#they kept it so vague for 8 seasons like what's going on
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the most surprising thing in the new season is how open they are about the fact they're in canada??? help?? like, the ogs didn't try so hard to hide their accents all this time for you to come in and send a box of Canadian hugs or wtv!!! have some respect...
#obviously this us a joke#but i was eo taken aback#they kept it so vague for 8 seasons like what's going on#the next step#tns s9
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this is a cold ass take but not one I’ve seen around in my online circles, but the scooby-doo reboot has me thinking about how like. I feel like a big part of why it feels like fandom doesn’t last as long anymore is that we’re just constantly getting reboots and sequels of the same 3 things over and over.
and you’d think, wouldn’t that make the fandom last longer? and sure…. for those same 3 things. but like. it makes me think that a vast majority of people look at media and go “if it’s not actively putting out content, then it’s dead” when for so long, fandom around stuff would last for DECADES after a series had ended.
like, nobody lets anything sit and breathe anymore. and it’s exhausting.
and I get that the reason WHY we keep getting reboots and sequels is bc execs are scared to put money into anything new when this old title would immediately have a payoff bc it’s familiar to people. but that doesn’t make it any less depressing. in fact, it makes it MORE depressing, but nobody needs me to explain why.
I just wish people would stop beating dead horses. it’s not worth it, because it will so easily become forgettable when you just keep rehashing the same things, same settings, same characters over and over.
#in short: I wish there was more ‘inspired by’ works in this day and age#like I want New things#but if you so DESPERATELY want to explore an old piece of media#think first about how you could instead take ideas from that and make it your own w something entirely new#I’m just sad about fs2 again and how they just kept returning#when the series had tbh already run its course#and how s1 and 2 of stranger things are so good#and it’s only been vaguely downhill from there#and how the first 8 or so seasons of csi are so enjoyable#before it became more extremely blatant copaganda#and now the csi vegas reboot is just…… a bit of a shambles#I’m tired :)#i say things#I also say this like I’ve been in fandom for decades when I’m only 24#but seriously. even in the last 10 years I feel like there’s been this HUGE shift#it even just makes me think of the sherlock fandom lmao#like I fell off of it after s3 and fell off HARD#but it’s so fascinating to hear about people going so far into the deep end on discussions about it#even when there was no guarantee of an s4#like THATS what should happen with fandom. both large and small scale#let yourself go insane!!!! and stop watching bad-faith I’m-rich-and-do-what-I-want adaptations!!!
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Jason woke up feeling like warmed over death. He tried to open his eyes and then quickly closed them when the sunlight streaming through the windows hid him right in the face.
He reached for the nightstand where his drunk self usually laid out alka seltzer and water and met open air. Wincing, and with his eyes still closed he heaved out of bed. Either the floor was suddenly further away, he was more hungover than he thought, or-
He cracked his eyes open and glimpsed a crumpled costume piece from the night before. His angel’s wings were tangled with a studded leather belt that brought back a flood of embarrassing memories.
“I want it,” He remembers pouting, tugging off the stranger’s belt with quick movements.
The voice in his memory was low and thrilling, “You’re too drunk, little angel.”
“In the morning?” Jason had asked.
“Okay. In the morning.”
Jason closed his eyes and rubbed a hand over his face.
“Morning.”
Jason turned with a groan, “I’m like… so insanely hung over. If I try to blow you I think I’ll puke.”
“Relax,” The stranger’s voice sounded vaguely familiar, which helped settle the anxiety in his stomach, “You need water or anything?”
“Uh,” Jason peeked his eyes open to take in the messy room, “You have any alka seltzer?”
“Sure,” The stranger was way too chipper.
He was also, Jason noted, fucking loaded. Jason hadn’t been in an apartment this nice since moving to Chicago. The windows were so bright because they were one continuous curved piece of glass overlooking the city. The bed was grand, some type of enormous California king. Or what Jason’s friends might call an orgy bed.
“Here,” A tattooed wrist came into view, handing Jason a glass of fizzing water, “It’s not done-“
Jason chugged it, gulping down the glass and the crumbles at the bottom in a single seasoned motion.
“Oh shit,” The stranger giggled.
Jason glanced up. He sort of looked familiar too, but then again Jason had always had a type. Ever since flustered, self hating moments in high school where he would stare across the locker room at Eddie Munson’s tattoos. And then beat him up for the privilege of touching him.
Anyway, the other go go boys had taken to pointing them out to him. Rockstar, Ten O’clock… That one at the bar is for Jason, go over and flirt, honey.
So this wasn’t exactly a situation Jason had never been in. Though the fancy apartment was kind of a change.
“Do I need to take you out to breakfast,” The guy had a nice smile. Kind of soft. And long, very long hair.
“No, s-sorry, I’ll get out of your hair,” Jason tried to hop to his feet and groaned.
The stranger reached out and pulled Jason close, tugging him on shaky legs until he was enveloped in a kind of half hug.
“I was gonna say,” The guy smiled against Jason’s temple, “Or can you stay in bed and I’ll make you something.”
“Oh, uh-“ It wasn’t like Jason had anywhere to be. His roommate was a drag queen about twenty years older than him and he never woke up before noon. The day after Halloween was pretty slow at the club and he didn’t have to be there until 8:30 pm.
“C’mon,” The stranger tugged him a little closer, “You got glitter on my sheets, you owe me.”
“I leave glitter everywhere,” Jason pouted, “You’re not special.”
The stranger chuckled, “Oh, I kinda missed that.”
Before Jason could even imagine what the Stranger meant, he was yanked back towards the bed.
“You don’t have work?” The stranger asked.
“Not until later,” Jason muttered, “Sorry about last night. I normally don’t get drunk like that at work.”
“It was after work that you got so drunk,” The stranger said.
“Did I?”
They flopped back onto the bed, Jason tangled in long dark hair and tattooed arms. So basically heaven.
“You kept saying you needed courage,” The Stranger muttered, sounding a little put out.
“Sorry,” Jason shrugged. “It’s just, you’re really hot.”
“You’re not so bad yourself,” the stranger grinned, dark eyes sparking, “Tiger.”
“I guess,” Jason got a little lost in the moment, “I can stay.”
“Great! I’ll make us some eggs and toast,” The stranger bounded out of bed, “You stay right there.”
“Okay,” Jason swallowed.
Maybe it was a pretty woman type thing. Not that this guy seemed so super mega rich. And not like Jason was a hooker. People thought all the dancers went for that but Jason had never been able to go through with it.
He laid back in the bed which was indeed smeared with glitter.
“Sorry about the glitter,” He called out, cringing, “Occupational hazard.”
“I don’t mind,” The stranger called back, “They’re not my sheets to clean.”
Jason blinked, “Uh, is this apartment… um…”
“I didn’t break in,” The stranger read his mind, “It’s owned by the record company. I’m in town to record an album then it’s back to LA.”
“Wow,” Jason glanced around, “Would I have heard any of your music?”
The stranger paused in a strange way, “You don’t listen to metal now, do you?”
That was a weird way to put it. Now. Like he didn’t used to. Well, he didn’t but this guy didn’t know that.
“I had an ex who got me into it a little,” Jason rocked a little, tucking his knees up to his chest, “I like tattooed guys, so it comes with the territory.”
He could practically hear the guys smile, “Do you now?”
“Yeah,” Jason said stiffly, until he realized that sounded rude. “Just my type, I guess.”
The stranger appeared suddenly in the doorway, “Jason.”
Jason startled, the arms wrapped around his knees tightening. This guys voice was very familiar. And he was asking if Jason liked music now, calling him tiger.
It nailed him like a sucker punch, “Eddie?”
“I was waiting for you to realize,” Eddie grinned.
Jason’s mouth opened and closed like a fish’s.
“You must have been really drunk last night,” Eddie smiled, shaking his head.
“I g-guess I was.”
His mind was racing a mile a minute. Eddie Munson… Christ. This wasn’t a pretty woman thing. This was a revenge of the nerds thing.
Jason scrambled up, his whole body protesting moving from the big comfy bed, “I gotta go-“
“You just said you were gonna stay.”
“I… I’m… did we have sex last night?” Jason tugged on his tiny white shorts. He didn’t see his club bag anywhere, which meant he’d spent the whole night with Eddie Munson in a white speedo and angel’s wings.
“No, you were too drunk. Where are you going?”
“I gotta go-“
“Jason, what’s the problem?”
