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atranioum · 7 months

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Sex Education Season 4 (an attempt to cope after witnessing the horror they call season 4)

this is a rant with full on spoilers so you've been warned.

back in 2019 when i first found out about sex education, i thought it was just your usual typical cringe-fest teenage drama with who the fuck cares love story. knowing that asa butterfield is the main lead it's kinda a given what kind of character he's gonna play (no hate to asa i love him and i think he showed a lot of range in this series but it's kinda obvious) and then finding out about maeve's character, i remember rolling my eyes and thinking welp if it isn't your usual rebel and nerd pairing and then proceed to not give two fucks about this show. but then there's this one time when i just needed something to watch and after season 2 dropped, videos of maeve and otis kept popping up on my youtube recommendation, so finally i decided to give it a shot, and just in one episode they proved me wrong big time.

sex education is honestly a series none like any other, even until today i don't think i've watched any series that's even remotely close to sex education, in terms of what they bring and the way they presented it (season 1 to be precise aka goat season), it's very vibrant, it's somewhat stereotypical and yet it defies it too at the same time (idk how else to describe this), it's like you expect certain things about a certain character and it turns out they're completely the opposite, and overall the show just has a very unique tone. the scores, soundtracks and cinematic shots paired with powerful and impactful moments, and just the overall composition is the recipe that they served us with, and my god do we love it, and we craved for more, so they did just that, they served us the same recipe for 3 seasons straight (well 2.5 but i'll let it slide).

and then season 4 slithered its way into our lives🤗

can someone please get me a paper bag cause i'm gonna throw up.

man where to begin? to even call this season a dissapoinment is still a huge understatement, i guess i should've known what's coming when i feel zero excitement watching the trailer, but then i convinced myself like come on it's sex ed it's for sure gonna be great, and yep it's so great that i wish i could unwatch whatever travesty i just witnessed.

watching the first episode i can still feel some familiarity in it and it's still kinda sex education-esque but i didn't love it, a great contrast towards my reaction after watching the first episode of season 3 in which to this day still is one of my favorite episodes of the series. it has a little bit of everything, a refreshing ruby and otis dynamic, the good old longing looks between maeve and otis, and the very heart and core of the show which is otis giving advice helping out his peers and motis being a fucking great team and just the episode as a whole really.

but you know you can never judge something after only watching one episode, so i bite my tongue and just carry on watching. and after watching 2 episodes, something very apparent reveals itself, the pacing is fucked. like how am i supposed to feel anything when the show kept on throwing one thing after another, it feels like when you're eating something and you're still very much chewing but someone keep on feeding you stuff before you can digest or even swallow the food first.

and i think that's the overall theme of season 4, a whole lot of everything and nothing all at the same time, like i'm sorry how are you supposed to end a show after 4 seasons but shoves a bunch of new characters in the finale, how are you supposed to connect to said characters? however powerful the topic and message you're trying to bring it's hard to even care about these characters, because all we expect from a finale is a conclusion of a 4-season long story not an opening of a new chapter.

i rewatched some of my favorite episodes a few days before season 4 dropped, and now looking back at it i just feel like i don't appreciate it enough at that time, i mean the soundtracks are amazing especially season 3 and for a tv series their cinematography is kinda top notch. but then season 4 came out and we got the walmart version of it all.

and then a few hours after watching and hating the season i realized something, ben freaking taylor didn't direct any of the episodes in season 4, my god that explains a lot and idk i think that's kinda why the pacing is fucked? like i know he didn't direct every episode in the whole series but i always think of him as an executive director(?) if that's even a thing, i just feel like he kinda dictates the overall flow of the show. it's such a shame really, if he's involved in this season maybe things could've been different, but then again maybe even ben taylor wouldn't be able to salvage whatever shitshow the writers gave him. it's as if you're watching an avatar movie that's not directed by james cameron, it just feels... wrong.

the whole season just feels freaky to me, a lot of things felt too over the top and comical even. not to mention the storylines are super all over the place, take jackson for example, bro went from thinking about his feelings for cal and then having a cancer scare to getting rejected by his biological father, like what???

now i want to dive in to the characters a little, let's start with ruby and yes i do ship her with otis and somewhat wished for them to be endgame but we'll touch on that later. anyway ruby is not ruby this season and it feels exactly like when maeve wasn't herself in season 3 (which is mainly why i jumped ship). the whole "i was bullied when i was 10" shit is such a tryhard, if it's an attempt to make ruby more likeable and make her being a bully acceptable, dear beloved writers you failed, miserably. if i'm someone who hates ruby (which i'm not) this whole thing would make me hate her even more, like okay i get it you got bullied because you're a bed-wetter but then you became a bully yourself and did worse things to others? how is that suppose to be tolerable. like bro deal with it don't backtrack, she's a bully she did what she did, but that doesn't mean she can't change, doesn't mean she can't grow. and that was the whole point of her arc in season 3. the reason why she was one of the main attraction that season was because we get to see a different side of her, yes she's mean, demanding and particular about every single little thing that revolves around her, but hey turns out she can compromise, she turns soft when it comes to her family and at some point even otis, and don't even get me started on her fucking voice on that call the night she said she loves otis. i understand that they're trying to give her a back story explaining what made her the way she is but honestly the whole bed-wetter thing was a big big miss.

and what's with the whole speech thing at the end of episode 8, it's very un-ruby like, if they're trying to show her character's growth and depth then wtf there's so many other ways to do it without making her super out of character. for instance here's a few things i have in mind; and this one is my personal favorite, like she could have a real conversation with maeve about shit like idk letting otis go or maybe the other way around like maeve telling her about how otis is actually happy with ruby and whatnot (idk maybe something less cringey but still along those lines); or they could explore her friendship with adam, and they could lean on one another and talk about how they lost their first loves, and how a certain pair of best friends completely broke their hearts (because come on why would they show the glimpse and the potential of adam and ruby and not explore it at all fuck they fumbled so bad); or the most logical of all, her dad dying (sorry roland)(i still don't get why maeve's mom is the one that died), anyway her dad being sick was always a big part of her arc, so with him dying we could explore how she would handle and cope with the whole thing now that there's literally no escape, with otis being with maeve etc.; or idk have a fucking proper conversation with otis, have some closure, either it being "i can't be friends with you because my feelings haven't changed", or yes maybe we could be friends, the point is just have a proper closure ffs, don't go around helping him whenever he comes begging for your help, like honestly i refuse to believe the real ruby (the properly written ruby) would let otis string her along like that. yes i get it she's in love with him, has a soft spot for him, but she's still ruby fucking matthews, so really the whole season she was way out of character.

moving on to our boy otis (but still ruby related hehe).... Read the rest of the thread on Twitter.

#sex education #ruby x otis #maeve x otis #otis milburn #maeve wiley #ruby matthews

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simplystefanie-rae · 3 years

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I’m genuinely surprised by ML’s uh.... focus, this season. It’s not perfect, there’s still issues (which I’ll get to), but isolated and not taking past episodes into consideration it’s been surprisingly solid? where was this last season? Last season was such a mess, it’s like its being written by different people.

Marinette snapping all over the place in gang of secrets was giving me life. First of all, her dialogue?? The way her VA PERFORMED her dialogue? Amazing. 10/10. When she said she wanted to go for a swim in the height of her losing her mind and actually swam in her magical girl swim suit?? Iconic. Love it. It was in the middle of an intense break down but it’s okay, we all been there. Yelling at her friends and pretending to be mad at them so they’d leave her alone even if they were mad at her? First time this show made me feel something in a very long time. Tbh, with how intense Marinette’s sadness and anxiety is this entire episode, idk how the hell the writers decide that she’s not the one akumatized, or at least almost akumatized. I know it’s difficult to try and do that in a single episode (imo it’s a two part finale situation) but how much more pain can the girl go through before a butterfly catches her lol

I am tired of Tikki being weirdly useless in regards to actually helping Marinette where it matters. But there’s also issues sometimes with the writing saying one thing then something else entirely in the next moment, my example being Marinette venting to Tikki about how she can’t have a love life because she has to lie, then going on to say that she has to lie to all of her loved ones, including her friends and her parents. So it’s less about romance and more about this secret double life taking a toll on her, which is something Tikki should understand seeing as how she’s the one who stress’s secrecy and has had chosen holders for thousands of years. She should have some kind of advice. But the writing just swings back to focus on romance just so Tikki can’t offer anything helpful. It’s weird. I don’t like it. Tikki has enough knowledge to know right from wrong, to scold Marinette when she sees her doing something not in line with strict morals Tikki clearly has, but when Marinette is genuinely distressed from this job Tikki suddenly becomes childlike and naive. It’s where this being a kids show who has to teach lessons but also trying to be it’s own unique thing doesn’t work. They can’t find their own balance. Is Tikki a vessel for the episodes morals or is she a creature that has the mind of a child because they are suddenly suppose to lack human interaction? It can’t be both.

If they don’t wanna do shit with Marinette’s fashion designing can they reroute and have her interested in engineering?

Stop making Juleka mumble shit.

Give these characters some new akuma designs (except rose, I love hers)

is trixx the only responsible, useful kwami? fucking maybe

Chat doing his usual flirt thing is...annoying, but at this point it just feels perfunctory even if it should be in very bad taste. He just broke up with Kagami, but he was still flirting and hoping to get with Ladybug while even being with her, and I honestly don’t understand how the writers, who constantly insist he’s a sweet boy, don’t criticize this. It’s been so many episodes of him flirting with Ladybug, liking Kagami too, not feeling guilty about any of it or even trying to move on, and the writing is just nothing with that. I don’t get it. I understand it being a kids show that needs repetition and it being kinda a trope at this point but c’mon.

Finally, I missed this Alya so, so much. This is season 1 and 2 Alya, the hero and the best friend that inspired Marinette in the first place. I never really got the Alya salt, because it’s not like the writing was really favoring her, just forcing her to serve the plot so she was going to come across bad no matter what (either she was simping for Lila to cause problems or pushing Adrienette), but at the same time people being like ‘See Alya salters??? She IS great, in your face!’ are just as annoying. This is her first great episode since Rena’s debut, and that’s almost 2 seasons ago. Just because the writing for her was finally great here doesn’t mean it was always. Anyway, hopefully this season really keeps this momentum going regarding her character. No more pushing Marinette to be with Adrien, I want support, but also I want an episode just about Alya and her own character development. It’s an absolute travesty that the new characters in the specials have better writing and character arcs then the character that has been with us for 4 seasons.

#ml spoilers #marinette and alya were delightful this ep #kinda cant believe mari told her lol #but i love it #hopefully they do somethign interest with this new plot development now

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puppetsoftomorrow · 3 years

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top five legends characters, ships, and BROTPs?

hey ty! also apologies i fell asleep lmao, its now sleepover sunday

characters:

1. charlie - i could go on about charlie's storyline for Days,, i just,, how did the writers hit upon someone so perfect?? and maisie r-s to boot? hands down the best character

2. ava - my personal baby lmao. hey i just love a bureauocracy nerd!! and the Growth?? hello??

3. behrad - every episode i love him more. just. his everything. how kind he is. he has such nice eyes. i love him

4. z2 - i'm Loving how much depth the writers gave to z2, she could have just been a vapid influencer but they're taking the time to develop her (and they better keep doing it!!)

5. kendra - a one season wonder, and that is a Travesty. i think she's gorgeous and the wings?? hello?? learning to move beyond her own destiny was so cool. i miss u every day bb

ships:

1. avalance, obvs, but i'm a sucker for canon lmao. i've also dedicated like,, three years to cheerleading for them and its so nice to see the show repay us in such great character moments

2. darhkatom - a suprising second seeing as i don't really vibe with ray, but i def found the best of him when he was with nora,, and their chemistry? unreal (yes i know theyre married irl lmao)

3. zarlie - what we could have Had, oh man. everyday i curse the cw for nuking this, and i will only forgive them when they drop the zarlie tapes

4. steelhacker - i like them! i think theyve def grown on me over the seasons, and i hope theyre endgame honestly

5. esperastra - oh, an ode to what we could have had if the cw weren't a bunch of cowards huh.

brotps:

1. behrad + nate - okay well. i also ship them romantically, but they didn't make the top 5, so they go here. i just love. them boys.

2. sara + mick - i love their implicit understanding with eachother, mick will stand back to let sara go fucking feral on some goons, and sara will just let mick be when he needs to. stoic buds lmao

3. behrad + charlie - friends with benefits to friends dynamic?? hello?? i Love. it's the worlds biggest shame we never saw more of these two together

4. z2 + ava - okay so i Also ship them romantically, but as i've established, the cw are cowards, so i'll just enjoy their friendship very much. if we don't get z helping ava get ready for her wedding day then i will Fight

5. sara + rip - less a brotp and more that,, their dynamic,, it was so incredibly interesting. i find it amazing how the show had their storylines run semi paralell to eachother,, and when they worked together? stunning. the bank scene and the dancing scene ?? hello?

sleepover saturday sunday

#phoebe lifeblogs #legends of tomorrow #thanks for the ask!!

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amillioninprizes · 5 years

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An entirely too long post on how to fix Veronica Mars

So, anyone who has followed this blog for any length of time knows: 1) What a massive Veronica Mars fan I was and 2) how distraught I’ve been over the most recent season that debuted on Hulu in July. I’ve been pretty angry about it since it dropped, but the first month after I was pretty occupied with real life stuff. Now that I’m more settled, I’ve found myself getting sadder and angrier over time with just how terrible S4 was and what an obvious fuck you to longtime fans it was. It feels dumb to be so upset over a tv show, but this show got me through a lot over the past 8 years, and I feel like it’s been taken away from me.

