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giveamadeuschohisownmovie · 1 year

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“Avatar - The Way of Water” review:

Short review

It’s a very pretty movie but the story is too bland and the characters are too underdeveloped to warrant repeated viewings. I give it a B-minus, maybe even a C-plus.

Long review

As someone who actually enjoyed the first movie, I came into the sequel expecting something of similar quality. The first Avatar was not a revolutionary story, but at least it was a solid one, even if it used overdone tropes. And…well, I guess that is what the sequel ended up being. Avatar 2 was also full of overdone tropes, but I didn’t think the story was awful. Just because something is familiar doesn’t mean it was executed poorly. The problem with Avatar 2 is that even though the story is mostly “fine”, it’s clearly not as interesting as the first movie.

Aside from the special effects, what made the first movie interesting was the relationship between Jake Sully and Neytiri. For me, I thought they were pretty solid leads, with Jake being the fish-out-of-water hero and Neytiri being the noble heroine who initially despised Jake. It’s a classic set-up and the movie worked because the story was anchored to Jake and Neytiri’s journey. And, I mean, we can all appreciate a sappy, star-crossed lovers story once in a while.

The second movie doesn’t work nearly as well because it’s missing the type of emotional connection that we got from Jake and Neytiri in the first movie. Technically speaking, Jake and Neytiri aren’t the main characters of Avatar 2. Jake doesn’t really grow as a person and Neytiri is barely in the story. As it turns out, Avatar 2 is more about the younger cast, with the lead protagonist roles being spread out between Kiri (Sigourney Weaver’s new character) and Lo’ak (Blue Naruto Jake and Neytiri’s youngest son). Jake and Neytiri are still there, but it’s their kids that take the spotlight.

Now, is this a bad thing? Well, no, a movie can work with multiple leads, as long as the story is good. And there’s nothing wrong with focusing on different characters in the sequel. The problem is that the kids…well…they’re just not as interesting as the parents.

Kiri’s character is basically James Cameron’s version of Jesus. She was born from Sigourney Weaver’s avatar from the first movie and it’s implied that this was done through the will of Eywa, the planet’s god-spirit. Because of this, Kiri has a close connection to the wildlife of Pandora and even manages to save the day at the end of the movie via her god-powers. Now, this does sound like compelling material. The problem is that Kiri’s character isn’t really explored in the movie, she’s just kinda there. You leave the movie feeling like there was so much more that they could have done with Kiri, which isn’t good considering that the movie sets up Kiri as one of the leading characters.

“It’s because James Cameron plans to tell her full story in the third movie!” Okay, this would be fine if it wasn’t for the fact that a great deal of Avatar 2’s plot revolves around Kiri’s mysterious backstory. So, it’s not really like Marvel setting up their next movie/show in the movie/show you’re currently watching. It’s more like Batman v Superman not bothering to explain why Bruce Wayne had a dream about Superman conquering Earth and why he saw The Flash in the Speed Force telling him to find Lois Lane. You think this plot point is going to go somewhere…and it just doesn’t. That doesn’t make you want to watch the next movie, that just makes you wonder why the writers added it in the story in the first place.

(Sorry, still not over that stupid scene)

What about Lo’ak, the outcast son? Well, his character does get more development than Kiri at least. However, Lo’ak isn’t nearly as compelling as his parents, especially when it feels like the movie wasn’t confident in him being the main character. I’m saying this because Lo’ak is technically the true protagonist of the movie. Most of the movie is about his various fuckups, as well as him befriending the outcast whale and being the indirect cause of the final fight with Blue Quaritch. Lo’ak gets the most character development and, for a significant chunk of the movie, you’re following his journey to make the tribe and his family understand that the outcast, one-finned whale isn’t a bad guy.

The problem is that the movie is insistent on keeping the focus on Jake and Neytiri, as well as having Kiri be the spotlight at times, that Lo’ak never really gets the focus that he probably should’ve gotten. Avatar 2 could have been an action, sci-fi version of Free Willy, but James Cameron either couldn’t keep the focus on Lo’ak or he didn’t want to. So, Lo’ak ends up being underdeveloped.

That’s actually my main problem with the movie. It’s 192 MINUTES LONG, and the storyline still ends up feeling underdeveloped. I didn’t really get attached to the expanded Sully family and the story felt like it needed a few more minutes to be compelling. In fact, when we got to the final battle with the humans, I actually was surprised since it didn’t feel like a proper climax. It felt like we were doing James Cameron’s version of Free Willy, then suddenly being dropped into the middle of Star Wars.

For the rest of the cast, the underdeveloped problems are even worse. I felt nothing when Neteyam, the eldest son, died. Since he barely did anything in the movie, I predicted that he was going to die so that there’d be a tragic death scene to make the audience feel things. Tuk, the youngest daughter, could’ve just been cut out of the story. As for the Metkayina, they were so underdeveloped that I couldn’t even keep track of their names. There was Cliff Curtis chief, Kate Winslet, stupid son, and attractive daughter. Other than that, I couldn’t tell you anything about their characters.

Honestly, the ONLY characters who I felt got any decent character development, and I can’t believe I’m writing this, were Spider and Colonel Quaritch 2.0. I liked that they took Quaritch, the 2-dimensional main villain from the first movie, and gave him dimension. He’s a father who does care for his son, he’s shown to have limits to his cruelty, he had an existential crisis when he learned he was a backup version of the original Quaritch, he was clearly disturbed when he saw his dead body, and he has insecurities since he felt the need to prove himself when he learned that Jake Sully tamed a dragon the hard way. This doesn’t make him likable, but this does make him more compelling as a character.

As for Spider (aka Tarzan-Mowgli), I liked that they didn’t just portray him as loyal to the Na’vi. He may be on the Na’vi’s side, but he still cares for Quaritch since that’s his biological father. He even got along with him during the scene where they’re practicing the language. It makes Spider a flawed protagonist, someone you can root for but acknowledge that he’s not perfect. Obviously, him saving Quaritch is going to bite the heroes in the ass, but you get why Spider did it.

With all this being said, I did have other problems with the movie that isn’t about the story/ character development. The movie was too long, especially when most of the plot was meandering around. The attempts at social commentary were clunky. It’s nice that James Cameron attempted to tackle harder topics, but the race angle doesn’t really work when Jake Sully’s character literally transferred his brain into the body of a Na’vi. If you were to apply this to real life, that’s like if a white person’s brain got inserted into a Native American person’s body, and the movie treats this as them becoming a “real” Native American. The set-up just doesn’t work as serious social commentary, which makes Avatar 2’s attempts at commentary a bit cringeworthy. And then there’s the world-building issues that arise from the attempts at social commentary. What I mean is, it’s now canon that the blue people can be racist towards each other if you’re the wrong shade of blue. However, in the scene where this happens, they’re all speaking English. It’s a jarring scene because they’re talking about something that’s Pandora-centric and with no humans around…but in the language of the humans. And the Na’vi DO HAVE their own languages! So, what the fuck?

Now, what else did I like about the movie? Well, I can appreciate the ambition. There’s clearly a vision here and it’s nice to see James Cameron really give it his all for this movie. And, of course, the special effects. This movie is absolutely carried by the special effects, especially since there are so many scenes where you’re just captivated by the beauty of Pandora. The original score is pretty good, being a mix of majestic beauty to match the nature scenes and bombastic epicness to match the war scenes. And, last but not least, a lot of good performances from the entire cast. It’s nice that the acting really came through, even though most of the cast were acting through motion capture.

But even with the positive points, this is probably a one-and-done for me. The movie just isn’t interesting enough to watch a second time. And it’s actually frustrating to think about since the movie cost around $350-400 million dollars. Yes, most of it went into the special effects, but you’d think that James Cameron would’ve hashed out the problems in the script.

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sshbpodcast · 1 year

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Wake me up before you boldly go go: Dreams in Star Trek

By Ames

I’m feeling pretty tired at the moment, specifically tired of dream sequences in various media. They’re a fairly overused trope: seeing some slightly off scenes that either teach our protagonists something they need to know or just toy with the audience to make them believe something is real. Until the characters wake up. Even Star Trek, a show allegedly bounded by science, falls victim to the lazy writing and overused device of the dream episode.

That’s not to say there aren’t some good dream episodes out there, and even in here. So this week A Star to Steer Her By is analyzing some dreams, some nightmares, anything that we might find in the subconscious and wonder if it means anything (even if it’s just to the plot). So get tucked in, snuggle up with Kukalaka, and drift out of consciousness below and/or on this week’s podcast episode (discussion starts at 1:15:29). Let’s see if all of this was just a dream.

Somehow, we couldn’t think of any episodes from The Original Series or The Animated Series that had dream sequences, which is a little funny since you’d think the campier and arguably less cerebral shows would have some true nightmares. But we’re starting off with a whole slew of episodes from The Next Generation instead.

[images © CBS/Paramount]

“Shades of Grey”

Coma dreams are their own subsection of dream episodes, but definitely worth including in our list because they present some interesting examples of storytelling and structure. And then there’s “Shades of Grey.” As far as clipshows go, it’s got an okay wrapper in the form of some Riker dream manipulation, but it has too much going against it to be any good overall.

“Night Terrors”

Mention episodes that aren’t any good and “Night Terrors” will arise from your subconscious. As far as dream plots go, it’s actually got a decent concept in depriving everyone but Troi of REM sleep, so there are some really surreal (if disjointed) scenes, but watching what they put Marina Sirtis through proved to be the real nightmare.

“Violations”

This one’s probably in that grey area between visions and coma dreams, but worth mentioning just to bring up what a messed up thing that bastard Jev does to people – putting skewed, traumatic memories in their heads that leaves them in comas. Like in “Night Terrors,” it’s got some really upsetting scenework and direction that leaves you feeling appropriately disturbed.

“The Inner Light”

One of the best episodes of all of Star Trek is effectively a coma dream that Picard has in which he lives the life of Kamin in the twenty or so minutes that he’s knocked out by the Kataan probe. Talk about great use of the dream structure! We don’t need to deal with surreal nonsense because of the programming, and the effects on Jean-Luc are personal and emotional.

“Tapestry”

This one is debatable based on your interpretation. On the podcast, Jake likes to spread the possibility that none of this episode happened at all and it was all a dream Picard had while on Dr. Crusher’s surgical table. Which is an interesting way to think about this genuinely thought-provoking episode, although we enjoy the other view that Q’s behind it all as well.

“Birthright”

After a certain visiting doctor zaps him in the face, Data is able to unlock his dreaming program that daddy Soong had left for him as a little present. And it’s all pretty on-the-nose kinda stuff that dream episodes can be guilty of. Every little action is meaningful in some way that is just utterly unrealistic, but Data’s also an android, so realism may already be out of the question.

“Frame of Mind”

I’d say “Frame of Mind” might be our first real example of a good traditional dream episode. It’s not just a story told in a dream or a technique for the writers to convey something without stating it. This Riker mind adventure is meant to be a disorienting experience specifically because it’s all in his head. There was method to this madness and it paid off in spades!

“Phantasms”

This infamous episode is the reason why I wanted to do this post. “Phantasms” commits pretty much every sin a dream sequence can commit: it mainly uses characters from the episode in absurd roles, the dream makes too much sense in world because everything in it correlates to something from real life, and its randomness and surrealness just come across as a formulaic writing device. With mint frosting.

“Dark Page”

Literally on the heels of “Phantasms” is what I’d call a more interesting and effective use of the dream, in this case the coma dream that Deanna visits inside Lwaxana’s head. The symbolism isn’t as overt and at the same time there’s more emotional connection with the scenelettes. I also give it a pass because Betazoid mind powers help this one from feeling too heavy handed.

First Contact

Somehow, we don’t see a guilt-driven dream sequence in Star Trek until First Contact, and it’s just a pretty typical but effective little scene to inform the audience of Picard’s mindset and a little bit of backstory that you might need to understand the movie. Is it the most original way to convey this information? No, but it’s not a terrible offense either and it does its job well.

“Distant Voices”

One of our least favorite episodes of all of Deep Space Nine was all just a ridiculous coma dream in Bashir’s head. If this one isn’t the worst dream episode of Trek, I don’t know what is. Like “Phantasms,” it’s got every element of the dream symbolizing something and some very tiring tropey motifs. And I haven’t even gotten to the confounding acting decisions!

“Hard Time”

While Picard got to experience a life’s worth of touching memories in “The Inner Light,” O’Brien gets to experience a life’s worth of suffering in “Hard Time.” It may have only been a couple of hours in real time, but the dream that he sustains has huge impacts on his character and makes for a really thought-provoking and riveting episode.

“Body Parts”

When he’s destined to die to relinquish his desiccated remains to Brunt, Quark at one point has one of those trauma dreams that is a writer’s shorthand for “this is what my character is preoccupied with!” In this case, he dreams of the first Nagus Gint advising him to break the contract because someone needed to propel the plot forward, I guess.

“Business as Usual”

If “Body Parts” was a little obvious, then the dream in “Business as Usual” is downright heavy handed. Quark is feeling guilty about selling weapons on the black market, and if you weren’t sure he had a conscience, this dream sequence underlines it for you. Normally, I’d poopoo a scene like this, but O’Brien yelling “You killed my baby!” really sells it.

“Far Beyond the Stars”

Coma dream or prophet vision? I don’t feel like arguing for the Benny Russell story coming from some supernatural meddling versus from Sisko’s dreams, and it’s such a good episode that it’s worth bringing up anyway. And if we’re counting external meddling like in “The Inner Light” and “Hard Time,” then who am I not to include another really great episode that’s all in your head?

“Extreme Measures”

Similarly, I guess if I include “Dark Page” and “Distant Voices,” then I have to include “Extreme Measures,” though in a perfect world, I wouldn’t give it the satisfaction because it’s a really upsetting and invasive episode that turns Bashir into some kind of brain-robbing monster. And frankly, the inside of Sloan’s mind didn’t even end up being all that interesting!

“Jetrel”

Update 1/28/24: Oh no, we forgot one (or two, or probably more because dammit)! And it’s yet another of our favorite “this character is feeling conflicted about X” plot devices because writers think the audience is incapable of picking up on subtext! This time, Neelix’s history is dredged back up when Jetrel, the creator of the Metreon Cascade” pops by, and for some reason we need to see that Neelix is still having survivor’s guilt through traumatic dream vision.

“The Thaw”

Lotta coma dreams on this list so far, and our first taste from Voyager is the stuff of nightmares, literally. Fear the Clown takes what should be a paradisiacal shared dream for our friends in their cryopods and turns it into a horror movie and you could wake up dead. This one gets points for creativity, and points off for giving us all coulrophobia.

“Remember”

We really liked this one when we covered it in season three, even if it’s some more familiar ground. Reliving another culture through implanted dreams? Sure, it’s yet another instance where we can make parallels to something like “The Inner Light,” but it’s forgivable since this episode is so successful at communicating the Enarans’ story in Torres’s dreams.

“Coda”

I’d probably qualify whatever is going on with Janeway throughout this episode as something like the coma dreams we’ve discussed previously. It’s all alien interference, as happens sometimes, and winds up being like one of those episodes that pulls back the curtain and tricks you because it was fake all along, leaving the viewer ultimately unsatisfied.

“Waking Moments”

More alien intervention, this time into a world where the new species lives and communicates through dreams. Suspend your disbelief for a moment and accept that, difficult as it may be, and we actually do get some pretty original and believable dream sequences. The ones we see don’t try to go too far and mainly seem kinda right for the characters, so this one passes.

“The Fight”

But this one just fails utterly. We discussed in our recent season wrap episode how “The Fight” just seems like a chaotic mess and yet at the same time doesn’t capitalize on the Chaotic Space aliens in a way that is fulfilling. So we’re left with dream sequences that end up just feeling tired and confusing and maybe a little bit boring. Someone bet on the wrong fighter in this ring.

“One”

While most of what Seven experiences in “One” is all delusion and hallucination, she does have a legitimate dream of being in an Arctic wasteland at one point. And sure, it’s there to convey that she’s feeling alone and desolate and way out of her depth like a pretty standard dream metaphor, but the little sequence does its job. The CGI on the other hand…

“Barge of the Dead”

Like with “Coda,” I’d qualify all of this episode as a coma dream, though instead of being induced by aliens, we’re led to believe that all of this is just some Klingon afterlife nonsense. Setting aside that everyone assumes Gre’thor is real now, the dreams we get of Torres’s personal hell – just people on the Voyager? – are half baked and entirely out of character.

“Tinker, Tenor, Doctor, Spy”

These are more daydreams than subconscious dreams, though the EMH’s program does get out of hand enough that I’d count this episode among the others in this post. The scenes we get are mostly meant to be comic relief so we can giggle at the EMH’s grandiose fantasies, except that some of them are fairly cringey, as usual at Seven’s expense.

“Memorial”

Memory or dream? That’s the question this episode poses in creating an actually pretty intriguing look at how and why we remember history. The dream sequences we get from Paris and Chakotay are very effective at blurring that line between the real and the surreal, and the more we understand that these were real events, the more we treat them with significance.

“Ashes to Ashes”

Update 1/28/24: Whoops, another I’d forgotten until we continued our Voyager watchthrough. It’s a small one, but Lyndsay Ballard’s dream sequence when she returns from the dead and back to the Voyager crew fit the old “show the audience the character is feeling conflicted” trope. She guilt-dreams that her friends are throwing her another funeral because she’s not acclimating back to life as a human. The scene does what it’s made to; it’s just entirely redundant.

“Shuttlepod One”

Let’s move on to Enterprise, starting with a pretty mean trick that dream sequences can do to an audience: manipulating you for a couple minutes into thinking that our heroes have been rescued and everything’s okay, until the rug gets pulled out from under you and it was all just a dream. The scene also leans on another trend we’ll see in Enterprise – objectifying T’Pol all the damn time.

“Fusion”

But the winner of the “objectifying T’Pol all the damn time” award is very obviously “Fusion.” Boy, what an upsetting episode. If you thought it was gross what Jev did to Troi and the others in “Violations,” then “Fusion” should have you gagging, and it all starts with a super gross dream sequence in which Tolaris creeps on T’Pol, and things get ickier from there.

“A Night in Sickbay”

Update 1/28/24: How could we forget yet another time that one of the characters had a wetdream about T’Pol? This time, it’s Archer because Phlox has put it in the cap’n’s head that he’s actually in love with the subcommander like a creep. The nightmare sequence also features another guilt-ridden message (a dream staple!) in which Archer is feeling so bad Porthos is sick that he dreams up a puppy funeral. Ugh.

“Vanishing Point”

Just when you think you’ve watched an interesting transporter accident episode that actually gives Hoshi something to do, this episode laughs in your face and pulls the “it was a dream the whole time” trick on you. The whole thing comes across as just kind of cruel and cop-out-y, though I’m kinda shocked there aren’t many other Trek episodes that consciously pull this stunt.

“Remembrance”

Say what you will about Picard season one (and we did!), but the dream sequences of Jean-Luc obsessing over the loss of Data are very effective at eliciting an emotional response. They’re just strange enough to provide that surreal quality of dreams but not just tedious nonsense like other episodes have given us. And the scenes are just so touching that it’s hard to fault them.

“The Impossible Box”

Okay, last one I could find. Soji has these recurring trauma-fueled dreams and she can’t tell if it’s a dream or a memory. This whole episode is an identity crisis waiting to happen, and when she sees herself as a wooden puppet being constructed, it all comes together that she isn’t a real girl, and you know what, it’s both one of the better uses of dreams and one of the better moments in Picard!

—

Wake up! You’re going to be late for school and you didn’t study for that test and you’re naked and your teeth are falling out and Troi’s a cake and won’t somebody answer the phone?!

Put a pot of coffee on and stay with us for more dreamy blogposts. You can also share that caffeinated brew with our fearless Voyager captain as we continue through our full watchthrough on SoundCloud or wherever you listen to podcasts, respond to our wake up call on Facebook and Twitter, and have pleasant dreams!