“Is this a revenge thing?” Jason whispered as he snatched his halo off the four poster bed, “You gonna call everyone in Hawkins and tell them that I dance at a gay club and go home with people for money?”
Something breaks on Eddie’s face, “You went home with me for money?”
“No!” Jason half shouts it, “I just mean-“
“This isn’t a revenge thing. I just saw you dancing and you came up to me and started flirting,” Eddie shook his head, “I just… like you.”
Jason crumples the halo in his hands.
“And if you’re going, you can’t go like that, you’ll freeze to death. I had to force you to wear my jacket last night, I’m surprised you don’t have frostbite on your tits.” Eddie shook his head.
Jason made a little choked sound.
“So I take it you’re not out in Hawkins?” Eddie ventured when Jason didn’t move a muscle.
Jason shook his head.
“Me either,” Eddie gave him a tentative smile.
Jason twisted the halo in his hands.
“Look, please stay. Please,” Eddie bit his lip, “Or if you have to go let me at least give you a shirt for Christ’s sake. You look good enough to eat.”
Jason’s cheeks went up in flames, like hellfire.
He looked down at the ground.
The smoke alarm started screeching in the next room and Eddie went pale.
“Fuck.”
They both sprinted out into the kitchen where the eggs were smoking, black and charred to the bottom of the pan.
Jason opened one of the huge windows, while Eddie tossed the pan into the sink, dousing it in water that sent up a huge puff of steam.
“Well there goes trying to impress you,” Eddie shoved a little at the pan, “Fuck.”
“You wanted to impress me?” Jason shivers and it’s not entirely because there’s icy fall air blowing across his bare chest.
“Well? Yeah? I want you to stay. In my bed,” Eddie doesn’t look up from the pan, “Wanted to ask if you had a night off soon. Maybe I could take you out. Somewhere with no alcohol. Like the movies or something.”
Jason swallowed, “I like you too. Like… I… I always had a crush on you, so…”
“So?”
“So if you don’t mind glitter on your sheets,” Jason bit his lip, “We could just have the toast in bed.”
“Oh,” Eddie’s eyes went round.
“Or we could skip the toast.”
“Is that a yes to the date?” Eddie ventured.
Jason dropped his halo to the ground.
“Yes.”
Also on Ao3
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Trying my best to figure out what these guys look like in my head before I go look at the fandom’s generalized designs for the characters.
A friend of my twin got us into the show and a week later we’re at season 8!
I definitely need to tweak Cole’s design a lot- I want him to have a more strongman build & revamp his entire face design. But at the very least I’m happy with getting his hair the way I want!
Kinda hard to see, but Zane’s got little screws for earrings! I honestly didn’t account for how much older the faceplate would make him look, I intended him to look way more boyish.
Rambling about my current HCs of the Ninja’s appearances below:
I’ve been having a bit of an trouble deciding what various flavor of Chinese & Japanese these dudes should be based on. Considering the show is based on a 2010s vague idea of “Asia” and carries traits of both Japanese & Chinese influence, I’m just going to use both. I don’t know what sorta general consensus the fandom has of their appearances bc I have barely interacted with the fandom, so if this violently contrasts with that then yippee I have original thoughts, I guess.
-Kai is Japanese. Kai, being vain and caring more about training than Jay for example, has a more aesthetic build that’s definitely form more than function. Like a natty powerlifter who’s not competing. I’m not sure what height he should be, but if he’s taller his muscle definition would appear smaller so I’ll have to keep that in mind.
- Nya has initially a more functional build- far less muscle definition than her brother. Not outwardly buff and doesn’t have pronounced muscles, but can fairly easily haul a 100lb hunk of metal from a scrap pile to her workbench. But after becoming the water ninja, her new training gives her more pronounced muscle definition. Initially shorter than Kai but grows taller as the show goes on.
- Cole is southern Chinese. He’s got a strongman heavy set build. I envision him as fairly short so his muscles can be a little more pronounced. If you stripped his muscle definition from his ninja training away, I still want him to look like one of assholes who haven’t worked out a day in their lives but still somehow looks jacked.
- Zane is what pops up when you look up “Chinese teen male stock photo” because he needs to look like The Most Generic person ever. No muscle definition at all on this dude. He’s a nindroid & so there’s no need to include muscle decision to show that he’s strong. He’s either average height or slightly on the shorter side bc gravity is a bitch and the taller make a humanoid robot, the more balance becomes a bitch to deal with. So average height or short Zane it is.
- Jay is Uyghur so I can get this dude his reddish-brown hair. Minor muscle definition. His isn’t for aesthetics like Kai, he’d rather do ninja training than do the types of sets & pushing to failure needed to achieve more pronounced muscle definition for aesthetic lifting. Jay needs to be shorter than Nya. He’s definitely taller than Cole but I need him to be just an inch shorter than Nya because that’s funny to me personally.
- Lloyd is Japanese. Solely because Oni come from Japan & I got spoilered that Gargamon is an Oni later. Lloyd is a stringy ass kid at first & has no muscle definition at all. During his Green Ninja training before the Travelers Tea, he’d be trained for efficiency & not for aesthetics with the deadline of him fighting his father possibly being around any corner. After Travelers Tea he likely kept his training to function over aesthetics and would share similar muscular definition to Jay & Nya. And he’s tall. His dad is tall as shit with 4 arms. I want this kid to go through the Worst gangly teen era anyones ever seen and only barely fit his form once he finishes growing.
Additional thoughts:
And as a big comic nerd who owns around 800+ comics (might be more around 1000 now?), hoo boy I have so many thoughts on Lloyd and Jay liking Starfarer. I cannot wait to make a fic that’s just Lloyd and Jay ganging up against Kai over some incredibly wrong take of the comic he absentmindedly said and trapping him in a 3 hour long conversation about frequent mischaracterization and mishandling of the characters in Starfarer & how what Kai said was wrong. I just need a fic of Jay and Lloyd talking to each other about their favorite runs of Starfarer and complaining about a tie-in/crossover comic that’s written particularly bad, or complaining how an author completely misunderstood Fitz Donnegan or complaining over an author change & etc. I just need to make a fic of these boys talking about average comic book fan things.
#ninjago#ninjago fanart#cole brookstone#zane julien#ninjago cole#ninjago zane#clam writes#calm art#i got about 30 plot bunnies at least for this show already and got twin who doesn’t care about spoilers to see if fics like the ones I was#thinking of existed. and apparently not?? so I guess I’ll have to post some prompts on here as well#bc my carpal tunnel won’t let me write whole fics but I sure can write out tiny little ideas#and there’s not any fics of zane turning into a human and dealing with the weird experience that is what it’s like to live in a human body??#like I went on ff.net as well and tried to see if any were there but no??? there’s none?? I’m baffled.
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Hooray for spooky season!! 👻
May I request this from prompt list #2 for Poe and the reader: 22. Seeing ghosts in your new house.
Look. I know that’s Kane and not Poe. But this fits better (also, he was filming The Last Jedi and Annihilation at the exact same time sooo...). You’ll see heheheheheheheh. (This is a little late... I’m giving myself the deadline of Thanksgiving to finish these blurbs, because the day after Thanksgiving is when the Christmas tree goes up. :3)
“Poe! I’m serious!”
“I know you are, baby, but are you sure you didn’t just have a nightmare?”
You frowned, crossing your arms over your chest defiantly. Your husband, Poe Dameron, had seen a lot of things in his years with the Resistance, and he certainly believed a lot of things. In fact, he’d stated numerous times how he believed in Force Ghosts. Or even ghosts, in general.
But apparently the idea of ghosts haunting your own little home, after the war has ended and you’re finally settling down, is impossible. Improbable.
It’s kind of hard to ignore when a stack of (secured) books goes flying off a (stable) bookshelf in the middle of broad daylight. “So I had a nightmare while I was up and doing the unpacking? That’s what you’re saying?”
Poe raised an eyebrow, pursing his lips. “I didn’t mean it like that, baby.”
You huffed, moving to continue unpacking the box of decorations you stood beside and grumbling about your husband. He chuckled softly, letting the cord of the sweeper he was using drop to the floor and approaching you with that stupidly bright smile that made you fall for him in the first place.
You try to remain irritated— rolling your eyes (half-heartedly), huffing again— but when Poe grabs your shoulders and gently turns you to face him, you lose all pretenses of being even mildly frustrated when he kisses you softly. He pulls away with a coy grin, eyes sparkling. “Even if there are ghosts here, baby, we don’t have to worry about ‘em. Okay?”
