#honestly this rewatch made their love REALLY stand out more than previous watches

[bloomskullberry]

Ok you know what i just gotta write out my feelings on the new Miraculous movie. I have both good and bad things to say. I will be rewatching it cause i was pretty biased (we'll get to that) and maybe reposting this with my new thoughts afterwards cause this is a lot.

THUS: READ MORE AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION and understand that most of this is based on personal perception, preferences, and an element of nostalgia/frustration (ive been watching this show since season one, would not have made it this far if I didnt have FEELINGS about Miraculous). but take everything with a sprinkle of salt.

THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS ABOUT THE NEW MIRACULOUS MOVIE UNDER THE CUT

1. Pacing felt like the biggest issue. A lot of stuff was happening, and a lot of big moments were happening, but there was nothing inbetween that made them feel like they flowed into eachother, and a lot of the character/relationship "development" relied on the viewers previous knowledge of the show, even tho its pretty clear the movie was doing stuff very differently in terms of characters and relationships. Do i understand this is a 1hr 40min movie trying to encapsulate the slowburn romance and 5 seasons worth of content in a way that caters to the fans of said 5 seasons? Yes, its a huge ask for what is essentially 5 episodes (average 20 mins long). Especially with the amount of exposition the concept of Miraculous requires. Is it still disappointing, considering the movie left out information because of its audience and still rushed through important stuff to just get to the "juicy" moments? Yeah

2. Visuals were lovely, as was the music and specific moments. Honestly if the pacing wasnt such an issue and everything was developed more, the Ladybug and Ladynoir songs (maybe even the Hawkmoth one too) would be really enjoyable as a way to progress stuff and show development. Im also a sucker for dramatic visuals during musical numbers to help emphasize the feelings/emotions of the characters, and it really showcases the potential benefits the animation could add to the show as a medium

3. I actually really liked movie!Marinette (partly cause she wasnt a stalker and creep about her crush on Adrien) qnd because she had a much more sarcastic and bantering attitude, even outside of the costume, which made Ladybug an alter ego more than a complete other person (which is a slight issue ive had with the show). The scene of her growing into her civilian persona and becomign more confident actually made me really happy, especially her standing up to Chloe

4. Movie!Chat Noir kinda pissed me off ngl, and felt very disconnected from movie!Adrien (or at least how he was shown). People have said movie!Adrien is much more depressed/isolated and acts appropriately as to his home life (and dont get me wrong, i loved his scene where he stood up to Gabriel), but i think thats why his relationship with Ladybug and complete 180 as Chat Noir feels so off to me? Like his almost "meanness" with Ladybug at first from being super cocky and then doesnt even apologize for his treatment of her even after he falls for her just throws me off (tbf ive always been biased against the "cocky assholes falling for people who put them in their place" trope, so this might just be a me thing). Idk, it just doesnt sit right with me

4b. Anyone else notice Adrien didnt even get chosen for being kind? Plagg just appeared in his bedroom? Like Marinette almost got ran over from saving Master Fu and then Adrien is just like Yo A Cool Ring. Idk, its funny but that felt weird to me

5. The stupid freaking montage. Yall cannot even imagine how much I hate the montage. If they had replaced the montage with one scene and maybe cut down the magician and mime fight to add another scene in to focus on marinette + adrien friendship and then adrien personal life development or chat noir + ladybug bonding/respect for EACH OTHER i think it would have elevated the movie to new heights. The montage essentially was the movie pressing fast forward x3 on any development of characters. Its because of montages like these that make me appreciate filler or fun episodes in any show, because when you just stick a montage in then you feel like youre watching coworkers kiss when the movie is trying to convince you theyre starcrossed ride or die lovers. Made me feel like i watched the origins episode and then the season 5 finale with just the stormy weather 2 episode inbetween. Hate it.

6. Movie!Tikki has personality and movie!Plagg is a fart machine. I think its clear theres a favorite. Feels like it reflects the focus on Marinette and lack thereof on Adrien as a character present in both the show and the movie. Hardly a new observation, just food for thought.

7. ¿¿¿¿¿¿movie!Hawkmoth/Gabriel???? That basically sums up how I feel about him but to explain theres just very little done with him i feel. Plus it seems like all his Hawkmothing around actually takes a toll on his wellbeing, which is really cool and interesting, but it just comes out of nowhere afTER THE STUPID MONTAGE. Like id love to see the kind of degradation of his health, mental physical and emotional, as he works to revive Emilie, cause you cant tell me thay wouldnt make stuff a lot more interesting (i know he got catacylsmed but the show just treated it as an outfit change and checking his arm like a clock until the season finale, so it doesnt really count for me), but mans just shows up looking like a wreck and fights with Adrien

7b. Also i was pretty confused about how him breaking/rejecting his akuma at the end of the movie worked, and him just having all the powers ever while akumatized?? But that's just me being picky at a superhero show where magic animal jewelry exists

8. Movie!Chloe and movie!Sabrina felt more real in a way? Like Chloe was just stuck up and self centered, not actively making everyones life hell, and Sabrina didnt just blindly follow her along (i ADORED when she let Marinette escape and when she shrugged at her during the ball, you go girl you have that personality and self-consciousness the show never allowed you to have until the last moment), it was more a reluctant follower ignoring a friend's red flags ya know? Movie!Chloe wasnt the mayors daughter who had control over every adult in Paris and would literally become a dictator if elected. She was just freaking out at Marinette for "ruining" her sweater. Shes still a bully/mean kid, but shes dialed back, which i think makes her much better.

9. Alya and Nino were just kind of chilling, i dont have any feelings about their characters except how terrible Nino is at advice, and Alya was set up as a good friend throughout the movie, so i appreciate her supportiveness of Marinette. Tom and Sabine were set up to do more/be more important in the movie (I was so sure Tom was gonna be akumatized at the fair, but nope), but were kind of dropped halfway? Like Tom was set up as the overprotective and loving kinda helicopter father who would go all the way to the fair in disguise to watch over Marinette, and then he was just never mentioned again after Marinette felt embarrassed by him at said fair. Wasted opportunity and time for a movie with so much issue in pacing

10. I saw buggachat say this movie felt like an animated fanfiction of MLB and I have to say i completely agree. I dont mean that in a bad way, i love fanfiction with all my heart and you can clearly see that the movie and a lot of fanfiction fixes the issues many fans have with the show. But the thing is, this is a full movie, not a collection of one-shot specific scene rewrites. Thus, for it to be successful in "rewriting" or creating an alternate version of MLB, it has to include those in-between moments, not just the juicy identity reveal, or the "my heart belongs to another " moment, or even the "Gabriel actually cares about his son" moment. Is the movie good at those moments? Goodness yes. It definitely has its humor, its enjoyment that you can tell is a gift to the fans. But as a movie, a whole animated film, it disappoints.

10b. I mean for goodness sake they didnt even mention that Catacylsm was a thing until it was used, and Lucky Charm wasnt utilzed at all, just the fixing power (that might just be a genuine change they made so Ladybug wasnt too unbalanced with Chat Noir tho)

OK IM DONE, phew. Those are my major thoughts from the day after watching the movie, and im going to watch it again more carefully later. Ill not to be so personally biased and to just enjoy it. Who knows, maybe ill think differently afterwards.

Definitely gonna listen to the songs again, and definitely gonna burst out laughing at Careless Whisper tho

#miraculous ladybug #miraculoustalesofladybugandcatnoir #miraculous spoilers #miraculous movie #some miraculous salt #heed the tags #miraculus movie thoughts and opinions #youve been warned

[risu5waffles]

Not like we're TEN days late

i know, i know. Look, last night was busy. But here we are again. Together. In the soup.

This level is so nifty! i loved all the little mechanical bits and interactions. Also that you kind of criss-cross through it, being able to see some later sections from early on in the level. Me, i just eat that right up. It feels a little rude to make this one a race, just figuring out how to progress can be a bit of a timesink, tho' i can see that adding into replay value. Like, you play a couple times just to learn what the level expects from you, and then you start making real stabs at a good score. It's weird, because on one hand, that really is good level design, and indicates a certain amount of confidence in what you've made that you believe players will give it that kind of time. On the other, well, it's not really a the other hand, i just think most players won't.

This is one of those levels that's really cool in concept, but pretty rough in execution. Not really through any fault of the level itself, it's just heavily, heavily reliant on physics, and when things work, it's super nifty, and when they don't, the level just breaks. i had to play three times just to get the duck to land right in that early on bit, and that's nothing i had any real control over, just a watch and hope kind of thing. Also, if i'm being honest, the level does feel just a touch overlong, and i was pretty ready to give up all pretense of getting a good score by around the halfway mark. Still, i super appreciate the ambition, and all the work that must have gone into making it run.

Gods, i honestly kind of love these attempts to make something scary in early LBP. Maybe because this was previous to the style getting subsumed in meme/copypasta formats. i just like "this is my spoopy ghost hospital wiv guh-guh-ghosts" a lot more than "jumpscare wiv slenderman or evil Sanic." But look at me here speaking from almost 45. i lay you dimes to donuts if i'd been in my young teens around the spoopy-pasta boom in LBP(2? Was that really a big thing in 1?), i'd have been right there for all of it. i was not wivout my edgy pre-teen phase, if you can imagine (and i'm sure you can).

Exactly what it says on the tin, and a bit more or less. Still, i mean, it's not not cute, you know?

This is, no lie, an extremely impressive bit of kit for LBP1. Like, it is a solidly designed platformer, wiv a clear design and character aesthetic, that delivers on that promise in a very satisfying way. The biggest issue i had wiv it turned out to be a totally on my end thing. That midboss fight, the one that seems to go on forever? So, some of you might know that my hearing is pretty shoddy. Not, perhaps, needing hearing aids levels, but it's still pretty bad. Rewatching the footage and i finally noticed there's a "damage taken" sound effect from the paintinator kit that plays when you hit those buttons. i didn't catch that at all when playing, so, going purely off the visual cues, i thought you needed to hit the left and right side buttons once to move it to the next cycle? So, like, it pops up, you hit both the buttons, it goes down, repeat three times kind of thing. Really, i could have hit either of the buttons repeatedly to just kill the thing. That kinda sucked. Yo, that final boss, tho'? Beautiful design on that one.

We talked about Princess Tofu last week. i stand by my takeaway that it is charming and confusing in about equal measure.

The LBP1 vibes are off the chart wiv this one. It's actually a pretty decent level, all nostalgia aside, tho'. Nothing in here is really too challenging, but there is a lot of it, and it's mostly enjoyable throughout. i love the creator just randomly wrapping up the level wiv a roller coaster, 'cause that was a whole thing for a hot minute. Like tying an onion to your belt.

This one is super cute, and i definitely appreciated the bright and cheery vibe; but it just goes on for what feels like forever? Also, even tho' there's no risk beyond just losing progress, i kinda hated that bounce pad staircase thing. Just thinking i'd have to do the whole dang thing again if i screwed up, you know?

i felt salty wiv this one, not gonna lie. The title page claimed it would be a long level. That it would be challenging. It turned out to be a two minute walk through a cave. That wasn't. Even. Cardboard. That's just lying. They lied to me. Rude.

i feel kind of bad for the creator here. Up on the title page there's a note, like, "this used to be copyable, but it turns out the LBP community is a bunch of thieving shits" (paraphrased). Which, you know, is definitely a mood. It's a real shame making levels copyable so you could share and teach turned into people just repubbing the level wiv their name on it. We really are a bunch of thieving shits. This level's pretty neat tho'. It's a good collection of some relatively simple puzzles and obstacles, and i had a good time throughout. It is fairly drab, seeing as there's a complete lack of decoration, but i can understand that; if the intent was for players to copy this and see how it was put together to make their own versions), the creator wouldn't have wanted too much crufting that might hide how things fit together.

---------------------------------------------------------

So that's that set of ten down. The series has been going for almost a full six months (if you include my backlog, which i absolutely am) on a daily upload schedule, and that's kinda wow? Maybe? i don't know, i have a hard time judging these things, but i'm going to go wiv "a little proud" on this one.

Had a bit of a night out wiv two of my coworkers, and that went mostly well. Honestly far better than i could have expected. Was, i think, the first time i've been to an izakaya since honeybunny and i split back in '18. Definitely since covid has been a thing. It was mostly empty, which, like, honestly, that's for the best what wiv the plague, but also very not an izakaya mood, and kinda extremely lonely. But i had a nice time talking to the two gals, and eating shitty izakaya food, and surprisingly not drinking (the surprising was the enjoying not drinking, not the not drinking itself; it helped only one of us drank, so there was none of that social pressure to have a beer or anything).

The biggest fly in the ointment was, holy shit and no joke, i was fucking exhausted. i'd been dead-tired and beat since i woke up that morning, and the workshift did not help. i ended up having to skedaddle round about 7.30p, and i felt like a bit of a shit, like they might worry i didn't enjoy their company when i actually rather did. But like, when i say tired, i mean like "i am so fucking tired i can't even focus enough to have dysphoria over my stubble" tired. i mean, that sounds nice, the not having dysphoria, but, like, also, not being able to feel my fingertips sometimes and constant yawning, and that's its own socially awkward, and also "if i pass out, people will panic, then how will i get home" legitimate concern.

#littlebigplanet #little big planet #lbp #lbp1 #lbp2 #lbp3 #just a tired little trans lass #Youtube

[tokkiheart]

A List of Dramas w/Good 2nd Lead Couples

My one and only friend with whom I can talk to about K-Dramas asked me this today while talking about many things, including Doom At Your Service:

What shows can you think of that had secondary couples that you did like??

And I thought that it was worth making a list about lol

So let’s go ahead and get into it!

Business Proposal

This drama has a wonderful B couple in my opinion! Like the A couple, the B couple has some really great funny moments as well as great cute romantic fluff moments!

I never found myself wanting to skip their parts of the show or thinking “okay, when is this over so I can see the main leads?” These two had a great relationship and it didn’t feel like a separate story that should have been made into a separate show.

The romance between them is pretty fast, but not in a bad way (the kdrama is only 12 episodes long after all)! I definitely recommend this if you just want romantic fluff and wholesomeness!

Shopping King Louie (aka Shopaholic Louis)

For this show, I consider the romance between Mr. Kim and Ms. Busan Hatchet to be the B couple of this show (I can’t remember her name right now, but I remember her nickname lol). I find there’s very few shows with a love line for older characters who are 40+, especially when the A couple are younger and in their 20s.

I found that these two had a interesting, funny story and honestly I loved to see their romance. ❤️

My Roommate Is A Gumiho

I actually really liked the B couple from this show. Even though their relationship originally spawned as a way to get a good grade in a class, these two idiots in their own different ways managed to make me be interested in their relationship. I love that the 2nd ML tried to help the 2nd FL to understand euphemisms and I loved that the 2nd FL was willing to lay claim to him and tell off his ex-gf.

Goblin: The Great & Lonely God

The B couple of this drama were really good (certainly good enough that people wanted to see the actors in another drama together)! Their romance was tinged with plenty of sadness, but they had some great moments in my opinion and their romance didn’t feel like it felt out of place next to the A couple of the show.

Extra-ordinary You

The B couple of this show are Do-hwa and the female lead of the comic book, Ju-da. I loved how even though it seemed futile, Do-hwa still tried his best to stand out and be remembered by Ju-da as something other than just a friend or “guardian angel.”

I’ll admit that I mostly watch this show for the A couple, but I find the moments between these two to be cute and sweet. ❤️

Descendants of the Sun

This drama isn’t high on my list of things to re-watch, but I can’t deny that the B couple of this were really good and enjoyable to watch. They had plenty of funny moments as well as trying moments just like the lead couple and I didn’t find myself irritated by them or wanting to skip past their scenes. I think my only qualm with them was that the 2nd FL would pull rank a fair amount, but despite that, I didn’t dislike this couple at all.

