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menofcolorswitchbodiestoo · 3 years

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Episode:

-Shanghai Swap Meat - Part 1

‘’What’s wrong with you dude? Have you unclogged the toilet yet?’’ My cousin asked.

‘’No, I haven’t done that ... yet.’‘

‘’Then what’s bothering you?’’

‘’Oh, nothing except that I’m the biggest loser of the family, and my life kind of sucks.’’

‘’Oh don’t be so hard on yourself Alan you’re not the brightest star of our family but you’re not the biggest failure either.’’

‘’Thanx cousin but let’s be honest I kinda screwed up. Dropped out twice, failing my classes again, and kicked out by dad because he’s embarrassed by his low-life son. We’re both 23 years old cousin but you already have your own butchery. Small business, but you build something yourself, you achieved something. What did I achieve? High School, that’s pretty much it.’’

‘’Don’t worry too much Alan you’re a late bloomer good things will come to you eventually. Until then, I don’t mind you here helping me in the shop in exchange for sleeping on my couch.’’

‘’Awesome, so in what way does that make my life suck any less? A young, late bloomer, dropout, kicked out, working for free in his cousin’s butchery and sleeping on his couch in downtown Shanghai, no offense cousin. You’re right I’m living the life!’’

I turned and ran into something massive and got pushed back to the display.

‘’Can’t you watch where you walk runt?!’’ A booming voice said.

I looked up and I saw a man... no a mountain of solid muscles. From a quick glance, I noticed his thick pecs, wide boulder-sized shoulder, arms and legs thick as tree trunks, and the thickest ass in Asia.

‘’Move aside runt. Do you have my order ready butcher?’’

‘’But of course Mr. Kang I have already set it apart for you.’’ My cousin walked to the fridge.

‘’Here is your order Mr. Kang: 7 Chicken breast, 5 pork chops, 3 lean steaks, and the rest of your order. Only the best quality for you Mr. Kang.’’ With difficulty, my cousin got the heavy bags with raw meat on the counter.

‘’Finally.’’ Said the enormous brute said with his deep baritone manly voice. With one arm, he easily picked up the bags my cousin struggled to get up earlier from the counter. I was amazed by his build. This guy weighed at least 330 lbs with an impressive 6’5 height.

‘’Do you have in here someplace where I can take a piss?’’

‘’Of course, Mr. Kang toilet is in the back second door on the right.’’ My cousin replied. The bodybuilder walked past us, walking to the back.

‘’Who was that God cousin?‘’

‘’God? No Alan customer, a big spender. Samual Kang is a former pro bodybuilder living here in Shanghai. He’s now founder and CEO of a successful chain of gyms across China, produces and sells nutrition and I thought he did some acting and modeling too. He always buys here his meat and a lot of it because it has not yet been processed.’’

"What does he have that I don't have?" "I asked him, feeling like my life sucked even more than I thought... reality just hit me hard.

‘’Well.... money, a penthouse, a gorgeous model as his girlfriend, money, a successful business, fans, a great body and again money.’’

‘’Haha, if you only were as good at making me feel better as you are at cutting meat’‘.

*Sigh*.

‘‘I wish I had his life, he seems to have his shit in order. And have you seen his body?! It takes years of dedication to get so puffed up! I would look awsome!’‘

‘’So you want to be like Mr. Kang don’t you Allen?’’ My cousin began staring seriously at me, he had never been so creepy.

''Uhm yeah kind of, didn't you hear me the first time cousin?''

He picked up a small plastic bottle with some green gunk under the counter. ‘’Drink this cousin!’’

‘’What is this?! How long did you keep this?’’’ I opened the bottle and the smell was horrific! ‘’Ugh, this smells awful cousin like grandpa’s feet, just throw it into the trashcan’’.

‘’Just drink it, Alan. For once just listen and do something that is going to make a difference in your life.’’

My cousin still had this creepy serious expression on his face. I felt I had to prove something to him by drinking it but I also didn’t want to drink whatever was inside this bottle.

‘’Alright alright, I will drink it!’’

I opened the bottle again and knocked back the disgusting green juice all at once down my throat.

‘’See... happy now cousin? Now let’s do a reality check… did drinking this turn my life upside down?... Uhm, nope it didn’t. It only left a bitter taste in my mouth ugh...so thanks for that cousin very helpful.’’

‘’Just give it some time’’. My cousin said.

‘’But we’re almost closing, so I’m going to bed... I mean the couch’’.

Then it hit me, I suddenly felt an enormous rush. Out of nowhere, I felt an enormous pressure on my bladder.

''What did you do to me cousin?!'' I yelled. ''Oh man, this is going bad! Out of my way cousin!'' I ran as fast as I could to the bathroom in the back. It felt like I could snap anytime.

I stormed into the bathroom to the toilet. Shit, I forget to unclog it. I turn to the only urinal seeing Samual Kang standing in front of it.

‘’Can you hurry up, please?!’’ Damn, I can’t hold it anymore! I got pulled to the urinal as something forced me to.

‘’Shut up runt can’t you see I’m busy! And don’t you dare to look!’’ Mr. Kang shouted at me.

‘’Oh, come on hurry up!!!’’ I couldn’t handle it anymore! And then my feet got off the ground and I smashed right into Mr. Kang’s back.

‘’Didn’t I tell you to sh...WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING GET OFF ME!’’

‘’I’m so sorry Mr. Kang I don’t know what is happening!’’ I tried to apologize and to get off Mr. Kang’’s large back, I put my hands on his back to push me off, but somehow I sank through into his back!

‘’WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING TO ME!’’ (*we said simultaneously*)

My arms sank deeper into Mr. Kang’s back as well as my legs that were already halfway in.

‘’Please, stop! It hurts… get out!’’ Mr. Kang yelled and began to stumble as he tried to walk away.

‘’Stand still before you make us fall and we break something!’’ We stopped. Wait did I just do that did I just controlled his legs?!

I pushed my second arm into Kang’s right arm and use both to slowly pull my body into his. I tried to move my fingers inside Mr. Kang´s large hands. His large sausage fingers moved on my command!

‘’Dude I’m somehow connected to your body! Looks like I can control this body. Awesome!’’ I shouted.

‘’No this isn’t possible!’’ Kang stumbles around the room as the two of us fight for control. Spasming and swinging his arms, Kang attempts to push me out. But I sleeved my skinny arms into his and now control these massive arms.

With a malicious grin splitting on my own face, I bring Sam’s hands up to his face and began to feel it and then going down to caress his muscles. It’s so weird I feel like I’m feeling it with my own hands. Mr. Kang almost collapses on the ground as I continue pushing.

‘’No, no big guy can’t let that happen, these strong legs of ours can easily hold us both!’’ I forced Mr. Kang into a standing position with my arms against the toilet wall. Mr. Kang Still trembling with an occasional spasmatic twitching, while I’m moving around inside him. I get deeper and deeper inside his body. It’s warm inside and a bit tight. I can feel Samual Kang’s cock getting hard as I shove mine errected cock into his. Samual groans and gasps in a mixture of agony and pleasure. I chuckle at the thought of what I was doing to Samual and continue exploring his body in this new exciting way.

"That's enough! Get out of me...leave my body alone!"

‘’Nah why stop now? Now let’s see what’s inside that head of yours Samual Kang.’’

I push my head into Kang’s and the last of me into him. I had now been fully absorbed by Mr. Kang’s bodybuilder body.

I opened my eyes looking at this amazing muscle bod now fully under my control. First let’s take this shirt off MY muscles deserve to be seen. I flexed my biceps.

‘‘OH YEAH! BRING IT! HOLY CRAP!’‘

We left one last moan... and then a flash of light appeared. We were pulled out of eachother, separated. Everything went dark.

Samual Kang fell behind on the floor while Allen fell forward into the urinal.

...A few hours passed...

*PHONE RINGS*

‘’Uhm, Come on cousin just a few more minutes. I… I just had the weirdest dream ever. That green stuff... ugh you gave me was strong or was that also a part of the dream. I...I just need a little bit more sleep’’...

PHONE MESSAGE BANK:

*beep* Mr. Kang you have 38 messages.

Latest message received 1 minute ago.

*beep* (Allen’s voice:) ‘’Answer the phone! I don’t know how the fuck you did this little runt but I’m, uh, I think I'm in the wrong body, your body’’.

*beep* (Allen’s voice:) ‘‘Allen that’s your name right ‘‘Allen’‘, check your friggin voicemail please we have to fix this. Damn it! Oh my head still hurts! Did you really have to smash this head into the fucking urinal?! Call me back.’‘

- To be continued -

#male body swap #Asian x Asian #menofcolorswitchbodiestoo

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dappercritter · 4 years

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Random She-Ra Season 5 Thoughts: THE FINAL RAMBLING

Yep. I finally got all my crazy absurd thoughts about this gay adventure-romance-drama cartoon summarized into one incoherent yet fun to read computer document/article! ...four months after the show itself ended. Oh well, no one’s perfect. Anyways, there are a whole lot more insane observations than ever before, so I had to put it below a link so this thing didn’t back up my blog or any of yours. Hope you enjoy reading through these as much I enjoyed spouting them for no discernible reason other than I felt like it!

-I feel that since is the last season, I ought to talk about an important part of the show that I’ve been putting off: the animation. It’s… okay. It’s definitely smoother than what the original 80’s show and it’s brother series (heheh) looked like, but at the same time it still seems to suffer from similar limitations which causes some distracting moments of stiffness. But other than that, it’s pretty good. It’s no Titmouse or Studio Mir but it looks good and it gets the job done.

-After all, let’s not forget: “Imperfection is beautiful!”

-Even when things are at their lowest, Adora is a jock with a heart of gold.

-Horde Prime and the Galactic Horde’s aesthetic feels like a mixture of Catholicism, Scientology, Heaven’s Gate, and modern Microsoft, and honestly, that just makes him creepier.

-Speaking of Horde Prime, he didn’t waste any time with destroying Bright Moon. …apparently.

-Furthermore, on the topic of his giant holographic messages, WAS THAT A FREAKING MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE MOVIE REFERENCE?!

-Boy, Glimmer and Catra sure got along quickly! It’s almost like they magically understand each other because they both assumed leadership roles and screwed up big time! …I guess.

-Either that or this season is going to be a speedrun.

-Wow, the Rebellion sure got used to having a once-thought-dead king as well as a known enemy general/abuser running around their camp awful fast, didn’t they?

-Mara’s got a spaceship, a cyber girlfriend, a magic grandma, a dragon, a tragic backstory, AND a force ghost?! Dang, even in death, the girl’s got it all. No wonder everyone likes her!

-(*me looking at the TV rating at the start of episode*) “Why is language in there? Is there surprise cuss words or something in this season?” (*sees Horde Prime seize control of a clone for the first time*) “HOLY FREAKING SH—oh that’s why.”

-Applause to the crew for making the “dinner with Prime” scene for making a meal between a sparkly princess, a catgirl, and alien cult leader feel even more uncomfortable than it had a right to.

-(*me throughout the season whenever a clone was onscreen*) Is that Hordak? Is that him? Is that him? Is that him right there? Oh it is—oh no wait. … Is that h—

-Extra applause for having Glimmer learn from her grey-area wetwipe phase and refusing to sell out her friends again whilst telling the imperialist cult leader where to stick it.

-I would pay a sizeable portion of my life savings to hear what a Scorpia and Swift Wind duet would sound like.

-In fact, I’d double it if it was just Scorpia singing.

-Ah what the heck. I would triple it for an entire She-Ra musical!

-As happy as I am to see to see Entrapta interacting with the other princesses again, I have to say that their big reunion left me with some mixed feelings. Here’s a quick rundown:

-Entrapta, a grown autistic woman, being led around on a leash by non-neurodivergent teenagers—again: that’s bad.

-The Princesses confronting Entrapta about joining the Horde: that’s good!

-The Princesses blaming all their problems with the Horde bots on Entrapta’s actions and her hyper fixations alone: that’s bad.

-Entrapta explaining herself, admitting that she regrets her mistakes, and getting the Princesses to understand that she thinks and communicates differently, but in spite of that, she really does want help find Glimmer: that’s good!

-Entrapta never gets to call out the Princesses for how poorly they treated her: that’s bad.

-Entrapta saves the day and goes to space: that’s good!

-Scorpia and Entrapta still haven’t interacted even though the former is with the Rebellion in the first place because she went to look for her because she is her best friend: …can I go home now?

-How nice! Michah finally got to shapeshift!

-And he’s rocking that She-Ra outfit to boot!

-So is Darla a back up of Light Hope or do they just run on the same operating system and have the same voice?

-I could watch an entire season of Adora, Bow, and Entrapta going on space adventure in a rundown ship with their custom-made spacesuits, tbh.

-Is anyone else weirded out that Catra’s younger self looked at her in her flashback(?).

-Actually what WAS happening there, anyhow?

-(*watching Bow’s spacewalk to save Glimmer*) “Is that a Gravity reference?” asked the man who never saw Gravity.

-Speaking of spacewalks, how did Glimmer survive those precious few seconds in space? Does the teleporter teleport a breathable atmosphere too?

-Also, Catra, WHY did you think it would be a good idea to teleport Glimmer into space? I know you had a plan and the ship was right there but… Ah, never mind.

-Not that I’m complaining but Glimmer’s apology to the rest of the friend squad for her HORRIBLE plan last season went… surprisingly quickly.

-You know as cool as The Star Siblings are, being a quirky band of space-travelling siblings with cool powers and some trans rep to boot, I only have one small problem with them: weren’t there already Star Sisters on Etheria back in season 1?

-That doesn’t sound right, but I don’t know enough about Masters of the Universe characters to dispute it.

-Entrapta confirmed pan, objectum, AND horny on main. Dang girl, you’re gonna have fun whether you got Hordak back or not…

-“The Velvet Glove” is both a menacing and stupid name for a decadent overlord’s mothership.

-Wait, it’s from the 80’s canon? Oh. That kind of explains it, actually.

-Goshdangit, I wanted Catra to face punishment for her crimes, but I didn’t think that would involve going to evil alien conversion therapy!

-Nor did I want her to die! For a second. Actually, since it obviously wasn’t going to last I was… weirdly okay with that part???

-Horde Prime seems awfully okay with Catradora. I mean he’s still super creepy and manipulative about it, but also oddly progressive for an evil brainwashing cult leader.

-(*Adora transforms into a She-Ra through seer will*) First of all, called it. Second of all, WOAH MAMA now that’s a glow up!

-Wrong Hordak did not have to be a thing, and yet, I’m glad that he is.

-Hordak remembers the LUVD crystal and Entrapta… Hordak remembers Entrap—! It’s happening! Oh my gosh, it’s happening! Everybody stay calm!

-Wow, Entrapta didn’t have to be so forgiving of Catra for everything she’s done to her but she did. Only I’m not sure if that was Entrapta taking the high road or the low road.

-Or which road the crew took for that matter.

-I remember when I thought those “Chipped AUs” floating around here on tumblr were just something the fans came up with and that chipping people was not an actual despicable thing Prime does in canon. I miss those days.

-I know it’s not the same as before or the original design, but True She-Ra’s designs and powers? I think they slappin’.

-Hooray, Adora and Catra are finally making up! And it only took four and half seasons worth of communication failures, toxic villainous behaviour, and physical violence for Catra to snap out of it!

-…We can go back to Entrapdak now, right?

-Poor Elberon. First they unknowingly adopt a double agent then get invaded by the Horde and now they’re getting brainwashed and chipped by the Galactic Horde. They might be a cute village, but they got some pretty lousy security.

