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phantomram-b00 · 6 months

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Imma use my hottake post to explain it since I felt I should give more context with this take to explain myself why I have this opinion on the topic of this.

For those who don’t know or don’t wanna look back with the link, it basically that my hottake is that I don’t like the theory of what Crowley’s angel name was/could’ve been. I know this might be a bit controversial since I think everyone in this fandom (not to assume ofc), and whilst I get the curiously since Crowley almost never talk about his time over at heaven, mostly for valid reason that I’ll get to. Before I get into this, I know it been month but I wanna still give that this haunted blog/post does contain heavy spoilers so if your planning to watch good omens or haven’t seen season two yet go watch it and come back here, or you can still read— what can I say, I’m only a phantom that have lot to say about good omens and making it everyone else’s problem. But still spoiler warning ahead! So without further or do,

let get into it and talk about our favorite snake demon and a good old fashion lover boy/girl/enby—

So, okay, seeing Angel Crowley, that’s cool and honestly wholesome— despite the poor trauma he’s going to endure and will sauntered vaguely downward for. I remember hearing the theory about how his name could be Raphael, seen some AO3 tags of Crowley used to be Raphael or just people buzzing what his name could’ve been (even some saying it could be Castiel or Cassiel). And while the curiously of it all is cool, for a while I couldn’t really pin it at first as to why I personally didn’t like it. And Idk if that make be boring or a bitch for not wanting to know, it just to me, I felt why does it matter if Crowley himself don’t even want to remember about his time at heaven?

Sure season 2 when he didn’t even say it might have been what spiked it, but i think the whole point about him is the fact that he clearly moved on from it. Does he still hold resentment? Of course, why wouldn’t he be? And from unfair circumstances too:

But, as we’ve seen from most of the flashback, he moved on from it. He using hell as long as he can (lonely? Yep, which is a perfect parallel to how Aziraphale following heaven—), he doesn’t want to remember the angel he is before, he even said it to Aziraphale when he tried to stop him from killing Job’s kids. But I think of how he’s dealt with is how his trauma grew seeing how he doesn’t want to be considered nice or kind; I feel it goes deeper than just because he’s a demon now, I believe (and this is just my observation), he rather not remember the kinder side he was once before because of how the “light” casted him away and how heaven runs things. So why would he want to be associated with those word when it remind him of his time, he rather not remember it (or in a case run away from heaven as much as he can), he rather associate himself from being mean or remember himself as a demon now rather than an angel he once was. (Even though, he is very kind and I wish to hug him. Don’t start-).

Plus, he more comfortable with his new name now, that’s why he even changed it back at the flashback of the crucifixion of Jesus as his named used to be Crawly (which honestly real.) and changed it to Crowley (now technically he changed it again to Anthony J Crowley, but we hardly heart anyone even Aziraphale say it outside from the blitz flashback, so I kinda wanna count it but I’mma not just incase, but I like the name tho-), and since then, he’ve wore that name proudly and never look back, and Aziraphale an ally he is suppose him and call him by his prefer name. That is him saying “I’m not whoever I was before, so I’m going to change my name to move on from my past”, and honestly I stand, I love the fact he want to move on from his time as an angel/move away from his deadname to be the person he is today, proud of the wily serpent ^v^

“But phantom, that still doesn’t explain why you dislike it?”

You’re right, it still doesn’t so imma explain it a bit more, I just feel it shouldn’t matter what his name was, it really up to his (or Neil’s but this is Crowley we’re talking about) own terms, it him that should be able to say his deadname. And if it never reveal, I wouldn’t care since Good Omens from both season shown, Crowley moved on from his angelic past even if he have the grudges he have now after 6000 years he rather accepts his life now and hopefully with the Angel that have supported him and stood by him. And I know the finally is making it seem like Azirapahel want to change him, but like I said here that I don’t think that the case, I don’t think he would ever want him to revert back to the person he was once before, he could never ask Crowley to do such a thing knowing the progress he made. Like I said and will say again, I think this was Azirapahle (in a poor way given the situation and that their communication is the equivalent of a ghost (invisible as fuck)) to give Crowley a change to fix the broken and toxic system heaven been running on since the dawn of time, to give Crowley the chance to fix what need to be fixed with Aziraphale, and Crowley said no, and I think rightly so in his point of view, heaven did treated everyone especially Crowley poorly and is the main source of his trauma, so I’m happy he said no, it not his place to fix the one thing that in his eyes was broken and have always been. So good jobs Crowley for standing your grounds.

But I’m getting ahead of myself, my point is that, Crowley have moved on and it shouldn’t matter what his deadname was, I think we should all respect that when it come to not just his but everyone’s deadname. Crowley clearly doesn’t have to remember his time on heaven, and I gotta respect that. Because if I was in his shoes, I wouldn’t neither if I was a bit braver than he was.

“But phantom what if it was revealed anyway?”

Again I wouldn’t care, like the commenter said (I don’t know how they feel about tagging so I won’t just to be respectful) and I do agree, if it had to be revealed it should be on his own terms. And I do agree, it is up to Crowley, he should be able to say it as it could garner the impactful moment, especially if he does say like “I’m not *this name* anymore” or whatever he’ll say in season 3, (which please let it be greenlit, I’m begging atp).

And honestly, I don’t doubt it really, it seem it might be revealed, which, fine, this is Neil’s work so gotta respect. Just I hope it on his term, and that no one else say it, I don’t even want aziraphale to say it. Just him. He deserve it.

But that’s my take on it. That’s my spew on this. Might be boring or lame to not be curious, but honestly like I said, he’ve going down a path away from heaven and accepted what happen to him. May not be in a healthiest way but regardless I love this demon and I am happy he moved on and I can’t wait to see him again in season 3, David Tennant a perfect Crowley and I wouldn’t have it any other way ^v^

But I hope you enjoy my yet another insane ramble of this show, frankly this show is becoming my life atp and I don’t hate it. I love this show, it my comfort, I’m happy to have this show; if you want to ask me any other questions you can in the AMA box or comments, but also tell me what do you guys think of this theory? Do you love it? Have qualms with it? Or anything? Tell me in the comments or reblog. As always this is phantom, imma go haunt somewhere else.

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jennycalendar · 3 years

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Can I just say I love the insurgence of Riley in this blog? I feel like the only person in this fandom who gives a shit about Riley sometimes, and I do really like him! (At least.... for a season) I a feel like so many people think he’s boring just cause he’s not supernatural, just a no magic human, but he’s actually got some great parallels with Buffy! They’ve both got big muscles and bigger hearts, this strain of a double life, and I think some great points could be drawn between Walsh and Giles. Riley’s got his mission oriented pseudo-mom, who ultimately uses him for the goal despite her care for him, and Buffy’s got her mission oriented pseudo-dad, who always distances himself from really having a relationship with her for the sake of the mission dispute how it hurts them both and has even manipulated and nearly killed her too (Cruciamentum). When Riley finds out Buffy is the Slayer he’s just so sweet and excited and is set up to be this great supportive guy that Buffy really deserved, and then that went to shit. After he found out they spared and he was so impressed with her her strength and how she kicked his ass, and then in season 5 that’s part of his breakdown. He realizes that she kills more vamps a week then he has in the last three years (a stat he was proud of) and he’s not a dick about it! Embarrassed and kinda chastised, but also impressed and he doesn’t make a thing out of it like you might expect, he just accepts her expertise all the time despite his years of military training and the fact that he’s a like squad leader. Like, everything about who he is and what he does means he should be a huge asshole and instead he’s very much not. He abandons his whole life and fake mom for Buffy without hesitating! Sorry I just think a lot about how great he was and how he really loved and respected Buffy. Like he’s NOT perfect but he deserves better and I think he’s highly underrated by people who think vampires are hot.

i think there really should be a riley renaissance a little bit! like it really just finally clicked in my head that spike and angel have BOTH been hot messes in the exact same way as riley and yet it's riley who gets this unflinching and furious indignance + spike and angel who get a whooooole bunch of latitude. i'm really glad to see that my mutuals seem to be on the same page about riley (i.e. that he is in fact a very interesting and sweet character in his own right) and i totally agree with everything in this ask.

and yeah there was always this undercurrent of riley struggling to reckon with this tiny girl being so much stronger than him, but the man was going through A Lot at the time! plus like ... riley being convinced that buffy didn't love him and wasn't willing to let Him Specifically in has kind of the same vibe as angel breaking up with buffy in season three For Her Own Good, which is such a fucked and weird thing to do and takes so much autonomy away from her. all of buffy's boyfriends are terrible at times is what i am saying. they also all bring their own unique and very sweet view on her to the table.

so maybe buffy/riley a little, is what i'm saying.

#asks #riley finn #anonymous #literally the only reason i've not been posting about riley on this blog is bc i keep fucking forgetting he exists

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roostercrowedatmidnight · 3 years

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TV Show Soundtracks, and Why Buffy’s is So Great

There are a lot of ways in which Buffy the Vampire Slayer is an incredibly intelligent and well-crafted show, so much so that there are tiny details in the costumes, the acting, the set, etc. that you only notice after your fourth or fifth rewatch. One of the places where you can see how much care went into the production is the soundtrack. Buffy had a lot of different composers, some of which would compose the soundtrack for a few of the episodes and some of which were the primary composer for entire seasons. Some of the most prominent composers include Christophe Beck, who was one of the main composers for season 2, the sole composer for seasons 3 and 4, and composer for one episode in season 5 and one in season 6; Thomas Wanker, who was the main composer for seasons 5 and 6; and Robert Duncan, who was one of the main composers for season 7 (a complete list of Buffy composers can be found here). I’m mostly interested in these three composers because they wrote a great deal of the music overall, and their music tracks are most important in terms of what I hope to convey here, which is that one of the best things about the Buffy orchestral score is how beautiful it sounds and how smartly it is utilized. To convey my point, I will explore the use of music in the show, especially in the season 5 finale, ‘The Gift.’

WARNING: gonna be lots of Buffy spoilers. Mostly just up to the season 5 finale, but possibly smaller spoilers for seasons 6 and 7 as well.

A TV show doesn’t need a fantastic soundtrack to be good — many shows have a more minimalistic, atmospheric score which serves its purpose. A lot of shows also use contemporary pop songs instead of an orchestral soundtrack (which Buffy also does). However, I think having a good orchestral soundtrack elevates a show to an even higher level, and can add layers of emotional complexity that would otherwise have been absent. To achieve this greater emotional depth, I argue that there are two main criteria a score must have: music that is enjoyable to listen to, and music that is intelligently employed.

It’s difficult to define what ‘enjoyable’ music is. Any song is going to reach some people and not others. However, some are definitely more likely to create a response in people. It is important for composers to make soundtracks that create an emotional reaction in the viewer. Some composers do this very subtly, and others more saliently. There is no definitive way to determine if music is good or not — that is completely up to the individual. However, I’d argue that there are some composers who are better at creating a consistent emotional reaction in viewers. (If you’re interested, a few composers I love include Ludovico Einaudi, Murray Gold, my man Christophe Beck, Rachel Portman, Thomas Newman, and Joe Hisaishi. I would definitely recommend checking their stuff out if you’re into soundtracks.)

The second criterion for a good TV score, which I will be discussing in more detail, is that it is intelligently employed. What I mean by intelligently employed is that the music is thoughtfully applied to the story. This ultimately ties back to emotional reaction as well -- if the people behind the scenes are smart in where they put the tracks, they’ll create a stronger reaction in the viewer. Soundtrack is best employed when certain tracks, or leitmotifs, are used for specific characters, ideas, or plot threads, without being over- or underapplied. If you just slap the same track over every single emotional scene in a show, or add a random new track when you could have reused one that relates back to the character/theme in the scene, you’ll be missing out on a chance to create a response in the viewers.

Before I continue, I just want to quickly clarify that a leitmotif is essentially a small chunk of music that is associated with a specific character, relationship, setting, or idea. Basically, it’s a theme, and is tied exclusively to a certain element in the story. For this essay, I will be using leitmotif sometimes to refer to an entire track that is tied to a story element, and sometimes to refer to a shorter phrase of music, which may sometimes be contained in larger tracks. That’s not super important, though. Basically, leitmotif = theme for a specific thing.

When a leitmotif is given to a specific story element, such as a character, then using the leitmotif in scenes that are significant to that character gives the viewer a sense of familiarity and nostalgia. This is especially great if the character has been gone for a while and has just returned, or if they have died and the leitmotif is used while other characters are remembering them. Leitmotifs can be used to draw subtle parallels to earlier episodes or certain story arcs, and if the viewer is paying attention then they will be able to understand the show in a deeper way.

Some shows have great music but a poor application of it. One example of this is BBC’s Merlin. For the record, I am not dragging the composers here, because they did a beautiful job and created some great music for the show (if you want to check out the soundtrack, a few tracks I love are ‘The Burial’/’Merlin Buries Lancelot’ by Michal Pavlíček, ‘Merlin Lost’ by Rob Lane, ‘Farewell to Gwen’ by Rohan Stevenson, and any of the suites from the finales). I don’t know who actually makes the decisions about which tracks to put where in a show. It probably differs from show to show, depending on how involved the composers are. Budget probably also plays a role, with some shows being forced to reuse music if they can’t afford a full score for every single season. With all this in mind, Merlin has a lovely soundtrack, but hardly any thought went into its application. Songs are reused constantly, to the point where they have no special attachment to specific story elements, and therefore carry no emotional meaning. You won’t gain very much insight into the text when you hear them, and they appear so often that you lose the emotional reaction you once had to them. Simply put, the Merlin soundtrack is not intelligently employed.

There are a lot of shows with great soundtracks that follow these criteria of emotional reaction and intelligent employment. A few that I know of include Once Upon a Time (composer Mark Isham), Sherlock (composers David Arnold and Michael Price), and Doctor Who (composer Murray Gold from s1-10, and Segun Akinola from s11-present). I especially love Murray Gold’s work in Doctor Who — he created a leitmotif for every single Doctor, practically every companion, and even for some of the major villains, and the music would sometimes even be used to foreshadow the return of a character. I could write several dozen essays about the thought that went into Murray Gold’s composition, though that obviously isn’t the point of this particular piece.