Something about the way he said it made you melt and nod in agreement before returning the kiss with one of your own. Despite your claims, not a single paranormal thing happened even as the two of you cleaned and decorated and unpacked— or maybe you were too distracted by your husband to notice.
You were, however, woken in the middle of the night by Poe’s startled gasp. Immediately, you lunged up, old reflexes from the war still hardwired into your brain. “What is it?” You fumbled for the blaster you no longer kept at your bedside, frowning when your search came up empty.
Poe threw the blankets off, rushing to the closet. “There’s somebody in the house.”
Panic surged through your veins. “Somebody in the... what do you mean?”
Poe quietly tore open the closet and snatched your blasters, tossing you yours. “Somebody was walking in the hallway. I fucking saw them.”
Just as quickly as Poe, you shot out of bed. Military training and years of experience took over as you searched your new home from top to bottom, using hand-signals and gestures as communication as you stalked through, ready to fire. Eventually your search moved outside, but the results were the same.
There was nobody in your house.
Nobody but the two of you and BB-8.
“What did you see, Poe?”
He looked at you with tired eyes and shock written all over his face. “Thought... Thought it was a person...” He gestured around vaguely as he put your blasters away, turning off the safety with shaking hands. “I woke up and was gonna go get some water when... I swear to the Maker, baby, I’m not making it up. I thought I saw somebody walking in the hallway.” His eyes found yours almost pleadingly... you arched an eyebrow nearly to your hairline.
“I dunno, Poe. Sure you weren’t having a nightmare?”
He paused, pursing his lips a bit. “...Fair point.” He climbed into bed beside you, an arm looping around your waist to pull him flush against you. He heaved a deep sigh, kissing your temple as you cuddled up together. “......Baby?”
“Yeah?”
“If there are actually ghosts, we’re moving.”
You couldn’t help but chuckle, wrapping your arms around him and pulling him closer. “Agreed.”
#poe dameron x reader#poe dameron#star wars: sequel trilogy#oscar isaac#oscar isaac hernandez estrada#stormkobra 5 ask game#stormkobra 5 answers#spookable september
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What do you think about the fact that Jamie didn't go back to his old locker now that that ZAVA 4 lockers monstrosity was redivided among the players? Seems like O'Biren took one of the places in the corner instead and Jamie kept his new place closer to the rest of the team
Hiya, nonny!
Full disclaimer: I know zero things about locker distribution in professional sports and Google has not been my friend, so I’m just going to roll with the assumption that players are normally assigned a locker but when one becomes free because someone leaves or whatever you might ask to switch. There are probably lockers that are considered better than others (either in general – it’s cool to be in the middle of the room, or something like that – or specific to each locker room, like ‘that one’s best, it has a nice little draft from the ventilation’) and the better the player, the better chance do they have of trading up when the opportunity arises, because that’s how these things tend to work in other settings. Possibly a lesser player might get asked to switch lockers when a new star arrives? I really don’t know, but maybe? And then we have superstars like Zava who can demand 4 locker monstrosities in the Ted Lasso-verse, though at least one podcast I listened to mentioned that this is unlikely to happen in the real world.
In season 1, Jamie has a locker in the middle of the right side. If there are good lockers, this is a good locker, because otherwise Jamie wouldn’t have it. When he returns in season 2 he is assigned – I assume – a corner locker instead. At this time, he shares it with 1 O’Brien, a 22 and a 25 (probably De Maat and Bekoe respectively, though I only see the numbers in 2x03 – you can see the names in 3x02 and 3x03). I am thinking that these are probably not the best lockers in the room? Partly because none of our other main players have a locker there, and partly because it makes sense to put Jamie somewhere not great at this point, kind of like Ted intially putting him among the reserves in training. Even if I’m completely wrong about there being higher status and lower status lockers, it’s probably a good idea not to dump Jamie right in the middle of a room that’s teeming with resentment towards him, but just keep him a little to the side.
Maybe it was just the one free locker, nothing more to it. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar and all that jazz. I’m just kind of digging Jamie intentionally and literally being put in the corner while working his way into the team’s good graces. Possibly not pushing for a switch even after he was in a position to do so, either because he got used to the spot or as a continued demonstration of humility.
Now, in the beginning of season 3, the corner is shared by Jamie, 18 Babatunde, 25 Bekoe and 22 De Maat. Our friend O’Brien is seemingly occupied elsewhere. Once Zava leaves and the lockers are redistributed, O’Brien is back in the corner, again with 22 De Maat, 25 Bekoe and probably 18 Babatunde (can only make out the ‘e’ at the end of the name and the vague tail end of an 8 in 3x07). Jamie sticks around where he was put during the Zava takeover.
All this rambling just to lay out what we know and the many assumptions that lead me to believe that once Zava is gone Jamie is in a position to choose if he goes back to the corner or stays with his new locker. He has that kind of clout, he is the star of the team and the coaches owes him a little bit for the whole Zava thing. (You might well have taken this for granted, nonny, but I did not – hence everything that went before in this post.)
So, Jamie chooses to stay where he is – closer to the rest of the team, as you say. And that’s the rub, isn’t it? I think Jamie probably does care at a little about having a higher status locker (if such a thing even exist) because he’s still Jamie fucking Tartt, but he cares a whole lot more about being close to the team. After all, Jamie likes being at the center of things. He is social and he is physically affectionate: he is not someone who thrives on having a little quiet corner to the side. No, Jamie wants to be in the thick of it, part of what goes on, making his voice heard and chatting with his team mates and joking and voicing his opinions left and right. Touching everyone all the fucking time. Being touched. (Sorry, I just have an extreme amount of feelings on the subject of Jamie being tactile.)
Admittedly, he did not seem keen on moving lockers when Zava arrived but that’s arguably due to him not being a fan of getting shoved to the side for the other player’s ego. Once he found himself in his new spot, he probably remembered how much he preferred that position to the more obscure one, and he likely feels like he has less to prove now: he can afford not going back to the corner.
Besides, I think the whole Zava ordeal left him feeling excluded and alienated from all the others and therefore particularly keen to be closer to them. Reforge those bonds. Hang over people’s shoulders. Fistbumps. Hear the chatter properly and take part in it, rather than to watch it from the sidelines. Jamie has fought harder than anyone else for this team in season 3 – of course it’s really important for him that he gets to feel a proper part of it.
(And even if it’s not Jamie’s choice and it’s the coaches’ call who goes back, I think they too realize it’s high time for Jamie to take his place at the center of the team, metaphorically speaking, both because he’s earned his spot there, and because he’ll thrive there, and because they do get that this Zava shit was detrimental to his integration in the team.)
#hello my name is kee#i am not great at keeping things short and sweet#so have unexpected amounts of locker discourse#from a thoroughly uninitiated source#if you know things about lockers feel free to invalidate everything i state here#jamie tartt#ted lasso#season 2#season 3#asks#my stuff
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This isn't exactly a ask but more of a thank you. I've been watching Supernatural live since season 8 but never really interacted with the fandom because it never felt very welcoming. I just felt like I kept being gaslit but then I would question it and it would just become a cycle. I probably just didn't know where to look but luckily I was scrolling through TW tag and found you. I guess a question I could ask is if you ever watched Merlin or do you just know about it because of the eruption on tumblr every Christmas eve? Also I really appreciate when you talk about your disabilities because I can relate. I've been gaslighted by doctor's all my life and I just recently found out my Kidneys aren't doing what there supposed to lol.
Anyways thank you
Sure thing! First things first, let me give you a warning that since you just expressed something to this tune, you may get some hateful spam in your inbox. It's vile, just block and delete. Maybe if I warn you in advance, they'll know better than to try.
But that said. Yeah. Like. It was always there. And in seasons 12-14 for example I was telling yall like. No, you're not crazy. Yes, there's market testing. No, I didn't know how to show the receipts at the time without fucking up my source. Yes, they all know. Yes, there's good faith groundwork and they're fighting and trying but we shouldn't hate on them, support their efforts. But people had vested efforts in convincing people there were no efforts, and went so far as to convince reactive hellers to attack me telling me I was telling the gays to settle, instead of support their fellow queer creatives in a literal battle.
Over time the authors got less and less accessible, Bobo was burned out after Wayward failed, which he had picked up as a repeated fan pitch from the Wayward Daughters movement. And why wouldn't they? EVERYONE was dogpiling them. But finally, people are realizing the truth. Others are getting more shrill as they realize the accountability they have if they admit it, and that goes for a few lanes to be honest. Because even hellers were often very cruel to the people fighting for them.
it was antagonized by the same accounts trying to stir the shit today, but people are still accountable for their actions, and that's something this fandom isn't used to.
