#the way it jingles throughout episode 5

[queers-ahoy]

They knew what they were doing putting Edward fucking Teach in a cat collar

#fulfilling all of my hopes and dreams #the way it jingles throughout episode 5 #especially during the kiss... #my heart my heart my heart #ofmd s2 spoilers

[celineytumbles]

It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

"With the kids jingle belling and everyone telling you 'Be of good cheer!'" - Andy Williams 🔔

So, who still uses Tumblr these days?

Apparently I do. It's 'cause this is my only personal blog page still existing. I have a devotional blog. Just wanna plug that 'cause Jesus deserves it.

Speaking of the Lord, it's His time of the year. For Christians, the rest of their lives is God's, but for most of the world, December 25 is His day.

This year, to save me from tears… Sorry. The sentence started with "This year," so I had to continue the lyrics. OK, so this year, I'm writing a blog entry here on Tumblr as my birthday gift to Jesus and my Christmas gift to the world. I actually planned to record myself singing a Christmas song while playing the piano, but we couldn't find our webcam. It has a good video quality and a very capable mic, and with it, I can shoot from an angle I want, so I couldn't film without it.

So here we are in Tumblr, and it's fitting because this is a throwback post. I was reminiscing on what I've been doing for Christmas through the years beside the gift giving to classmates and teachers as a student and the festive family dinners. What I was thinking about was the things I do, like a Christmas project of my own. I had to go back to my saved files of my deleted Facebook account that got hacked. Then I thought I could go further back to the very first blog I had because I had those posts saved too. The blogs were removed and, unfortunately, the site was shut down in 2021.

Let me take you to a walk down my memory lane of Christmas projects.

It was the year 2007. I wanted to know about the episodes of Disney's The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, and poof! I discovered TV.com, a website like IMDB where there are forums and users can blog. I started blogging, and I made some online friends.

Here was my Christmas post there. It's a poem.

"My Christmas Gift For You"

Happy Christmas This poem's for you Though it may not last These words stay true

This Christmas season Let us commemorate For the real reason It's Jesus Christ that we celebrate

He came to this world with humility He said goodbye to save our sins He'll come again for all humanity That's what Christmas means

I just want to give you something In a way that is different I chose to do this rhyming I hope you like this simple present

I can't give expensive things But I can still share what I have I share my blessings I spread the love

I was 14 years old when I wrote this. I think I didn't make it clear enough that Jesus' goodbye there was when He died on the cross, not when He ascended to heaven.

The next year, I made a picture greeting. I had to recreate it because the image in the saved file has watermarks.

Counterclockwise from the top left, that's Aly & AJ's Christmas album, the main cast of The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, Jessica Simpson's Rejoyce Christmas album, and of course, the Jonas Brothers.

In 2009, celebrities joined Twitter, so I did too. I connected my Twitter and Facebook accounts so that my tweets get posted on FB as well.

I tweeted one of my favorite Christmas songs. (How do we say that for X now? I x'd 💀) That Twitter account got suspended, so I generated this picture. I got the tweet from the FB posts saved.

In 2011, we had this laptop where you can draw on the screen, so I made the 5 squares you see here that are made digitally. The other 4 are drawn on paper.

2013 was the year I started writing many poems throughout the year, so, naturally, my Christmas greeting was another poem.

2014 had a miserable Christmas for me because I had school on Christmas day. We were in the Middle East.

I got severely depressed in 2015, so I wasn't using social media. But, of course, I still celebrated it with my family.

In 2016, my FB got hacked. That's why all the FB post pics above are just generated images.

I made a comeback in 2017.

In 2018, my family was all together in our Church's multi-generational choir. Obviously, this isn't a personal project, but I want to include it here anyway.

That year, I also started playing Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp.

Our last Christmas in Bahrain was in 2019. It was our last time singing with the choir as a family.

2020 was our comeback to our home country, and after we got settled in our new house, COVID-19 was a widespread pandemic. It was a year of playing video games, making YouTube videos, and watching TikToks.

The posts below are from my Instagram. That's why there are hashtags.

2021 was a year of productivity. I released music videos of songs I composed and produced, started my Bible devotional blog, and joined a Bible study group.

I made this vid using Animal Crossing. This song's Phil Wickham's, not mine.

This is a screenshot of this blog post.

In November of 2022, God granted my desire to buy myself a piano.

There weren't any more new updates for Animal Crossing: New Horizons, so my greeting for 2022 was from its ever-updated mobile game.

This year 2023, Blackpink released its mobile game, so here's my greeting:

I thought I would just be looking back at Christmases, but it turned out to be looking back at my life. The Lord has been truly faithful. He keeps on sustaining me and my loved ones. I'm just glad the world recognizes this holiday where we can all celebrate love, which they may not fully understand it's of God. We enjoy the season together whether it's through music, gaming, or even literature like poetry or books, which I haven't done yet, but I just recently finished listening to the audiobook of The Nutcracker and the Mouse King. Now it has become a new dream of mine to publish a Christmas book.

So, I ended up sharing myself. But what I want you to see is how Christ is the most important that I make effort every December to do something special.

"For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."

- Isaiah 9:6, NJKV

A blessed Noël to us all!

With sugar plum love, Celine ❤️

#christmas #disney #animal crossing #the sims #blackpink #poetry #carol of the bells #little drummer boy #celiney blogs about

[chelsfic]

Helllooo! How would you rank season 3 eps so far? 🦇

Hi hi hi! Thanks for sending me an ask ahhh

Oh wow... decisions!?

Hmmmm let's see. ok ok ok

Season 3 episodes (so far) ranked...

Well, first I must say that I love this entire season with all my heart and I think every episode has been *mauh* chef's kiss for different reasons. But here is my personal ranking....

1. The Casino

This has to be number one, right? It was such an *EVENT.* The bing bongs on vaca! It was like a crack fic come to life but with FEELINGS. From beginning to end you knew it was a special episode. I think it also exemplifies something that the show has been doing really well this season: balancing the screen time and writing for each of the main characters. Everyone had an interesting journey this episode (Guillermo, literally).

Highlights for me were: Guillermo's almost-coming-out scene (my heart, my heart), the AIRPLANE SCENE (Desolate Nandor on the rooftop, zoom in on Guillermo's plane landing--AHHHHH), the development of Sean and Laszlo's friendship--precious!, Nadja's flashback photos-- helloooooooooo, Colin's adorable obsession with the Casino jingle.

2. Gail

Perhaps fave line of the season so far: "We all know that you kinda think Gail is a little bit of a big-time bitch."

Of course I loved the way the show lingered on Guillermo's jealousy and further illuminated how he's trying to "play a game of chess" this season. But I also ADORED Nadja throughout this whole episode. "I LIKE THIS WOMAN!" Lol she was great. I also *loved* Gail. And yes, seeing Nandor's bare butt was a plus too lmao.

3. The Chamber of Judgement

MORE MANIPULATIVE MEMO! Memo wearing the council robes! GAAAH!!

NANDOR AND HIS BOYFRIEND NANDOR AND HIS BOYFRIEND NANDOR AND HIS--

Also, Laszlo looked hot and vulnerable when he thought Sean was trying to seduce him lmao.

Oh, yeah, and The Guide representing all of us: just VERY into Memo lol

4. Cloak of Duplication

Oops all Nandors. In which we were introduced to our queen, Meg: She Who Sees Through Guillermo and Nandor's Bullshit. I was happy for Kayvan that he got an episode like this where he really got to play and show off. And I was happy for me that I got to see Guillermo (played by Kayvan lol) confront his romantic feelings for Nandor for the first time. Wow. IS THIS SEASON REAL???

5. The Prisoner

First and last, sorry Prisoner. I really did enjoy this episode, it's just that it was followed up by so many AMAZING episodes. However, Memo-in-a-Cage, my beloved. Memo sneaking out and taking care of everyone and then getting a cheeseburger. Manipulating Nandor lmao. The Guiddddeee.

Thanks for this question, Anon! It made my day! How would you rank the episodes so far?

#wwdits #what we do in the shadows #wwdits spoilers #asks

[nightswithkookmin]

JIKOOK:DON'T ASK ME TO STOP LOVING YOU. I WON'T- Jikook Shading eachother pt3

Disclaimer:

Everything expressed in her is my opinion. It is not intended to be malicious or disrespectful to any of the parties here in mentioned. Please don't be weird.

Jeon Jungkook is in love with Park Jimin. Period. If you have doubts, take my word for it. That man heard a bell ring and he's been following that jingle sound till thy kingdom come. Bless him.

No, I am not off track. We are still on the Jikook breakup/fights 2020 train and it's express. Beep beeeeep! Sorry.

Jk loves Jimin and it is the cause of all his woes- with Jimin as well as with the other bandmates. His problem is he loves that man- too much.

Yes, the 2019 November-December tensions with his bandmates was all because he keeps blurring the lines between his relationship and his career. He is lucky, both of them are lucky that they found eachother in a space like this where they have the opportunity to love and still have it all. Trust me, it's rare.

Except JK didn't join BTS to pursue a career. Bless him. He went there to harvest him some sweet love. Lol. Jokes aside, Jk when he started out had no goals, no ambitions whatsoever. He was young. He was just following the path set out for him by his parents perhaps, his teachers- and also he thought Namjoon's thighs were hella delicious. Lol

He has had to grow to love and appreciate his craft and career just as he's said in the recent Japan comeback interviews. He even almost quit singing to go be a dancer and all it took was Jimin telling him he had an amazing voice for him to stay- the power of park Jimin!

That's how young and naive he was when he began his career path. Let's get a bit deep and psychoanalyze him real quick. He made an entire life decision to join a boyband for seven years not because he loved to sing and dance but because he admired the zeal od RM?

Then when layer he was exposed to dance, and had to make an equally important life decision, he allowed another bandmate(Jimin) to make that decision for him. This should tell you the state of his mind as at the time. He was young and impressionable with no aspirations of his own.

Even as of 2019, he said he had no idea what he was going to do with his life after BTS had the band disbanded in 2018. That's a lot of experience span to not know what he wants to do with his life.

Now I don't mean to say he is immature but we all know the members especially Jimin have pointed out time and again that JK is in fact immature or can be.....

He seems to me as the type who still have a lot to figure out and per his recent interviews where he's talked about taking time to himself to work on himself and his hobbies etc. I have a feeling 2020 has been a period of awakening for him. A period where he is self actualizing a lot and I'm happy for him.

But it is what is causing this age of enlightenment in his life that has me curious.

Moving on, this young, naive, impressionable JK as he was in the early days of BTS started developed feelings for his hyung. Do you see the problem? I'll wait....

These feelings, I assume, began as pure admiration and fondness of Jimin. Jimin was this talented and hardworking, spontaneous, energetic hyung and JK with an impressionable mind as his was was bedazzled by him.

Soon these feelings would morph into what could be seen as an obsession, infatuation and then finally love.

The way I see it, loving Jimin gave him purpose for the first time in his young life. He may not have known much about his life goals and ambitions but he knew being with Jimin gave him a solid ground to stand on, a new sense of direction, certainty and purpose.

He got to share in Jimin's passions, share his with him, dance together, sing, practice, rehearse, make him the subject of his photography, the subject of his attention, care for him, be cared for by him- something he hadn't had the chance to experience from home before he was yanked away into idol life.

Growing up, we all experience that moment where we imprint on friends and relatives. My uncle was my mentor as well as my elder brother too. I admired them so much I sometimes confused that with romantic love till I got socialized properly.

Jk's socialization was.... He....

-Jk may be an introvert but he thrives and shines best when he partners up or is in a group like BTS or his friends group etc and Jimin i feel was the ideal partner for him; his queerness, his adventurousness, pushing JK's boundaries, challenging his beliefs, showing him how to have a good time- ok I really want this Jimin back! Like right now!

Jimin left an impression on JK's young mind. He imprinted on him. And for the longest time, we've seen the way he stares at Jimin.JK really loves Jimin.

So what's the problem?? Loving JM is consuming his mind y'all. It's all he thinks off. All he cares of. He seems super hyper focused on Jimin so much so that it is affecting the dynamics of their group.

His jealousy,possessiveness- He knows he has to keep his relationship a secret for the sake of the group because it is their secret too and yet he just can't help himself.

I feel RM and the others complain a lot about how he let's his jealousy get the best of him. Like how he almost exposed JM as his boyfriend on several occasions verbally( see previous post for further details)

Like how him getting jealous and possessive gives them away more often. I mean JM is bad at hiding it too but let's be honest JK isn't winning any awards with that bad acting. *sigh. He is hopeless.

But yes this is what led to the MMA standoff with RM. It is also the reason for the tensions between Jikook during Jin's birthday VLive (JM asked him to keep his distance because the members had tried to separate them earlier and so JM was just being salty af during this period. It had nothing to do with JK but the others. See Golden Disc and you'll understand)

This also led to their subsequent break up( which you will notice during the comeback interviews and promotions periods- I don't know about you but they were giving off two exes tryna to keep it happy for the cameras during that period but failed cos their interaction were just....)

PS: there are a lot of moments I want to point out but don't know where to begin cos there are a lot.

The blackswan behind scenes moments( JM asking JK if he he wanted to be in a subunit with someone else, JM making JK jealous during the interviews, JK using Tae to make JM jealous the next day, JK holding JMs hands not wanting to let go- he was missing his ex. Lol it's what you do when you have to be friends with that ex you still love and won't hesitate to touch them given the slightest opportunity and once you do you don'twanna let go)

Just look at that whole On comeback promotion moments. You'll understand what I mean.

Also the Run episode moments- you know the one JK almost beat Suga up with the frying pan- JM for this phase seemed to be to be trying to get back together with JK. Dude was clingy as fuck! And for once he was on his best behaviour, trying his hardest not to make JK jealous. I mean the Run behind scenes moment where JM was helping Tae clean off food residue on his mouth but stopped immediately when JK lifted his head. *insert skull head emoji. Lol

To say JM was a bit clingy during this getting back together phase would be an understatement. Remember his clingy moments during Suga's birthday Vlive 2020? And during Festa too? He was trying to get JK's attention and also impress him throughout.

Around this breakup moment too was when he was spending a lot of time with Tae playing video games with Army, posting their selfies at 4 AM and what not. It is also the same period he posted a picture of himself with his dogs on Twitter and said he was trying to spend time with loved ones- if that wasn't shade to JK!

They couldn't post 13th May because of these issues they were having. Not that JM didn't try though. He posted on the 1st, JK should have followed with 3rd but did was busy pouting somewhere. JM still gave us a 5/8=13 selca though so yaay!