Now onto Buffy. Buffy has such a wonderful soundtrack because the music is enjoyable and emotionally evocative (in my opinion), and it is very smartly employed. The show has certain tracks it reuses which hold significant meaning, and that are used throughout an entire season, or several seasons. Some of these include the Angel/Buffy theme (plus an Angel/Buffy breakup theme used towards the end of season 3), the Buffy/Riley theme, the Spike/Buffy theme, the Giles/Ms Calendar theme, the Tara/Willow theme, and doubtless many others that I haven’t noticed yet. As you can see, the Buffy composers are big on relationship leitmotifs which often span multiple seasons. There are leitmotifs for recurring ideas as well, like Joyce’s illness in season 5. All of these are used over many episodes. They create an emotional reaction in the viewer because they carry a sense of familiarity, tie plot arcs together, and give you nostalgic feelings towards character relationships.

Other tracks in Buffy are limited to a single episode or a single scene, instead of being reused frequently. Because of this, they pack a lot of emotion and make the scene or episode even more memorable. Think the score for ‘Hush’; ‘Restless’; the track ‘Slayer’s Elegy,’ which plays during the big final fight scene in ‘The Wish’; or the track ‘Spellbound,’ which plays during the Faith/Riley-Willow/Tara sex/magic parallel scene in ‘Who Are You’ (by the way, all of these episode scores were composed by Christophe Beck). The track ‘Spellbound’ is actually sort of an extended version of the Willow/Tara leitmotif. 'Spellbound' only plays in one scene, and it’s my favourite track in the entire show. By using certain tracks sparingly, instead of overapplying them, the composers can create a memorable musical experience out of a single scene or episode.

Some tracks get reused across episodes, but only once or twice, instead of many times. They may be attached to a very particular setting or idea. Reusing this kind of track in a later episode draws you directly back to the previous time it was used, creating a sense of familiarity and reminding you that you have encountered this sort of thing before. For example, there is a track called ‘Little Miss Muffet’ by Christophe Beck, which appears in the dream sequence shared by Faith and Buffy in the season 3 finale, ‘Graduation Day Part 2.’ This track does not appear again until part way through season 4, when a version of it plays in the episode ‘This Year’s Girl.’ It appears during the opening scene of the episode when Faith and Buffy are sharing another dream together, establishing it as the leitmotif for Faith/Buffy dream sequences.

Even when you aren’t consciously aware of the significance of every leitmotif in Buffy, they still create subtle emotional reactions in you which help you engage with the story better.

To wrap up my point, I want to offer an example of a fantastic track in Buffy and how it is used to draw viewers to a specific moment and create an intense emotional reaction. One of the absolute best episodes of Buffy is the season 5 finale, ‘The Gift.’ One of the many great things about it is the soundtrack, done by composer Christophe Beck (who also composes the orchestral score for Frozen, Frozen 2, Bring It On, WandaVision, and Ant-Man). Christophe Beck came back to the show to compose for this episode, and the most important track he created was ‘Sacrifice.’ From what I’ve observed, there are only three instances in which this leitmotif is used: twice in ‘The Gift,’ including Buffy’s pivotal final scene, and once in ‘Bargaining Part 2’ from season 6. The most important time that ‘Sacrifice’ is used is obviously when Buffy is sacrificing her life for Dawn’s at the end of ‘The Gift’; that’s why the track is called what it is. The track is used earlier on in ‘The Gift’ when Buffy and Giles are talking as they prepare for the final battle, and Buffy expresses her exhaustion with life and her vow that if Dawn dies she will stop being the Slayer. The use of ‘Sacrifice’ here is to foreshadow what’s to come. The longing for rest Buffy feels, and her wish to stop being the Slayer, will both be fulfilled when she dies at the end of the episode. The track is used in this scene to hint at what’s to come for viewers. The track is repeated in the second part of the season 6 opener, ‘Bargaining Part 2,’ when Buffy is standing at the top of the tower shortly after being brought back to life. This entire scene is a very deliberate callback for viewers as well as for Buffy: she is standing right where she was when she died, flashback clips play of her final moments, and Buffy repeats her own words to Dawn from ‘The Gift.’ Using the track ‘Sacrifice’ in this scene helps make the callback even more obvious. The song is able to elicit an extreme emotional memory for the audience, which the familiar setting and flashback clips may not have been able to create on their own. It reminds you not just of what happened in the season 5 finale, but of how you felt.

Of course, this foreshadowing and flashback use of ‘Sacrifice’ would not be as emotionally effective if Buffy’s last scene from ‘The Gift’ wasn’t such a fantastic scene, the song so skillfully employed, and the song itself so beautiful. ‘Sacrifice’ is one of my favourite tracks in Buffy. I love playing it on the piano. I love listening to it. When it plays at the end of ‘The Gift,’ it makes me almost cry. It’s saved for one of the most significant scenes in the entire series. The emotions are so elevated because soon after ‘Sacrifice’ starts playing, the rest of the audio is stripped away. All you can hear is Christophe Beck’s music and Buffy’s voice as she says her final words to Dawn, overlaid with silent shots of Buffy’s body, her heartbroken friends, and finally her gravestone.

In summary, I think the Buffy soundtrack is especially strong for a TV show, since it not only features breathtaking music but carefully applies that music to create the best emotional response from the viewers. TV shows don’t require a fantastic soundtrack to be successful, but I definitely think that the strength of the soundtrack makes Buffy infinitely better than what it would have been without it. The orchestral soundtrack for Buffy sadly isn’t available on Spotify or Apple Music at this time (though the soundtrack for the musical episode is). However, if you like instrumental scores, the official Buffy soundtrack can be found in various places on YouTube, and there are also many people who upload unofficial tracks (including here and here). Either way, I would definitely recommend checking out the music, or at least paying closer attention to it next time you watch Buffy. The creators clearly put a great deal of thought into it, and once you start recognizing the leitmotifs of the show, it reveals a whole hidden layer of storytelling.

#happy 20th anniversary of the gift #this took a lot out of me im tired now #anyways enjoy #this is for all you music buffs (enjoy my pun)#essay #analysis #meta #buffy #btvs #my post

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mj-spooks · 4 years

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Alright, judging by how successful that last Harry Potter experimental question was, Buffy's scooby gang, as a Leverage Crew? Is it too simple to say Buffy as a hitter and Giles as a mastermind?

Which version of the gang are we talking here? Can I go across the whole series? Season 1 only? All Stars? Fuck it I’m cherry picking because THAT’S HOW WE DO.

So, Giles is absolutely on the money. He’s the Mastermind, no doubt. He’s the watcher, he trains the others (mostly Buffy and Faith, but let’s be real, he trains all of them in their own way), he’s the one that works things out, leads research parties, comes up with plans. He’s the Mastermind, at least at first. Like Nate, he graduates out of that position (although I think the others sort of share it after he steps down, rather than one person picking it up).

But Buffy’s not the hitter.

Buffy is the grifter.

Think about it. Pretty, blonde, posterchild for popularity. She’s charismatic. She’s endearing. You like her. You’d probably do anything she asked you to. She’s an an excellent liar, a brilliant actor. She plays the part. The only reason she doesn’t have Sunnydale wrapped around her fucking finger is because all the bullshit with demons and vampires is Too Obvious for no one to ever notice how weird she is. If they could be even slightly more subtle, or pick slightly more convenient times to get up to their nonsense, no one would ever suspect she was anything but what she looks like.

No, the hitter? That’s Faith. And yes, I’m counting her as a Scooby. My girl got done dirty, alright. Granted, she did some people pretty dirty as well. But she was a teenage girl with a really shitty childhood, and I’m not one to use the shitty childhood as a get out of jail free card (get it), but dude. Dude. Every single thing that could’ve gone wrong for her, did. And every time the team had a chance to prove she could trust them, they fucked it up. Mostly Wesley fucked it up, but let’s not go there. And did I mention she was a teenage girl? Also, it helps that she was only Properly Evil for like, a few months, after which she was in a coma, and was Properly Evil for all of five minutes before deciding “Actually I just wanna be Buffy,” because guess what, she never WANTED to be the bad guy-

I’m getting off topic. The point is. Faith is the brawn, alright? Post-Faith, I guess that position goes to Spike, who let’s face it, is basically Buffy’s backup/guard dog from the moment he realizes he can still kill demons, and especially after his big “Oh shit I love the slayer” realization. For the record, bad decisions being made by an ostensibly helplessly evil soulless monster aside, no one EVER had Buffy’s back like Spike did. Not a single damn person. Fucking fight me. Every. Single. Other. Person. Let her down. Constantly. Or they were never in a positoin to properly have her back in the first place. The one time he really did screw it up, he realized how fucked up he was, and went off and got a fucking soul for her, so basically

Riley, for the record, is not a Hitter and does NOT count as a Scooby, because screw that guy. Also while I’m on the subject, screw Xander, because the episode where Riley leaves and Xander gives Buffy the “you’re the bad guy” speech sits so fucking wrong with me, and Xander goddamn Harris can get fucking bent. I’m still off topic, I know, I know. Sorry, I just. I have VERY STRONG OPINIONS ABOUT BUFFY.

ANYWAY. Willow is the hacker, big fucking shock. She’s... she’s literally a hacker, okay. Even when she stops being all computer-y and starts being all witch-y, her approach to witchcraft is... is to hack it. She hacks magic. Literally. That’s what gets her in so much trouble with it, because she’s too fucking good at cheating the system. It’s how she brought Buffy back. She’s the goddamned Hacker. Age. Of. The. Fucking. Geek. Baby.

Thief............ hmph. I don’t know?!?!?!??!?!?!?!?

See, the thing is, basically all of the properly involved Scoobies had to steal something at one point or another, all with basically the same level of success, so... wait.

Okay. No. The thief is Dawn.

She’s literally a thief! She steals from everybody all the goddamned time! With varying degrees of success, sure. But if she was actually trained at it, she’d be better than all of them. She’s the only Little Sibling out of the bunch (Well, okay, Tara had an older brother, but her homelife was so fucked she has Very Different Younger Sister energy than Dawn). She has a specific talent for it that I bet would serve her well if she was actually trained. I honestly at this point have read so much fanfic that I cannot for the life or me remember if canon!Spike ever helped teach her to knick stuff or if that’s just widely accepted fanon!Spike because people love that dynamic (as they should, it’s great). I’m doing a rewatch but... uh... I kinda stopped partway through S5 because I’m like four episodes away from The Body and gods I just can’t take it. Point being, I dunno if that’s legit or not. BUT. If it were legit, and she was taught how to steal, she’d be great at it.

I guess Spike is kind of also the thief. But he’s also the only one of the scoobies that’s properly been a villain (I’m not counting Faith or Willow’s brief insanity, and Angel isn’t the villain, Angelus is, so...), so naturally he’s got the shady skills. He can kind of grift and mastermind, too, except he’s too impatient for it, which is why he ends up stuck as a hitter most of the time. Everything else is too slow for his ass. See, the entirety of S2.

For fun, under the cut, the remaining scoobies and what position they’re best suited for:

Xander: Hitter??? He’s not got the super strength and he’s kind of played for laughs, but there was that whole bit where he had the tactical training from his brief stint as GI Joe in the Halloween episode. He’s a decent tactician, which is kind of the hitter’s job. I bet that if the wasn’t so busy feeling inferior to Buffy and he actually like. Trained. He could be a decent fighter.

Cordelia: Straight fucking grifter. Which she proves plenty of times on Angel. It’s extra great because she basically IS Sophie, what with the whole “can grift like a boss but put her on stage and she’s terrible” bit. She’s also a decent mastermind, also showcased on Angel. She whips him into shape from day one, and is the only thing that keeps AI running half the time. Also not unlike Sophie. Honestly Cordelia is my favorite character from the OG cast. She deserved better.

Angel: Mastermind. He’s got all of Angelus’ brains, remember, just not necessarily any reason to use them. He’s smart, though, and definitely good at planning. He’s also really into knowing the most and keeping his cards close to his chest. The parallels with Nate are a little strong, honestly, because he also has that whole... guilty conscience spiraling downward holier than thou thing going on. And yes, I do ship him and Cordy, thanks for asking.

Oz: Hacker! Not a lot of people really remember this, since his prominent character traits were “In a band”, “Willow’s boyfriend”, and “werewolf”. Plus there’s the whole flunked-senior-year plot point which I honestly think they did just to keep him around. But the first time Oz actually properly interacted with Willow was because they’d both gotten singled out for their badass computer skills on career day. He’s very nearly as good as her.

Anya: Grifter. I mean, the whole vengeance demon schtick relies on the grift. She’s very good at it. Which, she ought to be, she’s been doing it for over a thousand years. It’s sort of hilarious though because it seems like the second she loses her powers, she also loses her ability to blend in. I think that’s likely because she’s used to short term cons, and running the long con that is being human again is more difficult. Still, this is where she shines.

Riley: He doesn’t count because I kinda hate him. But fine if you wanna go there. Hitter. He doesn’t deserve the title though because Eliot is both brains and brawn and Riley can’t think his way out of a paper sack without someone giving him directions, and even then it’s dicey.

Tara: This one is super hard for me! I can’t see her as any of the actual team positions. I suppose the one skill she displays would be grifting, since she does try to hide her identity as a supposed demon from the others for a while before her birthday comes up. But honestly I see her less as a member of the crew and more as a Maggie. Voice of reason, moral high ground, not putting up with shenanigans if she can help it... yeah. Tara’s the Maggie. Every crew needs one.

#leverage anon #buffy the vampire slayer #btvs meta #leverage #This is a Pro-Spike blog antis will be blocked on sight lmao #and also fuck xander harris #there I said it

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daddyzarc · 5 years

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Hot take: The Barians are the only innocent creatures in all of yugioh

You’re probably wondering what I mean by this, but I have a perfectly sound explanation.

Look at these comparisons.

Notice anything peculiar? Let’s look a little closer.

That's better.

