this. Just checking in”---is the day the writing will disagree with her. AKA, no time soon.

Blake tries to give some bland reassurance about them all being with Ironwood to which he responds, “Are you with me? How did Robyn know about the global communications tower?” Thank you! Thank you for giving us Ironwood’s characterization back and acknowledging that he has no reason to buy their generic ‘Got your back’ statements when everything they’ve done this volume has proven otherwise. They don’t support Ironwood, only themselves and their own teams. The minute he does something they don’t like he’s chucked under the bus. Too bad the writing doesn’t acknowledge any of this and instead continually paints the group as being justified in their decisions. It’s that hypocrisy again. When the group yells at Ozpin for keeping secrets we’re supposed to be on their side. When the Ace Ops yell at the group for keeping secrets we’re... still supposed to be on their side.

Weiss tries to diffuse the situation with “None of this matters right now!” which is real rich when they were just complaining about Ironwood not telling them why they were called back. They get to worry over that, but Ironwood isn’t allowed to worry about them outright betraying him? “Loyalty always matters!” he shouts back and he’s right. Why should Ironwood trust them to have his back in this crucial moment when they’ve never had it before? I’m already seeing more of this hypocrisy among the fandom. When Ozpin kept secrets and told lies the group was given a whole volume to be pissed about that and fans still, to this very day, insist that it hasn’t been enough time for them to get over it, to regain even a portion of that trust. But now that Ironwood has been lied to and betrayed in the same manner? People are annoyed that he’s not just shrugging it off. How dare you not get over in thirty seconds what our heroes got weeks to work through. His inability to just suck it up, as it were, is used to make him seem irrational here. I don’t see anyone, characters or fans alike, acknowledging that his anger is as righteous as the group’s was out in the snow. That there is the disconnect.

Of course, something has to break the tension. Drawn by all the fury and fear, a grimm pops out of Watts’ bag. A fail-safe for if he was defeated and captured. Salem immediately takes control of the grimm and kills it, using its form to appear before them. She reveals that it doesn’t matter that her men were captured. They were just there to “set the stage,” which they’ve done. Still doesn’t explain the random Penny side plot to my mind (seriously, why did the story bother to resurrect her when she has done nothing plot-wise or emotionally?), but whatever. Much more importantly, the stage is set for Salem herself. She’s approaching with the grimm army we saw her amassing which is... iffy.

First off, why? Why after a thousand years has she suddenly changed her MO from keeping to the sidelines to a full-on attack? Again, what’s the catalyst for that massive change? We don’t know. Meanwhile, from a writing perspective, I’m hesitant about having our Big Bad thrown into the mix before the finale. We know there are plenty of volumes left in this series, which automatically undermines any battle they might have with Salem. Will they win?? Of course not! Because RWBY isn’t over yet. Granted, this could all just be a ruse of some sort. Maybe Salem just wants them to think she’s approaching with an army, which would be much more up her alley in terms of long-distance manipulation. But if not... seriously, what’s the point of that?

Here’s hoping it’s a bluff.

Speaking of manipulation, we get a fantastically creepy moment where Salem tells Ironwood to “simply accept the futility of your situation” while smiling like a kind mother. That’s the Salem who is truly dangerous. Ironwood reaffirms that he won’t give up the relics and Ruby pips up with, “We don’t have to kill you to stop you.”

Hey wait. I’m gonna give you all another graphic.

This is Ozpin’s stance! This is his plan! His version of hope! We spent all of Volume Six having the cast beat on him for, “Omg Salem is immortal?!” and with the exception of Nora’s comment, no discussion of this in Volume Seven... but now suddenly Ruby is making this announcement? The group came to this revelation sometime off screen which we a) don’t get to see and b) once again created no scenario in the form of, “Wow! Ozpin was right all along! Maybe we should go talk to him...”

I’m just... wow. The number of times the writing takes what the group and the adults do, the exact same perspectives and decisions, and twists it so that the group comes out looking like heroes and the adults look like misguided, unhinged fools who need to be put in their place... I’m really over it at this point. And by extension the group themselves. Their characterizations have been so badly mangled at this point I legitimately don’t like them as people. I don’t care if they say they want to protect Mantle, or if they say they’ll support Ironwood, or if they say they’re unsure about their choices. All their actions claim otherwise.

Rather than grappling with the huge revelation that the group is apparently no longer obsessed with Salem’s immortality (or rather that Ruby isn’t. The rest of the group doesn’t actually matter. As established, they sync up with her beliefs the second she announces them), we return to Summer Rose. Salem goes, “Your mother said those words to me” and Ruby... loses it? What? I would have been 100% on board with this if we’d gotten it last Volume because then we saw Ruby losing her cool periodically. The smashed alcohol bottles. Chucking her scroll. Screaming at Qrow. That was all building to something. But then we had a year and roughly twelve episodes of normality. Ruby jumps into her fight with Cordovin and has been fine ever since. Hell, she’s been bubbly and confident, goofing off with Penny in one episode, then giving strong orders to her team in another. The one time we see her falter was in her conversation with Qrow and he reassured her completely that she was both doing the right thing and in no way comparable to Ozpin. Now, suddenly, one line from Salem and Ruby collapses? Full on incapacitated? I could buy the crying while still standing strong, I could buy a collapse if we’d kept her characterization going from Volume Six, but this kind of reaction in this context just felt so extreme. Doesn’t help that I really wasn’t sold on the voice acting here. Those cries sound less like devastated sobs and more like weird hiccups. Not to rag on Lindsay. On the whole I think she does a really excellent job as Ruby, it’s just this particular moment didn’t read right to me. I didn’t feel Ruby’s supposed grief here.

So that was... a lot for one line from Salem in a volume of otherwise confident and cool-headed Ruby. We also don’t see it amounting to anything, as per usual with RWBY’s writing. Ruby isn’t out of commission for the rest of the conversation or anything. She pops right back up after a second in Yang’s lap, just as confident and go-getting as before. There was no lead up to this and there are no consequences for the breakdown. Rooster Teeth honestly seems to think they can just chuck random things into the story---Ruby needs to show emotion at some point!---and then just leave it at that, entirely disconnected from everything else around it. Would we have known that Ruby just had her first breakdown of the series a minute later while once again betraying Ironwood? Nope.

Finally, this scene shows us again that the Argus battle was a bunch of nonsense. Ruby’s eyes nearly activate when she’s grieving for her mother, imagining---or perhaps seeing via Salem?---a sad Summer, not a smiling one. Just like her eyes activated while seeing Pyrrha die. Just like they activated when Blake was nearly killed by the Apathy. They activate now while thinking about her mother’s death. The montage of happy moments in lieu of the sad ones not working last volume was entirely out of place.

Salem finally leaves. Now everyone is panicking about this army. Elm points out that they’ll know if anything approaches. Vine checks and realizes that Watts took out their perimeter. Either that or Salem has already destroyed everyone and everything out there. It’s impossible to know. During all this Blake asks if the Amity tower is actually finished and we get more nonsense about how Ironwood is evil for telling a lie, but the group is always justified in telling theirs. The writing really tried to compare Ironwood telling Mantle---who I guarantee 100% does not care about whether a communications tower is finished while they’re getting attacked by grimm---a lie to lure out one of their biggest threats to Blake and Yang going behind Ironwood’s back to tell a potentially non-trustworthy outlaw about said tower, risking that the information would fall into the wrong hands and doom the project before it could be completed either way. Those are not in any way comparable situations, yet the writing really has Weiss going, “General Ironwood?” in a ‘How could you betray us like that?’ tone while Yang continues to look pissed.

And as if they didn’t know! How is this a personal betrayal? They were all helping to build that tower. Surely they’d know it it was that close to being done. Again, critical thinking skills, people. Anyone with two brain cells and their insider information should have looked at Ironwood’s announcement and gone, “Oh, that must be a bluff. Just a few days ago we were arguing about whether to continue taking resources from Mantle. No way is Amity ready. He’s going after Watts. Who is indeed the much bigger threat. Considering that he has control over the entirety of our technology and there’s literally no downside to telling Mantle about a finished tower when they’re getting devoured by grimm.” This is another, “But lying is wrong!” in the face of “But lying kept us alive...?” 

Does everyone get what I’m saying here? How RWBY takes these situations and tries to paint them in an absolutely ridiculous light, expecting the audience to blindly accept this perspective despite everything else they’ve seen for themselves? Like, two episodes ago? I swear I’ve never encountered writing that treats its audience this badly. Scene after scene relies heavily on the viewer having no ability to think for themselves. Just accept that Ironwood is a horrible person for lying about the tower even though there are no repercussions for that and we JUST watched him defeating Watts as a result. Like, five minutes ago. That just happened. In this episode. 

Ironwood then drops the bomb that Winter has gone off to claim the Maiden power. Interesting development. I wonder what that means exactly. Is she just going to lock herself away until the Maiden dies naturally? Do they have her on some sort of life support and is there an agreement to pull the plug if necessary? Are they going to use a machine similar to the one Pyrrha was in and try to force the change early? Or is this just a misleading comment and Winter is merely off to protect the Maiden, no intention of taking the power now? Who knows. We’ll have to wait until next episode to find out.

Ironwood likewise announces that the staff and the lamp need to be locked away now that they’re compromised, even though they’ve been compromised since they first saw Tyrian in Mantle. Insert another [this scenario is so stupid and contrived] explanation here. It’s made worse by Ruby’s childish “You said we could keep it.” Excuse me? What, did you think the lamp was your personal property now forever and always? Is Ruby really sitting there arguing that something Ironwood told her weeks ago trumps the obvious logic of putting the relic where it’s somewhere safe? That’s the characterization we’re going for, a leader who cares more about, ‘But you said we could have it!’ over the fate of the world? What even is this? The fact that Ironwood has to explain to them that the situation has changed just reinforces the group’s overall attitude. That is, one of arrogance and importance. They literally need to be told why putting the relic in a nearly impenetrable vault is better than letting them have it just because they want it. Plus, you know, they lied about the lamp from the start. So there’s that too.

Finally, Ironwood reveals that Amity was originally a plan of Ozpin’s but he didn’t push it far enough. Instead, he intends to use the staff to lift all of Atlas instead, hopefully taking two relics and a Maiden far out of Salem’s reach. Ruby wants to use the tower for its designed purpose instead, which is only a valid option in her mind because the writing was stupid last week. If there had actually been any logic there---if people had been allowed to react naturally and in a variety of ways to the Salem announcement, rather than a super convenient “Yeah! Let’s all work together!” across an entire, panicking city---she wouldn’t be quite so eager to tell the whole world. But we all know at this point that logic bends to the protagonists’ whims, so Ruby wants that same perfect ending across all of Remnant. She stands her ground, as does her team. Obviously.

