#i wish i had time to actually dissect this episode but i have so much wooorrrkkkk

[lexosaurus]

Hi uhh i have a question i was scrolling at ao3 and i keep seeing pompous pep fiction a lot but i thought it was illegal because there is at least 20 year age gap im getting confused

AO3 is a creative writing/fanfiction archive that allows anything that's legal under US creative writing law. There are some limitations, like scripting out an episode of DP would not be allowed because that's copyright infringement, and posting something disguised as a fic that's not actually one (say, posting your headcanons list or your grandma's cookie recipe) isn't allowed because that's not a transformative work. But otherwise, people are allowed to post any fictional content that they so wish so long as it's tagged properly.

The tags are an awesome feature of the site and are why many people, myself included, choose to use AO3 as their main fanfiction domain. It allows you to opt in or opt out of any tag that you do or don't want to see. For example, I read/write a ton of gore, so I often filter in tags like "Dissection" (using the sidebar) so I can only see those types of fics. But there are tons of people who get squicked out by gore/dissection, so they might prefer to filter those tags out. Maybe they just wanna read a good smut fic, so they'd filter in that tag, while for me, I'm not so interested in that content, so I almost always filter it out before I browse.

I know this seems a bit long winded of me, but what I'm trying to get at is that because fanfiction is fictional, that means that ships and tags that you or I might argue are morally gray or even morally unethical are totally allowed on the site (aka no real children were harmed in the making of said fic, so not illegal). This includes Pompous Pep, which is Danny/Vlad. And if you don't want to see that, as many people probably don't, then the site makes it extremely easy to filter that stuff out! Woo!

The DP Phandom is a really really old phandom and we've had a history of "true vs anti" ship wars back in the 00's, which while a bit different than the kinds of shipping wars you see in other fandoms today, they still happened and were incredibly destructive within our spaces. People were fighting, there was lots of bullying, angry cliques, and overall moral policing "you can't sit with us" behavior to people who frankly didn't deserve it. There's not a lot of creatives left from that era, and the ones that did come back don't have a lot of positive things to say about it.

So yeah, maybe some people on AO3 write things that might squick you out, but from experience we've found it to be far more beneficial to just do our own things. Write the content you wanna write, read the content you wanna read, interact with the people you wanna interact with, and block/mute/filter out/whatever the rest. It's honestly not worth your mental health or sanity to try to police fics/art in here. We're too old, most of us got jobs, bills to pay, maybe even kids to feed, and it's honestly not worth our time. Besides, it's much more fun to participate in phandom events and nerd out with other creatives about silly AUs and tropes and geek out over art styles and colors than it is to worry about that stuff!

#danny phantom #discourse #gosh i never thought i'd need to use this tag not ironically! #akjsnfksjfndkjgn sorry guys! #we all come from different places but if there's one thing we have in common #it's that we're all just here for a good time! #also ngl i know i spelled discourse correctly here but it still looks wrong

[upslapmeal]

Notes from the Taskmaster S15E04 recording

I got to see this episode filmed back in September (if you were there hello from the person Mark Olver kept quizzing lol, and important question: do you have an airing cupboard?) and thought I'd make a post with some Bonus Content from the recording. Last time I did this I realised I'd forgotten loads so this time I got home, sat down, diligently made notes for until the end of the prize task, and decided to do the rest the next day. I did not do the rest. So we'll just have to see how well my memory holds up 😅

The version of Greg's aeroplane-themed intro was an alternative version filmed at the end - the original had the reveal that THEY'RE ALL DEAD!! and the second one was filmed "in case anyone dies in a plane"

Alex had three """""jokes"""" about his Italy trip, each one increasingly terrible. The one I made a note of was "I saw Stevie Wonder" turning into "I saw a wonder of the word". Needless to say, Greg was unimpressed.

When Greg went to Mae to introduce their prize task, their opening comment was "I’m excited to continue to explore our….dynamic"

The strength of the dynamic was then questioned when Greg was dismissive of their prize

Whatever your opinion of how Mae was scored for a later task, when Greg saw their prize on the stage at the end of the episode he said it had been underscored and it actually looked like a lot of fun

“Kiell you’ve been doing badly…it’s not your turn yet though. Frankie?"

"Jenny has always given a sob story just after presenting her prize, last episode leant heavily on her dead father" - we were told this after Jenny said she couldn't knit the hat because she had nerve damage in her hands

"I forgot to be funny then, sorry that was just sad" - Jenny

The ad buffers we saw in studio were filmed in Gatwick, and since this was before S14 aired there was a discussion about what airport it was based on the presence of an upstairs Jamie Oliver restaurant in one of them

[here ends the comprehensive notes]

I cannot stress this enough, but ANY angle or thought that you may have about Mae's throw(s) (or lack thereof) came up in the studio

I can't remember what ended up swinging (heh) it in their favour but it truly felt as though it was going to go on forever

Man I wish I could remember any specifics because there was So Much, genuinely every single possible take on that attempt was thoroughly and gleefully dissected

Hearing during this episode that Ivo had won the last two was much like when I saw that Bridget was in first place during the record for S13E04 lol

Right. Banana.

I think the logic ended up being that the task said to get the 'BANANA'

And they did, in fact, get the 'BANANA'

They got the word not the object

And there was definitely a debate about what it is to be a noun, which Mae weighed in on and I think almost made Ivo explode that they had no right to after what they did with a verb

I feel like this may have been cut bc Ivo used 'she' and I imagine the editors are going for consistency, but it's a shame bc it was amazing

But it was still 'BANANA'. As stated in the task. The word it said to get was the word they got.

Do with this what you will.

During the live task, Ivo kept pouring his sand, very very slowly, after everyone else had finished and after he was told his stream had broken, until the bottle was empty.

Tragically Jenny did not wear the turkey on her head at the end, despite everyone agreeing earlier that the winner would have to.

There we go then. And the moral of the story is to actually make notes on what happened before you forget everything. And by 'you' I mean me. I swear I'll have better notes about the S16 finale.

#posted this on reddit and thought I'd stick it on here too! #taskmaster #upslaplife #taskmaster spoilers

[shinelikethunder]

Regarding your tags about Good Omens not making your brain go brrrr - it's really interesting because early on while I was watching the new season, I found myself asking, like, "Is this actually good or do I just enjoy it?" And very quickly I decided the answer was "Well, you see, I enjoy it so much."

But as a result I've been thinking a lot about how I define whether or not a story is "good" because surely that indefinable quality of Makes Brain Go Brrrrrr should figure into it somewhere. And there's the inverse phenomenon to account for, of things that are like a dead fish to the fictive libido. I think that might be even more subjective, though.

It's not that I think quality is a totally meaningless concept when assessing art, I've just been thinking I might need to make more space within my metric for things like "joy" and "energy" and "vibrates my brain like a tumble dryer". As opposed to seeing those things as incidental and trying to take my own emotional response out of the equation.

it's a factor for sure, but if SPN proves anything, it's that "vibrates my brain like a tumble dryer" can be completely orthogonal to quality and enjoyment... sometimes the vibration is from canon having a two-for-one flash sale on hate crimes and writing crimes, y'know? sometimes episodes i find genuinely excruciating make me want to dissect them like bugs. (and on the flip side, there are plenty of works i do very much love on their artistic merits and enjoy, but not in the specific way that makes me want to scream in the tags of a tumblr gifset.)

like, yeah, variants of that Roger Ebert Reviews The Mummy (1999) reaction of "i can't even say what this has to recommend it except that i enjoyed the shit out of every minute of it" do deserve space as merits in their own right, but also, for me personally at least, that Brain Go Brr quality of... investment? engagement? obsessive need to poke at it and roll around in it and rotate it on the blorbo rotisserie?... doesn't necessarily have a straightforward relationship with quality or enjoyment. see previous reblog tags re: liking nbc hannibal perfectly well the first time around, but only losing my absolute shit over it when approaching via some borderline-unreadable thomas harris nonsense that managed to sink the first hooks in. and also many previous rants about the brain-go-brr-ness of rtd's doctor who being at its height when the show was most direly in need of fixing.

all of which is kind of a digression from good omens 2, which provoked neither fandom brainrot nor any particularly strong other type of enjoyment - i was sitting there going "this is... nice i guess?" amidst an increasingly acute realization that whatever quality of the book it was that originally hooked me in, pratchett's barbed sense of humor was absolutely vital for making the silliness land for me. i wish everyone who can get in their OTP Feelings about GO2 the joy of it, and will mostly be saluting from a distance as i scroll past on the dash. it seems to have succeeded reasonably well at the things it set out to do--and it turns out those things didn't do it for me, on any of the levels i might've wanted them to. the strange nature of it all is, i'd probably have much more specific criticisms if it had grabbed me.

