#time travel is such a bad plot device

[phairfantooooom]

hey! so, i know you're probably not into ObMe nowadays but i just happened to stumble upon your time travel is BS post from years ago and wanted to let you know that it will be fucking me up for weeks! i will not get a single full nights sleep for the foreseeable because of YOUR theory!! so thanks for that!!! /j ((seriously though, it was super interesting stuff and i love-hate it bc it's making me think and i have 0 braincells. pity that OM is such a dumpster fire these days, big sigh...

Oh my god I just saw this fhdjfhdj sorry for the delay! I’m so glad you liked the post! And yeah I’m not an active player of OM nowadays… I wasn’t thrilled with the way the story progressed and the fact that you can’t redeem cards from the Gacha like you can in other games (the Arabian nights leviathan card was my breaking point cause I spent so much money and still didn’t get it cause the drop rate is total ass) but!!! Yeah!!! I really loved the game when I did play it, there was a lot of potential for depth in the story but game devs didn’t seem interested in that unfortunately…

That post is probably the most popular one I ever made for the OM fandom and it somewhat haunts me cause like… we could have had that. There was enough evidence there that they could have made a more darker storyline but… well… we know what actually happened. The Lilith reveal still bugs me to this day ngl. But!!! That’s just my subjective opinion if you like the game then you should play it. I love to brainstorm what-if scenarios for all the story based games I play so I’m glad you like what my brain conjured up!

#Obey Me! #OM #lemonianus #i also love hate my own post cause even now I have people liking it even tho it’s been years #so people STILL are unhappy with how the story went #time travel is such a bad plot device #the devs wrote themselves into a corner and literally used time travel to get out #smh #ask

[presiding]

you'll never guess which level we're up to in this dishonored 2 rewrite

#if i haven't stuffed up my timezones this post should land on thanksgiving so here's somethin' to read to go with your food coma #dishonored #dishonored shitposting #emily kaldwin #billie lurk #dishonored fic #interesting the way the resurrection was handled - rock up to aramis stilton's powerpoint presentation basically #does anyone else think it would have been cool if you had to do the duke's palace first. #grab delilah's mortality and give it back in the past. like while she's vulnerable #kind of makes sense too from an emily character perspective #because she shows SO much character growth in stilton's manor #and then goes to the duke's palace next and IMMEDIATELY says the dumbest shit she says all game re: her entitlement and obliviousness #stilton's manor: wow ive learned so much i finally get it now! #nek minnet. emily misunderstands class warfare so bad she thinks she needs to sharpen her dads folding blade. emily. no #and if you think about it the duke's palace would have made a lot of sense for an earlier level just from emily's perspective. #hes very clearly her enemy compared to meagan's vague idea of where sokolov might be. a darker timeline perhaps #lovely Off_Topic mentioned hating time travel as a plot device and i have to agree. here's my take on that level anyway #also big thank you to RoseEll (<3) for saying it parallels the limitations of the game's mechanics interestingly ♥ #using this meme template was like. 'oh hey lingering hatred for jeremy clarkson i forgot i had you' #making the badly photoshopped heads too big. my beloved. #ah crap rambling again

[endless-brainrot]

ok so what you’re saying is i should read homestuck (been meaning to read it for a while bc of the complicated timeline)

YES UES ABSOLUTELY YES JOIN ME IN MY HELLPIT WE HAVE YAOI AND SICK MUSIC AND RAPPING OBAMA

#timeline bit is understandable because HOOO boy #but i got through it and it wasnt too bad even thoigh time travel is my Least favorite plot device ever so it cant be that bad i think #BUT EYAG READ IT READ IT #ITS SO GOOD #ask! #lux!

[elexuscal]

squinting at the 'fix it fic' tag on any given story on Ao3, trying to discern if it's intended in the sense of:

I genuinely think the story had bad writing and I am taking my toolbox and improving it [and i the reader agree]

I genuinely think the story had bad writing and I am taking my toolbox and improving it [and i the reader disagree]

The story's ending was Tragic and I Respect that but also i just want to read about my faves having some kind of joy and fulfilment okay?

The story's ending was Tragic and I do Not Respect That please God Damnit Let Them Be Happy

We Are Literally Fixing The Canon With The Application of Time Travel or Reality Warping or some other Wild Plot Device

I am going to fix one obscure detail or plot element that 95% of the fandom has never thought about in their life

(because these are all extremely different vibes)

#fanfic #ao3 #also shout out to those who write fix its of their own fucked up angst fic

[inbarfink]

So when discussing the ending of ‘Over the Garden Wall’ and the nature of the Unknown in general, I think it is important to remember that it’s left deliberately up for interpretation. You know, it’s not a Quiz with one concrete answer we must uncover, but it’s more about our interpretations and personal feelings. Each and every one of us experiences that journey with Wirt and Greg into the Unknown in a slightly different way. 

So what I want to do here is not present a Correct Interpretation that will dispute all the others and prove them all wrong and prove myself right, I just want to share my own outlook on the nature of the Unknown. In the hopes that others will like it and it’ll inspire more cool readings and interpretations

So on some level I do agree with the popular theory that the Unknown is some sort of Afterlife - but I don’t see it as a regular Afterlife for human souls, I think it is an afterlife for Stories. This place is where fictional characters and stories end up once they’ve been totally forgotten by the living, ‘lost in the clouded annals of history’. and become.... unknown It is quite literally a place where ‘long forgotten stories are revealed to those who travel through the wood’.

That’s why the Unknown is a mishmash of different time periods and primarily visually and narratively influenced by stuff like fairy tales, ghost stories, children’s books and old cartoons - these stories have a high-tendency to be forgotten and thus get lost in the Unknown (whatever it’s because they rely on oral traditions or because they suffered from very poor preservation historically). 

And that is what the theme song, ‘Into the Unknown’ is talking about…

Where can we pretend that dreams do come true? In Stories.

And what are ‘the loveliest lies of all’? Now that would be Fiction. 

The entire concept of stories is a huge theme of this song, I think.

Beatrice and her family, Adelaide of the Pasture, Auntie Whispers and Lorna were all originally fairy tales. Maybe the same fairy tale, or maybe they were originally separated before being ‘melded’ together. (If, for example, the last child to Remember them before they were forgotten just assumed the Bad Witch in both the Auntie Whispers and Beatrice stories was Adelaide)

Pottsfield was an old urban legend about a haunted ghost town, Wirt and Greg basically played through its ‘plot’ directly. 

Miss Langtree, the schoolhouse and the other associated characters come from a long-forgotten and out-of-print children’s book. That’s why those characters tend to talk in comically-stilted expository dialogue. 

The Tavern was the setting for a series of 20’s animated cartoons.  (Although obviously set long before that era). The Tavern Keeper was created as a Betty Boop clone and was the main character. The Tavern setting was probably a mere framing device for all sort of musical animations. The reason why none of them can comprehend the idea of not having some sort of Title or Label is because that’s how they were written - all given job-related titles but not named.