Meanwhile, the Ace Ops aren’t just following Ironwood’s orders like the writing wants us to think via Harriet’s earlier comment. Rather, they’re each thinking through the situation for themselves and making very good points. If Salem has taken out our perimeter than we know our tech and people don’t stand a chance against this army. We just finished up the fight in Mantle and none of us are in a position to start another. Notably, Harriet brings this up, the one whose aura took a massive hit while nearly getting crushed underfoot. Vine points out that sometimes you have to lose a battle to win the war, but Team RWBY, to be blunt, simply doesn’t care.

I’ll be blunt myself here too: I don’t have an easy solution to this particular scenario. I don’t know what the “right” or the “wrong” choice is. Weighing starting a fight with VERY high stakes you’ll lose against abandoning the people of Mantle is just a straight up horrific decision. Like so much of what Ozpin faced, there is no clear-cut, good answer here. Do you stand by the people and risk the world, or work to save the world and doom the people? I don’t know and I do commend Rooster Teeth for writing a difficult choice... just not in giving each side the weight it deserves. Because as said, we’re meant to root for Team RWBY, always. Theirs is presented as the “right” choice every time, despite the fact that, as established, this is far from a black and white decision.

What frustrates me the most is when faced with all of these logical and very important considerations (we might not have backup, we’re in no position to fight, if Salem gets the relics and another Maiden the world is screwed) the group won’t even acknowledge these things. They’re so set in their own perspective they won’t even give these HUGE concerns the time of day. Rather, Yang shoots back, “You can’t just back down from a fight!”

That’s it. That’s the group’s problem in a single line.

This is what got Pyrrha killed.

It’s something the group should remember. She also insisted on fighting when she should have retreated and, since this was back during the days when characters actually faced consequences for their actions, it cost Pyrrha her life. Granted, going after Cinder was a truly useless endeavor. Pyrrha achieved nothing with her sacrifice. Here, Team RWBY hopes to save the people of Mantle, adding a clear justification for their insistence on fighting... but this is nevertheless indicative of that larger “punch it until it stops moving” mindset. It’s not that they decide to fight instead of retreating that’s the problem, it’s that to their mind fighting is the only option. Ever. This is what led to them attacking Cordovin and destroying Argus’ mech, drawing a massive grimm in the process. When faced with the option of backing down, Team RWBY doesn’t consider that an option at all. Which is heroic when up against an actual enemy, far less so when you’re facing an ally and the choice to fight has serious repercussions attached to it. Hell, the group doesn’t even consider compromises. They could have easily acknowledged that collecting the relics, the Maiden, and getting the staff to work on Atlas will take time. You do that while we focus on evacuating the rest of Mantle to the city. But no, even the concept of a compromise simply isn’t possible. You just always fight. Straight up. Anyone who suggests anything less isn’t a true huntsmen. “We’re loyal to the people!” Ruby shouts, as if “the people” doesn’t also include the rest of the world that Ironwood is trying to save and that they’re endangering by keeping the relics and Maiden within Salem’s reach. 

That is one messed up perspective to tout in a story infused with the complex and the morally gray.

The real kicker though? Ruby’s ‘My way or the highway’ attitude obliterates a solution that fell straight into her lap. Jaune calls and says straight out that they have another situation. If Ruby had listened to her teammate for just three seconds they all would have learned about Oscar, thereby undermining Ironwood’s plan. He can’t keep the lamp safe if he doesn’t know where it is. You look for it while, again, we evacuate Mantle. Then we take everything out of Salem’s reach. Win-win. Instead, Ruby blasts her way through the situation. Literally, dodging Ironwood and hiding behind his desk shouting a highly bias version of his plan in the hopes of getting everyone on her side. And it works. 

Because those like Clover don’t get to hear any of that context. Like how the perimeter is gone, there’s an army potentially coming, no one is in a position to fight, we’ve already lost a relic... they just here a Ruby’s version of events that paints Ironwood as the callous man Robyn thought he was---oh my god he’s abandoning Mantle for no good reason!---and people will react accordingly. Ruby likewise doesn’t care that shouting such information over all channels does things like, say, clue Tyrian into their plan. She just wants to do things her way, right now. Pausing to think (because thinking isn’t fighting) simply doesn’t happen.

I used to adore Ruby as a hero. Someone who was intrinsically good, hopeful, and wickedly clever in her ability to come out on top. Now she’s stubborn, arrogant, at times cruel, and charges in headfirst like her sister, refusing to consider any perspective other than her own. And her team endlessly supports that. The writing endlessly supports that. This isn’t our hero working through her flaws, but rather a flawed character that the writing refuses to acknowledge is flawed. When Ruby flies behind Ironwood’s desk the music rises triumphantly, just like it did when she attacked Cordovin’s mech. When Ironwood announces that they’re under arrest, Ruby spits back, “We won’t just let you take us” and we’re supposed to cheer.

Which brings us back to the question of whether the group really faced consequences here. Let me give you all a random, non-RWBY example of two scenes. Scenario One:

Parent: You punched her?

Teen: She insulted me!

Parent: I understand that, but that doesn’t mean you were justified in attacking her.

Teen: Oh, I was.

Parent: Maybe you were, maybe you weren’t, but you can’t solve all your problems that way.

Teen: I... I know that, okay. Back off. I just get so angry...

Parent: I know. We’re going to work on that. You’re grounded this weekend. We can discuss this more then.

Teen: [sighs] Fine.

vs. Scenario Two:

Parent: You punched her?

Teen: She insulted me!

Parent: I understand that, but that doesn’t mean you were justified in attacking her.

Teen: Oh, I was.

Parent: Maybe you were, maybe you weren’t, but you can’t solve all your problems that way.

Teen: Screw you! It worked didn’t it? I think a good punch goes a long way.

Parent: That’s not... okay look. You’re grounded this weekend so---

Teen: Like hell I am. [Proceeds to run off]

Teen: [Later to friend] ---and then she tried to ground me? Can you believe that?

Friend: Holy shit what an asshole.

If we put aside my own iffy dialogue for the moment, Scenario One acknowledges the complexity of the situation while likewise pointing out that the teen didn’t handle herself well. RWBY has achieved that here: the ethics of this scenario are acknowledged as complicated, but the group did things they shouldn’t have, as evidence by Ironwood’s anger and the Ace Ops’ criticism. However, Scenario One goes on to let the teen acknowledge that mistake, thereby validating it in the first place. A consequence is set, grounding, and they accept that, thereby further validating that their behavior needs work. They accept the consequence because both they and the writing acknowledge that the consequence is deserved. It takes what was previously two subjective stances---they say I’m wrong, I say I’m right---and encourages the audience to find the middle ground. Neither was totally wrong or right. The teen might be justified in some respects, but still made mistakes in others. She needs to improve. 

RWBY, however, steers firmly into Scenario Two wherein the teen (Team RWBY) insists points blank that they never made mistakes in the first place, thereby encouraging the audience to question whether Ironwood and the Ace Ops (the parent) is right to be calling them out at all. We see no humility or guilt, only confidence. Ruby shouting “No!” at Cordovin when she’s told to surrender. Yang keeping silent after admitting that she and Blake told Robyn, not bothering to apologize or admit that this might have been a breech of trust. They challenge the validity of the claim that mistakes were made and by virtue of being protagonists encourage the audience to challenge it too. Finally, we see them reject the consequence because they will not admit that it’s deserved. The teen will not accept a grounding. Ruby: “We won’t just let you take us.” We’re then told by others that this rejection was warranted. The friend reinforces the view that the teen was right to run because that punishment is undeserved. The message is, “You never did anything wrong in the first place.” The plot of RWBY likewise reinforces the view that resisting Cordovin’s arrest was right by having her randomly let the group go. The consequence is replaced with a reward and, presumably, we’ll have a similar situation wherein the group either defeats the Ace Ops or is released by them. The consequences never take hold because the writing doesn’t think there should be consequences in the first place. Team RWBY isn’t going to be arrested here. They’re certainly not acknowledging that on some level they deserve to be. We didn’t see that humility while they were cuffed on the airship---that most basic acknowledgement of, “Did we make some mistakes? Could we have done something better? Is Ironwood right to be this mad?”---and there’s none of it now here, either. The tone is pure, “How dare you try and arrest us? We’re the good guys here!” 

This remains as pro-protagonist as it has been the last two volumes. There are no consequences, only another hurdle for the group to overcome, painted as heroes for doing so. It’s Team RWBY vs. The Ace Ops and there’s no confusion about who we’re supposed to be rooting for. The Ace Ops because the group should rightly be stopped from hindering Ironwood’s attempts to keep the relics and a Maiden out of Salem’s hands, for their own lies and secret keeping that endangered them all this volume? Nope. It’s Team RWBY as the presumed heroes, facing off against soldiers who (supposedly) prioritize orders over what’s “right.” 

And yeah, Oscar is gone. There are a number of dismantled robots and blaster fire in the room where Neo presumably took him. So unless they do a flashback we don’t get to see if/how Ozpin reacted to this initial attack. I hope they do provide a flashback because otherwise that’s another crucial scene of Oscar’s that happened off screen...

Can’t wait to see what else we’ll end up with next week! Until then, 💜

#rwby #rwby volume 7 #rwby volume 7 spoilers #rwby recaps #mymetas

[madebycoffee]

OH ALSO I finished watching Legend of Korra and here is non spoiler thoughts: I really enjoyed it and just like atla I cried at every single season finale. I really like that the main cast while still young, is older than the lITERAL children of atla. atla still holds up watching it as an adult, but I feel like korra is a bit more my jive. There is only one episode that I won’t watch again (season 4 remembrances, when you are binging the show it isn’t necessary as it’s a recap and not as fun as ember island players which serves the same purpose in atla. Also I looked on IMDB, that is the lowest rated episode. I agree. Honestly, if you are binging you can skip it) but I can def see myself watching the whole thing again. Season 1 is my overall favorite of the series. 

Spoiler thoughts below the cut because WOW I HAVE THOUGHTS (it’s long)

hi spoiler time last chance to look away

Before going into LOK I had read a decent amount of spoilers beforehand since this aired back in 2012-2014. I don’t think I even knew about it after it was nearly done so the one thing I knew was that Korra & Asami get together lol. Anyway my point is I knew what was coming overall.