It’s anyone’s guess as to whether there will be a new season. Ideally it would end here with maybe an alternate ending filmed to avoid alienating fans further. On the one hand, the botched release, overwhelmingly negative response, and silence from the creators after initial interviews don’t look good for renewal chances. On the other hand, Hulu doesn’t have a lot of streaming hits, it probably did relatively decent numbers, and there are rumors floating around that its pickup chances look good. On a personal level, I hate the idea that this is where the legacy of Veronica Mars ends, while at the same time being extremely wary of what the creators have planned. I think a big part of the disappointment with S4 was that the movie and books set up what could have been some really interesting storylines and situations, all of which RT and co. squandered for cheap drama and to apparently turn the show into an entirely new vehicle; additionally I had hope that S4 would be a chance to rectify some problems the show has long had, but again, S4 exacerbated them. At this point I don’t expect anyone higher up in the creative process or at Hulu to give a fuck about the fans or making the show better as long as they hit streaming targets, but here are some suggestions:

Fire Rob Thomas

While he created the show, it’s become clear that not only has he lost touch with the audience and the original spirit of the character, he doesn’t seem too keen on putting much effort into writing the show (as I will discuss below). Then you have his clear misogyny: his views that women in relationships can’t be interesting, that what makes Veronica interesting as a character is her trauma and how much she can endure, and the fact that basically every female character in the history of the show has a history of sexual victimization. He thought that making the Mexican cartel hitmen “philosophical” was subverting expectations (which says a lot of what his expectations of Latinx characters are). Then this is the way he essentially exploited his long term fan base to earn a new season of the show, only to turn around and tell us that we don’t matter. From a business perspective alone keeping him doesn’t make sense; selling a streaming platform on your loyal fanbase and then proceeding to purposefully piss ~80% of them off would be pretty questionable to me as someone in charge. The sheer cruelty with which he treated not only the fans who have supported him for 15 years (I fucking used to liveblog iZombie y’all. iZombie!), as well as how he callously dismissed long time cast members in favor of celebrity guest stars should not be rewarded. He’s admitted in interviews that he would be ok with younger writers doing a reboot many years in the future; why not just let him have a producer credit and then hand the show over to someone who’s invested in making it good?

Put a woman in charge and diversify the writing staff

A big problem with a) Veronica’s characterization in S4 b) RT’s ideas about what makes female characters interesting c) the show’s long history of problematic treatment of sexual assault is that it comes from a man’s conception of the female experience. The Veronica showcased in S4 and that RT wants to write in the future is very much a male fantasy: hates marriage and children, traumatized, DTF, and is too cool for other women. RT stated in interviews that he wanted to show Veronica at a “crossroads” this season in a way he claimed had been shown for men but not women; many female viewers found this depiction to ring false (few women are spending their time fretting about how committing to marriage after five years in an established relationship will bar us from strange sex going forward). In addition to having RT at the helm, most of the show’s writing staff for the majority of its run has been white dudes, which doesn’t bode well for telling the story of a female PI in a diverse community in today’s political climate. Putting a woman in charge would hopefully help rectify these issues to make the character feel more true to life and put a damper on the misogynistic storytelling. The show has a natural candidate in RT’s second-in-command Diane Ruggiero-Wright (despite her problematic history, never forget #KeisterEggGate), who has admitted to not being able to watch the last episode. Jennifer Graham, who wrote both of the books, would also be a worthy addition to the writing staff; while the books had a mixed reception, most fans agree that she got Veronica’s character right. And with the show��s problematic historical treatment of minority characters, adding more POC writers going forward is also necessary.

Bring back Logan (alive)

You don’t have to be a LoVe shipper to recognize just how integral Logan has been since the inception of the show, not just as Veronica’s partner but as a character is his own right. Logan’s journey in many ways parallels Veronica’s, and shows a contrast in how different characters respond to similar trauma. The most critical plot line in the show’s history, the mystery of who killed Lilly Kane, simply doesn’t work without Logan’s importance to Veronica. RT and his defenders like to claim that Logan was holding her back from true growth, which is frankly bizarre as he is the only character to consistently challenge her, like when he tells her that she obviously isn’t happy this season. Additionally, Logan’s scenes this season were the lone highlight of what was otherwise a painful slog of a season. Of the people who have said they would watch a potential S5, a good portion are only interested because they believe that the ambiguity of the last 10 minutes of the season means he’s not really dead (despite what RT has said in interviews). Then there’s what Logan’s death does to Veronica’s character, effectively cutting off what would have been an interesting character arc and stagnating her forever. No matter how much they try to shove Leo the pedo creep and other milquetoast RT self-insert love interests on us, no one else can possible measure up to Logan’s level in terms of being able to match Veronica as a character, intellectually or as a result of shared history.

Plus, the fact that we haven’t had a Weevil/Logan interaction since S3 is a goddamn travesty and should be rectified immediately.

Bring back Veronica

As sad as I am about Logan’s death, for me the most upsetting aspect of S4 was the assassination of Veronica’s character. For many viewers (including myself), the character we saw Kristen Bell portray in S4 wasn’t Veronica Mars but a different character with the same name. Between her abusive behavior towards Logan, her general indifference to her father’s medical condition, her dismissal of Wallace, and her racism towards Latinx characters (using a kid’s lawyer to threaten deportation: not a good look!), she was lacking the marshmallow-y center that always balanced out the pricklier aspects of her character and made her compelling. This change in characterization was especially jarring given that she was not this way when we last saw her in the books, where she mused about having children and sent her half-brother Hunter to summer camp (side note, but does he even exist anymore?). Many of us who had grown up with Veronica were hoping to see her grow with us as a character; instead we got an extreme regression lower than we’ve ever seen her. It would be one thing if they were trying to depict a PTSD storyline, which would make sense given her background, but since her change in behavior is never addressed by the narrative, it just makes her look like a cruel asshole and makes it impossible to root for her. This is exacerbated by the fact that RT has made it clear he has no interest in portraying her inner life, as shown by his wanting to avoid showing her grief over Logan’s death because it would be a real downer compared to the entertaining but ultimately hollow banter and quips he wants to focus on. Veronica this season was also just plain dumb: you mean to tell me that the girl who nearly got killed by Aaron Echolls in her back seat wouldn’t think to check her backseat every time she gets in a car? (And let’s not even start with RT’s bizarre assertion in an interview that she apparently votes Republican). Not helping matters was Kristen Bell’s performance, which felt very flat for me this season compared to S1-3 and the movie; I don’t know if this was due to personal limitations or a reflection of the bad writing. Writers of future installments and KB herself would be wise to revisit S1, the movie, and the books to figure out what makes sense for Veronica’s character, leading me to my next point:

Get reacquainted with canon, develop a show bible, and hire a continuity director

This show has long had a problem with dropped plots, timelines, and continuity issues. Shelly Pomroy’s party has two happened either in the summer, or the fall. Then we have the movie paradox: Veronica graduated high school in 2006, which means her 10 year reunion should have taken place in 2016. The movie was released in 2014 and the books seem to keep to 2014 dates. Then S4 states that Keith’s movie accident took place in 2013, and mysteriously ages Veronica up to 35 when she should be 32 in 2019. Logan mentions an Aunt Naomi in S4--why didn’t she take care of him after Aaron was arrested (and what happened to Trina)? How the hell is Leo working as an FBI agent when he presided over the disappearance of the Lilly/Aaron tapes? Veronica is shown to be tentatively forgiving of Weevil taking the settlement from the sheriff’s department in Mr. Kiss and Tell, but is then shown to be extremely angry towards him for it in S4. This is just a small selection of the inconsistencies within the show. Plus there is the problem of repeated plot lines: Veronica rejects Leo in favor of Logan in S1, then rejects Leo in favor of Logan in Mr. Kiss and Tell, only for her to...reject Leo in favor of Logan in S4 (and RT says he wants to leave the high school plots behind). This sloppiness doesn’t bode well for a series that is supposed to be about mysteries, which require tight plotting. It would behove TPTB going forward to once and for all determine a timeline of Veronica’s life, keep a detailed record of past plot and character points, and have at least one person on staff who thinks to remember this stuff (RT notoriously has only a “solid, not spectacular” memory of the show, no matter what Kareem Abdul-Jabbar says).

Make an effort (and do your fucking research)

Moving on from continuity issues to more general problems with the laziness of RT’s writing. He has basically admitted that he doesn’t care much about facts or characterization when writing plots--he shoehorns details to fit the plot rather than have it evolve organically from the characters and prior canon. I know that when writing it’s often impossible to make every story detail 100% accurate, but the extent of RT’s sloppiness is alarming. This excellent Reddit thread details a lot of the problems with S4 in particular, but this has been a problem since S2. Did anyone ever understand exactly why the Fitzpatricks were invested in framing Logan for Felix’s death? In the movie, it makes no sense that if Cobb and co. wanted Carrie silenced, they would add the complication of framing Logan for her murder--given her history, it would have been a lot easier just to make it look like she had accidentally overdosed. Given his previous patterns of villain writing fans were able to guess the identity of the S4 bomber based on casting alone. The mysteries in both Mr. Kiss and Tell and S4 are both ripped from the headlines, which indicates that RT wants to turn VM into the next Law and Order. Meanwhile, he complained about how hard including Logan in the story in S4 was, while Logan arguably had the best lines and most interesting scenes this season--apparently when you put an effort into things, they work out! This laziness extends past storyline issues and into factual problems that detract from the quality of the plot. Longtime fandom pals are probably tired about hearing me go on and on about how there’s no way Aaron’s lawyers could have gotten Veronica’s medical records due to HIPAA laws. Logan’s career change from naval aviator to intelligence is highly unlikely (and unnecessary, given that they changed it only to fridge him at the end of the season). Meanwhile, I know fanfic writers who have spent hours on the phone with strangers in order to research what type of firearm would cause a specific type of bullet injury. It’s very puzzling to me that RT wants to take the show in the direction of being mystery-only when apart from that one time he is piss poor at writing mysteries and puts no effort into them. I shouldn’t have to tell television writers to, you know, do their job but this is what we’ve come to in 2019.

Know your audience

A majorly annoying thing about the promo for this season is how in every single interview Rob Thomas did he was always talking about how he wanted VM to be like other shows and movies: Fargo, True Detective, Game of Thrones, Chinatown (which is apparently the only noir movie he’s ever seen). The thing is, if I wanted to watch those shows, I would; I watched Veronica Mars specifically because I enjoyed its unique qualities, and I would say most fans agree. The general perception within the fandom is that with this season Rob Thomas seems to have been aiming to dump the old, majority female, CW fanbase in order to achieve what he perceives as a cooler prestigious male fanbase; the issue is, new people aren’t going to take up a show in its fourth season if they didn’t watch or didn’t like earlier seasons. Also, trying to write a prestigious show doesn’t make your show prestigious. Considering that based on anecdotal evidence most of the people who like S4 seem to be male, he may have succeeded in the first part of his aim. However, this majority female fanbase he was so willing to cast aside are the ones who have run fansites and rewatches during fallow times (i.e. between S3 and the movie and then between the books and S4), so drumming up interest among fans (and therefore streaming views) in the future may be a challenge. Plus, women are a better advertising demographic since they are more likely to be in charge of household purchasing decisions, so maintaining us as a fanbase makes business sense as well. He may have tricked enough people into watching S4 that S5 is given a go, but I wouldn’t be surprised if streams are weak beyond that. If the show is to succeed as a commercial endeavor, better to go with appealing to a known quantity than trying to make a generic show that very few people have expressed interest in watching.

Bring back the mystery of the week

This is a more minor thing I felt was missing from S4. I think after the criticism of S3 not having a season-long arc RT overcorrected in focusing on one mystery. However, the mystery of the week had the following benefits: 1) giving chances for the characters to interact and telling us more about them 2) helping to modulate the pace of the season-long arc. With better writing a season-long standalone mystery could maybe work, but in the case of S4 specifically the mystery was kind of dull and repetitive and could have stood to include a couple of diversions in the form of a smaller case here and there.

Re-evaluate the creators’ interpretation of the word “adult”

Much of the promo and reviews for this season noted the more “adult” content to be expected this season now that Veronica’s grown. Many fans hoped that meant seeing Veronica act like, you know, an adult with adult problems rather than a teenager less mature than the actual teenager she was. Unfortunately, the show’s interpretation of the word seems to be more in keeping with a television rating sense of the word--meaning sex, drugs, and gratuitous violence (But apparently not the word “fuck.”). Look, it was expected that as the show moved to a streaming service and given the overall dramatic scope that there would be an upgrade in some of this sort of content (and I’d be a liar if I said I wasn’t looking forward to steamier LoVe moments, which were sorely overpromised), but the way it was included this season felt like RT and co. included this stuff just because they could and not to serve the storyline. For me, personally, the biggest example of this was Veronica’s drug use, which I know didn’t necessarily bother everyone. Given her history as the daughter of an alcoholic as well as someone who had been the victim of two roofie attacks, not to mention the fact that her character never seemed to be into partying, I found it very out of character (and book writer Jennifer Graham agrees). It felt like RT included this just bc they thought it would be funny to see Veronica on drugs without considering whether it made sense for her character. Also, were the beheadings strictly necessary? Plus there’s RT’s little temper tantrum over not being able to use curse words this season--they weren’t present in the original show, no one was going to miss them now, and the “cuss” thing was just annoying and reminiscent of The Good Place.

Dealing with a parent who maybe has dementia--that’s an adult storyline. Too bad RT ended it with a dumb excuse about “mixing meds” (another factual error! Pharmacy software would have caught it!) rather than actually exploring what it would mean for Veronica to see her father in decline and take over the family business (and give Rico Colantoni the exit he appears to want). This is the kind of adult content I would hope to see in future seasons.

Adult is not a synonym for “unrelentingly bleak” either. The original show, while dark, always had an element of hope that was completely removed from S4 (no matter what KB might claim). And would it have killed the writers to show Veronica wearing disguises and going undercover like she used to? There was nothing fun about this season (and no, I don’t count the multiple partying scenes as fun, more like sad).

Kill your darlings

It’s cliche, but it’s true. Another issue the show has long had is the writers keeping around characters or inserting jokes and references for their own personal amusement rather than for the story. The most notable example of this is the continued presence of Dick, a highly problematic character considering he pushed Beaver into the room with Veronica the night of Shelly Pomroy’s party, among a whole host of other racist, sexist, and generally obnoxious actions over the years. But because Ryan Hansen is so widely beloved among the cast and crew, so he stays. Then there’s the matter of the infamous Keister egg in 3x08, which the writers and KB have all expressed love for, despite the fact that said Keister egg is an example of sexual assault--which, even if the victim is a douchey fraternity president, is never funny.

Also the constant Big Lebowski references are tiring. Watch a new movie.

Improve Neptune’s gender ratio

Veronica Mars, despite having a female lead, has always been a male-dominated show; other than Veronica herself, the only consistent female character over the original show was Mac (and she didn’t even come back this season). This is unacceptable in 2019, for any show. The books introduced promising female characters in the form of Marcia Langdon and Petra Landros, but Marcia’s character was was watered down for S4 and Petra was nowhere to be found. Additionally, Veronica and Mac have always been written as “cool girls” who looked down on other women for their femininity, which isn’t a great message. Almost every other female character, even the innocuous Parker, is portrayed as somehow bad or incompetent. I would love nothing more than a season centered on the women of Neptune and their interactions with each other. While we’re at it, stop giving every woman on this show a background of sexual victimization.