Fred the Talking Horse was a main character from a forgotten tradition of humorous oral stories where he was sometimes a trickstery anti-hero and sometimes a straight-up comedic villain protagonist.

Quincy Endicott and Margueritte Grey were characters from a satiric limerick about the greedy rich and their wacky habits. (Quincy was at least inspired by a real-life person since his name appears on a tombstone in the real world)

Possibly the same limerick where the punchline was the status-quo at the beginning of their OTGW ep, that both rivals’ mansions have become connected and they assume the other is a ghost haunting their house. Or maybe they were each from different regional variations of the same limerick about a greedy rich weirdo being lost in their own house and going mad. 

Frogland and their little boat might be from a children’s book as well, but I also think that maybe… from the vignettes shown at the opening of the series…

That one might take place outside the Unknown, and shows the real inception of Frogland. Two brothers making up stories with their toy boat by the river. Since they never shared these stories with anyone else, when these two brothers died or maybe just grew up and forgot their boyhood misadventures by the stream - these stories also ended up in the Unknown. 

The Fishing Fish we see briefly in ‘Babes in the Woods’ might be a small comedic illustration from a children’s book, or another piece of limerick, or just someone’s random notebook doodle that gained a life of its own first in the creator’s mind and then in the Unknown. 

Cloud City, the North Wind and the Queen of the Clouds were also, much like the Tavern, from a very old cartoon.

The Beast was once just a mere Boogie Man to keep young children from wandering off into the woods. Ending up forgotten in the Unknown just ended up giving him a whole world of lost souls to harvest. 

Maybe the Woodsman and his daughter were always a part of the story of the Beast. But since it seems that the Woodsman being a lantern-bearer is a fairly recent development - they might have had their own separate story. Some sort of pastoral novel about a family moving near the woods? But their narrative has been ‘hijacked’ by the Beast. 

Wirt and Greg ended up lost within the Unknown cause had they actually died in the lake that night - they would have become a Story in their town. I mean we have a moody lonely teenager and his adorable little brother disappearing/dying - on the night of Halloween - after last being seen in a graveyard - with the older brother’s last act on this earth being to hand his crush a cassette of his love poetry. Can you imagine what sort of Urban Legenda you can grow from those seeds?

But as they were not yet dead, and not a Story yet… so they were technically an Unknown story. Between the borders of life and death from a human perspective because they were about to die, and from a Story perspective because they were just about to be born.

And the ending sequence, with the little vignettes showing where all the characters from all the episodes ended up. I think that’s almost like Wirt and Greg back in the world of the living and the real - being able to create happy endings for all of those stories they've met. That’s how the Woodsman’s daughter ended up being alive all along - it was less that the Woodsman's whole tragedy was a wacky misunderstanding all along. But it became so as a gift of thanks by their new storytellers - Wirt and Greg.

Because if dreams can't come true, than why not pretend?

#over the garden wall #otgw #the unknown

[caw-oticdork]

Since my previous podcast recommendation list was pretty popular, I've decided to make another, with another bunch of excellent podcasts:

13 Minutes or Less - Short podcast with very short episodes, about a pizza chef who doesn't like dealing to people but has to do some deliveries due to short staffing. Very much not her thing, but she does her best. As it turns out, her clients are quite a bit stranger and spookier than expected...

Additional Postage Required - Sci-Fi adventure about a nonbinary courier who gains the ability (or curse...) to get visions about the contents, past, and sender of packages they touch. They get roped into a rebellion. There's hoverboard racing. It's awesome.

Among the Stars and Bones - A team of xenoarcheologists search a distant world for traces of a long-vanished aliens. It's been a while since I watched this one, so I don't remember it very well, but I know that I enjoyed it. Very good sci-fi horror.

Dark Ages - Fantasy workplace comedy about a supernatural museum. Quite a lot of fun.

Dragon Shanty - Fantasy story about two bards traveling the high seas. There's dragons aplenty. Very queer. Excellent songs.

Falling Forward - Hacker story loosely based on the myth of Icarus and the Labyrinth, about getting back at a terrible corporation. Kinda experimental, this one has the shortest episodes I've ever seen.

Hotel Daydream - Podcast about the goings-on at a supernatural hotel. Very inventive, with really interesting characters.

Jar of Rebuke - Mystery about a researcher at an ominous cryptozoological organization out in the rural US. He's got no memories of his past and keeps dying and coming back. A story about cryptids, identity, queerness, neurodivergence, and community.

Light Hearts - Slice of Life podcast about turning an old, haunted building into a cafe and queer community center. The ghosts lead to some very fun shenanigans.

Lost Terminal - Mentioned in the other list but not expanded on. This is a hopepunk story set on an Earth devestated by climate change. Told from the POV of an adorable AI who watches this Earth from a space station, observing how humanity re-builds itself and finds a brighter future.

Mayfair Watchers Society - You know Trevor Henderson? The guy who drew Sirenhead, Long Horse, and other such creepypasta creatures in his found footage style? Yeah, this is a horror anthology based on his works, directed by him. Set in the rural town of Mayfair, where strange creatures are a lot more common than elsewhere... Each episode has a slightly different framing device, with some being found footage audio, others meeting recordings, phone calls, etc.

Monstrous Agonies - An advice podcast for the british creature community. Many of the advice letters are sent in by listeners - there's two by myself, one from an ant that can hear and send radio and one from a fey who is looking for curse advice. Some letters are metaphors for queerness, clashing cultures, ableism, and minority communities, others just some urban fantasy fun. Has a little bit of plot, but most episodes have an anthology style. Fast approaching the finale!

Mx Bad Luck - Slice of Life about someone who is cursed with bad luck. Sometimes sad, sometimes funny. Can recommend.

Neighbourly - Neighbourly follows the residents of Little Street, house by house. What they do, how they interact with each other, and what skeletons are hiding in their closet. Starts out as a spooky urban fantasy thing that's almost an anthology, but weaves itself into quite a mysterious plot over time...

SINKHOLE - Short-form audio podcast presented as a collection of audio posts from a member of a community of data restoration hobbyists in a sometimes-unfamiliar future. Mystery about disability, internet communities, and how things change with time.

Second Star to the Left - Scout-explorer Gwen Hartley has five years to explore and prepare her planet for settlement. With no aid but her robots and the anxious voice of her long-distance scout-minder Bell Summers in her ear, she's hoping she's ready for anything.

Someone Dies In This Elevator - Anthology where every episode, someone dies in an elevator. You wouldn't believe how creative they get with that simple concept!

Tales from the Low City - By the maker of Mistholme Museum, this podcast explores the everyday lifes of the last people on an alien world, after the surface had become uninhabitable and everyone had fled down into the last city, the subterranean Low City. This one made me cry a lot!