#star trek #star trek podcast #podcast #dream sequence #dreams #nightmares #coma dream #coma #daydream #the next generation #deep space nine #voyager #enterprise #picard

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goodgrammaritan · 3 years

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Animorphs

Been thinking lately about how in a fit of "I'm too mature for these kids' books" I got rid of my entire Animorphs collection in a garage sale, and how I regret that. I learned a lot of cool animal facts from those books, and as an adult, I realize that the depiction of war was a lot more involved than I thought. You think, kid heroes! Cool! They turn into animals! But then you're like, these CHILDREN are fighting a WAR and having to make life-and-death morally gray decisions and that is HORRIFYING.

I hate how fear of outside judgment led me to get rid of these books that were so dear to me. I looked it up and I could rebuy someone's entire used collection of paperbacks for $392, or I could get all 62 digitally for $4 a pop. Both of those options are a little pricy, so instead I made a list of my personal must-haves of the series. (Of course, as I looked them up on Goodreads for titles and to remind myself of various details, I kept adding more to my list.) So here's my list of what are, in my opinion, the best volumes in the series:

6. The Capture. First Animorphs I ever read. Jake gets infested by a Yeerk, and the Animorphs have to starve it out. It's the first real non-battle interaction the Animorphs have with a Yeerk, and it's sad and scary. Particularly sad when Jake learns this Yeerk first Controlled his brother, Tom, and how Tom got infested because he had a crush on a girl...

7. The Stranger. The Ellimist makes his first appearance here. He shows them a chilling future in which the Yeerks win, and then gives them a clue about how to set the Yeerks back. All because he loves Earth/humanity. (The future he shows them includes the horrifying tidbit that as Controllers, they fucking ROASTED AND ATE TOBIAS. Yikes!!!)

8. The Alien. Ax's first book. Fun to see an alien point of view, and along with the seriousness of the moral struggle Ax has re: what to tell Jake et. al. about what's happening to the starving Yeerks, there's the scene where Ax eats an entire tray of Cinnabons.

10. The Android. The Animorphs meet an android ally who needs them to unlock his ultimate powers. He's the creation of a peaceful race that was wiped out by the Yeerks, but can't overcome his pacifist programming without help. And he unlocks his powers, but at what cost?

12. The Reaction. Rachel has an allergic reaction to the crocodile morph, and it makes her morph uncontrollably when she feels strong emotions. Lots of hilarity, plus it's fun to see Rachel and Cassie get to have normal teenage crushes on a teenage heartthrob, Jonathan Taylor Thomas Jeremy Jason McCole from Home Improvement Power House. And the final burping of the croc is entertaining.

12.5 (The Animorph Chronicles 1) The Andalite Chronicles. Elfangor's backstory. Him being a hotheaded pilot, the Taxxon planet, him meeting Loren (and Chapman as a kid!), driving a Corvette, and growing up as both a human and Andalite. And he's Tobias's dad. It's so fucking sad. (Also loved that he gave the technology to Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, lol.)

13. The Change. Tobias can morph again! And they rescue Hork-Bajir. First time they realize that the Hork-Bajir are people, have marriages and whatnot. Humanizes them. And it's the first place I ever read "the enemy of my enemy is my friend." Free or die!!

14. The Unknown. Hilarious. The Animorphs check out Area 51 Zone 91 to see what alien technology the government is hiding. Marco and Rachel shenanigans, plus Cassie being clueless and unable to come up with a fake phone number (using 8 digits instead of 7, yes, this was written in the 90s). But just, the horses, Cassie not knowing military time (I can relate, girl), the whole showdown at The Gardens. I mean, riding rides while fighting Yeerks, Visser 3 "beheading" someone only to have it be someone in a costume in a parade, and he's only cut the costume, and how he gets freaked out by this creature that seemingly forms a new head when the old one's cut off, oh my god. Cracks me up. And then it turns out it's an Andalite toilet.

17. The Underground. I just remember this one making me laugh because... oatmeal? Oatmeal makes the Yeerks go crazy? It's just funny seeing oatmeal as an illicit substance and a weapon.

19. The Departure. You know Cassie is the only Animorph who could conceive of empathy for a Yeerk. Trapped in the wild with one, there's a good examination of what it means to be a Yeerk without a host, and how miserable that is.

20. The Discovery. Good news: The Morphing Cube has been found! Bad news: the guy who discovered it puts it online to sell and the Yeerks come after him. Good news: they can recruit David to be a new Animorph! Bad news: David's personality/character. Marco's initial assessment, that someone who has a cat named Megadeth can't be a great person, is right.

21. The Threat. Jake's turn to narrate the David problem. It started out as a good thing, but then David gets a taste of power and...goes off the rails. He's a fucked-up kid.

22. The Solution. Fucking dark. Yes, David is a problem and it had to be done, but FUCK. Also, it acknowledges Rachel's battle lust, and how if you need something terrible done, you call for Rachel.

23. The Pretender. Just kill me, Tobias, why don't you. This is one of the saddest books in the series. So sad because Tobias thinks, after all this time, he might have a family. Then not only does it turn out to be a trick, he finds out who his real father is. One of his final lines about morphing into a human so he can cry, ohhhhh god.

24. The Suspicion. MUCH-NEEDED humor after the gut-punch heart-stab that was book 23. Introduces the Helmacrons. These are tiny aliens with enormous egos. They wouldn't be much of a threat, but...they have a shrinking ray. Cassie and Marco get shrunk down and captured on the Helmacron ship. My favorite scenes are the Goodwill nerd quizzing the Animorphs about sci-fi, and the groveling scene. Cassie doesn't know how to grovel, so the Helmacrons tell her and Marco to grovel in the style of their people, and, well, Marco's involved, so you can imagine how that goes.

26. The Attack. Ellimist vs. Crayak. The Animorphs go to do battle for the Ellimist on another planet. While the battle for the big bads is the main plot, they do explore, with the Iskoort, a potential symbiosis situation with the Yeerks. It's a possibility for peace that is sadly never explored outside of this one book, but it's a good thought experiment.

29. The Sickness. Aftran, the Yeerk the Animorphs made peace with 10 books ago, is being held hostage and they need to rescue her from the Yeerk pool. Unfortunately, Ax gets sick...and then so does everyone but Cassie. This is great because it explores human/Yeerk allyship, and Cassie has to morph into a Yeerk, and getting the POV of having access to all of a person's memories, even if you're trying to avoid them... Wow. A bit of a mindfuck. Plus what they figure out for Aftran is great.

29.5 (Megamorphs 3.) Elfangor's Secret. Uh oh, a Visser has found a time traveling device. The Yeerks follow him throughout various historical periods. Very funny ("How do you say sorry in French?" "Ah em verreh sorreh?") and also very dark, what with them temporarily dying in horrific battles. They fight at Agincourt (finding the Visser bc he's cleaner than everyone else), cross the Delaware, go to Trafalgar, D-Day... There are so many horrors. And it makes sense that Rachel gets monotone telling Ax what the Holocaust is. It's implied that Jake is Jewish, so as his cousin, maybe Rachel is, too?

32. The Separation. Rachel tries starfish morph and ends up being split into two parts of her personality. Lots of moments of humor, but also acknowledges the darkness in Rachel. Seeing it unchecked is more than a little chilling.

33. The Illusion. Tobias will always break my heart. In this case, he makes a big sacrifice to convince the Yeerks their new anti-morphing ray doesn't work, and over the course of the book, he gets tortured. It is heart-wrenching, with flashbacks of painful and (very few) pleasurable moments of his past. Tobias will always make me cry.

34. The Prophecy. What do you do with you get possessed by the spirit of Aldrea, daughter of the Andalite who gave technology to the Yeerks? Why, fuck shit up on the Hork-Bajir home world, of course. Cassie is such a badass here.

35. The Proposal. I love the ones where the morphing goes wrong. In this case it's not an allergy, it's emotional issues. Marco's dad is proposing to his new girlfriend, and he's...having trouble adjusting. Why? Well, there's the thing where his mom is likely still alive... Anyway. The primary tactic the Animorphs use in this one is annoyance. Marco turns into a yappy poodle to target a specific enemy, and it ends up working extremely well. Also, Hanson cameos.

40.5 (Megamorphs 4.) Back to Before. What if they'd never taken the shortcut? Jake gets an offer from a powerful being to take them back in time. It's a canon AU. Among other things, Marco and Rachel's bantering turns into dating, which is a fun exploration.

42. The Journey. The Helmacrons are back! These little egomaniacs get me every time. It's humor plus a journey inside Marco's body.

I fucking miss my collection. What was late teens/early 20s me thinking?

#animorphs #ka applegate #regrets #best of #helmacrons

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themangledsans0508 · 3 years

Text

Entering the Dungeon because Bonnie said so

Read on Ao3

Summary: Marceline came to Bonnie's aide when she called for Finn and Jake. She didn't expect to be going down a hundred floors while dealing with a shady princess.

Basically, I played Enter the Dungeon over the past two weeks and I have been writing this since the second night of playtime. Trying to write things before I forget them and it is following the canon of the game with some creative liabilities taken.

Words: 3616, Oneshot

Warnings: General Depictions of Violence

Characters: Bonnibel Bubblegum, Marceline Abadeer, Flame Princess

Ships: bubbline

Additional Tags: quests, dungeons, childhood trauma, swearing, adventure, conflict, kind of resolved kind of not, I feel like marcy and phoebe would have a neat dynamic, I've never seen them interact so, some of these scenes were legit my reaction, see: screaming

"Well, it looks like Ice King will be hanging around the Candy Kingdom now," Bonnie sighed. Marceline glanced at the dark entrance to the dungeon and shrugged.

"It's better than down there. At least up here, he can't get hurt," she decided. Bonnie looked at the hole as well and then back to Marceline.

"Marcy, I think you should let the boys handle this one," she stated seriously. Marceline shifted the umbrella in her grip and unfolded her legs to touch the ground.

"Why? I'll be fine."

"Well, asides from the fact that you have been returning up here frequently covered in wounds and the fact that Death is seemingly hunting you down, those aren't just any ancient ruins down there."

"How bad can it be?"

"Mushroom war. If my associations are correct from the information you've given me, then the same city you used to live in” Marceline stiffened. "Finn and Jake can deal with this, you just take a breather, okay?"

"No," Marceline shook her head. "I can take care of it. Just some old relics, nothing a woman like me can't face." Bonnie eyed her warily.

"If you're sure," she said slowly. "Please be careful."

"Send me down, Bonnibel."

"What the fuck what the fuck what the fuck!" Marceline shrieked.

"Marcy are you okay?" Bonnie's crackly voice asked, her projection appearing from the holo-pendant. Marceline leaned against the stone wall, her breathing heavy staring at her punctured legs that were bleeding.

"Just fine," she said sarcastically. "Almost got staked by some rusty metal pipes. Bonnie, this is post-war technology. What did you do?"

"I have important research down there, I had to defend it at least a little bit."

"The thousands of lost souls weren't enough?"

“It’s to protect it from them,” Bonnie snapped. “If these criminals got their hands on it, the Candy Kingdom would be in danger.”

“Oh, yeah, if the political prisoners found evidence you were a corrupt leader then you’d be overthrown.”

“It’s a real threat!” Marceline rolled her eyes.

“Whatever. I wished my healing worked down here.”

“Bodily magic doesn’t work because some of those creatures down there have natural magical prowess.”

“Too bad that there are tons of magic weapons down here.” The spikes retreated and Marceline pushed herself up, floating slowly around with her axe prone and ready. “What about the plants?”

“They’ve mutated to become immune to the limitation,” Bonnie explained.

“Speaking of plants, there’s one now.”

Marceline felt the wind leave her body as she was knocked against the wall, the deer’s antlers puncturing her legs and it licked her.

“Gross! Back off!” She kicked the deer’s underbelly and pushed it off her, slamming her axe down on the deer’s neck. She shakily stood up and was grabbed, a muzzle rubbing against her neck. She hissed as she felt new instincts override her other ones. She pushed herself up and slid under the wolf, standing up to hit it with the neck of her bass causing it to recoil. She slashed across its chest and took a deep breath, stumbling towards the stairwell.

She watched as a green portal opened and Death stepped out, a brown satchel on his waist and he tipped his cap towards her.

“I see you,” he said and Marceline braced herself, taking in the area and how much space she had. She dashed to the left and hugged the wall, growling when she felt skeletal fingers wrap around her forearm. She was jerked backwards and she felt Death’s skull touch her cheek. She could practically feel the energy drained from her as she struggled before she finally got her arm out of his grasp.

She dived for the stairs and fell down them, at the bottom turning back to look. Death stood at the top and made finger guns towards her.

“Kiss of Death, baby.”

“Fuck you,” Marceline hissed.

“Bonnibel, how did you get lava down there,” Marceline asked as she watched the wounds heal. Bonnie handed her a vial of a purple liquid that she drank, whatever cursed her fading away.

“Various tunnels and educated usage of pressure and-”

“It was more rhetorical. But I did get burned. And stabbed. And shot. And kissed without my consent.”

“What? Who kissed you?” Bonnie exclaimed.

“Death. He was blocking the stairs so I tried to duke him but he caught me. I did manage to get down the stairs though.” Marceline tapped her cheek in the spot that Bonnie assumed she was kissed. “Good thing I’m already dead.”

“Death shouldn’t be hanging around in the dungeon,” Bonnie muttered. “It’s interfering with the mortal realm and not allowing the natural flow to keep order.”

“Well, you’re throwing people in a dungeon and barring magic. That messes with the natural flow,” Marceline pointed out.

“Shut up,” Bonnie snapped. “Have you found any signs of the hoomans?”

��None. I’m going to head back down though, I’ll find them.” Bonnie grabbed her wrist and locked eyes with her.

“Marceline, you’re getting close to a bad place. A place that you were nine-hundred ninety-nine years ago. I really think you should stay up here this time."

"Bonnibel, it will be fine. Send me down."

Marceline stared at the ruined food truck, a flood of emotions overwhelming her. She listened to the sea of growling and heard a soft humming mixed in. She picked up a rock and threw it at the truck, the old voice box still working. The red siren turned on, illuminating the maze in red light. Her breathing became unsteady and rapid when the oozers began to glow, and she spotted a hooman among them. The hooman saw her as well and started happily skipping towards her.

She took out her axe and started swinging at the oozers, their green insides spilling out onto the ground. When the hooman was close enough, she grabbed her wrist and bolted, bringing her to the fence and kicking open the gate. She looked over at Susan’s grateful face and to the entrance of the maze and sighed.

“I’m booked for this, aren’t I?”

“Marceline! Marceline are you okay?” Bonnie grabbed her arm and started looking over her body, circling her and checking over the exposed skin and where the clothes were ripped.

“Bonnie, I’m fine. I can’t believe they’re still down there.” Bonnie stopped and stepped back.

“I couldn’t get rid of them. If that green goop even touches you that’s it. I just thought if I buried them then that would be the end of it. How the hoomans even got down there I don’t know.”

“Probably something to do with that buff cat chick,” Marceline jabbed her thumb towards Susan.

“Maybe. I’ll ask her later. But Marcy, that one got really dicey. Everyone made it out safely, but you almost didn’t. That swarm could have easily overwhelmed you. Can you please let Finn and Jake take care of this? I really don’t want you to get hurt.”

“And I don’t want them to get hurt,” Marceline mumbled. “I’m the best choice for this. I can teleport back to the surface, I know how to fight, I’ve been in all these places before. Plus I can literally eat the red bullets.”

“If you insist,” Bonnie sighed. She pulled her necklace and started fiddling with it. “What floor?”

“Marce, that one was close. This is the seventh time,” Bonnie scolded. Marceline shrugged and leaned on her.

“I’m exhausted,” she complained. “Magic Man hit me with some bullshit.”

“A strength-sapping spell,” Bonnie murmured. She pulled a herb out of her bag and placed it on top of Marceline’s head. “Stand still,” she instructed and counted under her breath before removing it. “You need to rest for at least three hours.”

“No,” she slurred, backing up and swaying on her feet. “I can keep going. I just…” She started falling forward and Bonnie caught her, sighing.

“Will you just go take a nap or something?” she asked. Marceline groaned.

“Don’t let anyone else go in there. I can deal with this myself,” she ordered and Bonnie pushed her back, keeping one hand on Marceline’s shoulder and crossing over her chest.

“Cross my heart,” Bonnie smiled. Marceline raised her umbrella in the air.

“I am going to the corner,” she announced and wandered off towards Choose Goose.

“Marceline, things are looking really dangerous. You keep having to retreat back up here,” Bonnie said softly. Marceline shrugged.

“Whatever, I’m still making it out,” she stated. Bonnie crossed her arms.

“You almost aren’t,” Bonnie scolded. “Do you want some help?”

“Bonnibel Bubblegum fighting in a dungeon? I don’t know.” Bonnie rolled her eyes.

“No, a token per se. Something that’ll protect you.” Marceline shook her head aggressively.

“No. I don’t need any help. None! Send me down!”

“If you say so,” Bonnie sighed.

“Will you accept my offer now?” Bonnie asked, placing her hands on her hips. Marceline put a hand on her forehead and clenched her jaw.

“Fine. Yes. What do you have.”

“Pep-but! Grab the sweater!” Bonnie called. Peppermint Butler came running with a knitted pink sweater folded in his arms. “Thanks, Peps. Marcy, arms up.” She took the sweater from his arms and held it. Marceline used her free hand to motion towards herself.

“Umbrella.”

“You have telekinesis.”

“Oh, yeah.” She let the umbrella float above her slightly higher and she raised her arms. Bonnie slid it carefully over her head and adjusted her collar. Marceline scratched at it.

“This is tight, Bons,” Marceline complained. Bonnie smiled shyly.

“It’s made of the strongest magic out there,” she said quietly. Marceline quirked an eyebrow.

“O-kay. I thought you thought magic was a sham.” She tugged at the hem of it and frowned, her eyes narrowing at Bonnie. “Why can’t I take it off?”

“Well, you see, I had a feeling you might try to take it off, and for your own safety, I may have had it engineered so that you couldn’t take it off until you were in a sound state. Since you’re going back in, it recognizes that you are going to be in harm’s way.”

“I should have known there’d be a catch,” Marceline grumbled.

“It’s in your best interest,” Bonnie stated.

“That doesn’t make it right. Look, I’m just going back down. I’m getting to the bottom of this.”

Marceline carefully pulled the pink sweater over her head and slid it over the umbrella handle.

“I’m not putting that back on,” she growled and sighed. “Everything is covered in your gum down there, you’ve been having fun without me? And since when did you have a giant pink cat thing and a huge gryphon eagle thing?”

“Goliad and Stormo? I’m glad they’re still balancing each other out.”

“I’m not getting an explanation? I should’ve expected that.”

“Also, I’m sorry but your corner is occupied now. I thought you could all use a break from the dungeon and while you may not enjoy the opportunity, the Nightosphere offered a challenge for anyone who felt so inclined. Maybe while everyone does that you can rest?”

“Why are you pushing me to slow down? I’m in my groove right now. You’re not my mom,” Marceline snapped.

“I’m not trying to be your mom! I care about you and I’m worried you’re pushing yourself too hard!”

“Well geez, it’s nice of you to care after all this time! I know my limits! I’ll show you! I’m going to the Nightosphere!”

“Marceline!”

“Don’t come after me,” she snapped and stalked off. Bonnie hugged herself and grimaced.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered.

“Are you going to calm down now?” Bonnie asked. Marceline kicked the dirt angrily.

“No. But I think I give up for now. That whole jam is ridiculous. There’s so much going on at once. I think the normal chaos is what I prefer right now. You know, I think it’d be cool if you came down too.” Bonnie shifted uncomfortably.