-You know it’s cute that Micah is doing his best to be friends with Frosta and get back in touch with his dad-side, but look I can’t be the only one worried about how the local King is a less proactive leader than the princesses or the known war criminal/abuser, right?

-“The Perils of Peekablue” or as I like to call it, “You Thought ‘Boys Night Out’ Caught You Emotionally Off-guard? Hah! Watch This.”

-You know I didn’t think Scorpfuma would be a thing aside that one moment of flirting near the end of season 4, but they really pushed for it to be a thing! This is… actually pretty great! Perfuma’s not perfect, and I would have appreciated giving them a little more time to bond and form some real chemistry, but at least she reciprocates Scorpia’s sweetness instead of rebuffing it in increasingly aggressive fashion.

-I’m not sure what’s more concerning: that Mermista set a boat on fire, that it’s worded like she had a fling as part of some experimental phase, or that Sea Hawk is turned on by this.

-Peekablue might not be real, (I think?) but he is one dapper dude! Female-to-male redesigns could learn a thing or two from him.

-It involved them getting stung and seizuring, but that was a heck of a way to reintroduce Double Trouble! I swear I got watching them cycle through their transformations in some sort of physical reaction.

-Or maybe that was just me worrying about their wellbeing…

-Okay, I get the Chips are huge, and actually rather clever threat, but how do these characters get chipped in the first place? I get there are chipped people who spread the chips throught the population but where do they get those from???

-Do one of those Horde Prime drones just sneak behind someone, slap a chip on their nape then hand them a whole bagfull and say, “Beep boop beep, Horde Prime’s Light, blah blah blah. Alright have fun, kiddo”?

-Or is it some sort of Alien: Covenant deal where they’re just floating around and Lord help you if one sticks to you?

-HOLY CRAP THEY ACTUALLY GOT SCORPIA TO SING! AND SHE WAS GREAT!

-Oh shoot. Guess I owe the crew twice my life savings now…

-Entrapdak might be what got me into this show, but it’s Double Trouble that kept me around, so you can imagine how happy I was to see them make their grand reappearance!

-Conversly, you can imagine my disappointment when they just disappeared until the finale.

-And on that note: HOW DID YOU GUYS LOSE DOUBLE TROUBLE?!

-You forgot to cherish them, didn’t you?

-So, Scorpia sacrifices herself just after finding a new girlfriend and gaining some newfound confidence, Mermista and Sea Hawk are split up,and Double Trouble didn’t join the main cast. Why can’t you just have fun like a normal cartoon, show?

-Gosh, I love me some shifting title cards!

-Is it just me or did they sneak in some more Annihilation references on Krytis?

(-Said the guy who was too chicken to watch the movie and just read about it and watched a few clips online.)

-(*audibly sighs*) FINE. I guess I like Catradora now. Are you happy now, SPOP Crew? ARE YOU?!

-Hooray, Catra’s got a emotional support animal! And they’re a shapeshifting magic alien cat. Those are the best kind!

-Is it weird that I knew that weird glowing stuff on Krytis was just magic all along, or was it just not hidden very well. Anyways, I like Krytis. I like that we got to see a truly alien world with its own form of magic.

-Plus, we got a logical advancement of the magic versus science subtheme with magic being Horde Prime’s weakness! Neato!

-Getting back on the “which is worse?” wagon for a second, I don’t know what feels less right: that Wrong Hordak’s big revelation and his resolution to free himself and his brothers and friends from Horde Prime’s control is played humorously, or that Real Hordak should be the one having this moment.

-That bit with Castaspella and Shadow Weaver where she tells Casta about Etheria being a living thing with inherent magical property, or whatever, while we got a peaceful shot of some boar creatures sleeping was actually kind of nice. It would have been nicer though if it wasn’t part of a power hungry abuser’s obvious scheme. If only there was a kindly old witch lady character who was in touch with nature and knew just what to say when someone was feeling downOH WAIT.

-Furthermore… Why did Shadow Weaver and Castaspella need to have romantic tension?

-Seriously though, where’s our Madame Razz quota this season? Where’s my supportive magic grandma timelord at, yo?

-Yup, they speedran this season.

-I’m actually really disappointed we didn’t see more of an intergalactic new rebellion rising up to fight Horde Prime’s forces across the universe. Especially if it meant we got to see more Star Sibling action!

-Again, I adore Wrong Hordak but I keep wondering what was keeping the crew from just bringing in Original Flavour Hordak. (You know, aside from teasing us Entrapdak fans and trying to distract us with a loveable new character in the meantime.) I mean he could have done the whole infiltrating the clone squads and tricking them bit, too.

-Heck, he could have done the wink, too!

-I’d gleefully point out Loo-Kee’s cameo this season but apparently, they already made some several seasons ago. That’s what I get for not rewatching the 80’s show and training my eyes first.

-(*sees Erelandians*) Are those freaking Toads and Toadettes?

-So, what’s keeping them from just hitting Spinerella’s chip again? Besides emotional baggage and gale force winds, I mean.

-Perfuma coming out of a cave scared out of her wits, demanding to know who’s there, clinging to her friends as soon as they come back, and balling her eyes out is a big, BIG mood.

-Frosta absolutely decking Catra in the face was nestled somewhere between cathartic and excessive.

-Netossa spraying her with a bottle of water on the other hand…

-Oh, so Greyskull was the name of a Rebel Squad! I think. Meh, the important thing is we got an explanation and it still sounds cool.

-Leave it to a couple of dads to make a secret message out of a dad joke.

-You know I made fun of Light Hope for being creepy, but I swear that avatar from the Spire is even creepier. I don’t know if it’s her face—those dang blank eyes, man—or just that it she’s less animated than the real thing, but it just felt… off.

-Aww, Noelle made Netossa’s princess weakness illustrations! So cute!

-Forget episodes that deserves Emmys, Keston John deserves one for voicing Hordak, Horde Prime, all the clones, and several minor villains and giving each and every single one a distinct voice! Where my king’s respect, eh?

-Yes, Catra you had a small disagreement with Hordak. …Over sending his girlfriend and your “friend” to DIE IN A LITERAL LIVING HELL.

-Sorry, I just had to get that out of my system.

-Why does Perfuma get pressured to get angry and go wild when Entrapta’s the one who’s had it the worst out of all them? Why can’t my gamer girl go berserk, dammit!?

-Okay, but really, how do these fricking chips work??? Are they parasite devices who store Horde Prime’s Baptizing Dew then slowly pump it into their host’s bodies? Do they have their own nervous systems? Are they technorganic? Also, how and why do we need to make these chips are bigger threat then they need to be?

-Horde Prime showing up on Hordak’s throne in grand Killing Joke style and casually throwing shades at his brother’s overblown attempts to impress him is pretty awesome, but it feels strangely underdeveloped. Hordak’s not there to have his hard work insulted and we never got to see Adora have any similar encounter with Hordak here before, so unless you look at it from the perspective of someone who has been here before in the Horde story like Catra it lacks the dramatic weight it should have had.

-Scorpia resisting the chip to save her new friends was pretty great, though.

-I swear, when they got to the scene where Adora and the others figured out that Shadow Weaver was grooming her so she could use her to get to the Heart of Etheria, I was mouthing “You B***H” through the whole thing.

-They really brought back Etherian deep magic just so they had something to make Micah threatening. …okay.

-Okay, the rest of “Failsafe” messed me up, so here’s a rundown on all the other messy thoughts I had while the show ripped my heart and ground it to dog food:

-Entrapta and Hordak reuniting: Yay!

-Swift Wind yanking her away before she can get through to him: Boo.

-Catra encouraging Adora to try and take care of herself for a change: Yay!

-Adora hurts Catra and she runs away: Boo.

-Adora finally calling out Shadow Weaver on what an utterly horrible person she is: Yay!

-Adora resolves to risk sacrificing herself to save the world: Bo—okay, seriously, was all this suffering really necessary, show?

-I know I mentioned in my previous She-Ra random thoughts that I supported Glimmadora, but I am okay with Catradora and Glimbow ending up canon. The only problem I have is how rushed they feel—moreso with Glimbow. With Catradora, the crew had an entire season to make it work again and they took it. Glimbow it feels like they were down to the last few episodes and went, “Oh right, we were gonna do something with these two!” then did their darndest to fit in some chemistry in between all the other stuff going down.

-As ominous as it was, the music where Horde Prime starts hacking Etheria honestly SLAPS.

-Okay, I know everyone is magic or something, but I am legit surprised getting electrocuted in water didn’t kill the heroes right then and there.

-Sea Hawk tries to flirt with his girl even as she’s trying to kill him. Truly, he is a man of taste.

-What do you know, Shadow Weaver can only do good when she’s (canonically!) punch drunk.

-You know a whole lot of this could have been avoided if Holo-Mara was Adora’s mentor instead of Light Hope.

-When I think about it, it was actually really clever to make Horde Prime the final villain for Adora to face: a domineering decadent man who’s been in power forever against a humble emotionally vulnerable compassionate young woman.

-Not to mention the divide between cult-like oppression and progressive freedom. Or something.

-Holy crap, did the First Ones get a great freaking a Great Old One for a guard dog?!

-So, you guys seriously didn’t bring Angella back to reunite with her family OR mention her all season after the impact her death had on everyone all last season until Glimmer needs a power-up at the last possible minute and then you never bring her up again. That is absolutely a dick move in bird culture.

-Entrapta’s hacker sticker gives me life. Gamer girl gremlin princess forever!

-On the one hand, I’m disappointed that Adora and Catra don’t get to have an awesome couple battle against the security monster and win. On the other hand, Shadow Weaver is finally dead. YAY!

-With apologies to the writers and especially Lorraine Toussaint. She did splendidly bringing this character to life and even if I hated Shadow Weaver, I adored the effort she put into making her one of the most emotionally complex villains I’ve ever seen.

-Words cannot, will not, and will never describe the pure joy that I experienced when I first saw Hordak’s big scene: standing up to and disowning his tyrant brother, saving Entrapta, declaring his love to her (albeit in a nicely lowkey fashion), and then throwing Horde Prime to his apparent doom Disney style with Entrapta cheering him with sheer glee. GOSH, it was everything I could have hoped for from this season!

-Now if only they kept the deleted scene where they got a moment to themselves before Prime body-jacked him again like the creepy sonuvabich he is.

-Horde Prime just wouldn’t be a religious villain if he didn’t tell everyone to burn.

-Bonus points for actually trying to burn the frigging planet.

-Aside from the idea of Adora switching to wearing a She-Ra themed dress everywhere in the future, the future vision was really quite sweet, and seeing Prime step in to ruin it made it all the more impactful.

-Can I just say that it’s absolutely wonderful that the show, for all it’s flaws, said “**** senseless heroic sacrifices”?

-BREAKING: Lesbian cat finally makes up with her jock ex, has a canon kiss so pure it saves the world!

-In other news, Catradora fans are still spoiled rotten.

-Wow, look at all those character comebacks they skipped through! Look, there’s the chefs from Dryl, Double Trouble, Huntara, the Horde Trio, Imp, Madame Razz—are you kidding me?!

-Grumbling aside, I actually find the idea of the Horde Trio and Imp getting involved in a G-rated science-fantasy version of the first Hangover movie quite amusing.

-Oh dang, they pulled a Castle in the Sky with the Velvet Glove!

-As nice as it was to see Aodra save Hordak from Horde Prime and destroy the latter through exorcism via sheer compassion, I’m rather disappointed we never got to see She-Ra go full Metal Gear Solid Rising: Revengence on any creepy old cult leaders.

-Yeah, it would have gone against the “love conquers all” set up, but love takes on many forms, does it not? So, why can it not manifest as cleaving your mortal enemies with extreme prejudice to save your loved ones?

-Furthermore, in addition to Holo-Mara being a better mentor, Hordak raising Adora instead Shadow Weaver could have prevented a lot of similar problems. Maybe. Possibly.

-Eh whatever, he has a lifetime’s worth of fanfiction to make up for it.

-ENTRAPDAK IS CANON, ALL IS RIGHT WITH THE WORLD.

-And so is Catradora and Glimbow! That’s nice, too.

-Aww, how sweet of them to skip through Catra and Scorpia, and Glimmer and Micah’s big reunions! It’s not like we’ve been waiting forever for this stuff or anything. HahahahAHAHAHDHAHAHFHAFHKSADJHFKAJHDfine.

-And so it all ends with everyone either friends, in love, or both, as heroes decide to make up for it all with a grandiose sequel promising more exciting space adventures we probably won’t see! HOORAY!

-All snarky ranting aside, I actually really enjoyed the finale. It was exciting, heartwarming, and above all it ended on happy, hopeful note without leaving too many frustrating questions unanswered. (*glares with utmost contempt at Voltron and Star vs. The Forces of Evil*)

-You know, this wasn’t bad for a final season, but I think this might have worked better as two seasons. Not in Netflix’s cheap “split a regular 13-episode season in two 6-7 episode long seasons” strategy, but I mean two full seasons with their own storylines leading up to the grand finale:

-First, one that starts out with Horde Prime’s arrival the downfall of Etheria, focuses on the space adventures, ends with their return to Etheria and gives the characters time to recuperate from season 4.

-Then, we have one final season that focuses on the Best Friend Squad’s Return to Etheria, Horde Prime’s plan, gives everyone more time to properly reconcile before ¾ of the entire cast gets chipped, sets up a new Rebellion made up of Princess Alliance and former Etherian Horde members, maybe even set up a proper Hordak redemption arc or something, and then our big happy ending.

-On a mostly unrelated note, I also feel that the whole show could have turned out even better if it had been either a dedicated science-fantasy war drama with some levity (like the good Star Wars shows or Avatar: The Last Airbender) or a lighthearted yet empowering slice-of-life action-adventure romcom (i.e. basically a well-made remake of the original show in the style of Adventure Time and Parks and Rec or something).

-My final random thought for this whole thing: we really could have used a triumphant end credits song or something. Aside from obviously recommending Fabulous Secret Powers, I would have also recommended the original 4 Non Blondes “What’s Going On,” a reprise of “Warriors,” Gorillaz’s “We Got the Power,” or (my favourite) Talking Head’s “(Nothing But) Flowers” since the ending scenes remind me of it.

Thanks again to the crew for giving me something to live for and/or complain about!

Now, let’s hope the He-Man reboots do as well...

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fizzingwizard · 4 years

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Episode 13! I don’t have all that much to say about it. But there were three things in particular I really liked!

Sorato moments! It may be small (I mean, they’re kids and they’ve known each other for like a day), but no one will be able to say Sora and Yamato didn’t have any development in this season!

Sora Getting Shit Done! She’s as cool as Yamato. Scratch that, she’s cooler than Yamato. She’s honest and compassionate. She’s brave like Taichi, values her friends as much as Yamato, AND she can get along with both of them. Bahahaha.

SO MANY adorable Jou&Gomamon moments this episode. Like seriously. SO MANY.

I’ll just tack some here:

More below!

So our two groups are still separated! Jumping ahead, but next week we’ll see MegaKabuterimon, and that rounds out two episodes for each group. But that still leaves Zudomon’s appearance. Just a hunch, but my guess is we’ll see him the episode after which will be the reunion episode too. If not, I suppose the groups are gonna stay separated longer, but this is my guess.

So, once again, our kids have been in this world for Not Very Long At All. It doesn’t seem like they’ve had to stop and sleep so far, though they’ve eaten a bit. Probably it’s still the same day in digital world time o.o It’s completely plausible that they’ve been sleeping and we’re just not being told about it though. This is a kids show, next week Koushirou could be like “we’ve been walking for a week!” and we’ll just have to roll with it lol. But until that happens, I’m going with it’s been about a day and almost everyone’s easily got two evolutions under their belt. Evolving is much easier in this season - Taichi and Yamato even got a Jogress already - so it’s definitely past time to throw out old concepts of how evolving work. The kids clearly have Crests, but they don’t know what they are, which means that’s a thing we’ll be seeing in the future. In spite of that, they can evolve to higher levels. So, maybe something else is in store for them when the Crests become important. Very interesting.