And that’s…that’s really about it honestly. I mean, I’ve only seen 44 K-Dramas so far, so this probably says something more about me than anything else lol There’s a number of dramas with B and C couple that I liked, but didn’t add because I didn’t know which to consider the B couple lol This list may get edited at some later point as I watch more dramas and maybe rewatch some previous ones and realize that I liked the secondary couple as well.

I find that I’ve watched way more dramas with meh or just flat out horrible 2nd lead couples than ones that I like. I may one day make a list for the K-Drama 2nd leads that I really didn’t like, but for now I like just doing a nice wholesome post of good 2nd leads ❤️

#second lead couples #kdramas #kdrama #shopping king louie #shopaholic louis #extraordinary you #my roommate is a gumiho #business proposal #secondary couple appreciation

[lazerv4]

Thoughts on Hazbin Hotel

Just my raw thoughts, not a review or anything

Hazbin Hotel was one of the more frustrating watches of the year, not because it's bad but because it could be so much more than it is. Hazbin is what some jujutsufolk might call "Potential Man" meaning that it's an if/when rather than an is which in this case is perfect unlike the show itself. The Megumi Fushiguro of shows starts off a little weird since a lot of the set up seems to require previous watching of the pilot which I hadn't seen in years and upon a rewatch feels pretty disconnected with all the changes made to the A24/Prime version, that said the show looks great it is always visually fun and creative unless it's doing an action scene where it's lack of ambition stands out in stark contrast to the more creative musical numbers that are overall the highlight of Hazbin with a lot of not only fun songs to listen to but nice visuals and good story beats setting up the emotion it tries to sell you and specially with the frankly really great singing performances with the exception of the one part by Velvette which honestly is puzzling considering the quality of the singers in the cast. The story is decent enough with a few stand out characters to booth like Charlie herself, her dad Lucifer, a friendly cannibal overlord named Rosie and surprisingly Keith David as the bartender Husk doing an incredible job with this frankly pretty strange character, which is not to say that other characters like Alastro, Vaggie, Adam, etc aren't well performed but rather that they didn't stand out much besides maybe Vaggie in her musical number. Alastor in particular feels a little like a downgrade from the pilot with his max output filter (it changes with his emotions now which is cool) being significantly lower than the pilot's was and his mystique in general being treated fairly bad until the last episode where it's outright killed for the sake of a future plot development that I guess we are gonna have to wait to see if it was worth the loss of the probable main villain's mystique. I feel like I could be here all day listing things I liked and didn't like and what I would change and such but to me the real accomplishment is that Hazbin was made at all, a girl had a dream to make a project and she pushed to turn it into reality which is more than I can say about myself and many others, Hazbin is no masterpiece but you can feel the passion and love for it the creators have constantly, could it have been saved till Vivian was more experienced and could do it better? maybe but the she is accomplishing her dream and has shown great future potential even if it takes a little to polish it like her own creation. Anyways can't wait for the inevitable broadway adaptation in 10-15 years that is gonna make it a real thigh 3 hours gem.

#hazbin hotel #vivziepop #prime video #ramblings #rambles

[excusethequality]

31 Days of Spooky Movies 2023: Week 2

Every October I make it my mission to watch at least 1 spooky movie every day (without rewatching anything watched in a previous October).

In case anyone is looking for some ideas on what to watch this month, here's what I've watched so far, in the order I watched them.

Week 1

22. Prey (2022)

In 1917 a Comanche woman sets out on a trial to prove her worth as a warrior by hunting something that's hunting her. But she is soon to discover that her prey is far more dangerous than she could have ever guessed.

This movie was done so dirty. Not only did they not allow them to film the whole thing in Comanche, but they didn't even give it a theatrical release. And it's so good! Amber Midthunder and Dakota Beavers are phenomenal.

I was so glad they at least gave it a physical release. Thanks to that I was able to put on my own theatrical showing (with the Comanche dub) and it is such a fun theater movie.

23. The Demon (1963)

In a small Italian village a woman is treated as an outcast and believed to be a witch. But if you're already being mistreated for being a witch, what's to stop you from trying witchcraft?

Lots of interesting things happening both in front of and behind the camera here. File this under movies I respect, but aren't really my thing.

24. Sea Fever (2019)

An Irish fishing boat becomes stranded at sea when their ship encounters a strange creature.

I generally enjoy Irish horror, and this one is no exception! It's quiet and haunting and rather beautiful. It could stand to be tighter, but I appreciated a quarantine horror film that tries to do its own thing.

25. Maximum Overdrive (1986)

When machines start trying to kill people a group of survivors find themselves trapped in gas station by a pack of killer semi trucks.

Was this based on a Stephen King story? Yes.

Was it directed by Stephen King as well? Yes.

Was this made during King's cocaine years? Oh, most definitely.

Not only does this movie rarely make sense, but it somehow manages to be boring? To its credit, the very beginning is a wild ride (the pop machine is my favorite scene).

26. Rhymes for Young Ghouls (2013)

In 1976 a young native girl fights to survive against a troubled home life, a government that wants to lock her in a residential school, and a past that continues to haunt her.

I love this movie, but the trauma in it is palpable. It wears its grief on its sleeve in a way I've never seen before. Devery Jacobs is especially great as the lead.

27. The Witch Who Came From the Sea (1976)

An alcoholic woman's trauma from her childhood drives her to act out in increasingly wild and deadly ways.

I honestly don't even have words to describe this movie. It is out there in its own world and I'd need a whole essay to try and break it down. People will probably either love it or hate it.

28. I Married a Witch (1942)

A witch and her father are released from their ancient imprisonment and seek to wreck havoc on the world. But things get tricky when a spell goes awry and she falls in love with a human.

I am not a fan of this one. But I can see that there was a really fun movie in this somewhere. It's like Veronica Lake and Cecil Kellaway were given the script to a really fun rom-com and everyone else had the script to a really unromantic drama or something.

29. The Monster Club (1981)

A horror author saves a starving vampire and is invited back to his favorite club as a gesture of gratitude.

I want to love horror anthology movies so badly, but they are notoriously bad. The one nice thing I'll say is that Vincent Price is delightful as always and I wish he was in it more. The shorts are far from great and the as are the random musical segments.

30. Intruder (1989)

Things go from bad to worse when the overnight crew at the local supermarket finds themselves trapped inside with a murderer.

An 80s slasher from a friend of the Raimis. So not only is Sam Raimi in it, so is Ted Raimi, and even Bruce Campbell makes an appearance. Maybe it's just because I've worked in a grocery store, but this one is a lot of fun. There's attempts at creativity here that I rarely see in slashers.

31. Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995)

A Mel Brooks spoof of the story of Dracula.

I usually like Mel Brooks, but this one just feels a bit lackluster to me. It lacks the usual satire of his other films. It felt less like a spoof and more of just a slightly comedic retelling of Dracula.

32. I Was a Teenage Wereskunk (2016)

An homage to the drive-in horror movies of the 50s about a boy who is bitten by a skunk and starts turning into a murderous wereskunk whenever he gets aroused.

It has its moments, but it never manages to hold on to its momentum. More often than not it is busying itself by driving a bad joke into the ground.

33. The Devil's Backbone (2001)

In the last days of the Spanish Civil War, a young orphan is left at an orphanage that's hanging on by a thread. But he soon learns that evil doesn't just lurk outside the walls when he a discovers a ghostly presence that haunts the halls.

Early Guillermo del Toro for the win. It's got all the signature del Toro favorites: evil lurking behind a smiling face, magical realism, a big middle finger to facism, and more!

34. Spirit Halloween: The Movie (2022)

A group of kids decides to spend Halloween night in the scariest place they can think of: a Spirit Halloween store!

Shocking no one, this movie is not very good. It's like a disney-original Halloween movie...but without the camp and charm. Rachael Leigh Cook playing the mom made me feel really old. On a side note: that woman does not seem to age.

35. Arachnophobia (1990)

A rare and deadly spider winds up in a small American town where it proceeds to turn all the spiders in town into its minions. The local doctor better get over his fear of spiders fast if he's going to be able to save anyone.

I've never been the biggest fan of this one. But its use of practical effects, real spiders, and John Goodman are too good to ignore.

36. Tales From the Hood (1990)

A mysterious funeral director tells 4 spooky tales to the group of drug dealers that visit him one night.

One of the best horror anthology movies I've ever seen! It's so good! The stories are both spooky and actually centered around a common theme. The worst thing I can say about it is that I wished they had laid off the strobe light in story #4. I've been thinking about this movie a lot since I watched it.

37. Shivers (1975)

A wild parasite is infecting the residents of a fancy high-rise building, turning them into wild sex-crazed madmen.

I had hoped I wouldn't have to watch this again, but it was part of a horror marathon I went to, so what can I do. I've never been a big Cronenberg fan, but I know a lot of people love him. I don't understand this one. If it's arguing for the sexual liberation ideas of the 70s then its rampant pedophilia, rape, and only young women being sexualized are wildly problematic. But if it's against sexual liberation then its demonizing of homosexuality and group sex is also bizarre.

I don't know. Maybe you have to be an allosexual to make sense of this.

38. Carnival of Souls (1962)

As the sole survivor of a car wreck a young woman tries to put the incident behind her and move on, but the past continues to follow her.

Seeing this on 35mm was a treat. There's a lot of interesting things happening in this movie. The main character is clearly ace too.

#xcusethequality

[patrocles]

You've left out one of the chief characters: Samwise the Brave. I want to hear more about Sam.

THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS (2002) dir. Peter Jackson

#the lord of the rings: the two towers #lotrgif #lotredit #filmgif #filmtv #frodo baggins #samwise gamgee #elijah wood #sean astin #LEARN YOUR GAY HISTORY KIDS #honestly this rewatch made their love REALLY stand out more than previous watches #like my lord #rolkien rolkien tolkien was rly such an oldtimey misogynist he tripped and fell and wrote one of the most beautiful love stories of all time #as old timey misogynists tend to do

[stellaridegifs]

Your post about Seager/Stella was posted on twitter and people are saying Kelly is that much in love with Stella he can't see Seager actions for what it is, apparently people who are in love lose their ability to read social clues, they are saying men are that stupid after they meet the one. There really just want to see a cat fight and that is just sad in another level. Kelly is a grown as man who needs to act like it, he needs to respect his relationship enough to drawn a line, is that simple

Of course it was. My gifs often get reposted, so I'm not surprised a "controversial" opinion would find its way on there, too.

I don't understand why people keep making excuses for Kelly. I love him, but this fandom treats him like the man can do no wrong. And even if he does, it's okay because he's Kelly Severide and we shouldn't fault him.

I've never doubted Kelly's love for Stella, and vice versa. But I stand by what I said—Kelly KNOWS Seager's intentions and he continues to let it happen. To those saying, "But he hasn't done anything" ... Exactly. Men are stupid, I agree—but like I mentioned in the previous post, Kelly's not blind, he knows. Plus, Matt has pointed it out to him. And Stella has told him—on more than one occasion—that she doesn't feel comfortable with Seager. Might be time to do something.

Sometimes when you're watching an episode live, it can be easy to miss certain moments, looks and whatnot. I don't know how many times people are rewatching these scenes, but because I make gifs, I've watched these scenes A LOT. There's definitely a "look" Kelly makes when Seager tries to flirt. He doesn't flirt back, but it's almost like he just doesn't want to create tension, and so he either pretends it didn't happen or just changes the topic of conversation. If Kelly is meant to be blind to Seager's intensions... then Taylor's not playing him right. 🤷🏻‍♀️

But you're absolutely right, this isn't about whether or not Kelly can see Seager's intentions. It's about respecting Stella when she's voiced her discomfort regarding the situation. In season 8 when Stella told him Seager was "making eyes" at him in front of her, he just laughed and shrugged it off. And this season when Stella asked him why he didn't mention working on the OFI case with Seager, he turned it around and somehow made it her fault. Like, what?!

Honestly, at this point I watch for the chemistry between Taylor and Miranda. Because character development and good, consistent storytelling have gone down the drain.

And since this will probably also end up on Twitter, to everyone over there ... just come join us. It's more fun on Tumblr.

#answered

[redxblueihateloveyou]

Hiiii!!! 💫💕🌸🥳

Can I bother with a question... I was (re)watching that zhang qiling edit (not today) - 'cause it's so cool, btw- and I wondered if Reboot Xiaoge’s your favourite one...? And if you're up to answering, what do you think about the other adaptations? Especially (our small bean) xiao yuliang's interpretation of xiaoge?

🤗🌺💐🐰💕

Hey, my precious patootie hehe ILY it always makes me very happy knowing that you rewatch my vids <3

lol dang it, I was kinda hoping to avoid this question, just because I feel like I'd find it hella hard to explain some things, but I'll try my best and hopefully it'll make some sense xD

I'll start from afar bc I wanna try to explain my reasonings, since I don't want to go without arguments into such highly debated question lolz. I talked about this a bit in my previous asks somewhere, but not broadly as to why that one guy hit all the right spots.

So throughout the books Wu Xie always does this wonderful thing, where he very tangibly describes the feeling he gets when Xiaoge is near, I mean like the aura around him. And he always somehow does it so colorful, that this mix of safety, assurance, calmness, composure and some things I can't quite put into one noun, that he brings to him, I think everyone who've read the books can recognize as this almost magical "Xiaoge feeling". It's not just the way he acts in some dangerous situations or smth like that. It's just everything. You either have it or you don't. And here goes my first argument... to me none of them, except for Huang Junjie and Yuliang have it.

I mean it's not even the obvious stuff, it's like the way they move during the action scenes, the way they even stand and hold themselves, the way they touch Wu Xie, the tone of their voices (both of which are like soothing as fuck), little things you'd think wouldn't matter, but when you watch it and all the puzzle pieces are together, you're like... fuck yeah, thats him.

Also not really that weighty of a point, but to me there's always a joy to see that the actor who plays the character not only gets what's he's playing, but also loves it, bc it's always seen on screen. Usually when some asked about the character they play and what they have in common for example they answer with obvious things like if some character is introverted they're like "well I also don't talk very much" or smth like that, you know what I mean. When I was watching interviews of Yuliang and Huang Junjie I was just smiling so much, bc they've said such things that made me go "yeah, Qiling is safe in their hands".

In Reboot case working in such close proximity with the author definitely also played a huge role here. Bc it kinda gets complicated in some aspects since the books are written from Wu Xie's point of view and you can't only base your picture on his perspective, just bc it's coming from a person who after being basically told "you're my whole world" goes "I'm just a person he randomly passes by in his long life" in his thoughts. Not only he's utterly clueless and dumb when it comes to all this, that he wouldn't notice the way Qiling looks at him and other things, its also not that kind of book, that would go "I suddenly caught poker face looking at me like I'm his whole existence" (and I honestly don't want it to be that book lmao). So you have to take into the account here stuff like what author says to get the whole picture, bc if you look at that from the point of Qiling's view for example, this shit takes a whole wild turn. So I really loved that in UN and Reboot ways of showing Qiling's feelings were well thought out and fit the timeline.

Bc it also works both ways, when it comes to other adaptations. Like Qiling is very and I mean ETREMELY hard to win over. We all know that it was a very long process of gaining his trust and even longer for him to fall for Wu Xie to the point of him being his everything. So what I want in those interpretations is for them to get at which point of their relationships what Xiaoge's behavior makes sense. I do not need any fanservice if it ruins the character, I'll just hate it. The thing that their feelings didn't come out of nowhere is what I LOVE about this ship, bc I'm not the kind of person who believes in "we love for nothing" thing and love at first sight thing (only "got hots for each other" at first sight), bc thats bull. Wu Xie became his everything after a long LONG process of getting to know each other. At the beginning tho he was the same stranger to him as everyone else. So what Reboot Qiling feels for Wu Xie is not what UN's Qiling feels for Wu Xie yet and what UN's Qiling feels for Wu Xie is not what Lost Tomb's Qiling feels for Wu Xie (which at that point was nothing). And I feel like not everyone gets the fact that you can totally wreck the character if you make him behave not the way he behaved in that particular time. Like for example, if someone would make a MDZS adaptation where at the very beginning of their relationships LZ treats WWX the way he treated him after the reincarnation just because "who cares, it's still LZ", that would be dumb af, see what I mean. So Xiaoge having a weakness for Wu Xie in part one is automatically not a Xiaoge to me, bc a huge part of his character and the thing NPSS speaks a lot about is just how IMPOSSIBLE it is for someone to catch his attention and how long it took Wu Xie to get there. So let's just say to me UN and Reboot Qilings for the first time didn't feel like some mashup or character summary/parody, they were Qilings the way they are supposed to be in that part of the story, bc it was the only times someone actually bothered to coordinate it.