Season 1: My personal favorite, I think it’s a really strong stand alone season. I thought it was really smart to begin the series in the water tribe again, as well as with Katara as that’s how ATLA started. I also think its really clever that with Aang, he was very spiritual and a master airbender already, but needed to learn the other 3 element. Korra is the opposite. It helps it not be so repetitive. We already saw one avatar working to master fire, water, and earth. I also realized how used to the world of atla I was and was confused for a split second how Mako and Bolin were brothers but one was an earthbender and one was a firebender... Yeah I know I’m dumb and I forgot that its a different world lol.  -Another strong point was that no matter how in danger Korra got in season 1 she never went into the avatar state, because as she says in what ep 1? that she has never been good at the spiritual side of being the avatar. Part of me kept expecting it to happen, but even the final showdown with Amon it didn’t so I was like oh damn. The finale when she does go into the avatar state with Aang giving her the bending she lost back.... I was a wreck. Sobbing my eyes out it just HIT ME.  -Other moments that hit me hard: Hearing Dante Basco’s voice as General Iroh ow my soul, Hearing through Katara that Sokka is dead, The flashbacks to the trial of the bloodbender (forgot his name??) and seeing them get bloodbent HURTS MY HEART. And every time Aang’s statue was shown. ;-; Also, just like ATLA there isn’t a main character that I dislike. I genuinely like Korra, Asami, Mako, & Bolin as a team. Lin is my favorite which not hard being Toph’s daughter lol. Tenzin and fam are a delight (though Meelo can get on my nerves but eh)  TL:DR SEASON 1 IS GREAT I CAN’T WAIT TO WATCH IT AGAIN!!

Season 2: Alright so. A lot of Spirit World dealings. Unalaq being a GASP evil brother??? LOK has a thing about brothers lol. First with Amon and whathisname, now with Korra’s dad and uncle. Anyway, season 2 I really like too. Yes even the finale. And it’s been a few weeks (maybe months??) since I watched season 2 so the finale is really all that stands out. Other than that I do really like seeing the story of the first avatar. OH MAN AND IROH IN THE SPIRIT WORLD HAD ME ALL SORTS OF LEVELS OF EMOTIONAL. -SO. This was the big spoiler I knew going in, that the past lives of the Avatar are severed from Korra. I know that A LOT of people really don’t like it either. And upon hearing that plot point I didn’t like it as well. But when I sat down and watched the whole series. I actually thought it was the right thing to do. And I didn’t mind it as much as I thought. Korra can no longer call upon the past lives which is sad, but those Avatars still existed. And with Tenzin being so prevalent in the show, it really feels like Aang is still there in spirit. The reason I thought it was the right thing to do with the story, is that it let’s the show as a whole exist on it’s own. IDK how to properly explain.. I get why people don’t like it, but it makes sense to me. -And I do commend the show runners for sticking to this. There is no getting contact back with the past lives. Which, personally I approve of. Whenever you do something world altering like that it annoys me when the show takes it back. My main gripe is people dying but wAIT NO THEY’RE ALIVE!!! It lessens the stakes. And I think a through line of Korra is that actions have consequences. TL;DR I LIKE SEASON 2 AS WELL. DOESN’T LEAVE A LASTING IMPRESSION SINCE THE FINALE IS SUCH A BIG DEAL.

Season 3: I THINK this would be my second favorite season. I REALLY like Zaheer as I guess the ~big bad~ and the squad he has. SO much so that I’m actually upset that they all are dead by the end. I think P’Li is done the dirtiest. You see and know very little about her until an ~exposition~ line a few scenes before she dies. (But damn if the scene of Su throwing her metal breastplate around her head isn’t hardcore cool. I haven’t said yet but the fight sequences in Korra??? Amazing.) Bolin finding out he can Lavabend??? oh hell yeah that’s the good shit, same with lavabending in GENERAL. seeing what people can REALLY do with their bending is probably my favorite part about Korra. I do think Zaheer looks a little silly when he starts flying around, but hey that part is cool too. Also easily the most horrified I’ve been watching this show was the pulling the aiR OUT OF SOMEONE. JESUS. Up until that point Airbending still seemed like the least dangerous form but HOLY SHIT. I will say that the way Kuvira is if not introduced/ we’re reminded about her in the finale is a little bit more like “uhhh is Korra’s dad going to have an affair???” to me than “she gonna be the big bad next season” Also on IMDB the finale of season 3 is the highest rated finale. 

Season 4: Even thought this has the same number of episodes as season 3, it feels the most rushed to me. However I do appreciate the timejump and GODTDAMN I love me some old lady Toph. I also like that Toph says that she’s watching Su & Lin through the swamp, an episode or two later Su and Zaofu are attacked and captured, and when Lin, Opal, and Bolin go to Zaofu to try and rescue, Toph is there. It’s a nice payoff. As Su was getting captured I was thinking “hmmmm does Toph see this” And she does, which has her leave the swamp, so she’s not there when Kuvira’s army is cutting vines. Because cmon is Toph was there she woulda kicked their asses. -The huge mecha suit with the spirit weapon on it is HARROWING. I like that Baatar Jr. see’s that Kuvira was gonna kill him for thE gREatER gOOD and was instantly like “oh shit well i guess my loyalties were wrong then ok” Oh and out of order but I had a feeling that Zhu Li was telling Kuvira what she wanted to hear to be sneaky and I was v happy to be proven right by Toph. I ALSO like that things like Toph being able to tell if people are lying aren’t forgotten about. Also... Cried like a baby at Zhu Li and Varrick’s wedding. Haven’t mentioned Varrick yet but hot damn if he isn’t one of my favorite characters. What I wouldn’t GIVE to have Sokka and Varrick brainstorm some truly crazy shit. 10/10.  TL;DR SEASON 3 IS REALLY GOOD AND SEASON 4 IS GOOD BUT FEELS LIKE IT’S TOO SHORT.

But yeah. Overall I really enjoyed it. I looked through the episodes on IMDB and nearly everything is above 8.5 except for some of the first episodes in season 2 which I get. I can tell that this is by the same team that did ATLA. It feels so much the same. And I think there was the right amount of the original peeps or their kids but still was focusing on our core four. Other little things:

- I like that the “villains” or ig the conflicts of people weren’t anyone from the Fire Nation. (Although do we know where Zaheer is from??? Family lineage?) Well regardless, what we have is Amon: Waterbender, Unalaq: Waterbender, Zaheer: Airbender, Kuvira: Earthbender. ATLA we were fighting the fire nation, LOK has the range lol. - I do wish we could have been in the Fire Nation tho. I wanna see what’s it like over there :( - Adored seeing all the changes to the world. In ATLA we see the blimps/airships more or less being invented and then 70 years later AIRSHIPS AND CARS GALORE. And having radios/phones VERY nice. Don’t have to rely on letters or talking in person.  - I really like Korra. I feel like it needs to be said lol, but I thoroughly enjoyed her as the Avatar (maybe more than Aang??) - Zuko’s face after Korra says she talked to Iroh in the spirit world I’m not crying you are.

ANYWAY. I think that’s it. I just needed to get it all out somewhere. Not a perfect show (neither is atla) but damn if it isn’t some of the best TV out there. If you read all of that woW good job.

#madebycoffee speaks #not gonna tag this as the show lol #so #non sims #nonsims #also seester i think you would like it

[analyzingadventure]

Oh boy have I not watched Psi for a long time, oh man have I missed out on Some Stuff (I’ve only heard the names of like three Digimon mentioned but oh man did those names alone come with Some Package)

Let’s watch episodes 25-31 then and catch up!

So just to recap, last time Agumon evolved to Mugendramon, fucked some shit up because Taichi totally 100% legit died, temporary evolved to WarGreymon I think (I can’t remember man lmao) and beat the shit outta DoneDevimon

25! Dive to the Next Ocean!

Uhhh who the fuck yeeted ElDoradimon into the sky

This is so bad

They should die so hard

OHHH CLOUD CONTINENT IS IN THE SKYYY YESSS I LOVE THAT

Have I mentioned how much I love seeing the kids interact with their non-partner Digimon (and vice versa)? Because I do, I love this a lot (even if it ain’t much)

Ohhh Mugendramon was so sexy... I wanna rewatch episode 24 but I really need to catch up on this first

ElDoradimon’s gonna die from that fall, right? His joints are gonna get pulverized

Zurumon! :D I love these lemon jelly goops

HIKARI!!!!!! Baby!!

I wish Taichi and co would be like, trying to even think about how they’re gonna survive the fall- like I know Leomon saved them but they couldn’t like plan to just Get Saved, IDK it’s kinda off-putting how they’re so calm

Leomon to the rescue tho! Finally!

Patamon is so chumby, v good

Holy shit Leomon punches HARD, a single punch just straightened out ElDoradimon in one go, holy fuck

Finally they’re worried about dying from the fall

What happened to the Agu and Gabu being too exhausted to fight (I’m sorry this is just a massive pet peeve for me, ‘esp cause there’s like no reprecussions for the Digimon for pushing themselves here)

(Like it’d be one thing if they managed to evolve out of desperation but this ended up being like bad for them and force them to take longer rests later or IDK kill them, but when you’re just like “I’m too tired to fight- oh wait my friend is slightly in more danger now than before, I guess I can fight again”)

(This is an issue with most MotW shows and even some shounen series (I’m looking at you Bleach) so it’s not unique to Psi, p sure Adventure had this issue to some degree too, but still man, it’s a massive pet peeve and bothers me so much)

26! Break through the sea monster barricade!

God I love that the Cloud Continent is actually in the sky

Quality content (slightly cursed maybe)

Seadramon! Honestly I really love Seadramon?? Like it’s such a simple, minimalistic design but... IDK man I love Seadramon, it’s such a cool Digimon

OH SHIT IT EVOLVED! :O

I’m sorry I am just so not interested in the real world crisis (in the show), it’s... I’m sorry it’s so Mundane and I’m here for the Fantastical

WARUSEADRAMON! THE SLIGHTLY MORE GOTH SEADRAMON!! YEAAHHHHH

God I wish Psi just had perma-evolution, so many of my issues would be solved with perma-evolution

Aweeee yeah, MegaSeadramon’s here too, now we got both of them, yeeeeee

I love how Hikari is just quietly judging the other kids

Y’all okay with talking about Taichi being in a different world right in front of Hikari? I mean She Knows Things and they all just got taken to back to that world but still like, should you try to be more inconspicuous maybe

Oh my god how many times have they used that clip of Falcomon throwing bombs in this episode- four? That’s a lot yo

Taichi’s gonna get vored again, press F for him

The water is so deep how is Zudomon standing- oh I need to stop asking these things

HIKARIIIIII SHE’S HEEEREEE YEEEEEE

27! To the New Continent!