What I'm trying to say is, their fight has been about JK not wanting to be separated from JM and JM asking JK to cool it off for a while to not cause trouble with the members and the company.

To which Jk responds with:

1. Interrupting JM's call with Jin during his VLive to ask him on a date and say I love you to him. Dude is a rebel, I don't know what you want me to say. He is not gonna cool it just because it makes the other worried he is exposing them too much.

Jk interrupting JMs live I feel got Jikook in trouble because after that Vlive JM never did a solo live on VLive again to this day. His subsequent lives have all been on YouTube.

I have a feeling he was penalized because that VLive exposed them. And no, I'm not being delusional. Jikook were both banned from doing a VLive together alone following their New Jersey VLIVE in 2019 when they- I don't even know how to describe what they did in that live!

And to make it less obvious, I think BigHit decided the others should stop doing solo Vlives on VLive altogether because now they all do their solo lives on YouTube as well and if they have to do a Vlive it is heavily monitored by BigHit staff or its radio and not done in their rooms too.

So I think Jimin got pissed at JK for doing that and getting them in trouble again. I mean if you heard him sigh during the new Jersey VLive you would know how frustrated JK makes him. He loves him too but.... Jk can be a bit too much ya know?!

Anyhoo, so I believe JM called for some space and told JK to take up interests in other things beside him and I don't know how JK took it but he responded with this:

Posting the cover of the song Not Never. Which was him basically saying for as long as he lives he will not never think about JM. As in he is never not ever keeping away from JM. We might have to pry Jimin from his cold hands! *sigh

Which leads to the radio Vlives moments,

Something Jimin said during his interview with suga caught my attention. He said it was nice that they get to speak with Armies at least like this. I believe all these were putting a lot of stress on Jimin as he has decided to take a break off social media prior to him saying so on this interview. But the wording of that statement also made be believe some thing or someone was preventing him from talking to Armies in the usual manner.

Earlier with RM he had said how he would go crazy if they weren't allowed to do certain things he was used to doing on stage as well. So that also raised a flag to me.

I had a feeling Suga had invited JM on that Radio live to address his 'issues'- including his issues with JK. Jikook have a subtle way of communicating with each other and somehow social media has a huge part in that. They not the only ones, Beyonce and JayZ also addressed their relationship issues through their music, going back and forth yet they lived together. I DONT UNDERSTAND THESE CELEBRITIES!!!

Sorry for the rant. Anyway I had a feeling JK was listening to the radio interview too.

Suga asked JM why he didn't come to his music video set to support him- which I believe he was referring to his Daechwita shoot. JM didn't go because, take a guess...

JK was there too. Lol. He had gone with Jin and even ended up filming a part in the music video. My guess is Jk thought Jimin was gonna be there because he always go to Support Suga and the others in times like that.

So Jimin responds with 'were you expecting me? .... I didn't come because I want you to want me more.' Now that's an absolutely random response don't you think? He couldhave said something logical like he had to record at a studio or something- unless he wasn't talking about Suga but was sending that message to someone else who was listening in. A certain man with a JM tatto ring on his ring finger perhaps??

JM from this response revealed he intentionally missed that shoot. He knew JK would be there and he wanted him to ask where JM was at it he wasn't at the shoot. It's also interesting how during this period JK was spending a lot of time with Jin. When he interrupted JM's Vlive call he was with Jin. He went with Jin to Suga's MV and Jin posted a selca of him and shirtless Jk dieimh this period too while JM was mostly seen with Tae. What does this remind you of??

MANILA. same thing happened when they had that Manila fight. Jin was with JM and we all know who was siding with JK!

Why would JM say he wants to be enacted more? Easy- He a slytherin and a Libra and those two mixed together is sinister. Kidding.

I believe JK intentionally took a step back from JM, to give him the space he wanted and it had JM feeling someway about it. Probably had him feeling JK didn't want him as much anymore. Dude is insecure we been known. He a Libra and a slytherin what y'all expect?

So I'm guessing JM put up the classic textbook attitude towards JK which had JK all confused because he had no idea what their issues were anymore or why his boyfriend was spending his nights at Tae. You want space, you got it. Why you mad?

So JK reaches out to Suga for help. because the intention was fix his relationship not have it plummet. Dude is in love with this man and will do whatever it takes to keep his relationship. *Sigh

Suga comes through for him with the interview. And I think JK put two and two together- literally. He comes up with still with you a few days after JM's interview and does a radio interview with Suga as well.

Now the focus of this interview was his "apology to Armies for his scandal.' But funny, cos his scandal happened a month before the interview. Suga radio had been ongoing after the scandal and yet this man didn't think once to come on it and apologize to Armies about an incident that BigHit had already addressed until JMs interview.

You don't talk about scandals. That's the protocol.

Let me also point out JK has had several scandals in the past of which he had never addressed in a Vlive let alone apologize in that way. Not saying he wouldn't, he hasn't. They themselves don't address scandals unofficially, that's the protocol and he knows it.

If they were allowed to think Armies would be more interested in him addressing the Tatoo gurl scandal not his Friday night happy hours with his friends. That apology was for Jimin not armies.

Also, he pointed out how still with you was written when he was alone in the dark thinking by himself. That sounds to me like something you do when you've had a fight with your boyfriend/girlfriend and they've packed their things and left your shared apartment.

Interestingly, Jk mentioned during Festa the rain fight. Still with you literally has rain drops sounds in the beginning of the song and also on the cover on sound cloud. Seems to me that whatever happened that night had JK reminiscing about times he'd fought with JM- the rain fight. Which is what inspired still with you (I will do a full analysis of that song and others soon here on my blog'

Yea, so he apologized to JM for their fight I guess and said he loves Army. *smirk.

And things started falling into place right after that. They started- Jikooking again. Jk called JM out on Weverse so they start their online flirting thingy- posting immediately after each other, 13, those kinda things

Things seemed good. Untill their Japan interviews when JK said spending time alone pursuing new hobbies was gold to him and JM saying maintaining his relationships with friends and family is good to him. Seems JK is still salty about JM wanting space. It will take sometime for him to get used to not being around JM 24/7. Know what I mean?

I don't think there was major tension there. Just two lovebirds shading eachother. *smirk I mean the passive aggressiveness of it all. Lol

I have a feeling JK will keep jabbing at JM with that because let's face it, he is the emo one in that relationship and most importantly he loves JM with all his being and wants to be with him always. A partner asking for space can feel like they are pushing you away or rejecting you. It triggers a lot of insecurities so I understand JK in that sense. They are both not wrong in my opinion. Space can be a good thing and hey at least JK got to read a whole book during this time! Who woulda thought!

And quiet honestly, if Jikook are real as I believe they are then these issues they are having pales in comparison to the hurdles that lie ahead of them for when they decide to come out or live as a forever couple.

I guess It is why JK put these lyrics in GCF Helsinki at JMs part:

Why do you spend your time leading the chorus,

When the war was just waiting before us?

As if you didn't know

I guess it's sums up what Jikook were dealing with during that period of you take into consideration the fact this was released end of December/ early 2020.

Jimin pays too much attention to what people thinks of their relationship as if he didn't know what he was getting himself into. ...

This has been a long one, chai! Sorry. I get carried away sometimes talking about Jikook. Lol.

So what is the state of their relationship? They good. I been told y'all JK is trying to bring back their old online filtering habits. He did it on Weverse when he posted about him reading and asking what JM was doing forcing JM to come out with a response.

He did the same yesterday when he posted a cover song after JM posted his selca on Twitter. They good. They more than good I believe. I will keep observing and will update y'all with my observations as and when.

Oh and I will be doing an analysis of his new cover may be later tonight. Until then its Jikook forever bishes! Gang, gang, gang,

I'M OUT!

#kookmin #jikook #nightswithkookmin #jikooktheories #kookmintheories #jikook analysis #kookmin analysis #bts jimin #bts jungkook #jikook fights #jikook scenarios #jikook wallpaper #kookmim #kookmin fights #jimin lockscreens #park jimin #bts fluff #bts angst

[tsuki-sennin]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The crossover specials are soooo good too.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[neighbourskid]

2020

What a year, huh? Surely not anything anyone has expected to happen when we woke up on this day a year ago. I certainly haven’t. I’m not even sure, now, where to begin to sum up this year like I’ve done years prior. But then again... I may just as well just dive right into all the media I consumed this year, as I have done every year. I haven’t kept track as detailed as I have last year, but my year was definitely punctuated by pieces of entertainment that have come into my life.

Continuing on from 2019, my obsession with Good Omens was still going strong. Which was ideal, since I was gonna spend the first half of the year writing my Bachelor thesis on it. The intensity of the obsession may have waned a bit since, but I still love that show and book dearly and hold it close to my heart, and I don’t think that will ever stop. But while Good Omens was certainly an overall theme throughout my year, there were some other things that actually stood out.

With January came new episodes of Doctor Who, and having returned to that particular bandwagon the year prior, I was all about that. Jodie’s second season finally brought what I had longed for in her first--a darker kind of Doctor. She wasn’t quite as bubbly anymore, you could finally see some of the depths in the character that I loved so in the previous regenerations, which made me love Peter’s Doctor so incredibly much. In this season, I felt, Jodie was finally becoming the Doctor. Overall, that season catered to me personally every single episode. So many of the time periods they visited were of people I loved, and the introduction of Sacha Dhawan as the Master was absolutely....well, masterful. Sacha is brilliant in that role and I am utterly stunned by his talent. Although both John Simm and Michelle Gomez brought things to the Master that I liked, it’s Sacha’s completely unhinged take on it that made me finally like the character. He’s a madman and I love it.

The next major thing was The Good Place. I tend to have a talent of getting into shows just as they either ended their entire show, or the final season is just coming up. It’s happened quite a bit, and it was the same with this. I finally binged the show early in January and it would end its final season at the end of the month. True to form, I was completely obsessed with it for about a month, before I only occasionally thought about it again. But, thinking back now, I get this incredibly fond feeling for this show, and I remember that the finale absolutely wrecked me and I basically ugly sobbed through the entirety of it. Also very true to form, actually. I want to rewatch it again some time, but honestly preferably with someone who has never seen it before. Which, obviously, is a difficult thing to do given, well, everything.

Next up is something that surprised me a lot. In the middle of having to write my BA thesis, my procrastination thought it would be a great idea to rewatch and catch up on the entirety of Criminal Minds. And so I binged 15 seasons of that instead of writing my thesis. Which, coincidentally, had also just aired its final season not long before I started my binge in March. Rewatching this, I realised just how little I took in of the actual, like, stuff in the show when I first watched it as a teen. Although I mostly cared about the characters and their found family this time around--although I do find the cases really fascinating most of the time too--I noticed just how much I am not watching this for the fact that they are in the FBI. I was hyperaware of how often they shot at people before doing anything else, how many of the suspects died before ever being questioned or being brought in, and it made my skin crawl. I am aware how fucked up the criminal justice system is, and especially in the US, how the police functions and how incredibly glorified they are in the media. But rewatching this show, I realised how little I actually paid attention to anything when I was younger. Big yikes. Still, I remembered my love for these characters, and I really enjoyed that rewatch a whole lot. Found family will always get to me.

Once I finished writing my thesis and handed it in early in July, I then found my next momentary obsession: Community. The show had finally come to Netflix earlier in the year and a friend of mine had watched it then. I remember watching that pilot episode back then and being completely uninterested in watching it. The comedy felt like it wasn’t quite up my street, the characters were entirely unlikeable, and I especially disliked Jeff who the show was more or less centred around. I binged Criminal Minds instead, but then decided to give it another try. And, well, I watched it twice through without taking a break to watch something else in-between. Ironically, and maybe actually unsurprisingly, Jeff ended up being my favourite and I found myself relating a lot to him and his arc throughout the series. I even found myself writing some short ficlet-like things in the notes app on my phone. I made an attempt at starting a third watch, but I guess then the month was up, and my brain decided it was time for something else. My hyperfixations usually tend to die out after about a month. Which is why my complete devotion to Good Omens was a pleasant surprise. I did, however, end up watching quite a bit of Joel McHale and Ken Jeong’s The Darkest Timeline podcast throughout August. 

Early in September, while already preparing for the new term at uni, and my first semester in my Master’s studies, I then turned to New Girl. Friends of mine had seen it and recommended it, and I remember watching probably the entire first season on TV while I was in San Diego the first time around back in 2016. Or at least I think it was the entire first season. Either way, I binged that whole thing, realised through Nick Miller that the go-to character I am drawn to and tend to project on in any piece of media is usually what I like to call “the garbage man,” which Nick is a prime example of. And although I spent a month watching the show in-between starting university again and volunteering at a film festival, I didn’t spend much time afterward thinking about it and moved on to other things rather quickly. I enjoyed watching it, that much I remember, and I’m pretty sure I cried at the finale because it was done wonderfully, but seeing as another month was up, my brain was probably like “okay fine that’s enough”.

I then spent most of fall and early winter watching every single bad Christmas movie available on Netflix, which was quite fun. In that moment of festivity, I also watched a movie I found absolutely brilliant and fell in love with immediately. It’s a beautiful movie called Jingle Jangle, it has a magnificent soundtrack and is absolutely incredible. I had no idea Forest Whitaker could sing and he completely blew me away. If you haven’t seen it already, I highly recommend it. It doesn’t matter that Christmas is already over, it’s beautiful either way.

By the time December finally rolled around, I was already over the whole Christmas thing, to be honest and I turned away from festive movies or shows, and eventually ended up finally picking up a gem I had heard much about and had been meaning to watch for a while. A show which, as it were, also aired its final season earlier this year. This little show is Schitt’s Creek. I will be going on about what this show means to me probably in another post at length, but for now just let me say: if you haven’t seen it, find some place to watch it, and put this beautiful show in your eyeballs. I am on my second run through already (although I’ve seen the second half of the show a second time already while watching it with a friend on their first run through), and it brings me so much fucking joy. It’s a gift, this show. And it will likely stay with me for a very, very long time.

That’s about it for the big things. I also watched a whole lot of other stuff, including entirely new things, or just newly released seasons of things I was already watching. Here’s what I can remember off the top of my head:

Charlie’s Angels (2020). The Night Manager. The Witcher. Dolittle (2020). The Librarians (rewatch). Harley Quinn (2020). Sonic the Hedgehog (2020). The Chef Show (S1 part 3, S2 part 1). Avenue 5. Money Heist (part 4). The Good Fight (S4). Brooklyn Nine-Nine (S7). DuckTales (2017 reboot). Frankenstein live. Staged (2020). Hamilton. Sense8. Julie and the Phantoms. The Boys in the Band. One Night in Miami. Enola Holmes. Supernova. His Dark Materials (S2). Happiest Season. The Great Canadian Baking Show.