Now as to why I prefer one to another. Xiaoge has this thing... the way he holds himself with other people, that is sometimes intentionally and sometimes unintentionally suppressing.

Like everyone knows that if you're a passerby, Qiling genuinely doesn't fucking care and would in fact be pretty harsh about it in terms of treating people like they do not deserve their attention. He won't be like "please, don't bother me", he simply ignored them like an empty space. He is also like that with acquaintances who in his opinion do not deserve his respect like that girl who went hysterical, bc she was upset that he was the only one who wasn't drooling on her like all other men on the crew, Chen Wenjin, Wu Xie's uncles and etc. He's not openly disrespectful unless they trigger him in some way (usually by trying to act superior or later on for not treating Wu Xie right), but if they do, he will in fact remind them their place in sometimes a very rude way, at times humiliating them in front of ppl bc he looks younger than them and talking starts.

He's always doing things on his own terms and hates being told what to do. Like he legit scared Chen Wenjin just with a look and the tone of his voice when he said "let go", when she tried to command him on the mission and grabbed him trying to lecture him about what he should or shouldn't do. That's why Wu Erbai didn't even try anything like this and let him do whatever he needed to do and equally lead the mission in Reboot. And why the scene where Wu Xie 'commands' "Xiaoge, come back" and he immediately listens holds another special place in my heart. Bc he NEVER and I mean NEVER allows such things to ANYONE.

So here I came to a point of why despite loving them both dearly, my favorite Xiaoge is Huang Junjie.

I have this dissonance with Yuliang's version when to me in many scenes it felt like he and Wu Xie are the same age. Like if he was Xiaoge, but in his 20s. In his interactions with Chen Wenjin the dynamics was turned upside down, with him being okay with her telling him what to do and just in general the way she behaved with him. Same as like I didn't always quite believe him to be on par with older generation or even Pangzi, it just felt like he was truly younger than them. Some scenes that I do find extremely cute just don't fit book Xiaoge at all, I'm talking about some moments like his face when Wu Xie gave him food, or him pouting and many things he's done, when you were going "uwu he's a baby". He just never gives me this feeling in the books ever, not just bc he's 100 years old, but sad fact here.. bc he's simply unable to behave that way. Like in the books you'll desperately want to shower him with love, but he's just... I can't quite explain, it's very sad.

I guess it's just you know these characters, who are like hundreds years old, but look like they're 18? I think you have to be very careful with how you write those, so you could deliver that. And in UN because of some changed dynamics and scenes I straight up forgot about it, until Wu Xie threw some joke like "he's an old man" in front of a restaurant.

In Reboot Xiaoge could make Wu Erbai stutter with one move, put Yuliang's version in the same scene, I just don't think it would've worked. Like I'm trying to imagine him telling UN's Wu Erbai what to do and having troubles already haha. Same as I don't think he's capable to be genuinely mad at Wu Xie, and HJJ nailed it esp in one of my fav when Wu Xie was laughing at Pangzi's joke about him catching cold. The look he gave him and how ZYL just retreated was priceless xD. And boy could Qiling get angry with him in the books!

Otherwise I didn't have any drastic fall outs there, like with Joseph's Wu Xie and Ah Ning's death, because that was just too much of a difference, but there were still moments where it was once again this the same scene completely different emotion thing. He was more tolerable to ppl in general here, more pliable. And 50% of the time he gave me the cute lost kitten type, which I just cannot connect with the feeling he gave me in the books. His personality is a cat type 100%, but like seriously "cute baby" is the last word combination I would ever apply to book Xiaoge, but with Yuliang's version it's easily applied. So small bean he is indeed. With Joseph and in UN it works incredibly perfect to me, but the way he is in UN is at times too gentle. And there are lots of scenes where Joseph himself looked at him in a way "you're too cute, let me pinch your cheeks" kind of way, or the way he like sat down next to him on the coast, he was a bit babying him at times. I can't imagine book pingxie doing that. It's just a whole different vibe, the way he takes care of him, the way he lets him take care of him... it's...uuuuuuuuu another vibe (see, I'm so good at explaining lmao).

It's also kinda funny to me, bc HJJ who's the smallest and who irl truly a kitten never once gave me that feeling on screen for some reason. The one babied and loved by every crew and old ppl, who was cutely hiding behind ZYL's back on set, who won't sue an ex who almost ruined his career bc of how stupid she is, bc he "didn't want to hurt her", who according to staff can't even step on a fly, whom CMH was petting for several minutes after he had to hit him with a prop brick bc he didn't wanna do it lmao. I was just like.. ok, this is hilarious, bc I in fact didn't expect him to be a small bean, so watching all the bts made me go LOOOOL. Probably ZYL acting like a 3 year old helped him transform and the age difference problem got lost lmao

As for other adaptations. You know I can't watch seriously "Lost Tomb", I think some ppl probably have some nostalgic feeling about it, but I'm sorry, to me it's fucking hilarious. Like I've already said it looks like some type of twilight parody thing or smth. Soft damselle Wu Xie esp killed me, bc 1st when he ever was that, 2nd in the first book he's salty af, I don't even know this dude in this interpretation, I was like who's this. YangYang I know him from other things, I really don't think it's his role. I know the script and everything is bad. I know the costume and hair are horrendously funny, but it's just I was watching him in those action scenes and was like no... just I'm sorry but I'm not feeling it. I simply just don't know what to say about the whole thing seriously, bc I don't even know where to start. 10 episodes of some salad finished with one mutilated scene from book 6 for no reason the fact that characters are weird themselves also I can't quite tell, did they really just meet or they imply smth else lmao.. I'm sorry, but I do not get it.

I've given LT2 another try after finishing all the books and I've dropped it half way through, Cheng Yi wasn't even close to how I pictured Xiaoge in any aspect. He in fact didn't do anything OOC or off the book or anything, I just was like "not my Qiling". Happens sometimes.

Explore with the note you already know how I feel about this lol let's just forget.

P.S. To be fair here also maybe we should take into account the fact that some got luckier than other with "at which point" Xiaoge they're playing. Like for example, "Wrath of the Sea" and "Qingling Tree" books which is LT2 is not exactly you can say much about Qiling there, he trolls them there in the beginning (in a brilliant way that was totally lost in the adaptation) and he is there in "Wrath of Sea", but it's not the part that can make his character shine in any way, there's not much things happening there that would make you fall for him or get to know him; Yuliang grabbed the fattest piece bc it's middle several books, when they're always together and his character shines the most in terms of clues about past, opening up to Wu Xie and Pangzi, and there are many many events where you can get the picture of what kind of man he is; Huang Junjie grabbed my fav piece of utter devotion, where he's already fully and wholeheartedly belongs to Wu Xie, that I'm just weak for. So like... there's also that I guess xD.

#answered #jaecomments #zhang qiling #daomu biji #dmbj #lost tomb reboot #i still feel like i couldn't quite explain stuff lol #its a complicated question xD #do not kill me for my i guess weird opinions haha #huang junjie #xiao yuliang #lost tomb #pingxie

[nishiisenpai]

somebody to someone - tsukishima kei x reader

REQUEST: “ Id love to request a Tsuki x Reader!! Maybe just a angsty fluff of sorts where there has been a lot of drama within their relationship? Like Tsuki’s friend (Could be yams or some1 else) kinda always had a crush on the reader, and maybe at one point one of the readers friends also had a crush on Tsuki, but it’s pretty obvious that they like each other instead. Maybe at the end Tsuki got hurt in a practice match or whatever, and the reader gets super worried- so she goes down to the nurses office to check on Tsuki and like seeing him even the slightest bit hurt causes her to just poor out all her feelings and tell him that she loves him? And happy ending pls where he reciprocates? Tysm 🥺🥺🥺❤️❤️✨✨ - @i-smoke-chapstick “

A/N: it has come to my attention that majority of the people visiting my page are here for tsukishima angst. honestly i vibe with that. so i hope i didn’t disappoint in this request, and let’s start shall we? ;)

oh and side note, i didn’t really know how to add in drama without it being cliche, yk? i am trying not to be cliche with my work, but if it happens, it happens.

also i had to rewatch the third season where tsukishima got hurt, so that it would be my reference. (hurt me deadass.)

lastly- i apologize this took so long to be made, school (my science teacher) has been really affecting my mental health badly for the past week so i wasn’t able to create this to the best of my abilities, but i hope that you share and love this as much as you do with my previous works!

-

WARNING: Angst but with a fluff ending! Also crack cause why not?

WHO: Tsukishima Kei x Reader

ADDITIONAL INFO: F/N means friend’s name.

-

You’ve always been close with Tsukishima. Quite literally, you both were neighbours. Yamaguchi joined in later after Tsukki stood up for him against those childhood bullies. Plus you on the side intimidating them getting ready to beat the shizzles out of them though Tsukishima dragged your ass back home.

“Earth to Y/N?” Tsukishima’s hand waved in front of your dazed face.

“Tsukki, she’s not breathing,” Yamaguchi had exclaimed. Tsukishima looked at you before bonking you on the head.

“Ow, you lil bitch.” you tsked rubbing your head.

“Yamaguchi got worried, idiot.” Tsukishima replied back and you looked at Yamaguchi who sighed.

“Aww, my pretty baby, were you worried about me~” You wrapped an arm around the back of his neck to bring him down, squishing your cheeks with his and rubbing his hair.

“You’re gonna make him combust.” Tsukishima said with an irritated voice.

“I-it’s fine, Tsukki.” Yams waved him off and Tsukishima rolled his eyes.

“I was just complimenting him...” you said with a pout before fixing Yamaguchi’s hair and giving him a small smile.

“Oh hey guys!” your friend’s head popped out of the classroom.

“Hey,” you waved at them.

“Oh, hey F/N,” Tsukishima said.

“Hey, Tsukishima! ” your friend said giving him a small smile. You noticed them placing a hand on his upper arm as you awkwardly stood there with Yamaguchi.

Your friend and Tsukishima continued talking in the hallway, discussing with each other. You watched them as they continued talking and ignored both you and Yamaguchi. It hurt your heart a little knowing that he wasn’t going to be paying you the same amount of attention that he does for them.

“Do you wanna leave to head to class first?” you tugged at Yamaguchi’s sleeve to whisper in his ear.

“Sure,” he nodded.

“Sorry to interrupt you two, but Yamaguchi and I are going to leave first,” you indicated.

“I’ll see you later Tsukki.” Yams said waving at him and Tsukishima sent a nod of approval before his focus was back onto your friend.

“Do you have practice after school?” you asked Yamaguchi while walking to class.

“Yeah, why are you asking?”

“Oh, I was just wondering if you, and Tsukki wanted to hang out later today.”

“I should be free after practice. I’ll ask Tsukki about it later.”

“Okie dokie! I should head in now, thanks for walking me to class, Yamaguchi.” you said giving him a smile and a small little wave.

“B-bye, Y/N! See you later!” he waved back with a shy smile.

-

“Hey, Y/N, do you like anyone at the moment?” your friend asked as she touched up her lip tint in front of the mirror.

“Uh, no- how about you?” you lied as a way to cover up your hidden feelings for him.

“Yeah...”

“Oh really, who is it?”

“Tsukishima.” you expression blanked. You zoned out but snapped to reality when your friend waved her hand in front of you.

“A-ah I see. What do you like about him?”

“Well for pointers, he’s tall, he’s also smart, calm and overall he’s very intriguing. He’s also cute and handsome.”

“Woah, that’s... a lot?”

“Right! So can you help me out?”

“How?”

“You’re like good friends with Tsukishima right? How do I make him go on a date with me?”

“Say what?”

“You know, a date.”

“Oh, uhm... Just ask him to help you study some material from class..? I’m pretty sure he has volleyball after school, but I’m sure he’ll help you out..”

“Thank you so much!” she side hugged you before leaving the bathroom.

Ha...Ha... I hope it goes well for her, then...

-

“TSUKISHIMAAAA!” you ran towards his direction to jump onto his back.

“Get off of me woman!” Tsukishima said carrying you.

“Never!” you giggled hanging onto him for dear life. 

“Hey guys- oh, nevermind...” Yamaguchi came in with a smile plastered on his face but slowly turned into a flat line.

“Oi, Yamaguchi, pull her off me will you?” Tsukishima said grunting.

“WAIT- DON’T DO IT- I’ll get off after you answer my question.”

“What is it?”

“Are you free after practice?”

“No I am not. I have to help F/N with studying her material.” 

“Oh yeahhh.” you said getting off of Tsukishima and standing there to face him.

“Why?”

“I was planning on hanging out with Yamaguchi, and you like the good old times, though it seems that both of you have a little study date.” you cheekily said nudging him. thump, thump

“Shut up.”

“We all know it’s true giraffe.” you rolled your eyes smirking. thump, thump

“Whatever you baked bean.”

“A baked be- a BAKED BEAN?” you jumped bonking him on the head causing him to wince in pain.

“Bake bean that, bAKE BEAN THAT.” you landed in front of him staring at Tsukishima with a fiery look. He smirked while scoffing looking into your eyes. 

Something had caused Tsukishima to look away faster than ever as he looked to his side quickly.

“Anyways, I guess I’ll just hang out with Yamaguchi, right?” you turn to him and his body shot up with a smile and pink plastered across his face.

“Y-Yeah!” he gave a smile and you smiled back before clapping.

“Alrighty then! Yams, I’ll be at the park closest to our neighbourhood. See you later!” you said waving at him before turning around. “Oh, and good luck on your date Tsukishima!”

“Thanks...”

Damn it, Y/N. Why does your heart have to beat every time you look at him. You need to stop crushing on him. He doesn’t even like you and is probably interested in F/N. She’s prettier than you, more entertaining and is better than you in general. Just stop this silly crush...

He’ll never like somebody like you.

-

“Boo!”

“AHHH!” You laughed seeing Yamaguchi’s expression.

“Sorry, Yamaguchi~” you said before sitting next to him on the swings.

“It’s okay, Y/N.. So where do you plan to go?”

“Oh, right! Let’s go to the cafe nearby!”

“Sure! Lead the way.” You grabbed ahold of Yamaguchi’s hand before dragging him to the cafe. His face sparked with pink and it made him turn quiet.

“It shouldn’t be far away so we should be there before it closes.” as you turn the corner you recognize the sign and immediately speed up. You both enter the shop examining the place.

“What would you like? I’ll buy it for you.” you smiled looking up to him.

“Are you sure? I can just purchase it for myself.”

“No need to! Take this as a repayment to hanging out with me even though I know you have to study for an upcoming test.”

“H-How did you know?”

“You mentioned it to me a few days ago, so I thought this would help be a breather for you.” 

“Thank you.”

“Now tell me what you would like, so I can order it for you.”

“A vanilla milkshake, please and thank you.”

“Alright! Go find us a seat, I’ll find you later.” before parting ways with Yamaguchi to the register.

“Hi there, what would you like today?”

“May I please get a vanilla shake and your smile cookie?”

“That will be $3.15″ you handed the cashier the money, “Thank you.”

Yamaguchi’s drink soon was made alongside your cookie served on the side. You searched the seats and found Yamaguchi sitting by a window seat near the back.

“One vanilla shake for Mr. Yamaguchi.” you jokingly placed a weird accent.