“Someone needs to stand guard here.” Marceline motioned towards the banana guards to either side.

“Found two,” she pointed out.

“It has to be me,” Bonnie insisted. She leaned over and whispered so only Marceline could hear. “You know how incompetent these guys can be.”

“Whatever you say P-Bubs.”

“So, how’d Flame Princess get locked down there, in the lab that belongs to you trapped in a machine you made.” Bonnie shrugged.

“No idea.”

“You can’t keep trying to ruin Finn’s relationship, girl. It’s an unhealthy obsession.”

“It’s not an obsession, it’s a coincidence! It’s a coincidence that she got trapped in my machinery

“You aren’t confirming it or denying it.”

"I don't need to. I'm not that cruel a woman that I would trap a child for a science experiment."

"Actually-"

"Don't." Bonnie held a finger out to stop Marceline from continuing. "There's no reason for me to lock Flame Princess up, especially when she herself is the biggest threat to the Candy Kingdom. It isn't wise to poke the bear with a stick, you know what I mean?"

“Yeah, I guess. She really wants to join the travel party now, so she might still be gunning to destroy the kingdom.” Bonnie placed a nervous hand on her cheek and glanced warily towards Flame Princess, who appeared to be trying to explain something to Finn.

“Could you keep an eye on her?” Bonnie asked.

“I’m not a babysitter,” Marceline snapped and sighed, “but yeah, I guess. I’d rather all of Ooo not be lit on fire. I’ll take her with me.” Bonnie smiled gratefully. “Anything I need?”

“I recommend a fire-resistance charm, in case you get caught in the crossfire.” Marceline nodded and dropped some gold in her hand. “I’ll use the charm, and that armour Finn hates too. Also, let Flame Princess use whatever token she wants, I don’t care.”

“Flame Princess! Marceline wants you to come with her!” Bubblegum shouted and the teen came running, small fires dotting her every step.

“That was exhilarating! So many things happening at once, so many creatures and questions! I knew that Bubblegum was no good!” Phoebe exclaimed.

“Hey, cut her some slack. She’s been at this for a long time,” Marceline growled. Flame Princess looked at her in confusion.

“You can’t honestly look at all this and tell me she’s not evil or at least bad. Look at all this stuff! Living beings forced to stay down here to the rest of their lives. Why? Is what they did really bad enough to deserve this?”

“Yes!” Marceline snapped. “And you don’t know Bonnie like I do.”

“Well, how do you know her so well?”

“I know her so well because-”

“You have done well to come this far,” A voice echoed, startling both girls. Marceline and Phoebe both looked to the speaker.

“Bonnie? What are you doing all the way down here?” Marceline asked.

“Something evil I bet,” Phoebe spat and Marceline whacked the back of her head, ignoring the burning sensation. Bonnibel frowned.

“This is my dungeon,” she said plainly. “And this room is the bottom of it. So, great job! You can go home now, back to the surface or whatever.”

“I don’t think so. There’s probably something in here that you’re hiding,” Phoebe hissed. Marceline raised an eyebrow.

“This doesn’t make sense. What’s down here, Peebs?” Bonnie chuckled nervously.

“Nothing! This is the bottom. That’s it. But just to be safe,” she glared discreetly at Phoebe “I need you to promise me you will not touch my desk back there. It has important research on it that you could mess up. This could be your final quest in this adventure, just promise me. Royal promise. No touchies.”

“I’m not promising anything,” Marceline insisted. Bonnie shook her head.

“You have to.”

“No.”

“Yes.”

“No.”

“Yes.”

“No.”

“Yes.”

“Fine! Whatever!” Marceline threw up her arms in defeat. Bonnie smiled. It wasn’t one of her normal smiles, not one of the ones Marceline was used to. It was empty and cold. Her eyes were unreadable.

“I think we’re done here then. Thank you for solving the mystery.” Marceline looked her up and down and walked past her, looking down at the table. Phoebe walked up beside her and glanced at Marceline.

“These papers are unreadable,” she whispered. Marceline absentmindedly picked up one of the papers, seeing the words were faded and the pictures were half-erased. Then the wall in front of them opened, showing a dark pink gum tunnel.

“Are you serious? What the fuck is wrong with you! Where does this even go?” Marceline shouted. She spun around to face Bonnibel and scowled at the expression on her face. An expression she hadn’t seen in centuries, since they had broken up. Her eyes were narrowed and she had a slight frown. Her hands were folded neatly in front of her and she straightened her back to look at them like she was above them.

You’ll never know where it goes,” she said slowly, “you broke a royal promise. And you know what that means. I’m sorry girls, it’s business.” Marceline saw out of the corner of her eye a fireball that Phoebe had thrown before they both teleported above the kingdom, standing on a cotton candy cloud and looking up at the Gumball Guardians.

“I told you,” Phoebe shouted. Marceline growled and readied her axe.

“Well, at least I’ll get a metal song out of this,” Marceline mumbled. Phoebe scoffed.

“You’re thinking about music? I’m thinking about revolution!” Her hands lit up and she prepared to attack before Bonnibel ran out in front of them.

“Wait! You don’t understand! I know this thing looks like a monster, but you have to listen to me! It doesn’t want to hurt you! It just-” A gum tentacle swung out and grabbed her, causing both Marceline and Phoebe to jump back.

“Bonnie! You’re not getting out of this that easily!” She lunged forward only to get hit in the face with a metal ball, knocking her back. Phoebe dragged her to her feet.

“Think smart!” She barked.

Marceline was angry at Bubblegum, but seeing everyone else rail on her for something she herself had done as well, made her get a bit protective. She’d deal with the lying later.

“Wouldn’t you lie to protect your weird old parents too?” Marceline snapped. She floated down and wrapped her arms around Bonnie’s shoulders, glaring at the entire crew. She glanced at Bonnie for a split second and saw her small smile and she flashed one back. She was still holding her when the mass of gum began to separate.

“Thanks for helping me out, I do wish you could’ve done it without killing my parents though,” Bonnie said. Marceline raised an eyebrow.

“They aren’t dead. We can go catch them if you want.”

“No, no. They’ll come back if they want,” Bonnie sighed. “Marceline, come inside. I want to speak with you privately.”

“Okay, sure.” Marceline followed her up the candy steps and through the winding halls, ending in Bonnie’s room. She motioned towards the bed.

“Sit down,” she ordered and Marceline obliged, sitting down with her arms crossed. “I want to apologise to you.”

“For what? For sending me on a wild goose chase? For trying to get your gumball guardians to murder me? For lying to me and tricking me? For literally putting all of us in mortal danger? Which one is it?” Marceline snarled. Bonnie winced.

“All of that, listen, Marceline, I didn’t want to do all that! But responsibility demands sacrifice and the cost kept escalating. I didn’t expect it to get so out of hand before it was already there. I was running out of ways to stop you.”

“Maybe the best way to have stopped me would have been to tell the truth? Did you ever consider that?” Marceline snapped. “Everyone could have died, get that through your thick skull! All of us could have died!” She stood up and sat back down, pinching the bridge of her nose and taking deep breaths. “I don’t even know how long it’s been, all I know is you haven’t changed a bit. You put your own pride over the actual lives of other people.”

“Marceline-”

“No, Bonnie, listen. It’s been like this for centuries. It’s exhausting. I had thought you were different now. I really did. But I guess old habits die hard.”

“I’m trying to change. I really am Marcy. I just- I was scared. You know what it’s like to have to face the potential of losing your parents. You know what it’s like to lose them. I don’t. I just had to come head-to-head with it today. It’s not okay that I did all that, but I panicked,” Bonnie rambled. Marceline stood up and shook her head.

“I’m going home. I have a killer headache and I’m tired. I got up to come help and I did, so my job’s done.” She rubbed her temple and walked to the door, reaching for the handle only for her hand to be grabbed.

“I’m sorry. I want you to know that. I really am sorry.” She hesitated. She looked to Bonnie and inhaled sharply. She did look remorseful, but sometimes remorse was not enough.

“Sorry doesn’t fix this,” she mumbled. Bonnie looked away.

“I understand.” She quickly hugged Marceline and backed away, walking to filter through her closet. “It’s okay if you never forgive me. I wouldn’t blame you.”

“I’ve forgiven you for worse,” Marceline stated. “But this one will take me a bit. I’ll text you eventually.” She strolled out and narrowly avoided Peppermint Butler who was coming into the room, getting called some harsh words as she opened her umbrella to make her way home.

#chara writes #at bubblegum #at marceline #bubbline #adventure time

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yououghtaknow · 3 years

Note

hey! are you able to answer this ask with a short summary of chapter 6? i'm really thankful for your author's note with the warnings; the topics covered are heavy and i want to avoid them, but i still want to know what happens/happened and not fall behind on this season (which i'm loving btw, the musical concept is genius)

hi!!!! thank you so much for the ask, and of course i can provide a summary for you. i’ll try to keep it short but i do tend to ramble, and this clip had a Lot of information :)

so the clip begins in the western ballroom (the bar from e3 c6) at ellie’s birthday party. al, the theatre squad and various other teens are there having fun. al sits down with destiny and they have a chat about how she was treated in clip 2 of episode 6. destiny says she just wants to perofrm and doesn’t really care about how she gets treated, which al doesn’t think is fair. around this time, the girl disappears.

they discuss working with spotlight, and how they had planned to create some pieces of writing to make spotlight a better place, but didn’t go through with it. destiny reveals that the reason al got the job at spotlight was because ellie had been secretly planning for months to get him to come back because she’s in love with him.

this triggers something in al, but he pretends everything’s okay as destiny walks away and ellie comes up to him - which is where we get the musical number “one kiss” from bare. a guy named guy flirts with ellie, but she rejects him, leaving al and ellie alone together - al is clearly panicked but ellie doesn’t notice. she reveals that she has feelings for him and kisses him - which also triggers something for al. he quickly excuses himself and hides in the bathroom.

the girl reappears in the bathroom as we see al begin to have a panic attack, but he’s confused as to why. the girl cryptically says that they need to remember something, and al then has a ptsd flashback, where everything goes black and white.

we flash back to around the time season 1 was airing and see a past version of al and ellie walking home together. ellie asks al to stay over for dinner at her house, and al says that he’s been at her house for dinner almost every day for months, and he wants to spend time with his family. she begs him to stay with her because she’s scared of her mother, so he does. she suggests they have a sleepover, and then they walk away. current al and the girl watch them, and current al is confused. the girl says they need to remember more.

we then get “nobody needs to know” from the last five years as we see the next morning in ellie’s bedroom. a past ellie and al wake up in ellie’s bed, and we see the extent of their toxic relationship, with ellie yelling at al a lot and manipulating him into sexual things with her. it’s a very cyclical relationship, with ellie using anger and sadness to manipulate al, and we see a calendar on the wall showing multiple years, implying that their dynamic had been like this for many years.

current timeline al then realises his sexual trauma and is very overwhelmed, as is the girl. they take a moment of silence together, before we flash forward to around season 2 time with a very rewritten version of “nonstop” from hamilton.

we see past al very enthusiastically directing the spotlight production of be more chill and then giving a presentation on how to improve spotlight’s working conditions at a spotlight brand meeting, which gets shot down. he then goes to ellie’s house in the middle of the night and asks her to help him get his point across better, but she refuses to help, causing them to have a huge fight.

we then get a flashback to season 3, with the scene of al and jake after jake’s mother injured him (and when jake talked about his mother’s “craziness”). and then we flash to the summer between seasons 2 and 3 and we see al, destiny and someone called irene sanchez write a series of essays explaining why and how spotlight should treat their minority students better - and we learn that al around 21/27 essays.

we then get a flashback to esther asking al to help with rent, and we see him accept as we get the big climax of “nonstop”, because all of this took place during that song. it was a Lot. it ends with the girl reminding current al that he “threw away his shot” with both theatre clubs.

and we begin a new scene with a flashback to november of 2019 as al goes into louise’s office and tells her that he’s quitting spotlight. she’s very upset with him as he logically explains his reasons, using a binder he’s filled with information as a source. al talks about the transphobia he’s faced and how he’s very unhappy at spotlight, and louise gaslights and manipulates him to try and get him to stay, but he doesn’t.

al tells louise about ellie’s self harming and eating disorder, and louise doesn’t believe him, which finally triggers al to have a meltdown, repeating that he’s not crazy and that he’s not lying. al also mentions a time when louise came into ellie’s room and night and saw ellie assaulting al but didn’t do anything and left.

ellie then walks in, having heard the yelling and is very confused as al goes nonverbal, having a very emotional meltdown. louise threatens to “send al away”, and al forces himself to calm down. we then get “mama who bore me (reprise)” from spring awakening as al goes back into the office, and louise has hidden his binder from him. and we see current al, watching this, is getting very upset and overwhelmed, and we come out of the flashback and return to the present.

back in the bathroom, we get the end of “mama who bore me (reprise)”, and al and the girl talk about why he went back to spotlight - because they “wanted” him, but he realises that they don’t actually want him as a person, louise and ellie just want the things he can give them. the girl then says that they need to do “defense”, and we get the song “defense” from we are the tigers.

the girl and al begin to make a defense plan, to take away “the one thing ellie and louise have over them” - their reputations. al realises that the people of spotlight need a hero, and we see him and the girl leave the party. outside, al meets kayla and lies to her about having food poisoning, and tells her to tell everyone he’s too sick to stay at the party - and as he and the girl walk off, he says “let’s get to work”, and the clip ends.

i know you said you wanted a “short summary”, but truly so much happened in this clip that’s important for people to know that i just had to include it everything that you need to know going forward. if you ever need a summary like this again, feel free to ask!!!!! hope you’re having a good day <3

#skam brighton #skam brighton spoilers #<3

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bladekindeyewear · 4 years

Text

HS^2 bloggin’ mainline 2020-09-15

This caught me laaaate at night gosh I’m tired but I’m gonna get it outta the way so it won’t stick in my craw! Already saw the first page, so it’s time for:

> CHAPTER 13. The Funeral

Church with chess symbols at the peaks and a Prospit/Derse or Hope/Rage split color theme on the stained glass windows.

JANE: Dearly beloved...

> (==>)

Trolls, humans, and papparazzi. Oh, hm, this church is RATHER carapacian isn’t it? Between the chess and the continuing Prospit-Derse themes, like how this corresponds to how they align in the incipisphere top-left to bottom-right if I recall:

(Minus the outlying orbs to the left and right for symmetry.)

That twisted pattern is interesting, and not quite a spirograph. Is that gonna be important later? If we’re going to get some sort of class chart later in the comic, it’d be easy for them to hint at the chart’s graphical structure subtly by dropping it places like here.

JANE: Ladies... JANE: Gentlemen... JANE: News outlets... JANE: And other valued members of the Human Nation State.

Technically true, but still odd to hear-- ...oh right, I forgot this was asshole dictator-wannabe Jane, too.

I read an interesting twitter thread recently about the intense psychological distinction between wanting to BE the best, and wanting to be TREATED like you’re the best. Epilogues/HS^2 Jane is kind of written as a case study on the pitfalls of leaning on the latter instead of the former.

> (==>)

They brought Yiffy WITH them-!? --Oh right. The hostage exchange was supposed to happen here wasn’t it.

Yiffy definitely looks like a Harley-Lalonde daughter in this shot.

JANE: Gamzee Makara, High Court Jester, exalted saint of the purple veil, has left us to traverse that grand, gay carnival in the sky, where, I am told by various members of the clownly cloth, he will spend the rest of history, honking in grand tribute to the Mirthful Messiah.

SINGULAR???

Weird. Is it because Alt!Callie “won” here?

Or is Jane just forgetting because she’s culturally used to monotheism (ironically) and is insensitive.

JANE: And my first memory of our Purple Prince, was his robust codpiece--

Wow.

> (==>)

JANE: --As he offered me his friendly support, along with the sacred blood of his brethren, the holy sacrament--

He STILL killed trolls??! (EDIT: No, a friend points out that she's talking about when she met him first in Act 6 and he tried selling bottles of troll blood to her. EDIT2: -which may be another inconsistency, since Vriska supposedly overwrote that post-retcon.)

> (==>)

It takes Jake a few seconds of puzzled eye contact before he catches exactly what it is Yiffany is tossing down. In his defense, he is distracted by his wife’s speech, which is doing the emotional equivalent of wringing him out like a wet towel, before using that towel to slap the sweaty buttocks of a large, odorous man. Even if he knows everything she’s saying is a load of horsefeathers, it does nothing for his composure to hear her heap praise on that smelly, homewrecking clown.

Bad things about Gamzee deserve to be said here, yes.

Jake wonders what she’ll say about him, at his own funeral.

Now those are some uncomfortable thoughts.

He narrows his eyes in Yiffany’s direction. She’s a lovely girl, really. He wishes he could have gotten to know her under better circumstances. He’d known she existed, of course--Jane had complained about her often enough--but they’d never had much chance to get acquainted. He rather believes her and Tavvy would have been fast friends.

Then again, perhaps it’s better that she never had much of a chance to get to know his family.

He lets go of the leash.

Yep, there’s a plan to set in motion that he’s probably already discussed with her privately. Gotta unite this four-kid team after all.

> (==>)

Wait, are you ATTACKING?!? --Of course you’re attacking. You would even if the plan was something different, wouldn’t you.

JANE: And I know that at times like these it is easy to want to give in. JANE: To throw in the towel, and turn our faces away from the light of democracy and moral fortitude that we, the citizens of the human kingdom, are blessed with from birth. JANE: God knows I’ve had my own faith tested in the last few weeks.

Jesus Christ, what has she turned the place into, a fucking theocracy?

She sounds like the leader of some screwed-up, fundamentalist country! Like the United States!

*rimshot*

JANE: As many of you know, I did not grow up with the same privileges that all of you enjoy.

Jesus.

JANE: I was born on proto-Earth, that half-finished dystopia mangled by the ravages of foolish leadership and endless war.

Jesus, she really IS a self-evident takedown of hypocritical entitled political figures. With the bonuses having Jasprose explicitly ADDRESS said entitlement to make things even clearer cut.

JANE: And as for Gamzee, well, his upbringing was even worse. JANE: He was born to a violent and uncaring home, a lonely child with few natural gifts.

...Some natural gifts and status.

> (==>)

She’s just, shaking with fury here isn’t she? And about to perform an impressive corpse-lob.

JANE: It would be simple to let this disgusting, vile, SHAMEFUL act of spiteful revenge turn us away from the blinding light of the sword of justice that hangs over us all--

This sentence seems suspicious so I’m quoting it to refer to later if I need to, but is probably just platitudes.

> (==>)

JANE: Poised

> (==>)

JANE: Trembling

Okay maybe the sword’s a dick, but what exactly is Yiffany doing?? I’m finding it difficult as usual to tell between some of these image transitions.

> (==>)

JANE: Ready to burst forth--

Bad PR to shock-collar a kid mid press junket. (Very dicks description.)

> (==>)

Click. (Did they swap the shock function with Jane’s necklace somehow, that’d be fun.)

JANE: I want to give up, at times. I understand your pain.

While shocking a kid? GREAT PR.

> (==>)

JANE: I sympathize with your pain.

Wow, those horrified audience members. She REALLY can’t even see herself anymore can she? Not even hear herself. And they’re making sure this is pointed out to EVERYONE watching. They described this as in large part a PR campaign to defeat her, didn’t they?

> (==>)

Great furious businesswoman-villain look, that art.

JANE: But when that pain! Becomes too hard! To endure! JANE: Remember poor, lifeless Gamzee! Who suffered pain far worse than any of us could ever fathom! JANE: THE PAIN OF BETRAYAL!

Click click click. This is a fun sequence.

> (==>)

DIRK: Dude, didn’t you lower the voltage on that shock collar? DIRK: Little Red isn’t looking so hot. JAKE: Yes of course i did but the damn doohickys got the kick of a donkey! JAKE: I couldnt remove it completely shed know i was the one who did it! DIRK: Well, if that supervillain cuntwaffle doesn’t stop, she’s going to kill her. Not really the best at hostage management, is she.

