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tuiyla · 2 years

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Can I just start out by saying that of all the blogs that talk about Santana/Quinn/Rachel/Brittany/other ND girls, I have never actually found one that’s as interesting and as intelligent as yours. Especially when you write your meta and thoughts on these ladies. You seem to really understand these characters and I love reading what you write.

My question is this - reading all you and your anons say about the various stories about the girls of ND, and bearing in mind there are also the huge storylines involving the male characters, there just wasn’t enough time to be spent each episode, giving everyone in the fandom what they wanted, developing relationships and friendships. There had to be at least four/five songs in most episodes I believe?? It’s a rare episode to have very few (Shooting Star?).

So what would you cut out and want to see less of, in order for more detailed content of the characters? Less characters overall? Eg reduce ND to ten members so there are less stories, who would you cut though? Also, my feeling would be to reduce Will or Sue’s input, but then Matthew and Jane were two of the lead characters, and probably got paid the most!

What do you think?

Well thank you anon, that's very flattering but for the record, there are so many cool peeps out there who talk about the ND girls and all their awesomeness. I am in fact very much like other girls haha. But I'm happy to be providing some commentary on the show and its characters and happy to have these conversations. Frankly, I think the characters and the girls in particular were too good for Glee.

Buckle up because your question is very interesting and this is gonna be a long one! And it was actually going to be even longer before I realized no one would read it all. So hmu for the director’s cut lol. But this is a shorter version; I’d be happy to elaborate on any of this.

I got another ask about particular storylines/scenes I'd cut or felt like were unnecessary so I'll talk more about those when answering that question. To answer yours, I'll list some more general ideas about the show's structure and how I’d do things differently to allow characters more quality storylines and character moments, which imo would make them feel so much more fleshed out and not like a pile of wasted potential. And to be clear these ideas are also in the spirit of getting the guys their dues, lol, I'm not discriminating when it comes to wishing Glee was a better show.

Use songs to tell stories and further characters’ journeys

You bring up a good point the songs and how they also take away from the screentime. But here’s the thing, that doesn’t have to be to the characters’ detriment. A good musical, whatever the exact medium is, uses songs not to sell CDs and get that sweet iTunes money but to serve the story. And serve the characters’ story, more importantly. The cliché goes, characters sing when their feelings are just too powerful to be expressed through anything but music. So do that! Have those four-five or even six-seven musical performances per episode but put your characters first. Don’t look at it in a “what’s in the top 40″ kind of way, look at from a “what works for my character” kind of way.

Out of 700 songs some will be assembly or prom performances that don’t have to be some grandiose character moment. But it hurts to know that Glee was perfectly capable of utilizing their songs pretty much perfectly some of the time and the rest, they just chose not to. I’m going to bring up Santana-related examples just because she’s the one I personally analyse the most but she isn’t the only one who got really good songs that doubled as character moments. Landslide tells a beautiful story in two minutes and is a milestone for her character. Songbird is a quiet but poignant confession through song. And Rumour Has It/Someone Like You? Oh my god. It’s an incredible rollercoaster that perfectly complements the actual plot and even does a better job of telling Santana’s story from her perspective than the script ever did. It’s astonishing.

Not everything has to be RHI/SLY, but surely we could have more songs that are actually meaningful? Utilize solos well, utilize duets, utilize group numbers. Your line distributions should have meaning. For example, wouldn’t it have been nice to get a Quinntana duet in season 2 where their rivalry was so intense and their relationship so complex? That’s really just the most basic of examples. It’s more effort to have the songs fit the storylines and for them not to be shoehorned, sure, but it does wonders for making us feel for the characters.

Overarching stories instead of issue episodes

Glee really tried to do it all and failed to do pretty much any of it well. Now by overaching stories I don’t mean it should lose the assignment of the week format because that actually worked well for the most part, even if it was forced in some places and particularly with tributes. I just mean that instead of saying “we’ll tackle religion” or twerking or SA or whatever this week, make sure that, once again, it makes sense for the character. And once again I know Glee was capable of this when they wanted to be.

Early season 2 is an excellent example for Kurt in particular. There’s real buildup to him going to Dalton and juicy character moments scattered throughout the episodes leading up to it. In Grilled Cheesus, the religion issue episode we hammer home the point that Kurt feels alone and alienated even in this club that’s supposed to be his safe space. Do more of that! Plan where you’re taking the characters and plant these things. Don’t go week by week and hope for the best, writing characters around these one-off issues. You can still have weekly topics and have it be leading somewhere. And have fewer storylines! You don’t need a bomb dropped every two episodes, geez, just deal with the consequences of the last one. Quality over quantity.

Sort of side note, I know a lot of people divide Glee into two, the good and the bad with the first and last three seasons but I think it’s more complex than that. The first 13 episodes are the most self-contained (though not without issues) and then the second half of season 1 is already a different show. Season 2 is yet again an evolution and then going into season 3 is a bigger jump than most realize. I bring this up here because the expanded writing staff meant that we got a lot less of season 2′s overarching greatness a lot more of storylines that would have needed much more time to develop but nope, must dash. And the issue episode problem started becoming more emblematic here as well. Quality over quantity is something the first half of season 3 failed at miserably.

Make it an actual ensemble

If we’re talking doing right by as many characters as possible, this is the way. With no fewer than 24 actors who were at one point or another billed as main characters it’s tough to spread the love. But just talking about 12 kids at a time, I don’t see why we couldn’t do more of an ensemble. See, Glee kind of tried to be one but it started with three obvious focal points (Rachel, Finn and Will) and even as Will got somewhat left behind the show couldn’t bear the thought of making it more equal. Rachel can still be the ultimate protagonist, don’t get me wrong, and Finchel the ultimate focus. But make it more balanced.

We didn’t need Rachel and Finn, sometimes one and a lot of the times both, to be the A plot 90% of the time. Give them the most focus, sure, but give the others something. Glee’s problem isn’t even that Rachel was the main character or that she sang the most, it’s how wack the scale of things is. Rachel and Finn didn’t need so much and shifting things so they’re in the foreground less would have dramatically improved things for everyone, including the two of them.

In this ideal structure of mine, more characters would get A plots and crucially, stories that focus them. So often in Glee we have Quinn or Mercedes or Tina plots that aren’t, ultimately, about them. Even Quinn’s pregnancy in season 1, as I’ve talked about before, was often not about her. Always ask whose story is being told; with Glee, it often came down to the same handful of people. That’s a sure way of making a character’s journey less impactful and make it feel cheaper, when upon closer look you realize it wasn’t actually about them.

And tangentially related, mix it up with the plots! Have the whole club interact with each other instead of pairing up the same people over and over again. It’d be the classic sitcom structure that, for example, makes Brooklyn Nine-Nine succeed in feeling like an actual found family. Each week the B and C and even D plots would see different dynamics, and with a good distribution of focus on characters it could be a very smooth way of furthering their stories and providing us with good content.

Smaller things and closing thoughts

You ask about cutting characters and I’m not sure. I think 12(/13) plus some minor teachers content could work. I don’t know if we’d need to cut the New Directions but we don’t need to add to them. The season 3 newbies? Mostly added nothing and took valuable screentime away from people we actually cared about.

As for the adults, I think we could still have Will content and even a bit of his personal life but dial it back. We don’t need all the details of his sex life, gross. He can still have his back and forth with Sue and she’d still serve as the primary antagonist. We can still pay Matt Morrison and Jane Lynch just as much lol, just have their shenanigans be mostly secondary or relevant to the kids’ lives. More Sue and UHT content, anyone? Because that could have added so much.

As for how I’d do things season 4 onwards with the newbies and New York and all that, honestly, no idea. But just talking about the first few seasons, I think if they’d done things the way I described them all the characters would have felt so much more fleshed out.

I think the ultimate bottom line is to prioritize characters. Characters make the story, not the latest wild plot twist you can come up with or the latest charting song that has no meaning in the context of the show. Write around the characters. Which Glee clearly didn’t do, or didn’t do for enough of them.

I think there was time to do, if not all then most of it. Glee just didn’t care enough.

#glee #glee asks #this is probably as close as i'll ever get to how i'd rewrite the show #well restructure and then we can talk about what to cut and what to add #long post #but most of it under the cut #anon #ask #anonymous #thank you for the kind words and good topic anon #i hope you're reading this and find it interesting #my thoughts #glee restructure #gleewrite

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pluviophile-bookworm · 3 years

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High School Musical: The Musical: The Series: The Rewatch pt. 5

Technically, I shouldn't be doing this right now. But who are we kidding? I miss my Wildcats and this seems like the only thing I can do to see them again right now. So here goes

1x8: The contractually obligated emotional rollercoaster

This episode sure is a lot... I don't know if I'm ready. But it makes no sense to skip this one. I never skip through stuff I love, even when some parts are borderline traumatising. Plus I remember this episode having a bunch of hilarious moments that are definitely worth it.

'I'm really not sure what to say' — Me neither, Miss Jenn, me neither. I'm just sitting here watching this and I know I'm supposed to comment, but I just can't think of what to say. Sometimes the silence just speaks for itself.

'The Lucky Ducky Puppet Pavilion' — I can never overlook that line. Not when I know how much it took for Matt to deliver it. Fun fact: one of my cats is called Lucky, so when his siblings were about to be born, I briefly considered naming them Ducky, Puppet and Pavilion as a joke.

Ah, the El Rey. The place where Miss Jenn totally did not suffer a professional heartbreak. Things are about to get real here. And by real I mean... real dramatic.

I've got to say, I love the duality of Big Red (well, I do love everything about him so that was a no-brainer, but still): doesn't know how to hang a light, but sure does know how to light up a room; amazing with power tools, but took three weeks to make a paper-mache basketball because he kept gluing his fingers together (that last part is far more relatable than I care to admit). I just love him, ok?

The way Carlos acts about Miss Jenn's box of production notes... honestly, I totally get it. I feel like if there's one person at that point who cares about the show much more than anyone else, it's him. And I fully understand why that is. That poor boy has been lonely for too long, and this show is giving him the chance to be part of an accepting community for what feels like the first time in a long time. Just... give my boy Carlito all the hugs.

For a place that allegedly hasn't been used in so long, the El Rey is not nearly dusty enough. I mean, you should see my room if I forget to hoover for longer than a week. And we're talking about years here. There's allegedly mould in that place, but I don't even see dust. Oh well, maybe I would, if it weren't for that lighting — or lack thereof, more like.

'Whatever it says in Miss Jenn's audition file, I am me, and that is the only me I need to be.' — A beautiful sentiment, my dearest EJ. Now maybe hold on to it for a while... just a suggestion.

'Lacks emotional connection to the material' — well, I do have to agree. My first impression of EJ when I was watching the first couple of episodes for the first time was that he was 'too polished to be Troy'. Too much Technician, too little Performer. And I do love my Performers over my Technicians.

Wait, is that a Redlyn background moment I see? I mean, everything is super chaotic and fast-paced, and my two ginger babies are just sitting together on the side of it all. Bonding, I assume. Good for them.

Seb being the only one to know why Natalie is absent, along with the two of them sitting together in 1x1, makes me think... Natalie and Seb are totally besties! I mean, he's basically besties with everyone he ever talks to, so... what can I say, that boy is sunshine incarnate. He deserves all the love and appreciation.

'I know how to hang... out' — gosh, I love this one. And I can only hope everyone was laughing with him, not at him. Because there's nothing to laugh at. My boy got dragged into this whole crew stuff, it's not his fault he doesn't know everything. He's more of an on-stage person than a backstage person anyway. Maybe put him in the spotlight next time and prepare to get your socks knocked off.

No, Ash, your baking club is not at all irrelevant! Honestly, I have nothing but immense admiration for how Ashlyn manages to be in the top two students most dedicated to theatre and do all those other extracurriculars. And she probably has a 4.-something GPA, too. I don't know what the Caswells are feeding their children, but I need it this instant.

'I just don't know how to make things light up' — 'You walk into a room?' — I just... this is one of my favourite Redlyn moments in the history of Redlyn. See, the thing about Ashlyn's line here is the tone in which she says it. She doesn't mean it as a compliment, but as a statement of the absolute truth. You can hear that in her voice. And with good reason, too, because she isn't lying at all. My boy Reddy sure does light up a room by walking into it. Both of them do, really. They're soulmates, you know.

'This place is not creepy at all...' — Yeah, and things between Ricky and Nini are not totally awkward at all, either. I'm living for this.

'I can do Troy!' — Sure you can, Eej. Sure you can. Emotional connection to the material and all.

Ok, but this entire scene... Carlos marking Gabriella's lines completely flatly, EJ emoting like he's in a freaking telenovela and also chopping onions... Carlos' reaction to the latter... I'm living for all of this.

Big Red just suddenly appearing next to Miss Jenn has me rolling... and also kind of wishing he could appear like that next to me too. I mean, it's not like I've visualised that so many times... certainly not every time I have to pass by a stray dog, or give a blood sample, or talk to people, or whatever... why do you ask?

'I never really loved the name Nina anyway' — listen, I relate to the sentiment of not being super fond of your given name, but... what was that stuff in s2 about, then? I mean, I do understand that too, but the two just seem to clash a bit, I reckon. That's all.

Also, can we talk about Rini's chemistry and how it's sometimes there and sometimes nowhere to be found? I think I've figured it out. Every time the chemistry is there, they're talking about or doing things that are not necessarily inherently romantic. Reminiscing about kindergarten, how they gave each other their nicknames, 'the ribbon in your hair, the secrets that we shared, the way that you would stare at me across the room' (yeah, I went there, and for a good reason)... see, Ricky and Nini have that kind of thing going on where, however hard you try, you just can't be indifferent to the other person. It's obvious that they love each other so much, but whenever they try to make it romantic, something goes south. What I'm saying is, when you're really good friends with somebody and you try to force it into something 'more', or better said, something else (because romance is not inherently 'more' than friendship and you can pry that out of my cold dead aro hands), and the operating word here is 'force', things are bound to go wrong and even reach toxic territory. And Rini are living proof of that. Some people are just better as friends, and sometimes the entire 'I don't want to ruin our friendship' trope is very valid. I just want them to be best buddies, is that too much to ask?

Bless Steph for pushing Kourtney forward when Miss Jenn needed someone to sing! Honestly, it's moments like these that make me feel like the background characters are criminally underrated. I realise not every character can be equally central to the plot, but with this cast, I kind of want them to be. I have the feeling that most, if not all of the one-line characters in this show are people with just as much talent and potential as the main cast. They deserve recognition, you know.

Going off of the above, Dara Reneé is living proof of the point I just made. You know how Kourtney was supposed to be a one-scene wonder with two lines? And then Dara showed up and hiding her in the background was instantly out of the question. I wonder how many more hidden gems there are in the show, just sitting in the background, delivering their single line and waiting their turn in the semi-metaphorical wings.

'I just need a minute, or a vacation, it's not clear' — Me, all the time. Especially after I read chapter 11 of @redlyncentral's Let It Go. That ending broke me. And this line by Miss Jenn just reminded me of that feeling, even if what she's feeling right now might not be the exact same thing I went through with that chapter the other day. That being said, everyone go check out my lovely friend's writing right now, I promise you it's worth every second.

'We're going to take a... long five' — What, no 'thank you, five'? I was expecting that. But I guess everyone is a little bit too distraught for that now.

I have to hand it to Carlos — even when he's very obviously uncomfortable and lowkey scared of some people, he just goes up to them and calls them out. I wish I could ever be bold enough to do that.

Wow, not EJ thrashing Carlos' 'forest of boys' idea. Again. I don't get why everyone dislikes it so much, I think it's brilliant visual poetry and should have been given a chance. I said what I said.

You know, everyone has been calling the show out for saying HSM premiered in the cinema, not on telly like it did in real life; and I have been agreeing with that sentiment. But notice how Miss Jenn said 'the Utah premiere' and how there were family and friends in the audience? What if that was some sort of semi-private screening for cast, crew and their family members? It would make sense. And of course, it was held in Utah because that was where the show was filmed and where the majority of background actors, dancers and extras are from. Idk, but it makes sense to me. Note that I have very limited knowledge of how the period between post-production and the release of a movie works.

Isn't Ashlyn the best, though, always noticing when someone is not ok, hearing them out, helping them... I wish I could be half as good a friend as she is. She and Big Red are totally soulmates in that, too. And they deserve each other more than anyone else deserves them, honestly. I just love both of them so much, both as individuals and as a couple, and I cannot be made to shut up about that just yet.

I've got to say, the entire 'me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me' - 'you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you' thing was super funny. And it makes me love Rini — strictly as friends — even more. You know, I think I used to ship them during s1 because the script wanted me to. Exactly like I didn't notice Big Red until midway through the season because the script didn't want me to. Sometimes the script, the acting, the directing and other stuff has immense power over viewers' perception of a show's plot and characters. And that is, as I always point out, what rewatches are for — noticing things that may have escaped you the first time over.

Yeah, so Nini was Ricky's first crush. So what? Many people have had crushes on their best friend at some point or another. That doesn't necessarily mean they're better off as a couple than they are as friends. The opposite idea is just amatonormativity speaking. I mean, sometimes it's nice and it works out; I love me some well-written best-friends-to-lovers, but that's just not always the case and the media should stop pushing the idea that platonic relationships are in any way inferior to romantic ones.

I've got to say I really don't like it when someone interrupts two people's romantic moment (and Big Red is not exempt from my frustration in such cases even though I love him so much — just think of the In a Heartbeat scene), but honestly, bless Reddy for not letting Ricky and Nini kiss. I mean, I know full well they do kiss later on (and how!), but it's just nice to have semi-platonic Rini for a while. If and when we get season 3 (manifesting!), I really hope we get more of them putting some stuff behind them and just being best buddies.

Kourtney and Seb's friendship is honestly goals and I really wish we'd got some more of it. Just another thing to add to my season 3 wishlist. Along with, you know, an actual season 3.

EJ saying all those nice (and very true) things to Carlos has my heart (or, well, he's renting it temporarily from Redlyn and Seblos, but you know). And Carlos really was like 'A for effort, C for execution', and I adore him for that. But EJ is seriously growing. He's pretty much reached EJ 1.8 at this point, and I love to see it.

Say what you want about the Lucas Grabeel dream sequence, but I love, love, love it. Completely unironically. I mean, he's kind of my favourite OG cast member. And the 'I'm more of a Glinda' comment referencing Kate Reinders actually being one of the BWay Glindas? Here's a note from when I first watched 1x1: The drama teacher won’t stop spilling her coffee and I love her. Also, her actress was Glinda on Broadway, so I stan. See, I didn't even know Miss Jenn's name yet and I already loved her. But then she went and did some stuff in s2 and ruined all of that. Add 'proper Miss Jenn redemption' to my s3 wishlist, I guess. But I'm getting off-track (when am I not?)