Treat VM as an ensemble show, not a Kristen Bell vanity project

A major complaint from Burnt Marshmallows and S4 defenders alike was how little time was given over to the original core cast this season. While Veronica may be the protagonist, a large part of how the show became so beloved was her relationships with the other characters. Yet RT has decided that going forward VM will be a KB solo project, with her traveling town to town quipping and sleeping with strangers. This seems strange, given Kristen’s recent interviews talking about how difficult it is to shoot VM and how she never wants to be first on a call sheet ever again, not to mention how she asked for less screen time all the way back in S2, which resulted in the Weevil-Logan storyline, which was way more interesting than Veronica’s storylines during the first half of that season. (The traveling detective thing also seems weird considering that KB is pretty insistent on shooting in LA to be near her family.) Additionally, if this is truly the last season of VM with all the original characters, then no one got a proper sendoff.

I’m not sure how willing much of the cast will be to return for future iterations, given how uncomfortable many of them seemed during promo as well RT and KB’s treatment of them (insensitive at best, deliberately mean at worst) this season (shout out to Tina Majorino for recognizing what a shit show this was going to be), but bringing back all the original characters into the fold and giving them significant storylines would go a long way to mending fences with fans, improving the show from a character arc perspective, and would also give KB the break she apparently wants.

Recourt the fanbase

What has VM always been renowned for above all else? It’s incredibly loyal fandom which not only got it renewed twice during its original run but also put up their own money to get the movie made--I know many people who donated when they really couldn’t afford to. RT basically owes the last 6 years of his career to VM fans--the success of the Kickstarter arguably got him the iZombie show running gig, and the fourth season likely wouldn’t have even happened if not for it. Thus, the blatant cruelty and disregard with which RT and KB have treated fans during the promotion of S4 has been incredibly insulting and hurtful; I still can’t fathom what in the world possessed RT to think that throwing away this 15-year relationship was a good idea. It’s not a good sign when the 2 fansites most active during the post-movie period (VMHQ and VM Confessions) cease operations in the wake of S4, and when at least 3 out of 8 board members of the oldest running fan group, Neptune Rising (who were dormant during the post-movie period but played a critical role during earlier fan campaigns and in the S4 promo) resign. A fandom this loyal that was betrayed will not stand idly by if the S5 RT wants to make goes ahead; given the number of tweets the official Hulu VM account has had to delete in the wake of S4 due to the overwhelmingly negative response as well as the controversy over editing out Logan from S4 promos, I imagine that S5 will be a PR nightmare. Even if future seasons are amazing the trust can probably never be fully repaired, but it would be helpful for RT (or fingers crossed, a new show runner) and KB (as star and EP) to go overboard in reaching out to fans and at least admitting they made a misstep with the entirety of S4. Back in the day, the old Mars Investigation fansite was invited to set to conduct interviews; maybe do that again. Also someone should get KB some sort of VM fandom-fluent media trainer because I don’t think she has conducted a single interview during her entire stint on the show that didn’t anger fans (it might help if she actually bothered to watch the show).

Map out an endgame

Look, this can’t go on forever. As long as RT keeps leaving every installment open ended with the hopes of maybe getting renewed again five years down the line, the story is going to keep running into the issues the movie and S4 faced with having to shoehorn the characters into nonsensical plot lines to reconcile those endings and deal with actor availability issues. Either plot another 2-3 seasons to wrap the show up with a satisfying conclusion, or map out a greater timeline of Veronica’s life with spots where a mini series or movie here and there could fit in.

#Veronica Mars #still angry #mainly written for personal catharsis #need to stop being angry about this and focus more on studying synaptic transmission #Burnt Marshmallow #we use to be fans

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araeph · 4 years

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Re: ASOIAF. To be fair, ASOIAF has not yet finished and GRRM has vehemently stated that he's not a nihilist, so maybe it's too early to judge whether the story as a whole is too bleak. E.g. meta writers here on Tumblr have pointed out how the books enhance Ned's legacy by having his vassals still fight for him (and his children surviving) and Tywin's legacy quickly decaying when he dies due to his family's lack of union. Also, the Arya example you brought up is show only. In AFFC, we see her...

...blending very well with the Braavosi, with her getting attached to them and vice versa (see the Cat of the Canals chapter). That said, the show is nihilist because its writers overfocus on the books' grittiness and darkness (and YMMV on how much you can deal w it, sure) and don't care about actual themes. Also, I'm worried about the books' ending too, especially after the travesty that was Dany's ending, which may be executed in some form, even if with much more nuance. Just my 2 cents.

Yeah, it’s hard to judge a series when technically the canon isn’t finished. I’ve read everything up to “A Dance with Dragons,” and I still think the sheer number of examples of humans treating each other badly vs humans treating each other well is as unrealistic, in its own way, as a century of peace and prosperity under a benevolent king. However, the TV series is much much worse, and after hearing about how Season 8 ended, not only will I not watch the rest of it; I don’t think I’ll go back to the episodes I did watch ever again. I do appreciate the amount of thought and detail that went into the original book world, as well as the beginning of the show.

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walkofpenance · 4 years

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Anyway, because I see NOTHING but negatives about Season 6 of LOST (other than the Richard flashback episode!) here are some positives, YAY!: (SPOILERS below for those who have not seen!

Jin & Sun’s deaths were SO devastating I had to cry for a solid 20 minutes before I could finish the episode

Although Sayid was a shadow of his former self in Season 6, I think his exit was devastating, and it truly had my jaw drop :)

Jack Shephard became REALLY likeable! I found him easier to root for than I did in Seasons 2-5 where I just found him obnoxious, arrogant and annoying as hell. But yeah, Season 6 I really liked him! And I don’t even hate that the season focussed on him a lot!

Kate & Claire’s bond is one of the best in the entire show, I really enjoyed seeing the two of them together! And Claire again!

Kate was at her best in Season 6 after a strong Season 5, take her away from the abysmal love triangle with Jack & Sawyer and she is a REALLY strong character! I’m happy that they gave Kate a chance to shine in her own way.

I love Claire but she was never a character which made you think about her often, but Season 6 she came back with a VERY interesting story and I was wondering what would happen next throughout! Bravo to them for that! Also her becoming the next Rousseau... I can’t complain

I’d forgotten all about Desmond but when he re-appeared he proved to be one of the best characters in LOST history, throwing punch after punch to keep the show interesting and Charles Widmore’s arrival to the Island was great to see, too!

The Man in Black and Jacob are two of the most interesting characters in the show and its a travesty that we only got to see them fully for a single season (this isn’t a negative, by the way!)

The Man in Black was a FANTASTIC villain, he actually pissed me off multiple times so that’s cool with me :)

I was SO happy to see all of the past characters return! Yes, even Ana Lucia, I feel like she was cheated a full story arc, and it was good to see all of Libby, Michael, JULIET, CHARLIE all make appearances too! Shannon & Boone, too!

I could go on and on and on and on but honestly I expected the season to be awful???? Like genuinely AWFUL???

#LOST #LOST Season 6 #LOST season 6.... POSITIVES???

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zombiesbecrazy · 4 years

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I was tagged by @river9noble

Rules: answer the questions, then tag 9 people you want to get to know better

Top 3 ships: 1. Dick/Whoever makes him happy. Is this a cheat? Absofuckinglutely. I’m not one for ship wars - they bore me and there is no point. I like Dick/Babs, Dick/Kori, Dick/Wally, Dick/Roy, etc. etc. etc. As per the ones already listed, I obviously have a preference for Dick/One of His Gingers, but I can also tell you why I think that Dick/Bea is precious and why Dick/Shawn was cut too short and got written out too fast. I do have some firm nopes, but I don’t participate in ship discourse so those don’t matter. People can like what they like even if I don’t like it. Its not my place to judge. 2. Big Barda/Mister Miracle. I love them so much and it is only a fraction of the amount that they love each other. I would watch six seasons and a movie of them (but every episode must end with Barda picking up Scott and carrying his somewhere like he’s a toy) 3. Midnighter/Apollo. I miss them and I want more content of Midnighter and Apollo going off to punch things and save the world and then going home and making dinner and having boardgame night. Steve Orlando moving to Marvel probably means that we won’t get more of them anytime soon and that is a travesty.

Last song: I’m not sure if it was the last some that I listened to, but I’ve had “The KKK Took My Baby Away” in my head for about a week after they were talking about it on a podcast I was listening to.

Last movie: Avengers Age of Ultron is currently on the screen. We’re doing a MCU chronological order rewatch.

Currently reading: Nothing, but about to start “The Princess and the Fangirl” by Ashley Poston. I really liked Geekerella and the sequel just arrived on my doorstep yesterday :)

What food are you craving right now: There is a breakfast place nearby that has amazing sausages. I woke up with a craving but they aren’t open until they figure out their online ordering system and now I’m sad.

I’m supposed to tag people, but my computer is about to die so.... consider everyone tagged :)

#ask meme

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woofety · 5 years

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10 GIFS OF YOUR FAVORITE TV SHOWS

I was tagged (ages ago, I’m aware - I’m so sorry for being so late!) by @marvelsaos (thank you btw!! <3 )

1. Black Sails - the list is in no particular order of preference, but I think that this first place is just the right position for this show for me - without exaggeration I think there has never been another show able to blow my mind and steal my heart like Black Sails did... Wild times they were, when it aired, and despite some lows (and some ohohohoh damn, it’s still very hard to accept them - I’m only saying ELEANOR GUTHRIE just to mention one) - but I suppose it’s kinda natural to have them in every show and fandom - I miss those times, at least the good ones! :p

2. Galavant - I don’t think I can express properly in words how much I adore this little show, it’s my haven whenever I need to get a good laugh and cheer myself up, and it holds a very special place in my heart, it’s so freaking lovely and hilarious and I STILL CAN’T BELIEVE IT WAS CANCELLED I’LL NEVER BE OVER THAT TRAVESTY - for all the times I say this I might as well get it written on my gravestone lol...

3. Brooklyn Nine Nine - ohohoh I love this show, so witty and funny - I usually am not drawn to comedies but I’m glad I made an exception for this show when I started watching because I would have missed out one of my favourites!

4. Firefly - another show that we lost too soon imho - such a shame we got to have only one season and there wasn’t even a chance to get proper closure with a final episode or even a movie BECAUSE APART FROM THAT SEASON THERE WAS NOTHING ELSE OKAY yes I’m deliberately choosing to ignore the movie not really sorry about it!!

5. Pushing Daisies - why do I have the tendency of getting attached to short-lived shows? Couldn’t I get obsessed with Grey’s Anatomy or something? XD Anyway, this adorable - despite the kind of morbid themes it had :p - show deserved so much better - we, the world deserved more of this little gem...

6. Penny Dreadful - ah, the pain... I’m including this show because yes, I was obsessed with it for a while and yeah, in general I would consider it quite highly on my list, even if there were things that annoyed me, but I would have probably kind of overlooked those flaws if it hadn’t been for that OUTRAGEOUS FINALE THEY DECIDED TO COME UP WITH!!!! One of the most idiotic and horrifying endings I have ever witnessed, I am still disgusted and I will never EVER forgive John Logan for the hideous treatment he reserved to my beloved Vanessa... DISHONOR ON YOU, DISHONOR ON YOUR COW, JOHN!!!! You might have noticed that it’s hard for me to let go of things, even if they happened ages ago lol

7. Star Trek TOS (I know this scene is from one of the movies - one of my favourites :3 - but it’s still part of the saga, no?! (I’m sorry but I saw it and couldn’t resist, it was that or one of those ridiculously flamboyant Kirk’s fighting moves! XD Ok, all right, I’ll have both because I can lol:

Anyway, this show was another nice parenthesis in my watching experience and despite all the silliness - and because of it, but this show is more than that, and maybe that’s also a reason for why I love it, even with all its flaws it sometimes was way ahead of its time in many aspects - I’m still rather fond of it! :’)

8. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. - first of all, yes, this gif basically summarizes my experience with this show, I chose it on purposefully! :p I’m pissed at this show because for some reasons it is truly great and entertaining and has good reasons to get me engaged and attached but damn it if it went too far on certain instances; in particular those last two seasons are still quite hard to digest for me, and I fear it has lost the sparkle that I found when I started watching and fell in love with it... Anyway, I still think it should make this list, so there it is!!

9. Blackadder (I mean, it is already worth a peek for this little flower right above, don’t you think?! XD Anyway, this was first of all a nice opportunity to appreciate Rowan Atkinson beyond Mr. Bean, since when I started whaching this I only knew him for that part and was pleasanty surprised... Even more so when I found out the cast included Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, Miranda Richardson, and other actresses and actors making appearances that I recognized!! And in general I love this kind of humour so it definitely won a place in this list!!

10. A bit of Fry and Laurie - when I found out that Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie had done a show together, I just knew I couldn’t miss it!! I’m afraid because of me not being British I may not able to fully enjoy and appreciate all the jokes that are on this show, but what I understand is enough to laugh my ass off watching these two amazing idiots!!

I suck at tagging people, also because I haven’t been around much and I barely can keep track of what’s happening in here in general so there may be a chance you’ve already done this, but if you haven’t (and obviously if you would like to do it, no pressure - this is also a way for me to say hi! :) ) I’m tagging @whitestnoise @mednay @tirairgid @somethingephemeral @valentinaonthemoon @thelifeinmyshadesofgrey @googlybear88 @padfootwantsatummyrub @queen-of-love-and-beauty @astrangegirlsmind @kim-hanbin and well, whoever wants to do this! <3

#tag game #about me #long post #tv shows #is2g I can't keep up with tumblr and all the notifications #I've only seen these mentions days ago I'm sorry!!#ok I haven't been around much so it's on me not noticing them #lol @ me btw for also putting some useless comments on the shows no one asked for :p #in which I still manage to complain about those that would have to be literally favourite shows I'm a champ

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spaceorphan18 · 5 years

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Finding Kurt Hummel: Dreams Come True

Masterpost

6x13: Dreams Come True

Wow. Here we are. The end of the story. There’s something bittersweet about reaching this point. I’ve been doing this meta series for over four years now, and it’s kind of fitting that I’ll end it around the original airing of the series finale. I can’t believe it’s been so long. I can’t believe I’ve made it through 121 episodes of the show. (Okay, technically 116 - Kurt wasn’t in five of them.)