“Pfttttt, that was so stupid,” Yamaguchi laughed at your horrible accent.

“Oh be quiet.” You sat down munching on your cookie. “How’s volleyball? I heard you guys have a match with Shiratorizawa in two days.” 

“Volleyball has been good. I managed to get my jump floats over the net, and yeah, we got finals against Shiratorizawa.”

“Looks like your practice is paying off. I’m really proud of you, Yamaguchi.” 

“T-Thank you, but I wouldn’t be able to do it without the help of Mr. Makoto.” The small chime at the door rung alerting that someone came in. You glimpsed upwards and saw Tsukishima with F/N. shit.

“I-is something wrong?” Yamaguchi asked wanting to turn his head but you shook your head aggressively.

“Nothing is wrong, not at all.” you smiled keeping your eyes slightly on Tsukishima.

“Hey look it’s Yamaguchi and Y/N!” your friend pointed towards you guys.

“Oh hey guys, what are you doing here?” Yamaguchi said.

“Studying.” Tsukishima plainly spoke.

“We should get seats close by to them right, Tsukishima-kun? So we’ll see you soon, yeah?” your friend touched Tsukishima’s arm dragging him to a table close by.

“Hey, Y/N are you good?” Yamaguchi dragged your attention back to him.

“Uhm, sorry, as I was previously saying, I just know you’re doing really well. It’s a shame I can’t see you in action in person.” you said to Yamaguchi continuing the conversation that was paused.

“P-Please do come!” Yamaguchi exclaimed and you looked confused.

“You know, Tsukishima doesn’t want me at the matches. He says I would be too loud...” you quietly spoke to Yamaguchi.

“Please, Y/N, do this for me? It’s finals and it would be a shame if I didn’t see you in the stands cheering on for us.” Yamaguchi’s bold move of holding hands caught you off guard. They were warm and big. Very welcoming. 

Tsukishima’s eyes trailed over to your hands being held by Yamaguchi - which caused him to clutch onto his pencil a little harder than he should have.

“Because you asked so nicely and cause you’re adorable, I’ll come. But if I don’t see you on the court playing, I would be devastated.” you dramatically spoke before giggling and continuing to chat with Yamaguchi.

It soon turned darker outside, meaning the cafe was closing soon too. Hanging out with Yamaguchi was fun today even though Tsukishima was helping F/N study. thump, thump

“Thank you again, Y/N. It was very nice of you to do this for me.”

“Ahhh stopppp, you needed this. Besides, I am glad you invited me to come watch. I’m very excited and look forward to it!” you said.

“It’s getting pretty late and dark, do you want me to walk you home?” Yamaguchi offered and you looked surprised before smiling and nodding. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Tsukishima and F/N.”

“Yeah, see you guys tomorrow! Make sure to walk her home, Tsukishima! You don’t want her to walk alone, do you?” you announced teasing him before exiting the building and turning your smile upside down.

thump. thump.

-

“Shit I’m late- I can already hear them play.” you sped up on walking up the stairs to Karasuno’s stand. You found a spot in the stands near the back. You watched as both teams played and saw Yamaguchi serving but no Tsukishima. You just figured he was in the corner with his other teammates because your vision couldn’t find him from that far.

“GO YAMAGUCHI!!!!!!” you cheered as he served perfectly to the other side of the team. 

“Hey lady, can you quiet down?” a boy with glasses asked. You stared at him in confusion.

“Apologies, but I’m cheering on for my friends and their team. Also, aren’t you supposed to cheer for them too?” you questioned, crossing your arms.

“We aren’t from Karasuno or here to really cheer for either teams.” the boy with glasses spoke.

“Then why are you here...?”

“We’re observing them.”

“D-don’t tell me you’re spying on them.”

“Why yes I am, miss lady.” 

“Oikawa, cut it out.” a boy with a deeper voice beside him said hitting the boy in the glasses.

“Iwa-chan~” Oikawa spoke holding his hurt spot.

“My apologies, he can be troublesome.” Iwa said apologising.

“It’s alright...Uhm, if you don’t mind... Can you tell me where Tsukishima Kei is?”

“Can you describe him?” Iwa asked.

“He’s tall, has glasses, blonde and a real b- I mean butt.” you smiled covering up your slip.

“Oh his hand got injured and he was bleeding-” 

“Okay thanks,” that was all it took for you to go down the stairs before turning to the exit and dashing down the stairs to the infirmary.

“Damn it, Tsukishima.” you ran trying to find the infirmary. That’s when you saw Yachi stand outside talking with Akiteru.

“Yachi! Akiteru!” you spoke up and they turned around.

“Oh hey, Y/N. How are you-” they both spoke but you cut them off.

“Where’s Tsukishima?” you asked in a panic.

“He’s inside being treated.”

“What happened?”

“He went for a block against one of the players and got his hand injured.”

“Is it alright for me to go inside to check up on him?” you asked desperately.

“Sure. I think he needs you right now.”

“Thank you.” As you knocked on the door and heard a small “come in”.

“Oh hey, Y/N-”

“I’m so sorry I’m late, but are you okay? I heard your hand got treated, but still-” you cupped his face wearing a worried expression looking deeply into his eyes.

“I-I’m fine, Y/N...”

“No you’re not. Look at your hand,”

“I said I’m fine, Y/N.”

“Fine?!?!? Tsukishima! Your hand was bleeding- are you kidding me? You can’t just say you’re fine after your hand was bleeding! Kei, I am so worried for you and it hurts my heart to see you like this. I just- I can’t seem to see you hurt, cause then I want to cry and there’s nothing I can do about it. Like fuck- is this what feelings do to you? I just love you so much and it pains me seeing you down- oh no...” you rumbled on and gasped covering your mouth quickly realizing what came out of your mouth.

“W-wait what?” Tsukishima’s eyes widened hearing that.

“I-it’s nothing, you didn’t hear anything.”

“No. I heard something.” He stood up towering over you. 

“No, you did not.”

“Something about having feelings for me?” he smirked looking down at you. Your face flushed pink.

“O-okay, maybe I do! So what? It’s not like you have feelings for me! I know they’re all for F/N and not me! I mean come on! I’m only your friend, and there is nothing I can do about it! F/N is so much more confident, lively, bubbly, pretty and an overall good if not amazing person! Of course you would have fallen for her! She’s in your league and I’m not! I just wanted to be somebody to someone already! And that someone is you, but I’m here looking like a complete-” the feeling of Tsukishima’s lips pressed against your forehead caused you to stop your sentence to look up at him.

“A complete unique individual that I somehow managed to fall for not only because of their looks or how they act, but for what they do and dedicate their time and effort to. Yes I have fallen for someone but that someone isn’t F/N. It’s you, Y/N.” Tsukishima said looking down at you with soft eyes that were filled with stars. His expression was soft and caring. You noticed how close your faces were when you saw how clear his honey like eyes shined under the bright lights.

“You are insanely beautiful, and someone I treasure so much. You’ve been with me since day one and I can not thank you enough for being there with me. I appreciate you so much but I don’t know how to physically show you all these emotions I pent up and hidden from you. Y/N, you should never look down on yourself like that. Besides, what’s so fun of having something in my league when I can go for something bigger?” Tsukishima wrapped his free arm around your waist to pull you in closer to him. Bodies pressed together and absorbing his heat.

“You’re not playing with me... Are you?” you asked in concern.

Tsukishima took his fragile hand to place it behind your head to press against his chest where his heart was. You heard the fast pace rhythm of his heart beating loudly against his ribcage. Tears slowly slid down your cheeks out of happiness.

“Now do you believe me?” he asked with a small smile. You nodded your head and hugged him to hide your blushing face and dried up tears.

“I-I hate you.”

“Mhm, sure you do.”

“D-Don’t you have a match to attend back to???”

“You’re right,” He gave you a quick kiss on the lips before heading towards the door, “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” you sent a smile to him before he smiled back and left the infirmary with a whole different mindset.

The mindset where his thoughts were no longer clouded with jealousy or doubt, but with the burning passion for volleyball, a plan to defeat Shiratorizawa and now you.

-

#tsukishima kei #tsukishima x you #tsukishima oneshot #tsukishima angst #tsukishima fluff #tsukishima hcs #tsukishima request #tsukki imagines #tsukki fluff #tsukki angst #tsukki x you #tsukishima kei angst #tsukishima kei fluff #tsukishima x reader #haikyuu #haikyuu fluff #haikyuu angst #haikyuu requests #haikyuu! #tsukishima imagine #tsukki imagine #haikyuu x you

[mj-spooks]

Ok, so now you got me curious, it's been several years since I last watched The Zeppo, but your rant on it and the library/research scenes made me want to hear your rant about, if I understood correctly, Cordelia (which, solid choice for a favorite character, she took me a bit to love, but she's definitely up there in my list)

Okay, so. Firstly, Cordy is absolutely top tier quality Buffy character, she is absolutely my favorite of the OG cast, second only to Spike and Lorne in terms of favorite ever, and all around an absolute role model.

And the way she gets treated after her and Xander break up is fucking appalling.

This is gonna be a long one, y'all. Like, super long.

For a refresher, The Zeppo opens up with Xander being awkward and clumsy and making a fool of himself, because he's Xander and that's kind of what he does. If they would've let his entire characterization be this I would have liked him infinitely more than I do. Unfortunately instead his character traits also include "obsessed with Buffy even when other way out of his league girls are literally right fucking there making eyes at him for some ungodly reason" and "withholds information from Buffy and lectures her as he sees fit even though she's, you know, the chosen one, and he's an idiot teenage boy who doesn't in fact know better than her," and the ever so wonderful "super irrationally prejudiced against allies of a demonic nature, except when he's fucking them because then it's okay I guess"

I want to like Xander, okay, because when he's good he's really good, and a lot of his character flaws are very #relatable. I have many high school memories that make me feel like a Xander in hindsight.

But gods, he makes it impossible to like him.

Cordelia, on the other hand, is a character who at first is extremely easy to hate, indeed, designed to be hated, but eventually grows to be like, just. The best. Alright. When I did my most recent rewatch of S1, I actually found I liked her from the jump, in that "I now have the wisdom to understand why she was like that and frankly I support her except when she's mean to Willow specifically" kind of way. But also, Willow was friends with Jesse and Jesse like, openly and very grossly perved on Cordy, so even then I'm like "alright the bullying is a bit much but I see why y'all have Issues." Point being, look, yes, she's a Queen Bee Mean Girl archetype, but she's also doing a pretty good job at Faking It Til She Makes It, and that's admirable. High school sucks, C. I get it.

So, in S2, Cordy's in danger and Xander makes with the saveage, and that makes her see him kind of differently. Then we get the high school foe yay, and they have their whole secret relationship turned real relationship, and it's actually really good? He's not good enough for her but like, her being with him humanizes her, makes her more likeable because she's not as shallow, and she also brings out the best in him in a lot of ways. Go Fish is a ridiculous episode but I love it specifically for the bit where she sees a Fishman in the pool, thinks it's Xander, and monologues about how she still cares about him even though he's a fish monster. She's gonna make it work with Fish!Xander, by God, somehow someway. Like, how fucking sweet was that?

They were good together. Like, legitimately good.

And then he cheats on her with Willow.

This plotline... irritated me for many reasons. It was so unnecessary. The only good thing we got out of it was Anya. And honestly, Anya was just the replacement for Cordy after she moved to LA to be on Angel. Much as I love Anya, because I do, she's my next favorite after Cordy, she's still just C's replacement from a narrative perspective, filling in much the same niche. So, I'm not a fan of the "cheating Willow and Xander break Oz and Cordy's hearts" thing. It's dumb and bad and I hate it.

And then. Then! Cordy tries to slips back into her Mean Girl role to cope with the fallout of being cheated on by Xander Harris, who she committed social suicide to be with. And the show frames this as bad? It makes it out like she's the bad guy? Like she's an asshole?

Fuck that!

Cordelia gave up everything she had ever been and everything she'd ever known and all the friends she'd ever had to date this guy, and he cheated on her, with his best friend that he could have had at literally any point because she was in love with him for literal! years! And she lost her whole world, basically, because she's been hanging out with Xander and Xander's friends in light of having ostracized herself from her own, and most of her time was spent either hanging out with them or doing Scooby stuff with them. Xander cheated on her with Willow, and Buffy is friends with both of them, so they get Buffy in the divorce (which, I have to say, really bugs me? I feel like Buffy should have at least been a little more supportive of Cordy, even if Cordy didn't take it. Ask to go to the Bronze, just the two of them, offer to hang out, etc). So Cordy has nothing, and they wanna demonize (hah) her for trying to regain her previous standing? Hell, no.

And then! The Zeppo happens, and when Xander does something dumb at the start, Cordelia is catty at him, extremely righteously so, and we're supposed to feel bad for Xander? Xander who cheated? Xander who basically ruined her life as far as she was concerned? The episode, otherwise a perfectly good episode that I absolutely love, both begins and ends with Cordelia dishing out some Grade A snark to him, which she absolutely deserves to get to do! And when, at the end, he just kind of smiles smugly and shrugs it off, and she's left gaping at him like "how dare he?!", we're supposed to be happy for him!

No! I want Cordy to tear him to shreds, metaphorically. Maybe literally! The fact that her Vengeance Wish sucked so much is a total ripoff and I for one think she deserves a re-do.

All hail Queen C.

#buffy the vampire slayer #btvs #cordelia chase #xander harris #this is an anti-xander space #all hail queen c

[kittyprincessofcats]

I finished RWBY Volume 5!!

Loved it!! After volume 4 was (understandably) a bit slower-paced, I didn’t expect things to get intense and serious this quickly, but I’m glad they did! I have so many thoughts I wanted to write down, so here we go:

[There will be spoilers for RWBY up to Volume 5 in this post (duh). Please don’t leave spoilers for anything after Volume 5 on this post, otherwise I will block you.]

- I have to say, I definitely liked Cinder more when she wasn’t talking. During Volume 4, I kind of started feeling bad for her on some level, but then she got better and started being her old condescending, power-hungry self and I was like… nevermind, I hate you again.

- Qrow being super drunk when he first brings Oscar home was absolutely hilarious.

- Yang is SO COOL. Have I mentioned that she’s so cool? Like wow, I wish I was that cool! The bike, the new (amazing) outfit, the way she just punched that creepy guy and walked right up to her mom’s bandit camp making demands of her – she’s so cool and I’m here for it.

- Yang and Weiss’ reunion was so sweet! 😭 I was waiting for literally any of Team RWBY’s members to reunite and that got me right in the feels! (Also, I loved the whole “Wait, your mom kidnapped me?” “Wait, you kidnapped her?” exchange - brilliant 😂.)

- Ruby’s reunion with Yang and Weiss was so sweet, too! 😭 Tears were definitely shed over reunions in this volume! And it was so nice to finally have most of Team RWBY and what’s left of Team JNPR back together and see them bond and catch up with each other 😭. Found family back together! It’s what they deserve!

- Yang being so angry at Blake for leaving makes perfect sense, imo, especially considering her own abandonment issues. And even more so considering that she lost that arm while protecting Blake. Also, I don’t think it’s reading too much into it to say that Yang and Blake’s interactions and their storyline together have had romantic undertones since volume 2. (And no, I’m not just saying that because I ship Bumbleby; it’s the other way around – I ship Bumbleby because those romantic undertones were there in the first place.) So yeah, Yang always tried to help and support Blake, lost an arm protecting her from her abusive ex, and then Blake just left – I get why Yang’s hurt and angry. And that moment where she goes from complaining about how she just wants to be there for Blake, before finally admitting “What if I needed her there for me?” - that’s a really good moment for Yang, even beyond the romantic subtext. It’s nice to see Yang admit that she also wants someone else to be there for her, that she wants to receive that same love and care in return.

- I also want to point out that it’s nice to see how far Weiss has come since volume one. She really took a level in kindness and became a lot more mature, to the point where she’s now giving Yang relationship advice. It’s really nice to see.