"Hikari, who called you?” “I don’t know :)” Honey that is so ominous I love you

AGUMON COMFORTING HIKARI AAAAAA I LOVE THAAAT

YESSSSS I LOVE THIS

This image has heavy Digimon Kaiser energy in it

I love how Psi!Jyou is like a try-hard in trying to help (while OG!Jyou was always struggling with figuring out what the right thing to do was etc)

Is... is the enemy a Tortamon? Oh yeah it’s Tortamons

OH WOW THERE’S A LOT OF THEM

OH SHIT IT’S AN GROUNDDRAMON! OH GOD THIS IS GRUESOME

Ikkakumon’s gonna get vored, F

You know I never thought Grounddramon would be so chomby based on the Bandai art but I guess Groundramon’s a real chomper

“Everyone, give Angewomon your power!”

GIGA DESTROYER AAAAAAAAAA

OH IT’S THE BASTARD!! DARK KNIGHTMON!!! THE SEXY BASTARD!! The one I’ve heard an interesting theory about... But I ain’t saying anything fornow

PATAMON EVOLVES??? (On command which is kinda bs)

ANGEMOOOOOON YEAAAAAHHHHHH

NEW ENDING TOO, YAY

Ohhh this ending has such nice, soft but jolly energy c: Also yay Tailmon

28! The Children’s Fight for Survival!

BTW Patamon with angel wings was a lowkey hilarious visual, 10/10 would laugh again

Still don’t like how we just got Angemon on demand like that

Oh yeah, out-of-context I heard a theory that DarkKnightmon is Tailmon and hearing Dark Knightmon’s voice, yeah I can see that (not to mention their facination with Hikari)

Oh man those are some Big Wings

Whu happen, did the kids get yeeted back to the Human World?? Oh no they’re still here

I bet Angemon’s dead again lmao

LMFAO JYOU FINALLY GETS TO CATCH A BREAK--

NANIMON NOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Oh Patamon’s okay- REALLY TIRED (thank you Psi) but okay

I NEVER DISLIKED NANIMON UNTIL THIS VERY MOMENT

I AM SO UNCOMFORTABLE

PLEASE GO AT LEAST 500 METERS FURTHER AWAY FROM JYOU, PLEASE

Hikari being worried for MetalGreymon ;__;

Aweee yeah HIkari’s special Evolution Powers are still here! GET ‘IM WARGREYMON!!

Whoop Hikari got spirited away, F (she’ll be fine, SkullKnightmon ain’t gonna do shit to her, I’m sure)

Hikari volunteered to go... ;_;

29! Escape the Burning Jungle!

THERE’S MORE OF THEM

I mean at least they’re all just chillin’ and enjoying the bath instead of just staring at Jyou. I’ll considder that an improvement

YEAHHHH MEGADRAMONS!!

Ooooo a single lil Lopmon, I wonder if this will be an important character later

I like Woodmon, Woodmon are cool and chill

YEAH, DEFEND THE SMALL AND INNOCENT!

WOODMON NOOOOOOO ;A;

NOOOOOO A BUDMON DIED!!! NOT THE BABIES!!!

What do you mean MetalGreymon hurt when the tiny Allomon bit him ON HIS METAL ARM

I- I need to stay quiet or else I’m gonna end up with too many questions. I mean I already have too many but the less I question it the better

Woodmon, Budmon, I love your energy, please aim for Tankdramon’s eye, you could blind that fucker with ease

PARROTMON?!

30! WARGREYMON AAAAAAA

Man I have been quiet through this entire episode so far lmao

ANYWAY CROSSMON! HELL YEAH have we seen Crossmon animated before?

GIGA DESTROYER AAAAAAAAAAA anyways I think this is the first tme we’re seeing Crossmon animated (unless my memory is garbage, which it might just be)

Aaaand Taichi is dead

OH, HIS CREST IS THERE

WHAT’S THIS

WHAT’S THIS

Agumon....... I love you..........

Man this animator is making Crossmon look vaguely too humanoid for my taste.... And MetalGreymon’s super fucking jacked yo

NEW SONG YEEEAAAAAAAAAAAHHH

OH THAT’S SOME SEXY SEXY ANIMATION

OH WARGREYMON’S HUUUGE BRO

HOLY FUCK GAIA FORCE ANNIHILATED ALL OF THEM (but didn’t cause any environmental damage? Handy!)

Lopmon’s totally like Cherubimon or something, right? Reborn Cherubimon, right?

31. MILLENNIUMON

HERE IT IS, THE HEAVY PACKAGE I MENTIONED, THE EPISODE TITLE THAT MADE PEOPLE LOSE THEIR MINDS WHEN IT GOT ANNOUNCED

WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING PSIIIII where the fuck are you going yoooooo

God WarGreymon’s so fucking big holy shit

OH YEAH LOPMON’S TOTALLY LIKE CHERUBIMON OR SOMETHING (I mean it’s not a plottwist by anymeans lmao)

LMAO Skull Knightmon looked away when Hikari noticed them looking at her lmao tsundere ass fucker

Wait the temple was also on Cloud Continent??? Like that whole area was still a part of Cloud Continent?????????? The geography of this world confuses me yo

BAKEMON!!! THERE’S BAKEMON!!! I LOVE BAKEMON SO MUCH!!! GIMME THE GHOSTIES!!!

NOOO MILLE WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU DO TO MY BAKEMON BABIES!! FUCK YOU LEAVE MY GHOST BUDDIES ALONE

YESSSS CHERUBIMON

OH IT WAS MILLE WHO STARTED THIS ENTIRE FUCKING MESS IN THE FIRST PLACE, HUH

WAIT FUCK MILLE IS BEHIND THE ENTIRE BS IN PSI

...AGUMON CAN EVOLVE TO MUGENDRAMON, WHO IS LIKE, KEY COMPONENT #1 TO MILLE

OH GOD WHAT DOES THAT MEAN

AGUMON EVOLVING TO MUGENDRAMON WASN’T JUST A CUTE REFERENCE TO THE DARK MASTERS, IS THERE GONNA BE THING WHERE AGUMON IS USED TO RECREATE MILLENIUMON??? (And they have to get Agumon Out Of There like they had to extract Tailmon (and Meicoomon until they gave up) out of Ordinemon in tri.???)

ANGEWOMON!!! THERE SHE IS!!

PSI SAYS OFANIMON RIGHTS

Oooo we’re on Eternal/Mugen Continent... Oooo :oc

I like how Sora is the Dedicated Character who will be there when we get like Backstory lmao

METALFANTOMON?! :O YEEAAAHHHH (Ngl when I saw the pink scythe for a moment I was hoping for Jokermon.......)

Oh wow that’s a lot of MetalFantomons

Man Kabuterimon sure is flying quietly (I mean adding the flying sound effect probbaly wouldn’t add much here but... It’s so quiet)

OH SHIT WE’RE GOING TO ULTIMATE ALREADY

I am gonna say, because Psi is constantly moving, like there’s constantly an oncoming threat and the characters never get to take a fucking break (that’s longer than 5 minutes), it just... Because there’s no contrast between danger and peace, it makes the non-stop danger feel far less dangerous imo

DOGGO DIGIMON!!

KOMONDOMON!!

OH SKULL KNIGHTMON HAS MILLE

OH FUCK DUDE

There is one more episode out but sadly I can’t watch it yet because region lock. I do know there’s an interesting, familiar face in there tho and I’m excited for that!

I... I... I can’t believe he actually said that...

“They’re cool pants!” KOUSHIROU LMAO

Anyways, episode preview!

Aaaand nothing of value was seen there. I mean I do know what Patamon probably evolves into because I do follow the Digimon Twitter so like, I saw the relevant art they shared but ye

Anyways  a lot of these episodes were dull as usual, I didn’t feel like I missed out on much tbh aside from the sexy animation and the lore

This really drives it home to me how not having a villian of somekind just constantly present and active really makes a story so much more flat for me... Like I ain’t gonna argue Devimon or MetalSeadramon were interesting villians, but even just seeing them planning their next moves outloud and talking to their minions drove home what kind of people they were, and they weren’t even the most Packed-With-Personality villians in Adventure.    And while SkullKnightmon is there... they’re just kinda standing around. I don’t know much about them really and it makes me sad

(Look I’m sorry I’m a filthy villian-stan and not having interesting villians to stan makes me sad)

Anyways, as always, I am definitely looking forward to whatever the fuck Psi is planning on doing because 1. Holy Shit It’s Milleniummon and 2. Holy fuck we got WarGreymon and it’s only episode 31, what the fuck are they planning on doing with the rest of the series and indeed 3. Patamon evolves into what

#Psi reaction

[retrauxpunk]

sv 6.05

spoiler-filled recap post below the cut as per usual ~~~

i think i’m gonna maybe be starting every single recap post with

WHAT THE FUCK

WHAT THE FUCK 

there’s only two episodes LEFT? OF THE SHOW?

also

OH MY GOD

FUCK

part way through this i was like ‘oh this feels like a happy good/nice episode!!’ the way 6.03 (hooli smokes) was!! where there was conflict but it wouldn’t fucking kick you in the teeth (like 6.04 with ethan and jared’s problems etc)

but then I started thinking, oh they’re gonna maybe do the classic sv thing of everything being fine and then in the last 5 minutes or some shit it goes horrifically wrong?

yeah FUCK

FUCK

?????????????????????????

my thoughts are all over the place so this recap won’t be like super chronological necessarily mmm........

how did the episode even start? oh yeah, russfest. god i was laughing out loud to myself during russ’s mad max sequence because it was SO over the top i was just like what is happening

how much of the budget went into russ’s ad!!! jesus

i enjoyed gilfoyle and monica’s camaraderie in the episode.

also during the meeting with those two and tracy, half of all i could think about was just how hot gilfoyle is. that voice. the hair/beard. the unsettling stare. uuuuuuuuuuuuuuugh

(i listened to Martin Starr’s interview on the Talk Easy podcast and it’s very unsettling at first because his gilfoyle voice is just .........his voice. the same.)

anyway yes gilfoyle is Fine

social engineering!! at first i thought he was just just being some kind of poser but it WAS social engineering! fuck!! nicely done gilf

poor tracy, trying to do her job........ gilfoyle’s such a fucking chaos unit omg

DINESH! poor dinesh. i feel sorry for him because he suffered magnificently bad luck but also............. he was being a dick with the lei hahahha so like. big karmic retribution.

i notice that for so much of this episode, he’s not with the rest of them ... i wonder if that has anything to do with kumail nanjiani’s schedule

..........HOLDEN AND JARED? WHAT THE FUCK?