#fandom #queerfables

[kalakilo]

ranking nightmare time episodes

under the cut because this is gonna be a long post and it is only for me and no one else<3

i recently finished all the nmt episodes and now that i have no more new hatchetfield content to consume i need to dish out feelings and opinions and i like ranking things i like. this is based on vibes mostly. and my attachment to these characters. i love all of these episodes and the entire cast and nick & matt lang for giving me so much lore to chew on. here is the brutal order of ranking my children

13. daddy

somebody had to be last......first of all i just wanna say jaime lyn beatty is a literal god for performing the double role of sherman and sheila young here, she IS versatility in human form. however young at heart just isn't one of my favourite songs and sherman & frank really aren't as compelling characters to me as some other ones in the hatchetverse and i feel like it doesn't offer that much more lore to me.

i do find that there is a lot to be said about the way sheila holds frank & toy zone hostage with her money and it's yet another case of characters using their money for power and glory in hatchetfield and how those characters eventually become victims of the lords in black and characters that abuse their power. i still had so much to say about this even though it's last on this list and that also speaks to how GOOD this series is okay

12. perky's buds

this one is just absurd????? i truly think perky's buds, jane's a car and hey melissa are the holy trinity of batshit nmt episodes.

this is essentially the most we ever learn about the hatchetmen and their descendants (the metzgers) which makes me a little sad, that lore i am still a bit lost on and honestly the amount of lore (and this being grace chasity's first appearance in canon) is mostly the only reason i prefer this one over daddy. also the fact that joey richter plays a monotone talking bird + emma finally gets her pot farm (even if it all burns down in the end</3). this one is just a little silly to me and the song isn't my favourite either, it's a taste of characters (like the metzgers and ziggs) and lore about the history of hatchetfield and i just wish we knew more

11. forever and always

this is my official apology to paulkins nation for having this ep so low lmao sorry guys

if i'm being honest my favourite part about this episode is how it weaves together with time bastard. idk if i'm allowed to say this out loud because i fear i'll get crucified by starkid / hatchetverse people but honestly i'm not *that* invested in paulkins as a ship.......i love that in this iteration they are just so fucked up and weird, i remember in the hotel scene thinking there is NO way paul wouldn't kill emdroid here. she is an EVIL ANDROID!!!! and then the reveal that he's actually paul 23 made so much sense. anyway i like this one and i REALLY like the song!! it's so fun having such a heartfelt sounding song at the top of the episode and then it actually being so fucked up by the end.

10. hey, melissa!

tbh i wanted this one to be higher because it was SO absurd in a way perky's buds could never even fucking dream of, i truly want to know what possessed nick & matt lang to think that the side character who has maybe four lines in tgwdlm likes dehumanizing men and turning them into her pets???

all this being said i think hey melissa gets a bit of a bad rep in the fandom. i actually think it's a very interesting episode, i will never ever stop thinking about WHY paul makes the decision at the end as he does? i think there is so much to dissect there and in general about paul as a character in this episode. we really don't learn a lot about paul in tgwdlm and in contrast, in the timeline of hey melissa we hear an entire story from his childhood that clearly impacted him a lot? and it's something he thinks about to this day!

i also really wonder the question of if he hadn't told that story, would melissa still have him held captive?? obviously melissa is not a very reliable character in the early part of the story, but paul's memory clearly affects her a lot? does she actually lose faith in him in that moment? and that's why she decides to keep him as her dog (of course he doesn't end up being one lmao) ? i just think there's a lot to be said about this episode! still, i am def forever haunted by this and can't never hear it the same when humans say bark or meow. also what do you MEAN you'd have to NEUTER him to let him OUTSIDE

9. the hatchetfield ape-man

this one has such a special place in my heart for whatever reason<33 full disclosure angela as lucy stockworth is also maybe 80% of why this is higher than the others so far, it's just so fun seeing her play a character who seemingly is just so innocent and sweet and has such a big heart but then who's also very aware of what she's doing and schemes a bit herself. i can't believe this is the only iteration of lucy stockworth what is she doing in the other timelines. i want to know.

also idk why but the reveal that ted was just playing konk fucked me UP!!! like that was insane. also as the first episode that has the cast and nick & matt still figuring everything out it's just very sweet and heartwarming which you cant say about a lot of hatchetfield content<33 honestly no real explanations for this one i just love angela giarratana and also jamie lyn beatty for singing HERE'S A LITTLE STORY BOUT THE HATCHETFIELD APE-MAN

8. watcher world

the scenes with the sniggles???? genuinely horrifying. the idea in itself that someone is always watching is so creepy, i think blinky is maybe actually the most terrifying lord in black. at least he manages to have the most terrifying nmt episode. the fact that he somehow makes a father and daughter almost kill each other and wants to watch for his own enjoyment like........this one actually haunts me sm!!!! wtf is that scene with alice and the blinky mascot!!!!!!

it's also one of the only hatchetfield stories with a genuinely happy ending with basically no catch. and after bill and alice's tragic fate in tgwdlm i'm so glad they also get a good ending<33 it's also just so lovely to see them actually bond in this story and we learn a lot about alice !

this one also has so many songs and i am of the opinion that snoozle town is genuinely heartbreaking and the way angela can just do that while singing the most insane shit like "and we'll have two snoozles that can snozzle / our own bayou where the boogle boggles flow with goo" is beautiful

7. jane's a car

GOT MY FOOT ON THE GAS ok im SORRY im sorry its just. funny

tbh i am a little sad this gets reduced to the car sex episode, i think it does have a lot to say about navigating grief when you feel like you've finally been able to move on and live life again and suddenly the person you lost is back in your life. and they're also a car.

not to mention the ending???? is fucking terrifying????? poor becky quite literally dies and the "mommy's home" paired with the way the script narrates the moment as "becky sits down and jane smiles". like that's. cunt

anyway just to conclude i really wish more people understood the more compelling parts of this episode and not just tom fucks a car!!!! dont overstimulate the cupholders!!!!!

6. honey queen

i was GAGGED seeing the editing quality step up from nmt 1. this is truly the cuntiest nmt episode because we pit two beautiful queens each other and BOTH just fucking perish lmao (that editing step up also contributed so much to the final scene being so terrifying. it's an incredible introduction to nibbly and the scene being followed by the nibbly ditty is just SO gooooooooooooooood)

something i did already mention when talking about daddy is the continued sort of "motif" that rich people either still always lose to the lords in black or (something that i didn't bring up last time) they themselves are corrupt and have essentially sold their souls to the lords in black. like gerald & linda lie, cheat, steal and kill their way to win this pageant and yet. they still both die.

also also!!!!! i love that we learn how linda ended up so incredibly cold and uncaring. like it's not just from being rich as fuck, it's also trauma from being mocked, ridiculed and ignored throughout your entire childhood. i think roman murray might genuinely be the most evil character in hatchetfield and i loooove how jon matteson plays him. king shit

i also just love. gerald and linda. they are so fucked up and so perfect for each other. the way gerald helps her so much to sabotage the pageant and is her BIGGEST cheerleader, knows that deep down linda does not like her father and is afraid of him and literally gets himself killed essentially in support of her.............i love them.

5. time bastard

i'm gonna be honest i wasn't ted's biggest fan after tgwdlm so i didn't reaaaally understand the love i saw for him in the fandom, but after time bastard i really got it. time bastard actually fleshes out ted as a character and even though by the end he kind of is still a dumbass we do still learn a lot about him!! tinky and his little box are both objectively terrifying and being stuck in his box honestly sounds like a worse fate than hell. i feel bad for ted ngl

the reveal that homeless guy is ted spankoffski is also so insane. like the fact that these two exist in the same timeline a lot of the time is so interesting and also brings up the question of did the homeless guy ever try to go into ccrp and try to take his job back??? or did he just resign to his fate. we dont know. speaking of ccrp also learning more lore about what a fucked company it actually is super interesting, especially knowing they too tried to harness tinky's power.

my one and only gripe with time bastard is that it gets a little too complicated for me at some points but that's more a me problem, it just feels slightly hard to wrap my head around it while also connecting it to the events of forever and always. i do love complicated lore but this one fucks w my head sometimes

4. abstinence camp

as a grace chasity girl it is illegal for me to have this episode any lower than in the top 5. these top 4 episodes truly expose my favourite hatchetfield characters so bad lmao

god abstinence camp is SO funny!! the writing here is hilarious, just grace's first appearance is so silly and angela does such a stellar job. i love her in this role so much. along w her i'm so glad this story introduced us to boy jerry and girl jeri who i am begging to see again in another timeline like i need to see their backstory!! how did they find each other the first time and how did they end up abandoning their faith to have a child!!!! jon matteson and kim whalen are so good in these roles

we also cant talk about abstinence camp without mentioning that virginity rocks is objectively the BEST nmt song. jon and kim are serving absolute vocals it is such a banger and the fact that they paired it with axe man is so fucking sick

3. killer track

killer track is the only nmt episode so far that's made me actually cry. god. he was watching the fireworks.