For those unaware, you may notice that the Barians lack a “mouth”. A mouth is “the opening in the lower part of the human face, surrounded by the lips, through which food is taken in and from which speech and other sounds are emitted.”

Why is this important? Well, because a mouth is an essential piece of the body part to engage in the act of Vore. Since Barians lack the ability to vore due to their own anatomy, they are unable to vore ever. In fanart or in the show, these angels are incapable of being involved in any of that stuff. They’re completely in the safe zone, they’re untouchable as far as the show puts them because you can’t do anything with these guys in THAT specific situation.

BUT WAIT, i hear yall typin away with a rebuttal

With the the introduction of Vrains, there exist another species of creatures without mouths—the Ignises.

Examining the images above, this other unique species also lack these crucial mouths, so you could argue that there are 2 Yu-Gi-Oh groups that are entirely sinless. And this is a fair argument without the context of what the Ignises could do.

But could that could they do exactly?

These images say it all. They could absolutely do that within the canon of yugioh.

So without a doubt, Ignises have the wholly ability to vore other creatures with ease. And this isn’t a one-off thing either, like they did it once and that was it. Ai is shown to have done this on multiple occasions within LINK VRAINS, his homeworld, presumably in a natural form. It is safe to assume that the Ignises absorb data and dismantle prey like this.

Knowing this, Barians ARE the only creatures incapable of voring.

But I hear you screaming. “But Dyzarc, you cranky dragon you, whadda bout anal vore? Cock vore? Absorption! Plus they have HUMAN forms, too. WITH MOUTHS which means the Barians are fully capable of eating! Theyre no different than any other ygo char!”

You could make those arguments, but I also have several points to refute this.

First, the human forms.

You could say that their human forms exist so that they can vore in that sense. That’s a very reasonable assumption.

And yes.

Yes, they could do that.

Yet, human form isn’t really Barian. It’s kind of off-canon, in a sense. They only took that form because Earth is hazardous to their bodies and they cannot maintain their true forms in that unnatural state. Within the closed system of their own environment (or Barian World), which is what I care about, the Barian species does not naturally have a mouth or a human body and therefore cannot partake in that act, canon or otherwise.

Furthermore, if a person wants to draw or write vore involving a Barian as the predator, they simply cannot do it. They must turn the Barian into a human or face the simple fact that Barians cannot vore (or a third option*).

*Theoretically, you could slap a mouth onto them or imply that a mouth exists underneath their muzzle, which only reveals itself when the Barian needs it. However, this is no different than giving a snake tiddies or putting legs on a shark just to fulfill a kink.

Secondly, I’ll focus on the other vore methods by showing pictures of some raw Barian crotches.

Now I may be blind as an olm, but they are clearly naked around the groin area. They lack any visible extremities that could be considered an anus or a cock too. Unless their anatomy works similarly to reptiles as in these organs are hidden behind a thin layer of rock around their crotch and only protrude when it is needed, they lack any organs that can perform cock or anal vore.

Excluding their physical appearance, Barians are canonically born from a circumstance other than, say, laying eggs or live birth or asexual reproduction. Meaning if they DO have those body parts, it’ll be a vestigial structure with no other purpose than to sit there and look stalactitey, probably kinda gross-looking considering what they are.

Of course a “cock” could function like the giant claw of a fiddler crab, where it’s mainly just for show to prove who has the biggest one (and so deserving of their territory, which is why Nasch is the leader. I’ll get into this later on why this could be the case) as well as to help them fight, find a mate, or exert their dominance.

Also, although I do not believe this image represent the entirety of Barian physiology

It is most likely that their insides consist mainly of veins and a... heart?? A star fragment, ball of spike? Whatever the case, I don’t see a stomach pouch nor do the Barians have a reason to have such a thing. The lack of a mouth and stomch makes sense in the “overarching picture” of how a Barian functions. Think about it from a human perspective. Why do we eat? Humans require food in order to produce energy to survive, grow, and reproduce, plain and simple.

Barians, on the other hand, live in a toxic environment void of life other than themselves. They do not need to eat for there is nothing to eat.

My personal theory is that they don’t require energy through consumption of food items like humans do. They either get it from photosynthesizing since their sun appears to be very close to their planet

Or maybe the "heart” is some sort of radioactive material that supplies them with an ample amount of energy. This powerful energy surges through the body through the help of the “roots” and essentially fuels them with life without the need for the consumption of food. My assumption is that the Barian itself is the roots and hearts, while everything else is just a rocky mass separate from the actual thing (im not gonna go super in-depth into the mind-body dualism thing btw. Just think about as a hermit crab with a shell with the “shell” being made of minerals)

And if we bounce off the idea that the shell is composed of minerals, or a rock, thus being very susceptible to erosion and damage as seen in how Vector broke pieces of his body during one of the duels

They most likely naturally regenerate their body parts by burying themselves deep into the ground so that the Rock Cycle

can repair and grow their forms. See, this process does not require food (which fits into their biology very well) and instead mandates that the Barian digs deep enough to begin the process of melting down its old, damaged body. The heart and roots will remain above the metling point of course; in fact, they play a crucial role in getting the Barian back into its proper shape. After reforming a new shell, the Barian emerges from the ground like a bunch of baby sea turtles, completely healed as long as the “molt” wasn’t disturbed.

Furthermore, this molting cycle could explain the presence of any “cocks” found within the Barian. Molting is extremely energy-consuming and time-consuming; rushing a molt will result in an imperfect shell or other impurities, or death if the impurity is life-threatening. The hardness, body structure, addition of any extra parts, and safe resurfacing, or preventing their new bodies from being damaged as they emerge from the ground, also depends on how well the Barian could alter the temperature and pressure of its surroundings magma (molten rock) to result in the best possible shell. This means that the Barians with poor molts are young and inexperienced while Barians with the best molt are old and experienced.

(hey can u find a better pic, this one isnt a good example)

This also works with how a big “cock” (in an abstract sense) could show their dominance over the other Barians. Or, in this case, the cock is actually extra formations to show off what they are capable of. Regular and large racks, for example, showcase a Barian’s skill at creating a new shell, with the larger and more angular the rack, the more powerful or experienced they are. This is especially difficult to do at a consistence rate, so the Barians capable of carrying it off tend to be on top of the pecking area. Nasch’s abilities to create so many horns means he’s deserving of his spot as the leader.

The Barian pecking order probably goes down the list on how complex—in that they managed to form a perfect, angular rack—their composition is.

Obviously, the chart simplifies what makes a great Barian. The Barian pecking order is much more complex than this.

For example, Mizael, despite the complexity in parts of the body like the face “mask”, is lower in the hierarchy than expected. Why? There is a lot to dissect about Barian physiology, but a peculiar detail is their carapaces. Unlike the rest of the body, which consist of a rocky formation, Mizael’s mask is a carapace. This could be easily seen when Nasch was briefly seen without these carapaces in this scene.

As seen on bodies of these Barians, they appear to have many carapaces which are separate from their main bodies, such as:

These carapace could be involved in the pecking order. The fineness and sharpness of the carapaces gives the illusion of strength (notice that Nasch is covered in carapaces while Durbe practically has none) as well as adding to their maximum size.

But they could also play another vital role... Defense Mechanism

It may sound strange, but I believe that Barians are built solely for defense....

Let’s take a look at a creature whose behavior and structural patterns mimics the Barians, the noble Hermit Crab.

I like to compare these two species due to their essentially parallelism in terms of “form follows function” such as:

(Marine Hermit Crab adding extra defenses to its shell using a venomous sea anemone; similar to a Barian adding sharp carapaces to its already tough, rocky exterior)

Comparing the likeness of the two, it could be assumed that the carapaces provide extra protection over the Barians’ main defense (rocky shell). The carapaces aren’t involved in the molting cycle, of course, due to their complicated build. It’ll be a massive waste to destroy them. Since a Barian could remove them at will, they most likely store the pieces above ground (or above melting point) and molt without them. After they finish molting, they retreive the carapaces. Again, very similar to the molting process of a hermit crab.

It may feel like I am going on a tangent of Barian anatomy rather than focus on their ability, or thereby lack of, to vore, but these details can be used to explain why Barians cannot vore from a historical standpoint.

They cannot vore because they are built like a prey.

Like hermit crabs, they are “bottom-feeders” with no prey of their own—mostly in part due to the absence of food on their home planet. Instead of being designed like a predator with the capability to vore, a mouth, they are the exact opposite in that they have only the defensive capabilities to defend themselves against a predator.

So following this, if there is a strong need for defensive pressure, who is the offensive pressure? A creature cannot be so defensively driven (thick shell, regeneration, armor, etc.) without the presence of a harmful force.

If it isn’t obvious, their predator are the aqueous Astral Beings.

Astral Beings are the perfect Barian predator (perhaps co-evolution played a part in this, or y’kno eliphas just said fuck those guys, lets kill em).

Moving along, not only are they armed with mouths, water is one of the natural forces that could heavily erode rocks, as seen along beaches, rivers, and cliff-sides, into a pile of sand and mud. Barians, with their outermost covering consisting of rock, are especially vulnerable to being broken down by the Astral Beings, exposing their sensitive cores to a likely death.

Their main defense against this is either:

(1) Regeneration, they can drop limbs and endure damage to their shell without fear of death, then repair any injuries during their molt

(2) Armor, the sharp carapaces (made of metals that can withstand water) can ward off potential attackers

A third defense that follows the how Astral Beings vore Barians in a predator/prey relationship could also be seen in the habitat of the Barians, or the presence of the Sea of Ill Intent.

Instead of being made of water, the sea is made of a very strong acid. Why is this important? For any of you that took a chemistry course, the proper technique of mixing acid and water (i.e the Astral Being), you must add acid into the water in that order. The flow of acid into water mixes the two better, preventing a reaction to occur. Adding water into acid, on the other hand, causes the water to react with the acid due to poor initial mixing, causing it to boil and potentially explode.

For this case, the rocky exterior of the Barian allows them to be submerged into the acid without risk of immediate death. Unless the Astral Being wants to harm itself by going into the acid to pursue its prey, they most likely will abandon the prey. If the acid starts to dissolve Barian’s shell (say, the Astral Being attempting to stakeout the Barian) they could regenerate the broken pieces during their next molt.

So not only Barians cannot vore, but they are hapless prey at that!

They are far from helpless prey—in the same way a Rhinoceros is considered a prey animal—but there is plenty of evidence that lead up to the fact they are indeed a prey species.

And the fact that they are the bottom of the barrel scavenger, harmless, unable to be a fearsome predator, only a potential prey at best...

They’re just innocent.

Now you say “Kay Dyzarc, ya made me read a longass analysis on the biology of a bunch of space rocks to prove some sickass vore fantasy of yours. Now what. What was the point.”

Welcome to Zarc n’ Pals, installment 1 baby, strap in for a wild ride

#dyzarc ramblings #zexal #barian biology #uh #barian tag #ignis tag #i dont wanna list all those names #idk when part 2 will be ready #or if yall are ready...

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ifeveristoday · 5 years

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Are we in Bizarro Land?

@jenny-calendar has already keyboard flailed about the progress of Jenny and Giles in the Boom!verse (and I definitely have thoughts of my own) but this issue is so good about picking up from the quiet introspectiveness of issue 7, as if Jordie thought, ‘Okay, I’ve let Willow breathe and Xander come to terms with his new existence...now shit’s really getting real’ and we’re back into action.

A feature of the Boom!verse has been the feeling that each issue has a mini cliffhanger - not necessarily, OMG what happens next?!? in feeling all the time, but ‘why did you end it THERE?’

It happened for me in the Chosen one-shot - I would have liked to have spent more time with the individual slayers (possibly giving each one her own issue instead of sharing?) but the glimpse I got of each life was intriguing.

With issue 8 of the Boom!verse, we’ve definitely hit upon OMG what happens next territory.

And one of the elephants in the fandom - the Buffy/Angel relationship gets introduced in this issue.

There’s a lot of other plot points about issue 8 that I’m going to address in separate posts, but I want to comment on the B/A dynamic as it is in the Boom! verse. OG canon will be referenced but for the most part I want to focus on what Jordie and Bryan have decided to do with them and how that impacts their relationship in 2019.

Did I go down a google deep dive to ascertain if Bats do in fact have tails? Yes. Yes I did. And they do, but it’s not quite to the extent that Handmade Costume Buffy takes it to -- her costume looks more like a cartoon version of a Bat, with the little forked end. There are 1000 species of bats, however, with the majority of them having some sort of tail, both obvious and not so obvious. And there’s a bumblebee bat that does not have a tail. I highly recommend that you google it because it’s goddamn adorable.

Despite his many years existing, I don’t think Angel really was cataloging all 1,000 species of bats and just went with the common perception that bats are tail-less. The bat motif has been repeated over with them in canon, however - there’s Camazotz, Buffy’s pegasus bat (who’s returning for HELLMOUTH), the endless Batman comparisons Angel has (TV and Bryan comparing him to Bruce Wayne) and of course vampire bats (Dracula and his party trick). Buffy dressing up as a bat is pretty on the nose for this ‘verse.

And I like that it’s obviously homemade - Joyce (or Eric! Doctor after all) probably helped her stitch on ears and a tail to a black hoodie and black shorts, and she just needed fishnets to complete the look - cozy with a slight detour into Women’s Halloween Costumes Must Be Sexy All The Time Now, Especially if It Is Not Sexy Before. Buffy wasn’t going to spend Tuna Palace money on wearing a costume for an event that she was forced to unofficially chaperone, hence the surliness/over it attitude with Halloween. We still have no idea what fifteen-year-old Slayer Buffy was like and if her Halloween in Los Angeles was eventful or it’s a Los Angeles vs “small town” approach to Halloween.

Or if it’s Buffy just being annoyed that once again, she really can’t participate in an ordinary teenage ritual, she has to watch over it to make sure everyone’s safe. The visual of Buffy on the fringes of the party, observing, not participating is something that really resonated with me, as a fan of the TV canon and just being a withdrawn person in RL.