Decent plan. (And of course Dirk would pull out the word cunt.) When’s the cavalry coming?

> (==>)

JANE: But we cannot allow his memory to be in vain! JANE: For Gamzee Makara taught us that even the most loathsome degenerate can take their place in society. JANE: All they need is the right redemption arc - !

Trying to hammer home some of the Epilogue’s trolly-critical themes a little less bleakly, I take it.

I kind of like the violent vibration in ALL of these gifs in a row. It makes the scene seem small, slow, teeth-clenching but still full of steady action, emphasizing the importance of the relatively small events from panel to panel while giving them the sense with the animation of them being [i]drawn out[/i] and tortuous instead of just “occurring”. It feels that way to me, anyway.

> (==>)

If he got up alive here, that’d be hilarious. (Presumably he’s been treated and done-up like a normal funeral body, not “dormant” and undecaying like a dead god-tier.)

> (==>)

CORPSE PUNT w/ CLEATS

> (==>)

That face is just. I love that face.

> (==>)

SHE MAD

JANE: Young lady, I am just about at the end of my rope with you. JANE: Throw all the dog bowls you want at the walls of my warship. JANE: But don’t you dare act up in front of a JANE: Live JANE: Fucking JANE: Newsfeed! YIFFY: Grrrrrr

What did you expect to happen? Do you expect to shout her down from this, Jane?

JANE: After everything I’ve done for you--paying for your education, helping your parents cover up your existence from the world! JANE: Just imagine what Rose and Jade would say if they could see you now, even dissidents can have a little decorum! JANE: Get down from there at once! YIFFY: Grrrrrr

But this is GAMZEE. --I guess it’s seriously disrespectful to his followers, though. Still. If you wanted civility from her, a shock collar, leash, and food bowl wasn’t the way to go about it.

JANE: Don’t you threaten me, young lady. Not today! YIFFY: GRRRRRRRRR

What is your PLAN even, Jane? You’ve completely disregarded her.

JANE: There’s nowhere for you to go. My agents are swarming this church. Be reasonable, Yiffany. JANE: Ugh. JANE: Disgusting name. JANE: But that’s hardly your fault. You were always just a footnote. Your parents’ little prank. JANE: Honestly, that’s why I helped them all those years ago! I do love a good jape. JANE: But let’s be serious. JANE: You don’t matter. If you did, they would have come for you already.

Can all the press hear her being such an asshole?

Okay, stereotypically, their arrival should be the next couple panels:

> (==>)

Jake, do something useful like hoping harder.

> (==>)

And she knocks the remote away. Excellent.

And she does. Seemingly at the end of her tolerance for insults toward her name, social status, and heritage, Yiffy performs an impressive backflip off the podium and down onto the church floor. One that, if it hadn’t been happening amidst a sea of other newsworthy events, would surely have ended up on someone’s instagram story within thirty seconds. She gives Gamzee’s corpse one last parting kick: a hard, proper kick that proves those cleats aren’t just for fashion. Although they are certainly also for fashion.

Good, good.

He vanishes into the seething crowd, and we are confident that we will never have to deal with this asshole ever again.

God damnit.

> (==>)

Jake watches this from a safe distance, poised on the edge of intervening to pull Yiffy out of there. But in the end he doesn’t have to. Instead he watches in admiration as she tears the place to utter shreds. An echoing sympathy swells inside of him as she rends apart the funeral flowers and punts Gamzee into the shrieking congregation. Here is a girl who felt the cold, indecent hand of fate wrapping around her, and instead of submitting to it and slowly sublimating down into morasse of boiled doormat, she slapped it away from her with a lively oh, no thank you.

All at once, Jake feels immense affection for his granddaughter. He hopes the two of them can make up for lost time.

Lessons belatedly learned, but learned nonetheless.

> (==>)

JANE: Enough of this. JANE: Seize her!

Kind of Red Queen of you. (Are those stained glass windows in back of the frame about to burst?)

> (==>)

Yep.

The stained glass window shatters inward, obliterated to stardust. The war is knocking.

Even attacking a disgusting faith’s church is pretty bad form, though.

Tired and busy, seeya next upd8. <3

#Homestuck #hs2 #Homestuck Liveblog #upd8 #Homestuck^2 #spoiler #spoilers

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ihearthorror · 3 years

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My Top 10 Favourite Horror Films of 2020

Every January, most people who review or talk about movies on YouTube tend to piece together a Top 10 list of their favourite movies from the year prior. In order to stand out from the crowd (and also because I was too lazy to do this sooner), I decided to wait until March, by which time most YouTubers aren’t really talking about movies from 2020 anymore.

I know what you’re thinking: sounds kinda stupid – why would anybody care about a Top 10 list of the best movies of 2020…THREE months into the new year!? Well, as you’ve likely heard, 2020 was a year like no other, and as result of the ongoing global pandemic, movie release dates from 2020 were pushed back months, sometimes multiple times. Some films that were supposed to be released last year didn’t arrive until 2021, even though they’re officially considered “2020 films,” according to their profiles on websites like IMBD and Letterboxd.

And so, some of these so-called “2020 films” were not available (at least to me) until only recently, such as Saint Maud or The Dark and the Wicked. I feel like I’ve now had a chance to see almost all of the horror films I’ve wanted to see from last year. In this video, if you care to stick around, I will share with you my Top 10 favourite horror films of 2020. So, here we go…

#10/ The Dark and the Wicked:

A sister and brother return to the family homestead where their father is slowly dying and their mother is understandably distraught but also disturbed and distant. The siblings soon realize that something evil has invaded their family home as they are terrorized by whatever is slowly killing their father. Directed by the same guy behind 2008’s The Strangers, The Dark and the Wicked is at times bleak and unsettling, and it does a good job at keeping you intrigued in this family’s unnerving conflict. However, it felt a bit rushed and undeveloped at other times, and its ending left me somewhat unsatisfied.

#9/ Relic:

Soon after Kay and her daughter Sam return to their remote family home following the disappearance of the family matriarch, the widowed Edna, they discover that something sinister has taken hold of both Edna and the house itself. Although Relic – which was co-produced by Jake Gyllenhaal and marked the feature directorial debut for Natalie Erika James – isn’t exactly offering up any enticing twists or salacious gore, or even a original concept for that matter, it relies on evoking dread and building tension to compel its audience to stay invested until the bitter end.

#8/ Amulet:

Taking its sweet time to unravel, Amulet is centered around Tomaz, an ex-soldier who is now homeless but is offered a place to stay at a decaying house in London, which is inhabited by a beautiful young woman named Magda and her dying mother. As the story moves along, we see that Tomaz is starting to develop feelings for Magda, who seems a bit…off. His feelings for her don’t wane even after Tomaz discovers that there’s something insidious going on in the attic of the house, where Magda’s mother is seemingly imprisoned. Toss in a suspicious nun and you’ve got yourself a creepy little film that seems to have fallen between the cracks.

#7/ The Beach House:

One might argue that not a lot actually happens in The Beach House and that the payoff isn’t worth the investment, but if you go into this film with an open mind and zero expectations, you should at least be satisfied. Two troubled college students head to a deserted beach getaway to spend some time together, but end up struggling to survive alongside some unexpected guests as a mysterious infection disrupts their holiday. Although it is a slow build up to the film’s climax, it is a tense and intriguing ride along the way, as a series of unsettling events give way to an apocalyptic episode that feels almost like a throwback to the sci-fi films of the 1950s. Making his feature film directorial debut, Jeffrey A. Brown elicits with The Beach House those brooding existential thoughts that lay dormant in the deep boroughs of our minds.

#6/ The Invisible Man:

There’s always an elevated risk when making a modern film based on an old story that has already been told through cinema numerous times before. The last time H.G. Wells’ 1897 novel The Invisible Man had been adapted by Hollywood was in 2000’s Hollow Man, which was panned by critics despite making a sizeable profit. The 2020 adaptation is far superior and is perhaps the best adaptation of Wells’ classic in any medium. Elizabeth Moss gives a stellar performance that draws real emotion, so that we agonize alongside her as she is essentially haunted by a relentless ghost hellbent on controlling every aspect of her life. We live in an era when technology has advanced enough to bring this 124-year-old story to life like never before, while a polished script and an exceptional lead performance gives The Invisible Man a deeper level of emotion and terror.

#5/ Saint Maud:

For most of Saint Maud it is unclear whether certain experiences are actually happening in reality for the main character or if it’s all simply in her head, as some sort of mental breakdown caused by a work-related tragedy. Maud is a young hospice nurse and a newly-converted Roman Catholic who suddenly becomes obsessed with “saving the soul” of the woman she is currently taking care of, Amanda, a hedonistic dancer with a chronic illness. Maud’s behaviour worsens, as does her mental state, as horrific scenes and visions make us question if she’s actually losing her mind or experiencing something beyond this world. Saint Maud is an A24 feature by the way, so that should be enough to know what you’re getting here in terms of quality.

#4/ The Lodge:

Isolation is often embraced as a way to pad a horror film’s fear factor, and it works especially here in The Lodge, as a soon-to-be stepmom becomes stranded at a remote holiday home in the middle of winter with her fiance’s two children. The kids begin to untangle the dark past of their stepmom-to-be and a series of disturbing events transpire as their hope for survival fades. The Lodge is a dreary, atmospheric slow burn that leaves you somewhat unsettled. With its wintry backdrop, stylish sequences, and almost claustrophobic dread, the film doesn’t ever allow its audience to feel at ease for long, insisting that an underlying foreboding remain intact throughout. Although I found the ending somewhat disappointing, I immediately began to concoct a possible prequel that would delve into the backstory of the film’s lead character. One can hope.

#3/ Host:

It’s increasingly difficult to be innovative and original when it comes to horror films these days, especially in the particular genre of so-called “found footage.” Rob Savage’s Host, however, comes off as something different, setting itself apart from most films in this realm in various ways. It centers around six friends who hold a séance via Zoom during a COVID lockdown, guided (at first) by a medium they hired. The séance then takes a dark turn and things soon escalate into madness. Sure, there are elements in Host that are prevalent in numerous horror films, but it uses a modern and topical way to implement them, while also refusing to overstay its welcome by cueing the credits less than an hour in. Overall, this film’s popcorn-and-Saturday-night-movie fun factor is why it ranks so high on this list.

#2/ Possessor:

It’s always a treat to come across an original idea, especially when it’s within the horror realm, and Possessor is certainly unlike anything else I’ve seen in awhile. Andrea Riseborough plays an elite corporate assassin who uses brain-implant technology to take control over other people’s bodies in order to kill high profile targets, though with every mission she gets further and further away from her true self. With her latest possession, she becomes trapped in the mind of a man who threatens to obliterate her for good. It is a provocative vision by director-writer Brandon Cronenberg, who just so happens to be the son of legendary Canadian filmmaker David Cronenberg, and it serves as a disturbing piece of dystopian fiction that is even more frightening because it isn’t too far beyond belief.

And because everyone else is doing it, here are five honorable mentions that narrowly missed the list:

- The Call

- Color Out of Space

- Don’t Listen

- The Mortuary Collection

- Porno

#1/ His House:

In addition to its emotional storytelling and genuine moments of terror, His House – from first-time director Remi Weekes – sheds a light on the plight of refugees in a way that feels both respectful and empathetic. After a Sudanese couple make a harrowing escape from their war-torn homeland, they are granted asylum in England, where they struggle to adjust and fit in. They are assigned a shabby house on the outskirts of London, where the couple begin to experience terrifying and unexplainable events. His House is built around a fresh concept, two fantastic leads, and some truly haunting imagery, and I wish that more horror directors would put as much effort into quality filmmaking as Weekes did here. If this is his first venture into feature filmmaking, I am excited to see what his future has in store.

There you have it, my Top 10 favourite horror films of 2020. What did you think and were any of these titles on your own Top 10 list? Please tell me your thoughts and recommendations in the comments below.

youtube

#ihearthorror moviereviews horrormovies Top10horror bestof2020 horrormovies2020 bestofhorror2020

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sugarcarnation · 4 years

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5 episodes for the glee ask game: Sectionals, Special Education, Hold On To Sixteen, Thanksgiving, We Built This Glee Club (sectionals episodes :)

thanks for the ask🥰🥰🥰

im sorry this took a while but i am an idiot who decided that the only proper way to do this is rewatching all these episodes and taking notes

im also rating these based on my general enjoyment watching the episode and not on how good they actually are

expect this to get real rambly lmao

1. thanksgiving

this episode was just so much fun. i loved it!! the beginning was already amazing when all the old glee club members returned. each of them being assigned a newbie was a fun idea even if we kinda didn’t get to see any of it. i admit i was missing a unique and mercedes scene. but there was a two second marlique scene so im happy. the actual competition was not my favorite part of the episode but i still had fun although i think the warblers really didn’t need two songs. live while we’re young didn’t really do anything for me. i would have been just fine with whistle because while the song makes me kinda uncomfortable i also think it’s hilarious that the warblers performed it. then there was also gangam style which i know most people cant stand but i actually kinda like it. like yeah it’s gangam style but it’s also a tina solo and the dancing is fun. the new york side of things was also great. the orphan dinner and let’s have a kiki are definite highlights here. and naturally the entire klaine phone call made me lose my mind. kurt reaching out to blaine?? them agreeing two meet each other??? both of them saying i love you??????? it’s too much for me. so yeah overall i thought this was a great episode. i just didn’t like marleys eating disorder storyline (although it really gets bad in the next episode when everybody’s blaming her for it) and the way jake and ryder talked about marley like she was a possession

2. hold on to sixteen

season 3 is by far not my favorite but i find this episode to be really enjoyable for the most part. the only real criticism i have is the quinn/puck/shelby storyline but that gets thankfully wrapped up here. over than that everything else was great. kurt and sebastian have one of my favorite interactions in the beginning (i don’t like you. fun i don’t like you either) and sam returns!!! everyone sings red solo cup and is happy. there’s also actually quite a lot of tina in this episode and there are two quinntina moments in the episode which is just an instant win. we also get the troubletones being awesome and the new directions in one of their best competition outfits. and while i’m not the biggest fan of the songs they sing it’s great that more than one person gets to sing. we are young also alway makes makes me emotional so there’s that. also the gerber baby makes an appearance!!! i love her and the song she sings!!!

3. special education

looking at my notes i feel like i mostly enjoy this because of kurt lol. because yeah kurt is now with the warblers. and while i actually don’t really care that much about them (i’m sorry) it means that kurt gets to do something in this episode. also blaine is there and sings soul sister which isn’t my favorite solo of his but way more fun than i remembered. the hummelberry in this episode was also great. because even while my unpopular opinion is that i always like them a lot together i think that even if i didn’t feel like that i would enjoy them in this episode. they are really entertaining and rachel really supported him. also the hipsters were great and honestly if anyone deserved to tie with the new directions it should have been them. as in hold on to sixteen the setlist is really good if just because multiple people get to do something. on the downside finchel was really not it. rachel was just unreasonable jealous and then cheated on finn?? why am i supposed to feel bad for her here??? there was also minimal wemma which im glad there wasn’t more of. artie and brittany were actually pretty cute but the magic comb thing was just weird and i don’t like how they kind of infantalized brittany.

4. sectionals

the drama in this episode was great. now that i didn’t watch 12 episodes of various baby dramas first it was a lot of fun to see it all unravel. and even though it doesn’t make any sense if you think about it for more than 2 seconds them having to prepare a new setlist was great. you can’t always get what you want isn’t really the most exiting song but since the other ones are don’t rain on my parade, and i’m telling you i’m not going and my life would suck without you i don’t mind. there was a lot of wemma but i actually didn’t mind it this episode. they were honestly kinda cute. also there’s a pezberry moment so i’m happy.

5. we built this glee club

both the beginning and the end were kinda boring to me. there was also just too much puking and will and sue fueding for my liking. but otherwise i liked it a lot. the exploding packages are hilarious and the new directions actually practiced for a competition! their setlist was pretty good for the most part. and again more than one person sang. i like to think we have kurt to thank for that. i liked vocals adrenalines songs a lot. while they are all awful people i do enjoy watching them perform. there’s also st berry here which was pretty cute even if i’m pretty sure rachel still dated sam when she kissed jesse.

and that’s it! i’m honestly impressed if anyone made their whole way through this

#asks

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sparkliingdust · 4 years

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My long-ass random ramblings of Defending Jacob.....MAJOR SPOILERS of the whole series including last two episodes

In the beginning, it was interesting to watch a show from the perspective of trying to figure out what was going to incriminate Andy. I didn't read the book (mostly the last few pages, I’m lazy and hated the author’s writing style) or any show spoilers before it started, so I couldn’t figure out why Andy was being questioned. The series played well into mixing the murder-mystery elements of other people who might’ve killed Ben to showing all of the things Andy does to protect Jacob. It made me wonder what was going to get him into trouble. After six episodes of following this throughline, the path completely diverts into why Andy is being indicted and the aftermath of the trial. And I thought the final two episodes played out better than the book..

The second that Patz killed himself started a wave of emotions. Jacob being found innocent felt like it was too good to be true. And then the other shoe dropped when Andy discovered how his father was involved in Patz's suicide and Jacob is possibly still guilty, and it just made my stomach flip. This introduced a new major conflict in the 11th hour that completely parallels the rest of the show and has 1/3 of the time to resolve it. For all of the dubious things that Andy does to protect Jacob, he has to decide "to be a good man or a good father" and seeing those lines become blurred even more was exciting. Just when they thought everything is fine, there's another dark cloud hanging over Andy's head that is going to push him or Laurie to a breaking point, and you have no choice but to watch it play out - is he going to tell the truth that Jacob might still be guilty or keep it to himself and hide more secrets from them.

With Andy driving most of the plot, I’ll admit I didn’t understand where they were going with Laurie. While I still think the writing was horribly weak, I thought in the final episode Laurie (and Michelle) finally got to show why the lies carried so much weight. Andy's lived with secrets his whole life while Laurie hasn't; his idea of a family is built on tailoring everything around him to this idea of normalcy/being a good husband/father/etc. to hide his past, while Laurie is left to read into tiny truths and balloon them into exaggerations or accept them as they are. She thought her family was being authentic with each other, but her husband and son have lied not to protect her like they claim but for self-preservation. Everything she thought she knew about the people she loved felt like a fairytale. When she interrogates Jacob in the car and crashes it in an attempt to morally save themselves, Michelle was finally able to push herself without just looking confused and shocked the whole time. And it circled back nicely to how the "murder gene” comes from the mom, but recklessness, lack of empathy, and prone to violence comes from the father. Laurie just couldn’t do it anymore and who could blame her.

Where the show suffered for me is portraying Jacob - it sorta summed up his character as having a lack of empathy and agency. (And the latter is similar to a lot of the supporting characters too.) When he and others were on-screen, they were interesting and contributed to the plot, but the second they're gone, they're pretty forgettable. I could never get a definitive pull if Jacob did it or not because the show didn't deeply show many different sides of him that made you think one way or another - cracking inappropriate jokes or Laurie thinking "it's okay, he's normal" because he's talking to a girl is not a lot of character development for someone the whole series is centered on. I’m not sure if this is because of the writing or that Jaeden’s naturally shy, but I didn’t feel like he commanded a very strong presence to make Jacob that interesting until the end.

That said, I liked the changes that were made when they go on vacation and Jacob is suspicious of killing a girl. When Jacob meets Hope, it’s tainted by the expectation that something bad is inevitably going to happen. For a second, we step into Laurie's shoes of loving her son for all his good qualities but also knowing he could be capable of something so evil. When Hope disappears and Jacob is suspected, you’ve had enough time to decide whether Jacob is guilty or innocent, and also wonder if this is his fault too. But then she turns up alive, and Andy still has to deal with a whole new can of worms by having told Laurie about his dad having killed Patz and Jacob might not be innocent. The life that Andy was trying to preserve is now gone because he finally came clean.