And, I’ll be honest - I have some mixed feelings about the actual finale. There was a lot more in the script, and a lot that I’m sad that was cut. Not to mention, by season 6, production values were a little on the low side - and there are some glaring errors, and awkward editing, throughout the episode.

But looking past that - it’s been a fantastic journey, and amazing to look so in-depth at a story that’s made its way firmly into my heart. I will miss writing about Kurt Hummel (though it’s not like I’ll never write anything about him again!) but it is time to close the book on his story.

And thank you to all of you who came with me on this journey. Even as I let go of the story myself - I’ll always cherish it, and all the discussions and conversations and friends I’ve had and made along the way. This has been something special - and I’m glad you’re here with me - here at the end of all things.

So here we go...

Final Competition

We open with our three remaining main characters. Ah, I see what you did there, show! And it’s time for Nationals 2015! I’m not going to go too deeply on the time line here - because of a bunch of weird edits and costume changes, it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.

But I will deduce this -- in the 2015 time line - Kurt (and Blaine) have already been back in New York for a while, and have come home to help the group go to Nationals. Or at least that’s how I’m explaining it in my head.

And we get New Directions winning Nationals again. Whoo! I’m actually glad they didn’t make us sit through another set of songs and use this episode as a way to send of the original characters. I do appreciate that Glee.

I will say - one thing that I am frustrated by is this idea that McKinley gets turned into a fine arts school - and they do away with sports entirely. **sigh** This show just never understood balance, did it. Or the fact that you can enjoy music, have it be a good part of your life, and still do other things in your life. That is my one major gripe with the end of this show - is that it kind of takes the message too far the other way. One reason I really liked the 2009 episode - is that it brought back the reason as to why they were there in the first place - so kids can be together in an activity that they liked despite their differences. This episode -- to a fault -- zeroes in on the ‘arts education’ platform a little too hard - and, dare I say, to the detriment of some of the characters.

But ah well - I shouldn’t be complaining too much about the ending here. I mean - at least the characters do get happy endings, and this finale isn’t a travesty the same way How I Met Your Mother was.

Last First Day

So, apparently this is the first day of Glee Club as Will says in his dialogue. So... Kurt and Blaine have come back for this, too, and then head off to New York - for good (the subtext says).

The thing that gets me about this scene is that it was the last day of filming for the actors, and the last thing shot on the show. Everyone getting teary eyed was real - because it was the last time they were all ever going to act together - and there’s something really poignant. There’s a message some where in here from Will about moving on and moving forward, but interestingly, this is more about saying goodbye and being okay with that.

I think adding to that is that this scene is a throwback to the end of season 1 - when the glee club listened to Will on his ukulele singing Somewhere Over the Rainbow. There’s nothing that special about this scene or even this song. But it’s such a touching moment because it’s another final one.

And I’m glad we get a nice shot of Kurt and Blaine together, being close together, being reminded about all their times in high school - the good, the bad, and the crazy. And it’s weird - cause they’re happy in their life, and they’ll be even happier moving forward. But sometimes you do just need to take a step back and reflect, and be grateful that you got the chance to be a part of something special.

Blam and Hummelberry

Alright two things I need to point out before we continue on.

1. There’s a cute little Blam scene where Blaine and Sam effectively get to say goodbye to each other. And it’s super sweet. But also - Blaine let’s us know that marriage is agreeing with he and Kurt. I’m sad we never really get to see this play out post-Wedding episode, but I’m glad it’s at least mentioned if only in passing. But the thing is - I do think marriage would agree with them - because it is a commitment that they both are secured in making, and they don’t have the fears and insecurities they did before. But also, because they are more grown up than they were when they were in a high school. And yes - while I always wish we had seen more, I’m glad they at least allude to the fact that they’re living a happy life in New York.

2. Something you may notice about this episode (okay I didn’t until I was told later) there’s no Hummelberry in it. Crazy, right?? I mean, as much as I complained about Hummelberry over the years - it does seem weird that one of the major friendships on the show doesn’t have a final nod to it. (And in fact - there’s a lot more Kurtcedes throughout this episode than Hummelberry.)

Well - the reason is that the two final Hummelberry scenes were cut. The first one was supposed to be before the Blam one - where they talk about Finn, countdown their top Glee songs, and Rachel calls Blaine Kurt’s husband and Kurt gets all giddy from that (man I wish I could have seen that). The scene is far too long to be in the episode (I still say they should have made the full script - there’s a ton cut out and more than enough for a two hour episode), but I wish it had been in there.

The other scene takes place right before Rachel sings This Time - and isn’t much other than Kurt saying that he and Blaine are taking off for New York - but Rachel needs another moment. Again - I see why they cut it. Still - weird that I don’t get a final moment to dissect.

So -- I’ll say this... it’s my own headcanon that Kurt and Rachel will always be, in a way, bff - but they become more like Kurt and Mercedes - living their own lives and doing their own things. Sure, this entire group of kids will always be in each other’s lives, but as you grow up - you move on and meet new people - a lot of whom you just click better with.

I do think when Hummelberry was good - it was good, and I do see the purpose of it on the show. And while I think I’ll always resent (a little) the stuff in the middle seasons - I’ll always recognize it as a major friendship on the show. Take a bow Hummelberry - and good night...

Mercedes Jones Has Left The Building

So - Mercedes announces she’s going on tour and there’s a lot going right for her, so this is where she’s saying goodbye. And, I kind of love her speech here. Because she admits that this might be the last time she sees them for a very, very long time. And it kind of hits the nail on the head about moving on.

Something I do like about this episode is this idea that things change. They can’t always stay in glee club forever - you have to grow up, you have to move on, and your life is better for it. But you can always remember and cherish the people and memories you make along the way. Mercedes gets it. The rest of the cast gets it. And so we get Mercedes singing Some Day We’ll Be Together as she makes her exit stage left. And it’s really powerful and sad. Because it is an ending.

No words are said as Mercedes leaves. No words are needed.

But that’s okay. Not to be overly cheesy and go ultra 90s, but like the song Closing Time - Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.

Mr. and Mrs. Porcelain

The next stop on the Goodbye Tour is Sue.

And they’ve actually come to thank her.

And as crazy as it is - I’m actually really grateful that we have this little scene because it does tell us a couple of things. First of all -- Kurt says if she hadn’t meddled (and I’m still not condoning the meddling) they’d still be apart and miserable. This is a big thing - because for as much as Kurt tried to down play it for a while there - he was pretty miserable for a majority of season 6. So was Blaine, for that matter. But now they’re married and happy and heading back to New York - and this time probably will stay in New York for a long, long time.

I also like it because throughout the entire series, there’s been a strange connection between Sue and Kurt. No need to recap - feel free to read all the other meta - it’s actually there, lol. But out of all the students - Sue didn’t connect with many of them - but she did with Kurt.

This scene also gives us a moment to reflect on Kurt’s story as whole. Sue recounts everything Kurt’s been through - coming out, bullying, growing up and finding his way, and yeah Sue’s speaking for all of us here -- because she’s reminding us the importance of Kurt’s story. That it did mean something to a lot of people - and it gave a new generation of people a story to latch on to if they needed it.

To me (and for me) Kurt’s story has been one of the most powerful - and that’s not to say people can’t latch on to other things. I mean - if you really felt pull to Ryder - than you go Ryder fan! But a lot of us were here - especially in the beginning, for Kurt’s story. And Kurt - and his uniqueness represented so much of the audience through the years. It’s kind of remarkable when you take a step back and think about it.

Sue thanks him - for giving her the chance to be a part of that story - and for giving her the chance to see things in a new perspective. It’s incredibly touching. And Kurt himself is touched. It’s kind of crazy when you think that it’s a moment where the creators are able to give a voice to the fans to tell a fictional character - I’m glad you existed.

And I have to say myself - thank you Kurt Hummel. It’s been a true pleasure documenting your life over the years...

Time Capsule

And here we are - our final (real) Klaine scene of the series. Do I wish there could have been something a little more? Something that held a tiny bit more weight? Sure...

But this scene is sweet. We get confirmation that the Box Scene happened, a run down of Kurt’s greatest hits from season 1-3, Blaine looking adoringly at his husband. It’s a nice, quiet moment for the two of them to just remember and reflect and be happy that they’re past all of the high school shenanigans as they shut the door on their past.

We get our final ‘I love you’, final kiss, final hug, final time hearing the Klaine theme. And a final time for that ridiculous sweater.

And I am currently laughing and crying right now... thank you boys, it’s been a wonderful journey...

Back to New York

And... with that Kurt and Blaine are magically transported back to New York where they belong - still holding hands, fearlessly and forever.

Daydream Believers

Five years later - and Kurt and Blaine are still happily married, still lovingly holding each other’s hands.

We find out what they’ve been up to -- doing an all male showing of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? I assume (since they are 26 at this point) that they’re still the younger couple of that play -- but it’s a hard piece about relationships, and I’m glad they decided to do perform something that would test their relationship - go boys!

In case you are wondering what else they were up to -- according to the script -- Kurt’s won an Obie award and has his own line on QVC called Hummel Brag while Blaine is a Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter who has written St. Elmo’s Fire the Musical and Trapped in an Elevator: A Love Story.

Now (semi-)celebrities, they’re invited to sing at the Harvey Milk school - where they’re considered inspirations. And while I do wish this song had been sung with Blaine’s kindergarten class or two their own child, I do understand what they’re doing here. They’re showing that a new generation of kids should feel safe being who they are and not hiding it from the world, as well as accepting the role of music (and creativity) in their lives. It’s sweet and fun and I’ll go along with it, even if it’s not everything that I wanted.

I do appreciate Kurt’s little throwbacks to the Single Ladies and Bad Romance performances from season 1.

I also think Kurt and Blaine being with the kids is a nod to the fact that they are about to become dads and that they’ll probably make great dads.

This song - though - means quiet a lot. First of all, Daydream Believer is one of my favorite songs of all time - and I’m just thrilled at the fact that Kurt and Blaine get to sing it. More so, this is the third to last song on the show, the final song sung by a couple, and the last Klaine duet that we get. And there’s a lot wrapped up in that. I mean, Kurt started out as a character not on the show - and to end with having one of the most iconic TV relationships of all time and the show full on acknowledging that by the end (I mean they are literally lying on a rainbow flag) is kind of huge.

The lyrics are incredibly fitting, too -

Cheer up, sleepy Jean, oh what can it mean To a daydream believer and a homecoming queen?

I mean, it’s a simple and sweet song - and I like that it shows what they are -- dreamers and believers and a special nod to Kurt being the Prom Queen. It’s a beautiful sentiment to end on, and I’m glad this is the final Klaine duet.

Yeah, I do wish they had sung it a little more to each other and less to the kids, but it’s fine. They sound great together and the song holds weight to their story - being a perfect one to end on.

This Time

I want to do a quick shout out to This Time - the song Darren Criss wrote for the finale. It is so touching and moving, and is amazing in its way of putting into song what it’s like to be here at the end. To cherish the feeling you had about being apart of the thing but knowing that it’s time to move on as well. Y’all know I’m not the biggest fan of Rachel solos - but this time, it’s perfect.

Alright - then we jump into our final little coda. And, you know, I know that this ending is a bit much on the happily ever after quota. But - I’m fine that they did this. The show started in some well grounded satire - but at the end, managed to be a fairy tale for all of us who are awkward and weird and didn’t fit quite in. I’m glad my favorite fictional characters are all right.

This whole ending bit does seem a little rushed - but we learn that Rachel has agreed to be a surrogate for Kurt and Blaine’s child. Fwiw - I don’t believe it’s her eggs, especially when she doesn’t seem to mention anything about co-parenting and Jesse saying he’d like to start a family of his own. She also mentions that they’ve given up a lot of their lives for her, it’s time she gives back - and I know a lot of people said this didn’t make much sense, but you know what - I believe it. So much of Kurt’s story was sacrificed at the Rachel-story alter, I’m totally cool with her carrying the kid for them.

And I know that a lot of people didn’t need or want them to have children. And that’s totally cool! I do think it makes sense for their story. I mean, it’s about these gay kids getting the traditional love story and everything that comes with that - including marriage and children. But also - Kurt’s story started out being about him and his relationship to his dad. I’m glad it kind of ends full circle being a dad himself.

While it would have been really nice if Kurt and Blaine’s last lines were to each other - and I love you at that - their last lines are in this scene and, not surprisingly, about Rachel. Ah well... Lol.

However, there was a bit more to this scene that was cut out. First of all, we learn that they’re having a daughter (yes - this is perfect to me...)

It also has Mercedes wondering who the biological father is - basically it doesn’t matter. Blaine makes a joke about whether it comes out with a bowtie or an ascot then they’ll know. Kurt explains the process, and here you go - the last scripted line for one Kurt Hummel:

Kurt: We mixed the spermies together so we’ll never know.

Yup - there ya go. We were robbed from Chris Colfer saying the word ‘spermies’. Whatever writers, lol - I love it.

Also - there’s a tiny moment as Rachel goes off, where Kurt bounces against Blaine. Idk - it’s just kind of a small, cute moment for the two of them.

There’s a line earlier in the episode where Blaine comments that Sam is right where he’s supposed to be - but it’s really the showing that the characters are right where they’re supposed to be. Rachel wins her Tony, just like she was always going to do. Kurt and Blaine get married and have a happy life together. Mercedes gets and album, Artie and Tina end up together in the background. Sue continues world domination. And Will is, well, still Will.

The point being, as we close on out - is that as these characters are living happy and good lives. High school sucks, college can suck, even adulthood can suck, but for one moment in time, they were all joined together and survived it as a group. And now, everyone is on their own path - and that’s fine. Moving on is fine. Change is fine.

But since this is a story, and a story of characters we care about deeply. This is their happily ever after.

Kurt and Blaine might not get much -- I’ll always wish they had more - but I’m grateful for what I did get. Because I love this perfectly imperfect story, and it’ll forever be deeply etched into my heart - even as change and move on to different things.

Final Bow

The Klaine moment goes by too fast to still, in case you’re wondering.

The context of this final performance is that it’s now Fall of 2020 - and the auditorium is being dedicated to Finn. Everyone’s come back for one last final bow.

I love I Lived as the final song. It’s a song about life being hard and sucking and getting hurt but reflecting and saying -- well at least I lived my life to the fullest. This, tied in with Sue’s final speech about glee club meaning something - about the arts and music and finding a place in the world meaning something, is the show’s final lesson. And as we close out - the show wants to remind us that despite the bizarre choices made throughout the show, through the ups and the downs and the questionable editing.