I also got some reading done in-between what I had to read for my thesis in spring, and then for regular university courses in fall. Here’s some of what I can remember:

Anthony Horowitz, The House of Silk. Ramona Meisel, Sunblind. Donna Tartt, The Secret History. Good Omens novel and script book. Matt Forbeck, Leverage: The Con Job. Keith R.A. Decandido, Leverage: The Zoo Job. Greg Cox, Leverage: The Bestseller Job. Greg Cox, The Librarians and the Lost Lamp. Greg Cox, The Librarians and the Mother Goose Chase. Greg Cox, The Librarians and the Pot of Gold. Neil Gaiman, Marvel 1602. Christina Henry, The Lost Boy. Neil Gaiman, Norse Mythology. John Green, An Abundance of Katherines. Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Aurora Leigh. Maria Konnikova, The Confidence Game. 

Having mulled over all this entertainment I consumed in 2020, there are also some non-tv or book things I need to point out. As many, many other people around the globe, I have also spent a large amount of time this year on my Nintendo Switch, playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons. It is a game I have waited for since the Switch was first announced, and I fell in love with it from the moment the first trailer dropped. It has brought me great joy in this weird fucking year, and I have more or less consistently played it since it came out in March. I ended this year with the in-game New Year’s Eve celebration and I feel like that summed up this year quite neatly and appropriately.

This year also brought with it another game very close to my heart: Super Mario Sunshine. With their release of Super Mario 3D All-Stars in September, Nintendo finally brought my all-time favourite Mario game to my all-time favourite console, and I played the entire game through in the first week of owning it, in-between university courses and volunteering at the film festival. Also contained in that package was Super Mario Galaxy which I have also played through in its entirety since. All that’s left for me now is Super Mario 64, which I am excited to play through in the coming year.

And to round off my year of entertainment, there are two more things I would like to mention. First, David Tennant Does A Podcast With..., which released its second season this summer. It is one of the only, if not the only podcast I keep up to date with and listen to immediately whenever a new episode drops. I’ve loved the first season dearly, and David came back with some incredibly fantastic guests for the second season as well. I can’t wait for what the podcast will bring in the future, but I will wait patiently until it is time. I can highly recommend it for everyone who likes interesting conversations between lovely people who clearly adore each other a whole lot.

And finally, while this year brought a whole lot of bullshit with it, it also gave me something I never thought possible and did not even dare to imagine in my wildest dreams. My all-time favourite show announced that it would be rebooted with the same main cast (minus one), a new wonderful member, and involvement of the original creators, and even started filming already in summer. Leverage is coming back. I still cannot believe it. I hoped for a movie, always. That maybe one day, they might bring the gang back together, for one last job, just one more encore. But to get a whole new tv-show with Aldis, Christian, Gina and Beth returning? With the addition of Noah Wyle? I can’t wrap my head around it. I am so excited for this. I predict that I will ugly sob through the entirety of the pilot episode, if not the first season, and will have to rewatch every episode because of it, but I have no doubt that it will be brilliant and wonderful.

True to form, I have now gone on about tv shows and movies for far too long, and haven’t really said anything about this year at all. 2020 was fucking weird. And I don’t think 2021 will be much different quite yet. I wrote an entire BA thesis in 2020. I successfully finished by Bachelor’s degree and started my Master’s studies and even got some excellent first grades in as well. I was lucky enough to be able to see some friends and family throughout the year, and even celebrate my birthday with a small circle of friends. I’ve become closer with friends, shared experiences I wouldn’t trade for the world, and, I think, maybe also grown a bit as a person.

I started this year excited to finally be able to start taking testosterone in February, and to finish the first part of my studies by summer. Although I did both of these things, they didn’t happen quite how I imagined them, but I am glad that I could do these things nevertheless.

2020 was a hell year, for sure. But there were some moments in there that I wouldn’t want to lose.

I’ve tried very hard to not be optimistic about this upcoming year, and rather take a more realistic, even pessimistic approach. But I can’t help but be hopeful. Hopeful that this year will be kind to us, and if it isn’t, that at least, we’ll be kind to ourselves and each other. It won’t be easy, and not much will change, I think. But we have to approach the coming time with kindness and compassion. That’s where I’m at currently. And I think that’s all for now.

Be well, friends, and take care.

#2020 #end of year round up #personal #blog post #good omens #the good place #criminal minds #community #new girl #schitt's creek #schitts creek #jingle jangle #his dark materials #doctor who #leverage #leverage reboot #leverage 2 #super mario 3d all stars #super mario sunshine #nintendo #nintendo switch #switch #super mario galaxy #super mario 64 #university #david tennant #david tennant does a podcast with #animal crossing #animal crossing new horizons #acnh

[codyfernmorelikedaddyfern]

Is There Somewhere - Soft!Xavier x Fem!Reader

Another one inspired by my spotify playlist. Feel free to suggest any other pairing of songs and characters from AHS.

Big Xavier mood at the moment, can you tell?

I recommend you listen to the song after or before you read, Halsey is an amazing artist.

Description: Your best friend Xavier has just moved to LA to pursue his acting career. He leaves a message on your answering machine letting you know he has started to date someone. Facing your feelings for him, you ask him to come and see you during a mental breakdown.

Warnings: Mental health, panic attacks and soft Xavier. A pinch of steam at the end but that’s it.

“Hey, Y/N! Sorry I didn’t call since I settled in my new flat,” the soft voice of your best friend, Xavier rung from your answering machine. “I was on my way to an audition for the last episode of Mash and that girl rear-ended me and I guess I got a little busy her and we had went on a couple of dates since then” he continued. “Just called me back when you’ve got a hot sec’ and if you need me over just say the word and I’ll drive back to you! Miss you!”

He had moved hours away from your suburban part of Fresno weeks ago to work as an aerobic teacher while trying to make his way on the big screen as an actor. These weeks had been the hardest since you had met Xavier back in school, you two knitting a beautiful friendship and helping the both of you bloom from awkward teenagers to bright young adults.

There was however one issue with this whole ordeal. Blossoming by his side lead to your feelings for him burgeoning at the same time. The ache of having him gone was already a handful for you to handle but now knowing that he had someone to watch over him. Someone else.

Your hands trembled, your lip starting to quiver. Your chest tighten and soon enough, the ability to breath was aching in your chest. You quickly pushed the door of your bedroom closed, afraid your parent would hear your incoming panic attack coiling in your lungs. Grabbing on the large handset, you shakenly dialled his number. After a couple of tones, his voice came through.

“Hi, this is Xavier?

-Xav, it’s (Y/N), you whispered with a halting breath.

-(Y/N)! It’s so go- Are you alright, he asked, concerned by the irregular sound of your voice.

-N-no, I n-need to s-see y-ou.

-Shit! Okay, hang tight! Focus on your breathing! I’ll jump in the van and come straight to you!”

Gasping for air as the panic crept more through your body, crippling your limbs, you felt your legs give in under your weight and you collapsed by your bed in a muffled crash. “FUCK! Montana! I need to run! My best friend is having a panic attack!! She needs me!” you heard come through the phone, a long rustle building up as Xavier started to pack up a few things. The jingle of his keys came to your ears as he came back through the phone to talk to you. “Honey, I need you to breath. Inhale through the nose, count to 5 then exhale through the mouth,” he encouraged, waiting to start hearing your breathing regulate somewhat. “I’ll be here as soon as I can, I am ready to go, please keep on breathing” a soft sniffle came through to your ears, not realising the tears staining your cheeks as you started to cry in fear. “I love you, (Y/N), hold on” was the last thing you heard before he hung up.

Sitting on the cold carpeted floor of your bedroom with your head erratically spinning for what felt like hours, you managed to regain control on all of your 5 senses. Having lost complete notion of time, you stumbled over to place the handset back on the dock and crumbled on your bed. Seconds, minutes, hours went by as you laid on the mattress, gently weeping and drifting in and out of consciousness.

The ringing of the house phone pulled you out of your tremor. “(Y/N)! Xavier on the phone for you!” you mother shouted. Your weak legs carried you back to the phone, picking it up gingerly.

“Hello? Xavier, you asked weakly.

- Hey sweetheart. I’m just down the road, filling up the road. I should be over in 20.

- Xav… My parents can’t see me like that… Is there somewhere you can meet me?

- It’s alright, he reassured, I’ll get a hotel room somewhere and we can talk it out there, okay?

-Yes, just let me know when you’re there”

The conversation ended by a muffled exchange of “I love you”, the words cutting the wound open once again. It slowly dawned onto you that hours had passed. Gathering a pair of jeans and a clean sweater to discard your tear soaked one, you sat back on your bed and changed then patiently waiting, the uneven sobs still clutching at your chest. The phone rang again and Xavier inform you of the hotel he had settled in. Peeking out of your bedroom to hear the quiet mumbling of the TV downstairs. Your change of clothes in your overnight bag, you gingerly sneaked out of the room then the house to jump on your bicycle and ride your way to the designated hotel.

The building came into your field of view and your heart skipped a beat. As you came closer, you could see his tall and athletic frame pacing in front of the doors. He knew the sound of your bike and could recognise it in the busiest roads possible, having heard it too often in the middle of the numerous night you rode to his house to see him.

His blue gaze locked onto your bloodshot (Y/E/C) eyes and he sprinted towards you, leaping over the railing of the stairs leading up to the hotel. You stumbled off of your bicycle and let yourself fall against his strong arms.

Your best friend’s hands laced themselves around your wait, pulling you securely up against his chest, the second one losing itself in your (Y/H/L) (Y/H/C) locks. Your own arms locked themselves around his neck, burying your featured against the crook of his neck, taking in his scent and the soft texture of his supple skin. You knew you had missed it, missed him, but you only realised now exactly how much of him you missed.

Like a rumble, his voice shushed and cooed in your ears, putting you in the safest place in your mind. He was your safe place and you both knew how often he led you to it in the middle of the night when it felt like death was catching a grip around your lungs and you thought your life was exiting your body.

“I’ve got you now. You’re safe”, he whispered, gently stroking your hair. Holding onto you securely, he leaned forward to grab the bicycle you tossed to the ground. “Let’s go inside” his voice filled your ear, lowering you gently to let your feet make contact with the floor, your arms untangling themselves as you grabbed the handles of your bike and parking it by the entrance. The silent walk up the stairs felt like an eternity. Xavier pushed his key in the door, unlocking a simple single bed rood. His hand motioned for you to step in, his footfalls in tow with yours, the door closing behind you.

He plopped on the bed, smiling up at you in an attempt to cheer you up but you lost eye contact, looking down at your feet before his hands reached up to pull you against him, gently laying the both of you down on the white sheets of the bed, keeping you all scooped up against his warm chest.

“Talk to me, please, have I done something wrong?” he questioned, full of concern. The jerky breath that filled your lungs next felt like it sliced through your chest like daggers. Tears leaked out of your eyes, quickly staining a small puddle against his chest. A sob, louder than you meant to allow, escaped your lips, followed by another one and the next thing you knew was him pulling your face impossibly closer to him as your cries and whales pushed a few drops from his ocean eyes.

Xavier stroked your hair, carefully rocking you from side to side. His gaze directed itself towards your features, exploring the twisted expression of total desperation on your face. His fingers pushed your chin up in an attempt to get your attention, internally wishing to see more of the beautiful soul he had grown up to adore and somewhat admire. “If someone hurts you, you need to tell me. I will make them pay” were his next words before you drowned yourself in his eyes, your brain allowing you a break between wails.

You propped yourself on your elbows, examining the handsome figure laying beneath you. Then something came over you and you pushed your lips against his in a pour attempt to make your cries stop. His hands, gently stroking your back, jolted away from your sweater in surprise, his eyes wide open. The taste of your tears mixed with his chapstick and own taste was like ambrosia to you. For the only split second the kiss was initiated, it felt like your heart was beating again, like you had never been alive until this very moment of deep intimacy.

The realisation that he was not returning the kiss hit you like a brick of walls, pushing yourself off his lips and seeing his face, his perfectly sculpted face, torn in a mixture of heartbreak and surprise, tears starting to seep out of his own eyes. You jolted yourself off of his body, stumbling back on your legs until you bumped into the wall behind you, a hand covering your mouth in horror.

He sat on the bed, his mouth agape. “I-I-I’m so so-rry, I d-idn’t mean to” you stuttered, the pain in your chest coming back as the flock of butterfly built up in your chest dispersed throughout your body. Your eyes darted around the room in search for some comfort. You heard the springs of the bed creak as Xavier pulled himself up from it, the same look of shock plastered across his features. “I didn’t know, (Y/N)”, he whispered from the other side of the room, his gaze fixated on you like a prey waiting for it’s predator to pounce on it.

Your body shifted, turning your back to him “I didn’t mean to” was all you could repeat, the cries peaking up again. “I just wanted to talk, I swear” you defended yourself, pushing your fingers through your hair, pulling on your (Y/H/C) roots. Breathing became hard again as you slowly lowered yourself to the floor, kneeling against the carpet, keeping your back turned to him.

“You have that girl back there… I just felt… Alone and I panicked”. Her words charged at him like a thousand armed men. Xavier buried his hands in his face at the realisation of your words. And it hit him. He hurt you and that thought was like a poisoned dagger through the heart. A small cry escaped his lips as he sat down on the bed, the venom of her own tears bleeding through his body.

His feet paced through the room as he emptied his pockets on the bed and soon enough, his arms wrapped around your (Y/B/T) frame. “You’ll never be alone, please, never think that someone else will get between you and me. I love you” his lips planted a soft kiss on the top of your head and you felt it again. Your heart beating.

A foreign feeling you had never been granted the chance to experience. “I’ve brought a few things to take the edge off” he finished, sitting back on the bed. The content of his pockets was in fact a lighter and a half-assed joint. You were always the one to roll them. A little smile pricked at the comers of your mouth and you sat next to him, wrapping your own arms around yourself in fear that the colony of fluttering critters would escape your belly.

You had liked Xavier for so long that you had not bothered noticing the change of rhythm your heart was adopting. Lighting it up and passing over, the next few minutes were spent in silence, the both of you consuming the cigarette slowly.

“Is that better, he enquired, cocking his head in your direction.

- I think so. I’m so sorry for earlier, you cursed yourself for reminding yourself of it.

- It’s…It’s okay (Y/N). I’ve always wondered how it felt to kiss you anyways.”

Your heart stopped at his words.

“I mean, we have been friends for so long that it’s kind of always been in my mind because, you know, we’ve never considered each other that way.