"Hey, Pal."

Another change I liked about the ending was Jacob ending up in a coma instead of being killed, and leaving Andy to lie / believe in his indictment that Laurie’s actions was on purpose or an accident. It continued to show how much he's willing to scrape by to keep this family together. Unfortunately, there’s no reason to truly believe that they’re going to last long at all. When Laurie said the nurses told her that Jacob is showing some good signs of recovery, I couldn't help but feel that was a lie. It’s rare for people to come out of comas - especially a vehicle that hits 70mph into a stone wall. I actually thought both of them were dead when I saw the scene for the first time, but a coma is also believable. For me, Jacob's never going to wake up, they'll pull him of life support, Andy’s going to have live with not convicting Laurie, and Laurie’s drive for the truth will ultimately let her realize that she killed her son. I liked the ambiguity of the ending of what Andy and Laurie will do next, how is Andy going to live with himself, and felt like Jacob and Laurie’s scene in the car still had a terrifying and heartbreaking impact even though Jacob didn’t die.

By the final moments with the fade-out of Andy in Jacob's bedroom, it hit home how much this family had been through and how much Andy must feel like everything that happened to them was his fault - if he had been honest with Laurie in the beginning about his father, who knows where their lives would've taken them. But he’s also a victim of trauma. He did the only thing he thought he could do which was to hide it or though it would come back to haunt him and started masking his life to believe his trauma never existed.

The last thing that I can think of to say is that I didn't expect to get emotional over the finale at all. I loved the intrigue, how the series was directed, the characters, and thought Chris's performance was amazing. But the moment that broke me was Andy entering Jacob's hospital room where he is in a coma. Andy had his suspicions about Jake but for the most part his faith was unwavering - and look where it got all of them. Here's a father, who despite all of the questionable and wrong things that he did to protect his son, he still tried to prove his innocence. In doing so, he was forced to reveal things he would've taken to the grave and it became a part of Jacob’s downfall. As much as this series was a ‘murder mystery’ , this family was always going to end up at square one with secrets consuming them or the truth forcing them apart. Unfortunately, that neither option was better.

The series had some missteps, namely chemistry with the cast and the writing, but overall, it's one of the few series that I didn't guess everything about the ending. It was fun to watch a show that released a new episode week to week instead of all at once, and giving me something to look forward to. I'm excited to re-watch it and see what I missed before - especially anything different with the indictment scenes and the various amount of white lies they try to get away with.

(sorry for grammar/spelling mistakes - writing is all I’ve been doing this week for my job and I can’t catch mistakes right now).

#defending jacob spoilers #spoilers #djspoilers #defendingjacobspoilers #defending jacob #my two cents

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justloosecannons · 3 years

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Finding Out/ Jake ft Eden

when: yesterday where: outs and abouts mentions: n/a description: jake is confronted with the fact that two can play at his game trigger warnings: mentions of body dysmorphia ideals, and sexual acts @partialhearts

Jake:

hooking his thumbs beneath the straps of his backpack, he wiggles just enough to redistribute the weight in it as he let out a hefty sigh. the party from the night before had been wild, and he was lucky to have snuck out in the early hours to catch at least a little rest. before trying to make it over to the coffee shop before his date with addi to get some writing done. crossing the street at the light, its only then that he sees eden. in the same clothes from the party the night before. he's not entirely certain who's place it was, but his heart seems to drop and crack in the pit of his stomach. he freezes, and only steps forward when he's honked at. visibly shaken, he jogs the rest of the way across the street and tries to calm an aching chest. "stupidstupidstupid." he rasps under his breath, knowing he's being unfair by the feeling of jealousy combined with absolute heartache he feels in the confines of his bones.

Eden:

her head is throbbing, and she makes a stop to pick up coffee from the local cafe, hoping that it might somehow help the dull ache in her head. she doesn't see jake until she hears the honk of a car, and her attention is quickly drawn to his direction. she was acting just like him, she knew it, she was stumbling out of the beds of strangers just as jake used to, and she wasn't being subtle about it either. "morning!" she calls, waving over at him casually.

Jake:

hearing her voice, meant that there was absolutely no way out of this impossibly uncomfortable scenario, which only further sent his heart directly into his stomach, only stopping to crumble and break off as it haphazardly hit various inners on the spiral down. a knot forms in his throat, and he quickly clenches his jaw in an effort to not show an ounce of emotion across his features. "hey - i..." he brushes his hand through the air to acknowledge her before he glances around, realizing he would have to walk right by her to get to his chosen spot. letting out a shaky breath, he pushed forward, and avoided eye contact entirely, truly afraid of the minor details that would prove how she had been spending her time. "just.... coffee shop.... gonna.. try to write." his voice cracks, keeping his head down.

Eden:

he's being awkward, and eden is suddenly a little regretful, wishing she hadn't drawn attention to herself, or said hi. is he okay? she's too scared to ask. "oh right, yeah -- okay." he's avoiding her, right? but eden really thought they were doing good, that they were on their way to becoming friends. "i was just on my way there, too."

Jake:

"nice, yeah.... cool." he clears his throat as his eyes stay put on the sidewalk below, suddenly very aware of her proximity and instantly envisioning hands all over the frame that he had once claimed as his own. his eyes lifted for just a moment, and he caught sight of a darkened mark on her neck, and let out a defeated sigh. "cold whisk. kitchen whisk. it'll...." he nodded with his head. "used to have to before i went to work after..." nights with you.

Eden:

she's confused, not sure what it is he is talking about, but then she realises he's talking about her neck and eden claps her hand over the mark with a bright pink flush rising to her cheeks. "oh i - yeah, i'll give that a try when i get home."

Jake:

“sure thing. hope it was nice, at least.” offering the smallest smile in her direction, and an ounce of bite - he nods before he’s turning to heard towards the cafe in question. his heart aches - as if it’s already in pieces and the organ pumping his blood of a foreign object. his fingers grip tightly at the straps of his bag as he lets out a bough that feels strangled.

Eden:

was jake really telling her that he hoped her sex life was good? she clears her throat, feeling a little awkward as they stand there, not really knowing what to say to one another. she decides not to react to the comment, for it will simply do neither of them any good. "i was just gonna get a coffee to you, are you...staying here?"

Jake:

“no i... sorry.” he clears his throat and nearly stumbles as he starts he’s feet up once more. he knows it’s unfair. he knows that he no longer holds claim to anything about eden, which meant that she was essentially a free agent - but, the way it consumed him nearly completely, left him throbbing. the walk felt awkward - which wasn’t them. had never been them, but his mind kept alternating between their last kiss - and... well, her most recent activities. there’s so much he has to say, but nothing comes out. stepping up to the counter, her order tumbled from between his lips right after his own before he has a moment to stop it.

Eden:

she stiffens when he puts in her order, he's being kind, and it ruins her every time. there's something about it that makes her nervous, because will every ever get to be friends? she wishes they could - she wants to be able to take care of him, he deserves that. but does she deserve to hurt again? "i'll get these." she says quickly, adding jake's order to the list before she's handing her card over to pay.

Jake:

the second she’s holding her card out, he’s simply shaking his head and sliding a fistful of cash to the barista. “here - keep the change. thank you.” he hums, taking her card only to carefully slide it into her back pocket. dark eyes search the space before he finds a table, and drops his stuff onto it. he hates it. he hates that he can’t be close to her and not touch her - because he’s desperate, and needy - and he’s never wanted anything more than her.

Eden:

she sighs, sad that jake rejects her attempts to pay, feeling a little depleted as she pushes her card back into her pocket. "is it always going to be like this between us?"

Jake:

it feels like a loaded question as he nods towards the seat across from him. letting out a hefty sigh, his fingers throw themselves through his curls. “it’s just... a little shocking, seeing you out - in last nights clothes and a hickey. just...” he shrugs, not fully prepared to explain that it hurts him.

Eden:

it feels unfair, why does jake get to do all those things and she doesn't? why did he get the double standard? "i'm just having fun - jake - for once in my life i'm just, doing what i want to do." she sighs, "all i've done my whole life is live for everyone else."

Jake:

it falls on his chest like a heavy weight when she speaks. “i-“ he starts, but hears his name. excusing himself, he collects their drinks and deposits them back on the table before glancing up at her again. “i’m not judging you - or telling you what you’re doing is wrong. i...” he sighs, picking at the cup. “i just don’t like it. and i’m not... saying that, that’s fair either..”March 24, 2021

Eden:

"i didn't like it when you told me you loved me and 3 hours later you were fucking some other bitch." she stares at him, hard, her throat tight. does he not see? does he have no idea what he's done to her, the pain he's caused. all the self doubt, the way she hated other women, when women weren't the problem or the enemy. "i hated all of it, i tore myself up because of it. and i'm so fucking sorry, that i have to look for validation in everyone else who isn't you.”

Jake:

the words seem to seep into him in a way that he can't really explain, but he knows that it rocks him to his very core in an instant. he could feel eyes on him immediately - people that overheard her, instantly looking at him. "i didn't... i-" his brows furrowed as his stomach turned, eyes flickering across the space as he tries to put his thoughts into some sort of cohesive statement. "i'm not saying that you're wrong. you are free to do, see, or fuck - whomever you want, eden. i... you aren't my girlfriend anymore. right? you aren't.... you're not mine. and i have to live with that. i'm just saying that you might send the wrong message when you're kissing me, and then fucking someone else - but again, not really any of my business who you fuck. but, i'm super appreciative of the fact that everyone in this god damn coffee shop knows that i'm an asshole. thank you." he huffs, tossing his bag onto his shoulders once more, brushing by her.

Eden:

she stares at jake's back as he pushes by her, and she knows she's confused him by kissing him, she did wrong. but hadn't he? all the times he swore he'd be better, do better, and he didn't. tears burn in her eyes, and she can feel everyone looking at her, at jake, at them, at the mess they had created. she doesn't chase after him, she knows she can't, she doesn't want to cause more of a scene. instead she just clutches her coffee and makes off in the opposite direction, allowing the tears to burn in her eyes.

Jake:

his fingers roughly tangle in wild curls as he makes his way down winding roads. he had only wanted to write - having felt moderately inspired to do so as of late, but his mood was completely shot. note to self: a whole new percentage of the population now hates you. it wasn't that it wasn't deserved, jake was well aware that the errors and careless actions he had taken with eden, had earned him the right to be judged. but, god - did he love her. making his way back into his apartment, he tossed a wave in koda's direction to let him know he was back, before falling back on his bed and pulling the small stuffed animal to his chest as his free hand toyed with the threads from the hold in his jeans.

#jake ft eden #jp.

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popculturebuffet · 4 years

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Jake Reviews Stuff: Steven Universe: The Answer

Happy pride everyone and naturally, it just wouldn’t feel like a celebration of pride in animation without one of the frontrunners of LBGTQ represintation in Children’s television, as well as quality in storytelling in general: Steven Universe. Since your seeing this you probably know the gist but as my idol peter parker would say let’s do this one last time: The story of Steven, a 14 year old, though he dosen’t look it, boy with a boundless amount of love, compassion and empathy, lives in beach city with his borderline homeless dad , surrogate moms and surrogate until we find out they actually are kinda related sister: Garnet, a fusion of two gems in love and thus the sum total of both them and their feelings, Peal, an emotional but loving gem who grew from a servant to Rose’s right hand, sometimes lover, and confidant, and Amythest, a gem born long after the war that brought everyone else here who acts like a 20 something or teenager half the time. Steven soon finds himself fighting alongside themt o protect earth both from the monsters caused by the final battle of the war his mother fought to save earth from distruction and let her army live life how they choose, and the gem homeworld as it starts to take an intrest in earth again. And as the fight goes on Steven also starts to see just how flawed his family is and how much they haven’t moved on from his moms death and finds himself forced to help them past it while grappling with his mom’s terrible and complicated legacy, everyone expecitng him to basically be her, and what it means to be a being that’s truly one of a kind. I absolutley love the show: it’s not without flaws; Characters tend to be ingnored for seasons or episodes at a time,some arcs are really weirdly paced and the slice of life episodes can be jammed in the weirdest places. But the show’s strength: a devotion to having emotional resolution be even more important, and sometimes just as powerful animated and framed, than fighting, though the show’s fight scene’s are incredible, incredibly deep characters with fully fleshed out arcs and growth, and a love for tackling deep, heavy subjects through metaphor or even directly, taking on things such as gender identity, societal conformity, ptsd, grief, gender identity and many many more with grace and weight and helping kids with them in the process. The show is also the frontrunner for LBGTQ+ representation in cartoons in the 2010′s. While other shows had bits nad pieces, series creator Rebecca Sugar was the one responsible for making Marcline and Princess Bubblegum ex-lovers and making it obvious as possible without saying it because standards were bullshit, Steven Unvierse decided to say fuck subtley and thus had PLENTY OF gay content: Garnet is a fusion of two women and the embodiment of their love and relationship, and when the two show up their very affectionate with one another to the point of bullcrap censorship in less tolerant countries such as india and russia, while Pearl out and out had a CENTURIES LONG romantic relationship with Steven’s mother who was explictly pansexual, and that’s just the main cast! But I genuinely believe that it’s thanks to Steven Universe that children’s animation is as LBGTQ+ positive as it is now. SU wasn’t the first to have gay leads but it was one of the few kids shows with the balls and, at least in the us, network support to explictily have gay characters as some of the main cast, and I feel the show’s success softend execs at CN and other companies to let more representation too. Since SU”s airing, most CN shows have had gay content great and small, Nick has had gay parents and a bisexual lead, not to mention the korra ending kicking it all off, and Netflix has said hold my beer, having not only multiple gay main characters, but having the finale of she ra be built on a decleration of love between two women saving the universe and being the climax of the entire series. Not that those crews likely still didn’t have to FIGHT for most of that, i’m not bilind and NOelle Stevenson has outright admitted she had to be sneaky about catradora for season 1 as to not get it shut down, but I feel SU”s sucess and Rebecca and crew’s own likely fights put the various studio goon’s reflector shields down and got more representation into children’s media. And that’s a wonderful thing. So naturally the show was a lock for this month and for coverage here.. i’ts just given the show’s heavily seralized nature and the fact it dosen’t really have any long romantic story arcs. Sure ther’es plenty of romance, but it’s mostly either in the past or between an already married couple that’s also a person. The show’s arcs were more focused on worldbuilding and character building, which I do prefer and will be doing one in July. But it did make it tricky to find an episode to spotlight the character I wanted to spotlight: Garnet Garnet is easily my faviorite character, with pearl a very close second: she has a great dynamic, is a decent if flawed mother and leader, and is also damn funny with her deadpanned reactions to things being utterly divine. As well as whatever the hell this is.

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The problem is I also wanted to spotlight the parts making up her: Ruby and Sapphire, their relationship etc as they themselves are fantastic and i’m 100% convinced were the inspriation for one mr mc skat kat and one paula abdul’s magnum opus in steven’s unvierse

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The problem is most rupphire episodes are tangled in bigger arcs. They debuted at the end of the invasion arc, they had the baseball episdoe together shortly after another arc, and their wedding is tied up in the reveal rose was pink diamond and the reception is crashed by the climactic battle with Yellow and Blue that sets up the final arc of the whole series. But thankfully season two gave us The Answer to my problem.. ironically named the Answer, basically Garnet Year One as Garnet tells steven how she came to be, a story so beauitful they made a storybook out of it.. and it’s my honor to present it here after the cut.

We open at the Barn... as a refresher at this point the Gems and Steven have been staying at Greg’s old family farm in order to have the space and suplies to build a drill to stop the cluster from hatching and destroying earth, with Peridot reluctantly working with them. So as such Steven’s sleeping there when Garnet wakes her.. and in a notable departure for her it’s san’s shade, which shows her adorable excitment as she wakes Steven. Turns out it’s his birthday! And.. I don’t really begrudge the show for takin ga break for two episodes to celebrate it: besides being the only time steven went up a year, on screen, it was a nice break from the peridot/cluster storyline for a second, and this and the following episode are pretty great and both add a lot to the world as a whole. It’s why i don’t MIND when SU takes a break from the plot, as long as they do it for good reason.

IN a great callback steven asks if garent’s going to tell him she’s a fusion, as Jailbreak revealed the reason she hadn’t yet is she was saving it for his birthday, which is a good joke and a great callback. Garnet cheerfully tells him know but has clearly found a backup: While steven knows she’s a fusion now.. she never told him how she came to be and how ruby and sapphire met after all. So we journey back about 5000 years to, as we’d learn much later with the pink diamond reveal, the start of the gem war. Earth was to be the next great colony, as we’d learn next season for pink diamond, but something was in the way: The rebel rose quartz and her brutal right hand pearl were causing tons of distruption, so the rest of the diamonds had come to snuff out the rebellion personally. So that’s where Ruby and Sapphire came in. Sapphire is a higher class gem, and befiting her caste is a precog, with Sapphires brought in to tell the diamonds the future so they can either make sure it happens or change it’s course. Garnet neaturally has this ablility too but vastly improved to see multiple timelines. She’s proper and distant. Ruby meanwhile is a shy, if more intellgent then her peers grunt soldier. Rubies as we learned here are basically made in groups to fuse. To homeworld, Fusion is simply a tactic to create a slightly stronger gem out of three other gems, and basically creates one giant person. In Contrast up to this point the series has shown fusion as something important to the crystal gems and requriing more work: It requires all parties to be in sync to even happen much less stay together, and requires an emotional connection; Freindship, romance, kinship... whatever it is it’s needed to hold the fusion together. It’s part of what MAKES garnet so impressive: Garnet is a permafusion, only unfusing either when her two halves are needed. or when thier personal conflict is so great they CAN’T stay fused. It also means due to said emotional resonance and combining the best traits of two gems rather than creating just one big gem, that the crystal fusions we’ve seen are vastly more powerful and versitale.. evne if they dont’ speak much because Rebecca made the mistake of getting big artist to do the role and apparently refused to just you know.. recast? It’s something that always baffled me. There’s no shortage of talented poc performers who can sing out there. Anyways, that’s part of what makes this intresting: up till now, we’d only seen one form of fusion.. we hadn’t seen what homeworld thought of it and used it for, and to the show’s credit it was hinted back during the return arc when Jasper called fusion a “tactic for making weak gems stronger”, since as far as homeworld used it, that’s what it was and it’s a stark contrast to the crystal gems harder to maintain but much more intresting and unique fusions.

We’ll get more into this later. The two front rubies argue about whose going to punch people whie our ruby just points out the obvious: Their just going to fuse into a really big ruby and punch together. This gets her shoved into sapphire, which despite not being her fault gets gasps and monocle pops from the gems around them. And it’s about time I dug into the episodes unique animation style: instead of the usual, only a handful of characters, the rubies, sapphire, and later rose and pearl, are animated normally and even then, at least for the first half, are brightly lit in their primary colors, while the rest of the gems present are just barely animated sytlistic shadows. It’s a really intresting choice and a clever way to save on budget, while still looking gorgeous.