I only just noticed that all of the iconic BWay leads mentioned in the song (sans Glinda, of course, but that wasn't even a proper part of the song) start with an E. I wonder if that was on purpose or a lucky accident...

'And you never know when you'll get a cameo...' — If anyone in the HSM franchise knows anything about making the most of a cameo, it's Lucas. I'm referring to his post-credits scene in Sharpay's Fabulous Adventure, of course. That is one of my absolute favourite scenes in the entire movie. Well, that and The Rest of My Life. I very unironically love that number.

Another thing on the list of things I very unironically love — the transitions both into and out of this scene. I just think they're neat.

Have I mentioned before how much I love it that Carlos' response every time someone asks where he has to be is 'Broadway'... it just reminds me a lot of Seb's 'Friendship!' — that's some soulmate stuff right there, if you ask me.

'I just... almost did something really stupid' — Yes, Nini, yes it was very stupid. And you're going to do it anyway. You wouldn't if I had any say in this, but I don't and so here we are. In a world where Rini are a romantic thing, Redlyn get 5 minutes of screentime in s1 and two major moments demoted to post-credits scenes, Seblos haven't even properly discussed their issues, and Portwell didn't even kiss on screen. I lowkey hate it here. Still, I feel like things are going in the right direction. If we get a season 3, that is — and we better be getting it, or I will riot and I know I won't be the only one.

No but... just imagine if Kourtney hadn't called YAC for Nini, but for herself. There's so much potential there... and I think Kourtney and Ashlyn deserved that spot every bit as much as Nini did, and then some. I said what I said.

Well, this was 1x8. This post is already way too long, plus I want to do a double feature of the last two whenever I get to rewatching them, so I'm ending this here. It was just as much of a journey as I remembered it being, and not nearly as negative as I had the feeling it would be. I absolutely loved it, you know. And with good reason too.

#hsmtmts #hsmtmts: the rewatch #ricky bowen #nini salazar-roberts #ej caswell #ashlyn moon caswell #big red redonovich #carlos rodriguez #seb matthew-smith #kourtney greene #hsmtmts miss jenn #redlyn

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miraculouscontent · 3 years

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Ask Explosion #6

Asks answering previous posts:

Oh, okay! I’m glad, thank you!

(the post this anon is referring to)

Ohhhh.

And fjbgjnfkjgfg thanks >////<

I don’t think there’s much wrong with liking the design itself; I prefer Riposte personally, but that’s just me.

The best way I could put the “insensitive” part (I’m sort of dumb when it comes to this stuff and I talked about it before when I was working on that 3D model of Marinette) is that it’s so heavy on Japanese. I mean, they already have Kagami constantly wear what looks like a school uniform and Tomoe is just like--super heavy Japanese. It’s like the show doesn’t know how to balance “can’t tell at all” (with Marinette) and then “okay this is WAY strong” (with Kagami+Tomoe+Kung Food).

That makes sense! I guess the only problem then would be that the kwami can’t really act as mentors of any kind because “you’re saying this just because that’s all you can say” (like Sass, hypothetically, always willing to give someone a second chance, no matter what; I know that’s not what his power specifically entails but it’s just an example).

I would however definitely lean towards kwami being very strict in one alignment, so Tikki would always be on the path of pure good and thus never want to take/steal/whatever, whereas Plagg is always on the path of “bad,” but there are times where Marinette will have to ignore Tikki while Adrien will have to listen to Plagg.

And yeah, the guardians existing and the kwami not having so much control... not a huge fan.

Someone asked about Chat Noir’s flirting and he claimed that it was “on purpose” (you know, while throwing episodes like “Felix” at us but okay) and then he followed up with this:

There was also this other comment he made a while back when someone tried to make a suggestion to him:

Except he’s missing the point completely. When he talks about constructive criticism, he acts like it doesn’t matter, especially not anymore now that they’re working on Seasons 4 and 5:

(I mean, personally, I don’t think I need “engineering knowledge” to know when a rollercoaster I’d ridden nearly tossed the cart off the tracks and had questionable design decisions, but you do you, Astruc.)

Yes, constructive criticism is mainly for seeing a product improve, but that doesn’t mean ignoring it because, “well you haven’t seen the full product.”

“Animaestro” even has a bit of commentary on it:

Ladybug: What's with that trailer too? I am not scared of cats, at all.

Animaestro: You haven't even seen the movie and you're already slamming it?

Chat Noir: He does have a point, you know.

Ladybug: I wasn't slamming it. It's called constructive criticism!

(firstly, of course Chat Noir bows to Astruc on that one because he’s Astruc’s sunshine boy, ugh)

Ignoring the fact that a movie/printed book is usually a “full product,” criticism is also to say “you did this thing wrong, don’t do this in the future.” It doesn’t have to be referring strictly to the show. It’s just, “you did this thing wrong and here’s why, try to catch yourself if you accidentally do it again in the future, whether in what you’re working on now or otherwise.”

(He’s also talked about “unsolicited critique” before and I don’t know what that means? Like, dude, this isn’t someone’s fanfiction where I’d actually agree that you can’t go after them for their work. This is professional work.)

Anyway, remember “Chameleon”? When everyone saw the trailer and absolutely flipped out over it, then there were people who were like, “Wait for the full episode!!”?

Guess what? The full episode came out and people were either just as mad or even madder than before.

Astruc wants to have his cake and eat it to. He wants to say that his episodes are “stand-alone,” and that the order isn’t that important, but when people start pointing out issues, it becomes, “No! You have to wait for the rest of the episodes to come out!” and when people do that, it’s gonna be like, “Well, we already did the whole show so it’s not like I can change anything. *shrug*”

Also, just blaming it on “the industry” when everything else has been exhausted:

(He’s literally brought up before that the New York special was meant to have subplots about other characters, so it’s not like he can never say anything when something didn’t fit the “original vision”; I’m not asking him to get on his knees and say he’s sorry - plus, I do recognize that a lot of influence comes from the industry and people like Jeremy - but I expect a little more than the “whoops” he gave when people pointed out that “Weredad” contradicted his statement on Miraculous Ladybug.)

I think the reason people see it the way they do is because of Fu’s line in “Robostus” seems to imply the exact opposite thing happening.

Master Fu: Universe must always stay in balance. For every action, there is a reaction. For every wish, a price to pay in return. Had your robotic friend asked to become a real boy, someone would have lost his humanity in return.

New Asks:

Marigami is acceptable. I’m not crazy about it but it’s likable enough.

Lukadrien though... no, absolutely not. On a conceptual level, because it’s such a slap in the face for Marinette, and on a fanon level, because most of the jokes around it is Luka going to Marinette like he’s about to ask her out and then just asks for Adrien’s details. It’s just... ugh. I hate it (throwing Marinette into the ship still doesn’t help for me though because I’m not into the love square).

Bi erasure is my least favorite thing.

And yeah, it’s like--they set the love square ship(s?) out onto the water, then the Lukanette ship later with the plan to either sink it or just kinda... return it to the harbor if they don’t make a huge fuss about it?

Meanwhile, the love square ship has been in piece this whole time, and instead of letting it sink, they put it on a raft to keep it floating.

Depends.

In LadyBugOut? It’s already written and I haven’t posted it.

For canon? Like, Marinette being super disappointed at her view of Adrien being shattered or? :P

That’s accurate. I dislike about a fourth-ish of Season 1,then about half-ish of Season 2, then like... almost all of Season 3.

So we’ll just have to see what happens in Season 4.

I like Adrimi, but I’m not crazy about it and I don’t really write for it unless Lukanette is already the main ship (making Adrimi just a background ship). Adrien tends to dismiss Kagami a lot (like in “Frozer” and then “Miracle Queen” with him not committing) and I don’t want to see Kagami hurting like that (I agree with the anon completely that Adrien is more at fault than she is). They’re both emotionally-stunted so I usually have them wait it out or something to have them get together.

My ideal endgame is Lukanette while Adrimi is more like “let’s wait, let’s work on ourselves (especially Adrien; Kagami at least has on firm crush and wants to commit to it), and we’ll see where we go down the line.”

I don’t know if they really have the guts to arrest Gabriel. I also think that Lila might pick up the butterfly at the end of Season 5 or something after she’s been “dealt with.”

Chloe also is the mayor’s daughter so even if the law was that strict on teens, nothing would happen to her unless Andre got replaced.

Big yikes.

Maybe that the thing forcing Marinette away from Adrien and causing things to go wrong is the part of the curse trying to prevent the ladybug and cat miraculous from coming together?

So, close enough to be attracted and want to work together, but forcing the ladybug away from the cat to prevent the miraculouses from being used to make a wish?

I CHOKED ON MY DRINK.

ugh

ugggggggh

I’m 100% sure that Marinette wouldn’t be as uncomfortable around Adrien if Alya hadn’t constantly intervened. She’s the enabler of both Marinette’s anxiety and her crush on Adrien.

I went back and looked at the scene and it does kinda look like it, yes, because it basically goes from the intersection Marinette is in to another intersection that looks very, extremely similar and I don’t see Marinette in that intersection.

It was just a really, really bad transition. I remember being thrown off for a second too so I don’t blame you, anon.

I think Bob Roth’s intent was to scare Marinette away from showing that proof? He probably knows very well that Marinette has all the evidence she needs to make a case and already had a story planned for the press about how “the young talents they found didn’t measure up and the people deserved better.”

He just needed enough pressure on them for them to believe that he had enough authority to silence them.

And then Silencer tried to silence him instead. :3

I don’t think Marinette’s relationship with her parents would change too much. Like, they already let her just go out whenever she wants which obviously Plagg approves off, although Marinette might become more numb to the idea of being grounded because Plagg just teaches her, “hey lol Ladybug isn’t grounded tho,” so Marinette sneaks out all the time.

Yeah, Tikki would probably justify Gabriel’s behavior, and she wouldn’t really be able to get on his case for flirting as Mister Bug because she’s not aware of it.

lol it helps no one to have Tikki I guess.

Adrien overall and then honorable mention to Alya for Winny’s comment about her being Marinette’s conscience (which is probably why they almost never nail Alya for stuff she does).

KHNJFDNGFD THE LUKANETTE QUEEN MONIKER RETURNS >///<

And ugh, the absolute level of bias in that. Even if the video was made in, like, Season 2 (don’t know, didn’t see it), Season 2 still gives examples of why Adrienette isn’t making Marinette happy at all (and has some of the love square failings too).

The name and the fact that they gave it that name tells me everything I need to know.

Goodness gracious.

Yeah, people can talk about character’s flaws. I mean, we talk a lot here about Marinette’s struggles in getting over Adrien (partly brought on by a lot of outside factors but still).

Also, sure, Luka is a “pushover” because he’s one of the few characters who understands Marinette’s tunnel vision and isn’t bothered by it, okay. :P (Interesting that the topic of Chat’s entitlement towards Ladybug but Luka respecting her choices and just enjoying being around her makes him her punching bag).

Every time I hear, “Adrien needs more spotlight!!!” I lose a part of my soul. How people can’t see that Marinette is the show’s true punching bag is beyond me.

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syntheticpoetry · 4 years

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Constellations

Summary: When the text comes in from Tina, Kurt can hardly believe what he is reading. When Blaine doesn't respond to his messages he thinks his heart may actually stop beating. AO3 link || FFN Link

Author’s Note: I was watching Shooting Star and overcome with a million emotions, mostly having to do with the fact that we don't get ANY conversation or scene with the NYC gang during this insanely emotional episode. So this is my take on it. A little bit of canon, but a little divergence for the Klaine scene I desperately wanted to see as well as Kurt, Santana, and Rachel’s reactions. I promise there is a happy ending in this through the rollercoaster of emotions that is Blaine's mind during this absolutely horrifying ordeal. Big thanks to @roxymusicandlayers for beta reading this for me!

“And I am lost, so lost, but you’re the constellations that guide me.”

_________________________________________________________

“Alright guys, start texting and tweeting, whatever social media you use. Let everyone know what’s going on here. But don’t say where we are, shooters have smartphones too.”

Blaine hears Mr. Schue’s urgent whisper as though he is underwater. The words sound muffled and heavy with the depth of the room’s collective terror embedded into every upturned syllable. Despite his best effort to keep the hysteria at bay, they know he is just as frightened as they are. Blaine bites his lip and remains so still that every muscle starts to quiver, threatening to give way. The burn feels familiar, like the ache he gets from lifting weights in the gym with Sam, and he pushes through the pain as though it is just one more rep away before they can finally rest.

Any slight movement will betray his feigned composure and he knows the domino effect of his breakdown will begin. Around him the gentle, frantic padding of fingers against glass echoes around the room like a discordant symphony of additional gunshots. He knows they are not as loud as they actually sound in his head. But the panic in his chest still swells. He hugs his knees tighter. The small movement is enough to send the first wave of tears down his cheeks. He bites his lip harder and tries to focus on the pain of teeth against flesh instead.

‘I should do what they’re doing. Pick up your phone. Keep it together.’

“Blaine, it’s okay. It’s going to be okay,” Sam reaches a hand out and the touch of his fingers against Blaine’s forearm sends thunderbolts up his spine. “Where’s your phone?”

Blaine opens his mouth to speak and instead gasps loudly, the breath shuddering on the sharp intake of air. He claps a hand over his mouth and squints his eyes shut as more tears come. His mistake was moving at all. Statues never cry. He stretches out one leg and wrenches the phone from his pocket to see it at 1% battery. With one hand pressed firmly against quivering lips, the muffled whisper comes convulsing out in staccato bursts. “It’s— it’s almost— d-d—”

He can’t bring himself to say the word dead. As though breathing life into it will somehow fulfill some unspoken prophecy, and he is bound to doom them all by simply uttering it. Sam squeezes his arm and whispers back, “Do you want to text anyone with my phone?”

Blaine nods frantically when his phone screen finally turns to black. He gingerly places it on the ground in what feels like slow motion, taking extreme care not to make a sound, and extends his hand out to Sam. He thinks back to Mr. Schue’s garbled words and wonders if they really are underwater.

“I can’t get in touch with my mom,” The subdued sound of Marley’s panicked sobbing ricochets off of the walls. “She won’t respond! What if she— there’s no back way out of the kitchen!”

While Kitty and Jacob whisper empty reassurances Blaine stares at Sam’s phone in his hand like it is a foreign object. He knows what he is supposed to do with it, but the phone numbers in his mind are written in invisible ink.

‘I can’t even remember my parents’ phone numbers. Oh god, what if we die in here. What if I never see them or Cooper or Kurt—”

A flash of hands clasped tight, buried deep into a mattress fills his vision. The breathy whisper of his own name makes the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. His trembling thumbs begin to fly seamlessly over the keypad and he has never been so thankful for autocorrect before. Just as he hits send the dull pounding sound of running footsteps in the hall crescendos until—

Rattle! Rattle! Rattle!

The jittering of the door handle makes them all collectively jump as though this is just another lesson in synchronisation for their next competition. Blaine’s heart slithers its way into his throat, and he drops the phone. It slides away from him and bumps into Sam’s ankle. Sam’s leg jerks and sends it careening across the floor of the choir room where it settles underneath the piano. The entire scene is something straight out of a shitty comedy movie that feels completely unbelievable, like the chances of something like this happening are one in a million. The irony of the realm of impossibilies reaching its peak today is not lost on him. The entire room stills. Blaine wishes that stupid ticking of the metronome in the center of the room would. Just. Stop. It feels like a countdown.

Smash!

Blaine jumps again and presses his hand harder to his mouth to suppress the sound that begs for escape. He hugs his knees closer to his chest in a one-armed embrace and tries to will the demon perched on his shoulder whispering unpleasantries to vanish. The burn settles in again. Out of the corner of his eye, he spots Artie struggling to sit himself up against the cabinets. He wants to move, wants to help him; but when he tries to unhook his arm from his knees, nothing happens. He continues spectating as Sam begins lifting Artie up by his shirt until he’s sitting comfortably upright. Then he witnesses the moment of pure panic in his best friend’s eyes right before Sam hisses frantically to Mr. Schue, “Brittany doesn’t have her phone, she’s in the bathroom! She’s all alone!”

___________________________________________________

“Oh honey, no goddamn way!” Kurt snatches the remote back from Rachel. “Santana and I were here first, you don’t just get to come in and throw a hissy fit about having a bad day so you can put on whatever you want. How do you know we didn’t have a bad day too?”

Santana averts her attention from the television to watch them instead, positively beaming. Their fights are honestly her favourite thing to watch. Always far more entertaining than whatever trashy reality shows she and Kurt had been immersing themselves in lately. Today it had been a marathon of the first season of Rock of Love.

“Well, considering you’re both in the exact same spot I left you in this morning I seriously doubt it,” Rachel huffs loudly and sinks down into a creaky wicker chair, arms folded tightly across her chest. Kurt rolls his eyes at her and changes the channel back before the gentle buzzing of his phone across the coffee table distracts him from Rachel’s moodiness.

“Go make some popcorn and I’ll let you vent— oh,” Kurt stares down at his phone.

“What?” Rachel lowers her arms, keeping them folded across her stomach still, and exchanges her scowl for curiosity.

“Sam texted me, he usually never…” The rest of his sentence trails off once he opens the message, leaving them to stare. He loosens his grip and drops his hands against his thighs, the phone resting precariously on his open palms. After the fourth quick scan of the text the message still does not seem to sink in.

Sam 12:36 p.m. I love you so much and I’m so sorry about everything that happened I’m so glad I got to see you at the wedding you’re amazing and deserve everything in the world I’m so proud of you don’t ever settle for anyone less than perfect because that’s exactly what you are

‘This can’t be for me.’

“Kurt, what is it? What’s wrong?” Rachel leans over, her palms on her knees now, her brows furrowed in concern.

“What’s Trouty mouth saying?” Santana snatches the phone from him. He does not even protest her invasion of privacy, his brain is too busy slicing through the fog to decrypt the reasoning behind the message. She frowns and looks between the screen and Kurt a few times. “Did I miss the part when you and Sam got together? No way my gaydar is that far off.”

“There’s no way that’s for me. He obviously meant to send it to someone else. Do you think he meant it for Mercedes?” Kurt plucks the phone back from her hands to reread the message before typing out a reply.