We are back with the trio who’s got their shit slightly more together. Except for Jou’s stomach. Was really amused by Yamato using binoculars. I assume Sora brought them. I’m so used to Taichi’s telescope, but it only makes sense that each group should have some working gear!

Also par for the course, Yamato looking at what’s ahead while Jou’s being sick and Sora’s in between helping them both :P

They find this thing. The hive of brainwashed mecha soldier bees. The person who wrote this episode has definitely had a bad run in with suzumebachi.

As they try to escape, Jou immediately falls off Birdramon.

Me: “Oh no! Someone go help him!”

Gomamon:

Me: “NO NOT YOU”

Like I know they’re partners... but Gomamon doesn’t even have hands. xD All he can do (and all he does do!) is fall together. They’re partners so it’s not surprising, but still... Wheeeeeee!

Honestly though it is just so adorable to me how useless Jou is and how hard Gomamon tries for him... even though Gomamon has a lot more excuse for being useless. I mean, he’s made for a water habitat.

Gabumon: “Jou’s with Gomamon, so he should be okay...”

-___- You know nothing, Jon Snowmon. You know nothing about how much trouble Jou can get himself in

See!?!?!?!??!?! DOES THIS LOOK LIKE THEY’RE OKAY TO YOU, GABUMON??? EAT YOUR WORDS!!!

This is what happens when you try to too hard to make a bee cute. So overdesigned xP It’s like hitting me on the head saying “I’M CUTE, LOOK AT ME!! I’M CUTE!!!” like chill dude, it’s ok. just chill

I guess it works on Sora though, she’s as concerned for this cutie pie as she is for Jou... maybe more.

We make a quick switch to group number 2 who are finally living up to my expectations for how nuts they are. Koushirou’s connection is turbulent, to use the lingo Tumblr always pisses me off with!

Mimi offers to help. “My grandpa can get you a better one!” She... she tries.

Taichi offers to help too. “Times like this you just gotta whack it!” Koushirou looks appropriately terrorized.

I’m so relieved to know Taichi and Mimi are both still batshit.

Yamato and Sora hatch a plan to save Jou by getting themselves captured too. Honestly the show doesn’t spend enough time on the cool stuff like hatching this plan! It just happens! It def got me thinking how brave and cooperative Sora is. Like, we already know Yamato is cool, and he has more experience in the digital world than the others. But Sora just rolls with it. She’s not freaking out, she’s thinking things through, and she can help strategize. 99 Adventure was like “Girls don’t need to do things like pedal swan boats or take watch at night!” This ones like “Girls can definitely do those things! As long as they are pink when they do them!”

Jou and Gomamon arrive in the hive where they are immediately separated... and Jou is thrown out with the trash. BAHAHAHA. GEEZ this show will not ease up on Jou!!

by the way... Gabumon... ARE YOU EATING YOUR WORDS YET!?!?

Sora and Yamato make it inside and hitch a ride on Garurumon...

... They both jump like this when they need to get off so Garurumon can evolve. With jumping style like that, Sorato is a ship made n heaven.

Fuck everything I said about Gomamon working best in his water habitat, IT WAS ALL A LIE. First swimming through sand, now this. Jou has LITERALLY NO EXCUSE for being as useless as he is anymore

also Wolverfish is back, I am some day going to make one of those old geocities shrine sites just for Wolverfish

They are surrounded on all sides though, so what should we do? “Go down.” Yamato, DID YOU FORGET WE ARE IN THE AIR.

Once again Sora is A-OK with all of this! Jou’s the only one having a normal human reaction to A HOLE OPENING IN THE FLOOR OF AN AIRBORNE VESSEL

Gomamon T____T Jou would be mince meat without you

It turns out that Yamato’s shitty plan wasn’t so shitty after all, because either he and Sora talked about what they’d have to do if the couldn’t stay inside the hive, or Sora is psychic. Or just that good at cleaning up after hot-headed men. Anyway yeah Birdramon to the rescue.

For a hot second there it looked like Yamato was going to be like “We don’t have time to save those Digimon” again. Which, I thought we worked through last time, so I was confused. BUT it turns out he only wanted Sora to know he’s got her number. He’s figured out she’s not the type who can turn her back when someone needs help, even if she’s got her own priorities to think about. Sora’s selfless. Yamato clues into that. AND HE TOTALLY SUPPORTS HER <3

Urrrk can Yamato do anything that isn’t Cool

I just love the way he holds them.

Sora faces off with the hive... who’s blast causes a volcanic eruption or something!

Birdramon fights back!

It’s not very effective!!!

Now as much as this is supposedly a Sora episode... she’s had some cool moments but it doesn’t feel like Her Episode as much as last week felt like Mimi’s ep, or the weeks before felt like they belonged to Taichi and Yamato. So actually, that makes it strike number two for Sora, although this episode is definitely better than episode four. It’s not fair. I’m just glad we got some new stuff for her this time, but the writers seem so determined to make her the “good girl” that they forgot character development needs to involve some stakes. So, in place of that, they just do another montage.

First Sora reflects on how useless Jou is.

Then she reflects on how hot Yamato looks when he’s totally helpless.

Then she thinks about how the two of them remind her of pitiful baby bees.

The result... Garudamon!!! Always my favorite Ultimate evolution.

It’s a laaaaaaaser battle!!!!

Yamato’s like “Holy crap I’ve got to get with this girl”

We then set up the intro for next week’s episode, with Koushirou’s computer starting to work again, though not completely. I want it to not work at ALL so Koushirou can be like “i’m no longer useful to my friends, woe is me!” and his friends can be all “Koushirou you’re my best pal no matter what!” and then he saves the day using his noggin. If it was good enough for Mimi’s grandpa it’s good enough for you.

I’m also amused to learn that in spite of apparently selling computers, Mimi’s grandpa too is an advocate of hitting them to make them work.

Agumon mimicking every adorable thing Taichi does is adorableness overload.

Taichi once again offers to smack the computer, like the Taichi of my childhood. However, he claims he’s joking. He’s a 21st century kid after all.

Agumon tells him hitting the computer will hurt his hand, so he should let Agumon do it instead T___T omg that’s the cutest thing EVER I’d give this episode ten stars for this moment alone

but ignoring adorable Taichi/Agumon and Jou/Gomamon moments, I’ll give this episode a 6.5/10. It was almost there! It really needed more Sora though! You know, the spotlight character of the week??

I just don’t feel her as convincingly as the others... which is in part intentional, I think, because that’s Sora. She doesn’t talk about her own feelings so much, she’s private, but she cares very deeply about those around her. I absolutely am with that, but I think that’s really challenging to write, and it wouldn’t bother me so much if we were getting more development in small ways for all the kids all the time. Instead the primary way is these spotlight episodes. We had them in 99 Adventure too, but there was more dialogue between the kids. Watching this episode, I had a thought like “This reminds me of a formulaic Pokemon episode.” As in, there’s someone to rescue, we rescue them, it has little to no consequence for us on a personal level and next week we won’t even mention it happened. At least this episode, they did mention Neemon’s group, to show how this is a pattern for Sora. I’m gonna cross my fingers that means Sora’s going to come out big in the future, we just gotta believe in her and wait. That being said, I’m not trying to be negative, I am also happy that we got these bits for her at all, and especially that we got it confirmed that Yamato sees through her as much as she sees through him!

Next week’s preview...

Kabuterimon: koushirou, you are helpless without your computer, never forget that!

... x’D not

Totally stoked for a Koushirou episode. I hope it kicks butt. Even if it doesn’t, we still get a good helping of my boy Koushirou. <3

#fizz watches digimon 2020 #digimon adventure 2020 #digimon adventure reboot #digimon adventure:#digi spoilers #digimon

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gins-potter · 3 years

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Shadow and Bone 1x01 First Watch Thoughts

Under the cut cause this got long

Yo I am actually so scared though - like it’s been so hyped what if it’s bad?

Only one way to find out I guess

Oh my god Netflix is stuck loading at ten percent what is life?

Okay slight (7 minute) delay where I had to turn netflix on and off a few times but here we go

Wow so they don’t really have a title sequence

Alina making a map will always be funny for me because I swear they mentioned like two times in the books

Okay so they really are addressing show!Alina’s Shu mother head on

Ohhhhhhh so Alina’s parents died in the Fold??

Ahhhhhh the special effects are so good

HER SMILE WHEN THEY MENTION MAL

I FUCKING LOVE IT

OHMY GOD YOUNG MAL HAS CURLY HAIR AMAZING

This.... is not what I pictured the Duke’s house to look like but alright

Ooooof the cinematography is so nice already

The cut from young Mal’s face and hands to older Mal’s face and hands, very nice

I don’t think Mal fought in the books but honestly this tracks

Ooooooh Mal vs a Grisha

Or not

Foreshadowing for season 2??

HER SMILE!! SO PRECIOUS!!

Zoya!!

I like how quickly they’re setting up the dynamics between Grisha and non-Grisha

“he talks about you all the time” excuse me while i scream

Jesper’s smile!

Oh my god the DeKappel

I looooove that they’re actually having Kaz use his cane, idk why I thought they wouldn’t but it’s good to see

The pan away from the gloves to his face, so good

Oooooof I love the composition of this scene, him looking to the window, Inej appearing behind him, “hello inej”

Inej’s voice is not how I imagined it but I love Amita so who cares?

Inej’s dialogue feels a little off but that’s not a big deal

Pekka mention

Investment (affectionate)

So is Per Haskell not in this at all? I need confirmation.

Wow they are really not letting us forget that Alina is half Shu. Idk if that’s a good thing or a little over the top. At the very least I do think it adds to Alina’s feelings of not being able to belong which was a big theme in the first book particularly.

Is Mal stealing food for Alina??

Zoya (pt.2)!!

Mal stop flirting you lil hoe

Well that’s mighty forward of you Zoya - I love it

So he doesn’t hook up with her? Intresting.

God the vibes of this show are unreal. I love it.

“I could shoot you in the foot” get you a bestie like that

I do like they somewhat establish how Alina and Mal’s parents died, because it’s kind of unclear in the books?

“I’ll find my way back to you” scream pt.2

he’ll write her a letter? excuse me that foreshadowing is cruel.

CROWS!

Her lil smirk at her knife, i’m in love

Wait wait wait, I just realised, they’re not crossing the fold to get Alina? They’re crossing to get something else and Alina comes into play later? Okay this makes a lot more sense for Inej particularly. Jesper not so much, since why would he go to Ravka but honestly that never made that much sense to me either.

Well hello Pekka

Oooh I love his accent

Is the Orchid supposed so be the White Rose? Maybe not.

I always pictured Pekka a little craftier than that, less brute force, but okay

Malina are fucking killing me and it’s only ep1

Omfg Alexei she’s not interested

THE FLASHBACK I’M CRYING

I love this suspense they’re building with the Darkling

Alina, girl, what you doing?

Whyyyyyyy is she burning the maps??

Ohhhhh so they’ll have to send a cartographer?

Alina you crafty devil

But now you’re gonna get all the other cartographers killed

“I COULD SHOOT YOU IN THE FOOT”

“Get off this boat or I’ll carry you off” now there’s an image

I’m sorry I’m a shameless Malina stan

These Grisha hand movements are so extra I love it

This is like the worst haunted house ride ever

I fucking loooooooove this suspense they’re building with the Darkling

I feel like it’s just to kill the fangirls when they finally show his face

Fuck I know what’s gonna happen and I’m still getting nervous for them

I love how they’ve done the Fold

These looks between Malina are killing me

Well shit

Idk who this inferni chick is but I love her

Bro Alexei what?!?!

MAL!!!!

This is so dramatic

I love it.

“I’LL MEET YOU AT THE MEADOW” I’m crying

Idk how I feel about these little title cards

Holy crap Alexie ran all the way to West Ravka? That’s shouldn’t be funny but it is.

Bro you were planning on meeting with Pekka Rollins, he ain’t exactly an upstanding citizen

You know what, Freddy Carter really sells this role

Omfg Jesper

I love seeing these little moments of comedy, they feel very Six of Crows

Oh wait this timeline is fucked

So they are going after Alina?

He’s going to want Alina so he can make crossings easier

I do like how they’re tying the Crows and Alina’s stories together

These effects are pretty good

Inej’s little gasp - I die

Yeah Alexei you are definitely not going free after this

Wow totally didn’t see that coming /s

Kinda harsh for a merch though

I feel like Inej is going to have a problem going after a Sun Summoner?

Final Thoughts:

This first episode had a lot to set up and I think it did a pretty good job of it

There was a little narration from Alina which is pretty cliche YA but on the whole managed to avoid big info dumps which I loved

The aesthetic and costuming are freaking excellent

The dialogue is really good, the only time it felt a little off was for Inej at times but in general I think the crows dynamic is hard to get exactly right and they did a really good job of it

Amita, Freddy, and Kit all do a really excellent job

I wasn’t expecting the crows to be in so much of it early on but I really like the way they’re tying the two stories together already - I know some people were really adamant that the two stay separate but I actually don’t mind them coming together

Malina are amazing already

Literally nothing else to say except they’re amazing and in love and I love them

We didn’t really get to see the Darkling much except for a few shots of him from behind, which is surprising but also I think a really good idea because it’s really building the suspense of his character for the non-reader audience which I think will be helpful to establish him later as a villain

I expected them to be a bit further in the plot at the end of this first episode, like I was expecting the Darkling and Alina to have already met but now, but I think they traded that in order to set up some of the dynamics (namely Malina, the crows, and Grisha vs non-Grisha) and tbh it might have been a smart thing to do

In short, I am very much in love already, and this definitely hasn’t disappointed (for me at least)

#sab spoilers #shadow and bone #shameless malina stanning #tgv

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buddha-in-disguise · 4 years

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This is how it's done

Episode 5.15 at last.

While the emphasis has been on Nia's story in this episode, the synopsis made it clear Alex, Kelly and J'onn had a secondary storyline running as well. So again we were eager to watch knowing they were finally getting more than a token few minutes together.

Did it deliver?

Oh hell yes.

You just have to look on Twitter to see the praise being heaped on it by fans.

But first let's get the elephant in the room out of the way. William.

The opening sequence as Kara is fighting with Nia, and Nia has to be the one reminding Kara she has a date? Already covered by me and others, but to reiterate: that does not give a vibe of someone excited to be going on a first date. You can't even use the excuse of her mind was on the fight, because so was Nia's.

As to Kara at her apartment with Alex prior to the date?

Those words, "Cancel it for me."

Lets say (for arguments sake) it is nerves again speaking. Maybe it is, but that she is even having those thoughts? That she completely forgot about the 1st date, and needed reminding? If Kara can't get invested in the date, how are the audience expected to become invested?

As for the date itself. Kara arrives.... having been told by Alex to wear the blue top because .... well reasons .... and she is wearing the purple? So, not wanting to go with the best look then?

I didn't mind the date per se, although I did wonder if Kara was simply trying to not show pool skills, because I can't believe for a second, with Alex as a sister, and the control Kara now has on her powers (worry over lack of control would be the only other reason for her hesitation that I can think of), Kara hasn't been pulled into playing many times.