This show meant something to a lot of people - and for the characters, well, at least they lived.

When the show was first conceived - Kurt Hummel wasn’t even a character in the script. Eventually, he became one of the fullest - if not the most complete - character on the show. We got to see him grow up, and come out, struggle with identity and bullying and heartbreak and Rachel Berry, and become a remarkable young man - happily married with a child of his own.

It’s an amazing, amazing story - and I can’t believe I’ve now reached the end of documenting it.

This is the story about a boy who, with every broken bone, lived.

Thank you, Glee.

Thank you, Chris Colfer.

Kurt Hummel changed my life - and I’ll forever be grateful for that. <3

#finding kh #kurt hummel #i may have actually cried while writing this #i'll probably still write up a final thoughts #but for now #we're at the end

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medea10 · 5 years

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My Review of Zombieland Saga

#anime review #zombieland saga #kotaro tatsumi #sakura minamoto #lily hoshikawa #saki nikaido #junko konno #tae yamada #yugiri #ai mizuno

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moistwithgender · 5 years

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Monthly Media Roundup (April 2019)

April was a bit of a disaster month for me, and as such I didn’t get much of anything finished. Old wounds got reopened, I was sick all month, I had an unavoidably bad birthday, and a lifelong pet died. I didn’t engage with a lot of things, and mostly slept. I did play a lot of Breath of the Wild, but seeing as I didn’t finish that, I’m not including it yet. Here’s the things I did finish:

Games:

Blaster Master Zero (Switch): I actually first bought and finished this two years ago, and since the sequel has come out I decided to replay it with the Shovel Knight DLC character. While I genuinely like this game (I 100%’d it both times), I was not really in a good spot to enjoy this playthrough, and just kinda mindlessly pushed through it for nine consecutive hours, beating it in that single sitting. Playing as a DLC character removes the story, which is fine since they’re intended for replays, though I wonder if it added to my emotional disconnect. SK doesn’t receive fall damage, and so the precariousness of navigating the world outside of the highly-mobile tank doesn’t exist nearly as much, though the trade-off is that SK’s combat abilities in dungeons are hindered by an overall lack of range. The game is still rather easy, though, so I can’t say any particular level cadences or combat scenarios carved their way into my memory.

To the game’s credit, though, the things that are good about it are still good. If you have an attachment to the original NES game, or an interest in retro properties, or just want a nice, breezy platformer, it’s very good. It’s interesting in how it repurposes the altered plot of the US version of the original game (where it was its most popular), including even the plot of the little novelization that came out because Gotta Get Those Video Game Kids to Read Something. It has a fake out ending, and if you 100% the maps it unlocks a final map that is genuinely surreal enough to be the highlight of the game. Despite my sighing, it is a genuinely good time, and I’m very curious to play the new game, somewhat hilariously titled Blaster Master Zero 2.

Anime:

That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime: I chewed through the last four episodes of this so that I could say I finally finished the season. I didn’t watch the post-season recap episode. TenSura (the abbreviation of the Japanese title, which I will use to refer to it because satisfyingly abbreviating the english title is impossible) is not a very good show, but for about half the length of the 24-episode first season, it fascinates due to how it functions at all. TenSura is an isekai show, much like the other isekai shows, where a person dissatisfied with their life is brutally murdered (usually by a truck. USUALLY by a truck) and is reborn in a fantasy world that coincidentally gives them an absurd advantage over other people, allowing them to live out all the decadence they felt they deserved in the real world. If this sounds like the most boring kind of wish fulfillment possible to you, that’s because it is. It’s also extremely popular with consumers. Which is interesting! I think the isekai boom is indicative of how late-stage capitalism everyday people the world over, that we envision or escape to worlds where your efforts actually return appropriate reward. A bonkers concept, to be sure.

In TenSura, the formula doesn’t stray much. The main character is a man in his 30s (?) who has never fucked and gets knifed to death while HEROICALLY saving a coworker from a plot-irrelevant stabber dude who was running down the sidewalk with his knife out for no reason besides Main Character Needs an Inciting Incident Now. It’s actually pretty weirdly violent for the start to a show that is almost entirely light-hearted. Dude dies, his coworker dumps his hard drive in the bath out of respect (lol), and he wakes up in a fantasy world that works on videogame logic, including loot, skill trees, and class upgrades. He is reborn as an adorable slime a la Dragon Quest, but the personality traits he had in his previous life (and I guess his choice of dying words) scan to obscenely convenient passive abilities that ensure he’s not only invincible, but will never stop experiencing exponential power growth. Also he immediately makes friends with a final boss-level dragon and then eats him. That’s how he makes friends in this sometimes.

I’m being very cynical here, but the core narrative loop (and it IS a loop) of the series kept my interest for longer than I expected. Rimuru (the name of the reborn protagonist) goes somewhere he hasn’t been, astonishes the nearby (sometimes violent) inhabitants with his overpowered abilities, makes friends with them, and then improves their lives with community. Goblins, direwolves, orcs, demon lords. It stacks and builds upon itself to absurd degrees but it’s interesting that in a genre loaded with very problematic stories of disenchanted dudes finally getting the underage harem they’ve always wanted (aaaaAAAAAAAAA) that the main concept of this series is improving the lives of others and giving them closure for the ways life has hurt them. Even if. Sometimes that hurt was the main character’s doing? Like Rimuru absolutely decapitates a direwolf leader and then adopts the pack who from then on absolutely LOVE the dude. Also one of Rimuru’s abilities is that if he gives a monster a name, it class upgrades, which is generally and reasonably seen as a life improvement. Though, these class upgrades are almost always decidedly “less-tribal” or outright human, which smacks of some imperialist thinking. It’s also something I’m sure I never questioned in old videogames growing up. Meanwhile, there’s also a bit with a woman who came from Japan during that one really bad war, you know the one, and the closure she’s given as she’s dying is handled with actual delicacy. It’s a weird series! It’s only a shame to me that after most of the first season, there was less to talk about. Sometime after the halfway mark, you realize the show is never going to maintain tension for more than half an episode, that all problems are solvable (yes, even terminally ill children), and that the show isn’t going anywhere you can’t predict. It’s a checklist show, and the plot points are a list of achievements being checked off one episode at a time.

I don’t think I would actually recommend the show to most people, despite how popular it is. It’s not a great show, but it does weird enough things for a while that it generates conversations. Which is honestly pretty okay. It’s a pretty okay show. Also, Rimuru is effectively nonbinary (with he pronouns), and that’s… somethin’! (24 episodes, finished 4/17/19, Crunchyroll (Funimation also now has the dub I think? Clips I saw were pretty weird, Rimuru seemed to be characterized differently.))

Manga:

Nejimaki Kagyu Vol 1: You would think a manga that immediately starts with a reference to Phantom Blood would be, well, at least interesting.

Okay maybe invoking a beloved work doesn’t actually mean anything. I just wanted to share this blatant callback. Nejimaki Kagyu is a seinen manga about a highschool teacher whose tragically cursed to, uh, have all teenage girls fall in love with him. And the highschool-age childhood friend of his who has spent her whole life obsessed with him and learning super martial arts to defend his chastity. Her supers make her clothes explode.

…

I take no joy in this travesty.

Anyway, uh. The biggest tragedy here is that the art is actually really good, though the paneling is regularly squished around to hilarious degree. Let’s look at some pages and then forget this manga exists forever.

That horror face is how I feel the entire series should be portraying itself. The manga has a distinct lack of self-awareness.

The fan translation for this series appears to have dropped off halfway through and hasn’t been picked up for years, and based on reviews I saw on MAL talking about the directionlessness of the later volumes, I wonder if the translator got fed up with the series. Oh well!

Kyou no Asuka Show Vol 1: Oh god damn it I just got done with talking about a series about ogling the youth.

BLEASE STOP

Okay so. Kyou no Asuka Show, or “Today’s Asuka Show” is an older slice of life manga by the same author I mentioned previously who is doing an edutainment series about people working in a condom factory. Innocently-minded women in comedically lewdish situations appears to be his whole bag. I think Asuka is pretty charming, but I also know she’s designed to appeal to my monkey male gaze. Obliviously sexy is very much a mood, and in a more adult context I would be all for it. There have been a few chapters where I find myself at odds with the wisdom the author is attempting to impart, sometimes through Asuka’s father, who works as an adult photographer, and doesn’t want his daughter involved in anything that could cause her to be ogled. Like, that’s already something that requires a lot of unpacking in the modern day. Aforementioned wisdom sometimes takes the form of Asuka doing something stupid and innocent and ripe for objectifying, like wearing a school swimsuit in a rainstorm. Or she’ll work a job as a cute girl courier and inadvertently turn a shut-ins life around. Situations where, if it were in real life, I’d think “wow that’s weird and charming,” but by being a work of intentional authorship, it inherently loses some of that innocence, and becomes something well-meaning but problematic. Is that the second time I’ve used the word “problematic” in this post? Is this 2014?

I may continue reading this, but I really can’t recommend it to most people I know in 2019 without several disclaimers and also without probably getting some side eye. I think it’s worth a couple chapters to feel out what its doing before you decide whether you can siphon the charm from it, or would rather move on to something else.

Me enjoying myself when this manga tries to suddenly get up to some shit.

Blue Period Vol 1: This is the last thing on my list, because I don’t want to expand this list beyond the three mediums I’ve already assigned to it. Also, I actually finished this May 1st, but I wanted to talk about it now.

If I had the power to actually get people to engage with a specific work once per month, Blue Period would easily be the one I pick. That doesn’t mean as much when all the other things I finished this month were conflicted experiences, but I really think everyone would benefit from this series. Or at least anyone with even a passing interest in visual arts.

Blue Period (named for Picasso’s Blue Period) is about a highschool delinquent who has a knack for studying, a safe social life, and no interests in pretty much anything. He’s on the road to do fine in his life, and he doesn’t question it much, but that’s it, until he discovers art and realizes it’s the only way he’s ever been able to truly communicate his feelings. It changes everything about him, for more emotionally satisfying reasons, but also riskier ones. He only has one year of highschool to go to decide what he’s doing with his life, and Japan has a very strict education system. You’re not really allowed to just “get around” to things.

Apologies in advance if you’re tired of me spamming full pages but I really do wanna show this off. This is another series with an educational angle to it, though the emphasis is definitely more rooted in a personal narrative of growth. The explanations of art practice and the functionality of exercises and tools are both very informative and relevant to the characters, never feeling like the story is taking a backseat to explain. The characters are, hilariously, everyone I’ve ever met in an art class. There’s the kid who would rather exclusively draw the things they like, there’s the kid who likes art as a hobby but haaaates being given a project, etc etc. There are students who have an innate grasp on how to draw but haven’t internalized the Why of the exercises, and students who are receptive to the lessons but don’t have the ability to match. The narrative is extremely even-handed towards all of these different levels of skills, and places a lot more importance on why, emotionally, you should totally care about drawing apples and water pitchers for five hours at a time. It’s GREAT and I want to force it on every creative I’ve ever known.

Another thing I appreciate about this series so far is that while there has been something resembling sexual/romantic tension, it’s kind of not like that at all? In the first volume I haven’t been able to pinpoint where a potential relationship subplot would go, if at all. Two possibilities are this girl:

...who is a very likable character but surprisingly doesn’t fit into that box of “standard love interest”. The protag’s interactions with her have been exclusively respectful and admiring, which doesn’t even necessarily imply a romantic subplot, but would be pretty cool if it did? And the other girl:

...who is featured in decidedly more sexual tension-y contexts, is actually TRANS. The manga actually portrays them so uncompromisingly feminine that I didn’t realize they were crossdressing (the term used in the text) until the author’s notes at the end of the volume. I will partially blame this on me being out of it this month, since I just went back to their introduction and yep, they got misgendered and contested it. Given how the character is regularly framed (confident, attractive, skilled, nonstereotypical), I’m… pretty okay with this! If a romance blooms between a delinquent boy and a trans girl, that’s amazing.

I hope y’all understand where I’m coming from in expecting a shoehorned romantic subplot. I’m not hoping for one, I just know the product by now. And if it happens, the options are considerably more interesting than usual.

These are pretty good kids.

Manga licensing is a lot better nowadays than it ever was before, with lots of obscure series being picked up, old series getting re-localized, and translations being better than ever. I really really want this series to get licensed so someone can be compensated for it, and so more people might read it. Until then, I think you should look up the fan work.

---

So that’s all for April. If these posts included live-action movies, I’d have talked about Endgame, but I also don’t want to go spoiling anything for someone who still wants to go see that (it’s probably one of my favorite MCU movies, though). I read most of 1970-71 in Marvel comics, or at least most of the issues on my reading list, but I semi-liveblog about those, so you can just search my “curry reads comics” tag for that. Here’s hoping I have more interesting, more positive things to say about May in a month. I expect to finish Breath of the Wild by then, so I’ll finally talk about that. Thanks for reading, if you made it this far! Go check out Blue Period.

#curry reads manga #curry watches anime #curry plays games

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tangomango2017 · 5 years

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Thoughts on the Chinese DotA Animated Series, The Tower Will Go On, and its two main characters

It’s been five years since this animated series based on Warcraft 3 Dota was made. The fan forum is still alive, and it’s amazing to witness the fan dedication to this work, in the form of essays, debates and even a ridiculously detailed second-by-second analysis of the opening theme.

But I barely got a glimpse of those essays before they were removed, apparently to be scrutinized by their internet police for objectionable content. The series itself has also been taken off all China websites, such that China’s fans themselves can’t watch them even if they wanted to revisit. Which makes me so glad that I have all the episodes in HD.

Anyway, on to the show itself. It’s divided into two parts:

Season One is about Crystal Maiden forming her rag-tag team of Radiant/Sentinel heroes. It’s light-hearted and full of jokes. The heroes die a lot and revive at the fountain every time. Sniper’s death count reaches above 300 at one point.

Season Two (titled Death for the Reborn) is darker as the team clashes with the Dire/Scourge and the war intensifies. The plot gets more complicated with internal factions, spying and conspiracies. The rules change: the river that revives dead heroes gets corrupted, so deaths are permanent.

One’s reaction to this show would likely be: “No! This isn’t Dota. This isn’t Invoker at all! What travesty is this?!”