to be completely honest i. don't even know what to comment on for this episode i'm just stuck in never ending holloweane brainrot. god he's so in love with her. AND SO AM I!!! miss holloway is such a compelling character and this nmt episode especially teases a lot about how she ended up the way she is. we also learn about her past and just like everything about her is so interesting to me, i love her protective nature but also that she's so calculated in her every move. and somehow always knows exactly what to do. also i love duke keane i can't leave him out of this

the concept of this episode is also just so viscerally horrifying, it's essentially something i used to have nightmares about like something scary that's ringing so loudly in your ears that nothing can block it out so this genuinely hit like a sort of irrational fear that i pretty much used to have as a kid. it's not so bad that i can't watch but still hit me in a sort of way that reminded me of my own fears. maybe that's also why i love miss holloway she would save me if i ever ended up in that situation

2. the witch in the web

i feel like witch in the web is very underrated?? i don't see a lot of people talking about it compared to some other episodes which i think is such a shame because it's so incredible

the scene where hannah thinks she's seeing lex and then it turns out to be the witch was SO spooky watching it the first time, seeing angela play out this sort of over-excited version of lex and it slooowly becoming more and more sinister is so insane especially with her pulling out the dolls of the lords in black. it's such a great scene!!

also the lore we learn about the witchwood forest and what originally happened to willabella muckwab and how the black book came to be is so integral to the entire lore, and i love the way it's told with hannah & miss holloway sort of walking in this old dreamlike world. plus the confrontation with wilbur cross in the starlight GOD this episode has so many cool moments and it can do so much because they're in nightmare time and not in actual hatchetfield most of the time. i do, however, despise the idea that lex foster is serving what FOUR years in prison in this timeline. dont do that to my girl

1. yellow jacket

the scene where hannah & ethan come home and lex is waiting for them, so disappointed in herself not only for forgetting hannah's birthday but also for failing the test, angry at ethan for not reminding her about hannah's birthday.....that scene is probably my favourite moment in the entire hatchetverse? angela just fucking blew me away she plays it so well and not to mention joey richter ethan just. kills

yellow jacket just had to be first here, i'm so invested in these relationships and their past and how it led them to where they are here, the way this episode portrays how hard it is for lex and ethan because they're just trying to survive on what little resources they have while lex is also taking care of hannah: she cares for her so much that she's wanted to move them out of their mom's trailer. of course hannah would feel responsible and maybe guilty because lex has so much to worry about, of course hannah wants to take the first opportunity she gets to make them copious amounts of money, of course she's willing to put herself in terrible danger, all to help lex.

i love seeing this perspective on hannah, especially since in black friday we mostly see lex (and ethan) protecting and saving hannah when she's in trouble (although she definitely can fend for herself a little!). in yellow jacket we really see how responsible hannah must feel. when her and ethan see the ipad as a possible prize, her first thought isn't all the fun things you could use the ipad for, it's how much money they could get selling it. she doesn't understand the sheer danger of fighting pokey, which makes sense since she doesn't know that that is quite literally an eldritch god, she just wants to support lex.

this episode is just incredible in its every element: the portrayal of the characters, the story and the way it talks about the influence that money has on people's lives. not to mention watching literal children fight each other for entertainment. it's brutal but the core relationships are what eventually survive despite the circumstances

well. this was long

#i have. a lot to say about hatchetfield #and nmt especially #hatchetfield #hatchetverse #nightmare time

[aisling-dearelove]

As much as I love Ben 10 I cant deny that it can sometimes suffer from simplistic writing, especially in it's villain department.

Like, it's clear why Kevin was the fan favorite villain ; he's developed and has more traits than just evil, he is an in depth and interesting character. Vilgax is cool but what traits does he have other than sadism? He is evil to everyone he meets and negotiates with nobody, because he is one track minded and all he can think is "I want my Omnitrix and I want it now so I can rule the galaxy". Who is Vilgax besides evil? I won't deny, being willing to dissect children slowly or being a world-conquering war lord who is very okay with causing genocide on Tetrax's home planet (with Tetrax's unwitting assistance and subsequent abject shock and fear) is fucked up and I love that, but my god I wish his traits were developed more.

Even though I'm also a huge Dr. Animo fan, he hasn't many traits beyond being an entitled terror upon society and animal lover, but I enjoy his progression of being power hungry and desperate for more ever since he gained any power from a fraction of the Omnitrix, whereas Gaxy boy over here never progresses : send in the drones, get the assassins, beat up the 10 year old and get fucked up after saying "GIVE ME THE FUCKING ALIEN ROLEX TENNYSON I AM SO SICK OF ASKING" 78 times. The Big Tick did more of a number on earth than Vilgax ever did, and that thing lasted one episode and was destroyed by Cannonbolt alone.

The Forever Knights did just about jack shit too, as it always felt like they were stopped before their plans even began. Ben would stop them at step one most of the time, save for when they got to the sword past the God in that ancient temple, just for their plan to fall apart (literally) as the sword crumbled. Their biggest time as a threat was when they put ben into a dream to get the omnitrix, for once their plan actually progressed and they posed a true threat.

Even then, the Forever King shows up and does literally nothing after hiring every other human villain which only subsequently proved that Animo is the most effective villain of them all. The Forever King made everyone do the work for him, picked up some power thing, did almost nothing with it and was destroyed by Upchuck.

I wish more Ben 10 villains had the depth Kevin had, as Kevin is a phenomenal villain, and is only proven moreso in Ken 10 where he is a fucking despicable person to his son and has only sunken further into his maniacal nature and urge for superiority over others rather than seeking self acceptance and forgiveness to himself, leading a side-villain to he more in-depth and interesting than the main bad guy.

#Ben 10 #Vilgax #Kevin levin #Kevin 11 #Dr animo #Aloysius animo #Forever knights #Rambling #Forever king

[just-antithings]

If anyone wants a rec for a fandom with few to no antis, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the M*A*S*H community had the absolute least fandom drama I’ve ever seen (at least on tumblr). The worst I’ve seen is like two people vagueposting about how putting one of the characters in a lavender marriage in fic is getting rid of the canon female that gets in the way of your mlm ship 2.0. That’s refreshingly more old school fandom wank, and those posts weren’t even in the tags, you had to go to the poster’s actual blog to find them.

It’s as if everyone goes into this show already accepting the premise that a show made 50 years ago, in the 70s, set in the 50s, about the Korean War, from the POV of Americans, is going to inherently have *yikes* parts in it. And from there comes so much meta dissecting it and in the few months since I’ve started my rewatch and going through the tags, I haven’t seen any calls for cancellation or apologetics for the thorny parts (bc yes the racism and sexism can be really bad at times). People say ‘I didn’t like x episode’ or ‘I know everyone likes y character but I don’t’ and all the comments boil down to essentially ‘understandable, have a good day.’

Anyway, the overarching anti-war and anti-US military themes have aged like fine wine unfortunately, and it has ~250 episodes so lots of canon content with a small, chill fandom if you want to look into it and boy do I wish more fandoms were like this bc now I’ve been spoiled.

noted! I’ve been meaning to check that show out

#mod erin #ask

[rivertalesien]

This preview shows a scene where the Unit, Scylla, Gregorio and Adil are being advised by Capt. Quartermain and Gen. Bellweather: they're about to run off to get some scourges, but Anacostia stops them to say how proud she is of "the three of them" (Scylla, Gregorio and Adil are just...there), to never doubt what they built (um, what, exactly?) and to "take care of that one" (nodding at Scylla).

Scylla Ramshorn: orphan, Army dodger, spy, mass murderer, sometime terrorist, weird little Necro witch who can do all the ish the others can do, and more, including the Vulcan nerve pinch, the Jedi Mind Trick, burning off her own face and inhaling somebody else's (not to mention she talks to birds and raises living stuff out of dead stuff), like, in other words, she's kind of the terrifying mage you want on your side in DnD?

Scylla Ramshorn. Wanted by the Army and the Government for Crimes Against Humanity. Who, in another life, might have been Wednesday Addams. That Scylla Ramshorn? Is now

Scylla Ramshorn would literally eat the Camarilla with glee and hot sauce, if they just let her loose.

But okay. Teamwork makes the dream work. Got it.

This might be venting.

Everything fans can see in the possibilities of a show and its characters are very rarely shared by the ones in charge, by the creators or the studios. It's frustrating to see the failings and missteps, to know some of it can't be avoided, some of it is just built out of pressure from too many sources. As fans, we can look at something up close, almost microscopic detail and dissect it to death. Sometimes, that's totally the fun of being a fan. Sometimes, it misses the point.

But I really feel EL and his writing team missed the point in a big way this season. They missed it by writing Scylla out of the story and just keeping her along as the slightly weird but completely bloodless love interest. Like, I'm actually a little angry about this. I'm not here to defend a ship, but a character who started out in some ways, as the strongest and the one antagonist who could have been the real center around which everything traveled. By losing her, the show started centering its Big Plot and without the number of episodes necessary to tell that Big Plot, they shot themselves in the foot.