-It’s not okay, Xavier. You have a-, you could not even pronounce the words, your lungs tightening in your chest once more.

- A girlfriend? I mean, we’re not actually together, we’re just… hanging out, really”

He continued muttering about his situation with that girl without realising the redness blossoming in your eyes.

He turned his head to you when you heavily gasped for air, realising you were on the verge of another panic attack. He pushed your back against his chest and your clutched his arms like stairway railings. Xavier’s head rested on your shoulder as your grip tightened against his wrists, your breathing falling short over and over again. Beads of sweat formed on your forehead, your palms turning clammy and sticky. The dizziness came next, your fingers loosening against him, the room spinning. The nausea built up in your stomach as you whispered “To the ba-throom, pl–please”. In one fell swoop, he hooked his arm underneath your legs and hurried you to the bathroom, settling you both against the cold tile of the shower floor.

Your hair flew off your face as his fingers pulled it gently to the back. His free digits trailed underneath your sweatshirt, rubbing circles against the small of your back as your head lulled to the side, your vision blurring up with flashes of whites and blacks starry spots.

Another handful of minutes passed as Xavier gingerly helped you sway out of your fit of terror with soft words on encouragements, trying his best to reassure you. Your mouth dry and cottony, you gently spoke “I didn’t mean to…” you rolled your head, your body regaining any previous strength slowly, nestled against his chest. He pressed his lips against the supple skin of you cheek and you felt him breathing in your smell once again.

“Can you stand up?” he wondered before you nodded. Pulling both of your bodies up, you made your way to the bedroom again. “Let’s enjoy this high while it lasts and enjoy being together, alright?” he smiled, turning on the radio and shifting the frequency to play a station with the better music availability at the moment. “Tonight, we party!” he laughed, starting some sort of choreography taking possession of his body as he danced in his tube socks in the hotel room.

You giggle at the number of expressions he pulled, pulling you in for a spin to the rhythm of Queen, Billy Idol and The Beatles. Looking up and him, your heart flutter as his smile and laugh grew wider and louder, matching your expression, slightly picking up on the hype train he had just pushed you in. When Rock with You by Michael Jackson started playing, the atmosphere shifted as he pulled you in closer. You drowned yourself in the ocean blue of his eyes, letting it consume you. He linked your forehead to his, the tip of his nose brushing against your while his voice whispered the lines as if it was written for you.

The pit in your stomach deepened once more and, for a second, you felt yourself falling while his fingers linked to your hips, helping your to the beat of the song. His gaze looked down to the awkward movement of your feet underneath him and when he linked it back to yours, it was like euphoria.

Tendrils unleashed in your rib cage and your smile dropped, your smile fading as your realised what was happening. Right in this moment, it dawned onto you. You had just fallen in love with him. It had been slow at first but, as you looked in the deep pools of his eyes, you had just jumped into your feelings. Your fingers, resting on his shoulder, climbed up his neck, peppering his skin with goose bumps. Xavier’s eyes fluttered shut for a split second before yours did. You had both stopped dancing without realising it.

You pushed yourself on your heels, trusting your instinct to find his lips again, now devoid of any lip balm but coated with a fresh coat of saliva as he had just licked his dried lips. The mere fluttering in your chest exploded against your lungs. You could taste the weed in his breath but more importantly, you tasted him.

This time was different, you felt his hands tighten against your hips as he pulled you even closer to him, leaning slightly to the side and deepening the kiss. Grabbing the side of your throat, his digits moved quickly against your skin and when you both pulled away, the air between the both of you only seemed both burning hot and icy cold.

“I love you” was all you could whimper before Xavier dove in for another kiss, this time pushing you against the nearby wall. His palms gripped the underside of your thighs, pushing you up against the small dresser and helping you sit on it. Breaking off the kiss to trail his lips down the crook of your neck. “Promise me you’re not saying this because you’re jealous” he groaned, his lips bruising and making your shoulders. Your finger grabbed his jaws, pulling his gaze towards yours, silently trying to convince him this was not an act. “I didn’t mean to fall in love tonight” were your last words before another burning kiss. “Glad to know I’ve beaten you to it this time” he whispered against your lips, unleashing a legion of critters in your heart, falling helplessly even deeper for your best friend as he carried your body to the single bed.

“This is right where it begins” he whispered…

#xavier plympton #xavier plympton x reader #american horror story #ahs 1984

[hallmark-movie-fanatics]

‘WE NEED A LITTLE CHRISTMAS’ MARATHON OF ‘COUNTDOWN TO CHRISTMAS’MOVIES RETURNS TO HALLMARK CHANNEL FRIDAY, MARCH 27 – MONDAY, MARCH 30

STUDIO CITY, CA – March 26, 2020 – Hallmark Channel is giving viewers more of what they asked for with another weekend of ‘We Need a Little Christmas,’ a special marathon featuring “Countdown to Christmas” movies, Friday, March 27, through Monday, March 30.

The Hallmark Channel premiere of “Just My Type,” on Saturday, March 28, as well as new episodes of “When Calls the Heart” and “When Hope Calls” on Sunday, March 29, will air at their originally scheduled times.

“Countdown to Christmas” movies starring fan favorites Candace Cameron Bure, Lacey Chabert, Holly Robinson Peete, Cameron Mathison, Alison Sweeney, Danica McKellar, Andrew Walker, Jill Wagner, Wes Brown and more will let viewers cozy-up at home and watch the movies they asked for.  The weekend kicks off with “Christmas in Evergreen: Letters to Santa” starring Wagner, Mark Deklin (“Designated Survivor”), Robinson Peete (“Morning Show Mysteries,” “Hanging with Mr. Cooper”), Barbara Niven (“Chesapeake Shores”), Andrew Francis (“Chesapeake Shores”), Rukiya Bernard (“One Winter Weekend”) and Ashley Williams (“The Jim Gaffigan Show”).  The marathon continues throughout the weekend with movies including “Christmas at Holly Lodge,” “It’s Christmas, Eve,” “A Christmas Duet,” “A Christmas Wish,” and concludes with “Jingle All the Way” (Monday, March 30, 3:30 a.m. ET/PT).

The Full schedule appears below:

FRIDAY, MARCH 27th

12:00 p.m. ET/PT: “Christmas in Evergreen: Letters to Santa” Stars: Jill Wagner (“Pearl in Paradise,” “Teen Wolf”), Mark Deklin (“Designated Survivor”), Holly Robinson Peete (“Meet the Peetes,” “Hanging with Mr. Cooper”), Barbara Niven (“Chesapeake Shores”), Andrew Francis (“Chesapeake Shores”), Rukiya Bernard (“One Winter Weekend”) and Ashley Williams (“The Jim Gaffigan Show”)

2:00 p.m. ET/PT: “The Mistletoe Promise” Stars: Jaime King (“Harts of Dixie”) and Luke Macfarlane (“Killjoys”)

4:00 p.m. ET/PT: “Christmas at Holly Lodge” Stars: Alison Sweeney (“Days of our Lives,” “The Biggest Loser”), Jordan Bridges (J. Edgar, Mona Lisa Smile) and Sheryl Lee Ralph (“Instant Mom,” “Ray Donovan”)

6:00 p.m. ET/PT: “Picture a Perfect Christmas” Stars: Merritt Patterson (“The Royals”) and Jon Cor (“Shadowhunters”)

8:00 p.m. ET/PT: “Christmas Town” Stars: Candace Cameron Bure (“Fuller House”), Tim Rozon (“Schitt’s Creek”) and Beth Broderick (“Sharp Objects”)

10:00 p.m. ET/PT: “Write Before Christmas” Stars: Torrey DeVitto (“Chicago Med”), Chad Michael Murray (“Riverdale”), Grant Show (“Dynasty”), Lolita Davidovich (“How to Get Away with Murder”) and Drew Seeley (“Glory Daze”)

SATURDAY, MARCH 28th

12:00 a.m. ET/PT: “My Christmas Dream” Stars: Danica McKellar (“The Wonder Years”), David Haydn-Jones (“Bridal Wave,” “A Cookie Cutter Christmas”) and Deidre Hall (“Days of Our Lives”)

2:00 a.m. ET/PT: “12 Gifts of Christmas” Stars: Katrina Law (“Snow Bride”), Aaron O’Connell (“The Haves and Have Nots”) and Donna Mills (“Knots Landing”)

3:30 a.m. ET/PT: “It’s Christmas, Eve” Stars: LeAnn Rimes (Logan Lucky) and Tyler Hynes (“UnREAL,” “Saving Hope”)

5:00 a.m. ET/PT: “Christmas at the Palace” Stars: Merritt Patterson (“The Royals,” “The Christmas Cottage”), Andrew Cooper (“Royal Hearts,” “Damnation”) and Brittany Bristow (“Holiday Date”)

7:00 a.m. ET/PT: “A Christmas Duet” Stars: Chaley Rose (“Nashville,” “Code Black”) and Rome Flynn (“How to Get Away with Murder,” “The Haves and the Have Nots”)

9:00 a.m. ET/PT: “Christmas Connection” Stars: Brooke Burns (“The Chase,” “Gourmet Detective”) and Tom Everett Scott (“13 Reasons Why,” That Thing You Do!)

11:00 a.m. ET/PT: “Christmas at Pemberley Manor” Stars: Jessica Lowndes (“90210,” “Magical Christmas Ornaments”) and Michael Rady (“Timeless,” “Jane the Virgin”)

1:00 p.m. ET/PT: “Let it Snow” Stars: Candace Cameron Bure (“Fuller House”), Emmy® nominee Alan Thicke ("The L.A. Complex") and Jesse Hutch (“Debbie Macomber’s Cedar Cove”)

3:00 p.m. ET/PT: “Check Inn to Christmas” Stars: Rachel Boston (“A Ring by Spring”), Wes Brown (“True Blood”) and Richard Karn (“Home Improvement,” “Family Feud”)

5:00 p.m. ET/PT: “Christmas Getaway” Stars: Bridget Regan (“The Last Ship,” “Jane the Virgin”) and Travis Van Winkle (“The Last Ship,” Hart of Dixie”)

7:00 p.m. ET/PT: “Christmas Next Door” Stars: Jesse Metcalfe (“Chesapeake Shores”) and Fiona Gubelmann (“Wilfred”)

11:00 p.m. ET/PT: “Reunited at Christmas” Stars: Nikki DeLoach (“The Perfect Catch”) and Mike Faiola (“Yellowstone”)

SUNDAY, MARCH 29th

1:00 a.m. ET/PT: “A Wish for Christmas” Stars: – Lacey Chabert (Mean Girls, “Party of Five”) and Paul Greene (“When Calls the Heart”)

3:00 a.m. ET/PT: “A December Bride” Stars: Jessica Lowndes (“90210”) and Daniel Lissing (“When Calls the Heart”)

4:30 a.m. ET/PT: “Double Holiday” Stars: Carly Pope (“Suits”) and Kristoffer Polaha (“Condor”)

6:00 a.m. ET/PT: “Christmas Land” Stars: Nikki DeLoach (“Love Takes Flight”) and Luke Macfarlane (“Killjoys”)

8:00 a.m. ET/PT: “Crown for Christmas” Stars: Danica McKellar (“The Wonder Years”) and Rupert Penry-Jones (“Black Sails”)

10:00 a.m. ET/PT: “Merry & Bright” Stars: Jodie Sweetin (“Fuller House,” “Love Under the Rainbow”), Andrew Walker (“Bottled with Love,” “Love in Design”) and Sharon Lawrence (“NYPD Blue,” “Shameless”)

12:00 p.m. ET/PT: “With Love, Christmas” Stars: Emilie Ullerup (“Chesapeake Shores”) and Aaron O’Connell (“The Haves and the Have Nots”)

2:00 p.m. ET/PT: “The Mistletoe Secret” Stars: Kellie Pickler (“Pickler & Ben,” “Wedding at Graceland”), Tyler Hynes (“UnREAL”) and Patrick Duffy (“Dallas,” “Step by Step”)

4:00 p.m. ET/PT: “The Christmas Club” Stars: Elizabeth Mitchell (“The Expanse”) and Cameron Mathison (“A Summer to Remember”)

6:00 p.m. ET/PT: “Christmas Under Wraps” Stars: Candace Cameron Bure (“Fuller House”), David O’Donnell (“12 Wishes of Christmas”), Brian Doyle-Murray (“The Middle”) and Robert Pine (“Frozen”)

MONDAY, MARCH 30th

12:00 a.m. ET/PT: “The Nine Lives of Christmas” Stars: Brandon Routh (“Arrow”) and Kimberley Sustad (“A Bride for Christmas”) 2:00 a.m. ET/PT: “Welcome to Christmas” Stars: Eric Mabius (“Signed, Sealed, Delivered,” “Ugly Betty”) and Jennifer Finnigan (“Salvation”)

4:00 a.m. ET/PT: “Jingle Around the Clock” Stars: Brooke Nevin (“Chicago Hope,” “The Christmas Cure”), Michael Cassidy (“The OC”)

LINK HERE 

#we need a little christmas marathon #press release #news #link #hallmark movies #hallmark channel #countdown to christmas

[superrichlads]

“I always work off the motto of, ‘if you think you’re working hard, there’s always someone else who’s working harder’… there is nothing easy about the sport or music industries, and you have to work so hard to be successful.” - Niall Horan

On The Loose: released official fourth single from Flicker, including a radio edit, lyric video (rip), official video, behind the scenes video, Basic Tape remix, Slenderbodies remix, acoustic version, acoustic video, and vertical video So Long: performed unreleased song on piano throughout Flicker World Tour dates Mirrors EP: released on vinyl for Record Store Day 2018 Seeing Blind: released acoustic video, live video, and radio single in Australia Finally Free: released song for Smallfoot soundtrack and live video recorded at the Greek Theatre, Los Angeles Flicker (song): released as a radio single in the Netherlands Flicker featuring the RTÉ Concert Orchestra: released live album in Ireland, featuring nine songs including an official live version of previously unreleased song So Long

81 tour dates: across Europe, the Asia-Pacific, and the Americas, playing arenas, amphitheatres, state/regional fairs, and large theatres Featured opening acts & special guests: including Wild Youth (Killarney), Julia Michaels (Europe), RuthAnne (Dublin), Lewis Capaldi (Glasgow), Hailee Steinfeld (London), Maren Morris (NZ, Australia, the Americas), Jayda (Manila), Ming Bridges (Singapore), Sugar Me (Tokyo) Setlist: featured 14-15 original songs and 3-4 covers Regular covers: Dancing in the Dark (Bruce Springsteen), Crying in the Club (Camila Cabello), Drag Me Down and Fool’s Gold (One Direction) Covers for select tour dates: Dancing in the Moonlight (Thin Lizzy - Dublin night 1), Where the Street’s Have No Name (U2 - Dublin night 2), Won’t Back Down (Tom Petty - Greek Theatre LA, Red Rocks & others), New York State of Mind (Billy Joel - Jones Beach Theater, Long Island), Life in the Fast Lane (Eagles - final September tour dates) Filmed Red Rocks show: for potential future release Top 50 worldwide tours of 2018: selling more than 445,000 tickets