Did I get a date vibe? No. I felt more bonding yes (like why has it taken until now to even vaguely have that much), but date? Nope. Still not feeling it. If any of the above was a one off instance, you could shrug it off. But all of them? Sorry but as I say, if Kara isn't that invested in a first date, then we can't be expected to be as invested. However, that isn't to say that William annoyed me. In truth having him more on the sidelines was a relief as it finally allowed others to get some much needed screen time.

The Nia storyline.

This is obviously one extremely close to me, as my husband is transgender, and we have other family who are also transgender.

Nicole's input was definitely felt. Some of the lines she spoke were ones we have said ourselves almost word for word.

This is a topic that is one I've been extremely vocal about, and one in particular I have spoken about (in the William and Kara at CatCo scene) is the figures for transgender people killed in the last year alone in the USA, but more importantly that this number is likely not a true representation as many who die are misgendered after death.

It was so important to show just how bad for the transgender community it is. And no, it wouldn't necessarily be a fact Kara would know. Even those in the LGBTQ community aren't always aware of these figures. As for William being the one stating the figures back to Kara, again in the context I had no qualms about it. In fact having a CIS straight man write the piece and be a supportive ally is an important message in it's own right. I was worried that wouldn't come across, but I felt it did.

If ever there was a line that spoke volumes in this weeks Supergirl episode it was this:

"They want us to be invisible because of their own fears, they want to erase us so...... we need to shine even brighter." - Nia Nal

And shine Nicole Maines (and Roxy Wood, because the additional line about being a Black transgender woman - take my heart, stomp over it, then expect me to function), did. Both deserve so much praise on the way they delivered their performances.

I genuinely cried at some of this weeks episode, because the experiences have been ones we have faced as a transgender household. Being white does afford us a privilege that Black transgender people (especially the women) don't have. But as I say, it has been something I've been vocal about for a long time.

Lastly Kara and Nia on the balcony. Holy mother of god (or goddess), tears. Again. Nicole and Melissa once again were so good it felt like a punch to the gut. Kara wiping that tear off Nia's cheek. Big ugly sobbing from me. Gah! Just ....

Now Alex and Kelly. While I'm still craving a nice intimate atmosphere at home with them, having had so little of Dansen (and Kelly) it was a relief that for once Kelly wasn't given diminished screentime. Not only that, she was instrumental in helping Alex navigate through the VR world.

Alex having that PTSD flashback to being in the tank. Whoa, finally acknowledging it affected her and obviously still does. I loved how Kelly is so good at helping Alex maintain her equilibrium. You could tell it wasn't just because of her training or profession, but as a girlfriend who knows and understands how to communicate to Alex in that moment of stress, much like Alex was able to realise Malefic was manifesting as Kelly in the earlier part of the season, simply because she knew her girlfriend well enough.

Watching Alex train to get used to the Martian weapon, felt very reminiscent of S1 where Alex was training Kara early on. It was good to see her off balance for once in her training, as she has always shown a confidence in her ability until now. For those who complain she brought up wanting to be back at the DEO, as someone who has heavy military presence in our family (for at least 4 generations on my maternal side), I can safely say, going from military (and remember the DEO is recognised and spoken about in canon as being a military operation), and suddenly and unexpectedly thrown back into civilian life is one heck of an adjustment. It's an adjustment for most even when they know it's coming. To be so abrupt, so unexpected? Alex is going to want that structure back, and have that support around her. It is absolutely not unrealistic for her to feel this way or to talk about it. I would've been more surprised if she hadn't.

"And this is my gun."

Alex giving no crap. The whole rescue sequence was a joy to watch.

If I had a complaint, as I mentioned, I would've loved just a moment of real quiet intimacy between Kelly and Alex. We've barely seen anything of that sort. I hope we get something next episode (which also looks amazing from the trailer).

I could go through the episode and pick up so many times on how good it was. It was so much, I know I will have forgotten something I wanted to say. But I'm exhausted (almost no sleep will do that to you, damn being in the UK and these stupid o'clock viewing times), and it was so much to unpack.

Brainy, was barely in the episode but damn, so lovely (& heartbreaking) to see him give the information to the NCPD to help against transphobic attacks.

Onto a side plot, but finally we have more about Leviathan.

Leviathan have those bodies suspended.

What if William dies in 5.19 and becomes one of those suspended bodies for 5.20 or was supposed to, as Nicole mentioned on her Instagram story they still had scenes to film, and a couple were pretty amazing? With Staz back, would it have involved him, possibly as a sleeper agent? I've touted this idea before. While I would prefer that a MOC isn't cast into being a bad guy again, or killed off, I would more than happily see him simply go back to London and The Times. But I guess we wait to see what happens there.

But if, like Russell in 5a, he becomes an unwitting agent of Leviathan & a bad guy, cue fight scene, possibly in a VR setting? Maybe? Who knows.

Last but by no means least - they killed off Jeremiah. Since we're not entirely sure if Cadmus operated in the same way on Earth Prime as they did on Earth 38, we don't yet know the circumstances behind his death.

Will we get more explanation about it? Honestly I'm not overly bothered unless it helps serve a current storyline. Merely because episode numbers are running out, and it does at least bring us closure on his character one way or another. Something a lot of us have questioned for so long now.

As for complaints, the only ones expressing any real disappointment have been fans who have either regularly attacked other fans (especially those of in the SC or Dansen fandoms), or the outright transphobic users (I won't call them fans), who as the episode makes clear, are everywhere. The transphobes come out in force everytime with Nicole, so it isn't a surprise to see them again. As Nia says, it what transgender people face on a daily basis.

Plus with no Lena in the episode, it helps show that fans didn't need a Lena/Kara centric episode for this to garner such positive reactions, particularly from the LGBTQ fans. In some ways, as many have been saying (yes even SC fans), this Lena drama has long since gone by its sell by date and not having Lena once more stuck in her laboratory wasn't missed. And god, I say this as a huge Lena fan. I still want her on screen of course, but we need progression on what is happening with her. Both Lex and Lena have felt stale of late, and while I know it changes as we get into the last few episodes, I can truly say neither was missed this time. And before anyone jumps in, no this isn't bashing SC (I still ship both Dansen and SC, as well as Brainia), or saying SC shouldn't happen, or Lena is evil, or not needed. I don't think that at all. I merely am getting tired of a merry-go-round on Lena in her laboratory that we've had of late, & the only interaction has been with Lex. Time to break her out of that cell!

I don’t know what they were putting in the water in Vancouver when they did the Batwoman and Supergirl episodes this week, but they both had me simultaneously laughing & crying! It looked ugly for a minute there.

Both were outstanding episodes.

As much as I've had my criticism over some of this season, when Supergirl get it right like they did here, they soar! This was one of my top episodes for the entire series.

And despite all the news in the world right now, Supergirl trended on Twitter again.

Gif courtesy of @ Daily_danvers on Twitter.

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drowninginblox · 4 years

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Thrown into It

Part: 1,2,3,4,5, 6, 7, 8

Part 9: Titles at Momo’s

How the fuck did I get here? We were just going over math damn it. Why did we have to train my powers? It’s not like I’m gonna be a pro hero! I’m not main character material after all. Have you seen what I'm packing? All bone and fat. No muscle to this bitch. “Y/n! Cmon! Keep your head out of the clouds!” Ochako called from the front. I can only nod my head and try not to faint. Right now me and the main character gang are walking to Momo’s house. Apparently this is an impromptu sleepover. Momo told us that she’ll cover everything we needed so now we’re just walking. Don't worry the cast dragged me to the local train station before hand and Inko was cool with this somehow. What even is this? “Y/n? Are you alright?” I hear before Tenya- fuck I mean Iida nudge me. It’s so weird acting like a stranger to people you already know. “Oh, um.. Y-yeah just a little.. I don't know how to explain it? Anxious?” I try to look at him but his straight laced demeanor and overall physic is intimidating in itself. “There is nothing to worry about though! Surely Midoryia has told you that we are trustworthy!” He declares while chopping his hand around. I try to hold in my laugh but fail miserably. “Did I do something funny?!” He shouts defensively while chopping more. Fuck its just as funny in person-. I feel eyes fall on me as I just keep laughing. “I-oh holly crap- fuckin give me a minute holy shit-” I takes deep breaths while the group mumbles something about me being weird. “S-sorry- Just.. The fucking hand chops kill me- you remind me of C3PO..” I whip a tear from my eye but when I focus back on the group they all look clueless as to what I was saying. “Um.. Y’know? Star Wars?” I prompt but all look just as clueless. Does this universe not have star wars? “What's that?” Tsuyu asks with a small kero. I couldn't only stare. “Just the greatest movie franchise to grace the planet! Yknow- fuckin-” I cover my mouth and inhale deeply. “Luke, I am your father!” They all glance at each other. “Y/n is it something from your home?” I feel my eye twitch but give up. “Yeah it is, and it's amazing.” I sigh. “What might it be about?” Tokoyami asks. His eyes widened at my overwhelming joy. Midoryia chuckles and smiles along with me. “Now you did it-” Before tonight Izuku made the mistake of asking me who my favorite hero was.

The rest of the journey was me basically explaining all of star wars to them without giving the major spoilers. At some points they had to smack me since in my excitement I was babbling nonsense. Ochako, Tsuyu, and Momo seemed to be the most invested in it from what I could tell. “Does the princess ever go home?” Ochoko questions. Momo interrupts me with a pointer finger. “There it is!” She announces at the sight of the gates. She runs up ahead of us and speaks into the microphone. Not even two minutes later and the gate opens up to us, two white golf carts not too far behind. “Dude how rich are you..?” I mumble into the open air. She only laughs. I turned to Ochoko, then to Izuku, both of whom shook to the core over how long the driveway was. “My goodness! You have golf carts too Yaoyorozo?” Tenya acquires when two while golf carts pull up to the gate. The fuck even is this bull shitery? “Only for when I’m lazy.” She defends before hopping on the back of one of the carts. We all follow suit and within a few minutes we are in front of a behemoth of a mansion. “Welcome home everyone!” She cheers. The carts come to stop at her front door and holy fuck I am too intimidated to move.

Everyone gets out of the carts while me and Ochoko take in the sight that is Momo’s home. It was larger than my house, that's for sure. It was also weastern, made of what looked like marble with stone accents near the front door and side of the house. The windows were large and peaking from the roof were two brick chimneys. “Are you two going to stay there all night?” Tenya called with what looked like a cocky smile. “Oh shush Mr. My brother is a pro hero!” I called playfully. His cheeks flashes a bright red and turns to Midorya while I slowly get up, help a dazed Ochoko in the process, and make my way to the front door. Izuku was mumbling about every small detail while Tsu and Tokoyami were notably quiet through this whole ordeal. Momo turned to us and smiled. “My mother and Father are out of town, visiting friends and the likes, so we have the whole house to ourselves!” She rings the doorbell and not even a second later, it opens to a maid. I could feel my face heat up at the sight of any of the main characters in that outfit like that, even though it wasn't that revealing. “Y/n are you okay?” Tokoyami asks about my flushed face but I just cough it off. “Oh my! Are you catching something?” Momo asks before turning to the maid. “Please get them some hot chocolate and hot tea! Also prepare my room with extra blankets, clothes, and pillows.” The young woman bows before walking away from us. “You didn't have to-! I'm not sick!” I tried but I was silenced by Momo rushing to me and covering my forehead with her hand. I jumped at how close we were. “You're burning up! C'mon! You can have a guest room.” She makes some medical masks for the group but Tsu backs me up. “Momo I think you’re overreacting.. Kero.” But she doesn't stop to hear reason, only dragging me through her maze of a house and shoving me into a room. “There should be a maid coming. Once she’s here she’ll give you something to wear.” And before I could say anything she closed the door. What the fuck. Why the fuck. I thought this was the training arch not the filler episode. I swear to god if one of the boys walks in on me changing I will murder.

Thank god that wasn't the case. A maid got me some silk jammies and directed me to another room. It wasn't until I walked in did I realize it was Momo’s room. And holy crap was she a hero fan damn- I’m talking hero’s of all shapes and sizes. Ethnicities and races. Genders of all kinds. Some of the posters were black and white while others were neon and vibrant. All were framed and signed on the wall parallel to the door. “Holy-” I started but Momo caught me. “Y/n! It's good to see you out first!” She says just loud enough from her king size canopy bed. Her bedroom- in length- was the size of me and Midoryia’s rooms connected and then some. On the wall to my right were instruments, a desk, and cubicles for storage while the rest of the room was empty. Well scratch that, there was a rug. But it was small and a bright white, a needed contrast with the equally white was and dark floors. “Yeah.. um.. How do you know my size..?” I ask while motioning to my pjs. She laughs lightly. “Cmon! Come sit on my bed!” OKAY just leave me in the dark on that creepy fact then. Wordlessly I wander to the bed and take a sit right beside her. “So Y/n, tell me about yourself.” I glance up at her and play with my hair. “I'm not that interesting, trust me.” She waves a hand dismissively. “Oh please! There must be more to you than your quirk! I know I’m more than mine!” She assures. I kick my legs and think for a moment. “I'm a big nerd. I love fantastical worlds, and possibilities that probably won't happen. For better or worse.” I say with a nervous chuckle. “Really?” She asks. I nod and humor her. “YEah- I uh.. I write, draw, sing, creative stuff mostly. But I don’t think I’m that creative honestly.” She loosens her posture. “Well then, prove it!” I jumped at her request. “O-Oh um- I don't think-”

“Madam, the other guests are ready!” A maid calls after a knock. Momo sighs “Let them in then!” With that the maid from before lets in the rest of the group, all in t-shirts and pajama pants/ shorts. Aside from Iida. He has a classic set of pajamas and a nightcap to go with the ensemble. “Thank you so much for the pj’s Momo!” Ochoko says with a smile, rushing up to us and hugging her in gratitude. “Oh it’s no problem at all.” “What were you guys talking about kero?” Tsuyu prompts. “Oh-” Momo starts but i cut her off. “Oh nothing interesting!” She glances at me and lightly slaps my arm. “Nonsense. Y/n was just telling me about their hobbies. Apparently they write and do art!” Tokoyami perks at this. “What do you write L/n?” I scratch the back of my neck “Ahahahaha- wouldn’t you like to know..” Tenya’s eyes narrow. “Certainly nothing unsavory? Right Y/n?” Fuck his glasses are reflecting light- f u c k. “Oh nooooo! Nothing like that. Mostly self indulgent romantic crap, some angst-“ Izuku gasped. “Y/n! You write angst!?” Of course Midorya’s the only one who knows that I’m talking about. “Strange. Why is your face a rose then?” Tokoyami teases. His tone says otherwise but that knowing glance is dangerous. “Ahahahaha- Tokoyami you jokester-” I get up close to him and say through my teeth. “You cant out me like this man-! Not here!” Over my shoulder I hear Ochoko laugh. “You remind me Jiro-chan, Y/n. She always gets flustered like this when she’s embarrassed.” I back up from Tokoyami and turn to the group. “Wait what?”

“Oh! You don't know Jiro, but she's so smart and talented.” Ochoko says. “Oh yeah, I know her.” I say casually but when I see Momo’s eyes widen I try to recover. “Me and my dad saw her on the TV. Y'know during UA’s annual sports festival. She had dangles on her ear lobes right?” I scratch the back of my neck for a moment to sell it. Thankfully Momo took the bait because she slowly nodded. “That’s her. She is very smart. Don’t underestimate her when you meet her.” Tyu nods. “What was her score on the midterms?” Midorya hums for a moment. “I don't remember if she told us, but she was up there in ranking..” Before Izuku could go on a mumbling tangent, Iida inquired on the subject. “Seventh in class ranking I think.” The group hums in agreement before turning back to me. “What were you on about before Y/n?” I think a moment before remembering. “Oooh!” I snapped my fingers. I exhale a little at my idiocy. “I just forgot that you guys use titles normally. I was just a little confused.” Tenya’s glasses brightened in the light. Crap. “Shouldn’t you have researched on Japanese culture before you came to Japan Y/n?” He gets up close to me as he says that. “Uhh well.. yasee- I was kind of in a rush to get here and I don't have a phone anymore.. My dad thought it would be a great idea to take away my phone before I go to a whole ‘nother country soooo..” Great job Y/n. Nothing like feeding into the idiot father trope. Dad would be so proud of your creative genius. “And I've been so busy with school and my room..”