But first, let’s consider these two things:

Firstly, the story is set in the game map. All hero skills and items stay faithful to the game. There is no ‘lore’ to speak of, as this series came out before Valve took over Dota. During that period, ownership of Dota was attributed to Ice Frog, who’s referenced in episode 2.

Eul’s Scepter in the show

Old Eul’s Scepter in Dota 1

Secondly, it’s fan-made. And as with all fan creations, anything’s possible.

For example,

It’s possible for Bloodseeker to be gay with a jungle creep(centaur) and foster a baby centaur.

Bloodseeker X Jungle Centaur in the show

Old Strygwyr in Dota 1

It’s possible for a carry to be so fed, he’s ten times the size of another:

Daddy Doom and his Little QuoP

Love it or hate it, this fan tribute to Dota is in a class of its own. It’s entertained me for hours, made me laugh, sigh, cringe, think; it was one hell of a nostalgic ride back to Warcraft Dota days. And it will always have a special place in my heart.

And now, on to the main characters…

The protagonist - a tribute to Support Heroes

‘Little Ice’ (China’s pet name for Crystal Maiden) is a fan-service kind of character whose appeal is mostly sexual and emotional. I won’t talk much about her but I won’t write her off completely either.

So Little Ice starts off with a dream to rise above her destiny as a position 5 support. She’s left her team carry (Dragon Knight) as she resents him for being overbearing and overly task-oriented. (It’s unclear what’s the relationship between the two, though they hug a couple of times). She tries to carve a career for herself, forming her own rag-tag team. But reality is a wet blanket, and like her role in the game, her impact on the story is limited and she ends up having her heart broken several times.

Old Crystal Maiden from Warcraft 3 Dota

In the show, she is depicted as a klutz with a bad sense of direction and is sometimes impulsive, casting Freezing Field at the most ridiculous, anti-climactic moment and generally doing stuff that would be considered ‘bad decision making’ in the game.

But despite her limitations, the girl has a mind of her own. She stands firm in her beliefs and is courageous enough to try to protect her male teammates. Even when said teammate is the Dragon Knight being bashed up by Roshan.

She is also fiercely loyal, refusing to abandon the dying Bristleback and instead managing to persuade DK to risk a Roshan fight to get the Aegis.

Overall, I’d say her character serves two purposes here: as a shoutout to under-appreciated Support players, and as a symbol of innocence. This trait of hers is seen as a weakness and is used to comical effect, yet, at the same time it is also something to be prized and guarded. The Queen of Pain (portrayed as a man-hater with lesbian tendencies) mocks her several times for her naivety, yet she admits that CM represents the innocence that she’s lost and that she needs to protect.

From Zero to (Anti) Hero

The central character, Kael (pronounced Ka-er, I’ll refer to him as Carl since it matches the Chinese pronunciation) appears in the second episode and drives the entire story with his zero to anti-hero arc. The title of Season Two refers to him being reborn from the ashes (he was Doomed and almost killed in a fire). He is the only one besides QoP to have a backstory (both underwent the trauma of having their entire homeland and families destroyed).

Invoker from Warcraft 3 Dota

Invoker from Season One of the show

Invoker from Season Two

While this Invoker is as OOC as he can get, there’s no denying the detail that has been put into his design. For example, in Season 2 his orbs are actually faces, perhaps representing the connection of Invoker’s volatile temperament to his elemental powers.

Just as the two parts of the show are divided into a dichotomy of light and dark, there are two different depictions of Invoker in each part.

Season One Invoker

If you’ve ever played this hero, Season One will remind you of how it felt the very first time you tried him in a game. Clueless, powerless, the butt of your teammates’ jokes perhaps.

Carl first appears in episode two quoting that famous line from Shakespeare’s Hamlet. It sounds really pretentious (not that surprising for Carl), but considering that Hamlet killed someone by accident in the play, it’s also a kind of foreshadowing of what will happen later on.

So Carl is introduced as a depressed guy trying to hang himself. In a comically tragic manner, he tells his story as a former prince who lost his home, sought refuge with the Dire/Scourge but is constantly scorned for being useless as he hasn’t figured out his spells.

With a background like that, who wouldn’t be damaged for life? But CM sees him as even more vulnerable than her, and he brings out the encouraging and protective side of her. Of course, the naive part of her ignores the fact that he is a defector from the enemy side.

Carl is of course extremely grateful, having found the acceptance he’s always longed for, and one can see the beginning of a pure, somewhat platonic love between the two.

In China, Invoker/CM are almost regarded as canon pairing, with roots going back to Kael’thas/Jaina from Warcraft.

Initially, she brings out the good qualities in him, such as courage and self-sacrifice. Noob Carl is actually quite lovable, even willing to take one for the team by ‘donating’ blood to the Bloodseeker. He forges a strong friendship with the gang and they have a lot of fun fending off their one enemy in Season One.

Although he’s harmless at this point, his uselessness repeatedly emphasized by all characters, there are glimpses of his more complicated self, such as when he uses his knowledge and cunning to get the team out of trouble. More foreshadowing of who he is to become is given by the Queen of Pain, who tries in vain to warn CM about his potential for evil.

Meteoric Rise to Power

Two events serve as catalysts to the awakening of his powers. First there’s the excessively bloody whipping that Queen of Pain gives him, just because she feels like it. This happens in the middle of a team fight and in his state of desperation, it is his thoughts of CM (whose nickname is literally, Little Ice Ice) that unlocks his first skill, Ghostwalk. At the same time, the sinister side of him awakens as he turns the tables on the Queen and blinds her in one eye before burying her alive.

And then he gets punished by Doom, who’s rather high up in the hierarchy here. Doom (whom everyone calls ‘Daddy’) is furious to find out that his beloved god-daughter, his Little QuoP has been hurt. He finds out about this in an interesting manner - by devouring the jungle centaur that witnessed the incident.

Doom: WHO ATE THE COOKIES?

Tiny, CM, etc: (keeps quiet)

Doom: Very well, I shall find out the truth (devours jungle creep).

(everyone watches on nervously)

Doom: …CARL!

Carl: Yes Daddy?

Doom: How dare you eat my cookies!

Carl: I don’t get what you’re talking about, Daddy

Doom: You’ll get THIS, you little shit.

Season Two Invoker

After being doomed and running into the forest in agony, Carl goes missing for a while. A flashback later shows Dazzle’s saved him and bandaged him up like a mummy. By chance, Windranger finds him when her Powershot arrow accidentally hits him. Probably out of guilt, she brings him home and cares for him for three months. When Ogre Magi harasses WR and sets her house on fire, Carl rises from the ashes with a complete makeover, a costume change, full mastery of magic and a marked change in personality. The change feels really abrupt and I’d have preferred something more gradual. But the writers probably wanted a striking contrast between the two seasons.

So he helps her fend off the Ogre and she falls in love with him. But he stays true to CM.

Despite what this shot in the opening theme suggests, WR doesn’t force herself on him. She’s really cool.

In Season Two, Carl’s personality becomes much more conflicted, longing to return to CM yet afraid to endanger her with Doom hot on his heels. While she thinks about him in her quiet moments, he watches over her in invisible form. The next triggering event is when the Dragon Knight beats him to rushing to CM’s rescue. He is consumed by jealousy and the fire element comes to the forefront. From then on, his emotional instability deteriorates further, and with some goading from Dazzle, he forms a plan to destroy DK with Ancient Apparition’s Ice Blast dealing the killing blow.

However that plan goes tragically wrong when his old friend Bristleback walks into the Sunstrike spot. One mistake leads to another, and he ends up killing QuoP as well. That confrontation between the two is one of the most dramatic scenes I’ve ever seen. When the Queen threatens to reveal his bad deeds to CM, he starts grovelling and begging her for forgiveness, but it turns out it’s all an act allowing him to get close to her for a tornado. Despite the cringeyness there is a special kind of satisfaction in seeing one’s favourite video game character display the whole range of emotions, just as it’s satisfying seeing him perform the whole shebang of spells after being abused for the first ten episodes.

Carl’s final move is one that completely breaks CM’s heart. He steals the Aegis meant for saving Bristleback’s life. However, his motivation isn’t very clear and was the topic of much debate and speculation among the Chinese fans at that time. But going by his character’s trajectory, it’s highly likely he’s doing it for self-preservation. After all, Doom’s absolutely livid that he’s killed QuoP and the Aegis is his only chance at standing against Big Daddy Doom. But the ending leaves questions unanswered. Now that he’s pissed off both sides, what’s to become of him? Is his character totally irredeemable? How will the war end? Season Three was supposed to be in the works, but never materialized.

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a-rdentlyy · 5 years

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*finger guns* fuck vld s8 B)

I was incapable to do my final projects until I wrote down all my feelings. VLD is trash, but I’m sadly obsessed with it, dear god just end my suffering. Just to be clear, I also have some (very few) good things to say about this season but those will be at the end.

Cons

lol the whole fucking season

Pretty much everything concerning Lance was about Allura, nothing about his own personal growth except when talking to Keith

Sunset talk was romantic as FUCK and Keith spoke about how great Lance was and was just so fucking soft the whole time

Sitting at the table and confiding in each other about personal growth had me tearing up tbh

Literally episode one was extremely gay

Like, super gay

Lance and Allura have an awkward date, which was honestly pretty cute, EXCEPT for when Lance suddenly tells her he loves her and she’s just like “i mean ok i guess” and they kiss????????????

What the hell??????????

And why the fuck did Lance choose to seek solace in Keith when he was worried about his “date”??????? (hint: its gay fellas)

And then when Veronica asked about Keith and if he was single Lance literally freaked the fuck out for like 67493862988409 years

HUGE queerbait season and episode if you ask me :/

How the FUCK is Ezor still alive, I’m not complaining, but this was out of nowhere

The astral plane episode w the old paladins could have been so cool

Blaytz should have been with Lance, literally his whole speech about people underestimating him and “fucking having greatness within” is LITERALLY what Allura said to him in either season 5 or 6 (can’t remember and don’t really care about their interactions tbh)??????? Like??????? Give my boy some validation that isn’t centered around his romantic life?????

Alfor should have been with Allura. That’s her fucking dad and his whole “my daughter chose you cuz ur cool i guess” speech to Lance felt so flat and awkward, I hated it. Everything about Alfor’s speech would have been so much better if it wasn’t about how Allura liked him.

AND SHE DIDN’T EVEN CHOOSE LANCE, SHE CHOSE LOTOR AND SETTLED FOR LANCE BECAUSE HE WAS HER CONSTANT COMPANION

They did Lotor dirty, my trash son

Not a single bit of actual redemption

In the Honerva flashback episode could see how his parents tore him down. Zarkon destroying his first colony broke him.

Totally unresolved Lotura plotline. I really liked them together and they had genuine chemistry unlike the “main” bullshit ship of the season. Allura first tries to kill him in her nightmare and then immediately trusts him after he says like 2 words????????? Girl ain’t over her ex.

So was he actually evil and was really sucking out quinessence or was that plotline just never touched upon, cuz he tried to explain what was happening in s6 but was never really allowed to speak?????

The Altean colony was never really resolved???????

Like, who’s running it now??????

Altean/Farmer Lance

Don’t even talk to me about this shit

What the FUCK is with him suddenly becoming Altean????? Like, if he had, you know, some Altean descendents and his little markings were suddenly activated then i’d kind of get it

Also Lance has Altean markings now, because we just can’t let Lance move on from Allura and be happy can we

This ending was SUCH BULLSHIT. Lance has always wanted to be a pilot but now that some girl he liked is dead he wants to live on a farm w his family?????

I’m still not done with how they won’t just let Lance move on from Allura and be happy

He lives on Altea, of all places, so he’ll see her people everywhere

He has fucking Altean markings so he’ll be reminded of her every time he looks at himself in the mirror

Honerva seemed like such a good, complex villain but they just made her goal so fucking dumb

I figured she’d want to get Lotor back (which I dug because I’m always here for mother’s love n shit) plotlines, but suddenly she’s trying to get to an alternate universe?????? The fuck?????

And what the hell happened when she actually went to the AU, what the actual fuck

What a bitch, she’s still pissed at Allura even in this alternate reality

Lol AU baby Lotor telling Honerva how she sucks is incredible

Klance

Fucking gypped

So much build up

Where the hell is the “slow burn” endgame for Lance?????? Definitely not with Allura, that shit was rushed as hell

Literally so much chemistry between Keith and Lance

Allurance

I don’t actually hate Allurance

The writers just suck at doing their job and making good romantic relationships

Literally cringed at every scene where Allura and Lance interacted tho, it just felt so forced

When Lance said “my girlfriend” I actually had to stop watching and had to take a solid half hour to recover (I’m not even joking), it was the worst thing I had ever heard

HELLA rushed “i love you” to Allura. Lance, she’s the fucking best, I agree, but dude. You honestly don’t even really know each other that well (the demi in me is coming out lol)

Allura never once responded to Lance saying I love you until the very end, and even then it felt more like a platonic “I love who you are” deal. She definitely didn’t love Lance like he cared for her.

She even ended up dying and walked towards Lotor at the end, she still chose Lotor over Lance at the very end

And we just can’t let Lance have anything nice, can we

Lotura

“He was happy with you” fuckin Honerva speaking the truth for once

Literally one of the best ships that crashed and burned for no reason

Through this entire season you can still see Allura isn’t over Lotor

Allura, they did you so dirty as well

My wife

I’m so sorry for what they did to you

This amazing survivor of genocide that thought that she was the last survivor was killed off

They also ruined ur character tho, the real Allura would never have basically tortured the real Zarkon without quintessence poisoning

And you would have realized you don’t actually love Lance like that

Those goodbyes actually destroyed me at the end tho

“I’m gonna miss you Allura” BITCH ME TOO, THE FUCK

Shiro’s goodbye made me tear up the most

So she can create infinite realities because of her sacrifice except for one where she lives???????

And who’s leading the new Altea????? No one???? They never explain what happens with the actual colony that Lotor made and the current timeline

Holy shit I just realized we never actually found out if Lotor survived the quintessence field or not

I mean, almost certainly didn’t

But still, that shit’s important to tell us

Looked like a hawk carrying away a baby mouse

Shiro’s wedding was fucking bullshit

Like finally he can be happy

But god, give us fucking SOME development that isn’t damage control

At least I liked whoever he married in those background scenes despite never learning his name

MATT’S HAIRCUT IS A TRAVESTY at the end

He looks way better with long hair

What the fuck was with the lions just dipping??????????

Tbh that shit made me cry

And now they’re just chilling out in space??????