Kurt 12:44 p.m. I don’t think you meant this for me?

“What did it say?” Rachel pipes up and cranes her neck to try to read over Kurt’s shoulder. Kurt tilts the phone to show her. “Ooooh, wait did something happen between them at the wedding? Wasn’t he there with Brittany then though?” Kurt shrugs and scrolls through his contacts until he lands on Mercedes’ name.

Kurt 12:50 p.m. Okay maybe random question but is there something going on with you and Sam again? I got the weirdest message from him just now

Mercedes 12:55 p.m. ???? What did he say?

Kurt takes a screenshot of the message and forwards it to her.

Mercedes 1:00 p.m. Omg nope nothing happened with us at the wedding. Maybe he meant to send it to Brittany? Has he not replied?

Kurt 1:02 p.m. Nope

Tina’s name flashes across the top of his screen in a drop down banner and he taps on it. “Oh my god.” The words come out small and frightened as he reads the message. “Tina just said—”

“She just texted me too,” Santana replies in an eerily despondent voice that Kurt has never heard her speak in before. It suddenly makes the situation feel ten times more real. For once, she’s silent as she stares down at her own phone, frantically typing out a text.

“Me too,” Rachel whispers. “Oh my god, do you think everyone is okay?” She stands and crosses the room, pacing by the window as she rereads the text over and over again. “Kurt, have you heard from Blaine?”

‘Blaine.’

Kurt cannot find the words to respond to her as he taps on his favourites list. Blaine’s name is still at the very top. He had told himself he had never gotten the chance to adjust the list and remove him after their breakup. Really, he never had the heart to erase his name. The sight of it now makes his throat constrict. He tries to speak but no sound comes out.

“Brittany isn’t texting me back. Neither is Sam,” Santana borders on hysterical as she grips her phone between her hands like it is her only lifeline. Kurt mimics her action as he composes a text to Blaine.

Kurt 1:10 p.m. Tina texted me are you ok

“Has anyone heard anything from anyone else?” Rachel asks. Neither of them respond.

Kurt cannot look away from Blaine’s name. The feeling washes over him suddenly and intensely, dragging his logical mind into the riptide of superstitious terror as he recites the name silently like a mantra. If he looks away, he might lose him forever. It doesn’t make any sense to think that way. He knows it. But it provides some tiny semblance of comfort and control as he tethers himself to it and waits for a response. Two long minutes pass by and still nothing comes. Tina’s name and phone number fills the screen, swallowing Blaine’s name, and he finally finds his voice, the words frantic and choppy as he taps multiple times to decline the call, “Someone call Tina, she’s calling me. Someone call her so she stops calling me!”

The sight of Blaine’s name again anchors him down once more and the rest becomes background noise.

'Please be okay. Please be okay. I’m never saying goodbye to you, you idiot. Just text me back. Please.’

__________________________________________________________

“Mr. Schue, I have to get to her! I have to make sure she’s okay!”

Blaine watches, horrorstuck, as Mr. Shue and coach Beiste struggle to restrain Sam. He is thrashing wildly in their arms, his quivering voice crescendoing past the panicked whispers that everyone else has adapted. It isn’t until coach Beiste whispers something in his ear that Blaine cannot hear, and Sam locks eyes with him that he finally settles down. Blaine exhales sharply, lungs blazing and heart thudding at the base of his throat, and realizes he must have been holding his breath at some point. Sam slinks back over to their corner and sits beside Artie, his head hanging down in defeat. Blaine tries to parrot back the same empty promises Sam had whispered earlier, wants to tell him everything will be okay even though he is not quite sure if he believes it himself, but nothing comes out.

“Maybe she’s with Tina,” Artie whispers hopefully to Sam. “Maybe she isn’t alone.”

Blaine takes note of Artie’s lack of confidence and how he is careful not to speak in absolutes. But maybe he is right. He thinks about the word maybe in the context of his life. Maybe Kurt did not want to admit how much their hookup at the wedding had meant. Maybe he and Kurt really are back together. Maybe Kurt still loves him. Maybe he will see him again when this entire ordeal is finally over with. ‘Maybe’ starts to feel like a pretty good word the more he thinks about it. ‘Maybe’ feels like hope. ‘Maybe’ feels like a second chance.

The sound of a door opening breaks through Blaine’s inner dissection of the word, and he looks over just in time to see Mr. Schue skulking out of the door. It reminds Blaine of one of Finn’s video games about spies and stealth. Maybe they will get another chance to play it together after this. He clings to that and tries to focus on the upcoming Friday night dinner with him, Burt and Carole as Marley’s sobbing continues to grow louder. Her gasps for air further enforces his previous belief. Maybe they really are underwater.

It isn’t long before the choir room door opens again and a collection of cheerleaders rushes in followed by Mr. Schue. Blaine watches Sam vault off of the cabinets like a spring loaded toy to pull Brittany into his arms. She has never looked so terrified before. But there is no sign of Tina amongst the red and white uniforms. Blaine forgets about the maybe’s floating around his brain like buoys at sea and feels like he is drowning again. He twists his head away and stares down pathetically at the blank screen of his cellphone, willing it to magically come alive.

‘How could I have forgotten to charge it? I used to lecture Kurt about this all the time.’

Maybe it is a sign. Maybe it is a metaphor of sorts.

He does not know when Artie began recording them with his phone, but the start of Marley’s hiccuped confession fills his lungs with water again. “In the bottom of my desk drawer,” She breaks off to compose herself. The volume of her crying sends off alarm bells in Blaine’s head and he tunes out the rest of her message. He looks towards the hastily strewn barricade against the door. Maybe it will prove to be sturdy, but it does not feel like enough. The continued tapping of fingers against glass screens fills in the gaps of silence between the metronome and scattered crying when Artie pans the camera onto Blaine. It feels like a slow dance towards a death sentence. Maybe the rhythmic ticking really is a countdown.

“Blaine, do you want to say anything to anyone?”

He drops his face down into his knees. Maybe he should take the opportunity to leave behind one tiny fragment of his life before he becomes another forgotten statistic. But Artie has already redirected the phone towards Sam and Brittany when Blaine looks up again. Maybe he has missed his chance. ‘Maybe’ starts to feel like a cursed word now. Like something sinister and evil and concrete. Maybe he has inflated the word with too much hope causing some sort of rebound effect. Maybe—

“All clear!”

The words break through the hurricane in the choir room and suddenly everyone is getting to their feet except Blaine, who still feels sluggish and dazed. Sam and Brittany approach him and hold out their hands. He stares at their open palms, trembling and sweaty, and his body acts before his brain does to grasp them. They lift him up like he is made of helium despite the lead shackles he envisions around his ankles. He becomes aware of Sam’s arms around him and shakes away the anchors in his own arms to return the embrace. The burn is still there, leaving his muscles fatigued and weak, but he cannot bring himself to let go now that he has latched on.

“It’s okay, it’s okay. See? We’re okay,” Sam whispers against his ear before Blaine realizes why he is taking such extra care to console him. The sound of his own sobbing, punctuated by rattling intakes of air, reminds him why he tried to remain so still at the start of all of this. He buries his face deep in Sam’s neck to muffle the sound and feels the addition of Brittany’s slender arms around both of them, leaving him sandwiched in between. The shuffling sound of footsteps towards the door leads to the eventual end of the embrace and Sam jogs over to the piano, crouching down to retrieve his phone before they join hands and follow everyone else on the way to the parking lot.

“Blaine, I have a charger in my car.” Sam says as he raises his phone to his ear. Brittany slips her hand away from Blaine and he hears her whimpering Santana’s name before seeing she has also pulled out her phone. Blaine laces his fingers with Sam and clings tightly as they weave their way through the crowd towards Sam’s car. “Mom, hey I’m okay. We’re okay. We’re outside now— please don’t cry, I promise I’m okay.”

When Sam finally pulls his hand free, Blaine thinks he might just float away. It takes Sam only a few seconds to wrench open the car door and jam his key into the ignition. “Blaine, here— Wait, Kurt’s calling my phone. Mom, let me take this, and I’ll call you right back? Blaine’s phone died, he has no way to— yes, I’ll be right home as soon as I can. I love you too.”

Blaine’s fingers are numb by the time Sam has pressed the phone into his hand. Kurt’s frantic, breathless voice breathes life into them, and he curls them tightly around the device just before it is about to fall. “Sam! Brittany called Santana and said you guys made it out. I can’t get in touch with Blaine, is he—”

“It’s me,” Blaine exhales and the volume of Kurt’s sob makes his knees shake. He leans against the car door but slides down it as Kurt continues to cry loudly in his ear.

“Why weren’t you answering me?” Kurt sputters out, his voice traversing the length of his entire vocal range like a warmup.

“My phone died, that’s why I texted you with Sam’s—”

“You didn’t say it was you!” Kurt’s voice rises three octaves. Blaine presses the phone closer to his ear like it will actually close any of the distance between them. “I thought it was a mistake! I thought it was Sam! Why didn’t either of you get back to me on— Blaine, are you crying or laughing?”

“Both, I think,” Blaine responds airily between watery laughter. In the timespan of less than two hours he feels as though he has mastered every element associated with human emotion. The fire in his lungs has been reduced to embers as Kurt’s voice continues to blanket him. The laughter should feel inappropriate, but it feels like letting go. It feels like a release. He finally feels grounded. “The stupid phone— it was insane— I dropped it and Sam kicked it under the piano— if you saw it— I’m sorry, I don’t know why I can’t stop laughing, but it just feels so good to hear your voice again. I thought I was never going to hear it again or see you or—”

“Don’t you ever, ever, write a message to me like that again!” Kurt interrupts his rambling and suddenly the laughter becomes lodged in his throat. Maybe he had been wrong to assume all of those ideas about them earlier. Maybe Kurt’s next few words will feel like an actual gunshot wound.

“Kurt, I’m sorry, I thought—”

“I told you I’m never saying goodbye to you,” Kurt parades through his apology, trying to sound bold and certain. Blaine can see the hairline cracks in the foundation as Kurt wavers through the next command. “Don’t you ever try to say goodbye to me like that again, do you understand me?”

“Understood,” He replies with the remnants of his previous laughter, the solitary sound coming out strangled and relieved all at once. “I’m sorry I scared you.”

“You’re sorry you—” The way he says it sends shivers down Blaine’s spine. It is the same breathy exhale that had been reserved for their night in the hotel as their hands sank deeper and deeper into the mattress. “Blaine, you must have been fucking terrified, how can you focus on me?”

“Because I love you,” Blaine says simply. For once there is no anxiety or fear to cage the confession. It flies freely over the soundwaves and he does not worry about the reply because he already knows the response without Kurt having to say it. But Kurt says it anyways.

“I love you too.”

‘Maybe’ starts to feel like a second chance again. ‘Maybe’ feels like a promise.

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afreakingdork · 3 years

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Review: Hannibal

This show has been a rollercoaster and not in a good way. I’ll come right out and say it: I hate this show. I came into it totally fresh; I had heard people liked it and knew absolutely zero about it. I haven’t even seen Silence of the Lambs. I’m fresh off Death Stranding so I was getting really curious about Mads Mikkelsen and I can totally see the influence. Some of the scenes where Mads is slicked up with inky black liquid look straight out of the game. The story however is a total mess. Now, whether this is because Bryan Fuller’s intentions were dashed (the whole 5 seasons thing) or if there was something else at play. I can’t be sure, but what I do know is that even if you can’t fulfil your vision, that doesn’t mean you just do whatever and throw caution to the wind. You’re still telling a narrative and if you go rogue then everyone will know it.

So let’s start back with season 1. Probably the most classic of the show. I started by, of course, watching the pilot. Instead of reshooting the first episode, Hannibal decides to go straight from it’s pilot to the show. Which in and of itself isn’t a problem, except there are quite a few inconsistencies that just aren’t addressed. Will’s classroom and the design of Hannbal’s office are notable examples. Also, they flat out say Will has Asperger's which the show ultimately sweeps under the rug for whatever reason. The story plays out pretty cleanly in season 1. Now, I wanted to quit watching after the first few episodes because it was too high art. The imagery didn’t make much sense and this wasn’t really my type of show. Seeing Will fall for Hannibal’s tricks and getting placed in jail in season 2 really started to peak my interest and I proclaimed that it finally had my attention. Unfortunately, half way through season 2, Will is released from jail and the show completely spins wildly out of control from that point on. After Will works with another serial killer to get Hannibal killed while in jail, he is suddenly befriending Hannibal once he gets out. We learn that he has a big plan to try to ensnare Hannibal, but it all feels empty and even as a viewer, I simply know that it is just a shit plan. All reason goes out the window as the show tries to tell me that careful Hannibal who tortured Will and put him in jail through season 1 and most of 2 is now just spilling his guts to his protégé. Also, the show wants me to believe that Will is considering running away with big H because he is just as enamored, as if I didn’t see this man struggle with every fiber of his tortured soul to not become Garrett Jacob Hobbs.

All of this leads up to the blood match of the century at Hannibal’s house where the plan, duh, goes awry. This is where the worst season of all, season 3, certified fresh 98% on Rotten Tomatoes comes in like a flaming pile of garbage on a train. We whisk away to Europe and don’t give a fuck about following up on all our bloodied main characters we’ve grown to care about in two seasons. Suddenly the few ‘smart’ characters who speak in riddles multiplies to the point where not a single character isn’t speaking in code when talking to one another. Alana even gets this fucking insane line where she says bone marrow got in her blood stream so now she thinks differently. It’s insane. The only saving grace is Jack and that’s only because he’s the only consistent character throughout the show. He has a clean narrative and understandable motives. He’s the only character the script didn’t treat like an amorphous blob that changes on it’s whim as if it were Zeus having a bad hair day. After Hannibal is captured, the show dips down to a slow descent to it’s ending. It once again tries to make me question Will’s loyalty while simultaneously giving me no plot to support any major changes and just telling me that he’s changed right before he does. It’s totally asinine. I had pretty much shut completely down by the last 3 episodes. I think it’s borderline hilarious that the show honestly wants me to think that baiting the Dragon with Hannibal is the ONLY viable option to catch him. They don’t even consider any other possibilities. It’s just lazy. Let the whole show go over the cliff for all I care.

And all of this isn’t even getting in to how atrociously this show treats women. Alana Bloom starts as being the only person in Will’s corner who they force to be his love interest in one of the most un-sexually charged scenarios I’ve ever seen. They then, completely against character, make her Hannibal’s love interest for what I thought was an alibi, but I guess was genuine and again, not set up in the slightest. As previously mentioned, she does a 180 due to some bone marrow and is then a lesbian for another grotesque sex sequence that they just seem to love making her star in for pseudo prime time pornography. I mean, I guess I’m happy she ends up married with a kid? Beverly Katz is separated and pinned up like a museum display because she just happened to be smart. Every character hates Freddie Lounds and the show obviously wants you to hate her too, but when you think about it, why? What has she done other than be a strong independent woman who is chasing a career in the gruesome and trying to tell what she believes is the truth when other’s sweep the severity under the rug. The show hates her so much that if you start to break it down and remove her character from the show, the plot literally doesn’t change. She exists to be a punching bag. The only saving grace about Bella is the fact that her passing doesn’t push Jack’s story along at all, but her choice of passing was not only taken away by a man, it was then decided on a date not of her choosing by another. She has not a single bit of autonomy, even while being presented as a strong woman. Abigail Hobbs seems interesting enough, but in reality she’s nothing more than a way for Will and Hannibal to process their emotions and surrogate dad feelings onto. She is then “killed” off and, surprise, brought back only to be killed off again, only to BE BROUGHT BACK to find out she was a dead figment of Will’s fucked up imagination. Margot Verger is one of the most appalling examples of how this show treats women in the fact that she is not only sexually and physically abused, but she is also sterilized. Then, in season 2, when you think she finally can exact her revenge on her brother since he is rendered invalid, you find in season 3 that she did none of that, continued to let him torture her until someone else come’s down like a savior angel, Hannibal, and gives her the way she absolutely could have done herself to give her an out. The show literally wants me to believe that both Margot and Alana could not have considered the path to freedom without Hannibal’s help. They want you to believe these are not capable women because the show doesn’t believe women are. Unless it’s plot necessary, but only for that long. Du Maurier was smart enough to leave before Hannibal went to kill her in season 2, but for some reason in season 3 she comes back willingly to let him take her and torture her. Then she, I GUESS, cooks her leg up for him to visit as one of the final scenes of the show!?!!? Chiyoh was locked up for 20 years, supposedly, because she couldn’t leave behind the man who killed Hannibal’s sister, and when she is finally free, her whole character revolves around her being a good shot and wanting to help Hannibal because ??????? It makes absolutely no sense. Then, season 3 went ahead and went we need a woman who is blind to the fact that her partner is a serial killer, might as well make her blind for real. It’s repulsive, disgusting, and I don’t know why anyone enjoys this drivel.

Verdict:

P.S. my favorite character is Chilton. He’s one of the two consistent characters (hey, Jack!) and the fact that he just keeps getting brutally mutilated, but can’t stay away from serial killers is downright pathological. He also shined so brightly in the scene just before he gets shot through the mouth in the interrogation room. I never would have guessed I’d be rooting for him. I was actually worried when the Dragon caught him, but there’s no squashing that cockroach of a man!

#hannibal #review #me #show review #shows

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noahmanskar · 3 years

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The Best Albums of 2020 (and from the Before Times)

I read a lot of year-end music roundups, and several this year have come with a resonant caveat: It’s been harder to discover new music this year, both because of physical limitations (no shows, no record-store browsing, no chats with friends about your latest finds), and because the way we used music fundamentally changed. It certainly did for me. Rather than serving as the backdrop for a commute or a night out, it created moments of solace from cabin fever while doing dishes, or showering, or running semi-weekly errands. So I often turned to what was comfortable and familiar, songs that conjured memories and feelings to get me through the day. Even on the rare occasions of social listening, the groups I was with drifted into nostalgia — middle school dance tracks, mid-2000s emo, inherited dad rock, even songs from just a year or two ago, when everything was simpler, relatively speaking.

That’s not to say nothing new moved me. There was a handful of albums and songs that were crucial to getting through the doldrums. They soundtracked bike rides, long walks, longer drives and lots of small moments mentioned above. But I don’t think I can think about my favorite music of this year without thinking about the albums of the past that got me through it. Besides, one of the many lessons 2020 taught is that time is a bizarre illusion anyway. (This exercise also lets me write about some recent albums that I didn’t get to write about when they were actually released.

So here are the albums, past and present, that made 2020 bearable. I hope you found yours, too.