Buffy’s had a setback - her friends have gotten hurt helping her slaying, her crush has fizzled out before it could properly begin (and Robin dancing with a look-alike didn’t help) and as Giles likes to remind her, evil is always in the background. Her doing normal stuff - group date with her friends is directly before Xander gets turned by Spike and Drusilla, and then she witnesses Willow giving up a part of her soul for Xander, and being defensive when Willow tells her she hardly knows herself - Buffy is both a part of their group but separate. The argument the two get into in front of the demon - that Buffy tells Willow she’s pretending, and Willow tossing back that Buffy is a master of pretending and lying (Slayer, secret identity after all) and the demon sneering at Buffy’s overinflated sense of worth - just because she’s the Slayer doesn’t automatically give her soul more weight. Xander and Willow’s bond excludes her because they’ve known each other forever and she is the new girl. The outsider.

We’ve been given more insight to Willow and Xander, but just peeks at Buffy’s mindset - and with all that’s happened, I don’t blame her for being resentful or less sunshine-y than her season 1 TV counterpart. But Boom! Buffy as always, is her own person.

It’s this person Angel is trying to figure out. Over in his world, Buffy/The Slayer is nothing but a flashing danger sign - a shadowy figure that he first mistakes for Mara/Marius - a source of regret/love from his Angelus past. Mara was chosen by Angelus because she was a renowned fighter, and he makes/renames her in his image - possibly referencing the Roman god of War as well. But all the omniscient demons in his life insist that this girl is a danger to him and that love will bring him nothing but pain and she is the instrument of that pain.

Moth, meet flame.

Boom! Angel is not burdened with destiny in the shape of a girl, he doesn’t know anything about the Slayer or what role she’s going to play in his life, only that she’s going to impact it - most likely in a negative way.

So what does he do?

Treat it like a war campaign - do the recon, know your opponent’s weaknesses.

Which brings the comedy, because the Slayer he’s been warned off so many times isn’t the feared creature of vampire myth and legend, but a resentful tired girl in a bat costume who does not appreciate the tall dark ‘looks like a serial killer’ man in a devil mask sitting right next to her. She wants to be left alone.

In any other typical story, there would be that element of fear with a stranger, but because Buffy’s the Slayer, she knows she can defend herself and put the hurt on this guy.

Meanwhile, it’s Angel’s turn to observe. And 2019 Angel’s social skills have ...not improved. There is a slight symmetry to their meeting - Buffy watching a world she’s not quite a part of, and Angel watching her and not sure how she fits into his world, both outsiders looking at something they’re not sure they want but still are fascinated by.

Angel’s initial attempt to get closer to Buffy (literal sitting down next to her, then being a troll and moving up one stair) is the personal approach - he notices that she’s bothered by Robin dancing with another girl and then quickly enters Uncomfortable Job Interview Questions territory - 'tell me about yourself - where would you be if you weren’t here? What if you had more time for you?’

These are not mortal enemy questions, obviously. Angel is trying to decipher Buffy as a person and subtly mirroring her body language.

In a callback to Willow’s accusation that Buffy doesn’t really know herself - she admits she doesn’t know what she would be doing if she didn’t have to be there - she said to Xander that she’d rather be home studying...but come on. That’s not what she really wants to be doing.

To defuse the suddenly personal conversation, Angel makes the observation that the reason no one can tell she’s a bat is that she has a tail - and Buffy is so wrapped up in her situation that she doesn’t clue in on the fact that Angel has used Xander’s words almost exactly. She repeats that she hates Halloween while flaming with embarrassment that she’s appeared both vulnerable and not bright in front of a stranger.

This whole exchange - about who Buffy is and what she presents to the world - no one knows if she’s a cat or a dog - I’m a bat fits neatly with her identity crisis as a Slayer and as a teenager still figuring stuff out.

Similarities to TV canon - Angel knows more about Buffy than she knows about him, and he’s intrigued by her, and she’s...annoyed by him.

The update to their histories is what makes me intrigued about the potential of their romance/relationship - it’s definitely happening with all the hints that have been dropped, anvil-like from the sky - but Buffy is not Angel’s route to redemption or desire to be useful for the fight for Good. He was already going down that path/doing that before he meets her. Angel is not a romantic figure for Buffy, she doesn’t know what he looks like, only that he’s really chatty (!) and vaguely has motivational speaker vibes. He’s not a canvas for her to project ideal fantasies on, just yet.

They’re both damaged, unsociable in their own ways people - but a connection has been made. Where Jordie and Bryan (and Jordan Lambert for HELLMOUTH) go with it, is the exciting part. The ending we know is inevitable, plus it’s the first year of their series, and creators rarely get OTPs together and stay together that quickly, but because Boom! has them both under their umbrella, crossovers will happen more easily and the mythology will be tighter instead of the same tiresome ‘one is more darker and adult than the other blah blah blah shut up dude creators as if that’s the only worthy characteristic of a story’ box.

So, I’m excited about the journey, and as you can see in my chat bubbles above - any Hades/Persephone parallels.

Look how gorgeous this panel is - the colors and the way Buffy is perched above it all...like a bat. Or Nosferatu.

#meta #buffy comics #boom! studios #boom! verse #the ballad of buffy and angel #not that i've thought about this at all #overthought? yes #buffy summers #angel #what's the point of an English degree if you can't wildly blow up every little pointless detail?

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ettadunham · 5 years

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A Buffy rewatch 5x22 The Gift

aka little miss muffet counting down from 7-3-0

Welcome to this dailyish (weekly? bi-weekly?) text post series where I will rewatch an episode of Buffy and go on an impromptu rant about it for an hour. Is it about one hyperspecific thing or twenty observations? 10 or 3k words? You don’t know! I don’t know!!! In this house we don’t know things.

And in today’s episode Buffy faces her trolley problem and says no. Fuck you universe.

As is my recent tradition, I paired a specific drink I had at home with today’s season finale. In this case, it was a glass of some German apple liquor that was gathering dust in the cabinet, and it was excellent. Bittersweet and familiar. 5/5.

(In case you were wondering, the drink of choice for Restless was a small bottle of Belgian beer called Delirium Tremens. Naturally.)

(This is also your daily reminder kids, to always drink responsibly. Alcoholism is no joke, and chances are that you too are affected by it, maybe through someone you know. Please take care of yourselves and don’t let us or anyone make drinking seem cool.)

Anyway, by the length of this intro you can probably already tell the issue. This post will not be very focused.

And I already showed my cards here! Season 5 is probably my favorite season and The Gift my favorite season finale. Maybe even throughout TV.

This is an episode that was written as a series finale, and yet the show still went on for two additional seasons. I saw some discussion about whether or not the show would’ve worked better if it ended here, and while I personally agree that this is a stronger finale, I like that we have those other seasons. For all of its flaws and the complicated relationship I have with some of its parts, season 6 and 7 do and say something about the characters, the world and ourselves that makes us feel, think and grow in different ways.

Plus the show still ended with an excellent finale. But more on that when we get there.

Not to mention that season 5 already mapped out Buffy’s depression for us, so “death being her gift”, her moment of big sacrifice could easily fold into suicidal ideation. That’s why her quote to Dawn is so important.

“The hardest thing in this world is to live in it. So be brave. Live. For me.”

Buffy has found her way out that was still true to who she was at her core. She saved the world and her sister through a loophole that let her end her story on her own terms, and prove to herself that she’s still capable of love.

In her very last moments Buffy was defined by her love for her sister and not the evil that tried to take Dawn, and the innocence she represented away from her. She refused to let the next generation pay the price for all of our mistakes.

In short, Buffy should be the example that we, Millenials, follow. It might not seem like we have the power to affect any change in the world, but we have a responsibility to those that come after us to try. To take our own stance and act as shields and protectors for the next generation.

It’s easier said that done, I know, especially when we don’t feel like we have our own lives together. But sometimes just one thing, one small decision, one compromise we refuse to make can make all the difference.

I will not do this and I will not let it happen.

In this episode, Buffy draws the line. She won’t let Dawn die for the greater good. She refuses to save a world that would make her kill a teenage girl. Her own sister.

She points out that this is in stark contrast to how she handled a similar dilemma at the end of season 2. There, she was presented with a parallel choice: kill Angel or save the world.

She put a sword through him.

Despite the similarities, there are huge thematic differences between the two situations though. Angel represented a danger for Buffy to lose herself in him; so killing him meant that she chose her own identity over him.

It was of course horrible and traumatic still, but on a thematic level, it was about Buffy making a statement about who she is. And she’s making just as much of a statement with refusing to entertain the same solution with Dawn.

In many ways, Dawn represents Buffy herself. Her innocence, her childhood, her connection to humanity. Buffy’s been feeling detached this season, and felt emotionally unavailable after the whole Riley fiasco especially. But not with Dawn. Dawn’s been Buffy’s tether to those emotions, that immense, unconditional, unguarded love.

For Buffy, killing Dawn would’ve been severing that very link. She would rather die.

This is Buffy’s trolley problem. And she refuses to engage with it in its intended way. She is not going to let Dawn die to save 5 or hundreds or even millions of people.

Instead she offers up her own life. As the show will discuss later on, Buffy arguably has the power to decide who lives and dies, and here, she comes to the conclusion that she can only really make that choice for herself.

There are also just so many wonderful callbacks in this episode. The guy in the alley calling Buffy “just a girl”, and her remarking on how she keeps telling people that, referring to her early motivations of wanting to be a normal girl. (Something that Dawn too represents.) Willow and Tara holding hands to combine their powers to clear the way for Spike, reminding us of their very first spell together. Even Xander’s dumb comment about how smart ladies are hot and Willow’s retort gave me all the nostalgia.

We’ve been foreshadowing and building up to this moment for 5 years. Graduation Part 2 too was a big book finish, but The Gift is the end of a journey. And while some would argue that it would’ve been an even better finale for the entire show, knowing that there’s still so much to come after, only makes me appreciate it more.

What else is there to say? We could talk about Dawn echoing my own thoughts, wanting to deal with Glory’s honest evil over Ben’s quiet, ambiguous monstrosity. Giles putting on his glasses to kill Ben, as opposed to earlier instances of his “Ripper” aspect shining through, signifying how this is who he is. A “killer”, as Tara called him. Tara leading the Scoobies to Glory as opposed to earlier when her condition made her lead Glory to Dawn.

The whole ritual of bleeding / killing Dawn, and how it’s reminiscent of traditions of young girls “becoming women”. She’s given a more adult dress to wear as she leaves her old one behind. Even the “bleeding” thing can be read as a big old menstruation metaphor, so have fun with that.

BuffyBot briefly returns, Buffy is Lady Thor because comics...

Oh, and Xander proposes to Anya. That also happened.

10/10. This episode is still 10/10. Go and rewatch the show just so you can experience it in all of its Glory.

Let us all also raise a glass of water to Buffy Anne Summers. She saved the world. A lot.

And she wants you to stay hydrated. Do it for her.

#buffy rewatch 2k19 #btvs #btvs talk

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eddycurrents · 5 years

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For the week of 21 October 2019

Quick Bits:

Action Comics #1016 continues brilliantly integrating Naomi into the broader DC Universe as she helps Superman with the Red Cloud and introduces Batman to her mom. Some very nice double-page spreads in this one from Szymon Kudranski and Brad Anderson, with a nice structure from Brian Michael Bendis in the form of a investigative journalist format.

| Published by DC Comics

The Amazing Mary Jane #1 is an interesting debut from Leah Williams, Carlos Gomez, Carlos Lopez, and Joe Caramagna. It plays upon MJ’s resumed career as an actress and a different turn for Mysterio (I need to go back and read some of his stuff with Kindred, because something seems off).

| Published by Marvel

Amazing Spider-Man #32 begins the next stage in Marvel’s seeming neverending onslaught of event after event with the prelude into the upcoming 2099 thing, including the Marvel debut of Patrick Gleason providing line art. The thing that gets you is that it’s good. Nick Spencer, Gleason, Matthew Wilson, and Joe Caramagna give us an interesting hook in a future and a present that have apparently gone wrong, but we’re really unsure what’s happened yet, just that a seemingly powerless Miguel, back in his original costume, needs to find Peter. It’s compelling.

| Published by Marvel

Amazing Spider-Man: Full Circle #1 is a rather fun and funny story that you really have to go into blind in terms of most content. It’s better to be surprised by the experience. It’s an all-star team of talent including Jonathan Hickman, Chris Bachalo, Gerry Duggan, Greg Smallwood, Nick Spencer, Mike Allred, Kelly Thompson, Valerio Schiti, Al Ewing, Chris Sprouse, Chip Zdarsky, Rachael Stott, Jason Aaron, Cameron Stewart, Mark Bagley, Tim Townsend, Al Vey, Karl Story, John Dell, Laura Allred, Mattia Iacono, Dave McCaig, Tríona Farrell, Nathan Fairbairn, Frank D’Armata, and Joe Caramagna playing a game of exquisite corpse, with each team coming up with a more outlandish cliffhanger for the next team to extricate Spider-Man from. It’s hilarious and incredibly well done.

| Published by Marvel

Angel #6 gives us another perspective on the “Hellmouth” crossover event, as a dejected Spike is tracked down by Fred and Gunn. I really like how Bryan Edward Hill, Gleb Melnikov, Roman Titov, and Ed Dukeshire are continuing the ongoing narrative of the series, while still dovetailing seamlessly into the event. It doesn’t miss a beat on either side of the equation, while still presenting an entertaining story in its own right regardless of whether you’ve read anything previously. All while introducing another player that’s already causing complications. Very nice layered storytelling here.

| Published by BOOM! Studios

Aquaman Annual #2 seems to have been oddly scheduled, with a story taking place after the still ongoing “Amnesty” arc in the main series, but Kelly Sue DeConnick, Vita Ayala, Victor Ibáñez, Jay David Ramos, and Clayton Cowles still deliver an entertaining story that plays into the DOOM that’s been spread by the Legion of Doom and Perpetua. There’s an undercurrent of animosity, anger, and paranoia that seems to be fostered by the doom mark hanging in the sky, and this story nicely builds on it.