The Big Plot (christofascist takeover of the US, very timely) could have been a great idea, a surrounding environment for the witches to push back against. Instead, it became the main focus and the mistakes they made with Scylla undermined everything else.

You can't have a Big Romance with only one reasonably-developed character and the other little more than a cardboard cut-out (why Talder looked better this season in comparison: both Tally and Alder are realized individuals, Scylla is not).

You can't make your golden main the Chosen One without any better reasoning than...Idk, she's white and blonde? They had something with the Scylla's *song* connection, but dropped it.

Abigail, as a descendent of the first Black witch in the military, of a line that transcended pretty much everything, would have been more of a Chosen One type of character, but she got handed the (patriarchal) broodmare plot that, co-opted for a matriarchy descended from slaves, was not a good look. Like, what the hell?

(And, frankly, if Marvel objected to their co-parent, Disney, that this show was a little too X-Men-y and Abigail was a little too Storm-y -- no pun intended -- I wouldn't be surprised. It's business and if that played into the cancellation, along with all the Queer content that cannot be allowed on TV now, it would make some awful sense)

I really wish so much more had happened with this show and if it is the end, just trying not to mourn too much. Waste has become a depressing way of life there doesn't seem an end to.

But I do hope it gets picked up somewhere else and I hope it gets a bit of a reboot because there was a lot of fun in this series, too: some great characters, great actors, great ideas, a lot of fun scenes and, if nothing else, the delight of Tally Craven's expressions -- if only they'd added up to a greater whole. There wasn't time and the focus got lost.

Ultimately, I blame the not just the way television is being made right now, but those in charge who are pushing for this kind of short-run-then-disappear-if-they're-not-binging-it sensibility that is only going to work for the mass market stuff. It doesn't work for indies, it doesn't work for media created by and for marginalized communities. It's demoralizing and dangerous.

Scream about it. Wouldn't hurt.

#motherland: fort salem #scylla ramshorn #eliot laurence #raylla #Youtube

[explosionshark]

Okay as promised here's my more thoughts to follow in the Buffy update, A+ series had a great time. "Innocence", "Passion", "I Only Have Eyes For You" and "Becoming" so great, Buffy gets so much good everything for all the big Angel fallout Sarah Michelle Gellar is just always nailing it. Also actually warmed up to Cordyxander wasn't expecting that. Gonna admit wasn't super into Spike at first but I'll tell you into the second half once he was in the wheelchair loved that guy, dunno just wasn't really buying the hype they tried but after taking him down a few notches my kinda guy. RIP Jenny but she got a lot of great stuff loved her, RIP Kendra kinda wish she'd got a bit more for her death. Also I remember back in What's My Line I thought oh a cop who just starts blasting in a school of course she's an assassin but then they do the same thing in Becoming just as regular cops incredible. Also wow they went real hard on the queer coding with Buffy coming out to Joyce in Becoming (this was also a great scene), also a hard unsympathetic turn for Joyce especially in 3x01 with her blaming Giles for Buffy following Joyce's ultimatum, wasn't expecting it so much. Giles also, lotta great stuff, shocker Anthony Stewart Head does good work I know but he was so good in Passion and I Only Have Eyes For You. I didn't think I'd get so into the whole AngelxBuffy romance considering y'know I already knew how it goes but nah its still real good even with that foreknowledge. Also shout out to Willow just having to double as a teacher for the latter half of the series since Jenny died incredible stuff, and good for her getting into the witch phase which is what I mostly knew about her from second hand knowledge, besides that finding out she was gay in the evil mirror verse was part of how she found out she was gay herself.

Also I forgot about that joke about how David Boreanaz can't do an Irish accent and man he can really not do an Irish accent, I remember an episode of Angel where his pre Vampire memories took over or something and they just had him do the American accent, shout out also to Angel being dead and still in the opening credits for series 3 (I've watched one episode so far) really selling me that he's dead forever guys. Also gotta say despite I Only Have Eyes For You being real good, kinda sketchy the whole I dunno if the student being in a relationship with his teacher was handled particularly well. Like I get it yeah for the comparison between Angel and Buffy but directly bringing that in makes that a bit sketch as well, like I'm not gonna complain about age differences with vampire/human romances because its a staple, you can't get away from it they're vampires but if you're directly bringing in the comparisons y'know.

Also glad you mostly enjoyed the song recs, I've been listening to Rise Against since you said The Weight of my Pride is like them meets Fightstar (who I will also get to but I am incapable of checking out music in a way that isn't listening to they're entire discography in a row before trying out another one), they're so good I haven't clicked this hard with a band since I got into Dio and REO Speedwagon, its just banger after banger.

Also gonna go read HerInsectReflections' essays on series 2 like you recced. Will read your Common Ground fic when I get to around about Faith's heel turn I think.

Final last second thought the theme song seems a bit different for series 3? Dunno if I like it as much I'm sure it'll grow on me

Yeah! Definitely read the @herinsectreflection essays, they're really incredible. In particular I think you might enjoy skipping straight to the one she wrote for "I Only Have Eyes for You" since I think it does a really good job dissecting and contextualizing the teacher/student and age gap stuff in that episode while still acknowledging what sucks about it.

I know I've said before that my favorite episodes of Buffy are the ones that are really about other episodes of Buffy but I really mean it and I think you probably know exactly what I mean about that by now. As such, I'm really excited for you to get further into s3 and start getting to the Faith stuff. Very enmeshed with the Angel/Angelus arc.

Anyway fully agree re: Kendra. The show really did her dirty. It's got to be acknowledge that the one way Buffy fails egregiously and repeatedly throughout all 7 seasons in with race. Characters of color and black characters in particular are rarely seen, usually only fulfilling temporary roles, lack the depth and interiority of white characters and are usually victims of some sort of stereotyping. It's a bummer and I wish I could say it gets better but it really doesn't. Huge L!

Re: Spike - honestly yeah, for me he's best when he's kinda just being the buttmonkey.

I think the season 3 theme might be where they ditch the scream? I prefer the scream tbh. But when I watch with my best friend she does it for me, which is very sweet.

Thanks for checking in again! Love your updates! Glad you're having a good time!

#replies #Anonymous

[unpunishablelamb]

My father-and-son headcanons for Jean-Baptiste and Charles...Canon-typical violence.

-Jean-Baptiste gave Charles a few chances to escape the family trade because it was the dying wish of his first wife, Madeleine Tronson.

-Jean-Baptiste kind of regraded sending his son to boarding school. Charles, to avoid bullying by his peers and corporal punishment from teachers started to mimic the emotional responses of outsiders. Jean-Baptiste, even though he understood it was necessary so that he developed a very clear cut between insider and outsider to cope with his job as executioner...This is why he is generally impatient when Charles showed embarrassment at being booed by the crowd (but didn't actually punish him for it). Another reason for it, is that because Charles at first started to worry about being an outcast as a way to manipulate others...It gives a vibe of: "you don't have to do that in front of me, I'm your father". Unfortunately, verbalizing his emotion isn't Jean-Baptiste's strong point, and he understand that his son needs to learn that skill, so again, he just tells him to walk with proper posture and stops at that.

-If he ought to use corporal punishment on Charles, Jean-Baptiste would just tie him up for long hours or give him a birching/hazel rod caning, with a gruff session of after-care to keep Charles able to function. They would usually happen no earlier than 7 PM, to make sure Charles would be functional afterwards.

-After corrections, Charles was extremely sleepy, a trait he inherited from his mother.

-The first anatomy lessons with Charles didn't go well, as Charlot had necrophobia, and no one in his family had the time to deal with that.

-Eventual disensitization was actually quite good for Charles' mental health, and he even begin to took a healthy amount of curiosity for anatomy.

-The first dissections...Were a mess, and Jean-Baptiste really needed to stretch a carrot-stick method to it's ultimate degree to keep Charles from vomiting.

-Charles really resented his father for the boot incident. Like, he even stopped at one point to see him as a father.

-Usually, Jean-Baptiste tends to put any personal resentment he may have with his children aside, but still is able to discipline them in a reasonable way. (Like that episode where Marie deliberately butchers Griffith/Lally-Tollandal).

they are all so accurate and they make so much sense!

I also headcanon Charles wishing that Nicolas was his father instead of Jean-Baptiste sometimes. Especially when his father has been acting harsher than usual, trying to get Charles to improve, he views his (not unproblematic) uncle through rose tinted glasses. He sees him as such an idealistic version of what he wishes his father was like and he feels so guilty and ungrateful because of it he would never admit it to anyone.

[the-great-po2]

why the arcana is better then episode.