Pros

The beginning of the season was actually surprisingly really good? Like, I was nearly invested the whole time up until episode 8?????? And then it got fucking insane and weird with no explanation.

THE ANIMATION IS GORGEOUS

Baby Lotor was so fucking cute, I adore him.

Those small Klance scenes killed me

Keith supporting and validating everything Lance has done and just being a great bf in general

That romantic ass sunset scene (you CANNOT tell me that shit was platonic)

We could have had it all yo :(

Surprisingly really liked Kinkade’s vlog episode, it made me like the MFE pilots

I didn’t care about them at ALL in s7 but now I like them more

Just Kinkade and Rizavi tho

Some tasty VeronicaxAcxa shit

That’s lesbian activity

Thank god Bex was right when she said Kacxa wasn’t gonna be a thing

Old Paladin’s were pretty cool except for the bullshit talking

BAD. ASS. VOLTRON/ATLAS FUSION.

Thank GOD Galra Emperor Keith wasn’t a thing

Coran keeping Allura’s memory alive keeps me alive

HIS TOAST TO HER HAD ME CRYING

THEY REALLY WERE FAMILY

Thank god it doesn’t seem like Lance is insanely depressed a year after Allura’s death, this kid needs closure and to move on and find some semblance of happiness that doesn’t revolve around romance

Small Klance moments at the end

That fucking reunion at the end made me cry

At least we got a mlm kiss, even though it’s garbage :)

List of Those Done Dirty

ALLURA

Lance

Lotor

Shiro

Adam

The Whole Fucking Fandom

All in all, fuck v slur, 3/10 for the season and 4.5/10 for the whole show. Seasons 1-3 are the only canon seasons. Except for parts of Season 5 and 6. Those can stay.

Also Klance is Canon King.

#voltron legendary defender #voltron spoilers #vld spoilers #voltron season 8 #vld season 8 #vld season 8 spoilers #shut up tess

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lia-nikiforov · 7 years

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Fall 2017 Anime Watchlist

Blablabla school is kicking my butt blablabla I shouldn’t even be doing this blablabla THERE’S A LOT OF GOOD ANIME THIS SEASON

So naturally I’m gonna go back to my worst to best format for this list. Get the trash out first

Dropped

Dies Irae: Aren’t these villains named after actual historical Nazis who were directly involved with orchestrating the holocaust soooo cooooool , so interesting, such tortured profound souls that--- ugh, I just threw up in my mouth a little. I don’t care if the Nazis are the villains, making them into complex, appealing characters is unacceptable, less so given the times we live in.

(get it, it’s a real nazi getting punched in the face, aren’t you glad you follow me so I can provide you this quality content)

Yuki Yuna wa Yuusha de aru: Yuusha no Sho: Because I wasn’t a big fan of the first season, I thought this might make for decent hate-watch, but it’s just not bad enough to warrant it. It’s also criminally boring. And because part of what made the original so bad was the ending, and this being a prequel we already know how it ends, there’s no point to it imho. I enjoy screaming at the void about shows I find stupid, but this one isn’t even worth the time. Ballroom is all the hatewatch material I’ll ever need

Black Clover: I could say a lot about this show’s egregious lack of uniqueness and originality, or how poorly executed the whole thing is, but really the only thing you need to know about this and why it’s an insufferable watch is:

THE!!!! PROTAGONIST !!!!!NEVER!!!!! STOPS!!!!! YELLING!!!!!!

Inuyashiki: My first problema with this show is the main dude is supposed to be 58 years old but he looks older than most 65+. It’s a dumb little thing, but it completely breaks my suspense of disbelief. Other than that, the writing is just so viscerally hateful it’s extremely uncomfortable to watch. What I’d understood from the synopsis was that the aliens had accidentally merged the old man and the young dude into a single robot body, but the way it is presented -with the old guy as the hero and the young guy as the villain- the moral of the story seems to be basically “millennials are killing the diamond industry”, or, in terms of a more well-known -though perhaps too easy- meme:

Urahara: I really wanted to like this show and support these young female creators in an industry that tends to not give them any opportunities. It’s not like it’s bad at all, nor is it offensive, it’s just really boring. The visuals are adorable, but the characters feel completely unreal –three high school girls run their own shop in Harajuku?-, especially pigtail girl who delivers every line like she was trying super hard to sound like an ojousama archetype. The show is completely committed to its Harajuku kawaii culture aesthetic and attitude, which is commendable but also something that honestly make me a little uncomfortable for no particular reason. I also feel extremely robbed off actual transformation sequences in this magical girl show. In a less busy season I might hold on to see where this went, but as it is, I’d rather wait and see how it ends and then decide if I should spend time on it.

Utter trash that I’m still gonna watch because I hate myself or something

Ousama Game: I think it’s important to make a distinction between hate-watch and irony-watch. Hatewatch is something you do with a show that’s terrible and probably offensive, but it never touches so-bad-it’s-good territory. You can pick the show apart for all of its flaws, be it an ill-conceived plot, poor characterization, or, you know, being grossly mysoginistic. Examples of shows I’ve hatewatched include KADO, Sailor Moon Crystal and Super Lovers. An Irony-watch is a show that pretty much everyone can agree is a dumpster fire, and it succeeds so much in its terribleness it’s histerical. Hand Shakers and Neo Yokio are prime examples of quality irony-watch material. And so is Ousama Game. It’s not even worth pointing out its flaws because there’s just nowhere to start, there is not a single thing this show does right and it’s hysterical. Of course it has the squick factor of having some gross fetish with people’s tongues lolling out and their faces getting ridiculously contracted in gross fashion when they die, but other than that, it takes itself so seriously and mixed with its 2006 low budget aesthetic the whole thing is madly hilarious.

Welcome to the Ballroom: This is my choice for hatewatch show of the seaon. After the disgusting dung that was episode 15, I’ve lost all hopes of the show ever getting “better” as was repeatedly promised by fans of the manga once the queen lord and savior Chinatsu appeared. Lo and behold, Chinatsu’s character arc is to learn to be more “feminine” and to let herself be “controlled” by Tatara. Throw in some casual homophobia just for good measure. I really have to wonder why the mangaka set out to write a manga about a sport that necessarily requires a man and a woman in partnership if she hates women so much and can’t treat them as anything above second-class citizens-

(srsly show, why do you hate women so much)

Sengoku Night Blood: It’s been a while since we got a dumbass Sengoku bishonen show that wasn’t aggressively boring. This one though, still challenges my tolerance limits for being dumbass ridiculous with its premise of vampire/werewolf Sengoku daimyo. The costumes and character designs are super ridiculous yet strangely non-distinctive. I have a hard time figuring out who is who because most lack their historical counterparts most notable features, and there’s a lot of same-face-iness everywhere. The show is clearly not afraid of embracing its otoge origins, the “love event” moments are terribly transparent. I just wish either the female character was completely erased or that the guys would stop treating her so badly. I know she’s useless, but I don’t understand why the show has dudes saying things such as “it’s really bothersome that you’re here” and frame them as if they were suuuuper romantic.

(lmfao there are no gifs for this one, maybe I’m the only sucker watching it)

Juuni Taisen: To be honest I was ready to drop this one after confirming it was gonna be more Nisio Isin fake philosophical bullshit that is actually just otaku fanservice. Instead I got schlocky ultra violence garbage and it’s actually kinda fun? Look, I’m gonna come clean, I’m just watching it for the necromancer chip’n-dale rabbit with high heels and a huge fluffy tail, but if that’s not a good reason to watch a show, none is.

Not bad, but not quite good

Shoujo Shuumatsu Ryoukou: This was another one that wasn’t quite on my radar before the season began, I only checked it out because it got excellent reviews. It’s actually surprisingly charming, although the pacing is slow, the muted color palette can be tiring and nothing really seems to be happening. I honestly struggled to stay awake during episode 2. Although there is nothing inherently wrong with the show, I’m considering dropping it because I’m just watching too much stuff and don’t have time, but I’ll wait for episode 3 to make my final decision (I’ll probably watch it Monday)

Shokoku no Altair: After the really good Sultan arc, apparently we had to go through another speed course on how to acquire new members for the party. I’m pretty much resigned to this not being the epic historical drama Arslan also failed to be, but it’s still sad to see this one getting the crappy production values while Inuyashiki is a lavishly animated production about bitter old men hating youngsters. Anyway, as long as further arcs can replicate the level of excitement and intrigue of the sultanlu arc, I’ll be looking forward to it and how Mahmut’s story unfolds.

Fate/Apocrypha: You can tell how trashy the summer season was that Fate, which was one of my favorite shows of the season, is barely in the middle of the pack of this crowded Fall season. It’s also worth noting that I’ve lost a lot of the goodwill I’d mustered for the show after the writers remembered Palurdo-kun was supposed to be the protagonist, so now that he’s taken the center stage (and become Astolfo’s Master, which is a travesty, Astolfo deserves so much better than satisfying otaku’s otokonoko fetiches orz) I find myself rolling my eyes more often than not. Still hope to get cool fights out of this one and more Astolfo and Mordred.

GARO Vanishing Line: MAPPA brings us a new iteration of the GARO franchise, this time with a modern setting that throws back to ultra macho 80s anime OVAs aesthetic –I wouldn’t know, never watched those-. The hero is a buff uber muscular dude that literally prays at women’s boobs and Zaruba is a giant motorcycle that thinks women stink. The production values are impressive, both fight scenes are incredibly cinematic and exciting. The hypermasculinity borders on the hilarious, but I wish it could do away with the sexist humor, which luckily hasn’t been abundant enough to be insufferable. It’s a little soon to judge because they’re barely introducing us to the characters, but I’m still hoping this won’t devolve into shit territory like Crimson Moon did.

Kino no Tabi: Full disclosure, I only watched the first season of Kino a few months ago, so I have it very fresh in my memory. Since I didn’t know that this new season was more a soft reboot rather than a sequel, I thought I needed to watch the first one to check this one out. Turns out it wasn’t necessary, but I’m still glad I did it because the first season is fantastic. Which is why I’m a little concerned about this one, because the reinterpretation of the Colisseum story was… not good. It rushed through the story and made Kino look like a psychopath. The first episode was good so I’m crossing my fingers that this won’t turn into a horrible mess, but so far I’m feeling cautious and worried. But even if this one turns out to be a good reboot, I’d 100% recommend you check out the original.

Anime is in Fact Good

Classicaloid: Another show that came back with a different director and that I worry will struggle to replicate what made the first season special. There are some tonal things that make the change very evident, but so far it has overall been pretty great nonetheless, Classicaloid insane business as usual. I must say “New character appears claiming to be X’s relative, X believes it and starts treating N better to the detriment of the established cast” is a trope I’m not too fond of, but I’m willing to give them some time purely because they have a Hippopotamus that can do Musik. Honestly watching anime makes one write the weirdest of sentences.

Hoozuki no Reitetsu. Something comedy shows have in their favor is that if they come back, even after a long time, it feels like they never left. Hoozuki’s the same old Hoozuki and it’s a load of fun. I’ve loved both episodes so far, I can’t even pick a favorite skit of the ones we’ve had so far because all of them were so good. There’s not really a lot to say, if you liked the first season you’ll like this one. As usual it’s only detriment is you may miss some of the jokes if you’re not familiar with Japanese folklore, but there’s a lot of fun to be had nonetheless.

Recovery of an MMO Junkie: Honestly, I’m very quick to judge a book by its cover, or in this case, an anime by its title. In this case, I promptly dismissed this as yet another otaku oriented harem videogame fantasy or whatever without even reading the synopsis. Then I heard the positive reactions to it and decided to give it a shot and boy was I pleasantly surprised! Not only does it feature a woman in her thirties as a protagonist –which is insanely rare! But it also focuses on delightfully adorable romance that breaches the barriers of gender. And honestly, there’s that scene in episode two in which Moriko sends a text and then horrified realizes it’s 2:00 am and feels super ashamed about it and it was so relatable I was 100% sold.

Best of the season

(don’t mind the order, I’ve loved all of these equally

Kujira no Kora wa Sajou ni Utau: So I may have misunderstood what this was about. I rarely read plot synopsis, so for some reason –I guess at first I thought the title was Kujira wa Sora- I thought there would be flying whales. There aren’t, but that’s definitely not a detriment to this incredible fantasy dystopian world. The color palette and the watercolor texture of the backgrounds gives it a magical atmosphere that is just a delight to watch. Although there’s a lot of exposition, none has felt like a forced infodump. The pacing is overall fantastic, and although the characters are a mystery for the most part, they’re already very endearing. This season is ripe with enchanting fantasy worlds and I’m really hyped about it.

Houseki no Kuni: I was concerned about the CG designs on this one, but they work surprisingly well! The plot is still a bit unclear, but they’ve done a really good job in building the characters through their relationships to one another. Even though we don’t know a lot about them, I felt a lot of empathy for Cinnabar and Diamond and Bort, and Phos is a pretty nice point of view character to follow around. I’m definitely intrigued by the concept, and the execution has been great so far.

Blood Blockade Battlefront & Beyond: I hadn’t realized how much I missed this show until I watched the first episode of this new season. The loss of Rie Matsumoto’s wonderful directorial vision is very noticeable in the straightforwardness of the storytelling, but otherwise the show is surprisingly still a load of bombastic fun with endearing characters and fascinating world building. I particularly liked the hospital episode. I’m not sure where this story is going, but I’m excited to go along for the ride.

The Ancient Magus Bride: It’s important to note that the first episode has a lot of questionable material (please, can Elias never ever call Chise a puppy ever again), but I have to commend a great production when I see it. Readers of the manga assure that the questionable content will be contextualized later on, so I’m hopeful, because I’m already really sold on this show and I really don’t want it to be gross. It’s hard to explain or describe, but it just has this fantasy magical charm and a beautiful production that got me hooked from start to finish. It has been hyped to hell and back and so far it has lived up to my expectations. I think, apart from the lovely production values, the characters feel very real and deep from start to finish. It’s hard to explain why I feel so drawn to this show that should have so many red alarms ringing in my head, but I can’t help feel completely charmed by it

How am I gonna survive such a busy season with so much homework? Will I die trying? Will Ballroom ever stop hating women and gay people? Stay tuned to find out! And let me know which shows you’re watching this season!

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sulietsexual · 7 years

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I've seen people constantly asking about buffy/spike/angel!!! But what about Cordy and angel? Thoughts?!? Any meta? I love ur meta

So, I personally don’t ship Cangel, for me the chemistry was never there and the ship felt very forced. Butif you’re after an in-depth meta on the ship, here is an old meta of mine never published on Tumblr,polished up a bit, exploring what I believe went wrong with the Cangel ship.Warning – this is a loooong read.