| Published by DC Comics

Ascender #6 begins the next arc, though it is much more a direct continuation from the story unfolding, with Andy captured and Mila on the run by boat. Jeff Lemire continues to inject humour into this story through the sheer ineptitude from the vampires. It’s a wonder that they can control anything.

| Published by Image

Avengers #25 is the finale to “Challenge of the Ghost Riders” from Jason Aaron, Stefano Caselli, Jason Keith, Erick Arciniega, and Cory Petit. It does a good job of building Robbie back up, while showing more of the cracks that we’re seeing in Johnny Blaze that were shored up in Ghost Rider.

| Published by Marvel

Bad Reception #3 goes hard into more traditional themes around horror and, more specifically, slasher films and it’s absolutely wonderful. Juan Doe is giving us a very compelling mystery here, adding more layers as to why the killer is doing this and adding complications through the different characters. Great stuff.

| Published by AfterShock

Batgirl #40 escalates Oracle’s plans as she launches an offensive on Burnside in order to draw out Batgirl. The art this issue from Carmine Di Giandomenico and Jordie Bellaire gets taken to a completely new level. They layouts and colours are absolutely beautiful.

| Published by DC Comics

Batman/Superman #3 goes deeper into the Batman Who Laughs’ machinations for the Infected and what he’s trying to unleash on the DC Universe. Joshua Williamson, David Marquez, Alejandro Sanchez, and John J. Hill are very nicely executing this story, playing with the darker elements that have been bubbling since Metal, but presenting it in such a way that it’s not a dour, grim and gritty story. Also, though it doesn’t have the branding, this is still absolutely integral to the overall “Year of the Villain” event.

| Published by DC Comics

Black Adam: Year of the Villain #1 aims the infected Shazam at Khandaq at lets explosions ensue from Paul Jenkins, Inaki Miranda, Hi-Fi, and Tom Napolitano. This gives us an interesting look at leadership, humility, and responsibility, seemingly entrenching Black Adam again as a somewhat heroic figure.

| Published by DC Comics

Bloodborne #16 concludes “The Veil, Torn Asunder”, revelling in some of the madness that really grips the world. There’s a real unnerving sense of reality crumbling here, somewhat more horrific than what we’ve seen before. Great art from Piotr Kowalski and Brad Simpson.

| Published by Titan

Contagion #4 gets darker in this penultimate chapter from Ed Brisson, Damian Couceiro, Veronica Gandini, and Cory Petit. Things get even more grim as more and more of the heroes fall and we’re left with a rag tag band of street-level heroes and the z-list ring of magicians.

| Published by Marvel

Count Crowley: Reluctant Monster Hunter #1 is an entertaining debut from David Dastmalchian, Lukas Ketner, Lauren Affe, and Frank Cvetkovic. It revels beautifully in the low budget local network horror programming of the ‘70s and ‘80s, following an alcoholic reporter who gets fired for her behaviour, before taking the job as the host to a b-movie segment like Elvira. Great stuff here.

| Published by Dark Horse

Criminal #9 distances us a bit from Jane and that story in this chapter of “Cruel Summer”, instead giving us a look at what Leo is up to as his father plans a heist and Ricky’s recklessness. It’s a nice side track, giving us a different perspective again along with a seriously messed up robbery. Love the washes for the flashbacks from Jacob Phillips.

| Published by Image

Detective Comics #1014 brings Nora Fries back. And aside from just the extreme lengths that Victor has gone to in order to accomplish it, something about all of this feels very, very wrong and that some new horror is about to be unleashed on Gotham. Beautiful artwork from Doug Mahnke, Christian Alamy, Mark Irwin, and David Baron.

| Published by DC Comics

Dial H for HERO #8 gives us the origin stories for The Operator and Mister Thunderbolt from Sam Humphries, Paulina Ganucheau, Joe Quinones, Jordan Gibson, and Dave Sharpe. There’s a rather neat format for the storytelling here as we get parallel stories of The Operator and Mister Thunderbolt, told forwards for one and then backwards for the other.

| Published by DC Comics / Wonder Comics

Doctor Mirage #3 has some gorgeous and trippy art from Nick Robles and Jordie Bellaire. The oddity in the colours and the impressive layouts and double page spreads really adds to the overall feel and atmosphere of the story, immersing you into the surrealism and unsettling feel that even Doctor Mirage herself is feeling.

| Published by Valiant

The Flash #81 concludes “Death and the Speed Force” from Joshua Williamson, Scott Kolins, Luis Guerrero, and Steve Wands. There are some major ramifications here for the DC Universe as a whole and some interesting developments for Hunter Zolomon himself. Like last issue, it’s pretty fitting that this is being handled with Kolins’ art. Also, we see a bit of what might be happening because DOOM won.

| Published by DC Comics

Ghost Spider #3 keeps things interesting as we get a continued build for two different Miles Warren stories on both Earths-65 and -615, from Seanan McGuire, Takeshi Miyazawa, Rosi Kämpe, Ian Herring, and Clayton Cowles. There’s also a feeling that through school and superheroics across two realities, Gwen might be wearing herself out more than she already has been with a hungry costume, which is a compelling fact that might feed into to forthcoming stories.

| Published by Marvel

GI Joe #2 takes a bit of a step back from the explosions of the first issue, still following Tiger, but in a much more introspective and measured way as he keeps getting his ass handed to him by Scarlett. Paul Allor, Chris Evenhuis, Brittany Peer, and Neil Uyetake are giving this a very different feel from any previous GI Joe incarnation and it’s very interesting. Some neat twists and some very welcome humour.

| Published by IDW

Hellboy and the BPRD: Saturn Returns #3 concludes this excellent mini-series from Mike Mignola, Scott Allie, Christopher Mitten, Brennan Wagner, and Clem Robins. I quite like this new approach to the historical series, giving a broader view of the previous years. Also, the development of Liz and Hellboy is wonderful, just great character building.

| Published by Dark Horse

Immortal Hulk #25 is very strange. Very, very strange. The lead story is set in the future where the Hulk has become the Breaker of Worlds and everything is slated for destruction. A pair of former lovers are trying to stop him. From Al Ewing, Germán García, Chris O’Halloran, and Cory Petit. There’s a lot of your usual dystopian future stuff, plus sending something back to save the future, but there’s more to this. The set up plays into some of the Kabbalistic themes and ideas that Al Ewing has been using through this series and we get an interesting interpretation of Binah and Chokhmah here. Though it might be more appropriate to consider them as their Qliphoth. Granted, you don’t need to get into any of this to enjoy the comic. Especially since it will appear much more straightforward in the present as the usual team of Ewing, Joe Bennett, Ruy José, Paul Mounts, and Petit reintroduce a familiar evil face.

| Published by Marvel

Josie and the Pussycats in Space #1 is a digital original from Alex de Campi, Devaki Neogi, Lee Loughridge, and Jack Morelli. It’s a pretty damn good reimagining of the characters, putting them on an intergalactic USO tour, and then eventually cranking up the weird and the horror.

| Published by Archie Comics

Justice League Dark #16 is incredible. “The Witching War” continues in this story from James Tynion IV, Alvaro Martínez Bueno, Fernando Blanco, Raul Fernandez, Brad Anderson, and Rob Leigh as Wonder Woman confronts Circe and everything gets doomed. The stakes here feel real, especially as the team continues to fall apart.

| Published by DC Comics

King Thor #2 is as epic as the first issue with Jason Aaron, Esad Ribić, Ive Svorcina, and Joe Sabino seriously bringing the thunder here. The artwork is drop dead gorgeous and the magnitude of the confrontation between Thor, Loki, and Gorr is massive.

| Published by Marvel

Marauders #1 gives us our first look at an X-book in “Dawn of X” without Jonathan Hickman at the helm. It’s really good. Gerry Duggan, Matteo Lolli, Federico Blee, and Cory Petit give us a somewhat more lighthearted approach to some of the concepts, featuring a Kate Pryde who for some reason can’t go through the Krakoan gates, so is recruited by Emma to helm a vessel for the Hellfire Trading Company. It then sets up the more serious element of rescuing mutants who wish to accept Xavier’s offer, but are stuck in hostile regimes. Very nice humour here.

| Published by Marvel

Martian Manhunter #9 rounds the corner for the homestretch, with Steve Orlando, Riley Rossmo, Ivan Plascencia, and Deron Bennett plumbing the depths of one of Charnn’s victims and discovering a bit of a plan for what’s to come. The artwork from Rossmo and Plascencia remains some of the most inventive currently on the stands.

| Published by DC Comics

Middlewest #12 puts together the pieces of where Abel and Bobby have been taken and gives us an introductory glance at the horrible place that they’re being forced to work. Skottie Young, Jorge Corona, Jean-Francois Beaulieu, and Nate Piekos continue to work magic on this story.

| Published by Image

Money Shot #1 is definitely unique. Tim Seeley, Sarah Beattie, Rebekah Isaacs, Kurt Michael Russell, and Crank! give us a story of a group of scientists who turn to making alien porn in order to fund their science projects. There’s humour and a lot of oddity here. Also, alien sex.

| Published by Vault

Punisher Kill Krew #4 sees the Black Knight enlisted to the team as they continue to navigate the Ten Realms to get vengeance for the orphaned war children. The art from Juan Ferreyra is absolutely gorgeous.

| Published by Marvel

Resonant #4 dives into the two new regions of Honcho’s island and the Congregation. It’s interesting to see how other areas are dealing with the waves, even in horrifying ways. The art from Alejandro Aragon and Jason Wordie is incredible.

| Published by Vault

Second Coming #4 sees Sunstar enlist help to find Jesus, while Jesus laments Christians with his new friend Larry in jail, from Mark Russell, Richard Pace, Leonard Kirk, Andy Troy, and Rob Steen. Some very interesting ideas presented here about how a religion can get away from apparent foundational messages. This issue is rounded out by the usual text pieces and short stories.

| Published by Ahoy

Sera and the Royal Stars #4 has us still in the underworld, from Jon Tsuei, Audrey Mok, Raul Angulo, and Jim Campbell. It’s very interesting to see the zodiacals interacting with variations on various deities. Also, Mok and Angulo remind us that they’re an incredible art team. The visual shifts throughout this issue are beautiful.

| Published by Vault

Star Wars Adventures: Return to Vader’s Castle #4 gives us a central tale featuring Jabba the Hutt’s extended family and a bunch of disembodied brains, as illustrated by Nicoletta Baldari. We’re also getting to the end of the framing tale from Cavan Scott, Francesco Francavilla, and AndWorld Design and this issue gives us an interesting cliffhanger to take us home.

| Published by IDW

Strikeforce #2 maintains the high level of storytelling from the first issue, continuing to keep us on our toes about this oddball group, and deepens the threat of the Vridai as the team heads to Satana in Vegas. Tini Howard, Germán Peralta, Miroslav Mrva, and Joe Sabino have hit on a winning combination here and it just keeps getting better.

| Published by Marvel

Unbound #1 is kind of a cyberpunk/fantasy series with this first issue focusing on Lukas, a famous hunter who takes on a helper for his current hunt, from Ralph Tedesco, Oliver Borges, Leonardo Paciarotti, and Carlos M. Mangual. There’s some nice world-building here, but the real hook comes later in the story that’s really compelling. I won’t spoil it, but it definitely takes it above what you’d expect.

| Published by Zenescope

Valkyrie #4 unveils a lot more of the context of what happened in the first three issues in a rather interesting way, while bringing back a trio of really old Dr. Strange villains. One of whom will be familiar to moviegoers. Al Ewing, Jason Aaron, CAFU, Jesus Aburtov, and Joe Sabino are telling a very interesting story here with some great twists and gorgeous art.

| Published by Marvel

Wonder Woman #81 concludes “Loveless” and with it G. Willow Wilson’s run on the title, here with Tom Derenick, Trevor Scott, Scott Hanna, Romulo Fajardo Jr., and Pat Brosseau. It’s not bad, progressing with a few changes and setting up Steve Orlando’s incoming arc.

| Published by DC Comics

You Are Obsolete #2 gets creepier, playing up even more of the Midwich Cuckoos vibes and revealing that the kids are actively spying on people, with the implication that they’d use more salacious details to their benefit as potential blackmail. We’re still not entirely sure why anything is going on, but the series is definitely setting up a creepy atmosphere.

| Published by AfterShock

Other Highlights: Absolute Carnage: Lethal Protectors #3, Agents of Atlas #3, Archie vs. Predator 2 #3, Black Canary: Ignite, Books of Magic #13, Fearless #4, Freedom Fighters #10, Future Fight Firsts: Luna Snow #1, Immortal Hulk: Director’s Cut #6, Journey to Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker - Allegiance #3, Kaijumax - Season 5 #1, Lumberjanes #67, Marvel Action: Spider-Man #10, Rat Queens #19, Red Sonja & Vampirella meet Betty & Veronica #6, RWBY #5, Sharkey: The Bounty Hunter #6, Spider-Man: Velocity #3, Star Wars #73, Tony Stark: Iron Man #17

Recommended Collections: Amazing Spider-Man - Volume 5: Behind Scenes, American Carnage, Ascender - Volume 1, Evolution - Volume 3, GI Joe: A Real American Hero - Volume 23, Harrow County: Library Edition - Volume 4, Hex Wives, Infinity 8 - Volume 5: Apocalypse Day, Invisible Kingdom - Volume 1, The Long Con - Volume 2, Naomi: Season One, Spider-Man: Life Story, Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, Teen Titans - Volume 2: Turn It Up, Wonder Woman - Volume 1: The Just War

d. emerson eddy is not a pineapple.

#This Week in Comics

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we-pay-for-everything · 5 years

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Do you ever notice the similarities/parallels in Buffy and Angel's journey's as heroes, there relationships with other people etc. post season 3? I remember seeing a gifset of it and being amazed at how similar there storylines could be and how they could echo the other or even the past. What are the biggest parallels that come to mind for them both in your eyes?

Yup, I did! And I’ve talked about it in many of my posts. There’s one meta I wrote recently which is about Buffy and Angel as heroes and touches on their journeys a bit. There are so many different types of parallels between the two characters that I can only attempt to explore some of them here.