BBC Biggest Weekend: played a six-song set on the second day of the festival in Swansea Reputation Tour: special guest for Taylor Swift’s first night at Wembley Stadium, performing Slow Hands together RTÉ Concert Orchestra special: performed nine songs from the Flicker album for broadcast in Ireland, later broadcast in France & South Africa Sounds Like Friday Night: performed acoustic version of On The Loose & interview  New York State Fair: played the headline show on the final day of the fair Official livestream: of Flicker World Tour Amsterdam show, in partnership with Live Nation, for a global streaming audience Late Late Show: performed Slow Hands on London episode Virtual reality concert: made London Flicker Sessions show available on MelodyVR platform

Sounds Like Friday Night: interview on BBC RTE: interview with Eoghan McDermott, as part of RTE Concert Orchestra Special The Project: interview on Australian TV The Voice Australia: guest mentor with Delta Goodrem Today Show: interview on Australian TV Sunrise: interview on Australian TV Studio 10: interview on Australian TV Late Late Show: guest on London show, brief appearance on show in October

TalkSport: co-hosted breakfast radio show in January & September Dubai Desert Classic: played in Pro-Am with Rory McIlroy and a competition winner, and participated in a golf clinic, helping two of his Modest! Golf clients gain entry to the pro event US Golf Masters: ambassador for Drive, Chip & Putt competition Ladies golf: signed Maguire sisters to Modest! Golf, announced Ladies event for NI Open in 2019 Ryder Cup: played in celebrity match & Team Europe ambassador BMW PGA Championship: played in Pro-Am with the winner of a BBC Children in Need charity auction Sky Sports British Masters: played in Pro-Am Interviews: ESPN, SkySports, BBC Radio 5, Golf Channel, Bunkered, Ladies European Tour, The Irish Times, Golf Magic, among others LUFC: provoked an infamous Twitter clapback from Leeds United Modest! Golf: supported four players who have secured tour cards for 2019

Irish referendum: supported the yes vote to legalise abortion March for Our Lives: supported cousin’s participation in march for gun control US politics: publicly denounced Trump (again) US mid-term elections: urged US citizens to vote

Horan & Rose: hosted the second edition of the charity gala & golf event, upping the total money raised for charity to £1.5 million to date Charity t-shirt: released second charity t-shirt raising funds for Cancer Research UK and the Kate & Justin Rose Foundation Rays of Sunshine: hosted teens at Flicker World Tour London soundcheck & show, donated Jingle Bell Ball Santa shirt for charity raffle Charity auctions: donated items for multiple fundraisers, including a signed guitar & VIP concert experience for a Grammy auction raising $4,500 for Musicares Foundation; signed boots to a Small Steps charity auction, raising £1,130; signed artwork; signed guitar to Cystic Fibrosis Foundation auction, raising €4,000 Anti-bullying Week: supported efforts to stop cyber-bullying on Twitter Instituto Projeto Neymar Jr: supported Brazilian football superstar’s work providing education for kids in Praia Grande, Brazil World Cancer Day: supported Cancer Research UK’s Unity Band initiative LauraLynn Hospice: spent time with kids in hospice care before Flicker World Tour Dublin show

BBC Radio 1 Breakfast Show with Nick Grimshaw: how real are these Niall Horan ‘facts’?, can Niall Horan remember his own lyrics? BBC Radio 1 Biggest Weekend: when Niall Horan met Shawn Mendes BBC Radio 1 Biggest Weekend with Matt & Mollie: Niall Horan answers questions he’s never been asked before EW: Niall Horan listens to Dua Lipa, Springsteen and more on tour - check out his exclusive playlist Billboard Pop Shop podcast: Niall Horan on new song 'Finally Free,' 'disappearing' after tour to work on next album & 8 Years of One Direction MORE FM: Niall Horan talks about his “intimate” connection with NZ The Edge afternoons with Jono, Ben & Sharon: Niall Horan talks about being mates with Dan Carter The Edge 30: Niall Horan says NZ is his favourite country to perform in Nova 969 Smallzy’s Surgery: could new Niall Horan music be on the way? Nova 969 Smallzy's Surgery: Smallzy’s backstage tour with Niall Horan Nova 969 Fitzy & Wippa: exclusive chat On Air with Ryan Seacrest: Niall Horan recalls best Flicker World Tour moments so far FUN 107 The Michael Rock Show: Niall Horan surprising secret to great hair Walk 97.5 Christina Kay: interview Coup de Main: interview - Niall Horan on his upcoming NZ show, recording live, and honesty in writing ‘Flicker’  Coup de Main cover story: interview - eye to eye with Niall Horan GQ Italia cover story: Niall Horan: my life after One Direction George Ezra & Friends the podcast: Series 2, Episode 1 Zeit Leo: "I get restless very quickly." Singer Niall Horan has a slight obsessive-compulsive disorder. How music helps him, he tells here.

GQ Italia: Music Issue cover shoot Paul Smith: guest at Paris fashion show and spent time with the designer in his studio Revista GQ: Niall Horan is, right now, the only person who knows how to wear a shirt with undershirt as it’s done in 2018 Fashion Bean: best-dressed men of the week

US RIAA certifications: Slow Hands 3 x platinum, This Town 2 x platinum UK Official Charts certifications: Flicker x gold Australia ARIA certifications: Slow Hands 5 x platinum, Flicker x gold Canada Gold/Platinum certifications: Slow Hands 5 x platinum, Too Much To Ask x platinum Chile certification: Flicker x platinum Songwriting awards: BMI London Pop Awards Song for Slow Hands, BMI Los Angeles Award Winning Songs for Slow Hands & This Town  Spotify milestone: Flicker surpassed 1 billion streams in June 2018 Billboard #1s: achieved his 9th solo Billboard chart number 1, with Too Much To Ask reaching #1 on the Dance Club Songs Chart Billboard Year-End 2018: achieved album, song, radio, social and artist entries on the year-end charts US radio: On the Loose became Niall's fourth Top 20 single on Hot AC radio, and fourth single to chart on Mainstream Pop, Hot AC & AC radio formats, reaching #22 on pop radio Hollywood Music in Media Awards: Finally Free nominated for Original Song - Animated Film RTE Choice Music Prize: Slow Hands nominated for Irish Song of the Year iHeartRadio Awards 2018: winner of Best New Pop Artist & Best Lyrics (Slow Hands)

April: using soundchecks to come up with ideas October: wrote a tune on the piano November: ‘3 days into making tunes and it’s feeling good !!!!!’, ‘exciting watching ideas come to life in the studio’, in the studio with Julian Bunetta & John Ryan in Los Angeles I / II / III / IV, RuthAnne Cunningham tells CelebMix she will be writing with Niall for NH2 December: ‘exciting week of writing’, writing session with Jamie Scott, Mike Needle & Dan Bryer in London, ‘very much in writing mode’

Everyone loved Niall: and Niall loved everyone, but especially Hailee Steinfeld, whom he quietly dated while avoiding the media circus which often surrounds celeb relationships.

Soundcheck Q&A and Meet & Greets: made fan engagement a central part of his Flicker World Tour experience Golf events: made time for fans who came out to see him play at pro-am events Maintained boundaries: called out fans for taking creep shots & obnoxious behaviour Calmed audiences: and looked out for the wellbeing of fans at his shows, especially in Latin America Twitter & Instagram: read and responded to fan tweets and questions with a mixture of sincerity, gratitude, brutal honesty, and humour Jade: made one young fan’s night (/life) by inviting her up on stage to dance at the Allentown Fair show

Baby Marit: melted hearts everywhere offering reassurance to two new dads

#Niall Horan #2018 #highlights #aka NHighlights ;)

[hawkin68]

The Unique Ability of the “The Office”.

The Office is a television show that has been wildly influential and popular in the United States and throughout the world. The show focuses on the office environment of a small-town paper company and feeds off of the shenanigans that occur throughout the workday. One of the many focuses of this show is the fun-loving, ignorant, and offensive regional manager, Michael Scott. Michael is known to make insensitive jokes and statements that may stereotype or offend other characters (or viewers of the show). With that being said, there is another element to Michael that generates a wild amount of comedic flexibility for the show, but also highlights stereotypical whiteness and racial ignorance in a way that is easily consumable. Take for example Season 4, Episode 5, titled, “Local Ad.” In this episode, Michael requests that Darryl (an African American man) forms a group of other office workers in an effort to make a jingle for a television ad. When Michael comes back to listen to the finished product, he is disheartened to learn the short song is not a rap, which he assumed it would be.

---

Michael: “I was under the impression that this was going to be a rap.”

Darryl: “What’s rap?”

Michael: “Okay, Darryl, wow. You need to learn a lot about your own culture.”

--- 

In this scene, Darryl is sarcastically claiming he doesn’t know what rap is. In not noticing this, Michael is shocked that Darryl doesn’t know about (what he perceives as) a staple of Black culture. This dialogue emphasizes Michael’s inability to read sarcasm and his white privilege, feeling that he needs to ‘teach’ Darryl about an experience that he himself has not lived. This scene doesn’t mean that the writers of The Office are themselves ignorant or insensitive, it’s actually quite the opposite. They are choosing to use Michael’s character to approach these topics in a humorous way that is clearly poking fun of Michael, and not the people he is interacting with. Interactions like this are what helped build this show into a national sensation. The ability to make jokes based on socially sensitive topics that are usually not addressed in many other shows is what makes The Office unique. I believe this is because of two reasons. Framing Michael as an ignorant, and simultaneously loveable, man allows viewers to withstand his insensitivity. Secondly, Michael’s lack of awareness serves as a way for the writers to display the perspective of ignorant whiteness through him.

(Image from “The Office” on Pinterest, originally from “Local Ad” in The Office)

[jeremiahwasajoker]

5x01 (Year Zero): A Review

Hey guys! As you know, Gotham’s first episode of season 5 debuted on Thursday, and I AM SHOOK BEYOND BELIEF! I felt it was necessary to document my thoughts and reactions for this episode, so here I am. I wanted to gather all my thoughts on the episode in one place, just to clear my head out a bit and to share some theories and thoughts!

WARNING: This includes spoilers. If you have not seen the episode yet and want to avoid seeing any information about it, I would advise you to not look at this until you have done so. Without further ado, let’s get started!

So, first thing’s first: I want to give a shout out to Danny Cannon and Jessica Lucas. This was Danny’s last episode as an executive producer on Gotham, and the show would not be the same without him. As we all know, this is Jessica’s last episode, too, as Tabitha died. She was a strong, outstanding character that added that much pizazz to the show, and she will be deeply missed by not only me, but so many other fans who enjoyed her development and presence. 

Also, I think it’s necessary to say thank you to all the departments of design, whether it be for the costumes, cinematography, etc.  The costumes were to die for this episode! The visuals were stunning and movie-like! I can’t wait to see what else they do for these next 11 episodes coming up.

Next, I would like to review what I thought about some of the arcs of major characters and scenes that were incredible throughout Year Zero. They are in no particular order! Here we go!

“If it’s the last thing I do...”

Wow. Just wow. Erin Richards really did give me the chills with this scene. Her shouting into the camera was absolutely perfect, as we can see that she really conveyed Barbara’s grief of Tabitha’s passing in these twelve seconds. I was blown away. Not only by this scene, but even in the big fight scene that I’ll get to later. I know Barbara is not on the top of everyone’s list as their favorite, but I can say that I am so excited to see the rest of her arc. This scene really took the cake for me.

“Hope”

I would first like to say that I am a huge fan of Jim’s inspirational speeches throughout the series. This one was really a unifying moment for the GCPD, as they decided that they were going to do the best job they could, no matter what, to save the citizens of Gotham from the wrath of the villains. I think this was a really strong way to end the episode, and it makes me really hyped to see Jimbo doing the best for the citizens of the city.

The Shootout

R.I.P. Tabitha Galavan. This whole scene, whether it be Bruce sneaking in, Jim and the GCPD fighting off Penguin and his men, the struggle between Oswald and Tabitha, or even Barbara’s rage was perfect. Jessica and Robin did a phenomenal job in this scene, as they showed that there wasn’t just a feeling of vengeance between the two, as their past has been pretty rocky. Barbara’s war cry gave me the chills, along with Oswald screaming in pain after being shot in the leg. (OW! That must’ve hurt a lot). This scene will definitely go down as one of Gotham’s most iconic. 

Selina’s Suicide Attempt

This HURT so much. After hearing that she would have a suicide attempt this season, I was saddened, and assumed she would try to kill herself a different way than the way she did. I love Jeremiah so much, but the pain that Selina was going through was not worth whatever he was looking to do. Also, if she’s going to try to get revenge on him...oof. It makes me feel so conflicted! I know Camren said that this scene was one of the hardest to shoot, and I would like to say that she did an outstanding job with her performance. It made me so sad. Also, that nurse is creepy! There’s no way she’s not a Jeremiah follower in some capacity. (Look at her eyebrows!)

Ecco

A queen? She literally had the shortest scene in the episode, but shook me to my core. I was not expecting her outfit/hairstyle! I’m so used to seeing her with her hair in a bun, and I really like the look of the high ponytail for her. Also, the simplified version of the mummer costume was cool, it looks like just a leather jacket. She was so sneaky, and she doesn’t seem unhinged yet. It makes me wonder what will cause her to switch. Maybe it’s just a façade. Also, I love the jingle bells! I’m also glad she was doing work for her man, and I will say that her drawing was pretty good. Why the Jerome logo, though? I guess we’ll find out.

Since there were too many scenes for me to have the time to cover, I’ll have some honorable mentions! Edward the dog, Bruce vs. Scarecrow’s men, Scarecrow in general (he scared me), the flashforward to day 391, Bruce and Selina, Bruce and Jim, and the Riddler waking up everywhere. 

Now is the time for a few comments and questions I have for the latest episode!