WHY IS JARED BEING SUCH A CREEPTASTIC MOTHERFUCKER WHAT THE FUCK i ................................don’t........i don’t think i .....like this........ but it is interesting. i hope it goes somewhere. but where exactly it could go, in a satisfying manner, with two episodes left is ...... ehh.

oh well even if this ends up just being an unresolved garbage pile, the show was overall still very good if a bit patchy at times, i mean, i guess i shouldn’t expect it to be perfect (we can’t all be ... breaking bad or bojack horseman ...)

SPEAKING OF UNRESOLVED GARBAGE PILE.

WHAT’S UP WITH THE COMPLETE NON-JARRICH IN THIS EPISODE. THERE WAS SO MUCH OF IT IN THE FIRST FOUR AND IN THIS ONE THEY KIND OF JUST. NEVER SHOWED ANY OF IT?

no time spent on those two’s relationship? (except in the form of jared being a posessive creepy asshole @ holden) ............. no scene in which they address his quitting, his coming back -- what is his role exactly?

i guess they had other stuff to fit into the episode

BUT COME ON THEY SPENT A SIZEABLE CHUNK OF IT ON THE COMEDIC MONICA/GILFOYLE VS TRACY SUBPLOT they clearly didn’t not have the time.

..........................................i swear to god if they completely drop the richard/jared plot and never do anything with their relationship beyond what we’ve seen so far as of 6.05 i’m gonna fucking implode

into a neutron star of impotent rage

holy shit

YOU CAN’T FUCKING HAVE THAT MUCH SETUP AND EMOTION AND THEN HAVE IT GO FUCKING NOWHERE ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME

ok i’m gonna save the preemptive rage ............ and hope i never have cause to release it again.

two more episoded two more episodes!!

FUCKING gavin belson!!!!!!!!! WHY WON’T HE GO AWAY WHAT’S WRONG WITH HIM FUCK THIS ASSHOLE

thumbass

i swear to god when richard said to jared ‘thumbass’ and jared paused for a bit before laughing obligatorily ...... that pause was the First Moment when he Truly Doubted his devotion/admiration/love for richard

just for a fraction of a second a few neurons in his brain were like ‘this is the guy you think is a genius? ...................ok dude’

anyway back to gavin belson

TETHICS?

this is hilarious for many reasons but also because at one point me and some friends made a joke about jeff bezos doing meth and someone called it ‘jeff meth’ and i then of course called it ‘jeth’

so to me tethics is like a weird surprise cousin of my own joke (sharing with it the traits of: unpleasant silicon valley tech billionaire, horrible awkward portmanteau, the ‘eth’ syllable...)

FUCK gavin belson!!!!!!

?????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!??!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

FUCK

RICHARD!! WHY DID YOU TELL HIM ABOUT YOUR DISCOVERY OF HIS PLAGIARISM

WHY DIDN’T YOU JUST EXPOSE HIM DURING YOUR SPEECH

sure maybe he’d then do his disingenuous confession / call an attorney general investigation thing anyway but ... god idk i guess i imagine that if richard had exposed gavin’s plagiarism publically before telling gavin he was onto him, he might be too thrown to do anything ............... but i suppose maybe the investigation would’ve happened anway ....... okay this makes me feel slightly better

UUUUUUGH POOR RICHARD poor pied piper

*batman voice* i’m richard hendricks

anyway

when richard was talking to ron in his office and slumped down in his desk (right before he says that pied piper’s dead), i feel like in that moment richard could plausibly just for a second have been considering having gavin belson just fucking assassinated

RUSS HANNEMAN

of course he’d come back, they wouldn’t have him in the opening scene just to be irrelevant to the rest of the show/episode

okay i really liked that russ gave richard an out? 

and the scene was comedically good

but part of me just couldn’t stop wondering what on earth those ‘horrible crimes’ were ... that you can have photo evidence of ..... like i’m guessing it’s not going to be something like child sex trafficking or something because i suspect richard would’ve been a lot more ruffled if it were something to that level

and then i’m like, well, what was it then? i guess they’re hinting at a debauched sex thing because, y’know, it’s russ. but now i’m like, what kind of sex thing could it be that it’s 1) illegal, 2) viscerally gross, 3) but not so morally reprehensible that richard is any more disturbed than he was in that scene which was .. not that disturbed

maybe it was some kind of arson or illegal poaching thing

anyway i recognise the point of this device is to never reveal what it is and have our minds go crazy, and it’s succeeded because i’m an obsessive neurotic

yeah i’m gonna headcanon gross poaching or something

the scene in the end of them in the desert .......... makes me think of breaking bad

that’s the second ending scene that was reminiscent of breaking bad (the first being the birds dying at maximo’s window. that was reminiscent in the whole thing, whereas this was only reminiscent aesthetically)

i think 6.02 made me feel actually insanely bugged out what with maximo... and 6.04 made me feel bad because of all the unfortunate shit that was happening for everyone ...

6.01 shocked me with how FUCKING jarrich it was, and 6.03 had me euphoric because it was so fucking thrilling and victorious

and what of this episode, 6.05? how does it make me feel?

it makes me want to watch the next two episodes!!!

i am a bit miffed about the complete lack of any kind of jarrich content given how MUCH of it there was in the first four eps, i am not really liking what they’re doing with jared and holden (though i don’t hate it enough to keep talking about it beyond this sentence), and i ..................... wonder what’s gonna happen next with russfest and pied piper o__o

my hope that jarrich may become canon has just, like, gone down by three quarters lol

it feels very much like the first five seasons now, i.e. it ain’t gonna happen

and that’s OKAY so long as they do SOMETHING GOOD with their relationship!! DON’T JUST NEVER TALK ABOUT IT AGAIN PLEASE

really kinda o_____o about how the series is gonna end.

TWO MORE EPISODES?

#silicon valley #sv s6 #sv s6 spoilers #silicon valley spoilers #spoilers #rain watches sv s6

[gt-adventures]

Movie Night at a Giant Wizard’s Tower

A (mini) Tale of the Mystic Woods

A short story featuring the Half-Giant Wizard Yonah, his student the Princess Sophia, and a bunch of his wizard friends! Based on the one word prompt “MIRROR”

Content Warnings: NONE!

This story is purely GT! Short and sweet and comedic! ---

“T MINUS 10 MINUTES PEOPLE!” Sophia called. “Loud much? My ear is right there!” The moment Yonah stepped through the doorframe had projected her voice across the massive kitchen as she stood on Yonah’s shoulder. And she didn’t need magic to do it. Thank you princess training. She got an affirmative response from the stove where Avshi Mersberg and Elisheva Tor were making batches of popcorn. “You’re just sensitive!” she chided, patting his forehead as he walked over. “It’s almost as if being a half-giant means I have better hearing than a human” he mused, “Amazing how that works” “And worse eyesight?”  “No comment” he adjusted his thick rectangular glasses. 

The popcorn was just about done. Several large bowls full. They had the classic cheese, garlic and butter, sea salt and sugar, and a few more interesting flavors. A smorgasbord of puffed kernels in a rainbow of labeled bowls!

While it was an impressive amount, but at over 23 feet tall it was barely a mouthful for Yonah. They hadn’t bothered to make it in that kind of quantity. The towering jar of kernels rested on the counter and Yonah stopped to take a small handful. Cupped his hands together His eyes flared up with fire. Power surged through his hands. It was… less of a pop and more of a firework crackle as smoke escaped through his fingertips. When he opened his palms he had a large handful of popped corn. Several bits fell to the floor, in his hands it looked like odd pebbles. “Show off!” Eli said, pouring the final batch into a wooden bowl stained a deep purple. But if she was half-firewitch she would have done the same.  Yonah just smiled as he brought the still burning hot corn to his face. It didn’t smell particularly appetizing, it was unseasoned. There was a reason they were making it by stovetop. Yonah didn’t exactly want to cover his own hands in oil and salt, and his friends didn’t want to eat popcorn that had so much contact with his bare hands. Still he munched on it quite happily. In that moment he was both the tween girl offering sugar cubes to a barely broken stallion and the stallion itself eating out of the girl’s hands. “Want some?” he paused to hold up what was left to Sophia. “Ugh no way! These are covered in your slobber!” She pushed the hand away He shrugged and she was unbalanced for a moment. “I’ll take some!” said a voice from the space above Yonah’s head. A mass of dirty blond curls fell across his face. A human reached down from his head to snatch at the slightly slobbery pile as he brought it back to his mouth. He hadn’t even noticed they were there!  “GAH!”  Yonah nearly dropped the popcorn, which have been a bitch to clean up. Would have, if he didn’t have magic.  But he didn’t drop any as Noam Berkowitz was pulled back onto his head by her brother Noah. “How many times have I told you two not to do that?” he reached up and playfully fought the pair with his fingers. “Do what? Sneak up on you? We figured you could smell us!” with his keen hearing he knew that was Noam. “You know it doesn’t count when I already know you’re here!” Normally he COULD smell their presence. Giants have an unnaturally acute sense of smell. Even as a half giant, Yonah’s olfactory awareness made their hard learned thief skills useless around him. But that was when they hadn’t been hanging around for the past hour, their scent blending into the rest of the smells of the tower, the rest of the humans, and now the overpowering garlic. Sophia rolled her eyes. Despite being a half a decade to a decade older than her (and she being 21), these wizards were rather childish. The bowls of flavored popcorn were loaded onto a plate. Avshi and Eli scrambled up Yonah’s arm to sit on his other shoulder and he picked up the plate, carrying it and his friends to the living room where everything else was set up. Sitting on the couch were the rest of the humans. The rest of the usual Crew: Mica Cohen, Shoshana Jaffe, and Zohar Levine , and also Sam Kahnt. They set up an array of cushions and bean bag chairs. As the ones who were there first, they chose the best spots. Well, nearly. The best spot couldn’t be set up ahead of time. “So, bring us up to speed!” Sam asked of Sophia before she had even disembarked from the giant wizard. “There’s a recap! And you missed a lot of episodes!” she retorted. Yonah released his riders and pulled up the ottoman to press against the couch. Propped up on a giant pillow was a very plain mirror. Plain for a magic mirror that is. It was still finely made and framed with a twisting pattern of silver. Yonah gently touched the frame, not wanting to get fingerprints on the polished surface. “Mirror Mirror with silver border reveal to us the Silken Breath Order” The mirror went foggy, the loading buffer processing the request and verifying their subscription. It wasn’t inexpensive, but having the subscription cast on such a large mirror had increased the price. The first notes to the theme song for Ice Princess started to play. The title card held in front of a mirror a thousand miles away and then removed to show a this days performers dancing to the familiar choreography that Sophia had long ago memorized, and instinctively got up to dance in time to. As the theme ended and the stage fell to shadow another card fell across the view. “Ice Princess, A Silken Breath Production, Is Brought To You By The Slayers Cake! Makers Of Fine Pastries And Swords For Hire. Whether You Need Scores of Crullers For That Last Minute Wedding For Your Recently Rescued Darling Or An Experienced Fighter To Rid Your Town Of A Rabid Eldritch Monster, The Slayers Cake Can Do It All!” The card changed. “Previously On Ice Princess” A series of beautiful paintings accompanied by narration were shown, recapping the last episode before. It was a lot. Sam looked a bit lost. “And Now Without Further Ado, The Order of the Silken Breath give you Episode 103 of Ice Princess” During the advertisements Yonah placed a large pillow behind everyone to lean on, took a pinch of the powder at his belt and shrunk down to join his friends. It was mostly to watch the show on a giant mirror. But also...  Once situated on his favorite cushion Sophia took the bowl of garlic popcorn and her place in his lap. She leaned back into his soft chest and he leaned forward, squishing her a bit more. 