Why the arcana is better than episode: To discuss this we will need to dissect what these games are. In blatant terms they are choose your own adventure; if you want to dive deeper they are romance visual novels where YOU the reader/player is in the lead role and mostly fall in love and date the main characters. Now in my opinion arcana is better than episode. The most important reason drum roll please…. The arcana doesn’t make you feel bad for not spending money. You start out with 100 coins in the arcana and only 20 gems in episode and if you spend the fictional money in the arcana it has no real effect on the story. It’s mostly just ‘’oh hey there friend/love interest you don’t have enough money to do the fun thing that would be fun? That’s ok I can respect your boundaries I’m sorry for making you uncomfortable’’ and they give you a blanket and a kiss on the head. While for episode it is the exact opposite. Whether or not you have cash or gems or whatever depends if you are a terrible person. There was this demi Lovato story on there and I didn’t have enough money to be a good person. I sold a gift my best friend gave me and lashed out on live tv and demi was disappointed in me all because I didn’t have the money to be a good person. I’ve never been able to finish a story on the app because of it. I have finished three on the arcana though! Secondly the arcana has a better art style you can see the emotion almost feel it. You can get personally illustrated scenes, softer brush strokes. Their expressions are more comforting even if the world is about to end. They feel like real actual characters you can connect with. Real feelings, flaws, wants, and desires. One of the worst characters had an amazing redemption arc. As for episode there’s a disconnect from you and the characters. For me they are just characters, sprites with the same robotic scripted expressions. I saw two people pull the exact same expression at the same time. They are just little sprites you can dress up. They don’t feel like characters. Thirdly let’s talk about YOU the mc [main character] doesn’t have a face the only one without a face basically meaning you can put yourself in their shoes. They can look, and act however you wish because they are a reflection of YOU. As for episode the mc does have a face and a body it’s not necessarily a bad thing. but its like their emotions are scripted. Fourthly and this might be a little biased. But the stories in the arcana are more interesting. Having magic, solving a murder, saving the world its exciting! The stories in episode is mostly high school drama. Much like Riverdale or Euphoria. Some of you probably like those shows so you would most likely enjoy episode more. My final reason, the arcana is the only game with Faust in it so it automatically wins I mean just look at her

#the arcane game #episode game

[tuiyla]

oh no, I didn't watch Legend of Korra while it aired! I binge watched the four seasons in 2018 or 2019 (and yeah I did start watching the show because of Korrasami in particular), but I did watch most of Glee (from season three onwards) and Adventure Time (I remember Olivia Olson confirming that Marcy and PB used to date was what made me want to watch all of the episodes and be a lurker in the AT fandom way back in 2014 lol) while they aired. So my experience with Bubbline kind of resembles yours with Korrasami, especially the excitement over them becoming canon (I read many of your Bubbline analyses around the same time you posted them, for instance, and happened to find your blog again bc I'm currently rewatching Glee and was looking for Brittana and Faberry content). I also wish Bubbline was more often praised by media outlets too; Rebecca Sugar planted the seeds for it way back in 2011 with "What Was Missing", after all, before either LoK or SU began. I think they probably aren't given enough credit bc of (as you pointed out) timing (Bubbline only became canon at the very end of the show in 2018, while LoK made Korrasami canon in 2014 and SU had canonically queer characters ever since the s1 finale iirc) and bc neither PB nor Marcy were the show's leads and also who knows if the AT writers would've made their romantic relationship canon if SU and LoK hadn't happened (they certainly wouldn't have back in 2012, as the Mathematical controversy shows). And yeah, you're right that having expectations about Korrasami vs. interacting with the fandom and dissecting each of their scenes weekly really is a world of difference. That said, I'm still curious as to why you thought Korrasami were more well-developed than Bubbline? I mean, Bubbline received so many episodes solely about their relationship spanning over multiple seasons (and I know you know this ofc, you're a Bubbline expert), it's hard for me to see how Korrasami could compare (I remember I thought Korrasami was underdeveloped because Asami herself didn't get a lot of screentime, so idk if her being with Korra for 90% of her scenes in Book 3 would mean all that much (sorry!!), especially bc it felt to me that they really dropped the ball with them afterwards in Book 4. However, I only watched that show once; your review was interesting and made me want to rewatch it). So yeah, I'm asking why you thought Korrasami were more well-developed than Bubbline bc iirc you said you have a media studies degree at some point, so I think you have an interesting perspective that goes beyond personal preference.

Oh happy days, turns out you and I go way back Anon haha. That’s kind of a nice full circle then. Before Glee took over this blog Bubbline was the most I was ever asked about. I wonder if you remember that I declared them canon post-Stakes in 2015? Obviously no worries if not it’s just a fun thing for me to remember because I was the most fucking vindicated person ever in September of 2018 for that very reason.

I do indeed have a media studies degree (Media, Culture and Journalism uwu), something I often forget about lol and though I appreciate the credence you put in that I’m not sure that makes my perspective any more valuable, to be honest. If anything, I’d use that degree to further argue that it does come down to personal preference. I’ll always place Korrasami just a little bit higher and I have no intention of stopping you from placing Bubbline higher. I will get into some, let’s say, more media studies perspectives here but ultimately, like I said in the prev post even picking a more well-developed relationship is subjective. Do I have reasons informed by my £8,000 student loan, sure, but it’s also the emotional bias of Avatar meaning what it does to me and Korrasami meaning what they do me. Fun little side note before jumping in, but literally days before Adventure Time’s finale aired I actually wrote an article for a series talking first queer TV experiences. In that piece, I hailed both Bubbline and Korrasami as the two first instances of real, meaningful queer rep I saw on TV. I credited Bubbline as something that kickstarted not only this golden TV trend but my own journey, and Korrasami as something that gave me, personally, that final push towards coming out. Okay, side quest over.

So first off I need to acknowledge that this: “Asami herself didn't get a lot of screentime, so idk if her being with Korra for 90% of her scenes in Book 3 would mean all that much“ is kind of misconstruing what I said or at least taking only half of it. Asami’s character is admittedly one of the less developed aspects of all of LoK, but reading my original point I’ve also said that Korra, the main character who spends time with everyone and is focused on for the majority of the show, also spends more than half her screentime with Asami in Book 3. And that’s not insignificant. Again, don’t remember the exact numbers and fuck if I can find that post 8 and a half years later (😱) but the sheer volume of it. That screentime isn’t for nothing, either, as the two go from tentatively discussing past relationships with Mako to Asami symbolically taking a similar place next to Korra that Katara did to Aang. Or, in the same series and season, P’Li to Zaheer. Here is where I would advise watching the series again because holy shit how can you only watch LoK once?? Sorry that’s not a serious note I’m just incapable of not living in a world where I’ve seen ATLA ~15 times and LoK... ~7? Eight. Maybe nine or ten honestly who knows oh what’s that time for another rewatch?

Another imperfection of LoK I have to admit is the time jump’s effect on events. No one was more wary of a time jump happening in-between seasons than me and overall, I think it was not only the right shout executed well. That said, the comics canonize that this largely off-screen period was when both Korra and Asami realized they had feelings for each other and so the transition from Book 3′s best gal pals hastag friends forever to Book 4′s romantic undertones isn’t the smoothest. I think the signs are there, particularly in Reunion, but this is an area where Korrasami could have done better. Additionally, as mentioned the show does not give Asami her dues and her moments tend to be understated, her development very internal, a lowkey journey in a world full of exploding spirit beams and mountains literally moved. There’s a beauty in that but an understated beauty where the audience is required to put in the work. Contrasted with Korra, the actual centre of her show and when put together to form a joint development, it doesn’t do the most it could, had Asami been a bigger presence throughout the show. Love my girl, I continue putting her in my top 5, but her overall lack of focus in the show was to Korrasami’s detriment. That said, I’d still push back against what you said because Asami spending the majority of her screentime with Korra does mean much, even if she doesn’t have all that much screentime to begin with. We’re still talking about a major character whose character arc in the entire second half of the show is intertwined with that of Korra’s. Again, not insignificant.

The reason I started off with where LoK is lacking in this regard is to point out that Bubbline is plagued by the same curse of relying on off-screen development. As you yourself stated, Marcy and Bonnie weren’t the leads in their show, unlike Korra being the eponymous character and Asami growing form tertiary character to deuteragonist-adjacent levels. Their disadvantage comes from a combination of this overall placement in the series’ character hierarchy, Adventure Time’s general structure and, I’d argue, the timeline of their relationship. Which is where I promise what I just said about off-screen development will become relevant. First the two points about character hierarchy and series structure because they’re intertwined. Bubbline did have episodes focused entirely or almost entirely on their relationship as a perk of the AT structure but the downside of that is that these were 10 minute chunks every three years or so. AT is mostly Finn and Jake running around and having fun and whole the show does get deep as early as season 2 and evolves beyond its two main characters, Marceline in particular was in very few episodes compared to the overall scope of literally hundreds of episodes. This means that when she does appear, when they do have substantial roles with PB it is significant, yes, but that time in-between passes in-universe as much as it does in the real world. This is most notable after their reconciliation. I think the arc from What Was Missing through Sky Witch and into Varmints is done well and we can see how they gradually rebuilt... whatever it was they had. (Distant Lands makes their past relationship and breakup explicit, but we’re not considering that retroactive confirmation for the purposes of this.)