Who shot down the chopper? (I’m aware that literally everyone is asking this). Okay, so we only know three people who have access to an RPG: Penguin (who it wasn’t), Zsaz, and Jeremiah. Zsaz is actually a pretty good guess, I’d say, but something tells me it might have something to do with Jeremiah. I’d doubt it would be he himself, as he is a bogeyman this season, hiding within the shadows of Gotham’s discontent. (See what I did there?) I think it was Ecco. Maybe she needs to stock up on ammo, or needs to get food for her and Mr. J. She had access to the GCPD, so maybe she heard about it there? It’s a great distraction to steal stuff from Penguin or Babs, so I think it most likely was her. Also, she is doing Jeremiah’s dirty work, so it’s not out of possibility.

Who’s the Witch? I think the witch is Ivy. I mean, she’s been confirmed for 5x02, and she would have a motive for helping Selina. How that weird nurse would know? I have no clue. I used to think that when I read the synopsis for the next episode that Ecco would be the witch, as she kinda had those vibes with the mask and cloak on, but after seeing the stills and cast for “Trespassers”,  I think it's Ivy.

Shoutout to my boy Jeremiah! I love the imagery of the map with the laughing face on it, as it kinda signifies that he’s literally ruling the city from underneath. I also love that his presence was felt throughout the episode, despite not being there for any of it in person. He’s going to be such an amazing villain this season, I just know it.

Who was the lady calling Jim? I heard things about a Theresa Walker this season, and apparently she has a big impact on the plot. Jamie Murray (who apparently plays her) was listed as one of the guest stars, but we didn’t see anything that had to do with her. Maybe it was her calling Jim? I don’t know. 

If I had to sum up the episode with one Jeremiah Valeska mood, it would be:

I’m very happy with how this episode turned out! 

What a strong way to start out the season. I know that I’ve seen most of the footage in Year Zero in trailers, stills, etc., but it still blew me away. My parents were also very impressed, and really amazed with how the episode turned out. (Which also made me happy!) I really can’t wait for next week. 

Thank you for reading this! I hope you all had a wonderful time watching, too! I think I’m going to do one of these for each one that comes out. I’m so excited for the rest of the season! I hope you enjoyed!

#Gotham #jeremiah valeska #season 5 #5x01 #Year Zero #reaction post #gotham season five #Cameron Monaghan #the joker #Barbara Kean #jim gordon #gcpd #erin richards #ben mckenzie #ecco #gotham ecco #francesca root dodson #penguin #oswald copplepot #tabitha galavan #tigress #Selina kyle #Camren Bicondova #bruce wayne #david mazouz #gotham spoilers

[hurr-rae]

Teen Titans vs. Young Justice

This in no way hates on one or the other team, but it was my response to a video that pit these teams against each other. Which is the better show for you? Teen Titans or Young Justice?

I’d have to answer: Teen Titans

Here it goes... all under the cut.

1. CHARACTERS

Personally, since the show focused mostly on the main five, you got to know the characters better. Each character had an arc (except for Starfire, sadly) and that allowed the viewer to understand each member's struggle and personal demons. We had Robin in S1, Terra for S2, Cyborg S3, Raven S4, and Beast Boy S5. It also went on a lot longer meaning you got to know and love these characters based on interactions and reactions throughout the whole show.

My problem with YJ is that the characters aged up by 5 years for Season 2, and we didn't get to know the main group of season 1 well enough. I don't know if it's just me, but the addition of so MANY new characters in season 2 that popped out of nowhere is just overwhelming. And we have no idea how crazy their lives got in those 5 years. What did they experience? Tula DIED? How important was she anyways? Wally and Dick's friendship is a little hostile? Kaldur's with the dad? There is just too many blanks to fill and I didn't grow up with them throughout the seasons. I didn't get a chance to resonate with them before they grew up. 

Unlike Teen Titans, because their group is always just 5 despite them adding more honorary titans to their ranks, by Season 5, when Beast Boy leads and shouts "Titans Together!" you know they grew up as characters and as a team. No time jumps, no surprise bombs, no nothing. Just great consistent character development.

2. THEME SONG

Let's be honest, their theme song is great! So what if it has lyrics? When anyone hears the song, they get hyped! It's electric guitar! And because it's so catchy, people get nostalgia from hearing it! It's a win-win, and the problem with a jingle is that it's not memorable (unless it's really just THAT great, which YJ's was not). Also, can we get some recognition for that terrific soundtrack during the amazingly choreographed fighting scene against the Brotherhood of Evil? And THEMES IN GENERAL! You cannot say that each episode of the series didn’t have some theme or moral lesson attached to it. Even the filler episodes had lessons, and that in particular is something YJ lacked for me.

3. PLOT

Yes, YJ had more drama, more romance, angst, betrayal and whatnot, but Teen Titans had that too! TT gets discredited when it comes to this. That's because it has pure funny fill-in episodes. But what some don't get is that these episodes do actually have a purpose. It provides a break when something dramatic or BIG happens. It also adds character development, so it's not completely for nothing. The fact that they do this actually makes the drama, the betrayals, romance and angst even more important. Because the presence of fun, light-hearted episodes make incredibly heavy scenes have MORE meaning and a BIGGER impact to the viewers. For example, "Crash" was a pretty fun episode, but then the ball just completely DROPPED when it came to the "Haunted" episode. Slade hadn't been mentioned for a while, and all that angst and drama just came out of nowhere, which made it all the more memorable.

Also to the argument that says you can just drop by whatever episode to watch  of TT (not really following a story), I wholeheartedly disagree that it makes the show worse compared to YJ. Since you can drop by any episode to watch (which isn’t entirely true anyways), it makes Teen Titans easier to enjoy because you can have fun watching any episode whenever without having to worry about: What happened before? Why is this happening? It makes new watchers who decided to watch it on TV one day to get into it.

4. SECRET IDENTITIES

Also the secret identity thing: Glen Murakami (maker of the show) said they decided to do that so the younger audience wouldn't be confused about who's who. It's simple and straight to the point. Another plus about the whole secret identity thing not being mentioned is: it makes for some really good fics and storylines in the comics (based on the show). Another thing I'd like to mention is the completely SOLID friendship between the Titans. Watching the series, you really understand and feel the friendship between each of the characters. They lived together and you got to see the domestic-ness from that. I saw the friendship too in YJ but I never felt it full-force the same way I did watching the Titans. It didn't feel like a family, it just felt like a group. The Teen Titans made me feel like they really WERE family, the same way F.R.I.E.N.D.S. did. **And GOD! Their interactions are so PURE! You’re always reminded as a viewer that at the end of the day, they’re still teens who know how to have fun (refer to the gif above^^)

5. INDEPENDENCE

Lastly, the Titans' independence was just the cherry on the top. I know many appreciate YJ's "realness" when it comes to working with their mentors, but there's just something truly admirable about the Titans working on their own. They have a HUGE group completely made out of teenagers! They went to space on their own! They have Titans East, North and South (the originals being West)! That is an INCREDIBLE achievement. That's all THEM. They learned through their failures as a group, but because of those experiences, they were successful in making a worldwide superhero team. They didn't need the League or adults because they have each other. Compare that to YJ. Yes, we get parental!Batman and dick!Superman, but the YJ during season 1 gets treated like kids often despite already being their own group. And imagine that, the JL and Titans are two different groups. The Titans have always been all about independence, so if you want to learn more about yourself, without adults interfering, you go to the Titans. It's a great concept that should give the show plus points.

**Also a much more elaborate and well-explained article from CBR: https://www.cbr.com/15-ways-teen-titans-is-better-than-young-justice/

THAT'S IT! That's the end! This in no way was made to bash on YJ, they are just personal opinions, so please don't take it to be against you if you're a YJ fan. I admit that YJ has a more infamous line of villains, and the way they fooled the Light was great! It's just.. TT meant more to me. Feel free to share your experiences whether you're a YJ fan or TT fan. Both shows are great in their own ways, and both shows are getting another season! Good news all around!

#teen titans #robin #starfire #raven #cyborg #beast boy #tt #2003 #yj #young justice #no hate #no beef #two great shows #so share any experiences or feelings you may have for them

[runrundoyourstuff]

Steven for the ask thing!

(in reference to this character ask meme)

Why I like them

Steven is one of those characters who I think on the surface doesn’t seem that interesting, but then I feel like you squint a little bit more and like all of a sudden, you realize that he’s really well written. He grows so much throughout the series but in a gradual way such that I feel like you don’t realize it’s happening while it’s happening, but then you go back to Season 1 and are just in awe. 

I also think it’s really important that we have a male protagonist of a major action cartoon (which would have even five years ago been labeled “a boys’ show by the industry…which really likes to gender), whose primary powers are empathy-based (both natural and supernatural empathy,) and who strives to help his friends learn to communicate their emotions in healthy ways. Modeling that, I think, does a lot to plant the seeds of combatting toxic masculinity. Plus, he’s secure enough in his masculinity, that he sometimes crosses-dresses, and neither he, nor any of the characters in the show, nor the show itself treats it as a joke:

(And the show isn’t like self-congratulatory on this point either. Which is great. It normalizes boys and men being okay with expressing their emotions and being secure in their masculinity in quiet ways, and doesn’t make a thing out of it. It just does it.)

Why I don’t

I mean I think this is part of the point and is actually good writing, but in Season 1–especially early in Season 1–he can be kinda annoying lol. (He explicitly acknowledges this in Familiar.)

Favorite episode (scene if movie)

Dang this one is hard because unlike the other characters, he’s literally featured in every episode. I think something that tends to be true about Steven is that, in his eagerness to help others express their feelings in healthy ways, he sometimes neglects to do so himself. But his emotions are so live for him, and so I really like episodes where that ends up coming out, like Storm in the Room, Steven’s Dream, Adventures in Light Distortion, Stuck Together, Mindful Education etc.Of these, if I had to pick a favorite, I think I’d either say Full Disclosure, in which he realizes for the first time what the consequences and stakes of being a Crystal Gem–and being his mother’s son–can be for the first time, or Lion 4: Alternate Ending, in which we see him really really struggling with the idea of his “magical destiny”. In both cases, he is supported and validated by the people he loves. And that’s the heart of the show. :) 

Favorite season/movie

Probably Season 4. So much of what this show is about is how Steven (and the rest of the characters) relate to Rose Quartz. And I think Season 4–in which Steven deals with the idea that Rose supposedly “shattered” Pink Diamond–represents a real shift in how this plays out. Prior to the last few episodes of Season 3 (Bismuth, and then Back to the Moon), he saw his mother as this all-perfect figure, and he felt pressure to live up to her legacy, and that was really hard for him. In Season 4, he instead starts to deal with the fact that (he thinks) his mother did this horrible thing…and how can that be, because he always thought that she was this infallible, perfect, loving being? And it terrifies him. SU is primarily a show about growing up, and part of growing up is realizing that our parents aren’t perfect. There’s a deep terror in that for kids, and I think the show dramatizes it perfectly with this arc.

(This fits into a larger discussion about how SU models how children have changing relationships with their parents as they grow up, and I’ve written a more extensive essay about that here, if anyone is interested.)

Favorite line

Ahhhh this is so hard because there are just so many interesting for him, but if I really had to pick one, I think it would be this one from Three Gems and a Baby:

“Wow, you guys were wrong about everything…No, I mean, about changing and growing. And how it doesn’t come naturally to you? But look at you now! I know you’ll never stop missing Mom, but I bet she would’ve loved this. I do.”

I think this quote just captures something so fundamental about Steven (and about the show as a whole.) He loves the people around him so deeply, even as they all live in the shadow of his mom–whether it’s grief for her, her legacy, or any one of the other million ways Rose is present in the show. And in the here and now, he’s committed to building that family day after day, helping them all to grow, and growing himself. 

Favorite outfit

Okay, I’m not sure this technically counts, but I love him in his caterpillar sleeping bag:

OTP

Once again, not a big shipper. But I guess Connie, if I had to choose.

Brotp

Boy oh boy, this is hard because I really love all of his relationships (and as the focal character of the show, he has a relationship with literally every character), but I guess if I had to pick, I’d say his relationship with Pearl or with Greg.

Head Canon

The first time Steven had a Cookie Cat was as a young child at the Beach with Greg and the Gems, and every time he eats one–every time he hears the silly jingle on TV–he’s reminded of that. That’s part of why he likes them so much.

Unpopular opinion

I don’t actually know whether or not this is actually an unpopular opinion or not, but I don’t really want to see Steven in a full-on romantic relationship that’s explicitly acknowledged as such. I know it’s been hinted at with Connie a few times–especially early on–but it’s never explicitly been romance. And I think one of the things the show excels at is striking a nice balance between different types of positive relationship dynamics, and I worry that, if he were to end up in a serious romantic relationship, that would become a focus moreso than other types of relationships.

A wish

Again, probably not super likely, but I’d like to see Steven physically age. We know from Steven’s Birthday that Steven’s body “ages” depending on how old he feels mentally. And we’ve seen him mature so much since Season 2–I’d love to see that reflected in his design.

An oh-god-please-dont-ever-happen

It’s been hinted at a few times, but it’d be so painful to see Steven like explicitly start to question his humanity. (It might happen…and tbh it would be some good angst material, but still so painful lol)

5 words to best describe them

Empathetic, Sensitive, Emotive, Outgoing, Fun-loving

My nickname for them

Your Ding Dang Diamond. (I’m so bad at this lol)

#su #steven universe #su meta #long post #asks

[mercuriallycooperative]

Another one of my two-year-late-rewatches! Again, the below is the complete and unaltered text of my reaction/rewatching-a-day-or-a-few-later of the SU episode “Mr. Greg” from the Summer of Steven like two years back. Including typos, I think. Also, unfortunately missing the line-by-line unpacking of “It’s Over, Isn’t It” that I meant to do, which I guess is why I didn’t post this at the time. I appreciate that past-me’s reaction to things still remains rather relatable, even though I have absolutely no idea if any of those questions got answered in the meanwhile. Also, pffft, my note at the end, ah yes, two years later, definitely got to posting these in a more timely manner. Absolutely.

“Rewatching Steven Universe: Summer of Steven Edition” continues!

(This one was, uh, actually written before the first two episodes of the week because I have Great Outpouring of Feelings(tm).... I didn’t get to it first only because I delayed writing these until after Monster Reunion and Alone at Sea.)

Day 2 (Tuesday, July 19)

Mr. Greg

Okay first thoughts before actually rewatching, after my memory has had time to dull for awhile. This episode was great, I loved it so much, I love Pearl and Greg and Steven and music and singing and feelings and dealing with the spectre of Rose Quartz.

I’m wondering a little where Amethyst and Garnet are, but actually, given the number of times Steven has been left to his own devices for an extended period of time, the gems just sort of... not noticing people have gone for awhile has a lot of precedent. Probably.