Best seat in the house. — Everyone was silent as a inoffensively dark red colored card was lowered into view. They blinked for the first time in several minutes. Intermission. Sophia had to shake her head to bring herself back to reality. “What the FUCK!” She turned to her left to see a stunned Shoshana, who had frozen with a handful of popcorn, most of it fallen into her lap. Her frizzy light brown hair had seemed to puff up even more over the course of the last two hours. “Did, did Freddy fucking DIE?” was the first thing out of her mouth. “And they LEFT THE BODY!” Sophia pointed out as Yonah lifted her out of his lap. He stood up and stretched and hopped off the couch, returning to his normal size. Then offered his hand for anyone who needed to use the toilet to climb up and headed off to the restroom. They had thirty minutes before the second half of the episode. Before heading back they stopped by the kitchen to refresh the snacks. This time in quantities that Yonah could eat at his normal size without consuming it all in one bite. Just last night he and Sophia had made a batch of GAZ. A sort of lightly sweet nougat full of nuts! Now it was set and ready to be enjoyed. When he returned, friends on head and shoulders, snacks in hand, it was clear the three left behind had barely noticed they were gone. “Bit shitty of the writers!! They just got to the lab! I thought we’d get at LEAST a few episodes exploring it! There were so many things there worth investigating and now! FUck! It’s all gone!” “How are they gonna get back to it? They didn’t find the Princess! She’s there right? Right?” “Get Back? That explosion caused it to cave in, There isn’t anything to fucking go back to!” “No way it’s actually destroyed, but that jungle guardian isn’t going to be easily to get past. Shit that thing was scary!” “The puppetry was amazing. Holy crap if I didn’t know better I’d have thought it was an illusion!” It didn’t really matter who was talking, they stopped when Yonah put down the food and friends. “Last call to use the restroom!” He announced as took away the cushions. No one had to go, but they all scrambled away as he lay down on his side.

Now he took up the entire couch. But that didn’t mean there was nowhere to sit! Once comfortable everyone climbed onto him. Zohar nestled into the crook of his arm. Avshi perched on his shoulder. Noah and Noam sat between his arm and the right side of his face. Not having been fast enough, Mica, Shoshana, and Sam sat up against his arm. Sophia lay on his head, making a nest in his thick black hair. In Yonah’s opinion (and objective truth): Watching a Fantasy Soap Opera while eating sweets and adorned in friends was the best way to spend an evening.

[Thanks for reading if you liked this PLEASE REBLOG and/or tell me what you think in an ask/message!]

Liked this Mystic Woods story? I have more! [but be warned, many stories contain/mention safe/soft non-sexual v/o/r/e lucky for you! i have filed them them separately! and (when needed) Every story comes with detailed content warnings!]

For GT ONLY stories: gt-adventures.tumblr.com/tagged/mystic+woods+story

For ALL mystic woods stories: vo/re-scientist/tumblr.com/tagged/mystic+woods+story (take out the “/” in vo/re) 

[a few of my GT-ONLY stories are on my not so secret vo/re blog but from now on I’m posting the GT-ONLY ones here! hurray!]

#gianttiny #giant/tiny #g/t #giant tiny #gt fluff #giant tiny fluff

[jupitermelichios]

Smallville Recaps S1E18: Visitor

Chloe is barely in this one and she still manages to be the worst person in this. Also I’m pretty sure Clark kills someone off screen and the writers cover it up for him. Which at this point would be totally in character.

Someone explain why a kid who says he doesn’t care about school and isn’t going to stick around still cares enough to join in a non-mandatory science fair?

Is this our first pyrokinetic? That doesn’t sound right, we’ve had 37 episodes of teenagers being given random powers, it seems like there must have been a pyrokinetic before this, but I can’t think who it was.

Oh, hey Lana’s horse. Oh no wait, that’s not Lana’s horse, that’s apparently Whitney’s horse. What’s happened to Lana’s horse?! Did she leave it in another graveyard?

“Oh, hey Clark I know your dark secret… You’re stabling Whitney’s horse for Lana.” How is that a secret?! Do you start all conversations like that just because you enjoy making people suffer?! How are you the worse person in a show with actual supervillains Chloe Sullivan!!!

Oh good, Chloe has broken into a minor’s medical records and is now telling random students about how he used to be in a mental institute. Fuck you Chloe.

Wow, this kid just straight up thinks he’s an alien, and was sectioned for it, and based on nothing but that Chloe’s decided he’s right and definitely an alien. Who wrote that?! Who approved that?!!!!

Oh Jesus, I’d fucking forgotten that Martha was pregnant. I still have no idea

“I need a medical examination from the only doctor in the world qualified to give it.” “No, because she’s friends with Lex and I’d rather risk your health and the chance you’ll lose the baby than get over my petty and totally baseless grudge. Because I’m the perfect husband and father who will teach superman to the hero the world needs.” (I wish I was joking but that’s a legit plot point this episode.)

“This isn’t the time or place. There’s a horse that’s sick and you’re here talking about minor concerns like that chance that you’ll be sectioned against your will and lose your foster home!”

Everyone is way too chill with this kid having magical healing powers. Waaay too chilli.

So, they’ve officially run out of things to do with Lex and his angry-sex-in-cupboards doctor girlfriend, so now they’re just doing Bluebeard? Like, she has a key to everyone room in his house but one and ominous music plays when she goes near it, and there’s a 90% chance it’s just spaceship related, but much as I love him Lex is still a Luthor so there’s a 10% chance at least that there’s just a pile of dead ex-girlfriends back there. Or maybe just his mind-controlling fiancé from season one, because despite what TV execs in the 90s all seemed to think, rape doesn’t magically become funny when it’s happening to a dude.

Clark: sets a car on fire with his heat vision in front of dozens of witnesses. Cyrus: “holy shit you’re an alien” Clark: “why would you possibly think that? I mean it’s not like I just set something on fire with my eyes right in front of you. I’m a hero I would never gaslight you. You must be developing mental health issues.”

Godamnit anger-management cupboard-sex doctor, I was on your side! I said you were the only good love interest Lex had ever had! But no, we can’t have nice things so obviously the minute Lex asserts clear and reasonable boundaries like ‘there’s a room where I go to be alone and I’d prefer no one bothers me in there, you are free to choose your own alone-time room’ she freaks the fuck out. Way to go Smallville writers.

Okay what the actual fuck. Cyrus builds a machine to summon aliens and a) everyone is just chill with him doing this and provide him with parts and b) is seems to actually work but Clark is too interested in convincing Cyrus he’s crazy to be bothered to investigate. Is this like the whole thing where no one has ever bothered studying the meteor rocks?!

“He was completely fine last scene, but the writers didn’t know how to get rid of him and we don’t have the budget to pay any more actors, so he had a complete mental breakdown off screen and is in a secure unit now.” A) he was fine a fucking minute ago, what did you do to him Clark? B) STOP USING FORCED INPRISONMENT IN MENTAL HOSPITALS TO SOLVE ALL YOUR PLOT PROBLEMS!!! Jesus fuck this show.

“Hey if someone you knew was an alien, hypothetically, you’d never really trust them or want to screw them even if, hypothetically, they were your friend and lived just next door. Hypothetically.” God it’s a good think Lana’s dumb as a tumble dryer full of spanners with subtlety like can. Really, I can’t imagine why Lex would even think Clark might be an alien.

#smallville #smallville recaps #charlie watches a thing #can i retroactively commision a spin-off that's just lex eating icecream and reading comics #and not being mind-controlled/sexually assaulted/gas-lit/verbally abused/emotionally abused/physically assulted... #basically just lex having a nice time for the first time in his life #despite the writing on this show i am now invested enough in tiny gay lex luthor that i would watch the fuck outa that #oh hey i just realised the meteor kid this episode didn't kill anyone #or eat anyone #like he legit just wanted to contact aliens #yeah he set some shit on fire #but it smallville #that's just how they say hello #a smallville drinking game is a terrible idea #but if i made one rule one would be drink every time chloe sullivan anounces she believes in something objectively unbelievable

[why-this-kolaveri-machi]

Notes on SPN 14.02

So! I saw 14.01 yesterday, which was for the most part, surprisingly, a blast, and since I have a bit of free time today I thought I’d keep a hold of the momentum and watch and liveblog 14.02 as well. I’ve heard it’s one of those Buckleming plot-a-paloozas, but I’ll try my best to provide semi-reasonable commentary instead of incoherent ranting.

Right. As always, typing this post up as I watch. SPOILERS for the episode ahead.

1. We start with a recap of last season’s finale, and Show, do you really want to remind us this many times about that wire-fight?