Tartarus - In a secret facility deep beneath Antarctica, an anxious astrobiologist, a terse station manager, and an AI keep humanity safe from the monsters they imprison.

The Attic Monologues - Queer urban fantasy story about a university student who decides to record themself practicing monologues using a collection they found in their attic. Don't forget to listen to the post-credit scenes!

The Bridge - Surreal alternate universe horror story about the keepers of a bridge over the Atlantic. Gets pretty spooky.

The Green Horizon - Sci-Fi comedy about a na'er-do-well Irish space captain and his rag-tag crew traversing a war-torn galaxy in search of fame and fortune. Very fun podcast.

The Lavender Tavern - Anthology podcast with original gay fairytales. Most are quite memorable!

The Vesta Clinic - Sci-Fi story about a clinic that helps various interesting alien lifeforms with their medical issues. Excellent worldbuilding and characters!

Tides - The story of Dr. Winifred Eurus, a xenobiologist trapped on an unfamiliar planet with hostile tidal forces and a fascinating ecosystem. She must use her wits, sarcasm, and intellectual curiosity to survive long enough to be rescued. But there might be more to life on this planet than she expected...

Hope this list is as helpful as the last!

@boombox-fuckboy @marvelousmawn @sapphireclaw @ashes-in-a-jar @frogmomentsfrombeyondtime @time-is-restored @emmy-noethers-rings

You folk seemed the most interested in the other list, so I'm being bold and @ing you all.

#podcast recommendation #podcasts

[ravenalla]

Okay I swear this will be my last rant post before the next episode airs but I have to get it off my chest cause I keep seeing the argument made that people disappointed Din gave the darksaber away are forgetting the lack of plot in the previous seasons, which I very heavily disagree.

I can’t speak for everyone, but at least for me when I’m saying I’m disappointed Din did not become Manda’lor I am not saying I hated the adventure of the week side quest format they had. That’s what I liked best about the show! It was great in season 1 feeling like Din was just the random guy off on his own adventure with this baby he found, I would have loved for it to have kept that small space western feel. Season 3 becoming this big interconnected universe with a corrupted New Republic plot connecting to the sequels is what I was most worried about just because I personally don’t like that direction. The more they’ve tried to go the Andor route and make this show about the Galatic politics, the worst it’s become imo (we literally have two white dudes writing a plot point about droids liking being underclass and serving the soft democratic people that is ruled with the help of a former Nazi, but ohh it’s okay it’s Jack Black and he’s funny and the Space Nazi and the Space Nazi doctor are really sorry for what they did, look the New Republic is just as bad as the fascist imperials 🥺🥺)

What some people are not getting is that the darksaber is ALL. DIN. HAD. LEFT. There was no driving force or goal for him after episode 2, they reunited him with his child in a spin-off show, they have him redeem himself fairly easily without any emotional impact, and now they took away the opportunity to do one last interesting thing with him. Din does not have his own actions or thoughts throughout most of the season, and when he does it’s just retracing the character development they already gave him in previous seasons (i.e. the whole droid fiasco). He’s a plot device, meant to further Bo-Katan’s character and help her with her goals or have him in danger so she can save him. It was okay if Din did not become Manda’lor, but they can’t just make him having the darksaber out to be a huge deal, show him trying to learn how to train with it, and give it up so stupidly through a loophole just so Bo-Katan can lead again when she has done nothing to actually earn it or apologize for the way she disrespected Din’s entire culture again and again. She was a terrorist who has done a 180 into suddenly being an honorable character just because of a few action scenes, no introspection or interesting conflict between her and the covert about their differences, nothing about her actually thinking about her past mistakes, just the covert being there to look like dumbasses who settled on a dangerous planet where their children get eaten so Bo can lead missions, look a million times more competent in comparison, and suddenly be the one who deserves to lead.

There doesn’t have to be a big plot each episode, but it’s not being executed well like it was in the first two seasons. The goal was getting Grogu to a Jedi, and we were given the interesting side adventures on that journey. Din needs to find somewhere he can lay low, he goes to Sorgan and becomes tempted by a domestic life. Din needs credits, he takes a job with some old acquaintances and sees what kind of slimy person he could have been. Din needs to find other mandos to help him find a Jedi, he runs into a small town desperate for help with a Krayt Dragon and showcases his pride in being a Mandalorian but his respect for other cultures and his willingness to do the right thing. He travels to a planet ruled by an former Imperialist because the Jedi he was searching for was there and helps her to save a town both for their sake and his need to give his son the best life he can have. See the pattern? They were side adventures, but they weren’t a random hodgepodge of ideas, they fit the story and the tone, giving us interesting side characters and helping to develop our main characters. Din showed his leadership, his growing kindness, his frustrations, his annoyances, his fears, Grogu becomes more adventurous, vocal, and attached to who he’s starting to see as a father figure. They both aren’t talkative characters, but they had feelings and personalities we saw. They had moments between them that wasn’t just exposition for the plot or a push towards an action scene, it showed their lives and values, their relationships. Little moments like Din being happy to hear Grogu’s name, Cobb sharing his story and why he valued the armor, Omera talking with Din about his life and wondering if he could stay, Frog Lady wanting to get her eggs safely to her husband and Din comedically trying to make that happen. The story was driven by these characters decisions and their personalities.

Season 3, on the other hand, has taken away all the life of these side adventures in its goal to tie in a larger Star Wars narrative that connects to other shows. They are not character driven anymore, and instead the characters are being twisted and molded to do and say stuff that’ll get us from point A to point B instead of the other way around. The point of Din breaking his creed is not to see what that would mean for his identity or how he wants to live with Grogu by his side, the point is to take him to Mandalore so that he can ultimately get trapped and fall down a hole so Bo-Katan can see the Mythosaur. The point of Bo-Katan’s crew leaving her and her staying in a random castle for no reason doing nothing all day isn’t for her to recognize her past failings or show us what their relationship was like and what it meant to her, it’s to have an easy offscreen explanation so that she can come to the covert without anything challenging in the way. The point of Din’s coverts staying on a monster-infested planet where Paz’s son is kidnapped isn’t because it makes sense they’d be there or that Paz suddenly even has a son we’ve never seen before, it’s so they can put in CGI monsters they thought were cool and have Bo save the day so they can have a flimsy reason she does need to be leader again. The point of spending time with the covert and having random pirates attacking Nevarro wasn’t to develop the other mandalorians as actual characters, it was to have them accept Bo easily so that she can “walk both worlds” and give Carl Weather’s character more screentime. And so much more.