- Ruby’s talk with Oscar about Penny and Pyrrha really got me teary eyed.

- I wasn’t that fond of Sun at first, but he had some really great moments in this volume, so he’s starting to grow on me now. I still don’t ship him with Blake, but their friendship is sweet.

- And now, let’s talk about THE standout character of the whole volume for me: ILIA!! Holy hell, I love everything about her! You know how some characters grow on you over time, and then there are those characters that you see one episode with and they just become instant favourites? That second one was Ilia for me. I watched Blake’s character short before Volume 5 and the moment I heard her backstory she jumped right to the top of my favourite character list without question AND I started shipping her and Blake right away. (Yes, I love Bumbleby and all, but I’m a multishipper. I’m perfectly capable of equally loving two ships that contradict each other.)

- It’s just – Ilia and Blake’s dynamic got me hooked! Not to compare everything to my OTP (Catra and Adora from She-Ra and the Princesses of Power), but let me quickly make this comparison: Two girls who grew up together, were both members of a certain evil organization until one of them left it and the other didn’t, now they’re on opposing sides and have to fight each other, but they still clearly care about each other. Plus, there are confirmed romantic feelings from at least one side there. I know many people (including myself) have compared Bumbleby to Catradora before – because you’ve got one blonde jock and one catgirl – but when it comes to the dynamic and the backstory, Blake and Ilia (what’s that ship called? Catmeleon, I think?) resemble Catradora even more. And it’s just the kind of dynamic I’m weak for.

(Honestly, it’s kind of funny how predictable I am both when it comes to favourite characters and favourite ships. My sister, who got me into both She-Ra and RWBY, took one look at Catra years ago and immediately predicted that I would love her. And when she first saw Ilia, she also immediately knew she’d be one of my favourites. Basically, my sister once described my “type” of favourite characters as “troubled, cute and gay” and that pretty much sums it up.)

- Speaking of troubled, cute, and gay: I’m glad RWBY finally has some CANON LGBT representation! Hell yes for that! Honestly, I interpreted Ilia’s feelings for Blake as romantic right away, but I wondered if it was just bait or my usual tendency to see romantic undertones in any interaction between two girls. But then that “I wanted you to look at me that way” line happened and… WOW. Yes. Amazing, talented, brilliant, never been done before, showstopping, incredible. I’m 100% sold on both the ship and Ilia as a character.

(One more thing before I change topics: I try to keep these posts positive and not get into discourse too much (since I’ve heard there was (is?) a lot of discourse in the RWBY fandom – but I took just one look into the tag for Volume 5 and immediately saw people arguing that Ilia’s not good representation because she’s a villain. And I just want to quickly address why that’s nonsense, in my opinion (and before you ask, yes I am a lesbian myself): First of all, she’s not even a full-blown villain. She’s clearly shown as confused and misguided from the beginning. And her feelings for Blake are never portrayed as a negative thing. She also has a redemption literally two episodes after being revealed to be queer. And in general, I don’t think queer villains are necessarily a bad thing and I’m tired of queer characters not being allowed to be flawed. How come straight characters get to just exist, but any queer character better be a shining beacon of morality or else they’re bad representation? I agree that RWBY should introduce more queer characters to balance things out a bit, but I wouldn’t say Ilia was bad representation by herself, since she’s a character I think we’re meant to have sympathy for.

- Now I just hope that future volumes of RWBY don’t pull a Bury Your Gays and kill Ilia off... I’d really hate that. (No spoilers on this post, please!)

- The entire fight at the Belladonnas’ house had me so on edge the whole time. I thought someone (most likely one or both of Blake’s parents) was going to die any second. Basically, the ending of volume 3 burned me and now I constantly expect characters to die. I’m glad it all (mostly) turned out well!

- Blake’s speech to the Faunus might have made me a bit emotional. That was a really great moment for her.

- And then there were those final episodes… WOW. Like I said, I really didn’t expect everything to go down so quickly (or for the ending to be that happy – like I said, volume 3 burned me.)

- Jaune unlocking his semblance was nice! And I’m proud of myself for having correctly predicted that he’d have some sort of healing powers. (I was waiting for him to unlock some healing semblance back when Qrow got injured in Volume 4 – I’m glad it finally happened!)

- I was worried about Weiss for a second, then I realized there’s no way she can die since I’ve already seen pictures of her outfit in later volumes. (Plus, I’m pretty sure if a main character had died, I’d have been unable to completely avoid spoilers about it. So those 4 are pretty much the only ones I’m not that worried about.)

- Raven is a really cool and interesting character, but an awful person. (I got so angry at her when she blasted Ruby after Ruby was just so nice to her*. How dare you, lady?) I love her design, though!

[*EDIT: I just rewatched it and realized that it was Cinder who blasted Ruby, Raven just created the portal. Point still stands, tough.]

- The plot twist of who the Spring Maiden really is was EPIC. Really loved that reveal! (And I honestly didn’t see it coming.) Though I have to say, I feel really bad for Vernal, and for the previous Spring Maiden.

- The Cinder VS Raven fight was absolutely epic and just stunning to watch visually. I was wondering if we’d ever get a maiden vs maiden battle, and that scene more than delivered! And while I don’t particularly like either of them, I was definitely rooting for Raven in that fight.

- I’m not sure if Cinder really died there. If so, I’m honestly not too sad about it, but I would be disappointed because I kind of expected her to become a more interesting character later on. After Volume 4, I expected at least a bit of growth there or something that would make her more interesting. And I’m not talking about a redemption, just to be clear! I just think the potential to make her more interesting as a villain was there, and if they just killed her off it’s kind of wasted now and she stayed a very flat character until the end. But I guess we’ll see.

- Raven and Yang’s confrontation was pretty intense. I liked that Raven finally had to admit that she’s afraid and doing all of this just to protect herself, and the contrast to Yang, who is also scared but still does what she thinks is right. And the fact that Raven was willing to let Yang have the relic despite the danger that would put her in – mom of the year indeed 🙄.

- Blake and the other Faunus are the real MVPs of the battle, tbh. The fact that they just completely stopped Adam and the White Fang by sheer numbers and didn’t even give them the chance to attack anyone? God tier stuff. And when Blake’s mom came in with the police? 10/10, we stan.

- Also, Blake telling Adam she’s not there for him? Hell yes, girl! I love how she’s taking power away from her abuser by showing she isn’t doing any of this for him. Really nice.

- Yang and Blake’s reunion in the last episode was super nice. I like how there was so much attention on that reunion in particular. And while I’m glad Yang wasn’t too angry at Blake and it makes for a nice happy ending, I still hope there’s a scene next volume where Blake properly apologizes to Yang for leaving and explains her side of things. And then, they should get together and live happily ever after and have lots of kittens. I mean, what?

- And finally, all of Team RWBY is back together! And they’ll have a lot to catch each other up on. Blake doesn’t even know about the maidens, the relics and Salem yet, while the rest didn’t even know about the White Fang attack. Also, I want Blake to introduce the others to Ilia and to her parents.

I really loved this volume. Lots of action, lots of really sweet moments, lots of epic fights and cool plot twists. I find it hard to rank them, but this might have been my favourite volume yet (volume 3 was also really good, though).

#RWBY #RWBY v5 #RWBY Volume 5 #RWBY vol 5 #Ilia Amitola #Yang Xiao Long #Blake Belladonna #Weiss Schnee #Ruby Rose #Catmeleon #Bumbleby #Cinder Fall #Qrow Branwen #Raven Branwen #Oscar Pine #Sun Wokung #Jaune Arc #Vernal #RWBY v5 spoilers #long post #wow this really got long #I started rambling about my new favourite chameleon girl and just couldn't stop

[popculturebuffet]

Lilo and Stitch Crossovers: “Morpholomew” (American Dragon Long): Stop Trying to Make Am Drag a Thing (Commisson Done For WeirdKev27)

Hello all you happy people! And welcome to a brand new retrospective/story arc/thing from yours truly, comissoned directly by WeirdKev27. If you’d like to comission your own review or set of reviews like this one, it’s 5 bucks. Just contact me via my ask box or direct messages on this very blog or my discord technicolormuk#6550.

With Shadow Into Light in the books, Kev decided he wanted to comission something not duck related and a bit smaller as a buffer before the next big arc, ALL of three arcs from season 2 of Ducktales, and decided to go with something he suggested to be a while back as a possible future retrospective: The Lilo and Stitch Crossover episodes! 

That’s right for the next three weeks, with TWO reviews this week since I had a spot open up and Kev paid for this one in full and way in advance, we’ll be taking a trip to Hawaii to visit everyone’s faviorte little girl, her best friend/pet/killing machine as they try to find homes for his 625 cousins. 

I loved Lilo and Stitch when I was a kid: Disney admitely got their hooks in me on that one with their cool prequel comics in disney adventures. These comics set up the movie, showing Jumba creating Stitch and the events leading up to both getting captured. The movie did not disapoint with cool character designs, a drop dead gorgeous recreation of Hawaii, and a really heartfelt, heartbreaking and heartpumping story of loss, family, and ving rahmes voicing one of the few heroic child services workers i’ve seen in a medium, a refreshing change of pace. The film is a masterpiece and I really do need to watch it again sometime. 

Given the series was a huge hit and that thsi was before the big lull in the late 2000′s and early 2010′s where Disney refused to make any tv shows based on their movies, a series followed, given a lead in by the direct to video movie Stitch.

The movie set up the basic premise; 624 capsules containing Jumba’s previous experiments, cousins as Stitch calls them, ended up raining over Kauai, awakening when dropped into water or any other liquid. Lilo and Stitch, with help from Jumba, his live in boyfriend Pleakley, her tought but fair sister Nani, and her boyfriend David, who dosen’t show up as much as i’d like but is my boy so he gets a mention here. But anyways our heroes try to reform the various engines of distructoin who all have unique powers and find them their one place they truly belong. 

So yes the show was a Mons-type show clearly captalizing off pokemon.. but the slice of life setting as opposed to the shonen style of most shows following in pokemon’s wake, gave it it’s own unique feel: while our heroes did fight, it was more about shenanigans, adventures and what not with these unique creatures and the purpose is very heartflet: Lilo simply wants to give these guys the same kind of love and support she’s given Stitch and a chance to do good. 

Opposing them is Gantu, the shark bounty hunter from the first film who, now out of a job, is working for Dr. Hamstervile, an imprisoned sceintest and a character I really don’t like that much as he’s not funny or a genuine threat or both and feels like a waste of time. Thankfully he’s not the focus and Gantu is instead partnered with 625, my faviorite Lilo and Stitch character. 625, as the name suggests, is stitch’s immediate prototype.. but unlike Stitch is too lazy and peaceful to be a real threat and isn’t even really a villian despite being on Gantu’s side. He’s busy making samwitches, his calling to the point when he gets a name in the finale movie it’s naturally Ruben, and snarking at gantu. He’s sadly not in this one but hopefully it’s JUST this one. 

As you can tell I liked this show a LOT at the time. I haven’t watched it since, mostly because disney scarely replayed it after it’s run, but it was vibrant, fun and intresting and a nicely laidback and creative take. The fact I came into the franchise with the comics and thus 625, who was introduced there in fact, and had a hunger to know more about the other experiments certainly helped. It was great fun. 

But while I grew up with the show and the four shows it teamed up with, i’ve never seen these episodes before these reviews. I wondered why for years as I caught the tail end of the kim possible one and saw images ocasionally, but never saw them. 

Turns out it’s because in general Season 2 got screwed over. While Season 1 was pushed out the door fast and aired at a rapid pace Season 2.. was portioned out over several years, and the Recess crossover one, the last one aired and the last one i’ll be covering never even got to Disney channel, only airing on ABC kids, DIsney’s saturday morning block at the time I rarely watched. I did watch it’s predecessor one saturday morning though. Good stuff. 

Since I couldn’t find any making of stuff for why these episodes happened, my best guess is DIsney wanted some cross promotion, and the shows used were chosen because they were the most popular at the time and honestly all 4 represent some of disney’s best, with Recess being in heavy reruns at the time, hence i’ts conclusion despite the show being finished before Lilo And Stitch the movie came out, let alone the series. 

So yeah i’m taking this ride for the first time.. but I was happy to. While Kev pays for a lot of my work, I still have to accept the idea.. and this was a great one. It allows me to cover 5 amazing series and gage how much people would want to see reviews of said series on this blog in one fell swoop.

So to kick us off we have American Dragon: Jake Long, a series I waited forever to come to Disney + as I loved it at the time, badly need to rewatch it (Been busy ), and find it genuinely great: It’s a great teen superhero story about the magical protector of new york, with a charming lead, a great setting and horrifcally great villians in the violently racist magic creature hunting huntsclan.. and their top agent who happens to be jake’s love intrest Rose. It’s really excellent and i’m glad it’s now widely avaliable for all to see. I will say ahead that all four shows in this crossover arc are excellent, and were fine choices for this. 

So what happens when an action comedy about a hip hop teenage dragon meets a slice of life show about aliens? Find out under the cut. 

So we open at a fancy hotel where Lilo’s bringing lunch to her sister Nani when she runs into.. Keoni Jameson. 

The second I remembered this kid all the hate just came flooding back, coursing through my veigns. Just pure liquid hatred for this little perosnalitiless little punk. Keoni is Lilo’s crush and local “stupid white audience stand in”. He has no real personality other than “generic cool kid” and “likes skating”, and just sucks the air out of the room anytime he’s in an episode. Keoni is part of a recurring problem in cartoons across the ages, one that’s slowly going away: the bland love intrest. Intorducing a character whose only traits are being cool for the lead to fawn over with usually no intent of either getting the two togehter or just ending it. IT’s annoying, it was in a good chunk of my childhood, I wish it’d stop. I cannot tell you how many shows used this trope. There were exceptions, American Dragon Jake Long actually used it well by not only making Rose a fleshed out character..  but making her jake’s nemisis in their other lives, and thus making things increidbly difficult on both once the truth comes out, with Jake grappling with if he can trust her or not and Rose grappling with the slow relization eveyrthing she was taught her whole life was wrong.

And again I have seen GOOD storylines using this as a tool: Dipper and Wendy ended with her having been aware teh whole time, but simply not knowing how to let him down given the age gap, and Regular Show rebounded the best from it: it turned the stop and start relatoinshpi of Mordecai and Margret’s relationship into a character flaw for him, openly explored it.. and ended up having him work past it and actually date her for a bit. Before she moved away, he got an even better love interest, then they destoryed the relationship in the worst way posisble and I wil lbe getting to that at some point. Some point. 

So yeah even at the time it was done better, hindsight haas only made it worse and it made watching the first few minutes tough because I had to keep pasuing because I hate him so damn much. He just adds NOTHING to the show and is a blank yanwing void from which no good came out of and I was terrified he’d be in the rest of the episode. Thankfully while he drives the plot he’s only in this scene.. but it’s still one more scene than both 625 and Pleakly got. yeah both are missing, as is nani. 

I did uncover one fun fact that made things a bit easier though: The crew ALSO hated Keoni. No really. Disney forced the character on them as they wanted an audience surrogate, and this abomination is what popped out. They DID NOT want him here and likely only used him as mcuh as they did because Disney forced it on them. And Disney would NOT learn from this as Star Vs got saddled with Alphonso and Ferguson soley because of network mandate. The two aren’t TERRIBLE characters but they aren’t great and feel as tacked on as they were. And part of this does fall on the crew: you CAN twist a stupid mandate like this to work well: Joe Murray was asked to add “A female character with a hook”, as in some sort of dumb gimmick to Rocko. He used those words, meant to create a superfical girl power cardboard cutout.. and created the wonderful Dr. Hutchenson, a bright cheery doctor, the series best sidecharacter.. and someone with a hook hand. But I won’t go too hard on them: they probably didn’t have as much room to manuver and the fact Keoni was sitll being shoved into episodes in season 2 tells me they likely had a set number of episodes he had to show up. I’m suprised they didn’t demand they have characters ask “Where’s Keonie?” any time he wasn’t in an episode. He was unecessary and it comes across with a massive chunk of unforutnate implications: that they didn’t think a series with a mostly hawaiann cast would work, that they wanted at least one other “nice” white character to offset myrtle instead of having the only major white character be a bully and antagonist, and that they thought tehir mostly white audience coudln’t enjoy a series without a white character, which as someone who was in the target demo at the time, I call bullshit on. As I said I hated him then, I hate him now and his involvement is the worst aspect of this episode. 