I'm going to admit I don't know much about Merlin, it just wasn't my thing, it vaguely pops into my purview but I admit I stay pretty insular on tumblr, I rarely Venture Out if you will.
And glad me bitching about my bad hips and gas helps I guess lmao
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Shadow & Bone s2 thoughts
S1 of shadow and bone was a surprise favorite show; I’ve rewatched it a lot as something to watch when I’m cooking or wanted something familiar and comfortable.
After last season I tried reading the books; I didn’t finish Seige and Storm because I kept negatively comparing book Alina, Mal, and Darkling to their show versions. I did like the Six of Crows series but have no interest in the other books. So I’ve got a vague idea on the plot points unlike when I watched s1
Oh I really like the map to cgi city transitions, and the wanted posters as establishing shots for storyline transitions
Sturmhond meeting the Crows like this, this is so much more fun than the book intro of him
I don’t remember seeing Jasper’s gun misfire in s1 or see gifsets of him fixing it.
Tolya and Tamar get a cool intro camera pan and theyre both really hot
Huh Darkling intro very different than the book, honestly he comes off as someone who spent a bit too much time alone by himself than menacing
How come in pirate clothes Sturmhond becomes the most baby faced of the cast
Love Alina’s stag antler embroidery dress, I’d love to wear a dress with that kind of neckline
Having one of Kaz’s plans go wrong and it not be something he accounts for, really ups the tension and makes Pekka Rollins a threat, and he’s actually more threatening than the Darkling. Wolf mask guy is just a creep, the costume kinda felt out of place
I expected the flying ship look more aerodynamic and either there’s a lot more flying ships or the show really glossed over them being repaired after being totaled because it needed characters to move around in ways they didn’t in the book
“Who do you want standing in that door when the lion gets hungry” then cut to a taxidermied lion. Lmao fun transition
This is one of the shows where I find basically all of the main cast attractive, very much including Inej in a knife fight
“All that matters is we know what’s real” with a political engagement, damn this is so much better than the YA jealousy drama of the books
OFMD AND S&B, edgy dude after his love abandons him starts cutting off the digits of the people who drove the breakup
Rip to Matthias because the show didn’t seem to know what to do with him, I enjoy his plotline much more than s1 but its because he has such low screentime
The costume budget and workmanship is so good this show as it covers so many different styles and cultural influences
Bloody beaten up Kaz threatening as he gets his long awaited revenge is fucking incredible top moment of the season, especially because for Pekka “but for me, it was a Tuesday” he just couldn’t remember
Genya’s really going through it this season and characters mistreating her is a more understandable and relatable evil than vague war crimes. “I should be your greatest shame!” and “ask me how I did it” she gets some great moments
Mal’s capture then causal return felt like an awkward plot point, like it shows up here because maybe it happened in the book
Huh for a major season 1 character and a global Big Bad threat the Darkling really isn’t getting much material this season, he just sits around and broods in a dark room while his underlings who wear lots of eyeshadow (to show they’re evil) do things. Like early on in the season he seemed sick but then he isn’t, then he just gives up all his action items about Grisha revolution to chase after Alina
Actually very curious about how much screentime Kaz’s dead brother gets vs the Darkling lmao
I didn’t realize at the height difference between Kaz and Inej until she hallucinated them almost hooking up. Eps 4-8 I watched playing a drinking game of take a drink for every romantic moment
The show really contrasted The Disciple and Neyar have such a good relationship compared to whatever the fuck toxic parent child relationship of Baghra and Aleksander
Great that the Darkling and Mal can interact and bonus its in some weird fucked up way (dead peoples bones), there isn’t enough of that in fandom or canon
The final battle has basically no tactics just people running around for cool dramatic timing, especially the Crows fighting in the frontlines
Darkling died in this show like he lived in s2, anti-climatically standing around downbad for Alina
Tbh there’s a lot of sex that could be done with gloves and clothes on
Lmao where is Feydor he didn’t appear at all
Things I didn’t expect: David being killed off early RIP, Alina not losing her powers and faking her death to live with Mal but instead this weird non emotional breakup, and Zoya to not get more character backstory
Think it's interesting the contrast of the bee highlighted by the camera during the Darkling’s funeral as a subtle hint to the Elizaveta plotline vs the last few minutes throwing in: Jurda Parem, Nikolai’s shadow monster infection, a future war with Fjerda, Alina using shadows, all as continuation bait if it gets another season
Verdict: enjoyable season 2, I’m so glad this season got about 15 minutes more per episode so it could cover the full Grisha trilogy in case it gets the infamous netflix s2 cancel. Still a favorite show because its the perfect mix of drama, romance, and just enough writing cracks for fun AUs. The show covered a lot in the 8 hours with a fast moving plot that I watched over 2 days, so I’m very curious how my opinion of plot points will change with distance and reading others perspectives
#shadow and bone#shadow and bone spoilers#Mac watches tv#Liveblog#My s1 notes were a lot more meta commentary#this season I watched with tablet in hand
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Halloween 2023 - Day 7 - Halloween Ends (2022)
Does Halloween End with a bang or a whimper?
So, not quite Day 31 but this is indeed Halloween Ends in every sense of the word. Not just the season but the very franchise itself…sort of. But we'll come back to that. This is the last of the David Gordon Green directed trilogy, a man who has taken a sharp turn into horror in the last few years after that little stretch into stoner comedy back in the late 00's, early 10's. After this trilogy, he's moved onto The Exorcist with the newly released Believer, with another sequel Deciever planned in 2025. That seems to have opened to fairly poor reviews so we'll see if they'll make it to that next sequel. I kinda fell off that franchise after the third one but since we've wrapped up Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm St, there might be room for it to slip into the schedule.
Speaking of poor reviews, I remember this time last year when this was getting a lot of negative feedback. I managed to keep myself at a distance in terms of plot, trailers etc and only really had a vague sense of the feedback to go on where the word 'weird' kept coming up, in that it's weird for a Halloween film. That is something I would agree with but, for me, it's a good weird.
Does it reflect badly on me that the opening of this movie elicited a laugh from me? Not like a belly laugh or anything, I do tend to have this almost nervous laugh as an immediate reaction to something that should be considered scary or intense. And there's perhaps little more intense than a guy dropkicking a door open straight into the face of an 8 year old who is sent flying down a multi-storey building to his untimely death. Geez, this movie isn't fucking about, is it? Kids don't die in a Halloween movie, Michael Myers has at least some standards. Maybe that's what people were complaining about?
But the curious case of young Corey Cunningham, a young kid just trying to get through college before this accident sends his life into a tailspin is just the catalyst for the ever spiraling events of the movie but he's also a shining example of the kind of world building that I've come to love about these new movies. There's this idea that's brought up that for a town that has been living in the shadow of Michael Myers and his crimes for the last 40 years, and lest we forget still living in fear that he's still on the loose somewhere, Corey is the monster that the townspeople can see. He's the one that they can point their fingers at and unleash their angry energy towards. Arguably you're never going to have a good time of it if you kill a child, accident or no accident, but I like the idea that it's so much worse for him given that this is Haddonfield and it's residents are at the end of their tether with this whole thing.
Without wanting to delve too much into other people's criticisms at this stage before logging my thoughts, I am curious how much of it is down to the lack of Michael and the emphasis on Strode family drama, which is obviously something I was wanting them to lean into more in the 2018 Halloween so I was on board when it started playing out that way here. 'Where's Michael' is always the initial criticism of something like Halloween 3 and he is very much a peripheral character here. Or maybe it's more that as a movie presumably built up as this grand finale and a final showdown between Michael and Laurie, which we do get, felt like it was tacked on in a 'Okay, you sat through the meat and veg of our spin on Halloween so he's here's your treat.' Without going through the trailers and hype going into the movie I'm unsure if that's how they were building it but that's certainly the impression I got from the end of Halloween Kills.
After a run in with some punk kids, Corey is introduced to Laurie's granddaughter Allyson at the local hospital and the pair hit it off, a duo of nihilists whose trouble backgrounds seem to serve as a bit of a bonding experience. She's the survivor of a homicidal maniac, people think he is a homicidal maniac, they're just a perfect fit as they wallow in their collective misery and intent to watch the world burn.