Things are happening, but it doesn’t matter whether they make sense or fit the characters anymore, because all the side quest are focused on is bending over backwards trying to make you believe this Bo deserves the darksaber narrative. Before that it wasn’t like the Covert was planning to take back Mandalore, Din wasn’t planning to take back Mandalore, Bo didn’t tell anybody what she saw so there was no real stakes for anybody. Nobody in the main plot has had any purpose as more than side characters besides her. Din may have been the main character, but the people he met on his journey didn’t just do stuff to contribute to his own character or finding a Jedi. Omera had her own goals, Cobb had his own goals, Fennec had her own goals, Boba had his own goals, and they all still worked well with the narrative without diminishing each other, Din developed on the way by learning from the other characters and them him. What the fuck does Din want this season? Paz? The Armorer? The answer is whatever will make it easiest for the plot to retake Mandalore and have Bo be the Manda’lor for these writers, despite it being shown previously they have no reason to care or like Bo-Katan.

Like, some character moments are there. Bo is changing. I’m not saying that’s not happening at all. But it’s being done in a way that is sabotaging every other aspect of the show to force this plot that they wanted, the sidequest are feeling duller because they aren’t for these characters to have fun adventures we get emotionally invested in that simultaneously furthers the actual main characters goal, it’s let’s just have a CGI dragon, let’s have Lizzo and Jack Black guest star, let’s have Zeb from Rebels be in there for no reason. Unless again you count Bo as the main character, but like honestly she’s not even having natural character development. She went from being an antagonistic ex-terrorist to suddenly being kind and charitable with hardly any buildup or insight into her feelings. It doesn’t feel organic. I know she lost everything, but they still made it seem like she blamed Din for it only to have her rescue him once and completely abandon that hostility. The best we really have gotten is Grogu remembering his past while with the armorer and setting up his future as a Mandalorian, but even that feels cheapened when the armor he was given isn’t even talked about with the person who he shares the symbol with him that signifies their relationship, making me think it’s just another merchandise decision.

We wanted Din to learn to rule because, even if we did have to say goodbye to the adventure of the week type format, it would have been in service of his character evolving into something he doesn’t think he deserves or is good at. It would have been the next step in his journey, accumulating everything he has learned, the growth he went through using both diplomacy and his skills as a fighter time and time again. Instead, they chose to really quickly ditch any of the conflicts he had so they could have him free to do this instead. If they had waited one more season, this could have possibly been done well imo. Din’s arcs could have been brought to a meaningful and satisfying conclusion, and then you could have made him and Bo-Katan become co-leads. It wouldn’t have mattered as much then if they decided to focus a little more on her. But instead they essentially abandoned Din’s story they’ve spent two seasons creating to go ahead and tell her own.

The side quest aren’t what people are complaining about. It’s that they have no meaning for our characters other than having everybody circling around Bo most of the time or creating some big connection to the sequel triology and setting up the Star Wats MCU, which wasn’t the style of writing this show did. I don’t care how many ways people want to argue against it, Din is not the main character in this season, which is not what they have been selling us all year, and he doesn’t even have any engaging story or arc as a side character either. That is the problem, and that is why these side quest and the lack of an actual plot do not work.

#the mandalorian #the mandalorian spoilers #the mandalorian season 3 #mando critical #rant #din djarin #bo katan kryze #grogu #hope this made sense

[autisticsupervillain]

My last post about Agent 47 being a Tumblr Icon proved popular, so here's more Tumblr approved 47 facts.

47's wife has technically killed him twice. Both times it was so he could come back to life later and kill his actual target. Diana could walk right into his living room, stab him with a butcher's knife, and he'd just go "well, who are we killing today honey?"

47 once had to get close to his target by disguising himself as a giant flammingo mascot. One of his target's bodyguards, a furry, tries to start a conversation about it. 47 could not end that conversation quick enough.

One time, 47 tried to disguise himself as a realtor to get close to his target. All of his attempts to sell the house to his target involve advice on how to kill someone in those rooms. The target never questions this. Later, both the target and 47 stumble across a month's old crime scene. 47 goes full detective mode and delivers a full paragraph detailing what happened and how the victim died, before remembering he's supposed to be a realtor right now and brushing it off.

One time, in order to get close to a target, 47 got a job interview at a bank. His response to every question involves more or less just flat out admitting that he kills people for a living. They hire him on the spot.

47 has read his universe's version of the Twilight novels. He also killed the author of said Twilight knockoffs, but not before criticizing his writing and complaining about a plot point he didn't like.

47 once infiltrated a secret meeting of international spies, billionaires, and supervillains by walking right past the guards in his regular iconic suit, as everyone took one look at him and assumed he was supposed to be there.

Agent 47 canonically has an aura of death that hangs over him that only psychics can see. When an actually psychic meets him for the first time, he panics and all but pushes 47 out of his establishment.

47's most used alias, Tobias Rieper, as an instagram account. It's filled entirely with travel pictures from places he's visited while killing people.

Agent 47 inexplicably looks identical to one of the most popular fashion models in the world, Helmut Krueger. This doesn't hinder his ability to disguise himself as literally anyone in the world though.

One time, a bunch of nuns in stripper outfits showed up at 47's hotel to blow him the fuck up with a rocket launcher. He was inexplicably completely unharmed by the explosion.

One time, a mad scientist tried to test his mind control device on 47. 47 resisted it so hard that the scientist dropped dead from the psychic backlash.

One of his regular outfits for missions is a clown suit.

47 has a reputation at his agency for killing people in the most ridiculous and over the top ways possible. It got to the point that another assassin tried to imitate 47's style, which backfired so badly that the assassin accidentally killed everyone in the building, including himself, and let the target get away completely unharmed.

47 once manipulated another assassin into killing his targets for him. Unfortunately, said assassin was so bad at his job that 47 had to do everything for him, from adjusting his sniper rifle so he could actually fire it, to getting the targets into his line of sight so the assassin would actually see them.

47 once stopped a depressed person fresh off a bad break up from an abusive relationship from committing suicide by following him around the globe and beating him unconscious every time he tried to kill himself, all without the guy ever actually noticing him. 47 only stopped when the guy decided he must have a guardian angel looking out for him because he keeps falling asleep whenever he considers going through with the deed, deciding he owes that angel an honest attempt to getting his life back on track again.

Agent 47 has a friend in the CIA named Agent Smith, who keeps getting kidnapped and held prisoner at all the locations 47 is doing missions in. 47 keeps having to rescue him because Smith usually has good intel on his targets. Smith considers 47 his best friend, while 47 holds Smith in open contempt.

47 is a millionaire, but he cannot spend any of his money on luxary items due to his life style. His profession means he's constantly moving to new homes and can only live safely in sparce homes with nothing but fast food to tide him over. His suits are his only affordable luxary, as anything more lavish could expose his location and get him arrested or killed. He's a millionaire who has to live like a broke king thanks to his triple digit body count. It's only when Freelancer happens that he finally gets his own home.

47 is a pro at Dance Dance Revolution, but only when he is dressed like a ninja.