Tame Impala, “The Slow Rush”

Tame Impala’s fourth LP came out on Valentine’s Day. That afternoon, Claire and I had a lunch date to mark the occasion before we got on a plane to visit my parents. The night before, we had gone out to dinner with friends visiting from San Francisco and then to a bar, where we huddled next to strangers on a water bed. Roughly a month later, all of this would be unimaginable, and Kevin Parker’s lyrics to “One More Year” would be eerily prescient as we settled into this new normal:

But now I worry our horizon's been nothing new 'Cause I get this feeling and maybe you get it too We're on a rollercoaster stuck on its loop-de-loop 'Cause what we did one day on a whim Has slowly become all we do

The song is really about surrendering to time, and not worrying about it passing in spite of your ambivalence. The opening chants of Parker’s “Gregorian Robot Choir” make it easy to surrender. They carry you into a world where, as the cover art suggests, all that time you were worrying about has already passed, so you might as well dance. At the same time, the songs that follow, like “Borderline,” “Breathe Deeper” and “Lost In Yesterday” make it easy to remember what it was like to dance in a sweaty room with people you love, and to look forward to doing it again, after a little more time passes.

Fleet Foxes, “Shore”

There’s something comforting about the fact that Fleet Foxes released this record on the exact moment of the autumnal equinox. It’s a reminder that nature has its own rhythms that carry on regardless of what occurs in our human lives. They give us a measure of certainty in uncertain times. One of these rhythms — death — looms large in “Sunblind,” an ode to Robin Pecknold’s departed musical forebears: David Berman, Bill Withers, John Prine and others. This song exuding calm acceptance shifts into “Can I Believe You,” which wrestles frankly with doubt and fear.

These tracks contain profound contradictions, but sonically, they're both bright, hopeful and sure. That’s what made this album such a balm in the sixth month of this pandemic, a time of both growing darkness and hope for what might be on the other side. It reminds us that there’s power and beauty in feeling all these things at once.

Lil Uzi Vert, “Eternal Atake”

This one spent two years in label purgatory, but it finally arrived in March to prove Lil Uzi Vert can do it all. He’s at his most versatile here, spitting and crooning, boasting and balladeering. “You Better Move” is an early standout packed with playful nostalgia, including a beat that samples that classic PC pinball game and delightful jabs like these:

Yeah, step on competition, changin' my shoes Green shirt, bitch, I'm Steve, where is Blue? Every chain on, I pity a fool I'm an iPod, man, you more like a Zune Made her eat on my dick with a spoon, ew Versace drawers, bitch, you Fruit of the Loom

Then there are the melodic tracks like “Urgency,” which compel you to hum along even on the first listen. The excellent diversity made it worth the wait for this hourlong journey to another planet.

Sturgill Simpson, “Cuttin’ Grass Vol. 1: The Butcher Shoppe Sessions”

I haven’t spent much time with Sturgill Simpson outside of 2014′s “Metamodern Sounds in Country Music,” and I can’t say I’ve ever listened to another bluegrass album all the way through. But these new cuts of songs picked from Simpson’s catalog are wonderfully enticing. Simpson puts the talents of his backing band front and center, and their harmonies and rhythms illuminate his vivd songwriting in new ways. It was a great introduction to the genre for me.

Fiona Apple, “Fetch The Bolt Cutters”

I got here after the hype, after the perfect 10, after all the year-end number-ones. Fiona Apple lives up to all of it. Her compositions are complex and evocative, the lyrics tender and biting at once. Her artistry is unsparing. The chorus to the title track is already getting stuck in my head, and I can’t wait to spend more time with this one.

Bea Troxel, “The Way That It Feels” (2017)

Almost a decade has passed since I first saw Bea Troxel play. She was in an incredibly talented trio with two of my high school classmates: Maeve Thorne (who has an entrancing solo EP of her own), and Rita Pfeiffer (the violinist on this record). They ended up winning my school’s battle of the bands, and I got to interview them for the student newspaper. Shortly after our senior year, they recorded an album that still outshines most of today’s indie folk. So I jumped at the chance to all three of them again in Brooklyn.

Troxel’s performance in particular was a revelation. I won’t ever forget how I fell into a trance as she picked away at “Talc,” which exemplifies her gift for natural metaphor. I haven’t stopped playing her record since, and it’s been a constant comfort throughout this year. Her voice is one of a kind, her songwriting is rich, and the compositions flow together beautifully. I can’t wait for more; in the meantime, “The Way That It Feels” will be on repeat.

Travis Scott, “Birds In The Trap Sing McKnight” (2016)

There’s been much ado about the brilliance of “Astroworld,” Travis Scott’s magnum opus, but I have a soft spot for his sophomore LP, where he reached the peak of the spare and heavy sound that started to take shape on “Owl Pharaoh.” There are plenty of sonic layers here, and the ordering of the tracks is a craft in itself — a series of peaks and valleys that glides from the haze of “beibs in the trap” to the climax of “goosebumps” and then into the cool waters of “pick up the phone.” It feels like Scott is guiding you to and from these destinations. The journey is, as The Weeknd might put it, “wonderful.”

Harmonium, “Harmonium” (1974)

One of my pandemic binges was “Letterkenny,” the sharp Ontario-set sitcom with top-notch banter and a great soundtrack full of indie hits and Canadian deep cuts. The fight scenes are elegantly choreographed, but so are the handful of sequences at the end of key episodes that reveal the show’s emotional bedrock. One such scene is set to Harmonium’s “Un musicien parmi tant d'autres” — the main characters are reveling in a bar with their Québécois pals, whom they’ve just helped beat up a rival group. As the song builds to its climactic chorus, leading man Wayne, surrounded by couples, realizes his longing for companionship. Another fight breaks out, but instead of joining in, Wayne makes his way through the slow-motion fray toward the woman he’ll propose to in the next season. (Their relationship later falls apart, but that doesn’t undercut this scene’s beauty.)

This is probably the first foreign-language album I’ve listened to in full, but all of it evokes that feeling for me — the joy of walking through the chaos to reach what’s really important. Not a bad sentiment for these times.

Bon Iver, “22, A Million”

To talk about this weird, dark and brilliant album, I need to talk about “715 - CR∑∑KS.” Everyone I’ve talked to about the third track on “22, A Million” either loves it or can’t stand it. I’m devoted to it to the extent that it was my most-played song on Spotify this year. It oscillates between tenderness and fear, between silence and explosions of sound. The lyrics are an epitome of Justin Vernon’s cryptic poetry. It’s isolated and spare and enthralling and beautiful in its own bizarre way — just like the rest of the album, which is rich with themes of persevering through the darkness in spite of the uncertainty about when the light will appear. Vernon is alone on “CR∑∑KS,” but he’s accompanied by a cacophony of his own voice. As alone as we might feel right now, there’s always someone else shouting through the darkness with us, even if we can’t see them.

#music #2020 #bon iver #harmonium #bea troxel #travis scott #lil uzi vert #sturgill simpson #fiona apple #fleet foxes #tame impala

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grrlinthefireplace · 5 years

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Hey so I’ve been seeing you post a lot about La Casa de Papel recently. What exactly is it? It looks kinda interesting.

Thank you so much for asking!

I am delighted beyond reason to have the opportunity to tell you - and by extension the entire world - why this show has cleared my skin, watered my crops, and legitimately healed my soul after this particularly soul-crushing season of Grimdark White Man Television almost broke me as a human being.

I will attempt to keep this as spoiler-free as I possibly can, because this is a show that should be experienced in the moment, but in a nutshell, La Casa de Papel is a heist show set in present-day Madrid which follows both a found family of thieves who rob the Royal Mint of Spain, and the law enforcement officials on the outside who are chasing them.

If that is enough for you, go right to your TV or computer, fire up the ol’ Netflix, and don’t waste any more time.

If, however, you need a little more, here are the top five things I flail about to every single person in my life to convince them they need to start watching this show like immediately and then come back and tell me all about it.

For visual flair, we’ll intersperse them with some gifs of ladies, because I know my audience.

5. character driving plot > plot driving character.

You know that infuriating thing lazy TV writers do where, in order to to hurry up and get to the big explosion or battle scene or dragon attack or whatever, which is the only bit they really care about, they handwave away the whole concept of motivation and make some character do something that any halfway-attentive viewer will immediately clock that they would never actually do?

There is none of that bullshit here.

In its simplest form, the plot of La Casa de Papel is as follows: a brilliant criminal mastermind devises a heist which cannot possibly go wrong, and then we proceed to watch all the ways in which it goes wrong.

This is a fantastic setup for an action story, made even more breathlessly exciting by strategic use of my favorite heist movie plot device (as perfected by Ocean’s Eleven): namely, “scene where it looks like our crime heroes have been outsmarted and are now threatened by a completely unforeseen disaster” immediately followed by “flashback to the team prepping for the heist where we learn that of course they prepared for this exact scenario.”

But from time to time, things do actually go wrong (as they must, or else there would be no story); and, when they do, it is never because you can tell a writer just wanted to write a scene where bullets go flying, and didn’t care how he got there. These characters are so clear, their behavior so consistent, that when gasp-worthy plot twists happen, they happen because of course that character, in this exact scenario, would do that exact thing.

I’m telling you, I came to this show for a ship (more on that in a minute) and I stayed for a swooning, heart-eyes writer crush on the impeccably-designed plot structure and characterization.

4. High stakes, low gore.

Tone-wise, on a sliding scale of Heist Film Intensity where a really fluffy episode of Leverage is a 1, Reservoir Dogs is a 10, and the Ocean’s franchise is somewhere in the 3-4 range, I would place La Casa at a 5 or a 6, which is perfect for me. I love action, suspense, drama and adventure, but I hate gratuitous violence (especially when it’s pointless and masturbatory and doesn’t contribute anything to the plot) and have a very low tolerance for blood and gore. So I kept waiting for the story to eventually take a hard left turn into Tarantino Land, until eventually it was all just one huge pile of dead bodies, and was genuinely surprised when it didn’t.

This is how I learned just how badly my brain has been fucked up by lazy showrunners who think shock deaths are the only way to raise stakes. During the first season of this show, before I had figured out that it was a Flawless Gem of Television Which So Far Has Not Once Disappointed Me, there were probably a dozen moments where I was absolutely convinced that some character was about to be gruesomely killed for shock value … and I was wrong every single time.

Reader, it was fucking wild.

Every single time I was convinced that person A was going to shoot person B in the head because blah blah maximum angst over here in this part of the story and then it will motivate person C to do this other thing, the show did the hard work of finding a smarter, more unexpected direction to take that character’s story. That means that when deaths do come along - and there are a couple - they feel genuinely earned, and they matter deeply to the story and to us.

3. I would die for these women.

This show loves women. Like it truly, authentically, uncompromisingly loves women in all our fucked-up messy glorious complexity. There are no “types” or cliches here; no one is forced to be only one thing. Fuck your one-dimensional Strong Female Characters, lazy writers.

For one thing, on many shows you might be lucky if you get maybe one mom who is given a personality and a story outside of motherhood. Often, on shows written by men, the fact of her motherhood diminishes her strength or her agency. On this show, nearly every one of the central female characters is both a mom and an action hero simultaneously. Seriously. By season 3 there are four different battle moms. They’re all different, they’re not all on the same side, they have different perspectives, and their role as mother impacts the story differently, but that’s the joy of having a whole lot of different kinds of women - no one has to be everything to everyone.

These women are complicated. They laugh, they cry, they crack dirty jokes, they get laid, they have babies, they fight, they make mistakes, they fall in love, they grow. Men pull sexist shit and they shut it the fuck down. Some of them have love stories, some of them don’t, but they are never defined by or triangulated around relationships with men. They get to have relationships with each other. All of them are excellent at their jobs.

Tokyo is the kind of hot mess antihero protagonist we’ve been watching middle-aged white men play for decades.

Allison is such a realistic teenage girl it’s genuinely painful to watch.

Monica has one of the best arcs I’ve ever seen on television, this is not a drill.

Alicia is terrifying. (A pregnant black ops interrogator! ON WHAT OTHER FUCKING SHOW!?!??)

Nairobi is unlike any other character you’ve seen on TV before; she’s got a little bit of Parker from Leverage, a little bit of Raven Reyes from The 100, but she’s entirely her own creature and you will fall in love with her instantly.

And Raquel. Oh, my love, my angel, my hero, Inspector Raquel Murillo. Love of my goddamn life. A fierce, kickass hostage negotiator swimming upstream against a tide of workplace misogyny who sometimes has to make the frustrating little male-appeasing compromises we all have to make to get through the workday. A beautiful, sexy, powerful heroine over 40 whose femininity isn’t diminished based on some bullshit notion that, for example, pairing your tough-bitch suit and gun holster with red toenails and a lacy blouse detracts from your strength. A loving mom and daughter who has to juggle raising a small child and caring for an aging parent with the stress of, you know, trying to stop the biggest robbery in the history of Spain. A domestic violence survivor (TW for those who need it; nothing is ever shown onscreen, but it’s discussed several times) who is given the space to discuss the things that have happened to her and how she has worked through them with such dignity, accuracy and respect that you can tell the writers did their homework.

This is a show where you can tell there are women in the writers’ room.

2. The Professor and Raquel. I don’t want to spoil a single thing for you here except to say that I myself was lured into this show by the promise of electric sexual chemistry between a criminal mastermind and the police inspector hunting him down, and my God I was not disappointed.

1. Love.

This show came into my life at a period where I was so weary of cynicism on television - so fucking furious at showrunners who dangle hope in front of us and then crush it, who only care about building anything if they can tear it down later, who treat love and fun and joy and hope and family and happiness like they’re intellectually lesser than grimdark nihilism with no soul - that I was honestly kind of broken by it. I was just so. fucking. tired. Tired of “the way we show this heroine is strong is to kill off her love interest.” Tired of “sorry but all this rape and murder is NECESSARY because of REALISM” (particularly rich when coming from shows featuring evil A.I.’s or dragons and ice zombies). Tired of getting invested in relationships - whether ships or friends or found families - only to realize that the show I was watching was always going to sacrifice character to force plot mechanics into place, and those relationships were never going to get the kind of care and focus I wanted them to get.

But that is not this show.

The single most revolutionary thing, to me, about La Casa de Papel - the thing that sets it apart from every other rollercoaster action thrill ride on television - is that every single thread of the plot is tied to love.

Every.

Single.

One.

Love of all different shapes and sizes - parents and children, friendships, doomed crushes (straight and queer), toxic exes, blossoming romances, siblings - and over it all, a deep, deep love for humanity.

The thing I said before, about how when things go wrong they go wrong in character-driven ways? It’s this. Love is why everything on this show happens. Love is what makes children want to live up to their parents and what makes parents fight to leave a better world for their children. Love is why deaths have stakes. Love is why we spend so much screentime lingering on small moments another show might ignore, like all the thieves at heist camp sitting down every night to have dinner together and argue about paella techniques. Love is what causes chaos in the middle of the heist; when there’s one person in the room you care about more than the others, you can get distracted and take your eye off the ball. Love is how your enemies can get to you, by leveraging or blackmailing the people who matter most, knowing that you’ll crack if they’re in danger. Love, gone wrong, causes toxic men to develop possessive and controlling behavior towards women. Love is how the Professor gets the idea for the heist in the first place. The plan is flawless on paper, but it doesn’t account for the human variable, and over and over again we see that relationships and connection and sex and family and love cause people to behave in unpredictable ways and throw the whole plan into chaos, which is what makes for a dynamic and compelling story.

How refreshing to see a show simply refuse to grant the oft-repeated premise that a show cannot have both high-octane thrills, and a big soft squishy heart, at the same time.

ANYWAY, I’VE TAKEN UP ENOUGH OF YOUR VALUABLE TV-WATCHING TIME, GO JUMP ON BOARD THIS TRAIN AND COME SCREAM ABOUT IDEALISTIC SPANISH ROBIN HOODS WITH ME, AND LET THE GOOD SHIP SERQUEL INTO YOUR LIFE, YOU WON’T BE SORRY

THANKS FOR COMING TO MY TED TALK

#lannister-slings-and-arrows #la casa de papel #money heist #from the inbox #i have a lot of feelings about this show #is this entire post just one long subtweet of 'the 100'#listen #maybe #i'm still pissed about kabby and will be for awhile #but legit this show was HEALING and CATHARTIC in some unexpected ways #yes virginia you CAN have functional loving stable relationships and high-stakes drama at the same time

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animebw · 4 years

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Binge-Watching: Demon Slayer, Episodes 1-3

And so we begin! In which I consider the similarities to a certain other blockbuster smash, Tanjirou looks for the best in everything, and Ufotable delivers on some of what I’ve come to expect from them.

Gurenge no Yumiya

Attack on Titan was the first “true” anime I ever watched beyond dubbed kids’ shows, and to this day, I still carry the biggest torch for it. It’s possibly the biggest adrenaline rush in all of modern media, an explosive rollercoaster of action and plot that serves up a twisted, riveting tale of broken warriors struggling to do right in a world where every path seems to end in blood. No, it’s not perfect, but there’s a reason it rose to became one of anime’s biggest franchises, and I eagerly await the final season whenever it airs. So it was only during the lore dump that opens the third episode of Demon Slayer that I realized what about this show felt so familiar: the story feels very much like Attack on Titan. A teenage boy sees his family slaughtered by the titular monsters and vows to get revenge, a path that leads him to try and enlist in an elite corps of specialized monster fighters alongside his one surviving sibling? I can almost see Eren giving Tanjirou the side-eye. True, they don’t follow the exact same formula- Demon Slayer is set in ancient Japan instead of a fictionalized Medieval Europe, and its tone has a prominently lighter touch- but the similarities are there regardless. I suppose it’s no wonder this show ended up being the smash hit it did; it’s following a playbook that’s proven to be capable of astounding popularity.