One of the most obvious parallels is Dawn/Connor. They were written into the shows to replicate the impact Buffy and Angel had on each other. Dawn and Connor are even similar characters: misunderstood, sweet, heroic, brave, tough, stubborn, angry, lost, without a parent (Connor lost his mom and his adoptive dad, and Dawn lost her mom plus her dad is absent). Although their journeys are different, they end them feeling at peace with themselves and their parental figures. Dawn and Connor both challenged Buffy and Angel, hated themselves, thought they were to blame for the terrible things happening around them (with Dawn being the Key, and Connor being a miracle birth that should never have happened). Ironically, Dawn embraced being a ”normal” (yet extraordinary) person living with slayers and witches, and Connor embraced being a “normal” guy who attends college, despite being a very powerful child of vampires.

A second parallel is Spike/Darla. When Buffy was at her lowest, her version of self-harm and self-care was sex someone she hated, someone who was worse than she felt. She ended up caring for Spike though, especially once he got a soul. Angel only slept with Darla once in season 2 but the reasoning was similar. He was feeling destructive, lost, hopeless, and Darla was there, like always, so he probably thought something along the lines of “If you’re going to hell, keep going”. Yet Angel also cared about Darla. He and Buffy knew better than to keep repeating past mistakes however. They ended things with their former partners and had some closure in the end.

Angel’s season 2 arc isn’t unlike Buffy’s season 6 arc. They’d both found hope but that hope was stolen from them. Buffy found peace in “heaven”, which gave purpose to her suffering on earth (those hard choices she talked about in The Gift paid off in heaven). Angel found a purpose to his life and an ending to his pain (becoming human). But Buffy’s friends ripped her away from heaven, and she went back to making hard choices she couldn’t understand and becoming a person she was increasingly unfamiliar with. And Darla becoming a human only to die as a vampire, again, was the cruelest joke the universe played on Angel. If Darla becoming a human didn’t change anything for her, than what would it change for him? If being human means redemption, then what does it mean that she couldn’t keep her humanity (literally)? Did it mean that Angel was doomed because even if he Shanshued he had no guarantees that it would stick?

The latter bits of Buffy and Angel’s journeys are about them struggling to hold on to their vulnerability, to hope, to themselves. Angel changed a lot in season 5. He struggled to find his way back to his original goals, which were to take down Wolfram&Hart, help people, inspire change in others, fight no matter the results. Buffy was a shell of her former self in season 7, and it was one hell of a fight for her to learn to smile and hope again. She found her way out of the prison that being a slayer was to her. Both Angel and Buffy, in different ways, fulfilled their originals goals and dreams, and lived up to the people they used to be before life got unbearably hard.

There are tons of parallels I could mention. Too many to count. Like, how Giles and Wesley grew despondent, sometimes even cruel, and their relationships with Buffy and Angel fell apart and never recovered. Trust was lost and their goals and methods were too different. Or how Wolfram&Hart and The First were both the biggest challenges of Buffy and Angel’s lives, and their towns were destroyed by them. Both were powerful, vague entities, operating from the shadows and using corporeal beings to do their biding.

I don’t know... I guess I’m uninspired today! If you have something specific that you want me to talk about, say so.

Thanks for the ask!

#ask #ats #btvs #bangel #buffy summers #angel #thanks #Anonymous

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saiangelo999 · 5 years

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2019 T.v. show Tracker

Part 2

Animes

Mo Dao Zu Shi

Finished it. Read the novel. Checking out the Cdrama (The Untamed). Obsessed. Watch it, it’s worth it.

Currently watching season two! Jing Ling is so precious and all the chibis are SO CUTE!

Dororo

In progress (~episode 20) - Love it so far! Excited to see where it goes!

Update: Dororo was always precious but I just appreciate this child more and more as the episodes continue. I really enjoyed the lighter episode with the opposite village and the swordsmaster. Also, I am glad that Itachi finally died... but tbh I can’t hate him. Dororo is soo forgiving, my precious child.

Edit: Completed. Enjoyed the story and the way that it was wrapped up.

My Roommate is a Cat

Completed - Loved it! Super cute, fluffy and touching. Fun to watch! Really enjoyed the show and REALLY want more! Please make a season 2!!

Fruits Basket 2019

It’s definitely doing its job of hitting the heartstrings true to Fruits Basket lore (I loved the manga). That opening (1) tho is so depressing really setting the mood for the show I guess... I’m excited for more and aware of the pain that is yet to come. But I am excited (and hopeful) to see them do justice to the plot this time. Update: s1 is almost over and I really enjoyed it!

One Punch Man

Loved it!! Finished season one! It was way too short... Will watch season two when all the episodes come out! I actually found the show to have a lot of parallels with The Disastrous Life of Saiki which could be the reason that I enjoyed it so much. I really don’t know how all the fans who watched it when it was first released could have waited so long for season two.

Ruroni Kenshin

Randomly started it cuz I was planning on watching it for a while and it was on Netflix so I thought - why not. Liking it so far but I haven’t gotten very far yet so it’s hard to form an opinion atm.

Dramas

Bad Guys

Completed - Good Binge.

It was very addicting, very interesting premise that captured my attention initially. It’s a good binge, but around episode 10 the show, the show sort of fizzled out for me. The hitman’s storyline (Jung woo) was a bit too melodramatic for my taste and was a bit off-putting, however I absolutely loved the psychopath’s story. That definitely kept me hooked throughout. One huge plus of this show is the action, and it is a lot of fun to watch if you don’t think about the show too much.

Gibo to Musume no Blues

Completed - Loved it! I’d highly recommend it!

This show was so adorable and so sweet and fun to watch from start to finish. I really enjoyed this slice of life and the warm stepmother and stepdaughter relationship throughout the show. It was very heartwarming to watch. I loved how all the characters were treated with respect and didn’t seem like hollow caricatures, I liked the relationships portrayed in the show and the general warmth that this show had throughout.

I am still not over what happened to Ryoichi :( , but I can say that I absolutely loved every single character in this show. The baker definitely grew on me more and more throughout the later half of the show and he became very lovable. Overall, this was a great drama that I am glad I checked out!

Children of Nobody/ Red Moon Blue Sun

Completed - Loved it! 15/10 would recommend!

This drama was really really gripping. I like how the story didn’t feel very formulaic, and I admit I was quite unsure what was going on in the first 2 or so episodes. But once the plot line was set in motion, I was along for the ride. One huge reason for that is probably the main character Cha Woo Kyung, she won me over very quickly and her backstory was very intriguing. I also really like Yi Kyung’s character as well as his team, though it did take me a while to warm up to him. The children all did a phenomenal job as well - I especially like Ha Na and Si Wan’s acting.Si Wan is another huge factor that kept me watching, the child actor did a great job!

One thing I definitely appreciated with this show was how morally grey all the characters were, it made them more relatable. If I were to compare it to similar mystery/crime kdrama’s I’ve seen, I think so far this would rank the highest - the plot was engaging, the characters were interesting, there was absolutely ZERO focus on developing a romantic relationship and the topic - abuse (child primarily) was handled well.

Her Private Life

Really loving Ryan Gold so far!! He’s actually super considerate and kind? Love it! Quite like the female lead as well. Love her relationship with her best friend, they are absolutely adorable! Not too happy about what I heard about the Eun Gi thing where they did the Reply staple of making the viewers assume that he’s her brother only to find out he’s interested in her romantically and that they aren’t blood-related... why is this trope so popular? This reminds me a lot so far of Reply 1997.

Update: show is moving on in a very cliche way... extremely predictable so far. Will maybe stick w it bc I love Ryan’s character and the couple are adorable. TBH I didn’t start this for the plot. Another gripe that I have is just why do kdramas always do the thing where the main couple are meant to be and met during their childhood? I don’t get why that’s so popular... But I do respect the fact that Ryan’s real mom did not abandon him and that arc was resolved quickly.

Overall, it was better than a lot of other dramas in this genre and it was done with much less unnecessary drama. I appreciated how the side characters were handled and liked that they were given time to have their own sub-plots. A decent show all in all.

The Fiery Priest

Loved it! I like the mix of the action and comedy that was showcased in the show. I found this show to be very similar in the plot structure, comedy (to an extent) and characterizations to Chief Kim so I enjoyed the show a lot and had a pretty good idea of what to expect from the show. It’s a fun show that keeps you hooked for more, and like Chief Kim don’t expect any romance between characters to really develop.

Angel’s Last Mission: Love

Shin Hye Sun is just gorgeous, omg. She’s also a really good actress. I really liked seeing her in this role coming out of watching Still 17 to see the sheer difference in personality. I am enjoying the contrast. Also, I like her chemistry with Myungsoo. I don’t care for the second lead nor can I bring myself to empathize with him. I also am somewhat disappointed with her family sub-plot because so far it seems pretty cliche so I’m hoping for a plot twist or two.

DNF.

Project S The Series: Spike

I FINALLY finished it! Really loved it. Great acting, loved the pace of the show and how realistic it felt. I really liked watching the team come together and grow together. The few female characters were a delight - Jern is so lovable and adorable. Bright is very sweet and does a lot for the team. Puen’s relationship with the entire team was interesting to see - his strong bond with Singha and now Than, his relationship with Jern and ofc his friends. Than’s relationship with his dad was also portrayed realistically right til the end. It’s a good watch, and I’ll definitely re-watch the series.

Ao to Boku

So addicting, waiting for the last episode to be subbed. Please get subbed!

Update: it was subbed! Finished it! Enjoyed the drama overall. A nice mystery/friendship/slice-of-life one. Be warned that although there is a bit of mystery it is mainly a slice-of-life/friendship drama.

The Untamed

I enjoyed it overall (tho I did end up skipping over some episodes). I thought that it was a faithful adaptation to the novel considering the censorship issues. I love how they took out a lot of the explicit gay but still somehow made parts of the show gayer. Also I LOVE fairy. Fairy is an adorable fluffball that owns my heart <3.

DNF - He is Psychometric

Melo Suits Me/ Be Melodramatic

So... they really made one of the cutest love stories tragic huh. I’m really enjoying the show so far, I love the friendship between the main 4 leads. I am interested about the industry and I like the balance that the drama has with its humour, friendship, love and slice-of-life elements. I really like the actress and her manager couple they are so cute! I kind of wish I have more cute mother-son moments with the kid so hopefully in a future episode.

Update: Finished it! Liked the ending overall, had one minor qualm. I really liked the Director (Yeller) that was introduced. He was an unexpected delight and I love his dynamic with Eun Jung. I did like that they did end up subverting a romantic relationship and left it platonic. That was unexpected.

T.v. shows

Brooklyn Nine-Nine

Season 6 - Finally finished it! Lot of fun, and enjoyed watching yet another season of the show. I really enjoyed their Cinco de Mayo heist this year and thought that was a lot of fun. I personally didn’t really feel Gina’s absence too much though her going away words were cute near the beginning of the season.

Broadchurch

Completed - Completely binged season 3! I love this show!

I forgot how beautiful the cinematography in the show was! Their little village is gorgeous. It’s a bit jarring to watch it after a year or so because my memory of season 2 of Broadchurch was quite hazy. Nevertheless, I absolutely love this show. This season was very different from the previous ones, and it had a good build up but the final reveal of the culprit was quite... predictable. However, there was a twist that came with the reveal that came completely out of the blue. I liked the way Alec/D.I Hardy and Ellie handled the issue at hand and set an example of how cases of rape should be handled within the police force. It was also really nice to see Beth’s growth, the vicar and what Maggie were up to! I also enjoyed seeing Alec and his daughter’s relationship grow. Too bad its cancelled... here’s hoping that one day they’ll renew it.

Stranger Things season 3

I personally liked it a lot more than season two because I felt that it had more growth from the characters. I liked Eleven’s character growth and how the dynamic of the relationships changed and seeing the kids grow up. But, I’m definitely getting a bit tired of this show... because although I did enjoy this season, I still feel that in a way it was redundant.

Derry Girls s2

I loved it! So funny. So adorable. Love the characters and the ridiculous situations that they put themselves in (or are put in). Sister Michael is still my fave, her lines are always pure gold.

Anne with an E season 3

Trying to keep track of it as it is airing on CBC. I missed the second episode :( But I watched episode 3 and the foreshadowing for the residential schools omg

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rahirah · 6 years

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The whole "And If the Grave Be Now Thy Bed" counts as a chapter or scene, right? "Splendid news, Mrs. Mears. Bloody Vengeance Inc. is going to take your case." Commentary, please :)))

For reference: https://archiveofourown.org/works/478957

Ok, this one is too long to do a blow-by-blow in a Tumblr post, so I'm gonna talk about it more generally.

For those of you who haven't read the series this story is a part of, it's a long-running AU which branches off of canon after "The Gift." I started writing the first story in it immediately after "The Gift" aired, so Spuffy wasn't even a canon thing yet. At the time, I was pretty certain that Spuffy would never be a canon thing; at most, I thought, there would be a lot of pining and UST, and maybe, in the very last season, Spike would get the crumb he was hoping for.

But I didn't care about that; something doesn't have to be canon for me to ship the hell out of it. And I was fascinated by the concept of an evil demon trying to be good. What would it look like, I wondered, if Spike and Buffy did get together in a working, functional relationship? What changes and compromises would both of them have to make? How would it meet both their needs? What would the pain points be? Of course, the easiest way to do it would be to slap a soul into Spike, but I felt that the show had already thoroughly explored that avenue with Angel, and I wanted to do something different. Plus I have never been one to do things the easy way, and one of the recurring themes in my writing in general is free will and choices. So I set myself the challenge of writing a story about how Buffy and Spike forge a relationship that works for both of them, and doesn't cheat on characterization – that is, Spike, having no human soul, is still "evil" in Buffyverse terms, and his motivations and behavior reflect that; even when he is doing good things, he is not doing them in the same way, or for the same reasons, as a human would. *

ANYWAY. In this AU, Warren Mears and Co. still killed Katrina, but Warren went to jail for it. However, when his inventions came to the attention of Wolfram & Hart, they got him released on a technicality, and brought him into their R&D department. Warren took the opportunity to get his revenge on Buffy and Spike by zapping Buffy into a W&H pocket dimension, where W&H was collecting Buffys from many dimensions for nefarious purposes. Unbeknownst to Warren, Buffy has just discovered that she's pregnant.