And finally, 47 has canonically killed countless fascists, pedophiles, billionaires, and even anti-vaxers who run MLM pyramid schemes. Up to 365 of them and counting, in fact.

#hitman #agent 47 #diana burnwood #tumblr icon

[rinwritesfics]

Rather Be Hurt Than Be Okay

Plot: Echo gives you an item and you blurt out your feelings for him.

Warnings: some swearing

Word Count: 1063

Author’s Note: This is for @manofworm, for @cloneficgiftexchange’s April 2024 Bad Batch exchange! Thank you for hosting, @ghostofskywalker! I had fun exploring what this prompt could be, and I really hope you like it!

Prompt: “I’d rather be hurt and be with you than be okay without you” || “This isn’t just a(n) [object], it’s a promise”: GN!Reader

Having travelled with the boys for a while, you were pretty familiar with each one’s particular mannerisms. Hunter got quiet when in thought, whereas Tech continued to talk out a problem most of the time. Wrecker was a gentle man who would do everything he could until he decided to step in and protect his family with his strength. Omega was curious, intuitive, and determined, always searching for ways to help. From what you remember about Crosshair, he was silent and observant like a cat until he pounced.

And then, there was Echo.

Echo… you could talk about him for hours. His determination to find justice. His desire to do the right thing. How he wanted to pay forward the kindness shown to him.

You had seen him trying to hide his phantom pains and his nightmares, and it took him a long time to warm up to letting you help. The strength inside him also doubled as his stubbornness, but you were determined. And he had finally let you in.

That was where the problem began.

You fell for him – hard.

His tendency to be vulnerable with you, to be near you and gently nudge you in the direction you needed if you got stuck, or to balance you out when something was bothering you.

But you weren’t going to tell him that. You felt he didn’t need that added stress, so you began to pull back a bit. And he either didn’t notice, or he let you do your thing. You weren’t certain which one was better in this case.

Now, something else going on. It bothered you.

The Marauder had just landed on Ord Mantell and were accepting a new mission.

But, you had noticed that despite your little bit of space between you and Echo, Echo had been acting a bit… off all day. It wasn’t like he was avoiding you, he was just not spending as much time talking or working around you as he usually did, withholding a bit of himself. It was very unusual. So obviously, something was on his mind.

You vowed to find out what it was.

After the briefing, you planned to talk to him, but he found you first and pulled you aside to a back corner of Cid’s bar. You felt both a thrill at being alone with him in the darker area, and nervousness at what he was up to. You both sat down, and you silently admire his facial features in the dim blue light from the bar.

“Echo, what’s going on?” you asked softly, glancing around to see if anyone else was watching you. No one was.

“I have something for you,” he said quietly, and curiosity bloomed in your chest. Echo held out a small cylindrical item that would fit in the palm of your hand, but you didn’t take it.

“This is a commlink, Echo,” you say quietly, raising an eyebrow.

“This isn’t just a commlink, it’s a promise. I’ll see you again.” Echo tried to hand you the device again, but you moved away slightly.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“We’re heading out shortly.”

A scoff leaves your mouth. “And I’m supposed to be coming with you.”

He shook his head. “Not this time.”

Your heart skipped a beat and your stomach soured, causing your brow to furrow and your lips to purse. You moved to stand up. “You’re leaving me behind?! What the hell is wrong with you?!”

Echo’s hand set the commlink on the table, then touched your forearm. You stopped just enough to listen. “You will only end up getting hurt if you come with us.”

“That’s bullshit! I’d rather be hurt and be with you than be okay without you! Don’t you understand that by now?!” you yelled, then clapped a hand over your mouth.

“What do you mean by that?” he whispered, his eyes widening in surprise, but his grip tightening a bit.

“I….” you trailed off, then sighed and looked away, sitting down again. He let go of your arm, then moved his hand to your face. His forefinger curled under your chin and he placed his thumb under your lip, gently guiding your face to look at him again. Your heart began to race, warmth flooding your cheeks at his touch. His gloves were a bit rough, but his touch was so gentle.

“Please tell me,” he said, his voice quiet. His eyes scanned your face, eyebrows upturning. Was it concern? Was it hope?

“What is it you hope to hear?” you whispered.

“What is it you want to say?” he whispered back.

Your breath hitched, gaze flickering to his lips. A small smile grew as you watched and your gaze went back to his eyes. His touch on your chin didn’t falter and relief flooded your body.

“You want this as much as I do,” you say softly, a smile growing on your lips, too.

“I do. And it would kill me if you got hurt coming along with us.”

“And it would kill me to not be with you. I want to be with you, Echo. I didn’t stay behind when the squad went AWOL by leaving Kamino, I will not stay behind now.”

His lips parted, and then he smiled again. “I want to be with you, too.”

“Then don’t ask me to leave you.”

Your fingers slipped into the gaps between his armor pieces and you pulled him closer. His eyes widened slightly, then relaxed to match the sly look in his smile. Your left hand gently touched his prosthetic arm, then you slid your fingers down to his scomplink. His breath hitched as you gently brought his arm around the middle of your back.

“I’m staying, Echo. For better or worse.”

He chuckled. “I’ve heard that phrase before.”

You grin. “It’s a little early to get to that level, but I wouldn’t mind it with you.”

He breathed in sharply. “Really?”

“Really.”

He grinned back and leaned forward a little. “I’ve been wanting to kiss you for a while, now. May I?”

You leaned in, too. “I would love that.”

As your lips met and your eyes closed, you hear a whoop from across the room. Whomever it was could wait. You had been waiting on this for too long. And it seemed like Echo agreed as his lips moved softly over yours.

Taglist (open!): @trixie2023

#tbb echo #tbb echo x reader #TBBE24 #the bad batch echo #rin writes things

[transmasc-rose]

I like Rose, and I think they should have done more with the Bad Wolf event. So here's a small list of related AUs that have been rattling around in my head.

Feel free to use them for whatever, I'd love to see if you write something tho!

Becoming Bad Wolf, absorbing the Time Vortex and using its powers effects Rose beyond that one moment. Merely absorbing it long enough to expel the power was enough to cause Nine to regenerate, and Rose used its power for an extended period. Time travelling on its own is enough to change the body, the cells, the aging process. Being around enough Time Lords effects the aging process. So when you absorb the vortex into yourself, become it for an extended moment, make someone else immortal in a way no one else is, who's to say it doesn't effect you too? And when you leave with Tentoo, the human Doctor, the mortal Doctor, and you think--we're going to live together, we're going to die together. And the original Doctor thinks--this is for the best. I won't get more attached, I will lose her on my terms, they'll live what I can't have. But the Doctor ages. And Rose doesn't, whether she can regenerate, or lives in a single timeless body. Not like Jack, she can die, but her Doctor dies first. The Doctor lives the life of the Companion, and Rose lives the tragedy of the Doctor. There's no evidence of Time Lords in Pete's World. Rose and Tentoo have a child in the comics. Does her child die before her too, or does she inherit her "gift"? Does she find her way back home? Is she angry? Is she scared? Is she alone?