But therein lies the rub: compared to Attack on Titan, Demon Slayer ends up feeling like an inferior take on the same material. The opening scene with Tanjirou’s family really lays it on thick how perfect and happy everyone is, to the point where you can basically start counting the seconds before that idyllic life is brutally shattered. It’s not even that the loss is easy to see coming, it’s that in trying to make Tanjirou’s family as perfect as possible in order to maximize the tragedy of their murder, it loses the humanity that would make us care when they die. And even after they’re wiped out, Tanjirou’s analytic mind is already racing ahead to try and figure out who, or what, is responsible, and what he can do next, to the point where the supposed pain he should be feeling doesn’t really settle in. Compare this to how Eren’s family is portrayed in the first episode of Attack on Titan, and the difference is night and day. Eren and his mom argue, they butt heads, and while there’s still clearly love and compassion between everyone, they don’t always see eye to eye. They’re not a perfectly saccharine portrayal, and that makes them all far more human. Which means when the Titans come knocking at the door and Eren’s mom is turned into hamburger, it feels like there’s genuinely something at stake. And Eren’s traumatized reaction to losing his her- not to mention the jaw-dropping music and direction that accompanies her demise- hits you with the full force of that loss harder than pretty much any first episode ever has. Demon Slayer’s playing by familiar beats, but that wouldn’t be an issue if it could execute those beats as well as the shows it draws them from. And the fact that it falls short doesn’t inspire a lot of confidence in what else this show has to offer.

The Balance of Empathy

Thankfully, things start picking up fairly quickly after that first episode. Like I said at the outset, Demon Slayer might be cribbing a bit from Attack on Titan, but it’s definitely got its own identity, and the more it establishes that identity throughout the following episodes, the better a case it starts to make for itself. The most obvious difference is one of empathy; whereas Eren’s wrath and desire for revenge consumed him right from the outset, Tanjirou is defined by his desire to keep his humanity, and his doubts over whether or not he’ll be able to while still growing into a strong enough warrior to fight the monsters of the night. He’s the kind of guy who’s so committed to being nice to people that he’ll wrap right back around to being aggressively stubborn about it, even when it’s just paying change for a ratty old basket. But that empathy makes him a weakling in the eyes of the more experiences demon slayers he comes across. His doubts, his humanity, his reluctance to accept slaughter unquestioningly, they all mark him as a coward, a boy someone who doesn’t have the guts to make the hard choices and do what needs to be done. It’s something that needs to be stomped out of him if he’s to become someone capable of exacting his revenge.

But that kind of survival of the fittest mentality doesn’t suit the kind of person Tanjirou is. Even in the midst of all the pain he’s suffered, he still can’t help but feel empathy for everyone else’s trauma. There’s a particular moment when he’s hiking up a mountain after his coach, and he considers how Nezuko’s had to be patient her entire life, sacrificing countless personal desires for the sake of her family. And now that she’s a demon, she may never get the chance to live the free life she deserves to live. That’s a really powerful sentiment, and it speaks to the empathy that sets Tanjirou apart from the older men trying to turn him into a cold-blooded killer. He knows there’s more to this path than bloodshed; Nezuko was shedding tears for him even after being turned into a demon. And faced with the choice of giving into hunger and devouring humans or protecting her brother from harm, she always chooses the latter. If there’s still humanity he can reach in her, how can he not at least try to do the same for the enemies he faces? That’s a strong hook to throw a wrinkle into this supposed revenge mission, and I’m definitely looking forward to see how it develops from here.

Aliens, I Tell Ya

So with all that said about story and character, how’s the action side of things hold up? This is studio Ufotable, after all, they know there way around some good visual spectacle. Well, in all honestly, it’s a bit of a mixed bag for me. I’m not the biggest fan of the show’s art style; the highly stylized character designs feel out of place in the more realistic backgrounds, especially whenever it goes full unnaturally smooth CG for the big sweeping shots and smoke effects. It leads to a disconnect between the show’s two sides; I enjoy how expressive and cartoonish Tanjirou can be, but positioned in such a serious-feeling environment, it feels far less natural than, say, the many wonderful comic book faces of My Hero Academia. Also, the moment-to-moment pacing can kinda drag in places; the pauses between lines of dialogue are just a little too long to be comfortable, and the blocking of non-action scenes can feel pretty static. On the other hand, whenever the action does heat up, it’s definitely a blast to watch, taking advantage of the 3D space as the camera swoops and snaps for maximum momentum and the characters clash and ricochet with dynamic, sharp animation. I feel like it’s at its best when it leans into the goofier possibilities of its premise: Nezuko kicking that one guy’s head off like a soccer ball was a goddamn riot, and playing the headless corpse’s twisted body horror for laughs was a welcome bit of gruesome fun. Not to mention Tanjirou finally finishing him off with a goddamn headbutt; good lord that had me chuckling for a spell.

So all in all, while Demon Slayer isn’t really a bad show thus far, I see countless opportunities where it has the potential to be better. Will it rise to that challenge? Only one way to find out: keep watching and see where it brings us. Welcome to the ride, my friends. Here’s hoping it’s gonna end up a good one when all is said and done.

Odds and Ends

-Alright, the sharp cut to Nezuko vanishing from his arms was a chilling touch.

-”My little sister’s turned into a mole.” Okay, she’s adorable.

-”But that doesn’t mean I’m suddenly athletic enough to dodge every one of them!” pfft

-”500 more!” rip Tanjirou’s arm muscles

And with that, we’re on our way! This is gonna be an interesting experience, and I look forward to sharing it with you all. See you next time!

#anime #the anime binge-watcher #tabw #demon slayer #kimetsu no yaiba

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alchemist-shizun · 5 years

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As expected, Dealing with intrusive thoughts is now one of my favorites

Here I come with almost all of my reactions on the episode, even though I tagged the spoiler warnings I put everything under the cut just in case. Enjoy the emotional rollercoaster while I'll probably go and rewatch it again.

Okay kinda expected one or two of the warnings but all of them together what is gonna happen???? (Though they make sense after reading the title)

HELLO FRESH BACK AGAIN

"I'm awesome and I can do this" there goes my boy. *said boy falls flat on the floor* ...come on

I felt that yawn bc I stayed up all night waiting for the video but it dropped at 8 am, I'm an idiot who should've gotten more sleep

"help me" why is he such a mood "everything is going wrong in my life" same but YOU SHOULDN'T SAY THAT LET ME HUG YOU

They're all sinking up so fast god I missed my bois. Also the general awkwardness of Virge and Pat, greeeeat something will go wrong

Virgil just ignoring everything and touching the railing, a mood

ALSO PLEASE LET ROMAN IN THE SITUATION

SECRET SECRETS ARE NO FUN TELL ME NOW OR ELSE WE'RE DONE

wait why does Ro want to be deeply troubled- man are you okay-

LOGAN'S HERE

"your most extreme reaction is an eyebrow raise" "FALSEHOOD" "I stand corrected" omfg

"what are you ta- what are you talking- what are you talking about?" I loved that whole take it made me feel complete

"Look I barely got any sleep" this can apply to a lot of us and I love just how we're all always like "TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF" but in the end this is where we all end up anyway

Okay I'm very curious about these troubling thoughts though

"so sushi" FUCCC I DIED RIGHT THERE

"Don't act like that was an accident" "everybody, Virgil. Let's give it up for the Purp Man" these speak for themselves. Also the purp man is my new fav nickname and I'm gonna use it.

4:17 Patton is adorable bye

"if you continue to push this we're going to end up in really dangerous territory" AND THAT'S WHERE THE TENSION STARTED TO BUILD UP

great flick

"am I delirious or is this the funniest video I've ever made" I felt that

YOU HIGH-JOCKED

okay but when Thomas starts disassociating I also feel really weird like as if there was something blocking my own hearing for real?? And not just the audio edited like that?? Maybe I'm just too tired

WHAT WHO WHHH first intrusive thought making its way what is gonna happen

OH MY GOD ROMAN WATCH OUT ALSO THAT'S DEFINITELY A NEW DARK SIDE OR SMTH LIKE THAT

W HO THE FUCKLKDSL IS THAT A MOUSTACHE IS THAT GLITTER WHAT IN THE WORLD IS HE WEARING WHAT IS HE DOING THERE PLEASE- okay but he looks crazy af I like that

"-evIL" "-SHOW UP"

First time I watched the scene where Ro gets knocked out I literally just screamed "ROMAN" in a high pitched sound I was shook wtf my bOY

Patton and Thomas's yells in unison plus "YOU KILLED HIM" I just I JUST

"Ah, he's the Duke" "....... boo" AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Okay but his voice is so on point with his character portrayal he's so weird it's awesome?

SONG SONG SONG and oh goodness the visuals I can't fathom how much editing work must have gone through this, they're all so talented.

"aunt patty naked" A G AI N??

"IM GONNA WHIP YOUR BUTT"

a snaKE IT'S DECEIT oh my these silouhettes are so great this is my favorite scene

this is gonna be stuck in my head all day

THE COOL MIRROR EDIT.

god i hate him so much already but i'm super intrigued he's so chaotic the whole team made a wonderful job i'll never stop saying this

"i'm really stupid right now" just how much out of context relatable content are we going to get on this fine day?

omg the dark version of creativity, which can be associated with intrusive thoughts, that's very clever

THE JUICY STUFF DANCE

"Repression can be very bad indeed" I mean he's right tbh it leads to never solving the problem at all

GO LOGAN GO HAVE YOUR TIME TO SHINE FINALLY i missed him

"i can't hear youuuuuu" much like "I don't understand what you're saying I don't know anything about words" THE DARK SIDES ARE ALL SASSY LITTLE BITCHES

pattonnnn did a real good job

THE BRAVE HANDSOME UNBEATABLE ROMAN and mashed potatoes

"scary" and Virgil just gives Thomas a look idk I live on the little details (Im ten minutes into the vid and look how long this post already is)

GEE Remus (already using his name bc it's shorter) looking so offended at the label and then pointing out it should be a Virgil problem whAT DOES THIS MEAN IM SHAKING

WHY WOULD HE BE DECEIT AGAIN IM DYING. "Idk if you guys can tell but I'm a little silly"

"then why are you lying" no everybody I don't need angst

THE BLACK AND THE WHITE THEORY I SAW GOING AROUND good job to whoever thought of that

JOAN

the forbidden dance

INTO A BUTTHOLE WHAT IS IT WITH HIM AND BUTTHOLES

there u go thomas said it too

haters gonna hate hate hate hate hate FHDSLAKLFD

irresponsible parenting, Logan completing the parental unit of the sides

"maybe there's hope for you after all!" me looking at all my wips

REMUS' LAUGH IS PERFECT. also "BITCH WHAT IS *YOUR* DEAL"

"you've never been one to soften the truth" OH BOI HERE WE GO

"do we have some case of brain swap???" I legitly said "maybe" in unison with Patton the first time

Vee pls stop putting Thommy boy down he's having a bad time

Logan trying to put some sense into the situation is my only spark of hope for this to turn back good

REMUS IS SO DRAMATIC

That lick was ....... let's pretend it never happened

"you know who can help us with that???" DECEIT'S SONG COMING UP that was great, imagine the chaos that the duo would create

"THATS WHAT REPRESSION IS?"

gasp Remus trying to make Virgil angry at Logan shall not stand DON'T PUT THEM AGAINST ONE ANOTHER HE'S JUST TRYING TO HELP

"you all are not listening to Thomas" this is the development I needed

"you're just para-" and he cuts himself. You all know what I'm talking about. Foreshadowing probably? This happened too back then when Roman was almost calling him the same. And then Virge looks so hurt I- "thank you for being on guard" that made me want to cry idk

the whole speech Logan gave? Pure gold. That was perfect.

HE SAID FIGURATIVELY *CLAP CLAP CLAP*

"UH RECORD SCRATCH?"

"does this make me cool?" djslagrkglhf also the teeth thing right after what the

... the deodorant eating ...

DUKEY

The first time I watched I thought his name was spelled Remis that's how dumb my Italian ass is

Still I love his name bc I'm a nerd for ancient culture, ESPECIALLY Roman (and ancient Greek but it isn't mentioned here) and I love the little thing they did with both Creativity names, super clever and very much liked on my part.

"I would never hide anything from you" and he looks at Virgil JUST ALL THIS FORESHADOWING

LOGAN SHOWING HIS TEETH BACK UP

"how about you shut up" Roman what the hecc man

THAT THING INTO LOGANS HEAD UNSETTLED ME A BIT

what are they doing to him today let him rest

double blow

"can we logic our way out of that?" everybody nodding was so pure

"shit"

THAT FUCKING JUMPSCARE I'M SORRY WHAT THE FU

"not all thoughts are meaningful"

He's go- no he's back again

THE CALLBACK MENTION AND PATTONS REACTION... probable foreshadowing to what Joan said about there being a part two of SvS?

"When are you actually gonna jump out of a moving car I've been bringing it up for years" so it's not just me..?

"it is okay if the thought happens to cross your mind"

"everything is okay" I'm going to cry I needed that

I love how Logan touches the topic that there is no problem in seeking help from therapists. There's a lot to say on this, but I was really glad that was pointed out since the are a lot of stereotypes on the matter

why did Virgil look like he was about to cry

Patton I love you

Thomas going to rest is what everyone wanted to see

Virgil confronting Remus I'm living you're doing amazing sweetie

"you tickle me emo"

"it was just like old times" then Pat and Lo's looks in this essay I will

ROMAAAAN

VIRGILS SMILE

"YOU'RE ALIVE"

"I LOVE YOU" ME TOO!! ME TOO ME TOO

"are you good?" "are you hurt at all?" I love when the sides look out for each other

"I'm sorry Logan" right through the heart. Another development.

I need y'all to look at Virgil in this exact second because. he.

that's my point.

All those smiles while Logan's talking are making me alive

"No seriously, you're ... really ... cool" I started tearing up right here. Twice. And then Logan sinks down cause he's not at all used to this and he's feeling t h i n g s please keep on being appreciated you deserve it

Also Patton always learning from his mistakes and understanding them when he does something wrong or he thinks in the wrong direction, that's something I think a lot of people need to learn, including myself. Like, it's okay to be wrong and make mistakes, just do your best to make sure you're improving yourself afterwards, instead of dwelling on it too much

"I don't like him" makes two of us

"Soooo you have a brother?" oh boy

The m i r r o r it's making me cry

"He's gone now and he's never coming back!" "I don't think that's-" "BYEE" what was all that talk about repression for if you contiNUE TO DO THIS ROMAN please I beg of you let us hELP YOU he's making me die inside

Oh boi the big moment. I already expected a bomb to drop since Virgil was the last one remaining.

"You okay buddy?" "Huh?" op somehow was already found crying

"I'm a little disappointed in myself" istg all that foreshadowing mixed with me wanting to hug him

The music picking up tension, this is poetic cinema let me tell you

I noticed how he calls them "the others", all these tiny details is what I'm living for

"I should know better" I couldn't beLIEVE IT, also how he seemed to be so frustrated made something inside me break

the pause and then "Because I was one of them", the music stops for a second, a little second in which you can hear my distant screaming "GOSH HE SAID IT IT WAS TRUE"

Thomas is speechless and just stares at him while the music picks up again and then Virgil's sigh and expression sinking down like "there you have it. that's the truth. and you can't do anything about it" he looks so defeated I'm breaking down.

Did I already mention poetic cinema? I just love angst and this scene was perfect

First time watching I, too, barely understood anything I was listening to in the last parte because all of that was really a lot to take in.

"Those thoughts that you may have thought do not define you"

"[the thought] may simply be that we are really okay"

"Go to bed!" me

no im not in the mood for food because for some unfathomable reason I had anxiety before the video dropped yay me

WHY ARE U DRINKING RED WINE WITH THAT DISH

GAVIN BEST BOY EVER

and last but not least: are you fucking serious Remus

THERE'S A SNAKE IN MY BUTT FANDFKJL

I didn't expect this topic at all and I am so glad it was talked about, thankfully my intrusive thoughts do not bother me as much as I realized other people's do. And I never saw anyone talking about this before, which is why it makes this video so important. I saw a tweet recently about someone saying that it is okay if you think about weird things, the important is that you never act on them, that's what makes you a good person. But I think this video really explains it far better and I never realized how common something like this was? So yeah another time in which I've been educated and couldn't be happier about it. These people really are bringing light to the world gah I LOVE THEM.

oKAY guess I'm done this was a wild ride and yeah I tend to point out EVERYTHING, so here you have it, as I already mentioned if you feel the need to geek out too, I'm here for ANYBODY! (pls I have no friends)

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starnatural0667 · 5 years

Text

Um so wrote a thing....at 5 in the morning...please read?

So, I have this problem with Dean’s NOT farewell tour. Maybe other people do too, so maybe this can give you a reason as to explain. I should mention this has some destiel exposing? Questioning? Perhaps, answering? In it. For starters, let me draw your attention back to season 11, specifically the season finale: Alpha and Omega. We all know the basis of the plot for that episode being Dean sacrificing himself to save the world from Amara. We also saw the whole farewell tour Dean did in the cemetery. Bearing this in mind, this is what I will be using to compare with Season 14, and more specifically, episodes 11 and 12.

Dean’s plan to avoid Michael taking over and burning the world is to build a special box and sink to the bottom of the ocean, never to be seen again. However, its Dean choice not to go on a farewell tour that…bothers me. As viewers know, and as I’ve just resurfaced, Dean sacrificing himself on previous occasions actually does include a farewell tour; See Seasons 5 and 11. So why would Dean have such a problem with doing it now? This is where my issues begin to involve. You might be saying “Oh, maybe he’s just tired of saying goodbye to the people he cares about.” Trust me, I hear you. I definitely believe Dean doesn’t want to have to say goodbye anymore, evident from him stating in 14x12 that he’s “not good with the whole big goodbyes.” However, isn’t saying goodbye to your family a hell of a lot bigger than saying goodbye to your best friend and “son”? Hopefully, you now understand my problem with the whole no farewell tour. Dean is a very complex character. He hides most of his emotions nearly all the time, but the ones he always, always hides are his feelings and his neglection to being vulnerable. Prophet and Loss was an episode full of emotional rollercoasters, many being seen from Dean. You can tell by watching the episode that he is, quite rightly, scared to carry out his plan and emotional about leaving his family. We have the whole reminiscing about he and Sam when they were younger and specifically Dean apologizing to Sam for not always being there. Now riddle me this, if Dean can have this emotional talk with Sam where they’re both almost reduced to tears by the end, why can’t he say goodbye to Cass and Jack? “Because Sam’s his brother!”, and “Sam’s the only other person apart from Mary that he told his plan to!” This reaffirms my point about how honestly ridiculous Dean’s no farewell tour situation is! If there is anyone in Dean Winchester’s entire life who could convince him not to do something, it would be Sam (See end of 14x12). So, the fact that Dean trusts Sam with his plan and expects him not to be convinced otherwise shows that he absolutely will not change his mind. It shows that Dean believes that Sam cannot change his mind.