“Wow.” the group mumbles. “YEeeeah.. Not the brightest bulb.” I mumble dryly. “Well, surely we can teach you a few things.” Midorya counters. “No one is hopeless unless they don't bother to try! And you want to try don't you?” He says with that signature baby boy smile. I laugh a little at that bright fire in his eyes. That want to help is gonna make him a great hero one day. “Of course! If you guys can teach me that is.” I looked over at the group. Collectively they nod. Que the anime montage.

I was woken up by Midoya at twelve. Am not pm mind you. Momo was kicking us out. “I’m sorry! My parents just called and said they were on their way back home as we speak!” She defended sadly as me and Midorya were finishing up getting our shoes back on. Apparently because of my sleeping habits, Midorya had to watch all of his other friends leave until it was just him and Momo alone in her house together. “Dude, it's okay. Calm down.” I said with a slightly worried smile. Midorya was patiently waiting for me outside with a new duffle bag of his clothes for the night before and some new ones that Momo gave him this morning. “It was an honor staying here for the night Yaoyorozo-sama.” I say with a bow once both my shoes are on. She gasps, a light blush covering her cheeks from the title. But she smiles nonetheless. “It is an honor to meet you too, Y/n-san. And please, call me Momo.” She says with a smile, bowing after. We both rise and I smile back to her before walking out the door. “Y/n-chan, what took you so long?” Midorya asked. “Nothin. Just telling Momo thank you. And chan? Really?” He laughs. “What? Don't like being babied?”

“Oh screw you.”

#mirio togata x reader #mha #mha izuku #midorya izuku #deku #momo yaoyozoru #bnha fanfiction #bnha mirio #uraraka ochako #fumikage tokoyami #tenya lida #tsuyu asai

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ruffiorocks · 5 years

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Supergirl Season 5 premiere review!

Ok!! So there's a lot to process here but first off WOW! Bravo! 👏👏 as season premieres go that was probably one of if not the best.

Ok... So opening scene, you could so tell that was a simulation from the way Kara talked. I should also like to give a big 🖕🖕 to all those that were dragging Lena saying she either:

1. Gave herself super powers

2. Used Kryptonite

3. Punched Kara in front of some school kids.

Is it just me, or does Hope the AI give off an "I'm going to become sentient and be a massive pain in the ass?" Vibe? 🤔🤔

My poor baby Lena, how awful must it be to believe that everyone you know has betrayed you, that you can't trust them and you have no one to talk to? So you create your own personal AI that won't (probably will ) betray you, oh and you bring someone (Andrea ) back into your life when clearly things haven't always been smooth sailing? Poor Lena!

Ugh..Must they throw out politics less that 3 minutes into the show? We have Kara talking about registering to vote?

Ok, so everyone is praising Kara, she's talking about having her work recognised, Baker and Lex being taken down, but yet again there is NO mention of the fact that it was Lena who figured out where Lex was, Lena who helped Kara/Supergirl etc. Oh that's right I forgot, the show doesn't like to acknowledge when things couldn't have been done without Lena 😤😤

Naww Alex and Kelly are so cute.

Kara suddenly has a dislike for technology?? Random and purely there for plot convenience.

Not going to lie but Jonn is kind of boring this episode.

Ok... So here we go again, Kara using stupid excuses to not tell Lena. Ugh.... this is getting so old and cliche to the point it isn't even funny anymore.

Yes!! They have Kara acknowledging that lying to Lena for so long while being all about 'truth' wasn't fair.

Yes Alex the voice of reason Danvers!! She can tell Kara off essentially while still praising her and letting her know she is good. I'm loving how it's ALEX who is saying Lena needs to know!

😂 Miranda Priestly, yes Brainy I quite agree! Id rather face Hannibal Lector than her. Oh bring back Cat Grant!!

😂😂 omg that handshake! I'm willing to bet that Alex's laugh was just Chyler not being able to keep a straight face and they kept it.

James is boring.

Strangely turned on by the way Andrea says her name 😅

James is boring.

Not going to lie, I know Lena wanted Andrea to keep the sale of Cat Co a secret, but I'm actually glad we got to see Kara's shock at not being kept in the loop. Humble pie much??

Ok the exhibit is funny.

Did they have a casting call for a creepy kid?

Dinosaur!!

Katie is so good at the whole pretending to be happy and friendly whilst plotting face 🤣. Morgana much?

Oh.... Kara is being indignant Lena did something without telling them all?? Another bite of pie Kara?

Hahahaha 🖕 to all those that said Lena didn't buy Cat Co for Kara. (I know she might be saying that to explain the sale away, but it's been said so it's canon!)

Oooh Lena is really making it obvious she knows 🤣🤣 awkward much lol

Dinosaur!!

Karas cape is more important than a bomb to Brainy 😂

Ooh here that's scene at Cat Co. I stand by my last post, James and Kara are incredibly rude to their new boss and have zero right to speak to her that way. James and Kara used all of the staff to gang up on Andrea and it's just not on! I love how Andrea roasted James though!!

Does anyone here ever read a contract before signing it?

Am I the only one thought Andrea was Lenas ex when she said "relationship"?? 😅😅 false alarm lol

Why is Kara still flying with a crap cape? She doesn't need one to fly.

trap!!

Midnight isn't all that exciting.

Oh so Jonn remembers Manchester Black, but i take it no one wants to acknowledge his blatant MURDER Of the disarmed non powered human? Ok writers you can forget it all you want, but I'm not going to!

😂 Brainy! It is great fun to watch Jonn shift into Kara!

Oh Alex you angel and voice of reason.

Yay Kelly!! Lovely advice, love how she's the one who convinced James to leave! Kelly just got a massive boost in my eyes!

William is hilariously obnoxious!!

Erm... Did Kara just FULL ON verbally attack her new boss? Threatening to fight her boss on everything? Dictating what Andrea can and can not do? Giving out demands? Jesus Christ, Andrea I know you said you're not going to fire her but man I would have on the spot!! Kara is waaaay out of order and getting way to big for her super boots!

I don't think William and Kara are going to be a couple, that's the exact same story as Mon El and Kara. No one wants to watch that again.

Ok so now Kara is bragging to Alex that she verbally attacked her new boss, telling her what SHE will and will not tolerate? Omg Kara get a grip!

Alex?? You're encouraging this? You were supposed to be the voice of reason!

Naww Alex and Kelly are cute!

Ooh Brainy is so funny! "To small to be perceived". He made her a new suit!

Holy s**t!! Kara just out right came out to Lena!! I really thought she would drag this out start rambling and not actually do it So Lena sees her change instead. But good for her, about bloody time!!

Lena genuinely looks shocked! She didn't expect Kara to come clean! Puts a spanner in Lena's revenge plot there lol

Jesus the acting of these two!! The facial expressions and the tears! Mel is really selling it! Bravo 👏👏

I'm loving how Kara is acknowledging all the things we've been saying, how her reasons for keeping the secret were dumb!

Oh I don't trust this Hope AI at all! She's encouraging Lena to hate on Kara.

Oh the speech, and Alex's awkward look!

No way was Lena going to immediately forgive Kara, I know we wanted to think it but Nooo! Far to soon lol

Omg!! It was Lena Kara activated her new suit infront of!! I'm living for that!

PANTS!!!

HOLY SH*T MUSE!!! Yesssss!!! What a sound track to use!!

Alex "how do you guys change so fast?!" 🤣🤣

Oh.. ... look...... Guardian is there.....Hopefully for his last appearance

Fight itself isn't all that exciting, and I feel like we didn't even get to know Midnight, that was way to quick.

James quit, good! Leave!! Seems a bit stupid he doesn't care about never being a journalist again though. But I won't dwell, because I genuinely don't care.

Alex and Kelly! Oh my heart!

Oh so Brainy has had A LOT of romantic experience then? 😏

Aww he loves her!!

I'm glad they had Brainy acknowledge his feeling at having been dark for that short time.

Nawwww a kiss!

That little girl is way creepy!

Oh so Jonn doesn't know he has a brother? 🤔 interesting.

Oh look Lena gets a super watch, ABOUT BLOODY TIME!! That could have prevented so many problems! Straight out of a fan fic lol

Oh yes, I don't trust this AI Hope!!

Lena no! You are NOT a Luthor!

Ok... so all in all a fab episode, nothing was dragged out thank RAO! I don't hate Lena for wanting to expose Kara, it makes sense from a comic point of view and from the pain she feels. The important thing is she didn't do it. People are allowed to feel like they are going to lash out when they are hurt.

I quite like Andrea, she's a breath of fresh air! Plus she isn't wrong in her ideas, just because it's something Kara, Nia and James don't like doesn't mean it's wrong. I think she was treated horribly and despicably by Kara and James though. Especially Kara! That was way to much and she should have been sacked. I'm really happy someone is at Cat Co now that is challenging her and not doing whatever she says, I think the days of Karaolsen magazine and Kara running out whatever she wants are done. But this is good!

Nia is adorable but didn't get to do much.

Jonn was pretty boring this ep considering the villain was out to get him.

James sucks!

Brainy is sooo cute and funny!

Alex and Kelly are the best!

Alex being the voice of reason is what I'm here for, now I want her to go see Lena.

Hahaha Kelly is the one to thank for ridding me of James.

The acting between Mel and Katie here was brilliant, the emotions the tears, the deception? Wonderfully done.

Lena didn't create any VR tech so take that haters!!

Kara's war on tech sounds like it's going to be for boring reasons.

I don't trust this Hope AI!

Lena isn't done for yet, "a fight for Lena's soul!" We can all find our way back to the light!

#supergirl #katie mcgrath #kara zor el #kara danvers #lena luthor #superfriends #supercorp #alex danvers #kelly olsen #anti james olsen #dansen #nia nal #brainy #jonn jonzz #andrea rojas

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duhragonball · 5 years

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Dragon Ball Z 200

So we’re finally in the last leg of DBZ. The previous episode offered a glimpse of it, but Episode 200 is where we get to see the whole thing. Starting with this episode, the OP was changed to "We Gotta Power”, complete with a new animation focusing on Gohan as an 18-year-old high school student. The implication was that Gohan was taking over the role of the main character due to Goku’s absence, but that idea didn’t last very long, if that was ever really the idea at all.

For the next dozen or so episodes, though, Gohan is definitely the protagonist. Seven years after the Cell Games, he’s enrolled in a brick-and-mortar school. This is never fully explained beyond Chi-Chi’s belief that his home schooling curriculum was no longer enough. What changed? Did Chi-Chi want him to socialize more? Or were there no correspondence courses left for him to tackle?

The reason I bring this up is because there was a very good reason for home-schooling Gohan: the nearest classroom is hundreds of miles away in Orange City. It’s a quick commute for Gohan on his father’s Kinto’un, but it’s still a long way to go for a diploma that Gohan’s only a few months away from earning anyway.

Oh, and it’s not Orange City anymore. This is it’s first appearance, but this is Mr. Satan’s hometown, and in honor of his glorious victory over Cell, the citizens renamed the place “Satan City.”

You’d think a town famous for being the home of a world-saving hero would be light on crime, but actually no. Satan City is riddled with crooks. Pretty brazen ones too. I can’t tell if the crooks in this arc are just nuttier than usual, or if this standard Dragon Ball hyperbole.

Gohan’s been here a couple times before to set up his enrollment in the school, and he’s run into criminals every time he’s been here. It’s to the point where he’s more annoyed than disturbed.

So he foils these guys’ bank robbery, but to avoid unwanted attention, he turns into a Super Saiyan first, figuring the transformation will disguise him. He does the cool spot where he catches and crushes all the bullets they shoot at him...

Then he wrecks their getaway car with a ki wave. Once they’re down, he changes back to normal and acts like another innocent bystander. Then this girl shows up and demands to know who did all of this.

One guy in the crowd recognizes her as Videl, and he tells her that the guy who stopped the crooks was wearing an Orange Star badge, signifying that he’s a student at Orange Star High School...

...Just like Videl.

Speaking of school, it’s almost time for it to start, to Videl goes to class and starts asking around about the “Golden Warrior”, which is the unofficial name Gohan has earned for his vigilante activities.

On the left we have Sharpner, who’s some sort of jock, and he’s got blonde hair, so Videl figures he’s as likely a suspect as she’s going to find. But Sharpner’s too busy training for sports to do any crimefighting. On the right is Erasa, who’s also blonde, but Videl never bothers asking her.

Then Gohan shows up, and the teacher introduces him to the class. People can say that Gohan didn’t do anything during the seven year gap, but this teacher knows what’s up. Perfect scores on several subjects. Gohan was plenty busy all those years.

Erasa invites Gohan to sit with her because she finds him cute. She also informs Gohan that Videl is the daughter of Mr. Satan. Videl recognizes Gohan as the kid she saw at the bank robbery, but doesn’t connect him to the Golden Warrior.... yet. Erasa tells Gohan about the Golden Warrior, and he realizes that his disguise has backfired. Too many people have seen him fighting crime here, and if he’s not careful someone will figure out that it’s him.

What threw me off watching this in Japanese was when this teacher started speaking. In the dub, she has a thick German accent, and it’s an English class, but it’s an English class for English speakers, so she’s talking about prepositions or some crap like that. In Japanese, she’s teaching a foreign language course, so she reads English out of a book. So for a hot minute this lady speaks English, and she sounds really fluent, which really took me out of the story for a second.

But the gag here is that these kids are all having a side conversation during the lesson. Videl’s friends are satisfied that Gohan’s not blonde enough to be the Golden Warrior, but Videl isn’t so sure, since his outfit matches the description, and she’s heard of fighters who could change their hair color, because her father encountered Super Saiyans at the Cell Games. But her dad dismissed this as a trick, so she’s not sure what to make of it.

So the point of all of this is that Gohan is trying to make a life for himself in peacetime, and he’s convinced that he can’t reveal his true strength around anyone, which is why he doesn’t want anyone to connect him with this Golden Warrior business. But he’s too clueless to avoid slipping up in other ways, like when Erasa asks him where he lives, and he tells her he’s from a village hundreds of miles away.

This English lesson also serves as a way to reintroduce Mr. Satan to the story, since the textbooks feature him. Gohan reads aloud how Mr. Satan won the 24th Tenkaichi Budokai, and I think this is the first mention of this. Prior to this episode, Mr. Satan was said to be a combat sports champion, but it was never specified just what competition he had won to earn the title. Also, everyone kept acting like the 23rd Budokai was the last one. I suppose it’s possible that the 24th tournament could have been held after the Cell Games, but I think it’s commonly accepted that it happened before the Cell Sagas, and Mr. Satan’s world championship accolade was in reference to that victory.

Anyway, here’s the champ sneezing in his dojo. See, there’s this superstition in Japan where if you sneeze, someone must be talking about you somewhere, so whenever Mr. Satan sneezes, he observes that this must be true, because he’s so famous.

Never mind that shit! Here comes Freddie Mercury! I’m pretty sure this was unintentional but you never know. I don’t much care because HOLY SHIT THIS GUY LOOKS JUST LIKE FREDDIE MERCURY AND IT’S AWESOME.