Or maybe she's still immortal, but she doesn't leave--either she makes it out of Doomsday in her home dimension, or she refuses to make a choice in Journey's End and insists the original Doctor keep her and Tentoo. What matters is, she's there when Ten regenerates into Eleven. She's there when the TARDIS malfunctions, and decides to crash. And through some happenstance, whether separation while the TARDIS was crashing, splitting up for one reason or another, Prisoner Zero plot devices, or simply breaking the age old rule of "don't wander off", they get separated. And the Doctor leaves for "five minutes". Rose returns to the TARDIS, or thinks she's found the TARDIS, and its not there. At best she sees it leave, or it leaves some signature behind she can track with a device from Pete's World. She knows it was there. So she waits, as Amy waits, because if a universe apart wasn't enough to break her spirit then time travel isn't either. Learns the year, gets a job, maybe goes and does her A levels like she said she wanted to do that one time. Years pass. Does she keep in touch with Amelia, the only lead she has to the Doctor? Rose says she doesn't really like children in Fear Her, but she's tolerated them before. Another strange figure in Amy's life. A connection to her "Raggedy Doctor". And almost as strange, too. Because as the years pass, the five between Doomsday and The Eleventh Hour, and the 12-14 years Amy waits, she doesn't age a day over 19/20. Did she ever get an explanation from the Doctor about Jack, in this vague extra time she's been with him? About how he left him without warning or explanation? Does Jack tell her? Does she worry he left her too? As the days pass, does she worry that he could sense what she was becoming, and abandoned her like he abandoned him? Or did she never know, not even have that context, left hoping that the doctor would one day come back until she has to accept that this time, this might be it. Left to deal with this curse on her own. She was worried Ten would leave her when he got that face. Maybe Eleven did. ...and of course, Eleven returns, none the wiser, and Rose's face only "confirms" he'd barely been gone at all! Nothing to worry about! Right?

#rose tyler #eleventh doctor #tenth doctor #11th doctor #10th doctor #doctor who #tentoo #metacrisis doctor #time petals #tenrose #elevenrose #Yippee! #I will probably reblog this later with more #with varying levels of canon compliance and angst #maybe one day I'll actually write about Rose in Torchwood

[the-torchwood-archive]

I've been thinking a lot about how GDL is going to portray Ianto's father in Disco.

We've seen him twice so far, firstly in Blind Summit. Although not ever heard, he's pretty awful. Crashing in Ianto's shitty flat, out of his mind drunk and pissing on the carpet. Then in House Of The Dead, where he's a fairly well held together man, although a somewhat angry man. They're two very different portrayals, keeping in mind that HOTD is the only one of the three stories not penned by GDL.

Disco seems like it'll have to use time travel as a plot device, if the plan is to have adult Ianto and his dad meet in the late 80s. I really hope it's not going to be a case of 'Ianto meets his dad and sees things from his perspective. Maybe he's not such a bad guy after all', because its really going to cheapen things if it is.

GDL is good at writing dark stories and stories that expose Ianto's raw nerves and I'm going to be over the moon if this is another one like that. I don't want catharsis. I want it to hurt.

Very much looking forward to the release in May.

#torchwood #ianto jones #disco #big finish

[picturejasper20]

I want to talk about Vlad Masters characterization in the game "Nickelodeon All Star Brawl 2" story mode.

So, Vlad is the main antagonist of this game, or at least that's what the game makes you want to think at the start until the weird time loops start happening and Plasmius keeps repeating things like "Mind controlling everyone is the way to save everyone" and "Don't you understand?!", which comes off as weird to the hero character.

The last time you beat him, Clockwork transports him into the same void "safe space" other characters are in. You can go and ask Vlad what he was talking about and he will answer how there is a bigger enemy at moment: Clockwork.

It is later revealed that Clockwork got infected by Vlad's mind control device, which in reality doesn't work as it should and makes people acts volatile and agressive instead. The "evil" Clockwork has been sending the hero protagonist to stop Plasmius from fixing his mind control machine and make the universe destroy on purpose again and again. Vlas has been trapped in these time loops like that player has been and he remembers what happened each time, forced to see the same event repeat all over again

Meaning that all this time the hero protagonist has been the "bad guy" while Vlad was trying to fix the mind control machine to prevent the universe from getting destroyed. Vlad even mentions this near the end of the game, calling himself "the hero of the story"

Of course, that's incorrect because Vlad was trying to freaking brainwash everyone. But it is interesting is how he is potrayed as sympathetic to some extent as he was trying to do the "right thing". He talks to the hero protagonist about how Clockwork isn't himself and he shouldn't be trusted.

This characterization reminds quite a lot from the one that he has in "A Glitch in Time" graphic novel. In the novel he helps Danny with searching for the source of ghost power and defeating Dan. He realizes the wrong of his selfish past actions and starts a path to redemption near the end of the story.

Considering that Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2 involves time travel and time loops like A Glitch in Time, it wouldn't be out of place to say that Vlad's characterization in the game is intentional, probably being written with the goal to be close to his character version in A Glitch In Time.

While Vlad doesn't exactly regret his actions at the end of the game, the idea of him not being as evil as he looks/ having standars is still there. There has been certain change of how his character gets potrayed lately. To someone more sympathetic, less emphasis on "evil" and more "he doesn't understand what he is himself getting into" vibes.

It also suprised me how he was chosen to be one of the main antagonists for this game and one of the characters that has the most lines in the story mode. It makes you wonder why they didn't make a Danny Phantom game instead since all the plot revolves around Danny Phantom characters.

On smaller observation, despite Vlad's motivations being "taking control over the universe" there are some lines of dialogue that hint as his own loneliness such as saying the game player that "they would make a good sidekick" and regreting "not having an audience" to see how he activates the mind control machine. In part it is understandable this doesn't get expanded upon since there are likely people who play the game that don't know about Danny Phantom.

I don't know who was behind writing the dialogue from this game but one thing i can say is that they seem to get Vlad's character in a good part, specially how he doesn't seem himself as a villain in certain moments.

All this emphasis in Vlad from AGIT graphic novel and the Nick fighting game makes wonder if he is going to have some important role in possible future stories from the series. It seems to me that it is trying to build up to something to be more than just pure coincidence. If he does gain more protagonism on long run, i hope they continue with this potrayal of his character because i find it pretty interesting.

#danny phantom #vlad plasmius #vlad masters #dp a glitch in time #his dialogue in the game was cool #Like not exactly evil but not good neither #As doing a bad thing to avoid a bigger bad thing from happening

[imthepunchlord]

Do you think Gabriel is a better character than Adrien?

No, honestly, ML over all doesn't have any "good" characters. And it's largely due to their writing.