Sapphire, while refusing Ruby’s help getting up, is understanding if monotone, but as w’eve seen in the present, tha’ts mostly just a side effect from seeing where everything’s going, and likely the reason garnet’s own emotional process is much like that; Stoic but willing to emote when necessary. Sapphire however has a reason for brushing her ruby off: the reason she was called here.. Blue Diamond. This is intresting as it’s not only the first time we HEARD of blue, as before this we only heard of Yellow, who’d make her proper debut at the end of this season, but the first time we saw a diamond in any way shape of form. Sure we had murals and such, but given the lack of info about the diamonds this early on it was impossible to tell whow as who and the only giveway there was more than was diamond was the symbols: the era 1 symbols in temples and at the arena showing all 4, hinting at pink, and the modern one shown in jailbreak that was a triforce. We do only see Blue in a hood, covered by her palquin and her voice done by Garnet, but it’s still the first tiem we’d see any of the diamonds in any onscreen form. The Garnet voice is also notcable as every other voice in the flashabck, including characters who aren’t either part of garnet or the same gem type as part of her, is normal.. it’s only blue Garnet does a voice for.. and a clever way of covering for the fact they likely hadn’t cast her voice actress yet. It’s also notable for the introduction of Blue Pearl, who silently stands by her Diamond teh whole time.. it’s weird thinking back to the fact that this was the first time we’d really SEEN other versions of our main cast: other rubies and another pearl. Sure we knew they were all part of one type or another with the obvious exception of garnet.. but this episode is notable, and weird to think about giiven how many variants we see as the series goes on, for being the FIRST time we see this on screen.

Sapphire reveals that while she, and two of her rubies, will poof the rebllion will end here, and Blue is releaved to here this, thanks sapphire and dismisses her. As Garnet explains, Sapphire had no issue with this as she simply saw her life as one straight line: No choice no, option: Fate would just come as it may. Sapphire also muses to Our Ruby on the fact that she finds this planet a wonderful place for a colony.. and that she wishes she could’ve seen more of it. While Our Ruby says theirs more time, Sapphire, while appricating the sentiment gently shoots it down. This little moment is interuptted however as Rose shouts out, signaling her and Pearl’s arrival. The battle has begun. And I do like the clever use of storytelling here.. not in presetnation but in what we’d learn muchhhh later with the big reveal: To a first time watcher, we just thought that it was only rose and pearl for story purposes or it was a small attack. After all the rest of the characters we’d seen were just shadows, so I, and I presume many others just assumed the rest were off screen or failing that this was just a small strike. As we’d learn once we got the full story of Pink Diamond becoming rose.. it was indeed JUST them, and only them at the time. it’s probably why in the future sapphire saw the rebellion ended her: Pink while powerful had to reign it in as not to be found out and pearl, while as we see her is already utterly badass and an ace with a sword as she mows down Quartz soldiers, is still one gem going up against a literal army. Another noticable thing, that hints at when this takes place is the fact that when Rose takes down the fused rubies, poofing two of them and leaving ours to flump to the ground.. she uses her fists. At this point her iconic sword is well established and it’s assumed it was just left out for artistic purpose.. but since we meet who made it next season with Bismuth, it’s another clever hint this is before there was a proper army. Bismuth wasn’t a gem yet so Rose/Pink just had her natural strength and shield to protect her, which wasn’t nothing, but the sword probably made it far easier to hold back.

And thus we come to the moment of truth: Pearl has come back and is about to mow down sapphire.. when Ruby realizes just waht Sapphire meant and waht she’s about to do and thus.. the future changed. Ruby tackles her out of the way. And Garnet is born.

I absolutley love Garnet’s cotton candy design, both as a sensible evolution, as this is a garnet formed in a moment of passion and accidently versus the one we see in the present or even in flashbacks: a person formed by choice and love and thus having a more stable form. Naturally, Rose and Pearl are baffled by this.. and it’s even more understandable.. as the above mentioned pink diamond origin episode explained.. they had never SEEN this kind of fusion before. While i’m sure this isn’t the first time this happend in gem history, any others were likely killed as soon as it were over or went into hiding as we saw with the off colors. And Pink being sheltered and Pearl being created for her, probalby simply never thought of something like this existing. But they also realize this never before seen to them miracle is their cue to skidoo and book it out of there. Naturally Blue is pissed and the court are disgusted as the two defuse and both have about the same reacation.

Before Blue can murder Ruby for you know, doing her fucking job, Sapphire ttakes her by the hand and books it off the sky arena and the two plummet to earth while ruby screams no a lot. The foundation of any good relationship.

They float down to earth.. because she’s Mary Poppins Ya’ll. Ruby reveals why she’s upset: Because as she sees it, there’s dozens of her. She’s not WORTH this. Sapphire has no reaction because for the first time, she has no idea what the future brings, what it means and the future she saw was just shattered. She’s frozen.

Jokes aside I really love that pun. Ruby worries and quickly scoops her up bridal carry style and quickly finds the two a cave. In the cave the two light that flame get that and Ruby continues to freak out over what happened, upset with her self that she’s supposed to save sapphire.. with Sapphire gently reassuring her “you already did.” It’s also intresting as it shows even garnet, or at least half of her, had to go through what peridot did.. it went down a bit easier since exile happened right away, but Ruby still had to shake off the homeworld conceived notion that she was WRONG for saving sapphire simply because it lost them the fight and got them fused and all that. It’s also a nice metaphor for someone whose been told, for a nightmarish rainbow assortment of bullshit resaons, that being gay is wrong only to discover they are and having to realize there’s nothing wrong with who they are.

After a breif flash the two finally talk about their fusion, with Sapphire being suprised considering she figured fusion wasn’t anything like they experinced.. only for Ruby to chime in that sh’es RIGHT: Their fusion wasn’t anything like Ruby’s normal “me but bigger’ fusion.. they lost htemselves.. and both clearly enjoyed it, expressing it through having a third eye for ruby and more than one for sapphi

We then get the utterly adorable musical number: “Something Entirely New”Which takes the so far mildly subtle “This is like two people who had sex with the oppsite gender for the first time “ metaphor.. and just makes it texual as the song basically screams of two people talking over an unfamiliar sexual experince, but in a cute, well done, and intentionally awkward way that’s still approraite for the kids. it’s a real beautiful song and also shows the burgoning couple bond on earth. This is important as a previous episode had garent and out and out say that love takes time and work, accurate and that love at first sight simply dosen’t exist.. and we also see she practices waht she preaches as the montage does show some time past and even before that the two genuiely bonded. Sure they FUSED on the spur of the moment.. but actually loving each other took time and bonding.

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As the song ends, the two dance romantically,deciding to be Garnet for good as we get some nice callbacks to jailbreak: the two hum the tune to stronger than you, now revealed to be their song and spin similarilty to the way they have when they’ve fused, a nice callback that also add’s weight to those previous moments.. and thus two become one and Garnet is reborn.

Garnet narrates as her past self gets used to her strange new form.. and just as she does she falls down a ditch. Eh could’ve been worse.

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Garnet finds herself face to sword with Pearl. Pearl backs off a bit once she realizes who their dealing with, and Garnet panickedly offers to unfuse.. only for Rose to enter. Garnet narrates them as Rose Quartz and her terrifying renegade pearl.

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Truly a force to be reckoned with. Rose dosen’t care about her own feelings though “What you feel is bound to be more intresting” It’s a good moment both because Garnet , up to this point hasn’t had to think about what they are or how they feel.. but more notably... no one but the two gems makingthem up ever cared, not before they were garnet and after all the homeworld gems wanted was to kill her. We also get a great line from garnet: “Why am I sure that i’d rather be this than anything else and that i’d rather do this than anything else i’m supposed to do? “ Rose’s response.. to give a giant grin while saying welcome to earth. As Garnet continues to question things, Rose tells her to never question this, never question what you are... which is a damn good message for a kids show to give out. The metaphor is crystal clear: no matter where you are on that beautiful lbgtq+ rainbow: NEVER be ashamed of who you are, never question it.. just enjoy it. Be who your meant to be and love that person. It’s a damn good message and one badly needed in a medium that for way too fucking long was SCARED to tell messages like this: Of sponsors, of foreign markets, and of idiots like one million moms. it took people like rebecca and her crew to say “fuck that”, to say that queer kids NEED these kinds of stories to know they aren’t alone, they are beautiful how they are. They shoudln’t have to wait to find out what they are.. is okay. And that’s beautiful.

As Rose Tells Garnet that she is the answer, and as we cut back to the present, Steven asks what the answer is. Garnet simply answers: Love. And we close on one great exchange Steven: I knew it Garnet; (wistfully) So did I.

Final Thoughts: While I remembered the episode being good, hence part of the reason I choose it I forgot just HOW great this episode was, especially post reveal. The art direction is goregous, shot like a fairy tail and rightfully so since this episode is told as one, the story is heartwarming and erica and charlene really act their hearts out as ruby and sapphire while Estelle kills it as both present garnet narrating and past garnet, a garnet ENTIRELY diffrent from what we’ve seen but acted beautifully. It’s espcially noticable since unlike the other two lead gems, we obviously wouldn’t see more garnets like we would amythests and pearls, so unlike her contepraries estelle really didn’t get to flex her vocal range as much playing alternate versions as the seasons went on, with this being the closest she got. The episode is beautiful, has a wonderful message, and is just utterly charming and is agian why I DON’T mind that every su episode dosen’t advance the plot: Sometimes it dosen’t need to. And even so this one ended up being WAY more important than I remembered, introducing blue diamond and turning out to be MASSIVELY important once the reveal kicked it: For it was Garnet, and the love dthat forged her that changed Pink’s direction. Before the rebellion was simply a way to stop the occupation of earth and would’ve been snuffed out if not for ruby’s actions.. but seeing garnet, seeing how earth and being free from homeworld’s restraints could positvely impact someone.. it changed rose. Besides bringing her and Pearl together, it also made her realize just what her rebellion could bring to people and what a gem could be and even more how precious her future home was. By forming in an act of Love, garnet changed the entire future of gemkind. By staying that way she did so once more. And that’s beautifully. overall an underated, even by me, little masterwork with once again a damn fine message. We’ll get back to SU soon enough, as I plan to cover the series first full arc as we meet peridot, and see into the souls of our heroines. But first Pride isn’t over yet, and I have one last card on the table as we todd it up a bit with my first look at bojack horseman. Like this if you enjoyed it, comments subscirbe etc etc and don’t be afraid to comission a review for 3 bucks, and until we meet agian, later days.

#steven universe #garnet #ruby #sapphire #rupphire #pearl #rose quartz #pink diamond #blue diamond #the answer #fusion #review #lbtqia #lbtq+#lbtqa #pride month #pride #reviews

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maih-em · 4 years

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Endeavour Fandom Meme tagged by @bryndeavour and @petersjakes thank u!

Top 5 Episodes

Pilot will always have a special place in my heart. Fugue is just Very Good and one that I’ll often turn to if I want to watch an episode. Nocturne – idk why this one’s on the list but I just really like it? I can’t really pinpoint any particular reason but I really vibe with the aesthetic. Canticle is great for so many reasons it has a good aesthetic and I love nick wilding. Deguello is just so satisfying??? As a conclusion not only to the whole of series 6 but series 5 as well, it really gets me – all of them coming together at the end after drifting apart in various directions all series? THAT’S exactly what I want TV to make me feel.

And also, Icarus needs a shoutout for being the only piece of TV that’s ever made me properly cry. Like I was sobbing for at LEAST half an hour props to Russell Lewis for making me feel An Emotion. & Neverland because I love it but I can’t rewatch it bc it’s too stressful

EDIT: idk why i immediately discounted neverland & icarus from the list for being to sad? like yeah i’d die if i rewatched it but neverland is great and the peter jakes character development is Important

Seasons in Order of Preference (or tops)

S3, S1, S4, S6, S5, S2, S7. This was so hard to do bc I like all of them? Like I don’t hate S2 AT ALL, but I just couldn’t put it in front of S5&6 because they have such good underlying plot. S3 and S1 have the most episodes that I gravitate to, and S4 idk it has great vibes although Harvest is a really unsatisfying ending. And I don’t specifically dislike S7, but the individual episodes are too intertwined to enjoy them individually which is something I prefer in a series. Also, it’s way too stressful.

Favourite Scene(s)

100% the end of Deguello as I said above. And Arcadia with Morse and Jakes in the mineshaft. Also in S6 when Box is being a dick to Joan and then Thursday comes up and introduces her as his daughter and Box shits bricks -- POETIC CINEMA.

EDIT: also i’ve just remembered when box is parked on a double yellow and trewlove says they’re going to stand out like a couple of spare pricks and george just smILES AT HER hhhhh

I have to say for bisexual reasons: the kiss scene at the end of Raga is just *chef’s kiss* and also Morse and Nick in Canticle in the enchanted place or whatever it was called and the almost-kiss in the pilot with Rosalind calloway.

Favourite Musical Piece or Moment

I have to say Jennifer Sometimes because it genuinely SLAPS. Like I have it on my Spotify for actual non-endeavour-related reasons, it’s just such a tune.

Also, the theme tune. It makes me FEEL THINGS. And I associate it with all the emotions I feel at the end of an episode because obvs it comes in at the end, so I feel like everything I feel about the show as a whole is tied up in that music???

Favourite Cinematography/Imagery (season, ep, whatever)

Anything that’s sunny and summery – immediately what comes to mind is Canticle, Arcadia and Harvest. I’m probably slightly misremembering them but in my head they’re just warm and golden and lens flares and sunshine the vibes are just immaculate.

Favourite Ensemble Character that isn't Morse

You mean I have to CHOOSE?? I have to say Peter Jakes but that’s mainly because I write him so often I think. Like I absolutely ADORE him but mainly the version of him in fanfics. If I took jakes out of the equation, I’d pick either Frazil or Bright? Bright just has such good vibes and especially in s6&7 and Frazil is an ICON.

Favourite One-episode Character

Automatically I want to say nick wilding but that’s 95% just because he’s really fucking fit. I quite like the vicar in Girl and also Anthony Donn (but only because I love Sam Barnett)

Favourite Morse Look (season, ep, whatever)

S3 is my favourite hair because it’s messier. In terms of a whole look either his red jumper in Ride or any of the casual decorating outfits he wears in S7. And the uniform in S6.

Biggest Disappointment

This is a common opinion but all the women are treated like shit and I don’t vibe with it. I was starting to plan a fic recently and I made a list of characters who don’t get a super big role in the show who I wanted to specifically use more because I love them and then I realised literally all of them are women? Yikes. Joan is treated like shit, Monica is treated like shit, Frazil is an icon but 90% of her interactions are just to further Morse’s development, Violetta again is only there for the sake of Morse, and Trewlove is side-lined so much too (I read in an interview somewhere that Dakota blue Richards actually had to press at some points to get Trewlove a more valuable role in the plot so I don’t even want to know how invisible they made her in the original script).

Also, it could be gayer. Like that’s just bc I’m gay, but I just want some rep that’s more than 2 or 3 off-screen gays/lesbians. I get it’s the 60s, but other shows manage it it’s not that hard to make one (1) rounded LGBT character in a loving relationship.

Provide some Spicy Takes (on canon, fandom, anything)

This is not spicy at ALL, but I love how shippable literally any character is. Morse and someone he met briefly in one episode? Yep. Two people who would completely hate each other in the canon? Go for it. Two characters who’ve never met? Sure why not? Morse has absolutely slept with all of his friends.

Oh and Jim is the rat king.

Free Space! (Make up something - anything - you want to share or say)

Fancy and Box are boyfriends.

(I’m currently writing a camping trip fic for them which I’ll probs post today or tomorrow. Also Lewis Peek recently tweeted that he wants to dye his hair blue and now I’m so tempted to have Box dye George’s hair blue)

I’m going to tag @eau1636 @booking--it @parvasilvi @dragonslover98 @dangerously-human and anyone else who wants to!

#endeavour meme #endeavour #just me talking about stuff!

18 notes · View notes

mmmmalo · 5 years

Text

This is a (meandering, non-exhaustive) overview of Homestuck’s use of

by which I do not mean examples of psychological realism in a character’s words and deeds, but rather the various means by which characters’ psyches are expressed outside of themselves. I wish to elaborate on how thoughts, feelings, and desires may find expression in the environment, in the medium of the story itself, and in the form of other characters.

That’s perhaps a little vague, so here’s a ready example of what I mean: brainghost!Dirk. He talks with Jake, but since he is a construct of Jake’s mind, Jake is essentially talking to himself. Brainghost!Dirk is an alienated medium for voicing Jake’s own thoughts, irretrievably distorted through its intermingling with what Jake thinks/wishes Dirk would say (not unlike a puppet). I am claiming that this mode of characterization is not a unique to Jake; the blurring of inner and outer voices is omnipresent throughout the story.

Or, rephrased: what I hope to show is that a great deal of Homestuck is haunted with brain-ghosts, of one kind or other.

An early example of this kind of storytelling in science fiction would be the film Forbidden Planet (1956). The film contains a pair of conflicts which eventually reveal themselves to be one: the scientist Morbius wants some space explorers to get off his planet, and an immense monster (pictured above) appears during the night to attack the explorers. Morbius, it turns out, has been experimenting with a machine capable of turning thought into reality. So when Morbius sleeps, his dream of driving off the trespassers materializes in the form of beast that forcefully enacts the wish.

The beast is declared a “monster from the id”, the “id” being a concept borrowed from Freudian psychology, indicating the part of the mind responsible for the unfiltered generation of impulses, of urges. In the film, this passing mention of psychoanalysis precedes the revelation of Morbius’s link to the beast.

Homestuck hints towards its own mixing of thought and reality with a device similar to Morbius’s dream machine: Sburb.

A snapshot of Dave’s Sburb client (1519) shows that the final subprograms launched during the games installation make reference to terminology associated with Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud. The terms suggest that Sburb interacts with the ideas in the kids’ subconscious minds (archetypes) and brings symbolic representations of these ideas into conscious reality (manifests the ideas). The game alters the means by which reality is constructed. As with Forbidden Planet, a major result of this is id monsters.

When John slips on a staircase, he flips out (left, 560). And when he nearly launches himself into the abyss with the Pogo Hammer, he has to take a nap before he has calmed down enough to continue (center, 637). Immediately following both moments of vertigo, massive ogres appear. The eventual fight with the ogres begins after John looks over the edge of the platform above his house, into the abyss (right, 662).

All of this suggests that Sburb is reacting to John’s emotional state (fear) to produce in-game content. The game functions as a waking dream.

It should also be noted that Sburb provokes the reactions it elicits. Karkat once mentioned a nagging feeling that the game was mocking him by giving him a planet covered in the candy red blood he had spent a lifetime attempting to hide (2301). Karkat’s paranoia seems to be correct here, and moreover applicable to the cast in general -- John’s house was likely placed atop an immense spire /in order to/ bring John’s dread of falling into sharp relief. The suspicion can be substantiated with a few related motifs.

The story provides two likely origins for John’s fear of heights: his own fall from the slime pogo as a child (2626) and the death of Nanna, which John believed resulted from her falling from a ladder and being crushed by a book (52). What’s more, Sburb’s invocation of the Fall of Man (Adam and Eve being cast from the Garden of Eden) via biting into an apple hints that there is an allegorical significance to John’s more literal fear of heights.

We can apply these patterns to other characters in an attempt to learn more about them. LOLAR being covered in ocean suggests that Rose is afraid of water, with the likely cause of Rose finding Jaspers dead and washed up on a riverbank (presumed drowned). Dave speaks openly about how his sword fights with Bro left him anxious of metal sounds (7749), meaning the grinding gears of LOHAC were a personalized hell for Dave. Jade’s first imp manifests in response to the sight of a yellow aurora (2998), inviting the reader to investigate why that image invokes a fear response.

But we won’t get to into all of that, not for now at least. Let’s take a step back.

For my reading of the imps as manifestations I’ve been leaning heavily on a piece of film theory devoted to the effects of sequential images. The sequence above constitutes two observations. One, that by this arrangement the viewer will infer the old man sees and reacts to the middle figure. Two, that the viewer’s impression of the old man will change based on the content of the central image, even if his expression is the same. Is he smiling at Nepeta or warm embrace Marvus’s armpit? The answer may influence your interpretation of the little smile.

The neat thing about montage is that the interrupting frame need not bear any obvious relation to what precedes or follows in order to be subject to a causal reading. Moments that occur sequentially can be read as triggering one another, even if what follows any particular moment appears to be a break rather than a continuation.