1.25. Show’s lore regarding possession has been dizzyingly inconsistent, but the more I think about it, the less sense it makes to me that Nick is alive? Because Nick couldn’t actually house Lucifer for very long in s5—he was deteriorating, which was why Lucifer needed Sam so urgently. The last we saw of Nick, he was dead/dying in a dingy room in Detroit, when Lucifer jumped ship to Sam. Even if Lucifer assumed Nick’s visage in the Cage and afterwards when he was brought back, Nick-the-person with Nick-memories and Nick-feelings isn’t there anymore.

1.255. So what does this mean? Like, if this was explained away sometime over the last two seasons--I’m very sorry, I really wasn’t paying a lot of attention to large chunks of them—please let me know. If there’s no explanation, then has Lucifer disappeared inside a Nick-construct? Did he use a loophole to escape the worst of the Archangel Blade right at the moment Dean plunged it into his side? Lucifer was “human” for a while in s13, iirc. Did he have enough “human” to hide behind and recover? And has he filled that human with the memories/personality of one of the humans he knew best? Is it because he spent centuries assuming Nick’s body in the Cage that he’s most comfortable being him here?

… I don’t know. Maybe I’m missing something obvious, but, hey, it’s fun to speculate.

2. We start off with people artfully tied up in an artfully derelict church illuminated artfully by artful lightning.

… *groans* I hope we aren’t getting a torture scene already.

2.25. Well, Michael’s certainly chirpier than he was last episode.

2.5. Is he trying to make new angel minions, is that it, by feeding them blood and his grace? Leaving aside the lack of creativity in the mechanism, the whole thing kind of makes a weird sense. Michael is looking for those with purity of purpose—among religious leaders (and refugees, apparently), angels, and then finally monsters—and rejecting those ‘poisoned’ by nuance and experience and supposed sin. After all, no being whose wants are even slightly more complex than ‘food’ is going to be a perfect follower.

It also plays into his assholey, self-righteous personality and, well, god-complex.

(Dean would’ve appreciated this quest for pure purpose.)

3. There’s a kind of sitcom-y vibe to this little expository scene: Bobby talks shit about angels only for Castiel to walk in with a quirked eyebrow; the group talks about Jack and Lucifer only for Jack to walk in and go, “hey, you talkin bout my father again?”

(these are the tiny ways I feel SPN is at cross-purposes with its own theme of ‘found family’. Everybody’s obsessed with blood relations, to the point that Lucifer and Jack are constantly referred to as ‘father and son’ when there is no need to bring that relationship up. Last year, even Castiel referred to Jack while talking to Lucifer as ‘your son’ without any prompting from Satan. Words are so powerful, and so revealing.)

3.45. Castiel “as you know, Bob”-ing is hilarious. Oh, Buckleming.

3.5. Um, not to dismiss or compare Castiel’s considerable trauma at the hands of Lucifer, but is anybody going to acknowledge even once that Sam, who appears to have taken the brunt of caring for Nick so far, is also going to have trouble looking into his abuser’s face??

4. Nick continues to make no sense to me.

(I like little touches like Castiel telling him that he needs to remind himself to eat.)

4.5. I kinda like this scene, sue me. It makes sense to me that Nick would obsess over and over again about how he could’ve let himself say yes to Lucifer, although Lucifer is as old as time and had all the power in that situation. The ‘monster’ bit is a little too on-the-nose for me, but I like it. Really drives home what an intimate, horrifying violation possession is and how scarred and twisted it can leave the survivor who spirals down a well of undeserved guilt and self-loathing.

I wish Sam was the one talking to him now, or was at least present. He’d talked in the previous scene about how Nick was only ‘housing’ and deserved a chance to rebuild his life, and that hard-earned generosity of spirit would’ve been a balm to all three of them, I think.

5. ETA on the TOD, Bobby? *sporfle* Seriously though, I love this role-reversal: usually it’s Bobby who’s rolling his eyes at SamnDean’s eff-bee-eye shenanigans.

5.25. Ah, but where this Bobby has become an expert now is in telling the difference between smiting patterns!

5.5. I wonder if trying to appear non-threatening is just Sam’s default whenever he meets with, uh, ‘civilians’.

6. I really, honestly hate that the Bunker just happens to have ‘lore books’ on whatever the hell random question they’re having that day. I just kinda hate the Bunker in general, now that I think about it.

6.25. But doesn’t that ‘human component’ (lol) make a Nephilim strong enough to take down even archangels?

6.5. As pep talks go, that wasn’t bad. A few notes:

a) there’s an earnestness to the words that I’m sure that Castiel learned from Sam.

b) I think this is the first time that Castiel—or anybody—has referred to the events of 8.23 as “The Great Fall”. It’s interesting that it’s already gotten a name among angelkind and that Castiel would call it that, given how close he was to the events that led to it.

c) I want to both laugh and cry at Castiel’s assertion that Sam and Dean were there for him after he lost his grace. He was mostly left to fend for himself, obviously, but there’s no space for that in a pep talk.

d) Sometimes it’s easy to forget that Jack is actually just only a year old. Asking him not to dwell on something so… immediate is a tall ask.

7. Ok, so that was a nice snappy little counterpart to Lucifer-talking-to-Sam-in-the-mirror from the s5 finale. I like how Michael is blunt and matter-of-fact while Lucifer relished in the moment, bragged about how he’d had Sam’s number all his life, and seduced him with violent revenge. This is nice.

I don’t know, guys, I’m really enjoying this episode so far!

8. Sooooo Lucifer is residing in some subconscious layer of Nick’s mind? Is this PTSD shaped by his possession? Is Lucifer bleeding through his own construct? Are we going to find that it was actually Nick who killed his own family? (I think we are.)

8.2. Castiel looking for residual Lucifer in Nick reminds me of when he was doing the same for Sam re: Gadreel, and that reminds me of Dean’s ‘teen mom’ joke from that episode and now I’m pissed off.

8.5. Nick is fascinating, but is he fascinating enough that I care about his little revenge sub-plot? Eh. Jury’s out. Plus I just can’t stand the actor anymore

9. Sam’s just kinda there to move the plot along. Give him some more character moments, episode!

10. Michael reminded me of Dean in the scene with the werewolf. I’m really not getting a capital P personality from Michael, though that may be due to a personal choice. Or maybe because Michael was never a distinct character to begin with, and this is far more noticeable when Ackles plays it and ‘Dean’ threatens to take over any minute.

Or going meta for a second—maybe Michael’s deliberately infusing some Dean into his persona. Possession isn’t simply putting a thing inside a box: both entities are influenced and informed by the other, but only one has all the power.

11. … ok, so my interest in this Nick subplot is rapidly decaying. Nick did it. He killed his family. It’s not a mystery.

11.5. The emotional dynamics of this scene… checks out, actually. Of course Nick is projecting all his rage on Castiel. And of course Castiel regrets destroying Jimmy Novak’s life the most. More than toeing the party line and being instrumental in almost bringing the Apocalypse about in s4; more than releasing the Leviathan; more than trusting Metatron in s8; more than killing his brethren, who’ve tortured him back and tried to kill him on more than one occasion. But Castiel has been both angel and human—both possessing and being possessed—long enough that he’s intimately aware of the devastation it leaves both within and without. And there are no excuses for the way he and other angels have done that damage—so carelessly, so casually. Even the most well-intentioned angels are deceptive and manipulative and give not a second thought about their hapless vessels. It’s a sign of Castiel’s growth and compassion that he recognises his responsibility in this and that he invokes Jimmy’s name with both reverence and regret. In all this shouting and crying that Show doesn’t acknowledge the deep-seated trauma of possession survivors, this is actually a great moment.

12. That werewolf leader looks familiar. Has the actor been on SPN before? He kinda reminds me of one of the leads on Suits.

12.5. That’s a lot of clunky dialogue, but Michael is basically confirming what I speculated in point 2. Cool.

13. How Jack managed to get away and find his grandparents is never explained, but that’s a familiar Buckleming trope—characters are put together in a scene without any regard to how it might connect to other scenes or how/why those characters might’ve gotten there.

13.2. That said, it’s kinda poignant that Jack, having lost his angelic powers, is now trying to understand the human side of his heritage. He’s trying his best to adapt to his situation; this one year old kid is more well-adjusted than most of the adults on this show.

13.5. Well, holy shit, Jack talking about Kelly to his grandparents is just… making me feel emotional in a way this show hasn’t made me feel in a long, long time. This Calvert kid is good.

13.6. It is bizarre that Kelly’s parents are mostly ok with not knowing Kelly’s whereabouts for over a year—I don’t think we ever found out what position exactly Kelly held in the President’s office, and I can picture them in a bit of denial by telling themselves the reason they haven’t heard from Kelly is because she is in the middle of super-secret government work. I don’t know! But it’s just about handwave-able though, and their scene with Jack is worth it.

14. Honestly, Castiel, how did he travel so far and for so long without you noticing? So much for “Don’t worry, Sam, I will babysit this defenceless creature.”

(Speaking of Sam, wheeeerrreee’s Saaaaammmm)

“I suppose there are worse ways to be human than to be kind.”

“Have you heard from Sam?”

I LOVE YOU, JACK.

14.5. No, actually, Dean wouldn’t want it any other way. He said as much when Gadreel took over Sam completely back in s9.

15. Shoo, Nick.

16. FINALLY MORE SAM. With only like 4 minutes of episode left. What, Show, did you think you spoiled us too much last episode with all that glorious, glorious Sam content?

16.25. And finally a bit of action! The rapid-fire editing is making my head hurt, though.

16.5. Soooooooooooooo Dean’s back? Obviously Michael is playing a long game here, but it says something about the show that they can’t keep Dean away for more than two episodes without getting the shakes. I honestly miss Sera Gamble and her desire to rattle the status quo: in s6, she kept the so-called ‘real’ Sam away for half the season, which gave us imo some of the best storytelling, characterisation and acting from both Padalecki and Ackles in the entire show. In s7 she took away all the Winchester markers: the Impala, weird motel rooms, Bobby’s house. Of course, after she left the show settled back into a familiar rut (substituting Bobby’s house with that thrice-damned Bunker). I wish the show would take risks with these two again. s9 and the beginning of s10 were so very promising but there was no follow-through.

I guess they want to MotW fillers for a few episodes and that would be weird without SamnDean SamnDeaning it in the Impala, but Show, why don’t you just say ‘fuck it’ and try weird on for size? What do you have to lose? I mean, seriously?