Angel are a ship that, in theory, reallyshould have worked. The audience watch them evolve from strangers to friends tofamily, growing closer and learning more about each other in the process. Theyhave amazing chemistry as friends and are addictively watchable in theirinteractions. Moving their relationship into romantic territory seemed like themost natural step for the writers to take. Unfortunately it all went terriblywrong. The question is why? It doesn’t seem right that this particular pairing,with their chemistry and history, didn’t work onscreen.

The initial seeds of the Cangelrelationship are sown throughout the early episodes of Season 3. Season 1introduced their friendship, Season 2 established it and Season 3 is where itstarts to move towards something more romantic. We start to see the small hintsthat Angel’s feelings may be changing when Cordelia starts receiving physicalmanifestations of her visions in 3.2 That Vision Thing. Angel’s concern andrage over what is happening to Cordelia are similar to the emotions heexpressed when he was with Buffy. We also see a change in Cordelia’s feelingsas she tearfully tells Angel of her fear that he won’t need her anymore.Whereas in previous seasons she may have said that the group didn’t need her,or she didn’t know her place in the world, she now focuses on Angel and what itwill mean for him not to need her.

In 3.5 Fredless we are given more smallbut priceless gems to indicate the furthering of Angel and Cordelia’s feelings.Just watching Angel’s face when Cordelia calls him over to be patched up isadorable and her affectionate look along with her teasing “What adork” comment are equally touching. We are also treated to thedelightfully droll “I could sooth your ass off, pal” comment fromCordelia, along with Angel’s petulant “You think I’m fat?” line. Allof these separately do not indicate more than friendship but when put togetherstart to form a picture of what’s to come.

Episode 3.6 Billy gives us one of themost natural and beautiful scenes in the construction of the Cangel relationship.The episode opens with Angel and Cordelia working out in the basement as Angeltrains her to fight. As Cordelia brings a sword up over her head, she and Angellean into the blow together, moving in perfect synchronisation. Angel touchesher hip as he moves with her and she leans into him. The scene is notoverflowing with sexual tension (although there is enough to please viewers)but rather showcases the naturalness with which Cordelia and Angel interactwith and touch each other. This one scene shows the beauty of Cangel and theconnection that lies at the core of their relationship, highlighting how intune the two are with each other.

With the return of a very pregnant Darla,Cordelia and Angel’s budding relationship is sidelined. Not only does Darla’sreturn bring up Angel’s unresolved feelings towards her, it cuts through thetrust that has been building between Cordy and Angel since Season 2. Cordeliais horrified at what Angel has done, not from jealousy but because of the trusthe has betrayed. She is deeply hurt that he lied to her and equallydisappointed by the way in which he treated Darla and it’s only natural for herto take a step back from him.

With the next few episodes focused onDarla’s pregnancy and the birth of Connor, little attention is paid to Cangel.It is not until episode 3.11 Birthday that we are tossed another scrap. Twovery small moments underline the growing feelings between Angel and Cordelia.The first comes when Cordelia is being shown the moment she first encounteredAngel in L.A. The love and affection on Cordy’s face as she watches the replayis beautifully understated and needs no further exploration. Her eyes say itall. She is looking at a man she loves and respects and it shows on every inchof her face. Likewise, Angel’s quiet moment with Cordelia as she lies in a comais equally understated and touching. In angry tones he tells her off for nottelling him how badly the visions are affecting her. Underneath his anger isthe very real fear of losing her and realising what she has come to mean tohim. At the end of the episode his joy when she wakes up is beautiful.

If things between Cordelia and Angel hadcontinued to unfold in this manner they would have ended up in a beautifullyconstructed relationship, built on trust, friendship and mutual respect, whilestill keeping their core personalities in place. It could have been thestrongest ship on AtS. Unfortunately the writers had other ideas.

Cue 3.13Waiting In The Wings, the episode which kick-starts the assassination of thispairing. Waiting In The Wings is not a strong episode to begin with and theridiculous route that they take Cordelia and Angel down only adds insult toinjury. All the way back at 3.7 Offspring, Fred introduced the term“kyrumption” in reference to Cordy and Angel, explaining to Angel howit means that he and Cordy are destined to be together. In Waiting In The Wingsthe writers’ felt the need to echo it, this time from Lorne. What’s problematicwith “kyrumption” is that it takes away the audiences’ enjoyment ofdiscovering where the relationship is heading, opting instead to push the relationship onto the viewers.It’s almost as if the writers were worried that they were being too subtle anddecided they needed to make it absolutely clear that Cordy and Angel were meantto be. This was completely unnecessary, as fans were already on board withCangel as a ship and had so far enjoyed watching the build-up. To drop an anvilso obnoxiously onto the viewers lessens the connection between Cordy and Angeland the connection the audience has to the pairing.

Waiting In The Wings continues to murderthe Cordy/Angel dynamic with the plot involving the “echoes” of theprima ballerina and her lover. At this point in the relationship Cordelia and Angelhave not even admitted their feelings to each other and have only just startedto display physical tendencies that would indicate growing romantic feelings.The relationship was not ready to be taken to a physical level, much less thelevel this episode took it to. Laced with obnoxiously dramatic dialogue, Cordyand Angel get hot and heavy in the ballerina’s dressing room, in a scene souncomfortable it’s a wonder the actors didn’t demand a script rewrite.

While it’s not the first time a potentialrelationship has gotten to a physical level before its’ time, the way the scenewas written made for very difficult viewing. Overdramatic dialogue has no placein the Cangel relationship, even via a spell (more on this later). If theepisode had played out in comedic fashion, along the lines of Spike/Buffy inBtVS episode Something Blue, it would have been easier to handle. However, thewhole scene in the dressing room comes across as just another way for thewriters’ to say “Look! Look at how these two are meant to betogether!”. It’s made even worse by the fact that Charisma and Davidseemed to have lost all their chemistry when filming the scene. Whether that’sdown to the dialogue, the storyline or the actors not being comfortable withthe scenario is open to debate.

The cherry on top of the awfulness thatis Waiting In The Wings comes right at the end of the episode. At first we aregiven hope that maybe Cordelia and Angel will finally get to start arelationship, as Angel tentatively starts to tell Cordelia about his feelingsfor her. He is unfortunately interrupted by the arrival of the Groosalug andwith him a ridiculous plot point designed to throw a spanner in the works. Whythe writers’ felt the need to turn Cangel into a love-triangle is beyond me.Bringing Groo back onto the show seemed to serve no purpose other than keepingCordy and Angel apart, a curious move for the writers, given how strongly theyhad been pushing Cangel onto the audience in the very same episode. Whatfollows the Groosalug’s return is an almost complete demolition of therelationship that has been building between Cordelia and Angel. Cordy is senton vacation and Angel is left to brood silently until the biggest tragedy ofhis life occurs; losing his son.

It is completely unforgivable that thewriters’ left Cordelia out of the episodes that centre on Angel losing Connor.She is the one person who has been with him from the beginning and the oneperson who has always been there for him. He has now reached a point where he lovesher and she him (even if they haven’t admitted it) yet she is not present whenhis son is taken from him. That is a travesty and underlines how badly thewriters’ had lost the plot (pun intended) when it came to the Angel/Cordydynamic. To remove the heart of the group and the woman Angel loves during sucha pivotal time in the series was a huge mistake and furthers the destruction ofthe Cordelia/Angel relationship. They have been through everything together yetthey are separated during one of the biggest losses in the show and that hasnever sat well with me.

The tail end of Season 3 takes the messalready created and, if possible, seems to make it worse. When Cordelia returnsfrom vacation she is out-of-character and veering dangerously towards Mary Sueterritory. She has traded in her sarcasm and bluntness for “wiser”, softerstatements, which are very jarring. Her romance with the Groosalug seemsincredibly shallow, her interactions with Angel and the other characters areawkward and she is used as a Deux Ex Machina in several episodes (3.19 ThePrice comes to mind).

In the midst of being treated to an OOCCordelia, the writers resume their campaign to show us how much she and Angelare meant to be together, with Groo now weighing in on their relationship. Thewhole tail-end of the season comes across as being rushed and badly written,including the awkwardly set-up meeting between Cordy and Angel which, ofcourse, neither of them makes it to. Season 3 ends with the completeassassination of Cordelia as a character as she suddenly decides that leavingeveryone she loves and everything she cares about to go and float around in theHeavens is a good idea. The fans were left on a cliff-hanger, wondering whatthe hell happened to their ship and fervently praying that Season 4 wouldresolve all the issues. Unfortunately this was not to be the case.

Season 4 opens with Angel at the bottomof the ocean and Cordelia floating around in the Heavens. For the first threeepisodes of Season 4 we are treated to (very small) doses of the old Cordeliaas she bitches about being bored and fruitlessly yells at Angel to help her getback to earth. When she finally descends back to earth, she has convenientlydeveloped amnesia and stays in this state for several episodes, thuseliminating any hope the fans had that maybe their ship would be repaired.

4.4 Slouching Towards Bethlehem treats usto uncomfortable and slightly hostile interactions between Angel andAmnesia-Cordy. In trying to find out more about her former life Cordy grillsAngel about her identity and Angel in turn decides it would be best to lie toher for her protection. In a very OOC manner he seems to ignore the fact that,memory or no memory, this is Cordelia Chase, an incredibly strong and capable womanwho is one of the least likely people to need protection. Cordelia is, rightly,pissed off by his lies and ends up rejecting him and going to stay with Connor,creating the first of many rifts that occur between these two over the courseof Season 4.

4.5 Supersymmetry shifts the focus fromCordelia/Angel and onto Fred/Gunn, however a scene at the end of the episodebrings us back to Cordy/Angel, in an exchange which smacks of the writers onceagain trying to push Cangel onto the viewers. Cordelia sits Angel down to askabout the nature of their relationship. Rather than ease in with a mildquestion such as “Did we have feelings for each other?” or “Werewe a couple?” Cordy is given the God-awful line “Were we inlove?”. No subtlety, no hedging. The writers just can’t seem to grasp theconcept show don’t tell and decideinstead to shove this relationship down our throats. This question is onceagain brought up at the end of 4.6 Spin The Bottle, with Angel this time posingthe question to Cordy just after she receives her memory back. With a tearfulchoke in her voice she replies “We were” thus smacking the audiencein the face with the obvious (yet again).

Season 4 continues the slow destructionof Cordy/Angel as Cordelia once again rejects Angel in 4.7 Apocalypse Nowish.In a scene overflowing with ridiculously dramatic dialogue and wangst thatrivals the Buffy/Angel relationship, Cordelia informs Angel that while sheloves him, she can’t be with him because of all the horrifying things he did asAngelus.

Time out. This scene is one of the mostdamaging in the entire Cangel destruction. I previously mentioned that dramaticdialogue has no place in the Cordy/Angel dynamic and this scene emphasisesthat. Cordy and Angel have always had one of the most natural and drama-freerelationships in the Buffyverse. Their exchanges are usually quick, intelligentand razor-sharp, bouncing back and forth and staying refreshingly real. Eventheir more intense discussions stay very close to earth, reminding the audiencehow in tune they are with each other and how well suited they could be as a pairing.

This makes the scene in Apocalypse Nowishextremely OOC for both of them. The dialogue comes out sounding unnatural andstilted, leaving the audience cringing. Additionally, everything Cordy isactually saying to Angel is OOC. Cordelia has always been aware of what Angelcan become. She lived through Angelus’ reign of terror in Sunnydale, so sheknows exactly what he is capable of and she will protect herself and othersagainst him without hesitation were he to lose his soul. However this has neverclouded her view of him nor has it ever changed the way she feels about him.She knows that he is a good man who, yes, has a dark side, but she acceptsthis. For her to turn around and claim that Angelus is standing in the way ofher being with Angel is ridiculous, to say the least.

Season 4 then offers us the biggest andgrossest OOC moment for Cordelia, as she seduces and sleeps with Connor.Thousands of fans were left wondering what the hell just happened as theywatched Angel stumble onto the sight of the woman he loves having sex with hisson. The rift that this action causes ensures that for the rest of the seasonCordelia and Angel don’t stand a chance of reconciling and the dozens of Cangelshippers out there were left stunned and outraged. Of course the biggest revealwas yet to come.

Over the course of the next severalepisodes, the focus is shifted away from Cordy/Angel and onto the group as theyface battle after battle, strip Angel of his soul, recruit a Slayer to save himand finally bring in Uber Witch Willow to re-ensoul him. In the midst of allthis, two bombshells are dropped in quick succession ““ Cordy has turnedevil and is pregnant with Connor’s child. Both of these plot points furtherdrive Angel and Cordelia apart, leaving the fans with little to no hope forthis pairing.

The revelation that Cordelia isn’t evensteering her own body brings both relief and anger. On the one hand, at leastwe now know why Cordelia has been so OOC for the entire season and a reasonableexplanation is given for all her indiscretions. On the other hand that meansthat Angel went through all of this pain for nothing. The woman he loved nevertruly came back and once this discovery is made Angel is then faced with makingthe decision to kill her in order to save the world. In the end he escapeshaving to do so however Cordelia is left in a coma with Angel not knowing ifshe will ever return to him. The ship was seemingly sunk, with fans leftdevastated. Luckily the writers were busy gift-wrapping one last offering.

Cue 5.12 You’re Welcome, anappropriately-named episode which finally restores the natural and beautifuldynamic of the Cordy/Angel relationship. Cordelia returns, completely back incharacter and does what she always does best – steers Angel down the rightpath. Everything is restored, from their sarcastic banter, to the realness oftheir more emotional scenes, to Cordy being back in Action Girl mode. The scenewhere Cordy bluntly but beautifully reminds Angel of who is his, of what hestands for is played out in the most natural and understated way, with bothcharacters struggling to express their feelings but still managing to get theirmessages across. The final scene of the episodes is possibly the most amazingand wonderfully written Cangel scene in the entire show. Cordelia reaffirms herbelief in Angel before quietly explaining that she can’t stay. Their final kissis truly the only Cangel kiss that really shows how well they work together,being natural and full of chemistry. Their relationship, which went through somuch destruction at the hands of the writers, is allowed to end on abittersweet note and fans and shippers alike are finally given closure.

#angel #ats #ats meta #cangel #cordelia x angel #long post #meta #Anonymous #answered

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