Now, to fully understand the weight of my problem, we have to look at reasons as to why Dean didn’t mention his plan or say goodbye to Cass and Jack. I’ll begin with Jack first. I am going to mainly focus on the beginning of season 14, or when Jack gets sick. He and Dean go on road trip so Jack can “experience the life.” This episode also gives us a heartfelt moment between Dean and Jack which provides reason that they each think of the other as family and love one another. Skip back to Dean’s NOT farewell tour, where he doesn’t tell Jack or say goodbye. Why? Why would Dean not say goodbye to Jack? He was prepared to help Jack accept his growing sickness and eventual death…so why didn’t he plan on saying goodbye?

Now here comes the really fun part! Getting to investigate why Dean wouldn’t tell or say goodbye to Castiel. Dean’s known Cass a while now…10 years to be exact. They’ve had their ups and downs as all characters on a Tv show do. Cass in widely regarded as Dean’s best friend and don’t forget that profound bond! My point is, Castiel is family to Dean.

Remember that season 11 parallel I mentioned? Let’s expand…Dean says his farewells to everyone in the cemetery, before going to his presumed death. Dean’s farewell to Cass is sad but beautiful, and one of many peoples favourite destiel scenes. After a hug, Cass says he could go with Dean which Dean answers no, but instead asks Cass to take of Sam because he will be broken up. The point I truly want to get across here is that Dean can say goodbye to Cass. Yes, he’s emotional about it and we have a “thank you, for everything” line the kills me every time but…he still says goodbye. Fast forward to Prophet and Loss and…you get nothing. Dean doesn’t mention his plan to Cass or say goodbye, not even a phone call. Instead, we thankfully have Sam relaying information to Cass. Bless your soul Sam. Why can’t Dean say goodbye? It’s not like Cass can magically transport to Dean and try and stop him. There would be absolutely nothing Cass could do…other than talk Dean out of it. But hey! I’ve already said that the only person that could ever make Dean change his mind is Sam…right? To us viewers, most of us know that Sam just has that ability to stop Dean from doing something stupid, and for a while I think Dean knew that too. However, I believe the most recent episode showed us that Dean doesn’t think Sam can stop him. No matter how much trust Dean has in Sam and no matter how much they love each other, Dean doesn’t think Sam can change his mind.

This is now where I turn into a “DelUsioNAl destiel shipper who reads into things waaaay too much;)” Perhaps the reason Dean didn’t tell Castiel was because he thought that Cass could talk him out of it. Maybe the reason Dean thought this is because he realizes that something has changed between them. Maybe Dean didn’t want to say goodbye because of all the times he’d done it, this could have been the one where he’d actually say what he felt; what he now realizes concerning his feelings which would make it even harder to carry out his plan. You may remember back in season 5 when Dean was planning on saying yes to Michael, Cass was having none of it! We all saw how Castiel, Angel of the Lord, beat Dean Winchester up because he was going to give into Heaven’s orders. We all know the lines Castiel spoke in that ally, on that rainy night. But still, Dean planned on saying yes to Michael. Not until the capture of Adam (who?) did Dean detour from his plans. Looking back on this, the parallels between seasons 5 and 14 are quite strong, but it appears the meaning has changed. There is plenty of evidence in the most recent seasons to show how Dean and Cass’s relationship has evolved. There’s enough to suggest that Dean himself has noticed that change, even if he doesn’t admit it. We all know that for almost the entirety of Cass’s decisions made on the show, they heavily revolve around one thing; Dean Winchester. I think all destiel shippers know that the first acknowledgement of anything truly foundational in Dean and Castiel’s relationship, was because of choices Cass has made. Plus, we have proper evidence to suggest that Castiel truly loves Dean from way back in the 80s of the show. You can say we have evidence for Dean as well, however, I personally feel that that evidence didn’t present itself until the later seasons of the show; ergo, seasons 10-14. To sum it up, the only reason there would be a difference between Dean’s goodbye to Cass in season 11 and his goodbye in season 14 is if something had changed in their relationship. Something that Dean see’s and understands which would affect his choices regarding his plan. Which is why I choose this to be the reason for Dean not saying goodbye.

In conclusion, I still don’t really understand the reason for Dean not telling Cass…and Jack about his plan or saying goodbye, however as you know, I have come up with some great reasons as to explain this bizarre phenomenon. I guess realistically I should just blame the writing…or maybe thank it.

Alas…my rambling is over.

#destiel #supernatural #spn spoilers #dean winchester #castiel #supernatural 14x12 #deancas #spn prophet and loss #help me #please give it read?#spn meta #destiel meta #spn #spn 14x12

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five-wow · 5 years

Text

alriGHT so i watched 9x11! and i wasn’t blown away by any means but i kind of liked it? or maybe i just think so because i’d prepared myself for even worse things? so here’s my semi-liveblog:

steve and danny reunion!! it was good!!! that hug was oddly bro-ish in its constant backslapping (steve’s hurting, so just hold him, danny??? let yourself be held for a second, steve???), but the words were less no homo, at least

steve’s been there for a month, whoa

and then catherine comes out of the house and i was like, oh gosh, i’m a little scared of what they’re doing here

but... they were torturing a guy inside. they’re not even pretending that was a lovenest somehow they were just. straight up torturing a guy for information

then they’re at the airport getting ready for the plane and they meet up with junior and wade gutches, and look, i love catherine, okay? i’m not a huge fan of cath/steve at this point in the series (meaning i’d love for them to still be friends but i want the writers to please, please let all romantic connotations in that relationship finally die), but catherine, i love. but the way she’s acting all familiar with junior and wade suddenly? that was so awkward to me and i liked her “call me catherine” thing towards junior in principle but it was just... really awkward (and i’m not even completely sure why, but i think it just grates on me that this is a way that they’re making it look like she’s been involved in steve’s life when she seriously hasn’t for a long time. it’s unfair to almost all the characters)

then they’re ON the plane and steve has this flashback to his first night with greer and obviously she’s bad, we know she’s bad, but ??? they’re really cute here

except for the bit where she tried to get him to join the cia. that’s not steve. just let him eat his chinese and smile for once without trying to push him in some way pls.

and then the flashback ends and catherine asks him where he went mentally and he didn’t actually say “to that time i had sex with the woman i now hold responsible for the tragic and traumatic death of yet another parent figure in my life” but oh boy

(side note, at this point i’m very confused about if they’re trying to give us steve/cath vibes or not. on the one hand there’s the way she appeared in the episode and the things they made danny say about playing house, but on the other here’s steve, sitting literally right next to catherine, lost in thought about his sex-filled weekend with another woman, and they made cath the one to ask him about his thousand yard stare which... i don’t know how to interpret that)

adam: “i still remember getting love letters in high school.” tani: “oh, of course you do. look at you, that face, those dimples. i’d have been all over that in ninth grade.” fdjkfdjk i loved this. (and their case so far seems pretty interesting as a sideplot! it’s just that i can’t pay as much attention to that because i’m trying to keep this commentary away from war and peace lengths)

i love that harry’s first line in this entire episode (and the way he greets steve) is a warning about how terrible the cocktails at the bar are. that’s definitely harry

“oh and um, for the purposes of this operation, you two are married.” oh NO harry what are you doing

danny’s extremely unsmiling “mazzel tov” gives me life though

okAY harry is really giving me a rollercoaster ride here. now he’s saying steve looks “absolutely magnificent in that tux”, making cath say that steve’s spoken for and danny accuse harry of being a kiss ass. ??? SO much to unpack there omg

okay so in the end this undercover as married thing that steve and cath do lasted for two seconds and was really just slapped on. it served barely any purpose and i’m relieved they didn’t linger on it because i never wanted it in the first place, but it was also super weird, because if you’re going to put something like that in your canon episode, then at least do something with it. read some fic, h50 creators, and learn how it’s done

catherine asks steve how he’s doing! and that’s really good because people should ask him that more often, except, uh, why is she doing it now? i get that this might have been easiest to work in for the writers, but... she was already at the ranch when danny turned up, so i’m assuming she’d been with steve for a couple of days at least of that month that he’d been there? so... she decided to just wait until right in the middle of their mission to try to talk to him about his crippling feelings of guilt over joe’s death??? why, writers???

greer once said unfair things about steve to cath (out of pure manipulative jealousy, it seems) and all catherine has to say about it is that it was before she and steve started dating and that she didn’t believe anything greer said anyway and that’s good. let’s keep the unnecessary drama out of this (for once)

djfkd danny’s role in this episode (after that very first scene) seems to just be “sit/stand next to people who are competently hacking stuff, look serious, and say maybe two lines of quips”. first with harry, now with catherine in some van

um. this whole storming of the building and killing a bunch of people to avenge joe’s death is an unsanctioned mission they’re undertaking because it’s personal, right? that’s why it’s such a weird team with no backup? so... when the police turned up (even if it was as a favor to harry), shouldn’t they have arrested all of them, including cath and danny? haven’t they been doing a bunch of illegal stuff?

i did like the twist that harry’s random pretty woman in the city that he alluded to earlier is actually a super competent police woman, though. that’s nice.

this scene all the way at the end is where steve is wearing joe’s super soft looking warm jacket!!! i love him in that. it looks so comfortable.

aaaand wade is telling steve to find himself a good woman. why is everyone always so eager to meddle in his love life omg

wade also says that steve won’t follow wade’s advice to give retirement some thought? which is pretty hilarious after steve and danny spent a year and a half misguidedly trying to open a restaurant specifically as a retirement plan. but no, steve has never once thought about retirement, not ever

wait oh god “you still don’t know, do you? joe wasn’t just a father figure... my mentor. he brought you into my life, catherine.” ... are we doing this? we’re doing this. it was all going so well until now.

a flashback! that we’ve already seen once! of joe telling steve to ask cath out! oh god!

oh. but. there’s also this new bit of steve in the hospital after his mission with joe, calling cath to ask her out for the first time, and that’s kind of sweet. that’s okay. (as long as it stays in the past.)

WAIT. catherine: “what took you so long?” listen, this might be just me, but i associate those exact words heavily with that episode in s7 where danny and grace are taken hostage at grace’s school dance and steve rescues them and then, as they’re walking off into the sunset, danny goes “what took you so long, huh” just after he invited steve for a hug, a kiss, or to pick a base. hmmmmmm.

oh!! the flashback ends and we get catherine close to crying, saying she’s glad steve took joe’s advice back then, and steve agrees and they hug and then she just... leaves. there’s nothing that feels like “let’s start our thing back up” in what she does, she’s just glad that they had that time together and she says she’ll see him next time and that’s it? THAT’S ALL I WANT.

are they going to ruin it by making steve think about joe’s more recent advice to find himself a woman and making him associate that with catherine too? they probably are, aren’t they

THEY DID NOT. WHOA. not yet, anyway, but for the moment i’m 100% satisfied.

no, i’m not, there’s a lot of things about this episode that i missed (danny was just window dressing? wade and cath got a goodbye scene but harry didn’t? frank’s daugther appeared literally five seconds and i thought we’d see at least very slightly more of her than that but apparently that was all? the case back on hawaii got wrapped up really suddenly?) BUT i’m still very, very relieved on the whole by the way they handled the steve & cath thing. it could still be read as romantic, but it wasn’t explicitly so. for the most part they acted like exes who are friends and that’s just. that’s just exactly what it want for them??? i’m glad.

#h50 #i have very complicated feelings about steve and catherine but i'm mostly okay with how their interactions went down in this episode?#which surprises me a lot tbh #but i understand now why everyone wanted more danny!!! danny was barely present and it's very sad #*#9.11

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timespanner · 5 years

Text

Earth. They called it that, because they were standing on it.

Putting together some (too many?) words on The Dan in the High Castle, before it falls off the iPlayer in just a little over a week.

(Speaking of which, you might want to have your say on the future of the iPlayer - you know, just in case you’d like to stop your favourite shows from disappearing into the void after a measly thirty-day time span.)

Here be spoilers. Consider yourselves warned.

If there is one good thing that’s come out of having to wait two long years for Time Spanner 2, it’s that we all time-travelled to Martin Gay’s future in the meantime. (Everything’s a very slow time machine, if you think about it.)

The new episode starts right where we left off, only with Laika the Dead Space Dog doing a quick recap of - well, you know, everything. It’s been two years after all, and the pilot episode’s no longer on the iPlayer (though you might want to try here, if you haven’t already.)

As Laika quite rightly points out, the exact logic of the Angel’s plan - tasking our feckless hero with stealing the Time Spanner, and then using it to bring back some unspecified technology from the future in order to save the world - has yet to be tested. Even more so when the Angel reluctantly admits to the true nature of said technology - a flesh-eating death laser, which she claims ‘is to be used only for good’. (Which, for some reason, keeps reminding me of that JFSP sketch featuring a young Hitler, and a time machine. Oh, well.)

As the story develops, the Angel seems to be gradually losing her aura of aloofness and power - not only does she appear somewhat bumbling at times, but she also sounds a tad jealous of Gabbie’s role in Martin’s life, such as it may be. We also find out what happened at Kraken Self-Storage: the explosion towards the end of the previous episode was caused by the Metatron, who blew up Mr Kraken’s scrying glass from the Heaven’s end - yikes, indeed - and there are now factions of angry Not-People (angels? some other supernatural beings?) after our Angel/Muse/Lady Wizard, and possibly Martin Gay, soon.

(I am aware I’m most likely reading too much into this, but I find it quite intriguing that the aforementioned factions call themselves ‘The Usual’. You know, what with Martin mentioning he’s ‘the usual, thirty-eight’ in the pilot episode - apparently forgetting he’s a whole two years older than that. But hey, this is probably just me, so you might as well ignore this bit.)

We also learn that, along with granting its bearer the power to travel through all of time and space, the Time Spanner also serves as a means of communication between the transcendental dimension and the physical plane; either by functioning as some sort of transceiver implanted straight into your brain, or by turning any old mirror into an otherworldly version of FaceTime - provided that you mark said mirror with a sigil, that is.

(Apparently, any and all sigils would do, but for some reason the Angel sees fit to start with a swastika, only to end up having to hastily reassure a rightfully indignant Martin that she definitely, definitely didn’t give the Time Spanner to Hitler. Which is even funnier in the context of the episode’s title being a reference to The Man in the High Castle, as I believe we can safely assume.)

And yes, the future. As rubbish as 2018 looks to Gabbie and Martin’s eyes - and heaven knows they’re not that wrong - things are not as bleak as they appear to be at first glance. The Nazis didn’t take over, or at least, Dan(iel) Kraken didn’t - he may have been made a Lord, but his overzealous Yellowcoats are a mere private security force, and the titular ‘high castle’ turns out to be nothing more than a flat in Vauxhall.

(While it’s true that I do not know enough about South London to fully appreciate the extent of this joke, the whole ‘that’s Vauxhall’ exchange is one of my favourite parts of the entire episode. Lord Kraken and Gabbie are truly wonderful throughout this scene, especially when addressing one another - and may I just say, David Mitchell and London Hughes did a pretty amazing job there, which is really quite something when you consider how talented the entire cast is.)

And here we find Mr Mergatroid as well, who’s apparently been in the service of Lord Kraken for the past two years. Oh, and it (he?) has also been holding on to Martin’s shoes for all this time, which means our hero can finally stop wandering about shoeless; and while he’s not getting future shoes like Gabbie suggested at the beginning, he’s still getting his past shoes back from the future, which is - significant, somehow?

(On a somewhat related note, how did Lord Kraken successfully locate Gabbie’s phone - in the future? Do phones still work when you suddenly jump two years ahead of when you last paid your bill? Am I just fixating on an entirely irrelevant detail for no reason?)

So, yeah. Daniel Kraken may be little more than a rich (and possibly disturbed) individual, but he does seem to be perfectly fine with using force to extract the truth of what Martin saw on the other side of his magic mirror. Which in turn leads to some interesting questions about the morality of Gabbie’s choices at the end: Kraken is not lying when he says he didn’t kidnap Martin two years ago, but he did technically hold him there against his will, and while he never had the time to use force, it’s reasonable to assume that he would have done - does he deserve to be arrested, then? (To be fair, I’m just as terrible at this kind of question as Martin is when asked what he wants to do, so let’s just leave it at that.)

But let’s not jump ahead of ourselves. We finally get another very interesting piece of information, which is that the Angel is not only capable of opening a portal that will bring you back to the real world, but also a portal to any (?) chosen point in time and space. (Incidentally, if on November 3rd, 2016 Martin skipped eight hours of his life to get to six o’clock in the afternoon, that means the first episode took place around, let’s say, ten in the morning? Well, its ending, anyway.) At least now we know how on earth she expected Martin to be able to bring those ‘ideas’ (or weapons, as they may be) back from his world’s future, when she spent the better part of the first episode claiming that you cannot travel backwards in time. (Never mind that Martin proved her wrong by travelling all the way back to the Big Bang, and then out the other side. Cool.)

And then - those final five minutes are such an emotional rollercoaster that I was left reeling in the aftermath of my first listen. The Time Spanner’s broken, so the only way they have to go back to 2016 is through the portal 'Bridget’ opens up for them; only then she claims she will remain trapped in the mirror until the sigil is erased, and my goodness, that moment when Martin volunteers to stay behind - well. (I’m so proud of him, I tell you.)

Martin’s trapped, and then he isn’t, as 2018 Gabbie shows up in a Yellowcoats uniform, and rescues him. I’m so here for this now twenty-two-year-old badass coming in to save the day, and that’s even without taking into account how much ‘time travel story where character A has to wait for n years to be reunited with character B’ is my cup of tea.

(Speaking of which, might I interest you in this lovely and quite touching audio play written by Peter Davis of Monster Hunters fame? That’s the first thing that came into my mind right after this whole scene played out, anyway.)

And then - oh my days, that ending.

“But Gabbie, the Time Spanner’s broken.”

“Everything’s broken. Fix it! Oh, sorry, am I sounding old and grumpy?”

“Everyone gets hopeless.”

“Ha! Who said that? Was it someone amazing?”

That’s one of the most inspiring, life-affirming bits of writing I’ve listened to in a long time. We can but hope that not only Martin and Gabbie will succeed in making the world a better place, but that we the listeners will somehow do, too.

#Time Spanner #Time Spanner 2 #The Dan in the High Castle #meta #episode discussion #spoilers #seriously - back away if you haven't listened to the episode yet

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recentanimenews · 5 years

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THE GREAT CRUNCHYROLL NARUTO REWATCH Crashes the Chunin Exams in Episodes 64-70!

Come and come all to THE GREAT CRUNCHYROLL NARUTO REWATCH! I'm Nicole Mejias, and I'll be your host this week as we make our way through all 220 episodes of the original Naruto. Last week, we covered episodes 57-63, and we continue this week with episodes 64-70.