I don’t actually have a lot of new and Strongly Opinionated longwinded thoughts to preface this episode, possibly because I left this rewatch for so long. Actually, I suppose I’ll get to actually rewatching all the Summer of Steven episodes after progressing through the whole rest of the episodes eventually. It’ll be interesting to see what information and perception has changed by then.

Now, actually rewatching the episode...

1) Hey, actually, just a thought, but when’re we getting a new opening?

2) Okay, the Marty in the commercial is young!Marty. When the hell did he sell Greg’s song as a jingle, and how long has it been circulating, and why has it taken so long for a) anyone in Beach City to notice and b) Marty to come by with the money?

3) Greg’s song works really well as a jingle, actually.

4) Hey maybe the reason Marty needs the Guacola contract (even though his contract with Greg says Marty gets like 75% so if Greg is rich Marty should be richer) is because Marty got all that money early or over a lot of time and delayed paying Greg long enough that Marty had used up so much of his money, that a sudden 10 million dollar draw on his account put him in a bad place moneywise. A friend of mine proposed that gambling is how Marty could manage to burn that much money to the point he’s in need of sponsorship.

5) $5.95 isn’t a bad deal as long as it’s a good, hefty burger with maybe a soft drink, actually. At least, with real-world American money. What is the in-universe value of American-ish money, anyway- the same as real life, or... ?

6) Actually if the ad is regional (i.e. not in Beach City’s region) and we assume Greg is the only one besides Rose who would have known the song (because his CDs never sold and nobody came to his concert), it’s not too off to assume they’d have never noticed the jingle. I’m now wondering how Greg even found the ad in the first place, it’s not like Marty gave any explanation about why he just handed Greg a large cheque. Maybe some information was written on said cheque, like, from the bank or what the money was from, and it just wasn’t detailed?

7) “This is what did it? Burgers?” I get the impression Pearl is trying to hang what happened on just one event that started everything. Then again, it’s a fair point. If Greg had, say, been singing about the glory of war and nationalism in the way that hot-blooded youth stereotypically might, or even angsty nobody-understands-my-feelings hackneyed stuff, how would things have gone then? Was it only the fact that Greg’s schtick was Space and the Universe that drew Rose in, that first night? I wonder if that’s something Pearl wonders. Wonders why her own dreams of stars weren’t enough for Rose.

8) Oh god that is something they had and may yet have in common, isn’t it. The stars, and dreaming of flying off into them.

9) “She would have loved it.” Aside from Pearl continuing to break my heart, this bit is curious in a couple of ways. Greg is asking Pearl what Rose would have thought- and by his tone of voice, it is an actual question, not a rhetorical one. Greg and Rose were together for years and years, but Greg still will ask Pearl to confirm some things. (Then again. Human memory is not crystalline clear.) More interesting still, Pearl brings herself to answer honestly, if sadly.

10) After asking, Greg immediately looks like he kinda regrets it, like, ‘uh, oh, uh, maybe I shouldn’a done that, right, Pearl still can’t really. Talk to me, about this.’

11) ‘Don’t Cost Nothing’ is a wonderful song and I like it. Also. “You could buy a house and a car” oh Steven you’ve said what the whole fandom thought the moment the teasers and promos started rolling. “Or I could buy you all the finest courses online”, Greg, making with the realness here, that was just such a good line that’s just- it really places it in the modern day, and I kinda like it, dated like that, just a little.

12) The size of that van is occasionally rather odd seeming- does it shift a lot, do you think? I’mma keep an eye on that as I rewatch earlier episodes...

13) Pearl’s unamused expression as Greg and Steven burst in through the door of the house while Pearl is pacing (and presumably brooding). Actually, on that note, Pearl probably could have escaped a number of the things in this episode if she’d hid in her room after walking away from the van.

14) “Empire City!” “And let’s bring Pearl!” Steven did you just think of this plan on the fly, oh for the love of- I can’t not laugh, that was just a very sudden addition to that song that came rather out of left field.

15) Greg’s startled “What-!?” and Pearl’s rather more put together “I don’t know...” segueing into:

16) “I don’t know, past experiences have taught me that three’s a crowd.” Whoa there. That was, pointed. Think about this line for a moment, though... Was there some time in the past when Rose did try to bring both Pearl and Greg to a thing, trying to, I dunno, get them to get along over her, and it didn’t go well. Ah, jeez. And Pearl’s expression for the second half of this line looks like Unfond Memories(tm) and- I wouldn’t say exactly bitterness, because we’ve seen that in younger Pearl, but some blend of bitterness and dry distaste, something that comes with time.

17) “It’s be great! Just you, me, Pearl- and don’t forget Mom!” Steven you had to go and make it weird. You were starting to convince them, even with Pearl’s Skeptical Face(tm), and then you had to go and make it weird.

18) Le Hotel. What a very generic name for the hotel.

19) Greg when did you get those business cards printed out, or are they literally printer paper and ink as opposed to anything remotely professional. What am I saying they say Bazzzilionaire on them, professional is not what is happening here.

20) Pearl carrying the stuff in from the car- to avoid some of the super awkward while she could, maybe? Because like, she probably would not have brought stuff, so that’s Steven’s stuff, yeah, and Greg’s, in the suitcase. For that matter, Greg was on about the sights in Empire City, the things around to do, and then we cut to the hotel straight away- did they all three of them wander around and do other stuff for a bit before checking into the hotel?

21) Pearl looks super uncomfortable being carried like that though- is it a touching people thing, or a touching human people thing, or a touching stranger human people thing, or just that this whole situation is awkward in general and what even the fuck? Like, being sat at the dining table, you’ll notice the lines under her eyes- she looks really very upset in a shocked sort of way.

22) Pearl being like Greg what the fuck why are you on the table. And then rescuing that one plate.

23) Okay wait a second. When they were being carried out of the dining room, did... did they just bump Pearl’s head against the doorframe? Wait I’m rewatching that. Yes. Yes they did. They bumped a (once again very distressed looking) Pearl’s head against the top of the doorframe. There. There was even a *thunk* coconut sound effect. Why. Why. Okay that’s probably one of a hundred straws atop the camel’s back during this episode.

24) And a super crowded elevator with a contingent of singing strangers- yeesh. Uh. Who all somehow manage to get out before Greg and Steven and Pearl get to the penthouse, where yet more waitstaff are already set up?

25) I just noticed from the aerial view entering the room, but Pearl is literally crouched down and hiding behind Greg, peering out at everything.

26) Why. Would there be a waterslide. And like. A full pool? Is that a thing penthouses have?

27) Not to mention, when did they have the time during this montage to get the suits? Were they singing while they got the suits? How did they get Pearl a suit? Did they get her to sit for measurements, or did they just guess? How did they get her into the suit? (Well actually the answer to some of this is probably just Steven’s puppydog eyes.)

28) In the pool wearing the suits? Really?

29) Okay so I was feeling really odd throughout this whole episode about Pearl sort of being confronted with a weird parody of Old Homeworld, that which we presume was a sort of decadent empire, or at least the part that Pearl was made to be in, a fancy, made-to-order servant. I suspect some of that might be contributing to Pearl’s discomfort.

30) Pearl, just crouching by the water, trying to find inner peace in idleness by poking it. Relatable.

31) And she looks rather upset when they keep offering her food. Like, yeah, on top of a day like that, even thinking about food considering her distaste for it is probably... yeah.

32) I love when Pearl sort of just starts getting into the song, with the suit and the hat and the tap dancing. Like, she’s just starting to kinda chill, enjoying Steven being happy.

33) Also, it occurs to me, the fountains in Pearl’s room in the temple are probably set up similarly to the room from The Test or Rose’s/Steven’s room, like, the water and things flowing through the Temple are probably programmed in, some weird extra mystical something-or-other. Or the water is piped in and cleaned from literally the ocean right outside. As opposed to the waste of potable water, in an area with high population density as compared to water access, which what I presume (after considering it for a bit) that Pearl means by “wasteful”.

34) That slight against the barn though. “Unlike that termite ridden barn-” hah. And, it looks like we see that Pearl does indeed have her contribution to Sardonyx’s gestures and mannerisms.

35) “You’re having fun?” “More or less.” “So dance with me, just say-” “No!” Well that happened. I feel like that episode might not have come to quite such a head if Greg hadn’t tried the dancing thing- particularly, hadn’t just swung right in there and tried to pull Pearl into a dance. Like, if he’d asked and Pearl said no and Steven said please, Pearl might have been convinced into a short, careful dance (which, to be fair, might have ended as badly anyway). Also, the implied continuation of that line into the same “Just say yes” as Jasper’s is very interesting considering how the Crewniverse has been thusfar with parallels.

36) Pearl suddenly looks very, very tired. My suspicions lie with the idea that Greg’s attempt at a dance reminded her in that instant of both of their dances with Rose, and how it must have felt that Greg had taken all Rose’s dances away from Pearl, from the start and in the end.

37) Have to shoutout to the guy to was like, Boo, you ruined the song! because whoa dude chill. Also, so I guess in-universe the singing is very much a thing that is actually of the happening. I’m curious to what extent.

38) “Don’t worry about it kiddo. It’s always been this way.” Seriously, I’m curious how past interactions with Greg and Pearl have gone. Like, we see (and have seen in the past) that they can get along decently well in the present day. They certainly don’t devolve into squabbling. What led up to that, and what does Greg mean, exactly? That things can be going fine, swimmingly even, and then a small thing a word or a moment can suddenly chill the atmosphere, probably.

39) Please note that in the scene just before “It’s Over, Isn’t It?” when Pearl is walking toward Greg and Steven’s room, the state of that penthouse. That blasted golf game is on the flatscreen TV, over which there is strewn a sock, there’s a towel on the lampshade, and then in Greg’s and Steven’s room there are socks and pizza all over the place. I never quite understand how that ends up happening- like, in real life too, sometimes, I look away, and suddenly there’s food boxes and such everywhere.

40) Actually, wait, where did Pearl go, for the intervening time? Between her “No!” and her song? Did she, what, hang out in a different room, or on a balcony, or just go for a walk? I want to know this.

41) What is with the roses everywhere as furnishing, honestly, is this actually how hotels of the fancy kind have themselves set up? Or was this like, the one day of the month where the hotel has the fancy room set up with bouquets of roses?

42) Pearl looks in on Steven and Greg, and as she sighs, she smiles, a little. I just. I recognize that expression, okay, from the inside, same as the laugh at the end of Sworn to the Sword, the bittersweet happy that’s wrapped around sorrow that goes back, back, back.

43) And now for my exceedingly long line-by-line unpacking of my interpretation of “It’s Over, Isn’t it?”, prefaced by some comments.

Oh boy, this song, though. I’ve been listening to it on repeat since I heard it, tryin’ to sing it, just all sorts of Great Outpourings of Feelings(tm). There’s just so much nuance in this song, the way it’s sung and the way it was written and due credit to whoever played the instrumentals, it’s just. Amazing to me.

44) Okay, now, but after that. It’s Greg’s turn now to sound so very tired. It’s unsettling, the way we don’t see his face until the very end of this scene. It’s weird to think, actually- keeping turned away from things is, as far as I remember, not something we’ve ever seen Greg do. We never hear him sound defeated, either, and yet here....

45) And Pearl, calling out after him- it’s interesting, she’s so very far beyond the point she wants to hurt anyone with her grief. Maybe once she would have wanted to make Greg guilty, make him understand the hurt she was feeling, but now, she’s just. Tired. Done. Her quiet, “I shouldn’t have come along”...

46) Steven is starting more of his plans to fix things and people... It’ll be interesting to see him continue, but, at the moment, I’m rather just relieved this one didn’t go wrong on him. Because this could have gone really, really rather off.

47) Steven, glaring at both of them. I wonder, is that his determination face?

48) And really, in this case, Steven is very perceptive. It’s actually not so much a surprise, because these are two of the most important people in his life, and he’s seen their hurts, he’s seen a lot of this hurt in particular. More than any of the people-plans he’s ever had, he certainly does have the background for this one.

49) I’m curious, now, though. Pearl says “I don’t hate you” and the way she says it, that reads very true to me, but did she every? Hate Greg? And if so, when did she stop?

50) Them bonding a little over Rose and the things they both saw in her, saw of her, is wonderful and I want to see more of it.

51) And rounding it out with compassion and understanding and a dance, willingly held, is a good way to bring things around full circle to the start of this altercation, and, for that matter, the start of everything really.

52) Ending it in laughter was a nice touch too, although I now really wonder when the heck all the waitstaff reappeared, and how much of the goings on they took in. Because really, this was a microcosm of a lot of the Pearl-Greg heartbreak that Rose left behind, and it would I think have been fairly clear to a perceptive individual what was up. What I’m trying to say, is, I wonder if this scene brought any of the waitstaff to tears and secondhand heartbreak later.

53) Pearl looking at the bill as though she has limited scope about what exactly is up with this Earth-human-money and its value is entertaining- especially when she’s still chimes in to the reprise of “Don’t Cost Nothing/It’s Over Isn’t It”

54) For that matter, though, it’s interesting, her reaction to trying to improv lines. “Getting it wrong-” Pearl looked like she was really about to start freaking out a little there, before Greg chimed in the accompanying “-don’t cost nothing.” It’s interesting to wonder here, what sort of intersection that reaction is between it being just a Pearl-thing-that-she-does versus a product-of-Homeworld-and-the-Pearl’s-as-poised-servants thing.

55) Pearl and Greg talking at the end really cements the fact they have something of a new understanding. Like, I’m sure both of them have lingering issues about what’s happened that they won’t be sharing with one another, but, for the most part, I hope to see them moving forward.

Well, that was long. Lots of thoughts. More episodes to come! (Hopefully in a more timely manner.)

#steven universe #mr. greg #steven universe spoilers #su spoilers #spoilers #rewatch #rewatching steven universe #my contribution #it's over isn't it

[aion-rsa]

Riverdale Season 5 Episode 8 Review – Chapter 84: Lock and Key

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This Riverdale review contains spoilers.

Riverdale Season 5 Episode 8

“Am I crazy or have you been feeling the same way too?”

Since Jughead’s narration opens most episodes with the most obvious observations possible, I’m going to return the favor by stating the following: Riverdale is not a series known for its profundity.

Over its five seasons to date it has proven to be a dumb show that is more often or not done smartly. Or maybe its ability to constantly induce narrative whiplash has be semi-concussed and believing that the program is way better than it has any right to be.

Which is where the above quote comes in.