This scenario generated four stories: "The Lesser of Two Evils," which details what happens when Willow and Spike confront Warren and try to force him to bring Buffy back; "In A Yellow Wood," which is about Buffy's adventures in the pocket dimension, "If the Grave Be Now Thy Bed," which deals with the fallout of the first two stories, and "To Grandmother's House," which wraps up the arc with Buffy's final decision about the fate of her baby.

I wrote these stories all out of order: "To Grandmother's House" first, "The Lesser of Two Evils" second, "In A Yellow Wood" third, and "If the Grave Be Now Thy Bed" last. I knew the general course of the arc all along, but writing it inside out and backwards, over ten years or more, posed some interesting challenges. "If the Grave Be Now Thy Bed" was not part of the original arc plan – in fact, it grew out of feedback I got for "The Lesser of Two Evils."

TLOTE/IAYW are deliberately morally ambiguous stories. Spike, Willow, and Buffy all do questionable things – perhaps flat out wrong things – under severe emotional stress, and the consequences of those actions echo for a long time through the years to come. While I hope that readers find their motives understandable, and even sympathetic, I didn't necessarily expect that every reader would agree with or approve of their actions. Most people who've sent me feedback seem to enjoy the ambiguity, or at least find it intriguing. Not all of them, however.

One particular reader had...issues. Over the course of several conversations, I found out that while they were a Spuffy shipper, they had very particular requirements for the kind of Spuffy stories they liked. They had to be either A) totally canon-compliant, angst-ridden stories where Buffy hated herself for giving in to Spike's sinister attraction, or B) stories where Spike was a Romance Novel Bad Boy With a Heart of Gold, and there was a tacit agreement between writer and reader that hey, we both know this is totally OOC for both characters, but we're just here for the porn, amirite nudge-nudge wink-wink.

Reader In Question had started in on my work with the assumption that it fell into the latter category, but the more they read, the less comfortable they got, because, as I mentioned above, I was in this for serious. I sweat blood over characterization. And I was starting to convince them that maybe a relationship between Buffy and soulless Spike COULD work. And they didn't WANT to believe that. So they absolutely had to interpret my work as a dystopian take on Buffy's slide into total moral decay, with this particular arc as the nadir of her fall.** They left me some despondent feedback on TLOTE, wondering what Warren's dear mother would think of this turn of events. I'm not sure if they intended to shame me (or Buffy) for our evil ways, but I thought it was an interesting point. And it planted the seed of an idea.

Over the next several years, as I worked on IAYW (and let me say right here, the less-than-enthusiastic feedback Reader In Question sent me on TLOTE made me work my ass off on IAYW. Though I obviously don't agree with their overall interpretation, I thought they had some good points, and I wanted to be sure that IAYW addressed those points) I mulled over the thought: What WOULD happen if Warren's dear old mother confronted Buffy and Spike?

A lot would depend upon what Warren's dear old mother was like. There were two obvious ways I could go with that: she could be an innocent victim, or she could be as much of a monster as Warren was. But I didn't want to do anything obvious with this story. Fic-wise, I always like to take the road less traveled if I can, but in this case, I have to admit that I got a perverse pleasure out of taking Reader In Question's finger-wagging admonition and using it as inspiration for a story that's, well, not exactly what I imagine they were hoping to inspire. I decided that I was going to make Mrs. Mears a little of both.

The next question was, what did I want to have happen when she shows up?Again, the obvious thing would be to have Buffy feel guilty. But I had already dealt extensively with Buffy's feelings, and her reasons for making the decisions she made, in IAYW and TGH. Yes, she feels guilty; she's not sure she did the right thing. She's not even sure there was a right thing to do. But that particular subplot plays out over the long term in this AU, culminating many years later in a completely different story arc, and I couldn't bring it to a premature resolution here. Besides, I knew that Barbverse Buffy would never return to the uncompromising system of morality that Reader In Question wanted her to,*** so there was no point in writing a story where she Learns Her Lesson, Dusts Spike, and Is Very Sorry. ****

So I decided that this story would focus on Spike, and his reaction to Warren's mother and her loss of a son. And that opened up a lot of possibilities. I was to some extent constrained by the fact that I'd already written quite a lot of stories taking place after this one in the timeline, so there were certain things I couldn't do. But I've always found that if you ask yourself, "What would X logically do in this situation?" and follow that through, you can avoid Idiot Plot Syndrome. Let your characters be smart. What would Spike do, confronted with the mother of the man he'd killed? What would Mrs. Mears demand of him in recompense?

What I wanted to do in this story was to answer those questions in a way that people wouldn't expect. I was able to bring Spike's ambivalent feelings about his own mother into play, and provide a way for him to get some character development around coming to terms with her death and his part in it that I might not otherwise have been able to do. And I was able to draw parallels between Warren and his mother, and Spike and Anne Pratt, and come up with some really intriguing takes on how and why Spike can do the right(ish) thing even when his reasons are kinda-sorta wrong(ish). It gives some background, hopefully, on how Buffy can make the ultimate decision she does in "To Grandmother's House," and not feel that she's tobogganing head-first down the slippery slope of Utter Moral Decay. And I got to write Zombie Warren, who was gruesomely, deliciously horrible. And I got to give Mrs. Mears the last word.

By the time I finished the story, Reader In Question had long since left fandom, and they probably wouldn't have read it even if they were still around. But I feel I have to thank them for it anyway. And that's why I always say that even though I don't necessarily like getting critical feedback, it can be the most useful feedback you can get if you look at it in the right way.

__________

* I could write a whole nother essay about the challenges of writing an evil-trying-to-be-good vampire, but that is beyond the scope of the current post.

** Eventually, they practically begged me to tell them that I was deliberately writing Buffy and Spike out of character, and that I didn't really think a relationship between them could work. Alas, I could not oblige them, and they stopped reading my stuff.

*** I don't even believe canon Buffy stuck to that kind of rigid moral code – she tried to, but one of the things that makes her a complex, fully realized character is that canon Buffy is perfectly capable of double standards and hypocrisy where her friends are concerned, not to mention just plain changing her mind about things over the course of the show. For every decision I have Barbverse Buffy [or Spike, for that matter] make, I can point to something in canon and say "This is why I think she could do that."

****Although... I do have an alternate ending to "To Grandmother's House" plotted out in my head, where Buffy [either accidentally or on purpose – just as in the main story, it's ambiguous] doesn't stop Giles in time. I consider the Barbverse to be a low-probability AU, and I watch out for times and ways in which things could go spectacularly wrong, just so I can be sure to avoid them in a believable manner. Or write stories about them going wrong, and the characters dealing with them.

*****

#btvs #buffy the vampire slayer #writing #fic discussion #asks #barbverse #thenewbuzwuzz

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stargazer1682 · 3 years

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Buffy Season 6 was terrible

Season 6 is a dumpster fire and far from anything I'd describe as "well planned," let alone immaculately written.

The plot is heavily contrived, starting pretty much with the Scoobies plans to bring Buffy back. Why are they bringing her back? Because.

Don't get me wrong, the argument that Buffy's soul MIGHT be in a hell dimension isn't wholly without merit, given that they saw all number of hell dimensions open up before their eyes and Buffy had to sacrifice herself to close a rift between these dimensions in much the same way Angel did, for essentially the same purpose. Knowing the lives they lead, everything they’ve experienced and how cruel they know their universe to be, there would be a very distinct probability that Buffy was in hell. In fact the only reason she wasn't was arguably because being in heaven and pulled out by her friends is the only worse possible fate.

But, Buffy's body was barely cold when they started hatching plans to bring her back; they didn't really even try to move on without her. And as it turns out, bringing someone back isn't actually all that difficult. I maintain that they should have done a time jump; like 5 years, which would have at least established that they TRIED to move on without her before bring her back. And the effort could have been said to have taken more time than a summer vacation. Plus it would have better aligned the majority of characters with their real world ages, while create an added facet for why Buffy might feel disconnected from her friends if they’ve literally moved on with their lives. Even Dawn, who be closer to Buffy’s age, would be a practical stranger to her at that point; adding to the isolation.

But this is a minor criticism in the grand scheme of the season though, because the show always cut to the chase; and for the most part I can appreciate that. So let's do the same and really get down to the less excusable contrivances.

Practically everyone’s livin’ in casa de Summers, yet is anyone apparently contributing anything to the expenses? Not by any indication. Buffy’s back barely a minute, doesn’t even take time to readjust before going patrolling, and soon after that they say, “welcome back, you’re drowning in debt. Get a job, deadbeat.”

And this leads to a couple of ridiculous plots. The first of which is Giles’ sudden and inexplicable inability to tell Buffy “no” and establish clear boundaries between them; you know, one of the key essential traits of his character five years running. And yes, I know, Tony Head wanted to move back to England and that’s fair, but the excuse they gave his character for his absence was, simple put, stupid. Lots of parental figures have to deal with the transition of a so-called child that they’ve looked after and been responsible for and help usher them into independent adulthood; and they’ve done that, remarkably enough, without moving clear across the flippin’ planet. This is to say nothing of the conventional dynamics of a Slayer and her support system; which we don’t know enough about, in terms of how previous Slayers that lived into their early 20s managed to get by financially. There’s been a lot of speculation and the consensus typically leans towards an informal understand that their Watcher supports them. This arrangement may not be fair and Giles may want Buffy to lead a less restrictive life than the average Slayer had before her, but there are certain practical realities that Giles of all people should understand in this regard. The first and foremost of which is that, as Slayer, Buffy must put those responsibilities ahead of all others and it’s simply not feasible to expect her to burn the candle at both ends, working a full time job during the day and be a full time Slayer at night. On top of that is this inane idea he develops that Buffy was somehow shirking her responsibilities, when, again, she doesn’t miss a beat after coming back from the dead before going on patrol. The thing she struggles with, apart from how she’s going to support herself financially without it interfering with her Slaying duties, is being and adult in her VERY early 20s with a mortgage and single mother to a nearly fully grown teenager; all while dealing with the trauma of coming back to from the dead. This goes beyond the pale of the normal responsibilities of someone going through Buffy’s stage of life in season 6; and any adult going through anything even remotely comparable should not be expected to do that single handedly on their own. Giles even admits later that being an adult means knowing when to ask for help, which just goes to show that his reason for leaving in the first place is complete and utter BS.

Giles demonstrated greater understanding for what Buffy was going through in season 3 when she merely had to send the man she loved to hell, after being thrown out of her house by her mother; yet here he seems to be utterly clueless. There are countless ways that Giles could have helped Buffy find her footing, without her being dependant on him, while still explaining Tony’s departure. But they wanted to set up a story that perpetuated Buffy’s hardship and isolation – hence the reason the writers felt the need to undermine the most obvious and practical solution for her need for a job, working at the magic store.

Then there’s a crux of the season’s conflicts. And yeah, I guess “life” as a big bad is… something… but decidedly not as effectively well done as the earlier seasons did with the allegorical struggles about adolescence and coming of age during the high school seasons.

Buffy is isolated from her friends, depressed, emotionally abused by a man taking advantage of her state of mind, drowning in debt (and not taking any of the realistic steps to address it, like dumping the house she can’t afford in favor of a small apartment for her and Dawn.) Eventually it ceases to be a story arc and just crap on Buffy day. There’s no joy here; and that’s one of the quixotic things about life and depression, it’s ability to make you think for a second that if you’re able to laugh in this moment, maybe things aren’t all that bad, right before they go back to being terrible.

After Tabula Rasa, once Giles leaves, the quality of the episodes takes a sharp downturn; and subsequently improves upon his return. There isn’t necessarily a correlation, especially since I’d say opposite is true with Giles’ presence with season 7. But right off the bat we’ve got Smashed and Wrecked, two incredibly stupid episodes, with equally terrible plot points that redefine the direction of the season.

Buffy starts screwing Spike, and… Amy’s suddenly a creep who could give her mom a run for her money? Oh, and now apparently Willow’s problem with magic is that she’s actually addicted to it, like a drug, and not the abuse of power and lack of moral forethought that they’ve been making it out to be ALL THIS TIME. No, now she’s suddenly doing ambiguous “magics” in back alleys that have no other apparent purpose than to make her trip.

Now, don’t worry, I didn’t forget about Xander… like the writers seemed to do after season 4… He’s still there and he’s going to marry Anya; which is going to be is sole defining arc the rest of this season and probably the next; even when the wedding doesn’t happen. The wedding episode was ALMOST interesting, but the fact is, while I’ve come to not like Xander overall, in the course of multiple re-watches of the series; he was put through a seriously traumatic ordeal in Hells Bells that they just gloss right over by the end of it; and expect him to still get married. And when he’s not in the right frame of mind to do that, they decide that he’s the AH for it….. Worse still, he accepts that title, deserved though it may be for a variety of other reasons from over the years; this instance is not one of them. But Joss has to Joss, which means everyone and everything sucks.

And then there’s the “Trio”…. (sigh)

I mean, they even went to the trouble of acknowledging how pathetic a “challenge” they were in contrast to previous big bads, with a doctor commenting on it during Normal Again. (Augh… Normal Again….)

Warren bordered on a comparatively compelling antagonist, by virtue of him being a complete bastard, but they had to blunt his arc with the nerd shtick; and I’m not sure why I hate it so much, because with the likes of Dick Wilkens’ “gee golly, I just want to be a big snake” attitude or Glory’s valley girl god demeanor, this shouldn’t have felt at odds for a big bad, yet it just doesn’t work.