It just feels strange to compare that, essentially a three-episode arc told over the course of, jesus, 4 years(!) to how Korrasami had Books 3 and 4 to develop. It’s just so apples and oranges. Jfc, thinking about it the three episodes I mentioned are essentially a trilogy but it took AT four years?? Insanity. Anyway, like LoK had its challenges I think AT did too in its structure. Even if we overlook that, to see this Bubbline trilogy for what it was in terms of their reconciliation the audience had to a) remember and b) infer a lot, post-Stakes PB and Marcy fulfill different roles in the story. Used to be, in Marceline’s case, that she appeared rarely but when she did she was the focus. After season 4 or so, PB’s appearances were also less frequent compared to her earlier run but more significant. After Stakes I feel like there’s a shift where they hang around more but are often designated to the background even Marceline. And save for Broke His Crown, the “meet the surrogate dad” episode, which came very shortly after Stakes, there are no more Bubbline Episodes™ until Distant Lands watered my crops with Obsidian (which I’m not over, btw). Meaning, Bubbline-centric episodes are all about the reconciliation and even though I declared that they became canon in Stakes, there’s little actual focus on and therefore development for them later on. And again, apples and oranges, hard to compare to Korrasami’s gradual but more constant-feeling development over two seasons compared to a bazillion but it just doesn’t feel more substantial.

And, the off-screenness of it all. The fact that Bubbline were implied, subtextually, to have been an item before (subtext no more obvious than Korrasami’s) so their story is fundamentally different. We don’t see them meet and develop feelings for the first time, we essentially see the get back together. That’s an entirely different dynamic where so much of their story happened hundreds of years before Finn was even born. Again, Distant Lands shows some of that but at that point they’re already a couple again and we’re not looking for further development of the past. (It’s welcome, I eat it up, if just doesn’t contribute to development re: becoming a couple.) There’s so much unsaid and people like me did infer it but there were those gaps occasional episodes every third season maybe filled out. It’s so different from following the journey of the main character and another major one from her established group of friends. And even after Stakes, which is what I consider them getting back together but is never explicitly confirmed, things happen off-screen. Case in point, who’s to say Stakes is actually when they restart a romantic relationship! Literally just me, internet rando. These more focused episodes we get before Stakes are great, but they carry a lot and imply gradual development in-between. Meaning things had to happen off-screen and we have to try and imagine certain dots to connect, so not too dissimilar from what Korrasami requires to truly buy their story.

I don’t think this is necessarily a bad thing, though I would have wanted much more Bubbline post-Stakes. I just think we see what we want to see, and I wanted to see both Bubbline and Korrasami. I inferred and connected those dots for both as I followed the two series as they aired, and I don’t think watching LoK years later, knowing the finale, people do that. Or watching AT years later, even just the Bubbline eps, knowing the finale, people do that. It’s just in the nature we consume media and why binging is... an interesting topic. Off-screen events implicitly require for you to take that time away from the text, consider what might be happening in the meantime, and get back into the flow willing to accept that some time has passed. And with LoK’s structure, even with the time jump, I think this is easier to accept them with AT’s. And with Korrasami’s arc happening almost entirely on-screen and getting to follow from the very beginning, as opposed to Bubbline having these long-ass lives and tumutous past that’s mainly only hinted at. It still works, obviously, I still love it, but LoK feels more like tangible development to me. On the note of AT’s difference in structure, there’s a lot AT implies and leaves up for interpretation, that’s just the kind of show it is. But in terms of developing a Sapphic relationship in Western animation at a time where that was Super not allowed (as opposed to now, when it Kinda is), it’s just not the best combo.

The emotional investment I gave Korrasami was there with Bubbline as well, of course, and I was more than willing to connect those dots and imagine them and just do everything. As you know, seeing as you read those posts back then. And this is still subjective, but if we’re talking actual on-screen development than Korrasami’s reading between the lines as opposed to Bubbline’s annual breadcrumbs just felt better handled and certainly better paced. It’s a difference between the series themselves but a difference nonetheless. And yeah, having so much of their story happen off-screen just didn’t do Bubbline many favours in this regard. LoK’s approach feels more hands on, more continuous, more tangibly traceable whereas with AT and Bubbline we were dropped down in the middle of the rode, at the lowest point at that, were told to guess what the history was and then hopscotched our way to the conclusion. It worked, I loved every second of it, I went feral with every single Bubbline moment, but they were few and far between comparatively.

Again, as a final note: I’m not going to convince you nor do I want to. I hope you’re not looking to be convinced about Korrasami here because I can’t transfer my own emotional bias. Sounds like you’ve read a lot of what I’ve written on this blog so I hope you know I mean this in the nicest way, but I frankly don’t have the bandwidth to be debating Korrasami’s development. Obviously you’re not questioning their validity but in the aftermath of LoK ending I had to fight for that validity a lot and it was of my own free will but it took a lot out of me. Arguing for Korrasami well-written-ness is just not something I really, truly want to put my media studies degree behind because I had to fight those fights before I had that degree and in such hostile environments and I’m just tired. Been in the trenches, one might say. I just wanna enjoy my favourite ship of all time without justifying it, you know? And again, I mean this in the nicest way possible and I wouldn’t have engaged with either of your asks if I had thought they were mal-intentioned in any way whatsoever. I appreciate you asking these questions and engaging in a convo and it’s really good to hear that you’ve come full circle with my blog, from Bubbline to Brittana. I’d be happy to talk more about any of these couples with you, including Korrasami, I just had to make this disclaimer that I can’t argue more than I did in this post for their development. In particular, not against Bubbline of all ships haha, I inadvertently feel like I’m putting down something I also deeply, deeply love when viewed in contrast with Korrasami.

Did I just rank Bubbline below Korrasami again today, yeah. And I would say that, in whatever almighty metric “development” is, Bubbline has less just by virtue of not being the main focus of their show and much of their relationship happening off-screen. But I really feel like these distinctions are meaningless when both ships mean the world to me, and I wouldn’t normally be thinking about which one I value more if not for rankings on tumblr dot com. Even with everything I said “against” Bubbline when stating my case, I still go batshit insane for them because they’re a ridiculously good duo of two characters who are already well-rounded with deep lores individually. And together? My gosh. Empires have fallen for less.

#between the kind of media attention korrasami garnered and running an avatar fan site as lok aired #i've heard it all about korrasami and i just wanna enjoy my fav red and blue bi girs and their love #the middle got away form me because i had dinner ashjkjsk #idk i was gonna say more about this elusive offscreenness but i think you get it and i'm not in the business of convincing anyway #anon #avatar asks #at asks #should i like go back and tag those old bubbline asks hmm #korrasami #bubbline #at times it really feels like i'm dragging at and bubbline i'm really not lol #i go INSANE over how excellent that show and that relationship is #it's wild

[toa-kirhan]

First time watching ToH S1E13 (The First Day). Thoughts below:

Detailed thoughts:

First thing’s first: shoutout to Principal Bump! His first episode really gave off the impression that he was going to be a minor antagonist for the series, but Bump has been surprisingly reasonable so far.

In terms of positives: he switched Willow to the Plant track after seeing her talent for it, let Eda enroll Luz (who was already banned) into Hexside after cleaning up after herself, is protecting Eda and Luz from the EC, accepted Gus taking the blame for the incident w/ Luz and the HAS (only punishing him by kicking him out of the club), and let Luz, Viney, Jerbo, and Barcus all study multiple tracks.

Granted, Bump had to be convinced on all of these decisions, but if anything, that’s just a credit to Bump’s willingness to listen and change his mind when presented w/ new evidence and a sound argument.

The main questionable things he’s done is almost dissect Luz (it isn’t clear if he was actually going to or was just trying to scare Luz and Willow into confessing), shill for the EC at the Covention (understandable now given that Hexside depends on donations from the EC for additional funding), and having a horrible monster that brainwashes students in detention (yeah, no real excuse for that).

The second thing that I wanted to focus on was the Empire (I assume that’s what the government of the Boiling Isles calls itself, given it is headed by an Emperor). So far, we haven’t gotten much information on the Emperor since he was first brought up during “Covention,” although we have seen and heard a lot about the EC, and the imperial policy on controlled magic.

While I’ve already gone over how the magic schools and coven system work to control witches’ use of magic, this episode builds upon it. Not only is every student limited to one of nine tracks, they can only have classes from that track too, limiting their knowledge on how to perform other types of magic before taking it away completely once they’ve joined a coven.

Any students that mix magic (or break the rules in general) are sentenced to detention where they are ‘reeducated’ (pun) into being a good student (in a direct mirror to the Conformatorium that is meant to do the same for society at large). The fact that Eda created the Secret Room of Shortcuts is probably what allowed her to escape this fate and become so adept at all forms of magic.