They either have characters hop between two extremes and they have those two extremes exist at the same time like Gabriel "I love my son" to "HAHAHA! I'M GOING TO CHUCK MY SON ACROSS PARIS!" or "Chloe the Hero!" to "Chloe the Villain!" or Alya "Marinette I'm your best friend, here to support you, you can trust me with your secret and I will keep things secretive" to "I'm Lila's best friend, you're just being jealous, and hey, Nino, I gotta tell you something".

Or characters have the issue of just being stagnant and they just don't do anything with them, which hey, there's consistency at least, but you're kinda boring as a character cause nothing changes or is done with you, best examples being Adrien and Luka. But we can appreciate consistency so thumbs up?

Or characters are a pinball that writers will fire at random to meet their needs in certain eps so there is zero consistency in their characterization. Best and biggest example is Kagami. Riptose introduces her as someone overly dedicated, no nonsense, competitive, doesn't like her time wasted, and holding herself to a very high standard. Frozer she's a bold romantic, who is still willing to pursue Adrien despite him saying he wants to pursue his initial crush and wasted her time (Riptose Kagami would've slammed the door on his hand). Then Animaestro she's a more subtle Chloe, purposely acting out to make Marinette jealous and show off her close ties with Adrien. Then Ikari Gozen she's all "I want to befriend Marinette but she's initially hostile/wary of me why?".

Lastly, there's the plot device, best and biggest example is Lila, who can mold the narrative to her needs that it throws logic out the window and she only exists when necessary.

So is Gabriel better than Adrien?

No.

Not by a longshot. He's bad by different means.

Adrien suffers by being stagnant, and by making choices that are clearly bad and should be called out, made to be a lesson, or give him some form of consequence, but aren't cause he's not meant to grow as a character.

Gabriel is bad with his inconsistency. Between his feelings of his son, between how we're supposed to feel for him which they do try to play the pity card sometime but he's also an active eager terrorist, between whether he's a joke villain to laugh at or if he's a more serious villain to take seriously. The latter of which is especially hard cause he's an idiot. Dude had freaking time traveling power and he stilled messed it up.

Gabriel I'd probably say is the most embarrassing part of ML simply by the extremes of his portrayal as a villain, cause he's meant to be that idiotic Saturday morning villain to laugh at, but he's also meant to be the big scary force that you're to take very seriously.

It's very rare to get these two to mix, and ML's crew are not skilled enough to do so, leaving Gabriel as a threat you can't take seriously, one that stuck around for far too long, and is someone you don't feel pity for. And his ending is just irritating.

Much like Chloe, with Gabriel they should've just picked a lane in what sort of villain he is.

#ask Punchie #gabriel salt #adrien salt #kagami salt #chloe salt #alya salt

[bitter-sweet-coffee]

ok this time there ARE barbie spoilers but it’s just the things i didn’t like so feel free to ignore this if you had fun and don’t want me ruining anything! like seriously, i do not want to make anyone upset here because of how positive the fandom vibes are. i just wanna y’know, air out some dirty laundry i have with what i just witnessed

as a disclaimer i’ve only seen it once and it ended like 40 minutes ago LMAO forgive me for any name mistakes i suck with those

- ken never got closure and i get what they were going for, just having a bunch of guys repeat “ken is me” over and over isn’t cutting it. felt this way with the “hi barbie” intro. like yes, i get what it aims to accomplish, but god does it get grating

- SOME of the fourth wall breaks were good. most were not. weird barbie and all the discontinued barbies were funny, and the drinking water gag was great. but the narrator stuff was WAY too prevalent and i get that it’s camp, but it was a tad too much at times. i’m torn on the margot line because it wasn’t necessarily bad, i just think it ruined the moment a little

- SO MANY UNFINISHED PLOTLINES OH MY GOD. you’re telling me the travel montage was all it took for gloria and sasha to bond and fix their issues? we saw their conflict through barbie’s memory link, it was never elaborated on. not once. suddenly by the end they’re getting along. the same could be about weird barbie? she always embraced the weirdness so the apology and “un-outcasting” felt off because a) it seemed like she was secluded by her own will and b) the barbies were never necessarily mean to her, they just acknowledged she’s different? which she knew and was okay with and self aware of? idk i guess an apology is fair, but the way it was delivered implied a deeper conflict we never saw

- mattel boardroom. enough said. i get will ferrell probably has a contracted screentime for funny gimmicks but it was so grating and a waste of time

- in a similar vein, all the travel montages combined probably take up as much time as the real-world scenes. for a movie that advertised barbie in the real world at a seeming first glance, that basically never happened LOL maybe that’s on me for having expectations though

- listen, LISTEN. i know there’s a lot of conflict right now with the “boo forced feminism” propaganda spreading around and i swear on god that isn’t me. HOWEVER. i do think that the way they went about resetting free will and that super long montage from gloria was not handled as well as it should have been. do i agree with everything said in the speech she gave? abso fuckin lutely. but remember, SHOW not TELL. they created this brainwashing plot device only to immediately dismantle it with one #girlboss speech which imo, undermines the very point the monologue was trying to make. i just wish they did more actual empowerment and not cheap exposition via a shenanigans montage and a third party speaker reciting a well constructed feminist rant which was just… INSERTED into a feel-good scene. i was hoping for something more organic but that’s just me. like, the barbie feeling self conscious was on the nose, but it did its thing. it’s camp i expected that. by this point in the film however, i expected more

- last thing for now: the plot was just a mess i’m sorry. the beginning was slow and expositional sure i get it, maybe it dragged a little too long when you consider everything else they tried to shove into the runtime, but for a typical film that would be a decent portion of establishing a plot. the real world segment? god, so many open doors, most of them were ignored. 99% of the real world was gimmicks and throwaway lines. the bench scene was the shining gem in that pacing dumpster. mattel plot we already know i don’t like, minus the ruth part. i have a lot of thoughts on ken patriarchy that i don’t have time or effort to unpack right now, but it was funny. and then it went on way too long and became annoying but not in the good way, in the “i get this is camp but it feels stupid” way. gosling killed that musical number but for a film about barbie, that was a hella long ken segment. like, this was a ken movie with barbie having existential dread in the background. then a bunch of magical fixits happen and suddenly all conflicts are resolved through magical means and cheap jokes and imaginary character development!!! oh but they gave barbie a pussy we unironically stan that for her (i’m serious lol like i think the joke was such a lame way to end the film but it’s funny enough to say that this whole film all barbie wanted was gender affirming surgery. i’ll allow it for sheer comedic purposes)

TLDR: i have many many complaints but i don’t think the movie is bad. it’s just fun, not particularly good all around. IT HAS GOOD MOMENTS!!! I AM NOT DENYING THERE IS SOME QUALITY HERE! i just think its hit or miss and while not every film has to be a feminist manifesto, i think all the hype and expectations definitely oversold the actual film i just witnessed because it was not particularly good. but it’s fun! and it’s okay to just enjoy that, this is my initial impression but maybe i’ll grow to like it more. just wanted to put this out here in case someone else feels the same way and doesn’t want to take the fall for finding it mid