The bigger problem I think I have with it all is that, ultimately, Warren’s not even the big bad; Willow is – which would be fine too, if her arc leading up to that break wasn’t so terrible. And here’s the thing, they had all of the pieces to make it work; it was all there. Willow’s story of where she was at in her life and the things she was doing and why she was doing them, closely parallel Warren’s story. Both characters had the smarts, the power and ambition to do whatever they set their minds to; and neither of them were stopping to ask themselves, “just because I can, should I?” and as a result were seriously abusing the power they had. Both of them undermined the free will of the women they loved, without consideration of the ramifications. Willow KINDA got it and tried to change, whereas Warren didn’t. But by trying shoehorn a drug analogy into Willow’s story, while just making Warren an AH, they undermined that parallel and the collision of wills they were ultimately on.

Don’t even get me started on killing off Tara. That was the wrong decision, full stop.

It should have been Xander. It would arguably have set off Willow at least as much as Tara’s death, and Xander’s spirit could have still appeared to Willow on the cliff to talk her down.

Then bring Nicky Brendon back for season 7 as the primary embodiment of the First.

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longforgottenunofficial · 6 years

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Death is a Cabaret, Old Chum...

Time to get our noses out of the Ancient Near East and back into the Victorian era, where we find more direct sources of inspiration for the Haunted Mansion. Back HERE I discussed briefly the Cabaret du Néant, with a link HERE to Cory's treatment of the subject, which is largely given over to quoting a lengthy passage from Bohemian Paris of To-day (J.B. Lippincott, 1900). It was written by W. C. Morrow from notes by Edouard Cucuel (the book also includes Cucuel's sketches). It's very good, very interesting, and a valuable source, but buyer beware; it's a second-hand account, and in places it's inaccurate. However, there are descriptions of the C du N published in other sources too, plus a lot of photos. There is little doubt in my mind that the Cabaret du Néant was a direct source of inspiration for the Haunted Mansion. My reasons for thinking so will emerge with a fresh description of the Néant experience, drawn from several sources, as well as a closer look at the special effects used in the Néant show. I do not think these tricks have ever been explained accurately, so if you think you know the Cabaret well enough already—think again. A bit of background. The pub originally opened in Brussels in 1892 as the "Cabaret de la Mort" (i.e. the Cabaret of Death), but it soon moved to the Montmartre district of Paris, where it was renamed the "Cabaret du Néant" ("néant" = nonexistence, obliteration, nothingness, death). The Montmartre district was THE place to be if you were an artiste in the second half of the 19th c. It seems like all of the important Impressionist painters lived there or hung out there. In the 1890's, it was bursting at the seams with cabarets and theaters, including fully-themed nightclubs. Practically across the street from the Cabaret du Néant, for example, were the "Cabaret of Heaven" and the "Cabaret of Hell," side by side. The waiters dressed as angels in the former and devils in the latter. Guess which one this is:

The famous Moulin Rouge cabaret is still there, but otherwise these pubs and theaters are all gone. . . . Come to the Cabaret.

Shall we pay a visit? Oh, do let's. The street façade of the CdN is like a house dressed for mourning in traditional French fashion, with austere black and white coverings, although there is a skull and crossbones on the front door. There are two large, iron, torch-like lamps throwing yellowish-green light down on all who pass by. That kind of colored light makes people look shockingly sick and corpse-like, so we're already getting in the mood. The unsmiling doorman is dressed exactly like a croquet-mort; that is, a professionalpall-bearer or undertaker's assistant. The same is true for the waiters inside.

The doorman leads you through the low, narrow front door and down a short, dark corridor. He opens some black drapes, allowing you to enter the first room. It's dark, lit only by candles. A chandelier in the center of the room is constructed of (real) human bones and nicknamed "Robert Macaire's chandelier," Macaire being a sort of all-purpose villain and bogeyman in France. Upturned coffins serve as tables, with small thin candles available for illumination.

The walls are decorated with skulls (which serve as dim lamps), sculpture, and posters with grim slogans such as "Life is a folly which Death corrects," "To be or not to be," and "Requiescat in Pace," as well as No Smoking signs, price lists, and notices that candles are available for 10 cents. More importantly, there are paintings all over the walls depicting death and carnage. Battle scenes, a guillotine in action, and in later times, a painting of an automobile with a demonic driver, running people down—at least I think that's what this is:

It's similar to a cartoon that appeared in Punch, in 1903:

(hat tip to Craig Conley)

By the way, this was actually a common theme among cynics and satirists in those days. These new-fangled automobiles were extremely dangerous, to the point that they betrayed a contemptible indifference to human (and other) life. They were depicted as instruments of death, glamorous only to the foolish and the callous. Here's a wonderful example from Puck. Behold the demon, "Speed Mania":

(Puck 68/1756, Oct 26, 1910)

Anyway, back to the Cabaret. Upon entering the room, you are met with "Welcome, moribunds," or "Welcome, weary wanderer, to the kingdom of Death," or "Enter, mortals of this sinful world, enter into the mists and shadows of eternity," or some other greeting striking the same tone as "Welcome, foolish mortals." Better get used to it. You and your friends will be continually addressed as "mortals," "coffin worms" (asticots de cercueil), and "Maccabees," the latter term being a slang expression for anonymous cadavers found floating in the river. In an account from 1931, it says that the staff at that time received guests by chanting a mass for the dead. The staff are all instructed not to smile or do anything else to break the solemn atmosphere, much like HM butlers and maids. That includes the waiter, who seems to mean it when he says "Name your poison." The mixed drinks and the beer are all renamed after deadly microbes and bacteria of various diseases. The waiter will plop them down before you, saying something like, "Drink, coffin worms. Drink these loathsome poisons filled with the deadliest germs." A man in clerical garb eventually enters and gives a lengthy speech in morbid detail about the horrors of death, progressing from the variety of gruesome and agonizing ends awaiting individuals to the miserable fates of mankind in general. Here the place gets interesting. As he commences this portion of the lecture, the speaker points to a painting depicting a battle scene. According to Morrow, it begins to glow, making its details clear (remember, it's pretty dark in there). Then the glow fades away, and the painting has changed. The human figures in it are now all skeletons. The same thing happens with a painting of a guillotine chopping away. When the glow fades, the figures are now skeletons. Another painting shows a festive ball. Glow and fade. Now the dancers are all skeletons. In my earlier treatment I quoted without objection Albert Hopkins' explanation of this effect (written in 1901). He suggests that the paintings are transparencies with one scene painted on one side and another on the other, the second one becoming visible when illumined from the rear. I now think that explanation is inadequate. It doesn't really account for the effect as described by Morrow. The paintings light up and then fade back down, revealing a skeletonized version of the same scene. How would you do that with a single, two-sided cloth? The effect could be produced, however, by having two paintings layered very close to each other, much like the panes in a double-pane window.

The skeleton one is in front, painted on a thin cloth or on theatrical scrim. The "normal" one is in back. The paintings are already moderately illumined from the back when folks come in, showing the back painting through the transparent front one. The lighting is further turned up during the lecture, at the appropriate time, and then faded down and extinguished, leaving the front painting visible for the first time. This would be perfectly do-able in the 1890's (the CdN was fully electrified). In that earlier post, I drew a parallel between the CdN changing-painting effect and the attic wedding pictures and portrait hall paintings of the HM. If the above explanation is acceptable as a more satisfactory accounting for the effect as described, then the parallel between the Cabaret du Néant and the current Disney versions is extremely close indeed. If you bought a drink while in the first room, you got a ticket entitling you to enter the Chambre de la Mort. You now take your puny candle and follow a man in Capuchin monk's garb single file through an arched doorway (painted to look like stone), down a narrow flight of steps, with green and yellow lighting once again, making everyone look cadaverous.

At the end of the steps is an antechamber where you wait your turn. The show repeats about every half hour, and only 15 or 20 are admitted at a time. To amuse yourself while you wait, you can look through holes or niches in the brickwork at gruesome tableaux, "studies of cholera patients, of persons buried alive, and similar cheerful subjects" (NYT Apr 9, 1894). Morrow (Cucuel) speaks of "bones, skulls, and fragments of human bodies." At last a cowled figure with only his eyes visible comes in and produces a large iron key, unlocking the spiked iron gate at one end of the room and opening it with a harsh grating sound. The monks mournfully announce that you have arrived at the Gates of Death, and in you go. There is an item inside, near the entrance: "By a clever arrangement of mirrors one sees one's self on entering reflected lying in a coffin" (NYT '94), which seems like a good idea since you can then see for the first time what you yourself look like under greenish-yellow lighting. This part of the Cabaret du Néant show is justly famous. An upright coffin is visible in a narrow doorway at the far end of the room, which was hung in black in early years but later on left exposed, having been painted to look like stone vaulting. Also in early years, a pretty young lady was already in the upright coffin when you came in. She would smile and wink and then grow silent. While the monk guide kept up his groaning soliloquy about death and decay, she turned into a decaying corpse and finally a skeleton, right before your eyes. The process was then reversed, but instead of the young lady a fat old man returned. He would leave the coffin, and the monks would ask for a volunteer from the audience who would like to experience death. In later times they went straight to this phase and skipped the earlier stunt. Not missing a single detail, the Cabaret folks have a harmonium and an iron bell offstage somewhere, providing dirge music and solemn tolls at appropriate times. There are a lot of pictures of this trick.

I especially like this last set because it really shows the excellent trompe l'oeil work in this chamber, transforming blank wall into convincing arches and stonework through skillful use of the paintbrush.

The trick is done, of course, using the Pepper's Ghost illusion, which requires only a big sheet of glass and careful manipulation of the lighting. But here again, I think Albert Hopkins' explanation is inadequate. He's got a simple two-chamber set up, turning the coffin occupant into a skeleton and back again. With this arrangement, the sense of gradual transformation would be enhanced through the use of colored light. The light on the volunteer goes from normal to greenish-yellow before fading down, while the skeleton is gradually lit up.

Below is a simplified pair of diagrams. When the coffin-with-occupant (#1) is illumined and the coffin-with-skeleton (#2) is dark, the audience sees only the first. When coffin 1 goes dark and coffin 2 is lit up, you see only the second, but it looks like it's in the place of the first. This is simple, rudimentary Pepper's Ghost illusioneering.

The problem with the Hopkins arrangement is that it does not account for the descriptions of the effect. Morrow describes a slow dissolving of the face into a corrupt state of decomposition before finally becoming a dried skull:

Her face slowly became white and rigid; her eyes sank; her lips tightened across her teeth; her cheeks took on the hollowness of death,—she was dead. But it did not end with that. From white the face slowly grew livid...then purplish black.... The eyes visibly shrank into their greenish-yellow sockets. ...Slowly the hair fell away....The nose melted away into a purple putrid spot. The whole face became a semi-liquid mass of corruption. Presently all this had disappeared, and a gleaming skull shone where so recently had been the handsome face of a woman.

Well, Morrow is giving a flowery, second-hand description based on Cucuel's notes, so maybe this is all exaggerated. But the 1894 New York Timesaccount also describes a three-stage process, although the stages are different: man, skeleton, vacant. The shroud on the volunteer "by some trick gradually melted away, so did the flesh, or rather the man in the coffin, and a skeleton appeared in his stead. There remained another experiment to be witnessed, namely, the crumbling away to dust of the bones." There may even be a photograph of the intermediate, rotted-corpse stage as described by Morrow:

The CdN gang may have had a much more sophisticated set-up than Hopkins describes. One possible way to add a step to the transformation is with two sheets of glass and a third, intermediate coffin.

For an alternate method, still using only a single glass, see the remarks by "John b" in the Comments (Aug 4, 2013). It involves rotating, back-to-back coffins. The only problem I see with it is that it would be hard to use genuine audience volunteers that way. You'd probably need stooges.

Why so fancy? By the 1890's, Pepper's Ghost trickery had been in use for thirty years. The Cabarets of Heaven and Hell, across the street from the CdN, used it in their floor shows. Various traveling ghost show exhibits and theaters made heavy use of it, and Professor Pepper himself kept flogging it at the Royal Polytechnic Institute where he worked.

Furthermore, there was no shortage of Victorian spoil-sports eager to inform the public how the illusion was done:

It stands to reason that showmen would be searching for clever new ways to use what was now an old-hat illusion, something to bring back the "how do they do that?" element. The CdN boys seem just the kind who would tackle such a problem. Besides, two-sheet Pepper's Ghost illusions were known, even if this illustration doesn't show them making any particularly good use of it.

Originally, the coffin gag was the end of the show at the CdN, but in 1900 or 1901 they added a whole third room, set up like a small theater, with another Pepper's Ghost illusion onstage.

This one was played strictly for farce, to judge by descriptions and photos. The poor volunteer could not see what the audience saw: ghosts moving around, mocking, doing stupid bunny tricks, acting in a lewd and lascivious manner (this is Paris, after all). "[T]he solemnity which the lecturers invoke is of a most mock sort, and the audiences are continuously convulsed with laughter" (NYT 1896). Time to go.

Rolly Crump and Yale Gracey were professional magicians, as noted in an earlier post, and they did research into things like the history of Pepper's Ghost. There can hardly be any doubt that they knew about the Cabaret du Néant, which is mentioned in any decent survey of Pepper's. Earlier, Ken Anderson had incorporated a Pepper's Ghost illusion in his proposed haunted house walk-thru, using a 45º angled glass pane, much like CdN:

Eventually, this horizontal version of Pepper's would be used in Phantom Manor to make Melanie appear in the Endless Hallway. By the way, the CdN coffin gag was reproduced very closely, except it wasn't at Disneyland but at Knotts Berry Farm:

Besides the technical gimmicks, the CdN used a winning recipe of horror + stage magic + laughs, essentially the formula used for the Haunted Mansion.

Some time in the 1930s the Cabaret moved to a different location on the same street (#64 instead of #34) and continued to operate there for a long time. In November of 2012 we made a major discovery: The Cabaret du Néant was still open in September of 1969, in other words, still operating when the Haunted Mansion opened.

As a postscript, I should mention the apparent discrepancy between the photos of the coffin gag, in which the coffin looks like it's standing right in the doorway, and the actual set-up, which had it much further back. It's simple: these are staged photos, intended for post cards and publicity. They moved the coffins up for the photo shoots.

Originally Posted: Tuesday, August 24, 2010 Original Link: [x]

#Long Forgotten #Haunted Mansion

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