But after another run in that leaves Corey injured, he's dragged into some sewers by a shadowy figure that we come to learn is Michael who promptly strangles Corey to near death but seemingly lets go. Michael is shown to be frail at times so did he just lose his strength, did Corey break free or did Michael see something in this youngsters eyes that made him set his victim free?
It's something that Laurie sees as well, particularly when Corey starts lurking outside her house like he's The Shape from 40 years ago. But as on the ball as she is, you do sound like the boy who cried wolf when you start protesting that he's 'just like Michael Myers' which is something you've been bleating on about for the past four decades. It's kinda like that meme about Boss Baby, when you spend your life fixated on Michael Myers then you're probably going to get a lot of Michael Myers vibes from this…
The only thing I am iffy on is the relationship between Corey and Michael. Corey is played off as this young apprentice of sorts but it's not as if Michael is readily accepting of help, even Dr. Sartain in 2018 he killed off pretty much the first chance he got even though they were meant to be buddy buddy. There are times when it looks like Corey thinks he's in control of Michael, which is probably just in his head, but there's moments when he's doing weird things with his hands and due to the scar he has, I did wonder briefly if they were going for some weird mark of the Cult of Thorn type thing here. I guess it is just this weird connection between them, like Michael understands this shared anguish they have or maybe a sort of 'passing the torch' thing given Michael's advancing years. Or maybe he just recognizes a greater evil than himself, like I said, even Michael knows when to draw the line when it comes to child murder so he's just paying his respects to Corey.
And I guess the ending in a way I'm a bit iffy on as well, specifically the Laurie/Michael showdown. I get that they felt obligated to include it, you probably would have had people rioting in the streets if you didn't show that after these 3 movies, never mind all the other ones in the franchise and especially given this is likely the last chance saloon for the likes of Jamie Lee Curtis. But the vibe I got from Halloween Kills was that there never was this connection between the two that Laurie seemed to play out in her head, it's all just some cosmic coincidence that she happened to be the one all those years ago so it seemed like plot convenience that Michael just happened to make his way out into the world now to track her down.
But the actual ending itself I really like because, spoiler warning, not only does she incapacitate him and slit pretty much every available appendage, they make sure this fucker is never coming back by taking him to a giant metal grinder that they promptly feed him into. Unless he's planning on reassembling the quivering piles of jelly T-1000 style, this guy is deader than he's ever been. Granted, they stopped short of burying whatever bits are left in a concrete filled coffin 2 miles beneath the Earth's surface like I would but they put a good shift in.
In the build up to that moment though, there's this whole procession where everyone in town shows up to witness this momentous occasion. Even when the cops look on uneasy about what's about to play out, like this isn't in the rule book, the sheriff from Halloween Kills shows up to stress that tonight it is. The whole moment is very cathartic, not only for the viewer in that we've finally seen good triumph over evil, but for the entire town of Haddonfield. Even if his timeline has been retconned six ways from Sunday over the years, it's almost as if every resident from every possible continuity is here to finally witness the moment his corpse is destroyed so they can get some closure on the vast body count he must have built up over these last 40 years.
So, whilst I can appreciate that people going into this movie last year with all that hype behind it might feel like they were on the end of a bait and switch, I really loved this. I've said it til I'm blue in the face over the years that slasher movies can be very hit and miss for me and something like Friday the 13th just bores me to tears. Something like Terrifier that I watched this year, it felt like it was just going for the immediate, visceral reaction but trying to be as gory as possible for cheap pops. But it hadn't earned the real weight behind those deaths because these are just disposable characters. When you have people like Dr. Loomis or Laurie Strode who bring some actual gravitas to proceedings, they can actually make you care, there are actual stakes involved and you're not just cheering for the bad guy and waiting for him to stab Camp Councillor #12.
If you want your bog standard slasher movie, go nuts. I'm sure there's hundreds of them out there. Hell, there's like a dozen other ones in this series alone so I'm all for when one of them wants to try something different. If someone wants to mix their indie, moody, coming of age teen drame in with Halloween then I'm all for it. It certainly has a unique atmosphere to it unlike anything in the series, it put me in mind of something like It Follows in artistic terms, the look and feel to it as well as that general overarching look at these younger characters and their lives being shaped by these traumatic events. Here we have this culmination of movies that has been building up Haddonfield as this deeply toxic place where misery is just a way of like and everyone in it almost seems cursed, with two characters specifically that have every reason in the world to want to get out, with things in their lives ripped away from them in harrowing events but ever after all of that, they feel trapped and bound to this place and unable to break free.
And what does the future hold for Halloween as a franchise when everyone has ridden off into the sunset, quite literally in Laurie's case? Well, everyone seems content for now to let things lay but considering the number of reboot and remakes we've been through, whose to say this will ever truly be over? This is easily one of the biggest franchises in horror, if not the biggest, so it's not going to lay dormant forever. This timeline might be over but I'm sure someone somewhere will start a new one in 5-10 years. Hell, multiverses are all the rage, they'll probably end up drawing in all the different iterations of Michael for some monster mash. And that's just speculation on the future of the silver screen, because we've already had word this month that Miramax has won the TV rights for Halloween so we'll be seeing that before too long.
But, for now, we must retire our Halloween cap as we look forward to the next major event of Christmas and the hopes that I might make the effort to round up the full dozen reviews this year. We live in hope…
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Director's Commentary for Shire please
I need clarification because you've already mentioned you always had the intention of writing a "fix it fic". Did you plan Mordor before Shire? Or did you just write Shire around the concept of Mordor? Did you leave any breadcrumbs that weren't picked up by readers? I need an itemized list, ma'am 👀
of course, love! so, short answer - no. mordor was not properly planned before shire but... long answer? yes.
i left a ton of clues, actually! they were very heavy in the set up, because instead of dropping obvious plot clues (which i definitely did), i mostly focused on making it clear these characters were 'built' to specifically fall into this situation of season 4. all the relationships, all the small moments, all the little details - they all add up to make gasoline for vecna's fire so to speak. this is probably more than you wanted, so i apologize, but it's fun because i kept a vague list for myself and this one has more details. <3 so yeah sorry this is stupid long and i got carried away but thank you for the question!!! shire is my baby and i'm always willing to give lame ass director's commentary
the name. i was stuck on the name until i realized i could break that quote into two story titles!! i think i specifically said that on tik tok, too. like before shire even broke 100 hits, i was over there going "👀 this is a secret tool i will use later"
shire started with an altered but still canon scene (dustin's return at scoops)! as well as alluded to the fact that the upside down existed because of steve changing! to show that i was following canon <3
in chapter 2, there's also a hint of something that will be happening in mordor. as i said, mordor wasn't properly planned, but i had an idea of how it would go down haha. actually, there two references? but one is unintentional so go figure.
chapter 3 once more referenced that the upside down was canon! starcourt still burned down, the events of season 3 occured, but willow was simply not involved... yet. obviously, robin involved her by informing her of what really happened, and planted the knowledge/fear of the upside down in her.
chapter 4 shows a brief flash of willow putting someone else's comfort above her own - when she downplays her hair to her mom. it's a big part of her character for mordor, obviously lol. also robin shoos away her mother and says she'll take care of her, alluding to how when trouble happens in the show, parents aren't involved. to hint that if trouble arose, willow's mom would be absent.
also in chapter 4! steve doesn't slow down. willow is the first to notice the danger and him nearly hitting the deer. she notices danger before him - he's an action-first, think-later type of person. again, crucial character points for mordor. willow is literally the first to sense vecna technically speaking. and speaking of steve, notice he doesn't want willow involved in the upside down in this chapter and is trying to scope out just how much robin involved her. when it comes to the russians, he was an open book. when it came to the upside down, he's ready to shut it all down and keep her in the dark. <3
7.. chapter 5 crucial character point - where as we established that willow puts others needs above her own, eddie is the first to put her needs over his (not getting the cigarette near her, the jacket, etc.)
8. chapter 7 - eddie refers to willow as multiple magic user names from D&D. she's the one later linked to the freaky wizard villain aha
9. their book choices. willow chose little women, which furthers solidifies the way she grew up so fast, the way she tries to fill a stereotypical role as a woman not only in society but her family (aka with her mother after parker passes. also, it was alluding to the fact that she's lost a sibling!) eddie's is about adventure, about being thrust into a journey. they were choices i felt fit who they were as characters best, alluded to the fic namesake, and also serve as a way to criticize how they approach responsibility. willow takes it with heavy shoulders - eddie is simply thrust into it. willow's fate has long been sealed, but eddie's was an ever changing opportunity, if that makes sense. one is doomed by the narrative not just from society, but by her past. the other isn't doomed yet. he still has a chance to escape it all, while willow is already involved with the upside down due to robin. i sound like a crazy person now haha. also when just used in shire, it shows that willow and steve won't be together but uh... that's an entirely different list, isn't it? also their conversation about it in 25. <3
10. also worth mentioning how often it is brought up that willow is a bad liar, but we see her capable of lying when it comes to bigger picture things (keeping the fake dating realistic, etc.). she does know how to keep a secret.