17. Nick’s the murderer—called it!

18. This wasn’t terrible, you guys. 95% of the episode was just people sitting around having conversations, the dialogue was clunky, ideas derivative, scenes progressed without any rational links between them, the pacing was wonky, and there was too much exposition. But the emotional beats were solid and the set up is reasonably intriguing. I’ve seen far, far worse BuckLeming episodes.

Pacing is a real issue in this season, though. And Michael is not remotely intimidating as a threat.

#supernatural #season 14 #spn spoilers #sam winchester #castiel #michael #jack kline #meta #unpopular opinion: this ep was... pretty ok

[akatokuro]

The Inevitable StS Rewatch, Episodes 23-25

And we’re back to canon, baby! ...sort of...

- ORANGE JUICE PARTY!

- When I first watched Saint Seiya, because we watched with badsubs, I was confused as to what happened that Ikki is suddenly on our side and playing nice? Well, with goodsubs, Ikki's turnaround is clearer, but the niceness is not. His characterization is SO WEIRD during this stretch of episodes...

- Well, hey, what do you know, Netflix agrees, Ikki! Fucking ugh.

- This pseudo-recap and our heroes pooling their knowledge and speculating on what could be happening is hilarious, because it's all completely weird and wrong. Like, I actually love the idea of around this point the Bronzies+Saori actually sitting down and talking about what they know based on incomplete information, but all this "SAGITTARIUS IS THE STRONGEST CLOTH IN THE WORLD", "THEY MUST BE SCARED ONE OF YOU BRONZIES CAN WEAR THE GOLD CLOTH!" is... uh, guys...?

- And this framing about ~Arles~ being so desperate to get Sagittarius because ooooh it's a Gold Cloth and they're so special and SAGA HAS A GOLD CLOTH HIMSELF, YOU NERDS.

- IS. IS THAT A FUCKING FACT. BOY HOWDY. WHERE DO I EVEN BEGIN.

- Saori tries hard! Obligatory I love Saori comment! I still love the weird/disbelieving expressions from the Bronzies when Saori is really trying hard to be kinder. I love how she's so clearly the leader of the group, too, despite being a non-fighter. April O'Neil this is not.

- AH YES, THE LEGENDARY LIZARD MISTY! THE MOST POPULAR SAINT IN ALL OF SANCTUARY!

- I do like how, though, in Sanctuary men presenting in feminine ways is completely unremarkable and has no impact on the sense of respect you get for people. I'm sure Aphrodite is a very well respected figure in Sanctuary. Misty's popularity amongst the other Silvers is fucking hilarious, but also actually sort of nice in that way, too. I pretty much universally prefer the anime's color schemes for the characters, but let Camus have his painted nails, goddammit!

- Marin is really cool as hell. Would have loved more focus on her. The scene where she has to walk away from Seiya's grave knowing that Misty knows was really effective...

- hyouga do you seriously spend your spare time taunting polar bears at the zoo................ shun, i don't really know about your boyfriend............

- The concept of Sanctuary as a society and an institution is really fascinating. I wouldn't call Episode G fucking brilliant or groundbreaking, per se, but it was fun in part because we got a closer look at the actual mechanics and how things work. The inter-Saint tensions, Saint factions, and politics could be really fun - especially in the context of Saga fucking things up because he has no idea what the hell he's doing, Pope-wise. So you have a crop of Silvers who are mostly nasty pieces of work and a crop of Golds who are either evil or have crippling emotional problems, on the cusp of the Holy War. Whoops!

- By writing that out I have already put more thought into all of this than Masami Kurumada has ever done in his life, btw

- SAINT SEIYA IS THE BEST I DON'T GIVE A FUCK

- "Oh jesus, of all the people who could have shown up to help, it really had to be the Failswan...? Oh god okay make it work make it work..."

- The imagery of Saori playing piano in her ruined mansion is really effective, though. Saori’s facial expressions and reactions to everything are so interesting. I’ve said it before, but I really do appreciate the organic sense of her struggling to keep this ship running and hold it together. 

- RIP Misty you will be remembered by every Silver Saint to come after you

- Every fucking time they bring up this ridiculous "IS MARIN SEIYA'S SISTER?" question yumetabibito and I were both screaming NO! NO SHE FUCKING ISN'T JUST STOP because oh my god how ridiculous how would that even work Seiya if you thought for two fucking seconds about the timeline you would know... you wouldn't... fffffffffffff

- Really thrilled that Marin got to take out Asterion, and her attitude when he was questioning her about what she was doing. Saint Seiya ladies have this sort of ruthless and badass streak about them that makes them really, really engaging in this setting. Marin acknowledging "yeah, by starting this civil war, we're probably all going to fucking die, but shit's gotta be done" is hardcore as hell. I don't doubt that Marin loves Seiya and genuinely wanted to protect him in this situation, but her bigger focus has always been that larger scope of Sanctuary as a whole and how it's rotting from the inside.

- This set of episodes officially converted Hyouga from “smugswan” to “failswan” for me, by the way. Just the sheer hilarity of setting things up so that Saori asks him to help, we get a full episode of him running around aimlessly in the city for the whole fucking day, and then finally shows up on the scene too late to actually contribute anything or help in any way. Cygnus Hyouga, ladies and gentlemen!

- Ah yes, Aiolos finally shows his face in flashback. Aiolos is inevitably one of those characters my brain can't help but go "you know, he would be a lot more interesting if you read him as kind of an asshole". IT'S JUST HOW MY BRAIN WORKS, OKAY?

- The line between "Saori" and "Athena" is another one of those things StS has that's potentially incredibly fascinating, but doesn't actually delve super into. I do like the vibe of the Saori reveal here, though, even though I also like in a different way the manga version of the Bronzies instantly telling her to fuck off. As dumb as the filler arcs were, I do think they were effective in establishing a warmer bond between Saori and her Saints.

- The vibe I get is that Saori is generally "Saori", but when "Athena" stuff comes up it's like she just intuitively clicks with it or knows it, like when she confronts Artemis later as her "sister". If I was revising Saint Seiya (dohohoho, look how humble I am), I would put more emphasis on Saori noticing signs and being troubled by them as buildup - but the actual reveal is probably fine.

- SAORI'S FACE HERE SAYS PRETTY MUCH EVERYTHING I WOULD EVER WANT TO ABOUT THE STEEL SAINTS. LET US NEVER SPEAK OF THEM AGAIN.

#rewatcing sts #aquarius camus did nothing wrong

[theclacks]

Buffy Thoughts - S7E07 (Conversations with Dead People)

AKA “hello jane espenson, thanks for reminding me why i hate your writing”

AKA the episode that made me stop watching for 2 weeks (also the new season OitNB came out)

So yeah.

Coming into Buffy, I had a love/hate relationship with Jane Espenson. Mostly hate. I’m mostly familiar with her work in Once Upon a Time. Without going into too much detail, the tl;dr version = I like her base ideas. I hate her execution of them. And maybe that’s why she annoys me more than other writers? Because I’ll read a summary or watch a trailer and be like “hell to the fuck yeah” and then I’d watch and be like “....... D: “

And I’d been enjoying her earlier Buffy episodes, so I started think “huh, well, maybe it was just a OUaT thing”...

...oh, the fool that is me.

So.

Once Upon a Time and how it relates to this episode. (I stopped watching OUaT after two seasons, so no worries re: spoilers.)

Regina the Evil Queen is/was the main villain of OUaT. She started getting a redemption arc. Like IT WAS VERY CLEAR she was getting a redemption arc. The redemption arc started to flatten out...

AND THEN BOOM. JANE ESPENSON HAD HER GO EVIL AGAIN.

BECAUSE.

And it’s like... why? I mean, ultimately Regina got back on track and finished the full redemption, so it’s not like it changed the narrative destination. And it’s not like Regina hadn’t killed people in her past so it wasn’t like she was gaining some new dimension of evil she had to confront. It just gave all the good characters several more episodes to go “oh, i guess she was evil all along” followed by “oh, is she turning good again? but i don’t trust because she had an evil relapse?” and “can we trust? can she ever be good?”

AND IT’S LIKE A SINK DRAIN OF CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT BECAUSE GODDAMMIT WE ALREADY HAD THESE EXACT CONVERSATIONS BEFORE AND THEY WERE BETTER THE FIRST TIME.

So yeah.

Conversations with Dead People. And Spike. (Because if you’ve been reading my thoughts/recaps/meta/whatevers this whole time, you know I always find a way to bring it back to him.)

I know Spike is getting his redemption arc. And it’s an endgame redemption arc. I mean, even I didn’t already know about Angel Season 5 and the comics, I’d know it’s an endgame redemption because COME ON. We’ve been going at this since Season 4 and the vampire went out and voluntarily got his own SOUL for crying out loud.

So what’s the point of cliffhangering on: “oooooooh, has Spike turned ~*~evil~*~?!?!?!? oh nooooo!”?

Like, it can really only go two ways from here.

1) That really was Spike acting of his own volition, and Buffy attempts to stake but she can’t or something but she vows that she can never trust him ever again because he’s a vampire and all vampires are EVUL, blah blah blah, and Spike is really repentant, and he gets his act together and he hits rewind on his redemption arc and we the viewers watch a sped up repeat of the last three season

OR

2) That wasn’t actually Spike and/or he was possessed or whatever, and there’s an annoying tragic misunderstanding that’s eventually cleared up before the story continues to roll along its merry way

Either way. That cliffhanger was annoying and pointless.

Well... unless Spike is actually possessed for realsies like dark!Willow and souless!Angel and the Scooby Gang have to legit try to, like, un-possess him. Or something. IDK.

Since that’s the only option that doesn’t immediately make me want to down a whole bottle of wine, that’s the one I’m going to hope for.

NON SPIKE THOUGHTS

- holy shit that house sequence with Dawn and the strobe light monster was ridiculously scary. also WHY DOES EVERYONE FORGET ABOUT DAWN? like both this season and last I just want to stand outside Buffy’s fictional house, waving a banner that reads “think about the children dawn”

- i was actually loving this episode up until the end for the Buffy/fledgling!vamp conversation. I think I read somewhere after the fact that Joss Whedon specifically wrote that part of the episode which is maybe why I loved it so much? it was a great heart-to-heart and i absolutely LOVE heart-to-heart and it was some emotional catharsis that buffy really needed and it would’ve pushed her forward if not for that STUPID SINK DRAIN ENDING

- evil not!cassie is cold

#buffy the vampire slayer #btvs #conversations with dead people #//// #///// #clacks from theclacks