What makes this so great is how there’s absolutely no self-awareness to it. The dub of Dragon Ball Kai seemed to play with the idea a little, but there’s only so much you can do, since this character is a no-nonsense gym coach making these kids play baseball. And that’s perfect, honestly. If there were a bunch of Queen references worked into this scene to beat you over the head with it, it would be dumb, but as it is there’s really no way to tell if this is a coindidence.

During the game, Gohan resolves to hold back his true strength, since Chi-Chi and Bulma warned him that it might cause trouble if people knew the truth. That’s kind of sad, actually. It’s not until we get to this episode that we realize that Gohan hasn’t had much of a normal life. To him, fighting super-battles is pretty typical, and he really doesn’t know how to even pretend to be a regular guy, no matter how badly he wants to fit in.

But it’s also kind of sad because he is half-Saiyan, and while he was raised as an Earthling, he really doesn’t have a way to express that aspect of himself. This is where Goku’s absence is most sorely felt. Yeah, Gohan can manage without him, and he can get through school somehow, but you’d figure it’d be nice if he could go home and his orange space dad could tousle his hair and then they’d horse around in the woods until dinnertime.

Anyway, Gohan’s so determined to keep his strength a secret, but when he goes to catch a fly ball, he ends up floating in midair while he decides what to do with it.

Then he throws to the catcher, and he’s so thrilled that he didn’t kill the guy that he doesn’t realize that he jumped like fifteen feet in the air a minute ago.

Also, Gohan knows nothing of baseball, but that’s fine in my book. Baseball is the fucking worst. He stands on the opposite side of the plate from the way he’s going to swing, but Coach Mercury doesn’t mind. Gohan can swing any way he likes in this class.

But Gohan’s plan is not to swing at all, since he’s concerned that he’ll hit the ball too hard and expose his secrets. But Sharpner throws a fastball at his head, thinking it’ll give Gohan a scare. Trouble is, Gohan doesn’t even try to dodge it, probably because he doesn’t see it as a threat. So he gets hit in the damn face with a baseball and just no-sells it.

But Gohan’s thrilled because this means he can go to first base without having to hit the ball. So thrilled that he doesn’t notice how shocked everyone is.

EVEN FREDDIE MERCURY IS AFRAID

Videl wonders what all of this could mean. How could someone so goofy be so handsome... I mean strong. Strong. Yeah, that’stheticket.

After gym, everyone wants a piece of the Gohan pie. Sharpner invites him to join the boxing club, since he’s stronger than he looks. I was setting up a “Sharpner’s also thirsty for Gohan joke” just now, but now that I think about it, maybe that’s not such a silly idea after all. I do know that Erasa’s into him, since she asks him to give her a ride home, but Gohan explains that his “car” only has room for one.

But Videl follows him after school, and she only ever sees him on foot. How very dreamy--suspicious! Get ahold of yourself, Videl!

But Gohan notices her stalking him and he gives her the slip by jumping on top of a building at super speed. “Gosh,” Gohan says, “I never realized so many people wanted to rock my bod.”

Then he flies home on the Nimbus, and to be honest I just included this screencap because I love the color scheme.

#dragon ball #2019dbliveblog #great saiyaman saga #gohan #videl #mr satan #erasa #sharpner #freddie mercury #now i'm on your track #and i'm in your mind #and i'm on your back #but don't look behind #i'm your meanest thought #i'm your darkest fear #but i'll never get caught #you can't shake me shake me dear

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buzzdixonwriter · 4 years

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The Rise Of Skywalker Review [SPOILERICIOUS]

=0=

I’m going to post all the SPOILER stuff way below in section 3, so as not to ruin anything for anybody who hasn’t seen the movie yet.

You’ll get plenty of warnings.

=1=

In my old age I’m starting to divide creative works into three groups: Good, bad, and not-so-good.

A good creative work is any where the strengths overwhelmingly outweigh the weaknesses; a bad one is the obverse.

A not-so-good work is one where the strengths and weaknesses balance each other out.

It’s the kind of a work that will doubtless please those audience members who really enjoy the strengths in it, and equally irritate those annoyed by the weaknesses.

In my estimation, a not-so-good work is one done with straight forward intent and as often as not, a fair degree of technical and aesthetic competency, but fails to jell as a cohesive whole.

No one need feel ashamed for enjoying a not-so-good work, and no one involved in the making of a not-so-good work should feel bad about their contribution (unless, of course, their contribution turns out to be one of the weaknesses that should have been avoided).

Theodore Sturgeon famously observed “90% of everything is crap.”

I think that’s a little harsh.

I agree with him that only 10% of anything is good, but think only 40% falls into the crap bin.

Most stuff falls in the 50% I call not-so-good.

Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise Of Skywalker is in that 50%.

. . .

The good stuff is really good.

Elsewhere I’ve posted my enthusiasm for Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens and Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi hinge in no small part on just how emo Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) could get, and holy cow, does he ever deliver in The Rise Of Skywalker.

Easily my favorite parts of the picture.

Doesn’t really mesh with anything else in the movie but, hey, ya can’t have everything, right? (I’ll discuss his performance in a little more detail in section =3=.)

Other performances range from adequate to doing-the-best-they-can-with-the-material to okay-smartass-you-try-recreating-a-dead-actress-via-CGI.

The dialog in The Rise Of Skywalker is the worst of any film in the series, with the possible exception Star Wars Episode III: The Revenge Of The Sith, which I haven’t seen and have no intention of seeing (but more on that below…).

It’s not an attempt to depict characters talking, it’s a series of shouted declarative sentences.

Elsewhere I’ve referred to The Rise Of Skywalker as the best Jason Of Star Command episode ever made.

For those who don’t get the reference, Jason Of Star Command was a low budget albeit imaginative Saturday morning kid-vid Star Wars rip off by Filmation Studios.

To make sure the youngest kids in the audience understood what was going on, they tended to hammer home plot points repeatedly.

DRAGOS Jason! In just sixteen hours my space fleet will destroy Star Command!

STAR COMMAND Jason! Dragos is going to destroy us with his space fleet in just sixteen hours!

JASON Don’t worry, Star Command! I’ll stop Dragos from destroying you with his space fleet in sixteen hours.

NARRATOR (i.e., Norm Prescott) Jason has only sixteen hours to stop Dragos from destroying Star Command with his space fleet!

There is far too much of that in The Rise Of Skywalker.

Ten minutes into the movie, and there was already far too much of that…

The opening credit crawl reveals an off camera plot development that literally deserved an entire film of its own to fully explore.

There is no sustained coherent plot to The Rise Of Skywalker:

Well, we gotta do this,

now we gotta do that,

first we gotta find this thing,

then we gotta find that thing,

now I’m feeling blue,

now I’m gonna get encouraged,

etc., etc., and of course, etc.

Everything feel frenetic, not fast paced.

There are far too many scenes that exist just to sell action figures and toy vehicles.

There was a desire to tie off loose ends and say good-bye to favorite characters and that was a mistake.

It undercuts the urgency of the story (or rather, the desired urgency; the fact the film is called The Rise Of Skywalker means everybody in the freakin’ audience ALREADY KNOWS HOW THE DAMN THING IS GONNA END!

(This is not a problem unique to Star Wars. Gene Siskell famously upbraided Roger Ebert for spoiling the ending to the third Star Trek movie, to which Ebert retorted, “Oh, come on! They’re going to call a forty million dollar movie The Search For Spock and not find him?!?!?”)

There is one nice little breather scene (“little” only in screen time; visually it’s pretty big and impressive): The Festival of the Ancestors on the desert world Pasaana that gives a nice touch of exotic space opera flavor to the proceedings.

All of the Star Wars movies offer really great art direction and visual design, and The Rise Of Skywalker certainly delivers in that category.

Which makes the occasional mediocre special effects shots all the more obvious.

The Rise Of Skywalker has a few painfully obvious matte shots, a few shots obviously composed in post-production, and a few shots where the audience becomes aware the actors are performing in front of a greenscreen.

You can get away with mediocre visuals so long as there is consistency in their mediocrity.

If everything else consistently looks great, a so-so shot spoils the illusion; if everything consistently looks so-so, it’s simply part of the work’s look.

Indeed, you’re better off with consistently mediocre work highlighted by a few great shots than consistently great stuff undercut by a few mediocre ones.

Best thing about the movie is the complete lack of Jar Jar Binks.

=2=

Before diving deeper in The Rise Of Skywalker, let’s look at the series as a whole (just the numbered theatrical episodes, not standalone films, TV series, video games, comics, novels, etc.).

I’ve said the original Star Wars was the movie an entire generation had been waiting all their lives to see.

George Lucas wanted to do Flash Gordon but when Universal turned him down, created his own space opera.

Lucas, it needs be noted, is not a good writer.

Whatever visual talents he has, they don’t extend to telling a good story.

One can easily find early drafts of Star Wars online, and while they all share certain elements, they’re all pretty bad.

The development of Star Wars the movie grew organically with storyboard and production art, characters and incidents changing and evolving along the way.

It’s long been rumored that a more skilled writer than Lucas came in to do the final draft; one thing’s for sure, the shooting script is head and shoulders above the earlier drafts.

Star Wars the original Han-shoots-first-dammit theatrical release is very much a product of the 1970s.

20th Century Fox thought they had a good enough kiddee matinee movie for summer release; they expected their big sci-fi blockbuster of the year to be Damnation Alley.

Instead, they hit a nerve and found themselves with a blockbuster on their hands.

Lucas did show one great example of foresight: He trademarked all the names / characters / vehicles and held the licenses on them, not 20th Century Fox.

This gave him the war chest he needed to build the Lucasfilm empire.

And let’s give Lucas and his crew their due: They added immeasurably to the technical art of film making, as well as making several entertaining films.

What Lucas did not fully envision was how to mold his Star Wars material into a coherent and thematically cohesive saga.

He started out with grandiose plans -- four trilogies with a standalone film connecting each for a total of 15 movies -- but that gradually got whittled down to 12, then 9.

After Star Wars Episode VI: The Return Of The Jedi, Lucas put the Star Wars movie series on hold, waiting for film making technology to develop to the point where he could tell the stories the way he wanted to tell them.

Okay, fair enough.

But the problem is that while the film making technology improved, the technology of the Star Wars universe didn’t.

As I said, the original Star Wars is very much a 70s movie in taste / tone / style / sensibility.

While the designs look sufficiently sci-fi, they reflect robots and spacecraft designs of the 1970s -- in fact, even earlier in many cases.

That fit in with Lucas’ “used universe” look and the tag line “A long ago in a galaxy far, far away...”

But compare the original Star Wars with Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Kubrick spent a lot of time researching where technology was heading.

Long before visual displays and vector graphics became commonplace in real world aircraft, he showed them being used in the future.

The first example of what we refer to today as a computer tablet appeared in 2001 as a throwaway background detail.

Kubrick’s next film was A Clockwork Orange and he successfully predicted punk culture a decade ahead of reality (his only mistake being the assumption white, not black, would be the base color).

Star Wars Eps I - III take place a generation before the original Star Wars movie.

Star Wars Eps VII - IX take place a generation after.

Name a two generation span since the start of the industrial age that is not marked by radical technological change that produces an ensuing change in the social order.

Now I grant you, the Star Wars universe isn’t trying to tell that kind of story, but the story it is telling is static.

Characters in The Rise Of Skywalker talk about cloning as if it were A Really Big Deal.

Cloning today is cutting edge bio-tech, to be sure, but it’s already common place.

It’s as if the Star Wars characters were getting worked up over steam engines.

One can intercut scenes from the movies and, unless one is a familiar with each movie, it’s impossible to tell one film from another.

Lucas’ financial success enabled him to issue edicts re Star Wars (and other Lucasfilm projects) that undercut the strengths of his projects.

Lucas is a technological guru and a savvy businessman, but he really struggles to tell a story.

Frankly, I think he would have been a better film maker if he’d spent a decade or so making American Graffiti scale movies, not space operas and epic fantasies and adventure movies.

His decision to make the original Star Wars the fourth episode in his saga and going back to start his story with his villain was fatally flawed.

I grant following the Skywalker saga from Anakin to Luke to Rey could work if it started with Anakin.

But what he did was the equivalent of the James Bond movies jumping back in time to follow the pre-Bond career of Ernst Stavo Blofeld.

(And the Bond movies, at least up until the Daniel Craig era, are all standalone films insofar as one does not have to see any of the previous films to understand and enjoy the one being watched, not does the sequence they’re viewed in matter. And the Craig films were conceived from the beginning as having a coherent overall arc, so in that case they are the exception to the rule.)

The joyous whiz-bang space opera of the original Star Wars got bogged down in a lot of meaningless politics and talks of trade treaties, none of which explained why anyone would want to conquer the universe in order to rule it as a decrepit, diseased dictator in a dark hole.

Look at Hitler and Stalin and Castro and Mao and the Kim family in North Korea.

These guys enjoyed themselves (well, Hitler did until things went south for him). They loved the attention and went around preening themselves in public.

The off screen Empire (and implied Emperor) of the original Star Wars served that film well: It was a story about a tactical conflict, not a treatise on the philosophy of governance.

Lucas’ universe does not make sense even in its own context.

And because of that, it becomes harder and harder to fully engage with it.

A sci-fi movie doesn’t have to explain everything, but it has to at least imply there is an underlying order that links up.

Lucas began subverting his own universe almost immediately.

The Force was originally presented as a spiritual discipline that any sufficiently dedicated intelligent being could gain access to. (Robots seem to be specifically excluded from The Force, implying it needs a biological connection. But that would seem to exclude intelligences that may not be organic in the commonly accepted sense of the word, which means such beings cannot appear in the Star Wars universe, which means…well, I digress…)

That was a big hunk of the original Star Wars’ appeal, the thought that literally anybody could become a Jedi if they so desired.

It speaks to a religious bent in audiences from many different cultures around the world, and it offers up an egalitarian hope that allows everyone access to the Star Wars fantasy (“fantasy” in this context meaning the shared ideal).

But already in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back Lucas began betraying his original concept, sowing the seeds for self-serving deception and innate superiority as endemic in The Force.

By the time he got around to Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, Lucas abandoned the hope established in the original Star Wars movie.

Now one has to be a special somebody, not just dedicated.

Mind you, that sort of story has its adherents, too.

Way back in the 1940s sci-fi fans were saying “Fans are slans” in order to claim superiority over “mundanes”. Today many Harry Potter fans like to think of themselves as inherently superior to “Muggles”.

It’s a very appealing idea, so appealing that the United States of America is based on it, the assumption being that white people are endowed with more blessings -- and therefore more rights -- than non-white people (add force multipliers such as “rich” / “male” / “Christian” / “straight” and you get to lord it over everybody).

Lucas with his stupid midichlorians robbed audiences of their healthy egalitarian fantasy and replaced it with a far more toxic elitism.

It appeals to the narcissistic stain in the human soul, and encourages dominance and bullying and cruelty and harm as a result.

It’s an elitism that requires a technologically and sociologically stagnant society, one where clones and robots and slaves can all co-exist and nobody points out they are all essentially the same thing.

A progressive society -- and here I use “progressive” strictly in a scientific and technological sense (though as stated above, advances in scientific fields invariably lead to changes elsewhere) -- does not let such conditions exist unchanged for generations.

As technology changes and improves, the culture/s around it change (and hopefully improve, too).

As I mentioned above, I’ve never seen Star Wars Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith.

My reason for not seeing it? Star Wars Episode II: Attack Of The Clones.

Little Anakin Skywalker and his mom are slaves in The Phantom Menace.

He saves the Jedis and Princess Padame’s collective asses in that movie.