This creates a dilemma for students looking to join the EC, since they are forbidden from being taught magic or practicing magic from other tracks. This does line up with what we know about Amity since we only see her training her fire spell w/ Ed and Em outside of school (where she only uses abominations). When Amity talks about how hard she’s needed to work into the EC, she really means it.

About the EC, it is telling that Bump initially questions them about the greater basilisk, a supposedly extinct species. Given that greater basilisks seem to drain a witch’s magic, it wouldn’t surprise me if the Emperor has been secretly keeping them around to use on others, possibly even absorbing their magic for himself.

This is purely speculation, but given that contracts and oaths have been shown to be magically binding, I do have to wonder whether the Emperor has bound the EC and their powers to him in the same way. It would be another reason why Eda chooses to reject Lilith’s offer of a cure, adding a literal meaning behind Eda’s wish to not “owe him anything.”

General thoughts:

Luz is totally a theater kid.

Love the googly eyes on her waist bag! It really goes well w/ the pink slider on the zipper.

Pfft, Principle Bump is only audience member.

Luz’s eye trick returns! A callback to the first episode!

New outfit! Luz has a school uniform now! And they’re actual witch’s robes! No more bathrobes and dirty cones for this girl!

It’s in line with what’s already been established so far, but Luz sees herself not only as a nobody in the human world, but as a screwup as well.

Eda totally punched the first person she saw in class on her first day in school.

Hexside must be pretty far from the Owl House if Eda’s flying her there. Will Eda be flying Luz everyday now? Does Luz get/have a lunchbox too?

The Bad Girls Coven has patches! Do any of the other covens have patches? I bet not! Bad Girls Coven forever!

“I’ll just earn it when I quit showering.” Big oof.

Custom Eda and Luz sock puppets... definitely a theater kid.

Amity and Luz are officially confirmed to be friends.

Also, Amity’s abomination is still really friendly and supportive.

Person I don’t know c:

Man, it feels like it’s been so long since I’ve seen Willow and Gus. Probably just because of that small break I took since they’ve only been gone for 3 episodes.

We’ve got more art of the 9 main covens! It looks like purple is oracle, blue is telepathy, red is bard, orange is peacekeeping, green is plants, brown is construction, teal is illusion, yellow is potions, and pink is abomination. 8/9 on my guesses from last time is pretty good!

Another school name: Saint Epiderm.

“A good witch needs to hocus focus.”

I like the Choosy Hat.

Is Bump wearing an imp as a hat, or is Bump an imp that’s wearing a person? I haven’t thought about this until now.

The class is Potions 101 and the first thing the teacher does is tell everyone to make a potion? That’s ambitious.

I’m glad that they explained what happened to actual detention. I mean, they already used that monster of the week so...

The (temporary) detention room doesn’t have glass panes? Did they take them out to make it more prison-like or has that room in particular always been vulnerable from the elements.

Willow puts up w/ so much. First Amity, then Gus, and now Luz.

Hidden door!

Viney! Really like the spiky, jagged design she’s got going on w/ the ripped up robes, collar pin, spiked hairband, and fishhook earring.

The Secret Room of Shortcuts!

“Your aura is strong and silly like a baby’s laughter.”

Amity’s pacing and talking to herself about Luz? What does going to the same school now not change? Do I have to make a new entry into the Psychoanalysis of Amity Blight soon?

Lord Calamity? 20 bucks says it’s Eda. They’ve got yellow potion robes and the entire top half of the portrait’s covered. CALLED IT! Also, how’d Eda make an entire room w/ secret doors spread throughout the school?

Those paper fortune tellers are magic! I knew it!

No! Not Barcus! ;_;

Respect to Gus for his commitment to science and the pursuit of knowledge.

An imposter you say?

King’s a great teacher! He’s made a lot of progress since Prince Jr. and Private Dingdong, that’s for sure.

300 years until retirement?! Man, the government of the Boiling Isles is evil!

The basilisk can just drain an entire witch’s magic from just one spell? Also, it doesn’t like the taste of glyph magic? Must be missing that bile secret sauce.

Hexoleos? That’s a new one.

Is magic naturally blue? Why is it released as wisps?

How come Luz’s outfit only has eight colors and no orange or yellow? No love for the peacekeeping, potions, and construction tracks?

More importantly: MAGICAL GIRL TRANSFORMATION SEQUENCE!

#the owl house #toh #toh season 1 #toh s1 #first watch #media analysis

[ishyaboiwhoadwoadie]

I Have Now Watched Teen Titans (2003) and Will Give You My Episode Because I Feel Like It (SPOILERS)

Worst Episodes

5. Homecoming-Honestly there aren’t a whole lot of outright bad Teen Titans episodes. The Brotherhood of Evil are good, and I love the Doom Patrol showing up. This mainly got on the list because Mento is so lethally stupid of a leader that I just really hate him in this episode.

4. Only Human-Again, not bad. Atlas is a silly villain whom I love because he’ll throw hands over losing a video game, and Keith David and John Dimaggio are a great pairing. It’s just got a dumb “Your heart will bring you through” lesson when Cyborg has a literally weight limit due to being robotic.Eh, not awful.

3. Forces of Nature-This one actually is bad. Thunder and Lightning are not engaging characters, the Beast Boy-learns-to-say-sorry subplot was weak, and Slade has a random fire demon ritual. Typical crummy Moral of the Week writing from a show that would later do great at it with episodes like Spellbound and Troq.

2. Fractured-Larry’s really annoying. There are a lot of Teen Titans episodes about reality warpers causing mischief, and Larry is far and away the worst of them, even though he’s the closest one to heroism. I will never watch this episode again, not even for sexy sexy Johnny Rancid.

1. The Beast Within-Sure, I’ll follow public opinion! The plot contrivances of ignoring Beast Boy’s toxic waste encounter and a second Man-Beast were too much for the gritty, dark tone. I actually think a full episode exploring their anti-bad guy bias when one of their own seems to turn would be a cool episode, but they already softballed it with Apprentice, so some of the impact got lost. Ah well.

Best Episodes

10. Revved Up-I love Wacky Races and Mario Kart, so an entire episode around race hijinx is right up my alley, and they play the chaos and character interplay very well. Ding Dong Daddy’s hilarious, the T-Car gradually breaks down, and Starfire and Raven get to do the one bit from Blazing Saddles. Coolio!

9. Lightspeed-I do love the HIVE Five. They’re a really endearing anti-Teen Titans, and I wish we got more of them. These perspective flip episodes are really fun, and the zany characters are a huge boost. Billy Numerous and See-More are hilarious, and Mammoth yelling “Hey, I paid for that!” was top-notch. Plus, Kid Flash was a fun nemesis, and Jinx gets to tell off Madame Rouge, that hussy.

8. Masks-Slade could sometimes get on my nerves. His “all part of the plan” coolness seemed less like a trait of an awesome strategist and more like a writing excuse at times. However, here we get to see him and Robin play manipulation chess, and having a direct opponent was an excellent choice. Plus, it has the Red X costume, and though it didn’t make the list, Apprentice also became awesome in large part because of the boost this episode gave to Slade’s legitimacy.

7. For Real-Ok, this will be the last Season Five episode. Control Freak is a hilarious villain who combines the zany reality warping of Mumbo Jumbo with the pathetic joke nature of Dr. Light into a giant nerd with a chip on his shoulder and too much power. His gauntlet match really helped legitimize the Titans East and was just ingenious in general. The gag of him expecting the main Titans and his traps getting busted was also great as was the chatroom gang. Solid episode all around!

6. The End-Trigon had a lot of setup. Zombie Slade, the occult symbols, Raven’s paranoia. With all the build, one could reasonably fear the entrance not measuring up. It did. Trigon instantly turned the world to lava and became a giant must-destroy-but-can-we freakout final boss (except for the Brotherhood of Evil) that very nearly killed the Teen Titans, and the sheer drama of it all made for some excellent villainous television.

5. Birthmark-Speaking of setup for Trigon, this is an entire episode of Slade hunting down Raven. The horror of fire demon zombie Slade and the gradual dissection of the team leading up to all the markings was a super-tense effort. This was a key moment in making us believe that we the viewers should keep watching for The End while also being a great episode to watch itself.

4. A Date With Destiny-Enough seriousness! Let’s do a prom episode with killer moths and Killer Moth. Watching Robin suffer and sulk his way through slow dances and a tuxedo before getting to tell Kitten off was hilarious, and bumbling, daughter-enabling, city-threatening Killer Moth was a great villain. Likewise, Kitten was a hilarious bratty diva who filled the villain shoes quite well. Top notch!