So after Lilo fawns over him for a bit we find out this chonk of wood’s purpose in the episode: to set up the plot. There’s a massive Skate Competition coming to town with the prize being a really cool skateboard.  This plot point itself.. I don’t mind. Jake is a skater, it’s part of his character and one of the things he loves doing in what minsicule spare time he has. And while it was a common trope at the time having a character skateboard really dosen’t harm most works. We’ve gotten great characters like Jake, Jackie Lynn Thomas, Branwen and Ronnie Anne Santiago out of it, and it feels like natural parts of the character, and frankly An Extremley Goofy Movie wouldn’t be NEARLY as awesome without having skateboarding bizzarley attached to the plot via the college x-games. Granted somtimes you get Rocket Power out of the deal but that’s the price you pay for the good stuff. I only regret it’s involved because Keoni has to be there and I had to pause multiple times to get through his scene. He’s just a sampler platter of terrible decisions made in 2000′s cartoons and he irritates me more than this guy. 

And anyone whose read my Loud House reviews can tell you that is a high bar to clear. 

So naturally Lilo wants to enter the Hawiann X-Games to get the board for Keoni. Though I will give the writers credit for having Stitch voice their thoughts and the audiences thoughts by having him take Keoni’s picture and throw it in the garbage. Where he belongs. 

Lilo’s not great at it as they practice.. and said practice naturally ends up waking up a new experiment, 316.. who i’m just going to go ahead and call Morpholomew. Stitch eventually catches him though like many of the experiments he’s not actively malevelolent and is easy enough to get home. 

Jumba gets to his schitck of breaking down what the experiment of the week does: In this case Morpholomew is  a shapeshifter though he has a VERY intresting twist on those powers: while he can naturally morph himself into anything he’s seen or has a picture of, he can do the same to anyone he touches. It dosen’t effect their voices, but otherwise it’s a perfect recreation. 

So Lilo instead of finding him a home right away.. decides to wait until after the compettition because we need him for the plot. 

So at the Skateboard Competittion Lilo tries to enter, but finds she’s too young.. but since she has a picture of Keoni, which is a nice way to use her photo hobby from the movie for plot reasons and thus dosen’t feel like an ass pull. Why Keoni’s not in town to skate is as his dad left because it’d be too crowded.. even though the event is at the resort he owns. 

So while Lilo commits identtity theft, our guest star appears. He’s cool, he’s hot like a frozen son, he’s young and fast he’s the chosen one, people i’m not braggin, i’ts the American Dragon. Jake is here for two reasons: the first is that Grandpa Long got reports of magical creatures out in the open, so naturally they need to look into that. It’s a clever way to get him, along with Grandpa, Fu, Trixie and Spud, over to Hawaii. The Dragon Council would defintely be suspcious hearing about this, and my guess to why they hadn’t sent another dragon over is they simply dont’ have one on the islands. As for why the Huntsclan didn’t get involved in any way, it’s simply too public for them.  With the magical community in new york, they don’t have to worry about exposure because neither side wants it, so neither side can out the other. Here with a bunch of creatures out in the open it runs the risk of the Hunstclan being dragged into the light.. and given the populace dosne’t care about the “magical creatures” alongside them, it would make them look like the monsters they are. 

Spud and Trixie tagging along also makes sense besides “they needed them for the plot”: While they’d obviously want to come to Hawaii, the skate competition is likely Jake’s cover for why he’s there, as well as one for why it’s just him and grandpa going with a couple of his friends so they don’t have to deal with manuvering around jake’s dad. That sad them never TELLING jake’s Dad is it’s own can of worms as it feels cruel, made things harder for jake and there was no real reason not to. At worst he’d want Jake to stop for his own saftey but given ther’es an active threat in  the huntsclan for the first season and a half, NOT helping people would be the right thing and I feel he’s a sensible enough man to understand eventually. 

And it’s stuff like this that already makes this crossover really work for me: they don’t really have to strain to get Jake over there or tell the audience heavily, the blanks fill in themslves. Or I am but that’s because it’s my job and I love doin it. 

So everyone goes off to their corners; Jake to do a few practice runs, Foo Dog to bet on his friend because of course, Trixie and Spud to go to the beach (even though Spud’s terrified of sharks so I question why Trixie needs him for this), and in a delightfully adorable subplot, finds a lady to woo: local fruit stand vendoer and crankly old lady Mrs. Hasagawa. 

I am here for this subplot: While Grandpa not focusing on the mission is weird for him that’s the entire point.. and their just really cute together. He’s smitten with her entirely because he sees her chewing out one of the people running the contest for making her sign too small. And he performs one hell of a romantic gesture by, while everyone’s back is turned, using his dragon fire to make an add for her on the skate ramp itself, and they have a lovely montage of their time together.. which also weirdly includes grandpa using his dragon fire on stage inf ront of everyone which makes no sense for his charcter but is so cute and does feature david I really don’t care. The writers of Lilo and Stitch probably weren’t deeply familiar with the show and likely just wanted a fun gag. Could be wrong there but it’s cute. He continues to act grossly out of character by trying to avoid going home at the end.. but again I find it simply because he’s in love, they have genuine chemstiry and I like to think they stayed in touch and he retired out there at some point once Jake was old enough to handle things himself. This may not be a ship I expected to support going in but I will die for it going out. 

So back to the main plot, Lilo uses Keoni’s body to imitate him which... she’s only loosely called out on and realizes is bad by the end only because she gets stuck in another body. And that’s not even getting into the fact she BREAKS UP WITH KEONI’S GIRLFRIEND. Yes really.. she just does that to get her out of the way. She comes around and realizes she was wrong and tries to fix it which would be fine.. if hte episode didn’t try to cop it out by revealing “Oh she’s not his girlfriend, she’s just someone who keeps telling people that”. It just feels lazy and dumb and a way to keep Lilo’s crush on Keoni for reasons I DO. NOT. GET. But the identity theft is just brushed aside by everyone: Keoni never finds out, and Jake just brushes it off. The real issue is more her trying to bribe keoni into likng her which while something kids need to learn is not the only thing she did wrong here. It feels like they didn’t think all the implications out here and it hampers the episode

Speaking of which as Gantu captures Jake, he sees him transform into dragon mode and assumes he’s the experiment, Jake’s charactization is pretty shallow.  And why yes it DOES feel weird writing sentences about a character with the same name thank you for asking. I wasn’t expecting a deep character piece or anything: This is a guest spot, the writers here are not the same normal ones for American Dragon. That’s fine. The problem.. is that they clearly did not get Jake. Grandpa being partly out of character is half the joke, Trixie actually gets a really nice moment towards the end, and Spud.. is eh. But out of them Jake just feels like a basic character description: He likes hip hop, he likes skateboards, he calls himself Am Drag despite that sounding like a good name for a drag act but a terrible name to shorten your title, he fights.. that’s it. 

While jake is all of that in the main series, he’s also a kind young man who while sometimes irresponsible does the right thing when the chips are down.  He’s someone weighed down by a responsiblity he didn’t ask for, often makes his life more difficult and often finds himself in trouble because his mother and grandfather won’t bother to tell his dad he’s a dragon. Yes that part still bothers me, and I don’t see why we couldn’t just have a superhero show where both parents know. But regardless this just dosen’t feel like Jake , like they just watched the intro and that was it. Jake feels more like a plot device in his own crossover. 

That being said there is some good stuff: The minute Jake realizes some Sci Fi stuff is going on instead of hte normal magic stuff he tells him “The am drag’s show isn’t about sci fi” a nice meta bit and then breaks out. Meanwhile Lilo takes on his form.. and ends up stuck after badly botching her run again, as Gantu finds the real shapeshifter. 

We get the best stretch of the episode from here though: Lilo awkardly tries to play jake and like jake we get a nice meta nod to how diffrent their show is as she’s worried about his belief in magical creatures.. and is startled out of her charade when Foo Dog talks, a really nice bit especially since it’s tame compared to the weirdness he deals with. Spud and Trixie have questions... only for Jake to show up and his agressive behavior leads to the best bit of the episode: Jake Vs Stitch. The catlyst is understandable: jake has no idea why Lilo’s taken his identity and Sttich is just protecting his best friend from harm. The animation is fluid, the fight is fun and quick and uses both’s powers stellarl. Whle “two heroes get into a misunderstanding and then fight” is a well worn cliche at this point, it’s moments like this that show why: you get to see two heroes who in this case never have interacted before or sense, duke it out, why each is special and it’s fun to watch. 

Lilo breaks it up, and admits to the whole thing.. including the whole give Keani the board stuff. While Jake and Spud, being awkard with girls and a loveable moron don’t see the problem with that Trixie gets a moment to shine. As far as I can remember she really didn’t get much on the show proper so it was a nice suprise to see her mentor lilo her, telling her trying to give someone gifts to love you is not okay, she should just be herself all that good stuff. It’s a nice character stuff and tha’ts the kind of character interaction this episode needed more of. 

With the misunderstandings washed away our heroes team up and storm gantu’s ship leading to another great sequence as Stitch rides on Jake’s back while the two keep him busy and Lilo gets turned back, Trixie complimenting her dress “Thanks I have 10 just like it at home”. It’s such a sweet and genuine moment” They head back out and gantu semeingly grabs morpholmew from where they hide.. only to find out when he gets back it’s spud, our adorable little blob monster transforming Gantu into a bunny and our heroes leaving. How does Gantu get out of being a bunny?

But it’s a nice enough gag. So we end the episode. We get another nice gag as grandpa had himself and his lady transformed to try and avoid going home, and Jake is fine with having lost out on the board what matters is he made a friend. Sadly we did not get a followup in ADJL., but spud does name our experiment, Morpholomew. 

We end on Morph getting his home: a costume shop where he gets paid in fried chicken, he was shown to enjoy it throughtout the episode and changes people into things. It’s a nice little button to the episode and one of the funnest parts of the show was figuring out where the experiment would end up at the end. 

Final Thoughts:

This episode is a really mixed bag. There is some good character interactions, two tremendous fight scens and Trixie gets a chance to shine for once if only for a scene or two, and the clashing genres end up making for some great jokes> The shows do go well together as while Lilo and Stitch is more laid back both have slice of life elements. And hasgawa X Grandpa is just oto cute for words. 

The episode is held back by Jake and Lilo’s lackluster characterizatons: Jake is simply the theme song as a character, which in theory is awesome because that theme song slaps but in practice is pretty lame, and Lilo is selfish and irresponsible even for her in a way that dosen’t feel at all convincing. It drags down what’s otherwise a fun crossover and Morpholomew is truly a unique and wonderful experiment. Still if you like either show it’s worth a watch even if you have to suffer through Keoni for it. It’s worth it.. I just wish it was better and hopefully the next 3 will keep the good parts but take out the bad. Granted this was produced last so I could be wrong, but here’s hoping.  Oh this episode also featured Miranda Cosgrove as the girl who claims to be Keoni’s girlfriend. This is also Keoni’s last episode meaning I do NOT have to worry about accidently running into him. Thank fucking christ. 

Next Time On American Dragon Jake Long: Jake’s dad drags him and his friends on a camping trip and Jake ends up encountering the Jersey Devil. Now all they need is a sexy lady devil cake to lure it out... what it worked for the Cake Boss. And yes that happened, Allison Pregler did an episode on that episode. Check it out. 

Next Time On Lilo and Stitch Crossovers: It’s the family, the family, proud familllyyy as the Prouds take a vacation at Peakly and Jumbas bed but not breakfast and we get some kind of squirrel demon for our experiment of the week. We also get Wizard Kelly appearing...

See you at the next rainbow. 

#lilo and stitch #american dragon jake long #Lilo Pelekai #Stitch #experment 626 #jake long #luong lao shi #fu dog #trixie carter #arthur p spudinkski #gantu #crossovers #reviews #disney channel #morpholomew

[airenyah]

what are the gayest destiel episodes you can think of?

ohhhhh i gotchu hold on (this is basically gonna end up being a list of my fave destiel episodes lmaooo)

ok so just a heads-up, i don’t really remember much from s10 onwards (a lot of those episodes i haven’t actually watched since they aired whoops) and i’m currently stuck at the beginning of s9 on my complete rewatch soooo this list focuses only on the first half of the show. i might do an update if i ever manage to finish my rewatch (and remember to post an update at all when the time comes)

ok here we go:

4x16 - On the Head of a Pin

dean calls cas “cas” to his face for the very first time

dean is all “you can't ask me to do this, cas. not this.” (about torturing alastair) and uriel is all “who said anything about asking”, but cas is all: “this is too much to ask, i know. but we have to ask it” and that is the moment that dean realizes that cas cares about him and his feelings/well-being and that’s when he demands to speak to cas alone 

and it’s only after cas tells dean he really doesn’t want dean being forced to do the torturing that Dean gives in (”i would give anything not to have you do this”)

like, it’s so obvious already how much cas cares about dean already and we’re only in s4

 cas is even starting to go down the path of disobedience (with a little help from anna admittedly, but still. he’s starting to consider it)

they’re so?? comfortable?? with each other. when cas visits dean at the hospital in the end

4x22 - Lucifer Rising

dean literally makes an angel fall in this ep, i mean come on... (the way cas shows up behind him all “you asked to see me” after dean smashes the angel statue cracks me up every single time gsdlka)

dean desperately trying to get cas to help him (bc he knows that IF there’s an angel that would help him it’s cas)

cas is too afraid though and dean gets pissed and literally breaks up with him (D: "you spineless, soulless son of a bitch. what do you care about dying? you're already dead. we're done." C: "dean-" D: "we're done!")

this is the episode in which cas makes his decision and chooses dean over heaven

5x03 - Free to Be You and Me

in the previous episode sam and dean had a fight and split up. this episode starts out with dean being pissed and annoyed and just in a bad mood in general

when cas shows up and asks for help dean is very grumpy and doesn’t want to help at first but then reluctantly agrees

throughout the episode, the more time dean spends with cas the better his mood gets (honestly this point is worthy of its own separate post, i have enough screenshots lmao)

like he’s even smiling at the end of the ep when he’s talking to cas in the car!! (except then he looks over and realizes cas has left mid-conversation again and that smile is wiped right off his face and i’m sad :( )

when they’re in that brothel dean mostly has eyes for cas, even when chastity the hooker is standing right next to him

after the brothel incident when dean is cracking up and goes “it's been a long time since I've laughed that hard. it's been more than a long time. years.” like... buddy. your crush is showing.

and the way cas smiles lovingly at dean laughing next to him

dean be like: “personal space”     also dean: *reaches into cas’s coat without hesitation* *fixes cas’s shirt and tie without hesitation*

also the funniest thing about the whole “personal space” moment in the motel is that there was more than enough space for dean to step aside and increase the distance between him and cas if he had really been all that uncomfortable but he just. doesn’t. no he just stays right where he is 

when raphael is trapped in the holy oil and threatens cas all “castiel, I'm warning you. do not leave me here. i will find you.” and cas goes “maybe one day. but today, you're my little bitch.” and walks away and dean tells raphael “what he said” like the impressed and proud boyfriend that he is

inside jokes (see here)

some more iconic quotes/moments from this episode:

“cas, we’ve talked about this. personal space”

“so, what, i'm thelma and you're louise and we're just going to hold hands and sail off this cliff together?”

“well. last night on earth. what are your plans?” “i just thought i'd sit here quietly.”