Okay, you’d think at the end of the movie that Padame would hand Qui-gon her ATM card and say, “Here, go back to Tatooine and bail the kid’s mom out. He did a solid for us, it’s the least we can do for him.”

No, they leave her there because there is no desire to change the underlying social order of their universe.

There can be no changes in Lucas’ bleak, barren moral universe.

There can be no help, no hope, no improvement.

When an edict is issue -- be it Jedi council or Emperor (or president of Lucasfilm) -- it is to be obeyed without question or pause.

Daring to say one can change their status -- change their destiny -- results in tragedy (and ironically, proof that is their destiny).

It’s dismaying enough that a large number of people enjoy cosplaying Star Wars villains, especially storm troopers, as that seems to indicate they’re missing the whole point of why the rebels were striving against the Empire in the first place.

Originally that could be written off as (at best) just enjoying the cool costumes and props or (at worst) finding an excuse for bad behavior (i.e., “I vuz only followink orders”).

But Lucas’ tacitly endorsing a sense of innate superiority pretty much destroys everything about The Force that the original Star Wars audience found enlightening and ennobling.

The Star Wars universe has become at its core a very ugly thing, and The Rise Of Skywalker doesn’t really clean it up.

SPOILERS ahead.

=3=

Seriously, SPOILERS follow.

Holy crap, The Rise Of Skywalker is a damn mess.

Nice eye candy, but a mess.

It pretty much undoes everything good in the previous two episodes.

I’m glad it’s the “official” end of the original saga because now I never need to see another Star Wars movie ever again.

(Oh, I’ll keep my DVD of the original Star Wars and if I find Solo in a bargain bin somewhere I might pick that up, but as far as the rest of Star Wars goes, I am D.O.N.E.)

The series stopped making sense long ago, so I’m really in no mood to analyze why nothing links up or really works.

It’s full of absurd, stupid ideas, such as space barbarians galloping across the deck of a star destroyed on their space horsies.

The whole back and forth between among Palpatine / Kylo / Rey goes on for two long. If hating somebody is bad because it sucks you over to the Dark Side, then why doesn’t somebody start building Terminators that can track down beings with midichlorians and kill them? (They’ve got the technology to detect midichlorians, that’s canon.)

It’s not anywhere near a good movie. It’s not as bad as George Lucas’ Star Wars Episodes I - III, but it’s clearly the worst of the last trilogy.

The scene where Rey gets off camera encouragement from all the dead Jedi? It seemed awfully familiar to me, as if the writers consciously or unconsciously remembered the John Wilkes Booth / Lee Harvey Oswald scene in Stephen Sondheim’s Assassins where all the presidential assassins and would-be assassins past and future encourage him to plug Kennedy.

Not what I want in a Star Wars movie.

I think we may be seeing the end of Star Wars. It’s been crammed down our throats for too long. I’m aware of The Mandalorian series and how insanely popular it is, but y’know, sooner or later every pop culture craze dies out.

Star Wars has nowhere to go. Star Trek is hemmed in, too, but nowhere nearly as bad as Star Wars.

We’re about to enter a generational shift in America, and I wouldn’t be surprised if a badly dated 1970s sci-fi concept fails to make the cut.

It ends on a frustrating note, taking much too long to come to a close, far too much self-congratulatory bullshit, and the deliberate planting of clues for a future set of sequels should the Mouse start jonesin’ for that sweet, sweet Star Wars franchise money fix.

It’s a really bad script, and dragging Carrie Fisher’s digitally reanimated corpse into it and then killing her off by suicide is a damned stupid / offensive idea.

Mark Hamill’s ghost walking out of the flames of Jedi hell (thank you for that analogy, David Brin)? Wow, who didn’t see that one marching down the avenue?

Harrison Ford coming back as a memory / hallucination to tell Kylo to do the right thing? Skrue dat noiz.

(Though I have to say Kylo Ren is the best thing about the movie and his character turn parallels both Luke’s and Vader’s in The Return Of The Jedi only his is much more believable and poignant so dammit, Disney, you could have done a much better job with this movie than you did.)

The plot and pacing is straight out of a video game. First do this, then do that, now ya gotta do another thing -- feh!

And unless I misheard the dialog, this whole film supposedly takes place over a span of sixteen hours!!!

They visit a half dozen worlds, crash and repair spaceships, go undercover, get captured and escape, fight duels to the deal -- all in sixteen hours?!?!?

Yeesh.

And I’ll say this, the last line is wrong wrong WRONG.

If the Star Wars saga has taught us anything, it’s that Force users are a threat to everything.

They should be eliminated for the good of the universe.

Rey shouldn’t have buried the Skywalker lightsabers.

She should have destroyed them -- and the one she made, and any others she found lying around.

And when she’s asked at the very end what her name is, the answer should have been: “Rey…just Rey.”

I know I put The Rise Of Skywalker in the not-so-good bin, but truth be told, that’s the nostalgia talking; it’s only a eyelash away from being bad.

The whole epic saga is a failure as far as I’m concerned. One and done is the way to go; the moment it started making money as a toy franchise it went south.

#sci-fi #Star Wars #The Rise Of Skywalker #Kylo Ren #The Force #movies

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wheremytwinwatches · 4 years

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[Where My Twin Watches]: Puella Magi Madoka Magica Episode 12

I don’t want to do this.

I haven’t seen the next/last episode yet this week, each time saying there was some conflict or other keeping me from sitting down and watching. But looking back it’s mostly pretty weak excuses.

In reality, I have to accept the main reason that I’m typing this out rather than pulling up Crunchyroll: As long as I don’t see the finale, I can avoid the truth. I can avoid seeing whatever ending Urobuchi’s cooked up, and live in blissful ignorance that somehow this all works out ok. That despite each and every time before Madoka somehow survives this and doesn’t go Witch. That even after coming to the brink of despair Homura will get a happy ending. That I won’t have to see an ending that I keep imagining gets worse and worse, except that whatever I can fear I know the Urobutcher will manage to surpass.

Goddamnit, I just wanted a cute little show! I knew PMMM was a magical girl show, and I knew that for whatever reason it was incredibly popular. Music, animation, cute moments, whatever. I started PMMM thinking it’d be a good, happy time. Jesus was I wrong.

This show has put me through an emotional wringer. All this death and despair… without any warning from you jerks!

Do I think that it’s good I’ve seen this show? Yes. The production value is excellent, the twists were very engaging, and the philosophical discussions it has prompted are far more than I expected from it. Maybe when this is done I can sit back and enjoy watching others encounter the show, contribute to the discussion.

But I sure as hell don’t want to push the play button this time. I don’t want to see the end result. One way or another, Madoka’s story is coming to an end. The longer I put it off, the longer I can imagine that she survives and is happy. Despite everything…

Damn it. I want to put it off, but I can’t. I’m here, the finale is pulled up, and I’m out of excuses.

Let’s get this over with.

PMMM Finale Ep 12: My Very Best Friend

We open where we left off. The city is devastated, the technicolor Walpurgisnacht hovers in the distance, Homura is trapped under rubble, and Madoka looks towards the Witch with the Incubator at her side.

“Homura, I’m sorry. I’m going to become a Magical Girl.”

Homura looks on in horror as Madoka calmly talks about how she finally found a Wish she truly wants granted. And just as calmly says that she’s going to use her life for it.

GodDAMN it, Madoka! Stop being so fucking calm about selling your soul! Stop being so calm and peaceful and nice and AAARGH! Stop being such a hero! Be selfish for once in your life!

Yes, thank you Homura! Use every tool you have left to stop this travesty. Guilt-trip her with the countless times you’ve tried to save her, ask what the hell it was all for if Madoka insists on being the hero each and every time.

Madoka walks over and hugs Homura as the Magical Girl music starts up. She apologizes, but says that she’s the person she is now because Homura tried to protect her for so long. And asks that Homura trust in “the answer she has found”, swearing that she won’t waste everything Homura’s done for her.

“Now, Kaname Madoka. What is the Wish that you will pay for with your soul?”

Alright. Wish time. What’s it going to be? Wish for your friends back? Wish for Homura to find peace? Wish for the Incubator to go die in a fire?

“I wish…”

Deep breath. Inhale. Exhale.

“I wish to erase all Witches before they are born. All the Witches in all the universes, both past and future. With my own hands!”

Wait.

What?

Waitwhat? What just- Can she-

Um. There’s a bright pink glow. That Wish is valid? She’s turning into a Magical Girl?!

The Wish to fucking erase all Witches is VALID?!?!

WHAT?!?!?!

“That prayer… If a prayer like that were granted, it could unravel the fabric of time itself! It would go against the very force of karmic destiny!”

No shit, Sherlock! Holy crap, this isn’t just Homura’s multiverse-hopping, this a core aspect of all of the universes! A Wish can do that?!

Did… did I just get out-minmaxed by a pink-haired middleschool girl?

Did this seriously just happen?

Did Madoka just effectively tell the DM “Yeah, no. I’m rewriting your setting”?

“Do you truly intend to become a god?!”

Holy crap. Madoka just wished to replace the DM.

I… I can’t even…

“I don’t care what I become. All those who have fought against Witches, who believed in hope as Magical Girls… I don’t want to see them cry. I want them smiling to the very end. If any rule or law stands in the way of that...I will destroy it. I will rewrite it. That is my prayer… That is my wish.”

…

Don't underestimate us! We don't care about time or space or multidimensional whatevers. We couldn't give a damn about that. Force your way down a path you choose, and do it your way! That's the way Team Dai-Gurren rolls!

I did not expect PMMM to have a Badass Creed rivaling fricken Simon the Digger.

“Now, grant my wish, Incubator!!”

The powerful glow around Madoka explodes, and the screen whites out.

And then the title comes up? Showing the reset of All Time, then?

Oh, the episode title finally appeared.

Final Episode: My Very Best Friend

A piece of cake? Mami’s place?

“Kaname… do you truly understand how fearsome a Wish that was?”

Yeah, Mami’s place, one of her customary tea parties with elaborate cakes. So is she alive again, as there was now never a Witch to kill her?

“It means that for all the past and future, and throughout all of time, you will have to continue fighting forever.”

Is that how it works, then? Madoka Wishes for the power to destroy all Witches, so she has to do it personally?

“In doing so, you will certainly wind up losing all traces of your individual self.”

Aw crap. The downside. There I was getting all optimistic, thinking that “Holy crap we actually get a happy ending?” But nope, Madoka will wind up essentially a completely different person.

“Simply dying would be a kinder fate. For all eternity, you would continue merely as a concept, a principle that destroys Witches.”

Damn it Urobuchi, I get it. You can stop hammering the point home.

But of course, our Protagonist is fine with that.

“If someone says it’s wrong to have hope, then I’ll tell them they’re wrong, every single time. And I know I’ll always tell them so.”

Wait. So… she’ll keep her core? She’ll stay Madoka at her heart, with her belief of hope? She won’t completely lose herself? Can I hope for that, or is Urobuchi going to step on that again?

“Then it’s fine, isn’t it?” Kyoko! Chowing down on a slice of cake. She’s serving as the determinator of the bunch, pointing out that now Madoka’s found her reason to fight, all that’s left is to run full steam ahead.

Daw, and now Mami gives Madoka back her old notebook of drawings.

“You aren’t just giving us hope. You’re becoming hope, itself… The hope of us all.”

Whiteout again. And here’s Magical Girl Madoka, in all her glory. Homura’s all but blinded by the light, the Incubator stares ahead, and… oh yeah. Walpurgisnacht. That’s a thing.

The orchestra begins to swell as Madoka readies her bow. A great sigil appears in the sky, and Madoka shoots it to blast away the stormclouds, revealing a bright blue sky. It then shoots out ALL OF THE ARROWS.

Cut to someone falling in grass? Oh, another Magical Girl. With a dark Soul Gem beginning to crack. She looks scared and begins to cry… when a burst of pink light falls from the sky and reforms as Magical Girl Madoka? Who purifies the Soul Gem… and then the Gem disappears? Hold up, what just happened? The Soul Gem vanished and the girl looked happy for a moment before closing her eyes. Is she sleeping, no longer a lich? Or did she just ‘die’ because Madoka took her purified soul somewhere else? Urobuchi, stop distracting me with this amazing music, I’m trying to figure this out.

Ok, the girl’s body just faded away before the screen went white. So Madoka’s stopping Witches by going back to just before the Soul Gem breaks? And then does something to the soul, takes it away somewhere? If she’s powerful enough to be a god now, is she… what, taking all these girls to Magical Girl heaven?

Many, many more bursts of pink light, more scenes of Madoka appearing to siphon away despair and vanish Soul Gems.

“I won’t let your prayers end in despair. None of you have to hate anyone, or curse anyone. I will bear all of that cursed destiny for you. So, please. To the very end, keep believing in yourselves!”

Ok, two things: one, I wanna see Madoka and Kamina meet up now to try and outdo eachother regarding “believe in yourself” speeches. Two, the scenes of magical girls are including I believe Cleopatra and Joan of Arc.

Back to the present, countless Hope Arrows continue to fly about, many shredding the madly laughing Walpurgisnacht until it’s only the giant gear. And still Madoka calmly speaks to it, staying that it no longer has to hate or curse. Because she’ll go back before it began and take the burden. Which creates a humongous explosion. Homura covers her face, the screen whites out again…

Weird technicolor lights, like a corrupted Soul Gem…

Homura opens her eyes. Does a rapid turn. Is on the moon?

She rightfully wonders where the heck she is. Hmmm, who do we know who could provide some exposition on the result of a Wish?

“The universe is in the process of reordering itself, based on Madoka’s new laws.” Homura’s present because she can control time-crossing magic. And so the Incubator says they’ll see

NO. NO NO NO FUCKING

“-what kind of end the existence called Madoka Kaname will meet.”

GOD. DAMN. IT. We were SO CLOSE. We ALMOST had a good ending, but NOPE. UROBUTCHER STRIKES AGAIN! “Let’s see, we’ll just set things up with some inspiring hope quotes, show Madoka taking on the burdens of every Magical Girl ever… yes, that should do nicely for a literal god-damned Soul Gem.”

Because yeah. Madoka took on all those cursed destinies. She brought forth enough hope to create an entire universe. So for things to balance, that universe will now be destroyed.

“It’s only natural, right?” Fuck off, Incubator.

And the Super Soul Gem cracks, creating a Witch that dwarfs even the tower from Homura’s last timeline. Welp, I know what’ll be in my nightmares tonight.

The maddened laughter begins again.

“No, it’s all right.” Wait, Madoka?! But- the Super Witch-

Oh. Oh yes. YesyesyesYESYESYES

Wait, Puffball?

“My Wish was to erase all Witches…”

New outfit? Huge white dress and Rapunzel-length hair?

“And if that prayer really comes true… then even I… should have no reason to despair… ever!”

Super Magical Girl Madoka (?) readies her bow, another friggen big sigil appears, and ALL OF THE ARROWS blast away at the Super Witch, causing another huge explosion, the Witch is blasted away, Homura is- blasted away?! Hold up- the screen whites out again…

Did Madoka just blow up reality?

Screen comes to a shifting background of pinks, purples and whites.

“Madoka. With this, your life has ceased to have either a beginning or end. No trace of your life on Earth, nor a single memory of you will remain anywhere. Your existence has shifted onto a higher plane, and all that will be left of you here is a concept. No one will ever be aware of your presence again, and you will never be able to interact with anyone. You will have ceased to exist in this universe.”

...so it’s a mix of Madoka staying true to herself, but also elements of Mami’s warning?

Homura speaks up whoa ok, glad I’m not watching this when anyone could walk in. I thought you guys said there weren’t any questionable scenes?