So the Chunin exam finally comes to a close in an explosive way, as Sasuke and Gaara face off! This was quite the rollercoaster batch of episodes, with the debut of Sasuke's Chidori attack, the hints about Sasuke's true abilities to power up, Gaara's real strength, and then... the exam ends with the attack of Sand on Leaf. It seems like Orochimaru felt Gaara going out of control was the perfect time to hatch his plan, and now everything is in chaos. As we finish up for this batch, we start getting some truly confusing resurrection powers utilized to give us 2 on 1 Hokage fighting action! Seems like things are only going to heat up after this week's batch!

Alright, let's get the ball rolling and on to what the Crunchyroll Features team thought of this week's episodes!

This week's episode sees the Chunin exam come to a somewhat unsatisfying ending as the true plan of the Sand Village unfolds. I remember my first time around that I wanted to see the exam actually complete, but how do you all feel about this sudden interruption?

Joseph: I didn’t mind it at all, it made the story less predictable and kept the pace up rather than transitioning into your usual post-tournament downtime. I really enjoyed the tournament but I can’t say I care who would have won.

Carolyn: I have to agree, I thought it was nice to see a bigger world/threat/issue than just the controlled, one-on-one fights.

Danni: I love a good tournament arc, so it’s a bit of a shame this one only lasted a few matches. That being said, the new developments are pretty cool. I’m looking forward to where it goes from here if a war does indeed break out.

Kevin: It makes for a bit more dramatic turn, since on first viewing it seems like we’re about to go into another short tournament to finish the arc, but then a war starts. In terms of personal feelings, I could go either way. I appreciate the story not following the exact beats that the audience expects, but I also like tournaments, so wanted to see how the fights progressed.

David: Stopping powerlevel defining tournaments early isn’t exactly new—looking at you, Saint Seiya—but in this case the seeds for the attack have been sown as early as the forest arc, so it’s hard to complain. If anything it would be disappointing if nothing had come of that.

Paul: I welcome the swerve. Sure, in part it feels like Kishimoto got bored with the whole tournament fighting arc, but I love the idea that there's a huge, precarious world out there filled with fragile alliances and ninja skullduggery of which the main characters, in their youthful innocence, are only experiencing a tiny taste.

Kara: I don’t think I’d call this ending unsatisfying, really. I mean, everyone got slapped in the face before the Round 3 preliminaries with the fact that the exams are largely politically motivated, and we’ve known the Sand Village was up to something the whole time. I feel like finishing everything out by the book and handing out Chunin diplomas or whatever would be more disappointing after all that setup.

Noelle: Tournament arcs are such a staple that they almost feel expected for the genre—so anything that tosses it up is something that I’d welcome. 1v1 fights are fun, but after a while, I think I’d lose the patience to sit through the whole thing.

Jared: I think this was fine the tournament during the opening round. It’s certainly something that doesn’t blindside you as it’s abundantly clear something’s going to happen, but it’s a neat way to play with your expectations.

Sasuke is back the spotlight this week during his face off against Gaara, and wow, it’s definitely quite the impressive fight! What are your thoughts on Sasuke vs Gaara after all the build up for Gaara and Naruto?

Joseph: I love how unhinged Gaara is, especially after we learned more about him during his backstory last week. It’s kind of dull that Gaara essentially turtles on defense the entire time, but I like the moment where it hints once again at his monstrous transformation. Even though I said I didn’t need to see the tournament fully play out, I would have liked to have seen where this fight went if it were allowed to continue.

Carolyn: I just felt so bad for Rock Lee the whole time. Those were his moves! But Gaara freaking out and losing his mind over a little blood is part of why I liked him so much on first watch. He’s almost uncomfortably weird.

Danni: I dunno, I thought it was pretty underwhelming. It seemed more like a teaser for an approaching REAL battle between them than anything.

Kevin: Sasuke versus Gaara is one of the fights that I remember most from when I watched the show as a kid. Sasuke pulling out new techniques, showing how much more powerful he’s become, all of it stuck in my head. Watching it again… it’s not as good as I thought. They renamed Raikiri to Chidori for no real reason, and Sasuke managed to reach Lee levels of Taijutsu in a month (and also offscreen), when Lee himself is supposed to be a genius at martial arts, and it took him years to get that far.

Nate: They actually get into this—the Raikiri (Lightning Blade) is Kakashi's version of the original technique, Chidori (Thousand Birds).

David: As others mentioned, this is the first real example of classic shonen action powercreep; Gai and Kakashi point out in no uncertain terms that Sasuke has matched Rock Lee’s physical prowess within a month, and Rock himself even admits this. There’s also only one good bit of animation before the whole thing goes wrong. Overall it’s important but kind of disappointing even if you’re a Sasuke fan.

Paul: I don't currently have any opinions on Sasuke vs. Gaara, since that fight it still on-going, but I do wonder where exactly the story is going with that bit about Gaara momentarily transforming into the Tetsuo-blob from the end of Akira.

Kara: This was my semi-regular reminder that Gaara is a walking horror movie. Gotta agree with Carolyn, I feel sorry for Rock Lee watching Sasuke out there using his moves. Nothing against ludicrous power-ups. Just Sasuke taking a level in awesome, while awesome, feels kind of sour when viewed through the lens of Lee’s story. I’m starting to understand why Naruto is so cranky about Sasuke in his periphery constantly.

Noelle: Sasuke was always going to get his power-up, that was inevitable, but it feels kind of… eh. Probably because we didn’t really see Sasuke work to get these power-ups much, so it doesn’t really feel earned that he’d suddenly become more powerful, especially enough to copy Lee. Sure, Sasuke’s the co-protagonist of the series, but it doesn’t feel as much of a thrilling fight from his end. Gaara is now full-blown horror and I love it.

Jared: It was kind of weird since they build this up to be Sasuke being the returning hero to vanquish Gaara, but since he’s been out of the picture since his fightin the prelims, the real build had been more Naruto/Gaara. Probably doesn’t help that there’s no real conclusion here. Sasuke certainly gets his moments of showing he’s truly back and more formidable than ever and Gaara looks even more unhinged, but it certainly didn’t have the same feel that a Naruto/Gaara match would have had.

This is the first time we see the Chidori in action, showing off how much Sasuke really does seem to be ahead of Naruto in terms of skill. How’d you all feel seeing this signature attack for the first time?

Joseph: They do a good job of making it clear how powerful Sasuke has come in such a short period of time. I dig that they made it seem as if he spent the whole time mastering genjutsu before busting out his awesome new move.

Carolyn: Agreed. It gives some justification for his almost rockstar status amongst his classmates. But also goes to show that hard work and determination are key factors.

Danni: It was cool seeing a physical manifestation of chakra just obliterating anything near it, but it still bums me out that Naruto doesn’t get to be the protagonist of his own show.

Kevin: Sasuke running down the wall, ball of lightning in hand, is one of the most iconic moments in anime for me. It stuck in my imagination for years after seeing it for the first time. My only issue with it is that Guy and Kakashi try to explain away the name change, and it doesn’t really make sense why the technique has two names.

Paul: Having never watched Naruto before, and having only ever absorbed bits and pieces of it through cultural osmosis over the years, I'm ashamed to admit that when I kept hearing people say “Chidori”, I assumed that it was the name of a kunoichi. I think the technique is cooler when Kakashi uses it, personally.

Kara: Despite my aforementioned feeling for Lee, I gotta admit the Chidori looked pretty rad. And yeah, I kind of thought Chidori was a person and not a move, but I’m looking forward to seeing it used later.

Noelle: There’s no questioning it, Chidori looks awesome!

Jared: It makes sense he would inherit a devastating attack like that, plus it’s a cool looking attack to boot.

This segment of the show really gets to let Shikamaru shine a bit, with him fighting Temari and also fighting the faceless Sound Ninja. Shikamaru was always a favorite of mine, and I know some of you like him too, so how do you feel after seeing him get some serious action?

Joseph: I love Shikamaru’s attitude, and I appreciate how differently his fight ends up playing out compared to the rest of the tournament. With that in mind, his real highlight is episode 70 in the classic trope of staying behind to give your teammates a chance to escape. The resolution of that scene is fantastic.

Carolyn: I love him! He’s basically a genius mastermind who hates that he’s so capable and it’s great. I agree that his stepping up in the actual battle is where he really shines this time around. My favorite bit would actually have to be his very, very detailed plans for how he expects the rest of his life/future to turn out. The boy has brains and strategy, to say the least.

Danni: He has such a bad attitude, and I love it. It was great finally seeing him thinking five steps ahead of everyone else around him. I hope he eventually figures out some kind of finisher for when he has someone trapped in shadow paralysis.

Kevin: Seeing Shikamaru actually fight is a bit odd. I love seeing him in action, but he is most at home as a tactician. In his first fight, he gave up because he was running low on chakra, and in the second fight he needed his teacher to save him because he ran out of chakra. He is a brilliant strategist, but don’t force him to actually fight people himself.

David: Honestly, I don’t think the show does a great job of convincing me of Shikamaru’s character. We don’t know a whole lot about him before this, which is fine, but then he ‘defeats’ Temari mostly because she forgets a tunnel can also have a shadow in it. Then later Sakura is impressed when he stays behind to stall the enemies because he has never been “this reliable of a character before” as she puts it, but most of what we’ve seen from him has been a subverting of that so far, which doesn’t work when I wasn’t convinced of the original concept in the first place. So overall I’m less impressed than I remember being before.

Paul: I like the cerebral aspects to Shikamaru's fighting style, but I could do without the low-grade sexism of him complaining about how he keeps getting matched up against girls. The women in this universe are clearly as dangerous as the men, and a shuriken will kill you just as dead regardless of the gender of the person who throws it. Get over yourself, Cloud Boy.

Kara: It’s funny because Shikamaru annoyed me so much early on for being Captain Haaa Mendokusaaaai. Not that that’s not a mood. I do appreciate that the show played me (and Shikamaru’s classmates) for a fool with that, though. It never occurred to me that he might consider things boring because he’s already five steps ahead of everyone else. As much as I appreciate his tactics, I do kind of hope he gets his ass handed to him by a kunoichi before long.

Noelle: I really think that Shikamaru’s real time to shine comes later, but here we get a fairly good idea what he’s about. He’s smart, his fighting style is unconventional and that makes him rely more on tactics as opposed to brute strength. That being said, even though he’s up against Temari who is more along the lines of overpowering her opponents, this fight isn’t that bad.

Jared: I was kind of surprised just how much they put him over in these episodes. He certainly has a different style and attitude which is a refreshing change from everyone being rather serious about what they do. Although if he really wants to commit to the tranquilo lifestyle, he needs to be more cool and collected than just bored.

I remember my first time around not really understanding the resurrection jutsu in this show, and I won’t spoil things but it comes up again later. If it’s so easy to bring people back from the dead, why don’t people do it more often? Both the First and Second Hokage seem totally fine until Orochimaru controls them. What are your thoughts on this life and death power that we see here for the first time?

Joseph: I don’t recall how it’s used later in the series, but regardless of what it hints at this is just a cool way to heighten Orochimaru’s showdown against the Third Hokage and make him seem even nastier as a villain.

Carolyn: I don’t remember a lot in advance either, it’s been so long since I last watched the show. That’s why this is so much fun!

Danni: I...don’t really get it. I expected them to be zombies, but they seem totally unaffected. How are they supposed to be a threat when they’re friends with the guy they were summoned to defeat?

Kevin: I’m pretty sure that it’s not used more often because it’s a Forbidden Jutsu, like the Mass Shadow Clone jutsu, it’s just probably forbidden due to ethical issues. Seeing Resurrection for the first time, it doesn’t have as much impact as I would’ve expected. If Orochimaru brought back Zabuza, the audience would have a much stronger personal connection and we could measure a previous antagonist’s power against the Third Hokage’s. Instead, he summoned the First and Second Hokage, who are definitely better choices for Resurrection targets, but there are two problems. First, the audience has no idea who they are initially, so we aren’t as invested in the fight. Second, how did Orochimaru get their bodies? Shouldn’t they be under the tightest security the village can muster?

David: It’s currently confusing and weird and as far as I remember it only gets more confusing and weird.

Paul: I'm still of the opinion that Summoning style Ninjutsu techniques (and by extension, Resurrection techniques) don't actually summon a real, individual person or animal. Instead, I think they involve Chakra taking physical form, and that the resulting manifestation is shaped by the will of the summoner. I don't think that's literally Zombie Hokage 1 and Zombie Hokage 2 we see in Episode 70, but rather it's the idea of these Hokage colored and called into being by Orochimaru's memories, biases, and desires.

Kara: I have so many questions about the resurrection jutsu, mainly regarding the summoned people’s loyalties and the entire ethics of it. Granted, ethics in the world of Naruto are pretty screwy already. But the can of worms the show has opened up just by saying this can be done is big and squirmy and terrible. I hope they go into it more.

Noelle: Not going to lie, still kind of iffy on the Resurrection thing. Half zombies, half mind control, I suppose? I do think that revival is by no means easy, but Orochimaru lives for breaking out taboo jutsu anyway.

Jared: Gonna agree with some of the others and say it’s kind of confusing what’s actually happening. My thoughts were that they were able to come back but couldn’t disobey orders from Orochimaru? Whether it’s actually them or not, I’m not sure and I’d assume this isn’t done more often is because it’s a high level technique or forbidden.

And as always, what were the high and low points of this week’s batch of episodes?

Joseph: Low point: gosh, I actually really liked this section of episodes through and through. I guess, while I didn’t mind the tournament itself ending, the low point was cutting the fight between Gaara and Sasuke short. The high point was Pakkun and his SOFT AND SUPPLE PAWS.

Carolyn: High point is definitely Shikamaru taking charge and running through his already planned out future in his head. I don’t think I had a definite low point this week, but I laughed a lot at Sasuke’s James Bond-like introduction of himself at the exam. Does that count?

Danni: Can’t really think of any standout low points. I think the high point for me was finally getting to see the Third Hokage in action.

Kevin: High - Shikamaru’s thinking stance. Seeing him just take a moment to clear his mind, think of a plan, then start acting actually impacted my so much as a kid that it is seriously something I still do. Clasp my hands together in some kind of fake hand sign to focus my thinking to break out of my current mentality. Low - As simple as the moment is, my lowest point was when Kabuto knocked out Kiba. Sure, Kiba’s out, but Akamaru should still be conscious and making a ton of noise that would alert at least the crowd, meaning that Kabuto wouldn’t be able to cast the genjutsu that starts the war.

David: High point despite everything is Sasuke just bodying Gaara. Extremely satisfying and smooth to watch. Low point is Rock realizing how underpowered he is in the face of Sasuke, not necessarily because of the power level issues there, but just because no one is there to comfort him for it all.

Paul: Although I bagged on him earlier, my high point was Shikamaru pretending to be put to sleep by the hypnosis Genjutsu in order to avoid getting dragged into the bigger conflict, because he's just that much of a lazy ass at heart. My low point was probably the English translations for some of the episode titles. “Hit it or Quit it” and “Late to the Show, but Ready to Go” in particular rub me the wrong way, bruh.

Kara: High point is the existence of Pakkun. I love this good boy and his squishy paw pads. Low point is, again, having to watch Rock Lee watch Sasuke. Which is less a “the show did bad” low point like previous weeks, and more an “I feel sad about this” low point.

Noelle: High point, Sasuke vs Gaara, especially with Gaara freaking out over finally bleeding again. Low point, Rock Lee feeling bad because Sasuke powercreeped him, give Lee a break.

Jared: I really liked the Third Hokage taking off his hat to reveal an even cooler hat. Low point was my boy Rock Lee getting real sad about being overtaken by Sasuke.

How about a little bonus question? Since the Chunin exam ends and is more or less never referenced again, who do you think would have won had it gone to an actual conclusion?

Joseph: Knowing this show, probably Sasuke. Then they’d do the whole thing again later Dragon Ball style so Naruto could win.

Carolyn: It seems almost impossible, from a writing standpoint, that Gaara could win, though he’s so powerful that seems to be the logical choice. It’s too soon for Naruto to take it. So, I think Sasuke is the only real option, here.

Danni: No one. The proctor would try to stop Gaara from killing Sasuke, leading Gaara to kill everyone there rendering the entire exam null.

Kevin: I can’t imagine Shino defeating Temari, since she can blow any flying insects away and can fly to get away from any remaining ground insects, so she would advance to the finals. I could see Sasuke versus Gaara going either way (provided he don’t allow stuff Garaa reveals in the next set or two of episodes), but Naruto wouldn’t be a match for either of them, so whoever won that fight would advance. If Temari fought Gaara, she’d probably forfeit before the match even started. If she fought Sasuke, he could probably overwhelm her with speed alone. So unless shounen tropes intervened in the tournament to give Naruto a way to the finals, I suspect that either Sasuke or Gaara would win, depending on who won in the first round.

David: If Gaara’s powers had been allowed to completely come out—in other words, the tournament not interrupted—then Gaara would have completely obliterated Sasuke. Squashed him. He would be dust. Gaara would not only win but Sasuke would be dead.

Paul: Definitely Sasuke. Not only is he a prodigy, he's also got that whole legacy thing going for him as the last-remaining (non-evil) scion of the Uchiha clan. Whether he actually deserves to win it is another matter...

Kara: If things actually went as power levels and fighting styles seem to dictate they would, Gaara, nearly to the death. Considering how Naruto goes, Sasuke with one last-ditch, low-powered jutsu he learned in the first season.

Noelle: At this point in time, it would probably be either Sasuke or Gaara. Provided that Gaara doesn’t go berserk of course, Gaara would probably outmatch Sasuke. If Sasuke activates the power of plot armor, he’d likely make it to the top. Sorry, Naruto.

Jared: Probably the winner of Sasuke/Gaara, although with how everyone was incredibly drained after their first matches, I wonder if by the finals it’d just become a stamina battle and technique wouldn’t be as much of a factor.

COUNTERS: "I'm gonna be Hokage!" count: 23 Bowls of ramen consumed: 29 bowls, 3 cups Shadow Clones created: 258

And that's everything for this week! Remember that you're always welcome to join us for this rewatch, especially if you haven't watched the original Naruto! Watch Naruto today!

Here's our upcoming schedule:

- Next week, on MARCH 29th, DANIEL DOCKERY returns as the Third Hokage springs into action in EPISODES 71-77! - Then, on APRIL 5TH, CAYLA COATS stops by just in time to introduce us to a mysterious new shinobi in EPISODES 78-84! - And on APRIL 12th, NOELLE OGAWA elaborates further in the antics of the mysterious shinobi in EPISODES 85-91!