“let me tell you something. there are two things i know for certain. one, bert and ernie are gay. two, you are not gonna die a virgin. not on my watch.”

5x14 - My Bloody Valentine

hunter husbands!!

the way that dean is not in the mood for hook-ups on valentine’s day and then goes to stare at cas like That

that iconic phone call at the hospital where cas just appears in front of dean who nearly runs into him

cas be looking at sam while listing all the things people can be starving for, and then looks at dean before saying “love” 

ok i know this doesn’t have that many points but really this entire ep is great, i very much enjoy all the interactions between cas and dean in this ep

like when dean is not hungry and cas is all “you're not gonna finish that?” and grabs the plate without waiting for an answer bc they’re this married in s5 already

6x20 - The Man Who Would Be King

i mean... this one is obvious isn’t it

this ep is literally all about how cas is doing everything for the winchesters aka dean

the way sam and bobby cautiously voice their suspicions of cas to dean has the same energy as carefully breaking it to a family member that you think their partner is cheating on them 

and when they trap cas in the holy oil and confront him dean also acts like a betrayed wife(gn)

which is such a stark contrast to how sam and bobby react to the betrayal (they’re mostly just like “eh this sucks” while dean is emotionally affected)

and even in the following episodes dean is way more affected by cas’s betrayal than sam and bobby are and dean is the one who argues the most with cas (honestly, this entire arc is literally that post that’s all “how do i know dean is in love with cas? bc sam isn’t”)

ok but the holy oil scene is truly like a soap opera (i mean... “where were you when i needed to hear it?” “i was there. where were you?” and dean looking back at cas one last time before running away)

this is their first big break-up and it takes them until the s7 finale to make up

special shoutout to cas watching dean rake leaves

this ep is a LOT

7x17 - The Born-Again Identity

dean’s FACE when he sEES CAS. and then DEAN’S FACE AGAIN when “emmanuel” is all “what’s your issue?”

dean’s face all throughout that first scene with “emmanuel” and daphne, I’M

“you know, I used to be able to just shake this stuff off. you know, whatever it was. It might take me some time, but... i always could. what cas did... i just can't – i don't know why” BECAUSE YOU’RE IN LOVE WITH HIM, IDIOT

the way dean interrupts all irritated when meg goes “i think we're gonna be good friends too” at “emmanuel” (jealous bf much gsdlksafd)

the way dean kept the trenchcoat just in case so he can give it back to cas should he return (which ofc he did)!!!!

7x21 - Reading is Fundamental

yet another one of those “how do I know dean is in love with cas? bc sam isn’t”

at the beginning of the ep at some point sam’s phone rings and when he says that meg (who is watching over cas at the mental hospital) is calling, dean is quick to stand up and even tho meg called sam, dean is the one who ends up having the phone call with her lmao

also dean has no chill during that phone call lmao (he’s irritated when he finds out meg didn’t call them right then and there as soon as cas woke up and he’s immediately concerned when meg says cas is different, while sam’s just standing there holding his phone out to dean, being all ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ lmao)

dean: *pissed af at cas*    also dean: *almost breaks his own neck at the speed with which he whips his head around at the mention of cas’s name and is desperate to know his location when cas calls meg after dean blasted him away with some other angels at the hospital*

ok no but then meg tells cas their location and cas zaps into the car and it’s hilarious how quick dean is to interrupt whenever cas turns his attention to meg in that scene

8x07 - A Little Slice of Kevin

dean seeing cas everywhere

when you see your best dudebro outside the window in the middle of a storm but when you get up he’s gone and you feel like crap because you could’ve made it out of the war zone together and you just cannot fathom why he didn’t try harder and you just don’t understand why you’re feeling what you’re feeling (and judging by dean’s reaction to sam’s suggestion, clearly it’s not survivor’s guilt)

dean’s FACE when cas suddenly appears behind him in the bathroom

jacting joices: the infamous boner scene (yet another example of “how do I know dean is in love with cas? bc sam isn’t”)

jacting joices pt 2: sam and dean are talking case and then cas walks over to join the conversation and there is literally no reason for dean to check cas out (see here)

during the rescue mission when cas zaps into the room and has a stand-off with crowley and then when dean finally manages to break into the room, can i just say... the way dean immediately rushes to cas (who’s ended up on the floor) and grabs him by the shoulder before he bothers to look around the room

D: “that was a bonehead move back there. you could have gotten yourself killed. why didn't you wait for me?” C: “well, i didn't get killed. and it worked” D: “and if it didn't?” C: “it would have been my problem.” D: “well, that's not the way i see it.”

the purgatory flashbacks when dean keeps insisting that cas is coming along with them back to earth and won’t hear otherwise

“i did everything I could to get you out – everything! i did not leave you.”  “so you think this was your fault?”

“look, I don't need to feel like hell for failing you, okay? for failing you like i've failed every other godforsaken thing that i care about! i don't need it!”

i know we hate buckleming but this episode, man. this episode

8x08 - Hunteri Heroici

i was gonna put this as a special shoutout but then it turned out that i had more to say about this ep than i initially thought

it’s the way dean and cas keep gravitating towards each other in the first half of the episode. no seriously, they somehow keep ending up beside each other and you start wondering “what’s personal space” (friendly reminder that this is the ep right after they’re finally back together again after purgatory)

the married energy and the bickering

the “talk to me” scene where cas finally opens up to dean (but then interrupting moose strikes)

at the retirement home dean to sam and cas: “no flirting you two” then CUT to: dean and cas sitting at a table with an elderly lady who is staring at cas with heart eyes and... lady: “you are so pretty, charles” dean: *must look at young nurse’s butt immediately to distract myself from gay thoughts*

i’m sorry but the way he smiles so widely at cas at one point when they’re talking to that lady, like, she’s just called cas a bounder and dean’s amused about that but his amusement is not in any way malicious and his face is just so full of love when he looks at Cas, it’s embarrassing really (see here)

9x06 - Heaven Can't Wait

ok so i haven’t watched this ep in like 5 years so my memories on this aren’t as fresh as with the previous eps but! it’s the way that cas and dean act exactly like exes (who are still in love with each other) in this ep

dean’s face as he’s staring at cas through the shop window

dean’s smile when he shows up inside the shop

the entire “i can’t let you do this cas” scene in the car

the infamous fanfiction gap

special shout out to:

5x18 - Point of No Return for all the bickering (“you know what? blow me, cas”) and especially  “well, cas, not for nothing, but the last person who looked at me like that… i got laid.”

6x10 - Caged Heat for the pizza man and dean’s reaction to all the megstiel (like jealous bf much?)

6x19 - Mommy Dearest for the strong married energy dean and cas give off in this ep (honestly, all their bickering, it’s glorious) (friendly reminder that this is right before tmwwbk) 

7x23 - Survival of the Fittest for the “i’d rather have you cursed or not” scene

8x02 - What's Up, Tiger Mommy? for the purgatory flashbaks with that one monster calling cas dean’s angel and the reunion scene by the river with highlights such as “nice peach fuzz” and “i prayed to you cas, every night” and “i have a price on my head, and i've been trying to stay one step ahead of them, to – to keep them away from you” and “cas, we're getting out of here. we're going home” and “cas, buddy, i need you” and “let me bottom-line it for you. i'm not leaving here without you. understand?”

8x17 - Goodybe Stranger for “i don't know, dean. if he's so sketchy, then why were you praying to him?” and the entire crypt scene (yes this is a big one and yes i’m still only putting it as a special shoutout and yes it’s bc of the megstiel content this ep ok bye <3)

#there is also the late s9 ep where cas chooses dean over an angel army #then i vaguely remember 11x03 being a good destiel ep #and the s12 ep with the ''i love you. i love all of you''?? #i know people are still going crazy over the mix tape but i don't remember if the ep itself was very gay #oh and 13x06 - tombstone gets talked about a lot as well #when cas comes back to life at the end of the widower arc and dean goes from extremely depressed to happy af #15x09 was a pretty good one as well i think #and ofc 15x18 with the big ''i love you'' #anyway this was fun #i should really continue with my spn rewatch #but the thing is that i'm actually journaling and making notes #and that requires brain #and i currently just don't have the energy to make all this effort just for a tv show #who knows if i'm ever gonna finish this project #oh well #asks #anon #destiel #spn #lmk if i've missed anything (from s4-s8 that is)

[jenniferstolzer]

Babylon 5 rewatch Episode 2.22: The Fall of Night

Babylon 5 is at the center of not one but three conflicts as John Sheridan agrees to shelter a wounded Narn cruiser. The Centauri don’t like this. Earth doesn’t like this. The Shadows don’t like this. But Sheridan has a strong moral compass and what he doesn’t like is how much the institutions around him are willing to sacrifice in the name of forging some kind of cursory peace.

Things I liked about The Fall of Nighit

1, Lennier and Vir’s friendship. If you ask me Vir, could be friends with literally anyone. He’s such an understanding soul. Lennier is by nature a little judgey. More closed off. So when they sit down next to each other and discover how much they have in common both of them look at each other like “hello what” and automatically agree to meet again. But even this exchange is done almost like spies meeting and I don’t think we stop to think about that very often. These are the attaches of two ambassadors for two of the most powerful races in the galaxy… they could very well be exchanging state secrets instead of expressing solidarity for their equally frustrating jobs.

2,  The Centauri are apparently willing to put their ships on autopilot and black out from g forces if it means when they come to they’ll be in a better firing position. This seems extremely reckless and VERY Centauri. It is the spacebattle equivalent of the hair. Big. Flashy. Not well thought through.

3, In the wake of the mass driver bombing, Sheridan gives Londo an opportunity to speak and Londo is like “NOPE” and jets before he says something that’s going to get him and his whole race in more trouble than they already are. Garibaldi then reads Londo like a literal book, delivering one of my favorite analyses of the character. Everyone thought Londo was a clown, indulging in opulence, going into debt at the casino, drinking himself to a stupor in public, but Garibaldi was his friend and knows that Londo’s not dumb, he’s actually very smart and his mind moves really fast. His error is in his judgment and priorities and he’s currently in waters he did not expect to tread. He’s scared, and he’s going to keep darting in and out of cover until he feels like he has a handle on things or he gets picked off by a hunter, whichever comes first. Also a very classic JMS line “He’s a pain in the butt, but he’s our pain in the butt.” Hunt for that or similar lines in other JMS stuff, he loves that line.

4, The ache of watching McCarthysim at work is very effective. Zach knows the guys he’s ratting on don’t deserve to be ratted on and even says so. “They’re just fooling around” but we can tell by the level of interest and tone of the Nightwatch captian’s voice that they’re gonna get blackballed. Zach can’t deny that they said what they said, but can tell that ratting them out is the wrong thing to do. In the end he relents with a bunch of qualifications but the Nightwatch doesn’t want qualifications. They want names. Thank you for your service.

5, I love that the guy there to ally with the Centauri is from the Ministry of Peace. So poignant. They’ll get peace all right, by paying off the aggressors.  

6, When the Narn ship was coming under threat by the Centauri warship, Sheridan opened a line to Londo just to spit in his face and hang up. It was amazing. Also during this crisis, Sheridan whips out a law book to smack the Nightwatch guy back in his hole. Sinclair would be proud.

7, Watching B5 come under attack is so emotionally stirring. Even on a rewatch, I don’t want to see it hurt.

8, We have arrived! The scene where Kosh reveals himself. I love that G’Kar is hiding in the plants – like he’s not a huge gecko man who people are going to notice. I also love how plaintiff his voice is, thinking if he speaks on Sheridan’s behalf it’ll help him in the political shitshow he’s currently in. I mean he’s issuing this apology for helping a Narn ship and G’Kar is very very very grateful for that. Also B5 blew up a Centauri warship so he’s pretty grateful for that too, I mean come on… I like that B5 has like a standard subway system in the middle of it and that they let the Puppet Friends ride. I miss the puppet friends. I love that the rotational gravity system means there’s a weightless portion in the center of hydroponics and that we used that to our advantage in this story. Also the vorlons in their native form play on the perception of the lesser races. They are light beings, and humans see them as angels. The rest of the races see them as prophets or gods, but none of these perceptions are perfect. We see wings and white robes and think Angel, but Kosh didn’t appear like a rennaissance painting. He’s got a butterfly look to him, too. The face he wears is a facsimile of a human not an exact human. He’s not perfect, we’re just in awe. Love that.

9 And finally a lot has been said about why Londo doesn’t see anything when Kosh appears. He’s been touched by the Shadows, so he can’t be converted by the Vorlons b/c we’re playing a game of Othello today I guess. Maybe because he doesn’t actually believe in his pantheon of gods so he doesn’t have any deities to witness. Maybe he’s lying because what he saw was his own greed and vanity. The general consensus is the first – that he’s incapable of seeing the light because he’s in the dark. For a fresh take on it, let’s look at the Vorlons through this lens. Kosh said before that if he revealed himself everyone would know him… I take this as being a side effect of being Vorlon. Vorlons are a feeling not an image. Like Magenta. Magenta’s not a real color, it exists on the color wheel because something has to connect red and purple on the color spectrum… but the spectrum of visible light is actually a straight line. The wavelengths for red and purple are far from touching, but our brains can perceive when they’re both present, so Magenta occurs. It’s imaginary, but we see it for real with our eyes. That’s Vorlons. Perhaps Londo saw a shapeless light thing in the sky, perhaps that’s what Vorlons really are… or perhaps they have no visible representation at all until they hit our brains. Our eyeballs behold something, but our brains have to construct it out of pieces. When the rest of the galaxy looked at Kosh they used the color wheel to construct him, but Londo was only given the wavelengths. He saw nothing, because nothing was there to see. I really wish there was another Centauri there to be like “I saw the goddess Li welcoming me to her arms!” and Londo’s over there like “I’m the problem” instead of not really answering that question. Maybe it’s answered in season 3, I don’t know. Did Vir see anyone up there? He must have been on break.

What I like Less about 22

1, So here’s where I’m going to talk about Keffer. I know the origin story…. that he was an unwelcome addition to the cast added per network request, but who the hell is he other than that? I think its remarkable how he slips right out of my head the minute he is off camera. We know he’s a pilot, that he was close to Carlos (whose story/death you may recall I was laughing at in a previous episode because its significance ALSO came out of nowhere), and that he made friends with the GROPOS grunts (who we incidentally learned to care about enough in that one episode that we were sad when they died…. Awkward considering Keffer’s contribution to this episode…) Honestly the most interesting thing about him is that he’s got an old-timey fighter pilot scarf he wears and he believes in ghosts and I bet you all forgot about the ghosts. Honestly, the most interesting thing about Keffer is how he’s a lesson in how not to write an interesting character – and no shade on JMS for that, I know he did it on purpose. Significant things happening to a character does not automatically make them a strong character. Keffer experienced loss, came face to face with the shadows, got in fights… a lot of stuff happened to him, but he was almost always the only named character in those scenes. We cared about the GROPOS because they cared about each other and we responded to that. Keffer was there to play cabbage head and ask questions. He’s not tight with any of our main cast who we’ve had tons more time to grow attached to, and dies for plot reasons without leaving an impact with his loss. Heck, you can see the value of interpersonal relationships on character development in action when the show used a shoehorn to try and force some in in context to Carlos a second and a half before he died. We had him drinking at the bar with command staff suddenly, we had him die as a result of a flight mission Sheridan was part of to make Sheridan feel guilty about it. Everyone was standing around going like “No, Not Ramirez” and if you recall on my previous episode writeup I was LAUGHING at how tortured this sudden human connection was. Keffer could have been made interesting. Follow me on this.