3. The Sum of His Parts-This is probably the first great episode of Teen Titans, and it set the formula for a lot of future serious episodes: psychological dissection of a Teen Titan. Mumbo Jumbo is fun and all, but the slow tension of Fixit trying to turn Cyborg full robot and showing how dear his humanity is was one of the more painstaking episodes, and it definitely made this into their Heart of Ice. For the thoughtful Teen Titans fan, I say this.

2. Revolution-And for the Teen Titans fan hopped up on sugar, I say this! Mad Mod’s got one joke: he’s British. It’s a joke that doesn’t last more than two episodes, but man do they get their money’s worth here. Every moment is another British pop culture reference as this loony Brit sinks his teeth into every piece of the scenery. As mentioned before, there were a lot of mischievous reality warper episodes, and this one is head and shoulders above them all. And now, time for the final crumpet of this tea time.

1. Haunted-Again, I am willing to follow public opinion. It’s just a really fraught episode where Slade becomes a horror movie ghost villain, and Robin slowly unravels. Again, it’s all about the tension of “How did he come back from the dead?” “Oh crap, is Robin going to be ok?” “Man, Raven took one in the kisser through psychic powers!” The Titans writers are very creative, but they usually save their powers for zany antics and goofball villains (which I love: see entries 10, 7, 4, and 2). However, here they use those powers for evil, and man is it unsettling. Best Teen Titans episode ever!

#teen titans #robin #cyborg #beast boy #starfire #raven #slade

[mrcspectr]

Okay I'm going to sound like a raging lunatic here and you do not have to respond to this in any way, but I just wanna gush at you for a moment.

I've been a Moon Knight fan for years and I always felt like I was alone clutching my Moon Knight comics in the back while everyone else was gushing about the Avengers or Batman or something bigger. It was fine that I had no one to fan out with because it was my little niche. When they announced the show I was terrified. What if it was wrong? What if it was bad? Would people like it? Would I suddenly loose my own personal little niche?

Oh? Oscar Issac is Marc? Okay. I like him. I'm cautiously optimistic.

Not gonna lie, I went into episode one with the most suspicious eyes. Watching Steven bumble his way through his day was cute. Then seeing Steven wake up in the field, wave at people, and just try to figure out wtf was going on...I was sold on that little bucket of sunshine. Then seeing Marc in episode 3 actually fight on the roof and I was sold on that little mess of a dense mac truck trying to plow his way through life at top speed. And every scene with implied Jake had me screaming.

I'm not going to tell you how many times I've re-watched each episode, but it's a lot. And that isn't even mentioning the scenes that get unloaded to youtube... Or that episode 5 had me laid out sobbing for three hours straight at 3am.

THE POINT. The point I'm badly trying to get to is that I've been burned on fandom before. I need more Moon Knight. I have been clutching at straws for years and now it's everywhere and I am jumping into the ocean of content and it still isn't enough. But there are so many bad takes or people with views I don't agree with.

When I found your blog, your ability to dissect down a scene or characteristic or take was so lovely. I sent you an anonymous ask and you actually responded and it felt like at last I could have a conversation about Moon Knight. Cause otherwise I'm just sitting here yelling about it to my small dog.

Long and embarrassing note cut short: Your blog makes me happy and I love all your takes and you are the only one I feel comfortable gushing to about Moon Knight. So thank you for making my day so much better. Also your fic was wonderful. Also fuck that guy who felt the need to come at you. Like, let people enjoy things. If they don't like how you enjoy it then fuck off.

K I'm embarrassed now.

I.. have been reading and rereading this for what feels like hours. Honestly. I wish I had something better to say. I wish I had more to say.

I was pretty hesitant to share what I'd written here for awhile, just because I didn't start out with the source material. I watched the show first, like many people did, and then started digging deep into the comics. I'm still finding issues I haven't read yet, information I wasn't aware of before. Personally, I don't think it should really matter when you found your interest, or even how, just that you have it. Because we're all just out here loving the story for what it is, at its core. But the internet doesn't always work like that, you know?

I guess what I'm trying to say is, it makes me happy that people, especially people that have loved Moon Knight for a long time, enjoy what I have to say. I love these boys, and I love this story, and I'll probably keep talking about it for a long time. But genuinely, thank you so, so much for being here and saying this. It means the world.

#and also yeah FUCK THAT GUY #i actually teared up a little bit reading this like #i wanted to say so much more but i just don't have the words #but ty ty ty you made my whole day #anonymous #asks

[relative-dimension]

“The Bride of Sacrifice”

Season 1 episode 29 - 6th June 1964

[id: Ixta stands with his back to the camera, weapon raised. Through the gap between the weapon and his head Barbara is visible, holding a knife to the throat of Tlotoxl and staring at Ixta. /end id]

At this point, I really wish Tlotoxl had been given the chance to be an interesting villain. There’s so much that could be done with his relationship to his religion and why he so desperately fights to disprove Barbara, despite knowing that elements are engineered as propaganda, and contrasting him with Autloc, and so many things that could be done instead of just having him be Evil for vague reasons and therefore stand for all the different things that the Tardis team stand against.

Is it an entertaining watch: 3/5, regardless of how many missed opportunities there were, this is still a pretty solid story. It’s only when I start thinking about anything that I get actually annoyed, I do understand why this is one of the Absolute Classics. I don’t agree, but I understand.

Does the production hold up: 3/5, I always find scenes of actors pretending that a piece of scenery is heavy incredibly funny, but honestly? They don’t do that badly with the big stone blocking the tunnel entrance.

Does it use its time well: 3/5, there’s enough development and so on, and the build-up to the cliffhanger is well-paced.

Are the characters consistent and well-used: 3/5, often, when characters are missing from serials for whatever reason, they’re just left out, either they’re sat offscreen or left behind or go on ahead, and the story focuses on the others apart from the occasional “oh, I wish [x] were here...” moment. I can’t decide if the way this story deal with that problem, by having Susan as essentially an element of the plot to be moved around and argued over until Carole Ann Ford gets back from holiday, is better or worse, but it does make it much more obvious that she’s missing.

Dr Who also gets a subplot where he gets engaged which is cute I guess. My favourite part of that whole thing is Ian’s reaction, and it’s fun enough that I can ignore how hilariously distracted Dr Who has to be in order to accidentally do that after all of the hints Cameca drops.

Is there anything actually going on under the surface: 2/5, I have more to say about the simplistic ideas of “evil” in stories that deal with much more complicated factors than that, but I think that’s worth saving for a few episodes time, as The Sensories does a lot of weird shit with it and I want to wait until then to dissect it because there’s more to say. For here, I just still think that presenting Tlotoxl as “evil” and the Tenochca as “savages” is just racist.

Does it avoid being a bit dodge with its politics: 3/5, the “oh look we’re being educational” bit with the cacao and all that is probably the most earnest attempt to educate about Tenochcan culture without being weird about it.

Overall Score - 17/30

#dw #doctor who #dw review #first doctor #ian chesterton #barbara wright #susan foreman #historical #16-20

[gardenerian]

I wish we could respond to other anons lol. A lot of people mistook “I don’t care” as “I have no issue with this” and that’s where I think? the drama came from last year. When in reality for me at least it was “this is the last season i can’t dwell on things i don’t like” I definitely didn’t accept some stuff but i wasn’t going to treat it like it ruined everything. Mend it to how I like and move on. So yea that’s what I assume most people mean by not caring about storylines. 🥰

at risk of making you all hate me askdfh - at this point, yeah, i have no issue with it. or at least. very little issue?

take 11x07, everyone’s least beloved. when i say i don’t care, i mean that the ongoing discussion about their monogamy or their social life….. it doesn’t interest me much. when i said the other day that i could see them discussing their boundaries and safely exploring, i meant it. just as i could see them choosing not to. so i just do not care to dissect it further. the storyline was executed poorly. but ultimately, i don’t care. there are more interesting ways to discuss their future and their dynamic that aren’t within the lens of this single episode, ya know? and i do not like the color that episode in particular brings out in the fandom.

what actually bothers me about that episode is that it was a waste of time in the final season. so many of the episodes were just filler, and they had little impact on the trajectory of the season at or series at large. they did little to build on things established in s10, and ultimately much of it was forgettable. to have 11x07 follow noel and cam’s performances in the previous episode was just embarrassing. they could have done so much more - not saying it all had to be DRAMA but there could have been better ways for them to explore marriage and such. 

ANYWAYS. this is what i always hope to avoid with s11 talk and it’s why i tend to not engage 😅 at this point, honestly, it’s just tiring to rehash it, ya know? why wouldn’t we focus on more interesting things? we can still be critical - i think critical meta is still very fun asjkfh but this is just done for me i think. if you hated the season, i see you! if you loved it, i see you! for me, i will cherish the moments that mattered and completely delete the rest from my brain.

#you're all so nice i keep talking about it despite saying i don't wanna talk about it askjdfh #but i will likely end the conversation here #again i do not mean to write anyone off #i just think there's not much left to say #on my end anyways #yall are free to discuss! #ily! #mel answers