11. the difference in how steve and eddie treats willow when dropping her off. it was, one, to illustrate which one she would end up with (again, different list). but also how one is far more individually protective over her :-) that'll come into play later. simply put - steve has faith that willow can handle herself, and eddie trusts her but also chooses to still take precautions (from a distance or otherwise!)
12. eddie progressively makes willow more reckless. in the beginning of shire, she's very anal about her schedule and such. by the end of the story, when their first date is going wrong, she's better able to handle it. eddie, on the other hand, struggles with losing control. they change each other wildly. in shire's context, that's for the better. in mordor... it'll be an issue.
13. she goes from wanting no involvement in d&d, to being involved for eddie (first game - sternly won't play. by the end of the story, she is willing to help plan a campaign. specifically, she helps plan VECNA'S CULT. and vecna's return is her idea). another change, another demonstration of the subtle lengths you'll go for the one you love, until it's no longer subtle situations.
14. willow also criticizes the way the game involves making careful decisions through dice rolling! she's more aligned with steve's thought process of acting first, worrying about consequences later, especially when it comes to herself. it shows that underneath it all, although they switch roles from planner and the one who goes with the flow, those values were always there under the surface. which comes into play in mordor and the vecna situation!
15. chapter 16 - the first demonstration of willow being eddie's protector.
16. also chapter 16 - it's established that eddie is dustin's protector, which plays into his canon demise (in my opinion, at least!). and then chapter 17 - solidification of willow being eddie's protector as she physically will put herself between him and danger before dragging him away from it. also, eddie being dustin's protector again. haha. also, eddie acknowledging it. :-)
17. "I mean, you get this look when your friends get hurt - like you’d burn the world down for them."
18. "She would burn the world down for him - she’d drag Jason to hell and back herself if it meant the boy in front of her knew a moment of peace."
19. the use of second hand news being the first song they listen to together from rumors rather than her favorite song (the chain), most specifically the line that is quoted - When times go bad, when times go rough, won't you lay me down in tall grass and let me do my stuff?
20. “Ah, ah. Careful doll, or you’ll be number four.” - no comment on this one. but uh. major.
21. the ENTIRE ordeal with freddy krueger and nightmare on elm street. all of it. major breadcrumb.
22. “You’re distracted. What are you gonna do one day when there’s a freaky ghost invading our dreams and trying to kill us, but you didn’t watch the movie with me so you have no clue what to do to save us?”
23. the whole parker situation. obviously, i pulled real life inspo, but i always knew i was going to traumatize willow (as audrey put it). parker's death shapes who she is a person very fundamentally, and gives vecna an in for her mind. the thing is, i purposefully made it something that was pretty far back in the past, but still affected her deeply. she's had time to heal, but she didn't. there's so much to say about this little tid bit but it's rough, and sensitive to talk about.
24. willow’s favorite song being revealed to eddie. i really expected more people to catch that haha
25. willow having to choose between eddie and steve during their fight with jason.
26. willow’s d&d character has major clues! Spent a long time combing over that one
and then obviously, her headaches, her nightmares, the upside down visions, etc. that i brought back for the final chapters. like i said, so much of it was fit into the beginning of the story. i needed to set it up for mordor, but a lot of shire is just a love story. my entire point for shire was solely mordor - it was tell a nice love story that comforted me through a lot of rough times. i'm just lucky i got to have my cake and eat it too i guess lol <3
so i guess in a way, when you asked me if i wrote shire around the concept of mordor, the answer there is also no! i wanted shire to be able to exist without mordor, as well.
anyways. much love. brevity ain't the wit of this soul.
#thank u ily#director's commentary#shire#i didn't need to go into so much detail but i DID#i do not know how to shut up#no one perceive this#this list is actually between me and god#and i'm sure i missed some of my references but i got tireeeddd#i'm just full of foreshadowing
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Another cluster anime review and the theme is selected people with supernatural abilities. Okay, I know it's vague, but think of it like Bungo Stray Dogs. Let's get down to it! Also, as usual, 🚨SPOILERS🚨
1️⃣ Bungo Stray Dogs
(Picture Source: Sakura Sunrise thru' Google Image Search)
Since I already mentioned it in my intro, I shall just review this first.
To be honest, I really have no idea what this anime is really about 😂 It started with this white-hair boy, Atsushi, who tried to escape what he believed was a real life tiger after his life, when it turned out that the tiger was him. And because he was wanted, the detective agency offered him sanctuary by being employed under them.
Of course, it is not only the agency that has people with supernatural abilities. Other organisations like the Port Mafia had people with such abilities too, and in the entire anime is just people with abilities fighting it out with each other for god knows why.
Regardless, the anime series is thrilling to watch. If you think that the antagonists are being the bad people for absolute no reason, you are wrong. This antagonists in this anime all have back stories which helps you understand the reason why they are doing what they are doing in the present time of the anime.
Worth a watch.
Rating: 8⭐/10
2️⃣ Jujutsu Kaisen Season 1
(Picture Source: IMDB thru' Google Image Search)
To be honest, I wasn't seeing the appeal of this anime. But what kept me going was Gojo... Yeah... no surprises there, I guess... 🫣
Anyway, this anime talks about this boy who initially had nothing to do with the spirit world but because he decided to go ahead and swallow one of the fingers of the strongest evil spirit, he got sucked into some deadly conspiracies where people are just trying to end his life for simply swallowing the finger. I mean I get that he was confused and had no idea what was going on but dude... seriously?
People are actually praising this anime a lot and, as I mentioned before, I don't see the appeal... yet... except for Gojo. But this is my review, so...
I mean, if you like this kind of stuff, I won't stop you from watching it, just probably not really my cup of tea tea? It's fun to watch some times but I'd rather watch something else...
Rating: 6⭐/10
3️⃣ Charlotte
(Picture Source: Wallpaper Abyss - Alpha Coders thru' Google Image Search)
It has been quite some time since I last watch Charlotte. But the anime has a good storyline.
This story involves time travelling. The current timeline we see in the anime is one that is the best of the best. Yuu Otosaka was transferred to a school for students who has this special abilities like him. Of course, each of them has a different type of ability. For Yuu, it's possession, while for Nao Tomori, it's invisibility. You get the idea.
While these special abilities are temporary, those who has it are technically in danger, and the reason why this school's student council is in-charge of heading out to look for those with such ability and warn them of the dangers.
Things gets a little bit more complicated when time travelling is introduced but don't worry, it is very easy to follow through. I would recommend this anime for those who are fans of Code Geass since it was produced by the same team.
Rating: 8⭐/10
4️⃣ Hamatora
(Picture Source: Crunchyroll thru' Google Image Search)
Hamatora is one of the not so well-known animes out there but I would highly recommend people to watch it if they can.
There are currently two seasons of this anime. The first season sees Nice, the main protagonist, facing off with an obsessed man who wishes to best Nice. The second season revolves around Art misunderstanding something based on memory and trying to seek revenge (or something like that) while Hajime started to regain her memories.
While the entire anime series has lots of comedic laughter, the second season leans more towards the serious side as we dive deep into the backstories of the characters, especially Art, Nice, and Hajime. Quite a nice show to watch.