My treatment on how to make Keffer interesting:

Let’s say Keffer was introduced as an old friend of one of our characters – Fraknlin let’s say. He was a friend from the Minbari War days that helped him sneak behind enemy lines. Perhaps he was complicit in the covering up and destruction of Franklin’s notes on Minbari anatomy. As a result, the two hang out in medbay sometimes, talking about old times and comparing the current war to the one they fought together. We learn that Keffer has a fire for justice. Hates bullies. Sees the strong as absolute defenders of the weak and that any stronger race picking on a weaker one is a bigger coward than the unvierse can hold. Then when Carlos gets killed by the ghost he starts researching what it could be. Kosh and Delenn tell him to stay out of it. The audience assumes he’s going to uncover something and bring Franklin and other characters into Delenn and Sheridan’s confidence about the shadows through curiosity and honor, but we’re learning through the episodes that the Shadows are IMMENSELY powerful and have no patience for flies. When he breaks off from his squad to go have a looksee at what he suspects led to his personal friend Carlos’s death, we know this is going to kill him. He ignores the warnings of those who have more awareness and dies to bring back evidence of the Shadows to the station. Sheridan recognizes how Keffer’s curiosity and sense of judgment led to recklessness, something Sheridan himself is prone to. He vows not to let Keffer die in vain, but also states that the proof he got has changed everything… and that Sheridan would have done the same. Killing your men in the name of a mission is never the goal but there’s a line everyone crosses when the safety of the universe is at stake and sometimes things are worth dying for. Franklin walks into medbay, casts a look to the counter where Keffer used to sit all those nights, and turns away.

But that’s not what happen. Keffer’s dead now and I don’t miss him. Glad he emailed the Shadows to ISN five nanoseconds before he died.

Babylon 5 is now the last best hope for victory because sometimes peace is another word for surrender and because secrets have a way of getting out. On to season 3!

#Babylon 5 #babylon 5 rewatch #season 2 #episode 22 #babylon 5 spoilers #art #jenstoart #kosh #john sheridan

[daymansbingerecapsandrankings]

(Originally written on October 8, 2020)

🎵Bang, Bang Bangedy Bang

I said a Bang Bang Bangedy Bang🎵

My How I Met Your Mother Thoughts

I just spent the last nine seasons in New York with the gang that spends all their time in MacLaren’s Pub. SELF FIVE! I have to say, this binge of How I Met Your Mother brought me so much happiness. I started watching this show for the first time back in high school, and I ended up watching the last six seasons as they aired. I remember loving this group of characters, and now I am reminded why. There’s so much chemistry between the five, and it makes for one of my favorite Comedies/Sitcoms of all time. If you’ve read any of my previous Show Thoughts, then you know I’ve been watching several over the course of this lovely Pandemic That Will Just Keep Going. After this rewatch, I’ve decided HIMYM is my third favorite Comedy/Sitcom, right after Boy Meets World and Scrubs.

Now, I know that the Finale is infamous. It’s in the Mount Rushmore of Terrible Endings, and people end up getting a sour taste in their mouth when they bring up the show. Well, it’s been some years. There’s been time to reflect and look back. And, while I’m not in favor of the Finale, I also don’t hate it anymore with the passion of a thousand suns. I just loved watching and growing with the gang, seeing them experience their highs and their lows, their triumphs and their failures. It just hits harder as an adult, like most of these shows assuredly do, and I cherish so many of these episodes and moments.

And now, my rankings for the seasons!

Seasons Rankings

1. Season One

2. Season Four

3. Season Two

4. Season Six

5. Season Eight

6. Season Five

7. Season Three

8. Season Seven

9. Season Nine

My rankings for the girlfriends, purely on how much I like them as a character

The Girlfriends Rankings

1. Robin

2. Tracy

3. Victoria

4. Zoey

5. Stella

6. Jeannette

And now, a ranking of my favorite episodes. From 1-50, these are the ones that stand out above the rest. I consider every single one of these enjoyable.

Favorite Episodes

1. Slap Bet (S2E9)

2. Come On (S1E22)

3. The Limo (S1E11)

4. The Best Burger in New York (S4E2)

5. Ten Sessions (S3E13)

6. The Pineapple Incident (S1E10)

7. Bachelor Party (S2E19)

8. Game Night (S1E15)

9. Oh, Honey (S6E15)

10. Glitter (S6E9)

11. The Duel (S1E8)

12. The Pilot (S1E1)

13. Arriverdverci, Fierro (S2E17)

14. The Over-Correction (S8E10)

15. How Your Mother Met Me (S916)

16. Intervention (S4E4)

17. The Magician’s Code, Part II (S7E24)

18. The Autumn of Break-Ups (S8E5)

19. The Ducky Tie (S7E3)

20. The Best Man (S7E1)

21. The Leap (S4E24)

22. Blitzgiving (S6E10)

23. Three Days of Snow (S4E13)

24. The Scorpion & The Toad (S2E2)

25. Bass Player Wanted (S9E13)

26. The Final Page, Part 2 (S8E12)

27. Duel Citizenship (S5E5)

28. Happily Ever After (S4E6)

29. Farhampton (S8E1)

30. Bro Mitzvah (S8E22)

31. Robin 101 (S5E3)

32. The Magician’s Code, Part I (S7E23)

33. Last Words (S6E14)

34. The Playbook (S5E8)

35. The Time Travelers (S8E20)

36. Splitsville (S8E6)

37. Subway Wars (S6E4)

38. Showdown (S2E20)

39. Drumroll, Please (S1E13)

40. Front Porch (S4E17)

41. Twin Bed (S5E21)

42. Who Wants to be a Godparent? (S8E4)

43. Girls vs. Suits (S5E12)

44. Something Borrowed (S2E21)

45. As Fast As She Can (S4E23)

46. The Wedding Bride (S5E23)

47. The Bracket (S3E14)

48. The Sexless Innkeeper (S5E4)

49. Third Wheel (S3E3)

50. Spoiler Alert (S3E8)

And now, just some thoughts on the show and on the gang!

Ted - I know people don’t like Ted. I don’t actually like Ted all that much. And yet, I found myself rooting for Ted just like I did the first go around. He’s not the worst person in the world, and I would be scared to see half of the decisions we’ve made in the dating game stringed together into a TV show. I know people wouldn’t like me very much for those decisions. Then again, I also don’t get super crazy about details about buildings, I don’t pronounce encyclopedia that way, and he tends to stick his foot in his mouth with this White Man confidence that I just don’t have. With all that being said, I still find Ted being a great friend, a man who is just trying to find the love of his life, and someone who really drives this story with great tales and narration (Bob Saget is the Sixth Man of the Show for just always bringing it). I think Ted does stupid things and he pretty much admits it after the fact. He learns, sometimes, and also doesn’t much like most of us. When he finally found the Mother, when he finally found Tracy, I cared. I cared so much, and I still do. Even though they just shit on her character and don’t give us enough time with her, I almost wonder if that’s a metaphor for the fact that you won’t always have enough time with your loved ones.

Robin - Let’s go to the mall! Yeah! Robin Sparkles is a Canadian Treasure, and so is Robin Scherbatsky. She is one of the best things about this show, and I love her so. Played by Cobie Smulders who I need to see in more stuff, Robin is who we all wanted Ted to maybe be with first. Then we go through all the loops of the HIMYM roller coaster, and a lot of us still wanted them to be together. I was one of them. Yet, she was more than just a romantic plot line for Ted. She was a part of the group who we got to see join it and evolve into a member of their family organically. Robin is fun, loud, full of fun quirks that we get to learn over the course of the series. I was heartbroken when we found out she can’t have children. I was loving the back and forth between her and Barney (the first time), and kind of mad at Barney about being such a crazy ass prankster the second time. Robin shows us just how amazing some gun loving, hockey obsessed Canadian news anchor can be, and how much she cares for her friends.

Lily - Justice Aldrin ends up being one of my favorite characters, even if that gets some curious looks. Yeah, she left Marshall for a summer. Yeah, she had some hesitancy with the marriage and everything. That happens. Lily was also always there for her friends, even if she ends up going a little overboard. She wants Ted to find happiness, and does whatever she can to help. She is there to listen to Robin at all times, and her and Marshall are easily one of the best relationships in TV I’ve ever witnessed. Then we have Lily and Barney which is honestly super underrated. Barney trusts Lily, even though she can’t keep a secret, with all of his emotional problems. Lily is who thought Barney could change before anyone else, and I love seeing their friendship grow from eye rolls to eye tears.

Barney - Oh, Barney. He honestly brings so much annoyance and fun to the show. He’s the friend of the gang who everyone tolerates. He’s the one in the gang who everyone ends up loving just as much as everyone else. Barney shows such a terrible face to the world, sleeping with over 250 women and lying to most of them. He has all these rules that aren’t very ethical. He gives us most of the Misogynism in this show, which is definitely prevalent and makes the show not as strong as it was in the first watch. Still, we get to see Barney grow into someone who wants real love and a happy life. Sure, they show us that his marriage to Robin only lasts three years, but at least they tried. Barney just couldn’t make it work, and that’s honestly who Barney really is. A person who just enjoys sleeping with different people. I was very warmed to see the baby reveal and that Barney becoming a dad was what would change him more than anything. Barney is an underrated friend, and his importance to the gang is legendary.

Marshall - I. Love. Big Fudge. He’s just so fun, caring, goofy, loyal, and everything that I aspire to be in life. For some reason, when watching the show the first time, I related to Ted the most. I was definitely a bit more selfish then. But now, I see that I am a Marshall. He wants to do good in the world, and it drives him so much. He only loves Lily, and his loyalty to their relationship is just Goals. He is also the most fun to watch having a crisis. He gets the big eyes and covers his mouth and just gets obviously super uncomfortable. Some of my favorite moments of the show are also Marshall’s talks with Ted about his feelings for Robin. Any one-on-ones with Marshall and someone else are probably my favorite moments. And yes, I will always root for him over those damn machines!

Last Thoughts:

Sure, the writing wasn’t as sharp or as witty in the later seasons, but I loved the story lines and seeing the gang just live.

Tracy was an amazing character as The Mother, and I truly wonder what could have been if they had given us two full seasons of story with her instead of any episodes of Jeannette.

I really can’t believe Ted told his kids all those stories. A fun premise for a show, but really, not very realistic telling them all that jazz.

Ranjit and Carl are such fun recurring characters that I always enjoyed seeing every time they popped up.

Out of all the recurring jokes and gags, which there are many (y’all said Community has so many, but HIMYM really swings for it), I love the Major/General salute joke. Idk if I just didn’t care for it the first time around or forgot about it, but I just love how silly it is and how they kept it through to the very last episode.

Watching the gang sit at their table in MacLaren’s just hanging out will always make me smile.

#how i met your mother #himym #himym finale #ted mosby #marshall eriksen #lily aldrin #himym barney #himym robin #reviews #recaps #br&r

[sun-undone]

You asked for Druck opinion questions - so here goes one: What are your 3 favourite Druck seasons and the best things about each one? Plus, one thing in each you'd like to change/improve?

ooooooh thank you for this! 

my top 3 druck seasons are hands-down 3, 5, and 6, in that order

i’m gonna talk a lot from memory and not really looking back at any notes that i have for these seasons so i apologize in advance if i forget about some things

let’s start with the best things from each of those seasons first

season 3: it’s really really hard to choose just one thing as being the best from this season, cause there’s just so much good in it. but i think i’d have to say that the thing that really makes druck season 3 stand out so so so much to me is how the writers really said “okay we see isak and even, we see them, we appreciate them, and we’re going to respectfully do our own thing thank you very much”. they completely switched up their isak and even characters, not just by making david trans instead of bipolar, but by changing their entire personalities and dynamic together. it’s so DIFFERENT and fresh and hits me in a personal way that i have to say has been even more poignant than how isak and even hit me when i first got into skam all those years ago. matteo and david really just feel like they are characters that have been specially made with my personal tastes in mind, and i KNOW that i’m not even close to being the only one who sees so much of myself reflected in parts of both of their personalities. i love when remakes switch things up, especially with the beloved isak season, and druck really went there with no fear. they made that shit their own, and the ways in which they did so just happen to pluck at my heartstrings so perfectly.

season 5: this season is just so well-crafted, i think a lot of people would agree in saying that it’s druck’s most well-written season. you can really tell that a ton of work went into the overall story arc, properly addressing very touchy subjects like alcoholism and mental illness, introducing all of these new characters, just EVERYTHING. and what a huge fucking task that is, putting out a new season almost completely from scratch right after pissing off all of your fans. but they fucking delivered. there’s so much good in this season, too, so it’s tough to pick just one element to be the very best. but honestly, i think i’ve gotta say mina’s acting??? i was WORRIED about what the acting would be like in the new gen because i was so impressed by the old gen actors and their ability to really make each of their characters so distinct and personable. so going into the new gen, my expectations were already low for a lot of reasons, and i was kind of expecting to just not be as convinced by the actors and therefore not be able to fall in love with most, if any, of the characters. AND BOY WAS I WRONG. i do think a few of the actors were a bit rocky at first, which was also the case with the old gen so i’m not bothered by that at all, but damn they really stepped it up and blew me away once they all found their footing and chemistry with one another, especially mina. i think she’s the second best actor in all of druck (behind michi and maybe tied with or just above anselm), which is insane considering how young she is. she absolutely killed everything she was given and completely drew me into this season that i was fully expecting to not be able to connect to. i really do think that if someone else had played nora, season 5 and the new gen in general would’ve had a much rockier start. she led us into this new generation of characters with such warmth and natural, charismatic talent, and she deserves so so so much credit for that. she had great material, yes, but she really put in the fucking work.

season 6: okay so i still haven’t rewatched season 6 cause i’ve been a tad preoccupied with a different obsession at the moment, BUT i still just know that this season is fantastic and groundbreaking by giving us a biracial couple with no white person in it, a black lesbian main with a learning disability, and tackling performative activism and racism in a really grounded, realistic way. other remakes could never. just like in other druck seasons, it is incredibly obvious that the team worked their asses off to make this season, especially in light of all the covid restrictions. i'm hesitant to name the best thing about this season because i haven’t rewatched it, so i don’t wanna miss something. i WILL say that the soundtrack for this season is fucking phenomenal and has introduced me to so many new artists, particularly artists of color, which i appreciate so much. druck’s soundtracks are always amazing imo, but fatou’s just has something extra to it that i can’t quite put my finger on. maybe it’s just simply most aligned with my own personal tastes, i really don’t know, but it’s fucking brilliant. i also do have to say that i really appreciate how fleshed out kieu my is as a full character, not just as a love interest. she definitely has an advantage from being introduced in the previous season, but the writers could’ve easily made her stagnant once she and fatou started getting together. but NO, they made her even MORE interesting. she really got a full arc along with fatou, and i just love her so fucking much. once i rewatch, maybe i’ll make another post with a more complete answer, but that’s what i’ve got just from my memories of watching the season live.

now onto the thing i would change/improve for each season (i’ll try to keep this more brief because jesus christ why do i talk so much)

season 3: it’s obvious, isn’t it? david’s outing was done poorly, the execution of episode 8 in general was weird and out of place, it’s the only time that i really felt like the show was relying on shock value and drama (maybe even trauma porn) instead of good writing and conflict. there was a way to teach the audience about trans issues and experiences without subjecting david to that pain and also without having him just be absent for so much of the season. in conclusion, the season needed more david but never at his expense.

season 5: i really think that this season is druck’s absolute best in terms of writing and pacing, so it’s hard to find something that i was disappointed by (i would put this season above season 3 if i wasn't so damn emotionally attached to 3). i’m really racking my brains trying to think of something, anything, that bothered me, no matter how small it was. the only thing i can think of is that i remember a few music moments that felt forced or badly edited to me, but that’s literally all that’s coming to mind right now.

season 6: this season definitely wasn’t as well-paced as season 5, but there’s still not many glaring narrative issues that i can remember. there were a few smaller things throughout the season, but nothing too major. the one that i would most like to change is the stupid tinder/”cheating but not really” thing at the end of episode 8 (i think that’s the right episode number). it was just unnecessary and then completely forgotten about by the writers and characters, which shows how unnecessary it really was. 

ask me some opinions about druck, wir kinder vom bahnhof zoo, or really anything!

#druck