Example: There’s a moment where Aranea walks into Jake’s dream, and brainghost!Dirk immediately starts razzing Jake about his attraction to the alien girl and threatening to give him a boner. The scene is interrupted by Jack committing a series of gratuitous murders. We then cut back to Jake, and bg!Dirk is now teasing him about his dirty thoughts.

DIRK: You have got to be kidding. Did you seriously just think something THAT dirty? DIRK: You must be doing this on purpose to spite me now. I mean, just wow dude. That was x-rated as fuck.

JAKE: (No no stop. See youre talking about it and now i cant help it!) JAKE: (You are psyching me into having dirty thoughts get fucking lost you interloping brain douche!!!)

DIRK: Don't worry, I'm gone. It's like a goddamn peep show in here and I feel like a sleazy piece of shit watching this from a dark corner of your mind. DIRK: You have a graphic imagination, English. I'm kind of impressed.

JAKE: (Shut up theyre just thoughts its not even like im trying to have them THEY DONT MEAN ANYTHING!)

The ostensible joke is that bg!Dirk is exaggerating or outright fabricating his account of Jake’s thoughts in order to hassle him. But by way of montage, one can infer that we /have/ seen Jake’s dirty thoughts, in the form of Jack’s display of overwhelming bloodlust. Violence is superimposed over the sexually explicit.

Whether the scene literally takes place in Jake’s mind is secondary (though such a reading would explain why Jake’s brain ghost is even aware of Jack) -- the use of montage allows Jack’s actions to function as a /metaphor/ for Jake’s thought.

Another example of Jack functioning as a murderous/libidinous avatar would be the death of Mom and Dad. At their little tea party, Dad spills some wine on Mom’s clothes and declares that she must disrobe immediately (so that Dad might launder the garment). Mom calls the aromas wafting from his pipe sensuous. The two clasp hands and declare that all they need is eachother. Then they die! The joke is that while Bec Noir is ostensibly an interruption to date night, he also functions as its culmination, with murder acting as substitute for the sex act.

The link between violence and sexuality is perhaps a hard sell, but I hope to convince you that the reading holds merit. Let me emphasize that the very act of Mom and Dad holding hands was itself sexually loaded.

I owe to HS liveblogger elfstuck the insight that John’s linear 3 card sylladex is a reflection of his short attention span. Consider how John’s role as a game character means he is thrown all around his room, back and forth, as the player figures out what to make of the situation. If you ignore the fourth wall, you’re left with an extremely distracted person, who attention flows easily from one object to another. Accepting the object-in, object-out nature of John’s sylladex and the resulting shenanigans as a metaphor for this, it would follow that the sylladex in general can offer an abstract representation of thought.

In passing, I can mention how the enormity of Jake’s sylladex (it cannot even fit on the page, and contains an object that exceed most players’ size limits) would imply that despite evidence to the contrary, the boy likely has a big brain (and perhaps its being offscreen suggests Jakes own unawareness of much of his own thought). Dirk’s comment about avoiding items that are difficult to shoehorn into his mnemonic schema (4535) could be read as a difficulty maintaining information that doesn’t fit into his personal mental models. The sylladex becomes a metaphor for the mind that requires interpretation.

Under this mode of thought, the moments when Jade’s pictionary modus fails to correctly interpret her drawing become akin to a mental slip-of-the-tongue. For the Tanglebuddies to be misread as enmeshed hands implies an association, in Jade’s mind, of horny Squiddles and clasped hands. John affirms the association much later by miming Tanglebuddies as he attempts to grapple with the question of whether Jade and Davesprite are sexually compatible (5294):

JOHN: how do things even work if you marry a sprite?

JADE: what do you mean

JOHN: i mean... JOHN: ok, he has a ghost butt, for one thing.

JADE: uh JADE: so

JOHN: a GHOST BUTT, jade!

JADE: SO WHAT IF HE HAS A GHOST BUTT!!!!!

JOHN: i'm just saying...

JADE: WHATEVER YOURE JUST SAYING, JUST STOP SAYING IT! JADE: and whatever youre trying to gesture with your hands there, stop doing that too!

It should also be noted that before launching into her “daring dream”, waxing poetic on the miraculous union of the human and the animal with her hands clasped in wonder, Jade successfully captchalogued the Tanglebuddies (796). And more to the point, Jade’s pose in reproduced during discussions of cherub (5961) and leprechaun (6007) reproduction. Hand-holding becomes representative of an (oft-sexualized) union, underlining the euphemistic nature of Mom and Dad’s post-contact demise.

The next example of using montage to communicate thought requires a little more buildup.

There’s a gag in Rose’s introduction where the reader tells Rose to play with her writing journals, and scoots the journals under the bed and retorts that she would only do that if no one were watching (220). At first glance, the moment scans as a minor meta joke in a story filled with meta jokes -- but the trick is that Rose does not /know/ herself to be a video game character, her every movement controlled and observed. Rather, she /believes/ this to be true -- the joke about being watched establishes that Rose is paranoid, as will become apparent in the hostility she assigns to Mom’s every action.

The command prompt and narration are themselves brain ghosts of a sort: the voice deployed in them is always linked to the present point-of-view character. The insults that precede character introductions ( “Zoosmell Pooplord”, etc) become marks of anxiety, an intrusive proclamation of what the kids at times think of themselves (and/or what they think others think of them). “Nice time management skills, sweetheart!” becomes a bit of self-deprecation Rose as she procrastinates, which Rose experiences as having been voiced by some objective observer who judges her deficiencies.

A blurred line divides characters from the voice at the back of their head, belonging to the (presumed) omniscient, omnipotent author-god. This is why avatar!Hussie is dressed as Calliope when he is killed by Lord English. Both Calliope and Hussie are a voice in Caliborn’s head, and thus both present apparent obstacles to an unmediated self.

The left panel (3219) foreshadows the right (3358). Gamzee is not being declared the objectively most important character in Homestuck. Rather, Gamzee is declaring himself /to have been declared/ the most important character in the story. The line establishes that Gamzee believes himself to be in a story (with an author!) and that this author has declared him paramount. Furthermore, “fondly regarding creation” is an modus operandi of Problem Sleuth’s Godhead Pickle Inspector. Applying that turn of phrase to Gamzee’s actions further establishes that Gamzee believes himself to /be/ the god-author declaring his own importance. So it should come as no surprise that 137 pages later, Gamzee outright proclaims himself to be the god(s) he worships.

Going back to montage, it becomes interesting that this snapshot of Gamzee’s megalomania is inter-cut with the creation of Jadesprite -- the moment that dead!dream!Jade merges with Bec, forming a unity with a deity not unlike the unity Gamzee claims with his mirthful messiahs. The interweaving would suggest that Jade and/or Jadesprite experienced analogous thoughts of megalomania upon the moment of ascension.

This would be a good point to mention that not only imps and ogres, but trolls also function as manifestations for the people they impose upon. Karkat is not only an interruption here, but also a continuation. He points out that Jade’s self-loathing, that she cannot safely distance herself from the qualities of Jadesprite she finds distasteful. This is precisely why Karkat ends the conversation by telling Jade to turn off the fourth wall (which divides the self!), as well as the reason he imagines Jade making out with herself: Karkat is on every front presenting the prospect of union with oneself.

The notion of trolls as manifestations first emerges clearly when Rose and Dave receive their packages from John. As they finish reading John’s letter, each is suddenly contacted by a troll and greeted with the command “Answer.” Critically, by word alone it is ambiguous as to whether the command refers to answering the troll or the letter. And as it turns out, these answer occur simultaneously: Rose and Dave’s responses to the letters are embedded in the subsequent conversations.

Rose receives a letter poking fun at her pretensions, claiming that her attempts to hide her affections for people are futile. In response we get Kanaya, who imperiously proclaims her disdain for Rose, only to suddenly change tact and explicitly seek Rose’s friendship, an entreaty which the oft paranoid Rose accepts. Dave receives a letter imploring him to let go of his insecurities and express himself. In response we get Tavros, the very picture of insecurity, who is fixated on the idea of making Dave shit himself (as part of an ‘emotional constipation’ motif that follows Dave). And Dave complies, in a sense, by way of the quasi-ironic gay treatise that compels Tavros to block him. Each conversation addresses the issues laid out in John’s letter.

Examples can be found throughout the comic. Equius remarking that he talks to Gamzee every day (2220) establishes that Gamzee is regularly haunted by the thoughts of domination that Equius voices -- both in the literal and metaphorical sense. Erisolsprite referring to Dirk as a rock 2oliid piiece of a22 and then calling himself 2ociiopathiic for even thinking something so callous (5516) expresses a conflict already present in Jake’s own mind, echoing the frustration with his own dirty thoughts expressed by the argument with brainghost!Dirk. Feferi’s pronounced enthusiasm for the imminent apocalypse should cause you to question Kanaya’s seemingly neutral resignation towards the end of the world, since Feferi manifests for Kanaya (2328). And so on.

The person being trolled is always being confronted with thoughts or feelings or memories already present within themself. Alien contact always doubles as a brain ghost haunting.

Another example, with some buildup: Karkat invokes the phrase “PERFORATE MY BONE BULGE WITH A CULLING FORK” to express his contempt for Vriska, and on subsequent pages we see Feferi pointing her culling fork at a cuttlefish (2181), as if to suggest that the creature symbolizes the bone bulge. Fast forward to Kanaya, who has just gotten through a conversation with Vriska and finds herself haunted by Eridan, who keeps going on about his romantic desperations and insisting (correctly) that Kanaya’s crush on Vriska is itself romantic. That his notification erupts from an image of cuttlefish held at Kanaya’s waist adds to the air of yearning, as though her own bulge is rumbling. The scene is capped off with a double entendre: “its hard and nobody understands” is playfully poignant jab at an inability to understand one’s own desires (among other things).

And Homestuck devotes a lot of attention to desire.

It’s long been acknowledged by the fandom at large that Kanaya’s attraction to Light players functions as a joke on the proverbial moth-to-the-flame. As reconciliation with the fire destroys the moth, there’s a morbid tinge to the attraction, as though it doubles as a death wish. And the wish is granted -- when Kanaya dies in Homestuck, she dies to light, either from Eridan’s wand or the laser blasts unleashed by HIC. Even the death of Kanaya’s lusus pertains to light -- the matriorb ripped from her innards is shaped like a miniature sun, as if to establish some loose link between the notion of motherhood and the incandescence Kanaya eventually achieves.

This can be generalized into a principle wherein lusii (and the circumstances of their deaths!) can functions as analogies for the desire of the wards.

Vriska, for example, desires execution. When offering Terezi a flimsy apology for crippling Tavros and proxy-murdering Aradia, Vriska offers to slam her head against her desk in penitence. This moment should be read against Vriska’s addiction to breaking 8 balls, and leaving the broken shards lying around as though she’s inviting the “bad luck” of stepping on them. It /is/ an invitation. Vriska seeks love via violent retribution against herself. This is why in the right panel, Vriska’s blood-spattered head is juxtaposed with a broken 8 ball: the blood came from Spidermom’s execution (which characterizes Vriska’s desire), and motif of 8R8K H34DS connects the moment to Vriska’s idea of apology.

Like Kanaya, Vriska (to a degree) seems to structure her love life along these lines. In the words of @azdoine:

like ppl are actually out here writing Vriska as the top as if her entire Act 5 character arc isn’t about bratting out until Terezi has no choice but to punish her

“oh noo, I, the thief of light, stole all of your luck, and made the coin land on the scratched side! now you have to kill me! but I’m probably going to get away with everything, because you don’t have the guts to stab me with that sword of yours!!!!!!!! if only there was somebody, like you, who could prove me wrong!”

EXTREMELY SUBTLE THERE, VRISKA

Vriska’s approach to wooing Tavros also revolves around baiting execution:

The scene: Tavros leads a horde of imps and ogres into a mystery cave, the top of which is adorned with kissing lizards and an alchemical symbol. Tavros is putting a puzzle of a frog together, but Vriska has already pieced together the puzzle: making a frog universe is, in part, a cipher for personal reproduction. The Ultimate Alchemy is making a baby! And as Vriska says, “real gamers cut to the chase. They power through all the nonsense and go for the gold.” So she brings Tavros to LOMAT and makes the moves on him.

Tavros is equated to a treasure chest by the repeated use of framing and Vriska is GOING FOR THE GOLD, like a WINNER. Tavros later reaches into the same chest for his lance before heading off to attempt to kill Vriska -- affirming that the treasure Vriska seeks here is Tavros’s “lance”.

This setup was suggested by the conversation accompanying the kissing salamanders: Vriska gives Tavros a map with a big red X, saying he should take his legion of imps through the gate and go defeat his denizen. The gate actually leads to Vriska, but she isn’t lying. She is positioning herself to be Tavros’s final boss. The imps are manifestations of Tavros’s pent up rage (much of which was generated by Vriska’s harassment), and Vriska wants Tavros to take that anger out on her. Hence the later panel which uses Vriska’s boots to place a big red X directly over her groin, making explicit the implicit goal of Tavros’s trip to the windmill X-gate.

This pursuit of love through violent comeuppance may have something to do with Vriska’s bitter disappointment that ghost!Aradia did not seem to hate her.

An intermission/introduction of sorts, as we bridge from one discussion of desire to another: did you know that Michael Bay’s Armageddon (1998) structures itself in part around Freud’s Oedipus complex? I say this in total sincerity.

The plot: a meteor the size of Texas bears down upon the Earth, threatening armageddon. Luckily, a crew of rough-and-tumble oil drillers are ready to fly into space and split that mother in two. Oh HELL yeah.

Except, wait, the movie’s actually about family drama: Bruce Willis finds Ben Affleck sleeping with his daughter Liv Tyler; Willis proceeds to chase Affleck around the oil rig with a shotgun, bang bang bang. Not Allowed. The Protective-Father-Hates-Your-Boyfriend dynamic is presented as an Oedipal triad of sorts: although Tyler is not literally Affleck’s mother, she performs the mom-function of “forbidden object of desire” -- and Willis opening fire is equivalent to the castration said to await trespassers onto maternal soil.

The above reading is buttressed by jokes: Armageddon appears to function within an implicit dream machine, such that the characters’ thoughts and fears can become manifest in their environment. So when it comes to pass that whenever Affleck climbs into a hole (heehee), a pipe breaks (hoohoo), and suddenly everything goes boom, I read that as Affleck reliving the consequences of boning Tyler, packaged in such a way that the Freudian fear of castration is more explicit. (The relevance of Oedipus to the proceedings adds some humor to Steve Buscemi declaring the entire disastrous situation a “Greek tragedy”)

At any rate, after some shenanigans, Willis comes to accept Affleck’s claim to his daughter and confers the deed, as it were. Willis gives the young couple his blessing and they get married. Hooray!

Except, wait, the movie’s actually about the perpetuation of the oil industry: the dream machine was declared at the beginning of the movie when a petty street-side argument triggered the first barrage of meteors. The meteor the size of Texas (aka Dotty) is triggered by conflicts that haunt the central cast -- namely Willis, who enters the film hitting golf balls at a Green Peace boat. On a metaphorical level, Dotty is a golf ball the size of Texas, striking directly at the Earth instead its self-declared representatives. There’s a certain irony here: the film lampshades that the men who are destroying the world have been tasked with saving it.

The family drama folds into the environmentalist angle: Liv Tyler is a symbol of the earth (which gets drilled). This is the joke when Affleck is bouncing animal crackers around on her belly like she’s host to the Savannah: she kind of is! It’s no coincidence that Willis confers ownership of the oil rig at the same moment that he offers his daughter’s hand in marriage: the motifs are being discussed simultaneously.

But enough of all of that: back to Homestuck.

Armageddon’s simultaneous casting of Liv Tyler into the roles of earth and mother offers a glimpse at the interpretive possibilities made available by Hussie’s statement that Homestuck is in a way a synonym for Earthbound (an RPG in which “homesickness” is a status ailment which can be cured by calling your mom). Stuckness or boundness can be deployed to communicate a sense of longing for “home”.

A good chunk of Homestuck is built upon feelings of nostalgia, taken to mean a sort of intense separation anxiety with the past. John speaks about this when he watches Con Air with Jade – John wants the movie to feel like it did when he watched it with his Dad long ago, but the feeling from when he was a kid is gone. This upsets him. Moreover, John’s freakout starts at the moment Cyrus puts a gun to the bunny’s head (5286): Con Air itself is partly about Nic Cage trying to return to the life he lost when he went to jail, and ‘putting the bunny back in the box’ is a metaphor for the attempt. Cyrus, in threatening the bunny, is highlighting his role as a force preventing things from going back to how they were. Thus, if we are to believe that John is responding to the movie thematically, Cyrus confronts John with his own inability to go back to a happier past – his inability to go home -- and this recognition is met with anger.

In making the leap to the psychoanalytic motifs, it helps to recall the part where baby!Dirk responds to being born by cracking open his ectotube and crawling back inside. Dirk, who aspires towards his “ultimate self”, illustrates here that he envisions his ascension as a return to the ‘essence’ of Dirk from which he (and all other iterations of himself) arose, as represented by the ectoslime. Baby!Dirk gestures at unity with his ectoslime/essence by crawling back into the place from which he was born, which I’m basically claiming is a “return to the womb” on a symbolic level, or at least that this is a useful parallel to draw. (A related motif to think about: Dirk decapitates himself by sticking his head inside a box, which as per Con Air symbolizes the place you wish to return to)

[Hella Jeff sez: “i took (my pants) off because i was banging your mom for a minute there..... AND NOW YOU ARE BANGING HER”]

Castration becomes unavoidable as you try to relate all of this to Dave, whose occasional references to banging hot moms are part of an ongoing reference to the Oedipus Complex. Critically, the complex is not /just/ about wanting to bone your mom, but also fear that your dad will chop your junk off if you do. The breaking of Dave’s sword on the rooftop is a realization of this fear (yes, we’re doing the “swords are phallic” thing). But Dave has no mom that he knows of, so what gives?

The answer is in the way Bro inexplicably breaks the record emblem on Dave’s t-shirt, as though he has introduced a fissure into Dave’s very identity. Life with Bro has made it very difficult for Dave to be honest with himself, which is to say, Dave pictures Bro’s abuse as having divided him from an ideal “true self”, which can feel emotions without all the anxious ironic detachment. I mentioned before that seeking unity with that from which you came is a “return to the womb”. This is the sense in which the Oedipal mom attraction becomes relevant: the return to the past is sexualized. The ‘home’ Dave wishes to return to is /himself/, and in this sense Dave is his own hot mom (which is related to how often Dave compliments his own looks, as well as the above gif suggesting Dave’s boner – he is literally/metaphorically “attracted” to himself).

(Incidentally: this model of desire, in which a broken subject attempt to become whole again by seeking out its lost half, is basically the concept of the soulmate, as laid out by Plato. Cherub reproduction turns the metaphysical pursuit of one’s lost half into a plot-level objective)

John’s entry item (apple) was linked to fear embodied in a childhood trauma (the Fall), and the same can be said of Dave. Hatching from the shell that contained your primordial goop (Dirk) is analogous to being violently separated from yourself (Dave), which is why Dave’s entry item (an egg) hatching coincided with Bro slicing the meteor in half: the abuse that divided Dave from himself, his “castration” by Bro, is simultaneously the “birth” that separated Dave from his “mother” (which is also Dave).

The general idea is that birth = self-alienation = castration, insofar as all are depicted as modes of being separated from oneself.

The broad motif of ‘being separated from oneself’ can be very useful for identifying brain ghosts in unexpected places. Take for example, Roxy’s fenestrated planes: when they are introduced the narrative is quick to tell us that if someone were caught half in/out of one of the windows when the power cuts out, they would be sliced in half. By the rule of Chekhov’s gun, this introduction should mean we should eventually see someone get gorily bisected by the window, but alas we never do.