Rating: 8⭐/10
#yukihime's anime review#bungo stray dogs#hamatora the animation#re: hamatora#anime charlotte#charlotte anime#jujutsu kaisen
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OKAY i finished love love paradise. now. THOUGHTS.
not enough garroth. i want more garroth. i need more garroth.
you can tell the huge difference pdh has had on mystreet if you watch s1 and llp back to back. they reference it a lot so you’d probably be clueless for some of the mentions, though they do vaguely explain some of their references.
at the beginning the voice lines were a bit weird, there was always such a weird awkward pause between the lines that was extremely obvious but it does get better after the first couple episodes
the whole dante, jenna and nicole thing bothered me. IT WASN’T. problematic per say. i dont think it was b a d but it could’ve been done much better? i do like how nicole and jenna didn’t act as if nothing happened and didn’t try getting back w/ him or give him a second chance at love. i like how dante knows he cannot repair the damage he’s done. his plot lines can be mature which sometimes takes me in for a loop. however when zane said “dante is trying, he’s just being dumb” it made me.. yknow the kombucha girl cringe meme? yeah that one. i feel like........ it was taken a bit too lightly imo? IDK HOW TO EXPLAIN IT. i just wish it was taking more seriously.
also the travlyn thing towards the end kinda.. gave me whiplash. LIKE I KNOW it was sorta foreshadowed w/ travis going “i can’t take it” in his convo w/ dante but.. IT WAS SO WEIRD? because initially it was written as a funny joke but then it wasn’t and travis was actually feeling hurt. it’s just i don’t think it was done well enough so it came off as a sudden change in tone thats jarring
oh my god am i being too harsh- i feel like i was being too harsh bc this was not written by a genius so idk why im critiquing it so harshly im so sorry. but i’m still going bc i can :]
BUT ANOTHER THING. the whole aphmau being scared of swimming was hhh? on one hand i feel like it was taken wayy too seriously but at the same time i feel like it wasn’t taken seriously enough at times. by that i mean, aphmau seems to be the type to trust her friends a lot regardless, and she encourages her friends to tell her things no matter how embarrassing they may be, but when it comes to her, she stubbornly refuses to tell anyone but zane. but then when everyone knows, no one takes her fear seriously w/ pushing her into the water or going “lmao you’re overreacting”. maybe it’s me because i also cannot swim and it’s sooo fucking scary being in chest level water. tbh im honestly overreacting bc i would also laugh if someone was in my position ngl
WHERE WAS LAURANCE. WHERE THE. FUCK. WAS MY FAVORITE QUEER?
gene was great i love gene he’s so fun. it was honestly so weird him appearing like that. also what did they do to ivy. i wish ivy kept her haughty behavior but i do get her maturing or wtver but i just wish there was still that spunk now to me she feels like a bland.. character who’s just changed to good.
ONE MORE THING. i forgot what i ti was. GOD I SAID THIS ALREADY BUT SYLVANNA REALLY PISSED ME OFF THIS SEASON. i was fine w/ her not knowing that her daughter had a boyfriend but still going against her wishes despite knowing she has one afterwards simply because you don’t like him hrggghr. i know that mom’s can be annoying like that yeah but jesus fuck it does not help.
honestly aaron was just.. The Boyfriend, yet again. i did like how it was obvious that aaron was becoming more comfortable w/ the people around him and being more outgoing. it was cute. however. most of the things coming out of his mouth was aphmau. EVEN WHEN IT WAS DANTE’S PROBLEM HE COULD NOT HOLD BACK FROM BRINGING UP APHMAU IM SO TIRED.
anyway i give this season...... honestly 8/10? i know i complained a lot abt this seasons but it was genuinely fun to watch. i liked the other little side characters like the token gay couple (guy and nate + teony and The Girl who’s name they mentioned but i forgot), the dad and his son, also the bartender-
ONCE AGAIN i would love to mention this mini review is totally based off my personal taste yaddah yaddah, this is a very subjective and biased post so :thumbsup:
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well
season 5 has been watched
an incredibly strong season, as youknow... basically every season of this ridiculous show
I think s3 broke me, because I was expecting something horrifying or bleak in the last episode and that’s not what happened at all here! it surprisingly made me feel more melancholy than if something dramatic had happened, like I was holding a lot of tension and it didn’t get the chance to go anywhere. also because it feels like we’re headed into a new era again, and there’s always a little goodbye when that happens, even if the goodbye has itself been very joyful
as far as I’m aware we’re now moving into the half of the show that was far more influenced by alan alda (not that he hadn’t been a strong creative and production presence before this of course) and that gives it a third “new” feeling from previous seasons
I know we’re still missing another (last?) piece of main cast that I think stays until the end? I know his name is “charles” and I know he’ll be arriving soon. I’m guessing in replacement of frank, whom I will wait to say more about until his farewell (which I guess isn’t happening offscreen? unless he’s just gone in s6ep1... sure hope not, he deserves a proper send-off + I don’t think larry linville did what wayne rogers did 😂)
it’s interesting because we’re almost at the halfway mark of the show overall and yeah I’ve been counting down the seasons, but because seasons 1-3 have been their own thing and seasons 4+5 have been their own thing, it’s felt less like a show with seasons and more like I’ve watched the prelude, and now the first act
there’s such a distinct change in the characters in 1-3 vs 4+5 (including of course two exchanges which will change up a dynamic significantly + two characters moved into main cast, and more of a sense of who the secondary and tertiary characters are)
so I wonder if 6-onwards will mark another change in how the characters are. margaret I think will continue to move dramatically, as I know she’s still going places, and I will continue to wax poetic about the joy I feel in seeing makers recognise character and actor potential and not stifling it!
Overall:
cautiously calling 1-3 the hopeful/innocent era, ending with loss
4+5 the grief and... recovery? era. the end of s5 is very different tonally from the beginning of s4 and like i said... it wasn’t sad (for anyone but frank)
i have a vague assumption on 6, that it will be more sombre. or not sombre but... serious, in a particular way, as if the last few seasons haven’t also been that, but I think overall more. it’s not based on much evidence -- it may also simply be the mood that I’m carrying into the next season with the scant knowledge I have of it
anyway. slow clap for seasons 4+5 (act 1), hello bj and colonel potter, well done margaret who’s the mvp of s5 and gets best punch of the show so far, big kisses to mulcahy, klinger, and radar - and hawkeye uh... hang in there buddy. unconnected, but I hope we see sidney freedman again
(and you know... like I said I’m going to wait until frank leaves to say anything longer, but I really have enjoyed his presence on the show, fascinated by his increased erratic behaviour in s5, kept expecting him to get a section 8 to be honest)
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I think the one thing that is so confusing to me is that his parents knew he had never divorced Iris, but knew the marriage was over long before she disappeared. The way Carlos was like "we meant to [get a divorce]" made it seem like they just kept forgetting since Tim said it wasn't long after they got married, they drifted apart and Iris disappeared around 2016/17 and that was after gay marriage was legal in TX.
The math isn't math-ing to me. But this is also the show who is probably going to annul the marriage with lone star legal magic and i'm okay with that
Yeah, it starts to get extra difficult to make sense of when we get to that point. As far as Carlos not getting a divorce, I can understand that. I can see getting a divorce not being a priority for Carlos at the time. He truly believed he would never get married again and it probably would have been at least a vaguely unpleasant thing to have to do that might have required him to have some conversations and thoughts about his feelings. For that reason, I can definitely see him just putting off doing it, and then Iris disappears and is assumed dead, so it becomes a non-issue. Then Iris is back but she needs his insurance so there's a reason not to get a divorce. That makes sense to me.
It might be possible that Gabriel and Andrea didn't know at the time that they didn't actually get divorced. Obviously, they would have known about Iris' disappearance. They probably would have then found out when Iris reappeared. Maybe that's when Carlos told them that they had never actually gotten a divorce. Possibly he told them about Iris using his insurance? The further down that road we get, though, the more confusing it gets. (I also don't like thinking about Carlos actively taking steps to hide the marriage from TK, so I don't love thinking about Carlos discussing it with his parents while he and TK are together.)
What confuses me the most is Andrea knowing in 4x01 both that Carlos is still married to Iris and that he never told TK about it. Her reaction to this seems strangely mild. I guess she does at first assume TK knows because she scolds him about not telling TK the truth when she realizes he doesn't know. But she knew Carlos was still married and starts talking wedding plans for a wedding in 8 weeks. What is she thinking? Or really, what is Tim thinking?? It's not like this is something that happened way back in season 1 that doesn't quite mesh with the season 4 revelation...it's the same episode!!
But whatever. I'm over it. Use Lone Star legal magic to annul the marriage. If it gets us to a Tarlos wedding, that's all I really care about.
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Watching Strange New Worlds, I'm seeing dead people
If I'm honest, I can't stand Strange New Worlds. Spoilers abound in this post, this is your only warning.
Look, I watched the first season. I enjoyed most of it. It's delightful. It has a cast of colorful characters, the old planet-of-the-week plot, and Anson Mount's aw-shucks Captain Pike. I enjoyed it, but something kept nagging at me the entire time.
That nagging kept with me for the first 8 episodes, and I still couldn't figure out what was bothering me and why. Then comes "All Those Who Wander," and suddenly things started to fall into place.