#barbie movie #barbie movie spoilers #barbie spoilers #THIS IS A RAMBLED POST ABOUT MY IMMEDIATE CRITICISMS NOT AN OFFICIAL REVIEW LOL

[coralinnii]

So um this is a really random piece of info but I binged like 8 manhwas in like a single week, and am currently binging through 'A Villainess No More' (Loving the FL rn she's iconic-) I've also taken to summarising them in the most out of context way I can think of-

Little Rabbit and the Big Bad Leopard(ongoing)

vore turned borederline beastiality because fl wasn't wearing clothes one too many times but somehow everything happened without a single sex scene

I Became the Sacrificial Princess (ongoing)

the equivalent of fake brands trying to replace the original but failing miserably

50 Tea Recipes from the Duchess (completed) (reread this one cus why not)

tea is the solution to all your problems

Adelaide (completed)

celebrity scandal turned political conflict and the fl just happened to be at the right place at the right time to snag herself a love interest

A Royal Princess With Black Hair (completed)

caramel tarheads

A Villainess for the Tyrant (completed)

arranged death sentence turned dimension travelling saviours

A Tender Heart : The Story of How I Became a Duke's Maid (completed)

raise your own love interest

Am I Your Daughter? (completed)

trigger warnings are practically a side plot

(I really apologise if this clogged up your inbox I just read a shit ton of manhwas in one go and really needed to tell someone about it-)

~ Idia nonnie <3

I'm sorry I never got to reply to this but my inbox gets weird depending on which device I use and certain messages don't pop up where I remember they should be. Is that just me having a really old phone model or something? I'm literally using my work computer to reply (don't tell my supervisor whoops!)

Considering that I've read some of these as well, I completely understand the need to binge this. I have no leg to stand on this xD

Being a tea b*tch, having a whole manhwa dedicated to how great tea is *mwuah* absolutely everything. (it's also funny that there's a number of manhwa dedicated to how great coffee is but I don't really remember them ｜−・;）

I gotta say, people who really like Little Rabbit and the Big Bad Leopard must be pretty open-minded considering the weirdness of it (that or maybe kinda kink-ahem) but I also read this so I have no right to judge anyone ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

#manhwa getting real creative sometime xD #coralinnii answers

[consumeronionbulletin]

Marry My Husband (2024)

This show is not perfect, and it is certainly not Perfect Marriage Revenge, but it does have its charms.

What Worked

Like that other show about a time traveling wife who was betrayed by her family and goes back in time to get her revenge, this show was good because of its villains. Song Ha-yoon who plays the evil best friend Jung Soo-min was the most fun to watch of the baddies. She was believably bad while pretending to be nice, and watching her spiral out of control over the course of the series was a treat.

The show also made the most of its side characters, giving them interesting plots and bringing in a solid cast. I especially loved watching young actor Choi Gyu-ri bring this delightful manic energy to Yoo Hui-yeon (the younger sister / bestie). I could have used more scenes with her, and hopefully she'll break into a lead role in a future series.

What DIdn't Work

Though it had a solid final two episodes, the show sagged a bit in the last third. They brought in an evil-ex fiance character that just wasn't interesting to watch.

Also, there were a few moments where the show went from "Over the Top" to "Completely Unbelievable". Like the end of episode 13 (aka the "slowest truck of doom ever") and the end of episode 14 (aka "WTF Ji-won, don't just stand there, Kick him in the nuts, FFS!").

The Performances

Park Min-Young as ("Time Traveling Wife") Kang Ji-won. I've been kind of disappointed in PMY's choices lately, so it was nice to see her in a somewhat better role. There were moments when I felt pathos, or enjoyed the romance, but not that many. Mostly, it was the moments in the show where she got to be angry—and even a little ruthless—that I remember. Which is part of the appeal for any good revenge show.

Na In-woo as ("Future CEO") Yoo Ji-hyuk. I think he was a little wooden in this, but alot of that was the writing. The show was really focused on the FL and on her relationships, and it didn't have much space for him. I didn't really mind that, but it did make those few moments where he got to cut loose a little (like the ice cream scene) more memorable.

Lee Yi-kyung as ("The terrible ex-") Park Min-hwan. This guy was great at playing a mediocre man completely out of his depth. He was like one of those clown punching bags that just pop right up after you hit them. And it was fun watching him get beaten down and come right back up for more.

Song Ha-yoon as ("The evil bestie") Jung Soo-min. I liked watching her slowly get more evil and more crazy as the show went on. The actor did a great job making her contemptible, while pretending to be kind and thoughtful.

Lee Ji-kwang as ("The chef") Baek Eun-ho. Probably the most sympathetic character in the show. He just wants to run his restaurant and feed all his friends and get a cute girlfriend and all of these crazy people keep coming in and messing with things. Would have liked to see more of him, and his loveline, but what we got was nice.

Choi Gyu-ri as ("The Best Sister in the World") Yoo Hui-yeon. This actor had golden retriever energy and it was so much fun watching her in the middle of this craziness. I want to see an entire show with her just running around living her best life. We needed more of Hui-yeon and chef's story than we got, for sure.

Gong Min-jeung as ("Sad boss") Assistant Manager Yang. I've seen this actor a few times and I always enjoy her, though they rarely give her a good loveline. She got a pretty decent one here, despite all the other crazy stuff that happened, so that was nice. Again, could have used a few more scenes with her and Lee Seok-joon.

Ha Do-kwon as ("The Salaryman") Lawyer Lee Seok-joon. He did a good job bringing some gravity to this crazy show. Was able to be funny too (in a Butler Jeeves kind of way). Not enough time spent on him and Manager Yang's story, but what we got was good.

BoA as ("The Evil Ex-") Oh Yu-ra. This character felt more like a plot device than anything. There were a few moments where she could have felt menacing or crazy, but I don't think the actor was quite up to it. They needed to cast a real Mean Girl, but they didn't have enough story for that kind of character.

Ha Do-kwon as ("Bad Manager") Lee Seok-joon. They brought in a really good character actor and this guy made the most of the part. He felt like someone I could have met in real life, and I despised him. Which means the actor did a great job.

Everyone Else. The high school bully girls were fun to watch. Yang's husband did an okay job being despicable. The judo teammates were funny. Even the grandfather had a couple of good moments. Show did a good job taking care of its minor characters.

TL; DR:

If you liked Perfect Marriage Revenge, you'll probably like this too (and vice-versa). It's different enough that you don't feel like you're watching the same show twice. It's also not quite as good as that other show, which means people likely judged it a little harder than they otherwise might have done.

#my kdrama notes #marry my husband #bonkers