With this season’s time jump and the characters dealing with actual real-life problems like post-collegiate ennui and the long farewell of long-held dreams (alongside of the usual nonsense that is the program’s calling card), Riverdale is the best it has ever been of late. And I’d never thought I’d write such words, but the most shocking thing about this episode was not Jughead’s alien tormentor or the Reggie and Fangs kiss but the way all of the trauma endured by these characters was brought to the surface tonight. Handled with grace no less.

That this minor miracle was set in motion thanks to a Key Party thrown by Cheryl in a creepy effort to break up Fangs and Kevin and live some sort of demented domestic bliss with Toni in her Gothic prison is kind of besides the point. The sheer volume of storylines happening in each Riverdale are so often disjointed that it feels like several shows are happening at once. Again, this is part of the appeal of watching this hottest of messes. So it’s a bit of a wallop across the head then when you have these characters having relatable moments, letting their guards down and getting to the heart of what haunts them.

Throughout this episode we see these characters shedding pretense and recognizing what drives them, be it fear, lust or anxiety. Kevin implodes his and Fangs’ relationship because the former has no idea what he wants out of life, but is certain it isn’t the small town drama teacher existence he currently has. Jughead is quite literally haunted by visions of an otherworldly creature who is either a literal alien or a manifestation of being twentysomething and rudderless, a literary one-hit wonder. Betty is still having nightmares about the Trash Bag Killer, suspecting that he may be responsible for Polly’s disappearance and worried her failure to bring him to justice will result in personal tragedy.

“What’s coming next with my mom and Polly is the darkest thing I’ve ever faced,” Betty states to Archie in the episode’s most powerful scene. The pair then acknowledge their true feelings, that they will be better off as friends. Veronica’s latest fight with Chad makes her acknowledge that whatever bonded them together is no longer there. It is Archie she truly loves, and vice versa. Cheryl bares her twisted soul to Toni, who is in return horrified by her actions and tells her as much. Yet Cheryl quickly finds a form of redemption in the embrace of the mysterious Minerva Marble (Adeline Rudolph, late of Chilling Adventures of Sabrina).

Yes, it is a contrivance that all of these huge epiphanies happen more or less at the same time. I’ll forgive this sin however since Riverdale so often has its character development move at a glacial pace. Perhaps when Veronica states that “the past is in the past” the show’s writers are telling us to forget what we know about how stories will unfold from here on out. Certainly, the post-time jump episodes have proven this. Maybe we really are in a brave new world for the series? Stranger things have happened before, especially on Riverdale.

Riverdale Rundown

• Jughead Jones has become unstuck in time! What do we make of Jughead teaching Kurt Vonnegut Jr.’s Slaughterhouse Five to his students? More importantly, is Riverdale going to do a Jughead’s Time Police-inspired storyline?

• This stuff with Jughead and the alien is the absolute best. Please please please let the E.T. be real.

• In what must be a Riverdale first, Archie is shirtless within the first 30 seconds of this episode. As a sexy fireman no less.

• Art dealer Minerva is almost certainly not what she appears to be. So what is she really playing at? Are her feelings for Cheryl legitimate? Or is she playing some sort of long game?

• Speaking of Cheryl, I feel the writers need to really figure out how to handle this character’s mental illness as the argument can (and probably should) be made that they have entered exploitation territory.

• I was getting huge Psycho Goreman vibes off of the alien stalking Jughead.

• We see Jughead making like his comic counterpart and snacking on Lay’s chips in this episode.

• Varchie shippers, are you happy with the Veronica/Archie reconciliation?

• Drew Ray Tanner shined as Fangs here, delivering a heartbreaking performance as Kevin throws away their future together.

• Betty again illustrates how awful of an FBI agent she is by allowing her mom to keep a key to her home in a garden gnome while living in a dangerous city that has multiple serial killers on the loose.

• I desperately want to hear about Jughead’s Jingle Jangle-fueled New York City exploits. This is what happens when you read too much Bret Easton Ellis, folks.

• Lucy Hale makes an audio cameo as Katy Keene in this episode, simultaneously making me wonder why the CW cancelled her show in the first place and laughing at how the Riverdale producers keep thumbing their noses at the network by constantly referencing the doomed spinoff.

• Dr. Whitley’s name is an obvious homage to UFO novelist/experiencer Whitley Strieber (whose most famous work was Fire in the Sky, which just so happened to be the name of last week’s episode).

• Jackson incredulously remarking on Archie as player by saying “Sarge juggling two ladies?” indicates that he doesn’t know him at all.

• Casey Cott gets the episode’s funniest moment as he reacts to Reggie and Fangs’ kiss with impressed shock.

• Despite how this episode ended, I still think that Alice’s remark about how it sounded like Polly was calling from a spaceship is not a red herring. Look, there better be a full blown alien invasion by the time of the midseason finale, okay? I ask for so little.

• “I’m not bringing my baby into this house of horrors” might be the most sensible sentence ever uttered in the Blossom household.

• Betty refers to Cheryl’s Spin the Bottle party (when Archie spends Seven Minutes in Heaven with Veronica) from the series’ pilot.

• Next week, Betty goes in to the heart of darkness.

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[attract-mode-collective]

Ready To Wear, Ready To Play

As previously noted, there’s been yet another change in direction for the Attract Mode blog… which I have dubbed Version 2.8 Final CE EX Λ Core Plus Alpha. BTW/FYI. But yeah, been posting on Twitter, a lot. So much so that you may have missed something, so here’s a recap!

Note: was originally going to cover everything tweeted throughout the month, but because there’s so much to cover (and February’s short)… am guessing bi-weekly might be the way to go. Am also going to present things mostly in order.

K, enough chatter: at the very top is another fine example of a Famicom being the ultimate in fashion accessory (via nintendu). And here we have, not designer threads but designer plastic (via gamefreaksnz)...

Speaking of plastic, Sega (or someone who got Sega’s blessing, or maybe not even) made Super Monkey Ball figures? Guess so (via magimacaque)...

I was under the belief that, if I truly wanted to make an impact with the relaunch of the Attract Mode Twitter, I couldn’t just post one single piece of Klonoa fan art, but two... 

And I only have one example of Cuphead fan art, but it’s the one that counts (via jothelion)...

It was Kyle who helped kick the Attract Mode Twitter’s rebirth into high gear, with the reveal of his Nintendo Power covers. So to help replay the favor, I must insistent that everyone purchase the hard copy of RPG_Friends (which I first mentioned here)...

Nothing makes me happier than seeing such a dense assortment of Japanese game stuffs (via peazy86)...

... Yet that being said, I also believe less can be more, plus a nice breeze while playing Secret of Mana is... well... nice (via sixteen-bit.tumblr)

These gamer chairs perfectly embody Japanese sensibilities when it comes to furniture, plus are a total 180 to the junk they peddle in the US (via shmups)...

Time for another excellent toco toco vid, this one features your fave old school Capcom illustrator, and mine, Akiman…

There's so much I love about this interview with the creator of Hong Kong 1997, whose goal was "to make the worst game possible”. Though this picture of the guy is near the top of my list... 

I love these kooky kids, thinking they could possibly get away with  stealing an entire Final Fight arcade cab (via videogamead)...

Yeah, I feel the same way kid (via tvgame)...

"This is Jesus. He lives inside my Neo Geo MVS cabinet. He was there when I got it. He is glorious." (via arcadephile)...

The pathos that is Sub Zero at the bat, in four modded screenshots(via lanceboyles)...

The pathos that is the Kachō interacting with kids, in just three YouTube screengrabs (via gaijira)...

And the pathos that is Splatoon 2, via two screengrabs and the piece of fan art that resulted (via lunaticobscurity)...

Though in addition to pathos, Splatoon is also filled to the brim with intensity (via thewaragainstgiygas)...

Welcome to VIOLENT CITY (via shmups)...

Also, STAY CHILL (via paperbeatsscissors)...

Not that any band in which music is performed via guitars hooked up to Famicoms is all that typical to being with, but this one is most definitely not typical (via miki800.com)...

This "what the hell is going on exactly" illustration has motivated me to finally Wario Land a spin at long last (via it8bit)...

Remember Absolutely Rose Street, the Beverly Hills 90210 meets Degrassi meets Wayne’s World-esque show that was actually an infomercial for the Sega 32X in disguise that I wrote about a little whiles ago? Well here's ad for it (via oldgamemags)...

I'm a total sucker for old Japanese video game mags, primarily ones featuring models/statues on the cover (via miki800)...

Another cover to an old Japanese game rag, this one featuring the very first Metal Gear; I wonder if this slightly cutesy take helped to inspire the Metal Gear we meet in Snatcher (via mendelpalace)...

Here we have a page from an 11 page comic, done in a single sitting, for an event that celebrates various pairings of Solid Snake/Otacon, one that's called Snot Week for whatever reason (via millionfish)...

I want this woman to be my mom (via cyberfights)...

Am obsessed with this image of a man playing Xevious in the middle of a desert that's clearly fabricated and clearly from the 80s (via shmups)...

mendelpalace sez: "This picture gives me anxiety" and I feel exactly the same...

This is comparable to my own morning commute, except for the lack of floating cherry blossom petals and various other differences (via tightenupthe)...

Spring is almost here, which means it's time for a new wardrobe, which really means it's time to get new PaRappa attire (via miki800.com)...

If a glitched Nintendo logo when booting up a Game Boy looks fashionable to you, you're in luck (via gameandgraphics)...

Tho if a glitched Game Boy Advance start up is more your style (via corruptionasart)...

Has anyone received this Mega Drive/Genesis chiptune album on a cart (described as a "16-bit VMU") yet? (via catskullelectronics)

Ever wonder what a 3 part symphony, one performed via 5 different Nintendo DSs and 5 different copies of Electroplankton, sounds like? Well wonder no more (via mendelpalace)...

And ever wonder what an Italian-based, US-born R&B, blues and disco singer (which is how Wikipedia describes Ronnie Jones) thought of video games in the year 1980? Again, wonder no more (via aestheticoftheday)...

The new DDR, which will record your performance and also add snazzy video effects, is my early contender for GOTY 2018 (via @Sega_AM2)...

I will never grow tired or bored of watching this run cycle, ever (via shmups)...

What appears to be a Nier motion study (via sixteen-bit)...

Sakura-ha (via rosscountertv)..

To commemorate the discontinuation of the Kinect sensor (via prostheticknowledge)...

Google Translate took the original Korean & translated it as: "Ittsumi! Maria", which @NotLikeFreddy re-translated as: "It's-a me, Mary-o"...

The medium of video games most certainly has many mountains to overcome yet, but there's little denying that we've made some progress nonetheless (via videofame)...

"I have to go now. My planet needs me.” (via sixteen-bit)...

Cuz it's been a while since I shared a gif from Sin & Punishment (via n64thstreet)...

The SNES & Genesis had cool accessories and all, yet I often wonder what it would have been like if 3D printers & Etsy were around back then...

Pretty much the cutest lil thing you'll see all day is this Genesis CDX hooked up to a 5″ Sony PVM (via decideweapons)...

“'Club Sega during the Snow' is a top-tier aesthetic, I think." (via pr0jectneedlemouse)

I love old VG sound team photos, especially when they double as old band photos, like Capcom's Alph Lyra here (via videogamesdensetsu)...

You all have no idea how happy I am to finally see a decent sized version of the flyer for Deadly Sport... again, no idea (via melvanainchains)...

Here's an illustration of Terry Bogard eating a hot dog (with the rest of his Fatal Fury posse chowing down as well)...

... Turns out, Terry's affinity for hot dogs is somewhat of a thing (via busterwolf)....

... Or, perhaps SNK as a whole are simply huge fans of hot dogs? (via meldowiseau)

I absolutely love this familiar, yet thoroughly refreshing take on Samus (via lady--peaches)...

And nothing new to report, as it pertains to @deimosremus's Metroid redesign, so am just going to continue staring at this some more...

Love Hultén is mostly known for their handheld creations, like the Pixel Vision, though I mostly dig their full-sized cabinet, the Kabin 1...

"Damn Tecmo never let Microsoft live that design down" (via sixteen-bit)...

Cuz I recently began replaying Breath of the Wild...got the Switch version for the gf on her birthday... some fan art (via it8bit)...

I've seen my fair share of comics with Sonic & Tails, but never one that addresses the debug mode from the original Genesis games (via vg-libary)...

Here we have two cats, from the game Jingle Cats, occupied with the fridge (via obscurevideogames)...

And here we have just one cat, from the Sailor Moon anime, occupied with an arcade game that I am unable to identify (via sailormoonreblogs)...

Can you believe the music video for @MissyElliott's Sock It 2 Me is over 20 years old? Crazy, I know...

Speaking of Mega Man, I guess I need to finally check out Mega Man Zero, cuz apparently X goes through some kind of religious conversion or something (via omnilunary)...

And here we have Cut Man, the one we all know (and love) from Mega Man meeting his Captain N doppelganger (via mewymarsher)...

I absolutely need this on a shirt or jacket (via @buzz_clik)...

It's always a thrill, seeing a fighting stick made out of tupperware in the wild for the very first time, isn't it? (via @silva_hime)

Yes. Fighting Layer is that game in which you jump off a folding chair to smash another one on the head of a gigantic falcon (via lordmo)...

Tonight’s episode: PINBALL ALCHEMIST (via tonights-episode)...

Here we have a Tumblr thread giving suggestions on how to access a seemingly inaccessible area of a hotel lobby; my fave, for perhaps obvious reasons, is the ring path/light speed dash combo from Sonic Adventure...

Am kinda hungry atm and feel like slicing & dicing some celery & onions, plus making some Julienne Fries; anyone got a copy of Sonic 2 handy? (via sonicthehedgeblog)

A. thanks to this fan art, I now know you can also play OutRun in Hokuto no Ken PS4! & B. great piece & all, but...still a shame that Alex Kidd is missing (via inspiredfatty)...

I've legit been staring at these rotating NES and SNES gifs all day long (via 3d-bear)...

These photos from the Dreamcast Mobile Assault Tour, circa the late 90s, right before the system's launch are very... and I mean VERY... 90s (via posthumanwanderings)...

"What will your next dream be?" (via 081594)

You know that UK/US reality show Undercover Boss, in which a billionaire CEO disguises himself as the new mailroom guy? Well there's apparently a version in Japan, with an episode starring the president of Taito (via @MMCafe_Prof)...

On Valentine's Day I came across a horror movies blog that presented various horror movie Valentines, including one for Jason Voorhees that references Friday The 13th for NES (via cameraviscera.com)...

Also, for Valentine's, my girlfriend made me pixelated chocolate; the pic does the blue hearts in particular zero justice, which look like plastic toys, but most assuredly are made of milk chocolate...

... And that’s it for now! The rest of February coming up in a few!