The thing that carried Star Trek for the first 40 years was always characters, because when you have an episodic/monster-of-the-week type show, that's where your main source of continuity is. Watching characters change and grow, but within a predicable envelope such that you can say, regardless of where in the show syndication takes you, "yeah, i can see Riker/Troi/Geordi doing that."
Disco and Picard shifted the focus of the show from character-driven continuity to story-driven, and a lot of people weren't terribly happy with that. I actually liked Disco, though in hindsight it is pretty disappointing.
But getting back to Strange New Worlds, "All Those Who Wander" flopped really, really hard for me. To start, the Alien pastiche was so tonally jarring compared to the previous 8 episodes that it already felt like writing for shock value. So when it gets to the cool blind guy doing his heroic sacrifice, it felt part and parcel of writing for shock value.
Said cool blind guy, Hemmer, has, at this point, gotten I think 4 episodes with an actual role to play. His actor, Bruce Horak, is in the opening credits for the entire show to this point. Hemmer is the chief engineer of the Enterprise! Traditionally, that's a big role on a Star Trek show. Geordi, O'Brien, B'Ellana, Trip, and, of course, Scotty.
Scotty, of course, is the Chief Engineer of the Enterprise in TOS. At this point he's also been very conspicuously absent from Pike's Enterprise, and therein lies the one thing that just absolutely kills Strange New Worlds for me. It's a prequel.
Ever since Discovery came out, I've made do with the reality that Paramount would rather do prequels and interquels and follow-ups than stick a flag in the early 25th or 26th centuries and continue on the way that TNG did with the 24th.
Canon is always going to be a millstone around the neck of a writer. This is true of any work in an established property. The Star Wars prequels were not only bad because George Lucas is a dogshit writer, they were bad because the story they wanted to tell had to fit into the world established by events that take place after them and that were written long before they were.
Back in 1986 when TNG was in the planning stages, Roddenberry was very insistent that no direct references be made to the original series. Eventually the producers persuaded him to have a cameo by Bones. But after that, for years, TNG only made vague reference to the original series. This started to change after Roddenberry's death, eventually bringing in James Doohan and Leonard Nimoy to reprise Scotty and Spock in one-offs.
During TNG and most of the rest of the 90s, when faced with a conflict between canon and doing something interesting which contradicted it, the writers of Star Trek chose the latter, both for better and for worse.
But as the frachise has expanded, aged, and sunk into the groundwater of pop culture, fans who are now second or third generation raised on Trek have become increasingly demanding of writers. Star Trek and universes like it are no longer a basis for telling stories, they are a core component of identity. To call it religious may be slightly facetious but not as much as you might think.
All of which loops me right back around to Scotty's notable absence in Strange New Worlds, Hemmer's death, and the unbearable burden of canon.
There is not a single story that has been told in Strange New Worlds that could not be told in a sequel series set in the 25th or 26th centuries. Pike's struggle with his certain fate does not need Pike to be an interesting story, it could easily be any other Captain, because the interesting part of a story like that is not the end result, it is the journey to that end result. But because canon is law, Pike's fate is assuredly sealed, as the season finale, "A Quality of Mercy," lays bare.
Canon is law, and so when I watch Strange New World, I see, as the line goes, dead people. I see Lieutenant Na'an dead fighting the Gorn. I see Oretegas transfered to the Saratoga or the Faragut or the New Jersey. I see Dr. M'Benga leaving to remain on some distant world to help erradicate a disease that reminds him of his daughter's plight.
I see all of these characters that in the course of 10 episodes I have already come to know and love be swept away in order to make room for more familiar faces. It has been 57 years since Star Trek first aired in syndication on NBC, but as it was written, so it shall be that James Tiberius Kirk will be captain, that Spock will be his first officer, that Leonard "Bones" McCoy will become the Ships Doctor, and that Montgomery Scott will give it all she's got, captain.
I'm probably in the minority here, as Strange New Worlds appears to be by far the most popular of the new Star Trek series, at least the live action ones. But honestly? I'll take Discovery instead, any day of the week.
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The stories behind the songs on my new EP out on 3rd January
I don't send postcards anymore when I go on holiday. I used to before I could WhatsApp every vaguely interesting thing I see to the person most likely to appreciate it, but I like the thought that people showed they cared by sending them even when the cards frequently arrived after they'd got home.
With these songs, I'm sharing stories about places I've discovered with listeners who I hope will find them interesting, even though I haven't been there in person. I want to take my listeners on a journey in a "wish you were here" kind of way, giving them a snapshot, so they can read more about it if they want.
First up on the EP is Skeleton Lake, which was the newest song on the EP, written in September and released on soundcloud as a demo on Halloween to give people a taster of my new stuff while I was waiting for it to be mixed properly. I read about Roopkund Lake in the Himalayas and was immediately fascinated by the mystery surrounding it. There's something about that part of the world and the mixture of the spiritual and the danger of those imposing mountains that really captures my imagination, so this rather grizzly end that so many people found on the shores of a lake 5,000 meters above sea level grabbed me as pretty amazing to look into (from afar). The story's put onto a riff-laden Bowie-esque guitar song with a bit of swagger. I kept it fairly simple on this one, but with hooks that I hope will draw in lovers of retro-ish rock.
youtube
Track two (meandering Lights) was originally going to be the lead track. The riff is recycled from one I wrote and played in my last band in Russia about 20 years ago. It sounds very different now to how it did then and and I re-wrote the lyrics to give it a more interesting story. This time we're off for an extra-terrestrial encounter with J Allen Hynek, the debunker turned UFO encounter classifier, after whose work close encounters of the 3rd kind was named (he even made an appearance in the film). This is the most musically unusual track on the EP with some samples, keyboard parts and guitars heavily laden with effects. I wanted to create something that felt other-worldly, as well as telling the story of Hynek's conversion into believing the stories told to him by expert witnesses of craft that couldn't be created by human technology of the time.
Track three takes us to Bangkok for a bit of retail therapy, no wait... what's happened to the shopping mall? Catfish rule the mall is a song about nature reclaiming a very unlikely place. A dispute led to an arson attack on a shopping mall, which was then abandoned roofless and filled up with rain during the monsoon season. All this water meant it became an attractive place for mosquitos, which didn't sit well with the locals, who put various types of fish into the water to eat the larvae and control their numbers. These fish found it an ideal place to live and thrived there, swelling in numbers until anyone going in would be amazed at the numbers of fish in the water. Musically, this song features a descending riff in the verses over a 6/8 rhythm and overlaid layers of guitars and keyboards that are supposed to create a slightly underwater feel. The chorus features some of my favourite slightly odd chords, like B♭dim7 and C#m7(♭5) and the song ends with a coda that gets more frenzied and deranged - it was the last part that I came up with on the song and probably my favourite bit.
The fourth place to (not actually) visit is Utopia, which despite being a very common concept all over the world has never actually been created anywhere, as I say in the song. I guess dystopia is a lot easier to imagine and agree on what it is, which could be why we always seem to be living somewhere closer to that even though you'd think we'd want to avoid it. Thomas More came up with his original version of Utopia in the sixteenth century and many others have created their own literary versions. I'm sure we all dream of living somewhere peaceful, with more equity and fairness, but we're stuck in a system that is very resistant to any such changes. I wish I could send you a postcard from Utopia and invite you all to join me there, but it's not happening any time soon. This is a slightly more standard indie-sounding song and has been compared to blur in how it sounds (although that could mean anything with their eclectic back catalogue in my opinion).
The final journey takes us to the gates of hell, and it stinks. A dirty bluesy (mixed with low-fi American alt-rock slightly reminiscent of Pavement) song tells how Soviet scientists drilled into the desert in Turkmenistan and accidentally opened up a massive fiery sinkhole. The Darvaza Crater, as it is now known, has been burning for about 50 years and you can smell it before you see it, hence the name of the song, Darvaza Stench! Again, my favourite part is probably the coda when I let rip with some frenetic guitar work and what seems like a sedate menacing song bursts into fiery strumming and smashing cymbals.
I hope you enjoy listening to this EP as much as I enjoyed creating it and will consider buying a copy on Bandcamp. https://joepeacock.bandcamp.com/album/postcards-from-places-ill-never-go-to
If not, then please at least check it out on Spotify if that's where you listen: https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/joepeacock/postcards-from-places-ill-never-go-to
#singer songwriter#indie music#songwriting#new music#alternative rock#diy music#Skeleton Lake#darvaza#Hynek#close encounters of the third kind#catfish#utopia#Youtube
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