Instead, when Gcat warped the panel away, trapping Roxy between the windows, we were shown the image of a bisected horse puppet in Dirk’s apartment, This signals that Chekhov’s gun has indeed gone off. But rather than splitting a body, it split a soul: Meenah’s introduction follows the sequence because Roxy has generated a shadow of herself, a doppelganger. This is not without precedent: an earlier portion of this post was devoted to exploring the fourth wall as a mode of self-alienation. Roxy’s panel mishap can be considered part of that pattern.

If Meenah functions as an extension of Roxy, all of her actions can be read as bearing some relations to Roxy’s own latent thoughts and desires. Prior to the epilogues, for example, Meenah imploring John not to give her the ring seemed to be yet another Fuck You to the late Chekov: the issue never comes up again. But a psychic link between Meenah and Roxy would suggest that John broke his promise to Meenah by giving the ring to Roxy, and that whatever motivations compelled Meenah to make her request in the first place would also apply to Roxy.

Decapitation is yet another mode of self-alienation, and thus can be construed as a mode of birth. Hence the image of Lil Sebastian hatching from his shell of taxidermied man meat. That’s a motif unto itself, but what I wish to call attention to is the match-cut from John’s broke body to Jake’s broken tower. The juxtaposition collapses the images into metaphor, such that Jake’s loose dome in the woods becomes a decapitated head -- an appropriate addition to the pumpkin patch it rests in, given all the Headless Horseman jokes. We can look to Dirk for for another example of a headless horse-man of the house echoing the head: for a guy who idealizes decapitation to such a degree, it is striking that Sburb aims to provoke him by reattaching his beheaded apartment to its underlying units.

Houses act as metaphors for heads, then “Homestuck” could also interpreted as “head trapped” -- like the title emphasizes confinement within one’s own mind. Such a reading offers up Failure to Launch and Arrested Development (posters on John and Jane’s walls) as alternate synonyms for Homestuck, as each satirizes (or outright mocks) potential failure states in the process of inter-personal and mental development (ie “growing up”). Like Earthbound, both lean on a sense of homesickness in characterizing despondency, as though characters are haunted by the needs that defined their childhood -- or else find themselves needing that childhood itself.

But collapsing nostalgia into infantile regression is far from the only way to approach the house/heads equation. One might read the transformation and growth of houses with Sburb as metaphors for expanding the mind. One might infer that the choreography of events within houses can map out thoughts like dancing bees. One might take the metaphor as a foothold for interpreting the significance of the Sburb logo being at once a house and a window. \I have my own thoughts about Homestuck’s brain-ghost haunted house-minds, but for now, I only hope that this document has raised some interesting questions -- and ideally, that the interpretive approaches I’ve described might be useful in seeking answers.

#homestuck #homestuck meta #this is basically the contents of the stream #movies #john #rose #dave #jade #jake #dirk #roxy #gamzee #vriska #4th wall #psychoanalysis #house as head #plato

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bunnymcbunnister · 5 years

Text

SPN Season 15 Spoiler Sheet, update 11/18

Some updates including an ep 7 description, some guesses on the writer/director for 12, and some vague filming info for 11. I feel unsure about Misha’s status in eps 9-11, so if anyone knows differently, let me know. Might have to wait for episode descriptions on that. Also, I added in some guesses on airdates based on this post, but they are not for certain. And no photos for 6 yet, but they will likely post 30 seconds after I post this.

DISCLAIMER: This is gathered info from various sources. This is not confirmed information. Stuff in this WILL be wrong. Don’t take this too seriously. This is for fun.

General Info (oldest to newest)

There is hope to wrap up some Wayward Daughters storylines in the back half of the season

They are adding a whole extra day to filming to do the final scene. They will film the final scene last. (Implies logistics- lots of returning people?)

Brad Bucker used the word “romance” when asked about Sam and Dean’s arcs. Did not specify who.

In an interview, Kripe indicated that the series ending would have “peace” for Sam and Dean

Not much new at the TCA’s, but it was said it is “unlikely” Jeffery Dean Morgan will be back since his last appearance was such a good end note. There were some jokes about a Castiel spin off. Hell, I’d watch.

There will be a special tribute ep, not clear if its one of the 20 or additional

Misha will be in 15 out of 20 episodes this season

According to Dabb, Sam and Dean are going to start to lose people who, in past seasons, we would’ve never lost — and lose them in a very real way. Our guys are going to realize there’s a certain finality, and some of the things they’ve relied on to get through the day — people, talents, things like that — they are no longer going to be able to roll out. And that’s going to throw them for a loop

Also according to Dabb, Jack is still in the empty and “he’s not coming back in the near future”

Cas’ deal with the Empty may come up later in the season.

Dabb intimated that Chuck was inherently responsible for killing Mary when asked how the boys would respond to Jack.

Adam Rose, who played Aaron Bass from the golem episode vauge-tweeted about working a show with two badass leads. Could be Supernatural, but I think the timing is off- he indicated he was filming late Friday night.

Dabb compared Chuck and John Winchester, claiming that Dean would have to break free of “conditioning.” Also, for Jack “there have been cosmic forces fighting for his attention since he was in the womb — and that will continue. As much as this season is about Sam and Dean finding agency, it’s also about Castiel finding agency, and it’s about Jack finding agency. As always, death is never the end. It’s just part of the journey and that’s certainly true with Jack.”

Per Variety: At the outset of the season, the “Supernatural” foursome of Dean, Sam, Castiel and Jack are split up, but Dabb notes they won’t be for long because “ultimately this is a found family, and they have deep emotional bonds” that make up the most important part of the show.

Sam’s wound from the equalizer gives his powers/an advantage of some kind (per TVGuide)

Jack will be a critical part of the ending of the show

The cage/Adam is looking like it will be coming up for midseason

Shaving People, Punting Things: https://youtu.be/azTwku2uosA

The shaving promo, punting things promo shows glimpses or Lucifer!Sam and MOC!Dean, as well as bearded Dean in tactical equipment. Recent interviews by Dabb seem to indicate that these are glimpses into other universes, a la Apocalypse World, and other endings from Sam and Dean.

According to the MarySue and other interviews, Sam’s bullet hole will give him a connection and insight to god- like a tin can telephone string.

In the cage, Micheal and Adam have formed a working relationship (MarySue)

Dean and Amara’s connection will be explored

There will be a bunker themed episode (MarySue)

According to Misha (Cinablend) Dean and Cas will have discord up to ep 8- which is the mid-season finale.

At a convention, Jake Abel was asked to share two lies about Adam’s return and a truth. The said 1. Adam is not upset about hell 2. Adam kills someone 3. Adam bring someone back. I am assuming its the bring someone back (Micheal?)

In one of his cookbook interviews, Misha used the word “we” several times when talking about the final scene of Supernatural. He said that would be the last scene they shoot. It seemed to imply that he was in the scene, but that could be open to interpretation.

The finale will air on Monday May 18th. The show will move to Mondays when it comes back on March 16th. It’s gotta come back either than that and go on a mini break or something, because that is not enough Mondays.

Episode 15x06

Title: Golden Time

OFFICIAL SYNOPSIS: OUT OF DIFFICULTIES GROW MIRACLES – Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean (Jensen Ackles) are visited by an old friend. Castiel (Misha Collins) investigates the disappearance of a local teen. John Showalter directed the episode written by Meredith Glynn (#1506). Original Airdate 11/21/2019.

Written by: Meredith Glynn

Director: Showalter

Filming Dates: 9/16-9/25

Airdate: 11/21

Photos: https://ew.com/tv/supernatural-season-15-episodic-photos/

Promo: https://youtu.be/xAD_k5l1AdA

Sneak Peak:

Castiel? Yes Jack? No

Guest stars:

Other Spoilers/info:

Misha tweeted from set in costume, so Cas.

Misha also tweeted a pic in blood spatter with two bullet holes in his shirt

At least Jensen and Jared filmed in Rowena’s apartment

This will be a witch episode- Witches will invade Rowena’s apartment looking for books. They are very powerful. Dean gets thrown into a wall and Sam uses magic to stop them (from TVGuide)

Looks like Eileen in the promo!

Episode 15x07

Title: Last Call

OFFICIAL SYNOPSIS: CLOSING TIME – Dean (Jensen Ackles) goes off on his own to take on a case. Meanwhile, Castiel (Misha Collins) has an idea of how he can help Sam (Jared Padalecki) track down God. Amyn Kaderali directed the episode written by Jeremy Adams (#1507). Original Airdate 12/5/2019.

Written by: Jeremy Adams

Director: Amyn Kaderali

Filming Dates: 9/26- 10/7

Airdate: Dec 5th

Photos:

Promo:

Sneak Peak:

Castiel ? Yes Jack ?

Guest stars:

Other Spoilers/info :

Misha posted from set in new shoes- very shiny with well tailored pants. (The next day he posted in full Cas costume, so are the shoes a one off? Another outfit with new shoes?).

Misha and Jensen made a video from set. I feel like if Jared was around he would have been in it since it was about money raised? Maybe a Dean Cas scene?

There will be a battle scene in this that Jensen mentioned he was looking forward to and we would enjoy.

After NJ Con, it appeared that Jensen returned to work, Jared and Misha stayed an extra day and then Misha went home. Misha only did about 2 days of filming.

Jensen and Christian filmed at a bar called Swazey’s. This was the fight scene Jensen was referring to.

At some point, Sam might be shirtless or we can see part of his chest- Jared had his anti-possession tattoo at the weekend convention.

Per TVGuide, Leo and Dean will have a wild night out in an effort for Dean to recapture his mojo. Dean will become the lead of a band called Dean and the Impalas, which is made up of Supernatural crew.

Osric Chau popped over to set, but he is filming on Legends of Tomorrow in the same studio. Sebastin Roche also indicated he would come by, he is filming on Batgirl. Unfortunately, neither Kevin or Balthazar will appear in this one.

Episode 15x08

Title: Our Father Who Aren’t in Heaven

OFFICIAL SYNOPSIS:

Written by: Buckleming

Director: Speight

Filming Dates: 10/8- 10/18 (no filming 10/14 for Canadian Thanksgiving)

Airdate: 12/12 (?)

Photos:

Promo:

Sneak Peak:

Castiel ? yes Jack ?

Guest stars: Jake Abel, Shoshannah Stern

Other Spoilers/info:

Jake Abel posted a script with the caption “hell hath no fury like a brother scorned”

Shoshannah Stern was spotted on set- Eileen!

This will be the midseason finale

At BurCon, Misha mentioned Dean is still acting like “a dick” in the ep they were filming- which is this one.

Episode 15x09

Title:

OFFICIAL SYNOPSIS:

Written by: Berens

Director: Singer

Filming Dates: 10/21-10/30

Airdate: 1/16??

Photos:

Promo:

Sneak Peak:

Castiel ? I can’t tell but maybe not Jack ? maybe

Guest stars: Rob Benedict, Kim Rhodes, Jim Beaver

Other Spoilers/info:

Midseason premier episode

Misha was at home for the first week of filming, and I think the second. I don’t think he is in this.

Alex and Rob were hanging out- Chuck and JACK?

Kim Rhodes posted in front of the SPN set and with her trailer- Jody looks very likely. She also had dyed hair and she has been rockin the grey for the past few Jody eps. Maybe a flashback/AU?

Jim Beaver posted from set- Bobby!

Jensen shared that in this episode, Dean will pray to Cas to “confess” why he has been treating Cas the way he has. Misha confirmed this in another interview and said tears would be shed- not sure who is doing the crying (besides me).

Episode 15x10

Title:

OFFICIAL SYNOPSIS:

Written by: Dabb

Director: Showalter

Filming Dates: 10/31- 11/12 (No filming for Veterans/Armistice Day)

Airdate: 1/23 ??

Photos:

Promo:

Sneak Peak:

Castiel ? Jack ?

Guest stars:

Other Spoilers/info :

Misha texted some local fans from set in costume about an WA election, but after the convention was promoting his cookbook all over the place. I think he filmed 2 days, max.

The story will be about Sam and Dean as heroes from the good and bad side (from MarySue)

At DCCon, Jensen shared that this a bit of a wacky episode- Sam and Dean lose their abilities to fight, Dean gets cavities and Sam gets a cold. Jensen later seemed to refer to this ep when talking to TVGuide- mentioning the Impala will get a flat.

Episode 15x11

Title:

OFFICIAL SYNOPSIS:

Written by: Davy Perez AND Meredith Glynn

Director: Beeson

Filming Dates: 11/13-11/22

Airdate: 1/30??

Photos:

Promo:

Sneak Peak:

Castiel ? Jack ?

Guest stars:

Other Spoilers/info:

Misha and Jensen made a video for a fan that I think was filmed during the first day of shooting? Not for sure. So maybe Cas?? I’d love the king of social media to post publicly in costume to know for sure.

Megan Fitzgerald (writer/showrunner’s assistant) and Emma Peterson (production office) were very excited about something in the dailies for this ep.

They filmed at a church and a park in Surry according to YRShoots.

Episode 15x12

Title:

OFFICIAL SYNOPSIS:

Written by: Bobo AND Glynn

Director: Speight

Filming Dates:

Airdate: 2/26??

Photos:

Promo:

Sneak Peak:

Castiel ? Jack ?

Guest stars:

Other Spoilers/info:

#spn spoilers #supernatural #spn season 15 #spoiler sheet

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naddfanblog · 5 years

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As promised, under the cut is my recap of the London show! It’s pretty dang long because I didn’t want to leave anything out, given that it probably won’t be posted. Also my memory might be a bit hazy, so anyone else who was there please feel free to correct me if I got a detail wrong!

It opened with everyone on the Stormborn, in between jobs and finding ways to pass the time. Hardwon and Bev were doing squats and Moonshine was trying to get her starspawn in the jar (jarspawn!) to fuck, but she only rolled a 13, leading to a great line from Murph: If you want worms to fuck, that’s strictly a 15 or above.

A bird flew up to Hardwon so naturally there was some riffing about Hardwon’s history with animals, and then the pattern held true because the bird exploded all over him, leaving behind a scroll. After an anticipatory pause, Murph read out the note as Ren inviting the crew to his birthday party, which had zero chance of working until Ren mentioned that he’d just keep sending bird messengers until they agreed to go, and that yes, they were real birds.

As soon as they got within range of Ren’s family’s island, however, the Stormborn started plummeting and crash landed. The crew ended up unconscious and separated, and woke up divested of all their equipment, depriving them of their weapons and their armor and thereby significantly lowering their AC (Emily and Jake: “Jesus, Murph, this is a live show.”). They also were all described as wearing collars emitting some kind of enfeebling arcane energy, prompting Emily to guess that Ren had brought them there to hunt them down. Murph got suspiciously quiet and it became immediately apparent that Emily had pretty much hit the nail on the head. Ren’s voice came over a megaphone and announced that for his birthday he wished to see poor people fight, so he had turned his island into a battle royale, with a million gold pieces to the person left standing. Any hint of insurrection would be punished with a hefty amount of psychic damage delivered through the collars.

We then got three brief scenes of each of the PCs coming to consciousness alone. When Hardwon woke up, he saw a balloon tied to a crate drifting nearby. He wanted to get it down, so Murph suggested he throw something, like a rock. Jake asked if he could throw a beetle instead so he could establish dominance in the jungle, baffling Murph, who nevertheless allowed it. So of course Hardwon then tied the beetle to a rock and threw it at the balloon, popping it and sending the crate (which held some rudimentary equipment) to the ground. Jake asked if Hardwon was now king of the beetles, to which Murph “yes and’ed” the idea and said the beetle that Hardwon had thrown had been the previous king beetle, and that the rest of the swarm were now sworn to Hardwon in fealty. After this, Hardwon heard the treacherous tee hee of a gnome and immediately went charging into the bushes to kill it, aided by his new beetle friends.

When Moonshine woke up, she heard a strange swishing noise in the bushes, which turned out to be the flying sword from the Nine Hells. Moonshine refused to fight it and instead polymorphed it into a worm (I believe after rolling a nat 20 - I think Murph made her roll because technically the sword is an item and not a creature), and put it the worm the jar. Murph rewarded this by saying that finally all the jarspawn were fucking.

Bev woke up (with 10 AC!) and heard a honey goblin trundling along nearby, holding a severed head. He tripped the goblin with mage hand, aided by his increased stealthiness due to him tactically rolling around in mud, and then beat the goblin to death with the head it was holding.

All three then heard Balnor in the distance screaming so they ran to catch up with him. The scene Murph described devolved into him helplessly laughing and trying to describe it in a way that didn’t sound kinky (and, not for the first or last time, accusing us of being too horny) but essentially Balnor had a whip wrapped around his collar by Rodian and some of the other bad dwarphans, who were also equipped with some of the crew’s items. Hardwon dispatched of the children very quickly, leading to jokes about how young and innocent they were, and the crew was able to retrieve some of their missing items from the unconscious teens.

My memory gets a little uncertain here, but I believe next Moonshine had a really good perception roll to see the crates with the rest of their stuff, and so they headed that way, whereupon they stumbled on Prendergreens hiding in the bushes with some ninja stars he got from a “loot crate”. It turned out he had been released from the gem when they fell to earth. He laboriously (and at points unintelligibly) explained his plan to retrieve the crates, which had become entangled with the hive of some Hell wasps, by throwing the ninja stars at the hive and making it fall on the wasps. Moonshine egged him on and to nobody’s surprise it failed, so they proceeded to fight the wasps. The biggest highlight of this fight was Moonshine summoning five wasps of her own to grapple the others, and so Emily and Murph had five “giant dice” roll offs at the front of the stage.

After beating the wasps and getting the rest of their stuff back, Hardwon’s beetles brought him a smashed up orb that had been functioning as a camera for Ren to watch the battles. Prendergreens recognized this as the work of someone he had met and who had kicked his ass after he tried to take them on. Apparently she was headed toward a giant tower, from which she thought she could take Ren down and stop the fighting.

Everyone headed to the tower and Prendergreens rushed in with his ninja stars, only to be crushed on the way up by a giant boulder that teleported back to the top of the tower when it hit the ground level. Moonshine pretended to give him a high five, but instead sucked him back into the gem so he couldn’t get more hurt. She then cast a spell that transformed the boulder into mud once it was back in view, but Hardwon had been standing by the doorway ready to hit it with his hammer, so he thought HE had pulverized it instead.

They climbed the tower to find a young girl (described by Murph as a YA-protagonist-emo teen) tied up by a hooded figure – a starspawn!! Everyone had very conflicted emotions about fighting it, and instead spent various turns either attacking it or trying to persuade it to embrace love and join the orgy going on in the jar, which Moonshine had thrown at him, releasing the worms and their pheromones.

It was, unfortunately, around this point that everyone’s mics went out except for Murph’s. They tried sharing it and huddling around it, which worked well enough, and we got a great moment of Jake refusing the mic to shout his killing blow on the starspawn, urging his beetles (whom he had earlier made perform a burlesque dance to entice the starspawn), to swarm it and fuck! fuck! fuck! The YA teen was released from her bonds and thanked the crew, but was weirded out by them all acting like she was coming on to them and refusing her “advances.”

I don’t remember the final bit super clearly because the ending came about pretty abruptly, presumably because of the technical issues. I believe what happened is that Murph described how from the tower they could see a yacht bobbing on the ocean around the island, and Moonshine created a whirlpool to suck it down, leaving Ren screaming and laughing his iconic laugh as Beverly misty stepped onto the boat and had a “that’s all folks” moment!

A few more highlights:

-Emily: You’re spicy today, Murph!! Murph, wiggling in his chair: I’m getting spicy in Lon-don!~

-Murph joked that Pawpaw had died in the crash, so Emily socked him in the arm

-SO many great cosplays!!! A particular shoutout has to go to the people who came as the dwarven daddies, complete with hot tub.

#naddpod #m #text

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