Thank you for joining us for the Great Crunchyroll Naruto Rewatch! Have a great weekend, and we'll see you all next time!

Have any thoughts on our thoughts on Episodes 64-70? Let us know in the comments! Don't forget, we're also accepting questions and comments for next week, so don't be shy and feel free to ask away!

----

Nicole is a features and a social video script writer for Crunchyroll. Known for punching dudes in Yakuza games on her Twitch channel while professing her love for Majima. She also has a blog, Figuratively Speaking. Follow her on Twitter: @ellyberries

Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

By: [email protected]

#Anime #News #Latest in Anime News by Crunchyroll!

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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Fall River Review: The Satanic Panic Scares Up Another Bad Conviction

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Fall River, a four-part docuseries running on Epix, is structured like a rollercoaster. Every episode cranks up the suspense, building to a conclusion, and then drops the viewer into an emotional freefall. Almost 90 years after Lizzie Borden was acquitted of murder, Fall River, Massachusetts, hosted a second trial of the century. But this one was more like the witch hunts held in Salem, just over an hour’s drive away. Three women were killed in 1979, and the police and media blamed a devilish sect. The cult leader, a pimp named Carl Drew, declared himself Satan, and held his flock in scared awe by exacting human sacrifice at demonic rituals in the woods.

Fall River is one of the most graphic documentaries to come out of the recent glut of the televised true crime genre. Most of this comes from the archival footage the series uses to capture the atmosphere of the time and neighborhood. We see junkies fixing, prostitutes hooking, beat cops beating, and other sensational street scenes luridly captured in the gritty frames of low-grade celluloid. They are all bathed in red or orange glows, which give a red-light-district ambiance to the past.

The footage of Satanic rituals, from promotional films Anton LaVey made for the Church of Satan, to home movies from smaller sects, are obscenely seditious, and macabrely revealing. The full-frontal male and female nudity doesn’t come across in any way gratuitous, but it is completely exploitative. This proves to be subversive, because the tale intentionally undermines all the expectations laid out in the opening arguments. It is a consistent rhythm throughout each installment.

Director James Buddy Day (The Shocking Truth, Sex, Lies & Murder, Slender Man Stabbing: The Untold Story, The Disappearance of Susan Cox Powell) conducted the last interview Charles Manson would ever give in his film Charles Manson: The Final Words. He is no stranger to the cinematic possibilities of charismatic manipulators, and he’s learned valuable storytelling lessons from his sinister subjects.

On October 13, 1979, the body of 17-year-old Doreen Levesque was discovered behind the Diman Vocational High School. Her wrists were bound with fishing line. She had also been stabbed in the head and sustained multiple skull fractures. Forensic evidence suggested a possible death by stoning. There were signs of sexual torture. Investigators found she had been working as a prostitute. A month later, a 22-year-old prostitute named Barbara Raposa is reported missing. Police only found skull fragments and clumps of hair from a third victim, Karen Marsden. All the women could be traced to the sex trade being plied in the Bedford Street area. The report noted concerns about a Satanic cult.

Carl Drew called himself the “son of Satan” and is immediately tagged as the head of the “Fall River Cult Murders.” He ran his Bedford Street district prostitution ring as a Satanic coven and kept everyone around him in line through fear. “Satan will take his toll,” he warned. The first episode lays out how Drew orchestrated the nighttime rituals, ordering Marsden’s throat slashed after her skull was crushed. Witnesses recount how Drew chanted and prayed in inhuman languages. One follower, Robin Murphy, says he painted a cross from the dead body on her forehead. The audience is pummeled with descriptions of how Drew beheaded the woman with his bare hands and told his followers he had offered the girls’ souls up to Satan.

But the episode closes with the revelation that Drew could not possibly have committed the crime.

The next episode does the same with another suspect. Tightening the noose around the neck until the eyes begin to bulge, only to give a last-minute reprieve because another detail has distracted the hangman. The documentary adds layers of duplicitous evidence over sheets of maniacal theoretics to present an investigation so twisted it’s a wonder anyone was arrested, if not everyone.

After he retired, the lead investigator on the original case, Sgt. Paul Carey, reinvestigated it because he was never convinced of the official conclusion. He didn’t reopen the files to sell a book, he says in a taped interview, but he pulls in new evidence which proves the first convictions were hastily concluded and presented a false narrative.

The mythology had been set in place since the anti-counterculture paranoia of Christian fundamentalists turned into the counter-cult movement. The Satanic Panic was sparked by religious fanatics, fanned by psychiatrists, and weaponized by the tabloids. To this day, an ear-shattering minority is screaming about how some Democrat-led Satanic criminal cabal is delivering dead baby spinal fluids in under a half hour, or your money back. The documentary expansively indulges former detective sergeant Alan Alves, who was one of the occult criminal experts on the original case. He spent his career in the satanic crimes unit of the Freetown Police Department, and testifies to the darkest of doings.

While there are a few self-styled Satanic criminal conspiracies doing dastardly deeds in the country, they are isolated from each other, as well as being few and far between. The Fall River Cult practiced crude theistic satanism. They worship the Devil like Christians worship God, only backwards. Not like the more populist LaVeyan Satanists who use it as a Darwinian metaphor. Carl Drew’s alleged cult resembles a Charismatic Christian sect. This might be because it is colored by the attitude of who is determining the definitions.

What Alves comes up with sounds more like a Hammer Horror movie than any real dark rite. He believes the cult exacts blood sacrifices every 30 days on the full moon in rituals where victims are offered up as a sacrifice to Satan, who rises from the center of a pentagram. Apparently, he does this personally. Alves describes orgies and rituals he’d never partake in because they’ve replaced the wine and the host of Catholic ceremonies with bodily fluids. Alan Silvia, a former detective at the Fall River Police department, says the details of the case caused him to put more faith in his faith.

Fall River gives extensive backgrounds on all the players. Carl Drew was raised on a small farm in New Hampshire. His father was an alcoholic who abused him, and traumatized him, with Silvia recounting one particularly damaging incident where the father lowered Carl down a well by his feet to get rid of a nest of rats. Fall River also gives a face and voice to the victims, who were marginalized because they were sex workers.

Karen Marsden was a 20-year-old single mother. She wound up working in the red-light area because she was a runaway and drug addict. She and Carol Fletcher took police to the Freetown State Forest, where the cult allegedly congregated. Weeks later, the top half of a human skull was found in Westport, a beach town not too far from Fall River. Authorities identified the remains as Marsden’s by comparing bone fragments with skull X-rays taken in 1978.

Maureen “Sonny” Sparda, a former prostitute who hosted Satanic gatherings, fingers Robin Murphy as Karen’s killer. Murphy was 17 at the time, although has a problematic childhood and relatively little schooling, we learn she has an I.Q. of over 137. Later we hear she had practiced Paganism before she was ten years old. The details of her eventual story are all so graphically convincing it makes the blood boil. But Murphy’s testimony doesn’t match the forensic evidence.

The first person interviewed for the Raposa murder was Andy Maltias, who denied any personal knowledge of the crime, but could clue police in on what he saw in a psychic dream. This included the exact location the dead woman’s body was found. Maltias was a pedophile who had been preying on Murphy since she was 11.

Maltias was convicted in the first-degree murder of Barbara Raposa and given a life sentence without the possibility of parole. Carl Drew was convicted in the first-degree murder of Marsden. He is serving a life sentence, with no possibility of parole, at the MCI in Shirley, Massachusetts. The public believed this was the tip of the iceberg and a dangerous cult was active in the area.

But then everyone says they made the story up. Witnesses recant statements, saying the police pressured them into it. The District Attorney’s office worked with Murphy, used Carl Davis to threaten witnesses. Sunny Sparda was threatened by the D.A. and assistant D.A. We learn Drew’s public defender John Birkness not only had never worked a murder trial, but never defended anyone before. The court claims one witness, Carol Fletcher, was incompetent because she was on diabetes medication. Murphy confessed at her parole hearing that she had been lying all along.

Inasmuch as any true crime documentary about multiple murders can be, Fall River is a fun watch. Day seems to revel in the twists and turns of the case, turning contradictions into assaults and facts on their heads. We know along who did it because he says it up front, everyone who was put away, or anyone who got away with it. Maybe Drew took the fall for Maltias, possibly the 17-year-old true witch Robin Murphy manipulated the entire scenario by sheer force of her intelligence. Fall River lays out every fact, but also pulls the rug out from under every conclusion.

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Fall River premieres May 16 At 10pm on Epix.

The post Fall River Review: The Satanic Panic Scares Up Another Bad Conviction appeared first on Den of Geek.

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Season 14 Episode 7: Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story

Songs of The Episode:

Young Folks by The Wind And The Wave

Cosy in the Rocket by PSAPP

They by Congratulationz ft CavasBeta

Keep Breathing by Congratulationz

Such Great Heights by Madi Diaz & K.S. Rhoads

Portions for Foxes by Rilo Kiley

Synopsis:

*Warning this episode is extremely nostalgic and it is advised that you have your tissues ready*

The episode dives right into your feels as it opens with Mer on the beloved Seattle Ferryboat, yes that's right the boat that was once on Derek’s scrub cap -now housed by Mer- and the same boat that takes you to where the fantastical dream house was built. Accompanying her is Alex, as they descend back to the hospital. It is presumed that she went to see Derek and tell him about her prestigious Harper Avery nomination, when Alex asks, “How was it, was he happy for you?” To which she replied with a smile “No, he was jealous,” reminding us of their extremely competitive, yet ever motivating relationship.

Meanwhile Amelia walks in on Carina and Owen cooking naked… Amelia and Owen try to cover the awkward moment, but just ends in Amelia stealing some French toast while leaving hastily. Then we jump to Bailey as she’s walking to work with Ben driving alongside her trying to convince her to join him. She found out about the fire academy and to say she’s displeased would be an understatement. Arizona is painting every possible color on Sophia’s room, as she anxiously awaits her daughter’s arrival.

Another note of nostalgia as we see the new interns in the historic hallway (aka the tunnels) with the excess hospital beds. We are reminded of our favorite sleep deprived interns, the originals who grew up in those halls to be the doctors they are today. Mer is hesitant to leave for Boston where the Harper Avery Awards will take place. Alex tries to convince her, but is unsuccessful when a incoming trauma comes in. Deluca is still avoiding his ex, Sam.

The medical trauma this week: a rollercoaster ride gone awry! The first patient, who saved a bunch of children, is under the care of Owen and Amelia. Webber briefs Mer and Alex on the two patients who were transferred in the rollercoaster cart in which they crashed, for it would’ve been to life threatening to remove prior to their arrival at Grey Sloan. But wait, don’t they look familiar…. OMG they are the George and Cristina doppelgangers… but wait their friend just stepped out of the ambulance to check on them and… she is Izzie’s pregnant doppelganger. What.. what… and on que, the original theme song begins to play. Boy are we in for a treat.

Jackson tries to convince Mer to get moving, but she’s not leaving the trauma. Also it turns out the doppelgangers are doctors, they interning at Seattle Press! Bailey sends Ben to the Clinic as a punishment. Jackson checks in on Bailey to see where she is on the contest, but is quickly swerved when she confronts him about her husband’s career change and whether he happened to know about it when he had given her the money. Then we get a major throwback as we see Owen push Amelia back when he tells her that the hero doesn’t need a CT, but instead must be rushed to surgery. I’m sure this triggers you, just as well as me, back to that same decision that ultimately killed Derek. When we recall the tragedy of Derek’s death we reflect on a simple diagnosis that can be captured by quick CT and then fixed by an immediate surgery. Unfortunately, if this bleed is not seen right away, the patient will be gone, even if the rest of their body is healed by other surgeries. Alex is in shock at seeing Izzie, as Jo walks up for advice. He tells Jo that since she’s always wondered what she was like and surprised, Jo describes her as pretty and perky. Then Izzie comes up to them to check in on her friends, when he’s at a loss for words and Jo just watches him struggle in the most comical way. Izzie begins to lose her balance, and Alex swoops in to catch her. Another major tbt to when he carried Izzie after Denny’s heart wrenching death.

The intensity rises as baby George is unable to breathe when they remove part of the car seat. No worries, Webber has the fix, Mer must hold traction on his head. They are confused why everyone continues to stare at them and Mer fesses up, she tells them it's because they remind everyone of George and Cristina. To which baby Cristina freaks out and yells at them not to stare.

Little Izzie has an ultra sound done, and finds out that her baby has a tumor on it’s placenta. She must have surgery to get it removed, as it is very dangerous. Fearful, Izzie grabs Alex’s hand and Jo address the weirdness of the situation, but at the same time understands. Mer is still holding traction and Jackson comes by to help. When baby Cristina realizes who the both of them are, her tune changes and she relates them to surgical royalty. Katherine and Jackson nearly convinced Mer to go to the awards, when after they transported baby George, baby Cristina’s stats started to plummet. She then tells Jackson to go in her place.

April makes her own attempt to convince Mer to go, but baby Cristina begs her not to. She claims Mer to be her idol and asks of her to think of her best friend (the real Cristina) and to save her like she would her best friend, to fight for her with the same vigor. Pulling at all of are heartstrings and nearly bringing Mer to tears. Jackson announces that Mer’s not going, so Maggie and Zola stay behind as the Avery’s depart. Amelia rushes to the OR with a portable CT when she finds out that Owen had ignored her order. He accuses her of being upset about his encounter with Carina, you know the one she walked in on. But she proves him wrong when the CT discovers a brain bleed (an expanding epidural hematoma to be exact) in which she must operate immediately. After gloating a bit to Owen, he then apologizes for doubting her. She explains that he was partially right, in that she was thinking of Derek and that in doing so he saved a man’s life today.

Webber and Bailey check in on baby George who blames himself for endangering his friends, when all he wanted was to have a little fun outside of working. His self- deprecating, selflessness, and innocence, triggers Bailey to recall the real George, a man who helped deliver her baby, who was really a part of her family, and whose death she mourned daily for over a year after the tragic incident occurred. Interestingly enough, when Webber goes to comfort her, he finds out that the tears are from her anger with Ben. Unfortunately their moment was interrupted by the sounds of banging in the skills lab (notice the accidental word play hahaha), to which Sam, followed by Deluca exited. Deluca consults his sister about his recent love affair with Sam, one that she’s seen the end result time and again.

April is angry with Mer for taking her Harper Avery nomination for granted, and inadvertently expresses her jealousy. She feels inferior, but Mer reminds her that she is not average, that she is incredible and ultimately she should give herself more credit. And she also expresses how deeply she does want the award. Arizona, Jo, and Alex must perform an emergency c-section on Izzie, because the baby is in distress. Arizona remembers Mark in comforting Izzie. She remembers his calmness, his charm, and his kindness. In this beautiful moment, she delivers the baby and also comforts herself as she prepares for her daughter's arrival, he reminds her of her strength, and instills confidence in her to be a fulltime mom again.

In one of my absolute favorite scenes of the episode, to which I cried a little if we’re being honest, Zola proves that she is wise beyond her years. She tells Maggie that she’s going be a brain surgeon like her father, before admitting that she missed her dad and then asked Maggie if she missed her mom. When Maggie answers with an almost tearful yea, Zola then recounts what she believes her mama would say: “Even though your mom’s not here, she’s always with you.” To end this beautiful moment she offers her aunty a hug.

Webber and Bailey save baby George, but not without wishing they had been able to do the same for the real George. Izzie’s baby is okay! Alex lets her hold baby Jasper for just a few minutes before he must take him to the NICU, but in this moment we see Arizona and Karev marvel in their past memories.

Bailey is scared of Ben’s commitment issues. But he explains that he just wants to try this while he is still young and able, he doesn’t want to live his life with regrets. Before they are able to finish their conversation, Webber grabs Bailey since Jackson is on the phone.

Another tear jerker. Jo tells Alex to call Izzie to get closure and see how she’s doing. Instead he tells her the story that she’s made up for her in his mind, one that is intricate, personal, and a bit of a nod at how Katherine Heigl is actually living, a tale in which she’s extremely happy. He tells her that he doesn’t need to call her because he doesn’t want to ruin it and he feels that “she’s as happy as I am with you.” Then they lean back in silence, just so happily in love and mature enough, grown enough, comfortable enough to acknowledge their past and embrace it, as it poses no threat to their future (that is his ex doesn’t, her ex poses a detrimental threat to their happiness, but I digress, let us be happy in this moment).

You know what, don’t even bother putting your tissues away. After Mer and April’s surgery, Bailey and Webber bring the Harper Avery awards to her as they project the show on the TV in the OR. All of the doctors along with Zola watch from the gallery as Catherine Avery announces that Meredith Grey has WON THE HARPER AVERY. Jackson gives the most heartwarming, eloquent, and masterful speech about Mer’s dedication to surgery, to her patients, and that despite her personal tragedies, she’s remained a gracefully innovative person/surgeon. He also pays tribute to her fallen sister, Lexie, who was one of my absolute favorite characters. As Mer along with all the doctors marvel in the moment, they pan the camera to the gallery where we see Mer looking up to a familiar face. Her mother applauds her with the proudest of smiles and we see the joy on Mer’s face in knowing that her mother is indeed looking down on her extraordinary daughter.

Back at Arizona’s house, we see little Sophia as she arrives back home. She expresses how much she misses her mama and Arizona admits that she does too (a nod to Callie who is happy in NYC). As Arizona comforts her daughter with ice cream, there’s a close up of the first family photo of Mark, Arizona, Callie, and Sophia, the one that was taken so many seasons ago, paying homage to the fallen and the departed.

Things get steamy back at the hospital as Deluca and Sam hook up in the infamous on call room. Mer shows Owen baby Cristina, but he denies their similarities, to which she mentions Burke (saying that she should ask him if they look alike), thus another tribute to departed. He also reminds her that no one is like Cristina, true that Owen!

Mer and Alex kick the interns outta the tunnels as they celebrate together Mer’s epic and well deserved win. Cristina then facetimes in as they all enjoy champagne.

A Few Additional Thoughts:

First of all, this episode was incredible and had a lot of nods to the epicness of Grey’s Anatomy’s 300 episodes! Kudos to the entire cast, crew, and writers on the incredible work they’ve done. This episode was truly special and definitely worth the watch. My praises are endless and thus I’ve decided to dedicate a whole other post to commemorate 300 episodes of Greys and the impact it’s had. So for more info, check out our next post!

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