“What are you saying? That Madoka wished for such an ending?! You think this is a fair reward for everything she’s done?! Don’t be ridiculous! This… is even worse…than death would have been…!”

God-damn it. (Or is it Madoka-damn it now?) Madoka’s safe and free from the cycle of Witchification, like Homura was aiming for. But she’s done it in such a way that Homura can never see her again.

“No, you’re wrong, Homura.” Madoka! Please put on some clothes, this is getting awkward!

Madoka says that as she is now, she can see everything that ever has or will happen. Universes that could have been, and might be. And now she knows all Homura’s done for her, in all the different timelines.

Guys, I’m really digging this scene, the great music and colors, the culmination of Homura’s efforts and Madoka’s growth… but seriously, Urobuchi? You couldn’t have this while they were in their uniforms? I’m loving the scene, but the awkwardness has to be mentioned.

“I’m sorry I never knew until now… I’m so sorry.” Homura breaks down crying.

(Is… is it safe for me to ship again? Because if so, all aboard the MadoHomu!)

It wasn’t until Madoka became what she is now that she truly understood Homura. “To think that I had such a precious friend with me all this time…!”

Wait. God-Madoka damn it, are you really shooting down my ship with “friend” now? I think this scene goes a little beyond friendship!

Also, I think Sayaka might be a little miffed about all these “best friend”s being thrown about.

Homura raises a good point, that as sweet as this scene is Madoka no longer has a home, and she’ll be separated from everyone she loves (*cough* like her *cough*) to live all alone in a psychedelic realm like this forever.

To which Madoka just smiles and giggles. “But I’m not alone. All of you will always be with me. Because I will be everywhere at every moment from now on.” (Oh my God-Madoka, she’s Santa Claus! Or the NSA!) “So even if you can’t see me or hear me, know that I’ll be by your side, Homura.”

But Homura will still forget her… “It’s too soon to give up yet.”? After all, she managed to follow her all the way there…

So there’s a chance? There’s hope? Urobuchi’s not going to swoop in and ruin this?

Madoka unties her ribbons and gives them to Homura, saying that maybe she’ll still be able to remember.

“After all, Magical Girls make hopes and dreams come true! And I’m sure that if it’s just a little one, real miracles really can happen. Don’t you think?”

They’re floating apart now, Madoka has to go meet all the others.

“I’ll see you again one day, Homura. So for just a little while until then, I’ll say good-bye.”

Not gonna lie. Tearing up right now.

Scene change, city at night. Concert hall, person walking on stage. Kamijo? An audition it looks like, performing “Ave Maria”. An excellent piece!

Hey, Sayaka and Madoka are listening from the seats! Sayaka apologizes for causing “a lot of trouble”. But of course Madoka says that she’s the one who should apologize. Actually, seems she’s apologizing for leaving her “dead’ in order to save her. As… oh! If she did save Sayaka, then Kamijo wouldn’t have been healed, and that’s not what Sayaka would want.

Heh. Funny moment of one judge trying to talk to another, only to get a “Shush, I’m listening to the music.”

Sayaka talks about how she just wanted to hear him play again, for others to hear him play. Well, she is bothered about one thing (Hitomi watching from behind the curtains stage left). Ha! Sayaka says that Kamijo doesn’t deserve such a great girl. But she’s sure they’ll be very happy.

The two girls fade away as Kamijo finishes “Ave Maria.” And damn boy looks good older, in a tux in a schmancy concert hall in front of a huge audience. Sudden start? “...Sayaka?”

Cut to a Witch burning away, Homura snaps to along with Mami and Kyoko, the latter asking where Sayaka went. Mami says that she’s gone, led away by the Law of the Cycle. She used all her remaining power in that last attack. So from now on Magical Girls ‘fade away’ from using up their power, instead of turning into Witches? But then how do they get more Witches to fight?

Kyoko calls Sayaka an idiot, letting herself vanish just for some boy she liked. Sorry Kyoko, but Ship of Death, remember? “Idiot… just when we were finally getting to be friends…” Friends. Right. Seriously, what is with this finale and Urobuchi trying to sink my ships?

So the new rule is that before the hope of their Wish summons an equal amount of misfortune, they have “no choice but to vanish from the world.” Instead of the Incubator’s ‘balance’, we get a greater amount of good over harm then. That’s good for humanity!

Hey, the ribbons! Homura opens her hand to show the two red ribbons, then breaks down crying. “Madoka…!”

The others turn. Is this the first time Homura’s shown emotion in the new reality in front of them?

“Akemi? ‘Madoka’...?”

“Who’s that?”

Ouch.

We’re in a park with light piano music. WAIT, hold up. It’s the kid, the little brother whose name I can never remember! Madoka’s brother! He’s drawing in the dirt/sand, it’s a picture of Magical Girl Madoka! Does he remember too?!

Homura stops by and daw, she’s wearing one of the ribbons in her hair. That’s a good look! And yup, little bro is babbling “Madoka, Madoka!” now. Does he not remember, but Homura tells him stories about his ‘sister’? In any case, she compliments him on the drawing.

He starts to reach for the ribbon, but Dad to the rescue (with a name, Tatsuya!). Aw, but he thinks that he was about to pull on Homura’s hair. Although they seem confused when he babbles about ‘Madoka’. (Not going to cry, not going to cry…)

Later that afternoon (as Tatsuya plays with his dad in the park, guh that’s adorable) it seems that Homura’s explained that ‘Madoka’ is Tatsuya’s imaginary friend. Mother makes idle conversation about the name, how it “seems to have such a nostalgic ring to it”. (Not going to cry, NOT GOING TO CRY…) And then remarks that the loves Homura’s ribbon, that it’s almost shockingly like something she would like. Homura offers it to her, Mother waves it off, saying she’s too old for it. Maybe if she had a daughter who could wear it… (Not. Going. To…)

It’s a full moon now, and WHY?! Why did you leave the Incubator in the new reality, Madoka?! Grrr… Wait, is that Homura’s Soul Gem? Surrounded by a bunch of small black cubes, drawing darkness away from it?

The Incubator’s remarking that a system like Homura apparently just described could theoretically have worked. She idly picks up one of the cubes, says that the system was real, and tosses it back, for the Incubator to catch in its back. What, is it a mini-Grief Seed? Anyways, it seems that the Incubator has no way of verifying the story that Homura’s saying. And since she’s the only one who remembers that world, well… he puts it less bluntly, but there’s no way of telling if her memories are real or if she’s crazy. Homura just tosses back another cube.

Oh, so Soul Gems shatter now when they become “too sullied?” Which would prevent a Witch being created, and the Magical Girl dies instead of changing. But what do they fight, if there aren’t any Witches?

Ugh, but the Incubator is focusing on the “Witches” of Homura’s story, as an ‘appealing’ method of gathering emergy. But since they aren’t in this new reality, the Incubators didn’t follow that method. Instead they do something with cubes?

Wait, ‘wraiths’? So there is something about this reality for Magical Girls to fight. Is that what was burning when Homura woke up, then? And they’re connected to collecting curses?

“Just because Witches are no longer born into this world, it doesn’t mean the curses of mankind have ceased to exist. The distortions of this world have merely changed form, and now attack people from the depths of the darkness…”

Guh, white Ringwraiths! So these are the ‘wraiths’ then? Not corrupted Magical Girls, but some other sort of creature? Based from humans, or just creatures of darkness? Details, please?

The Incubator remarks that the ‘miasma’ is pretty thick tonight, the wraiths just keep coming. Homura admonishes it for complaining, and steps off the construction site for a dramatic monologue.

“Though this irredeemable world continues repeating its hatred and tragedies… this is still the place that she once tried to protect.”

Whoa, big purple wings arrest her fall, she lands and is immediately surrounded with wraiths. But she just pulls out… her weapon is a bow now.

“I remember that. And I will never forget it. That is why… I will keep fighting.”

End credits.

...wow. Just… wow.

Guys, I went into this episode fearing the worst. I was just bracing myself for Urobuchi to make everything terrible. But then, things looked ok? Then they looked awful again. Then the looked good, but with some major downsides. Up and down and up and down… and then we reached the ending.

I’m going to need some time to process all this, to write up my overall thoughts on the ending. But damn me if this wasn’t an amazing show. I- hold up, started typing this while listening to the credits music for the last time. There’s an after-credits scene?

After credits, opens on a windy black and yellow setting, one person with long hair (Homura?) walking in the distance.

“Don’t forget.

Always, somewhere,

someone is fighting for you.

As long as you remember her,

you are not alone.”

Zoom in to yup, that’s Homura. Facing a crowd of wraiths. She holy fudge what is that. I expected the pink wings from before, but these are more like tears into a witch’s labyrinth. Homura what the hell are you doing?

Madoka’s voice. “Do your best…”

Homura smiles, and the tears spread across the screen. Camera backs out to show her with her freaky wings, she then leaps forward and then bursts of blackness start exploding everywhere. Screen blackens- all five magical girls, facing away? Sound of film reel spinning loose? Girls fade away? Final picture of a Soul Gem?

...What the fuck was that?!

#wmtw #where my twin watches #ranubis #pmmm #puella magi madoka magica #pmmm 12

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tippitv · 5 years

Text

Supernatural TippiTV Recap: 14-13 “Lebanon”

Okay before we get started. This is a long one and while I think it's pretty funny if I do say so myself, there's also a lot of me just... frickin ranting about John Winchester and rushed plots. If you loved this episode and don't want to see someone snarking about it, this might not be the recap for you.

On the other hand if you're like me and come from the TWoP tradition of snarking about the things we love most, then come on in!

THEN!

Two children talk about how their dad is on a hunting trip and hasn't been home in a while.

Oh wait... holy crap it's Sam and Dean. It took a sec to recognize them without the gravelly voices and almost 14 years of soul-crushing despair.

We also get a reminder of very recent episodes, including the one where Mary learns about the time John threw young Dean's food away because it reminded him of her. It's important to remember what an abusive, hardened asshole John Winchester was... so that we can forget it! Forget it all!

[insert video of recapper letting out a Klingon scream]

NOW!

Sam and Dean mosey on into a pawn shop that I'm positive is in the US because they never leave the US but there's a sign that says the shop buys "jewellery" which is how they spell it in places that also spell "flavor" with a u. Dean flashes a big wad of cash to get the broker to show them "the good stuff."

By this, he means the magical goods, although the secret room looks like a high school drama department prop closet.

Dean says they're looking for the skull of a woman who was executed during the Salem witch trials. While the broker goes looking for it, Sam picks up a teddy bear from, you know, a shelf full of cursed and magical items because it's not as if stuffed animals have ever been dangerous. <cue ironic flashback>

Luckily he's warned away from it before he can unleash some kind of... Pooh demon... probably.

Anyway, it turns out having the skull proves that the broker killed a friend of theirs or something... Honestly, very little of this is going to have any bearing on anything. Long story short, fisticuffs ensue and Dean shoots the broker while he's expositing to Sam. "They always talk too much," Dean says.

Sam and Dean decide to take a bunch of magical items home with them. Although... what if they rightfully belong to other peop---ah screw it.

Okay now... here comes a long, boring subplot about teenagers back in Lebanon, Kansas. The main thing that's pertinent to the show is that Sam and Dean have a certain reputation around town. And no wonder! They park right in front these teenagers and start talking about shit they would never want anyone to hear.

They head into the world's skimpiest liquor store and the owner addresses them as "the Campbell brothers." Say whaaaat? Have they been using their mom's maiden name for a while and I just missed it? I mean, I guess it makes sense because... Actually, I don't remember how much stuff is still in their world about the infamous Winchesters. Like I legit can't remember if Charlie or someone erased their FBI/police records or if it was just some fanon someone told me about.

Also, nothing says "real liquor store" like shelves of bottles turned so that their name brands don't show.

Anyway, Sam stage-whispers to Dean about an ancient Chinese pearl that grants "what your heart desires."

The plan is to get Michael out of his head, but they notice someone is driving off with the Impala. They run out to confront one of the teenagers about it. He confesses that a girl named Max is the culprit, so that we can spend several minutes on this subplot instead of the much more emotional and important main plot.

I mean, we go from the post office to a pizza joint to an old house on the edge of town to catch up to the Impala. Max has apparently brought all that lethal “secret” stuff inside for a party. The camera lingers on that teddy bear again as if it's going to be important to the plot later.

Max, the car thief, has a crush on a girl and ISTG I was prepared to be mad if she died. Like I don't even want this whole subplot at all but I'd be puh-hissed if they had queer characters on just to kill one. Luckily I was wrong and neither of them die. However, the dialog is killing me. "I'm sooo excited for pizza." Tell me you can't imagine Lumpy Space Princess saying that.

Apparently the ghost of John Wayne Gacy (sigh) was waiting for the kids to go in search of pizza before oozing out of a cigar box the Winchesters brought from the pawn shop.

Why is his ghost dressed as a clown? I mean yes I know Gacy was a children's party clown, but it's not like he died in that outfit. Aren't ghosts supposed to be wearing what they died in? OH GOD WHY DO I CARE.

The Winchesters show up and scoot everyone out of the house, but not before at least one kid sees the ghost. Sam zeroes in on the cigar box and Dean points out how Sam's love of serial killers and hatred of clowns are in conflict.

Of course, some of the kids come back in just as the ghost goes up in flames. Sam and Dean decide to just... tell them the whole truth instead of just lying. Like..."Yo, one of the things you stole was secret holographic tech and you could face prison time if you talk about it." See? Easy peasy. Instead, they just trust the kids to never talk about ghosts being real and meeting actual ghost hunters.

I briefly wondered if this was some kind of back door pilot for teen hunters, but I haven't heard anything about that. Granted I didn't actually look that hard.

Once back at the bunker, Sam finds the magic pearl but it's kinda... chalky and medicinal looking. It looks like something Goop would sell to stick up your hoohaw.

Dean decides there's no time to wait because we've already spent too long on teenagers playing hooky. Like, even Sam doesn't really know how to use it. "I guess you just concentrate on what your heart desires," he says, scrunching his face uncertainly. I mean what if this had happened

The music swells dramatically. The lights flicker off dramatically. A shadowy figure approaches... dramatically. Fisticuffs ensue! It's a nice callback to Dean and Sam fighting in the dark in the pilot episode because ta da! It's actually John Winchester! Which we all knew because this was foretold in promotions.

The lights come up, showing... just a whole lot of things for me to process.

Now, at first, things don't seem that weird. We've seen people come back from the dead so many times, it's basically as surprising as buying socks at this point. Except! John isn't back from the dead at all! He's traveled through time! He eventually tells us he's from the year TWO THOUSAND AND THREE. TWO ZERO ZERO THREE.

He's both three years younger than the last time the bros saw him AND 13 years older, because for Jeffrey Dean Morgan, and all the rest of us mortals, time has marched on. Consequently, John Winchester looks like he got stuck in a wormhole for a good while.

Now, kudos to John for recognizing his sons, especially Sam, who looked a little something like this the last time they saw each other.

"Aren't you supposed to be in Palo Alto?" he asks Sam. "And also not a middle-aged man?" he doesn't ask, but I bet he was thinkin' it.

It's just... sigh. I might as well get it all out now. I get what they were going for here. It's the 300th episode and they wanted to have John show up. But because everything is so rushed, they just gloss over anything remotely realistic to the characters. John is all softness and awe the instant the lights go up, instead of bristling and suspicious. Why wouldn't he think it was a djinn or some other creature's doing? "Well we don't have time for him to be as flinty and wary as John would have been in 2003, because we need to get to the part where he spends quality time with his family!" YES EXACTLY. The show is three hundred episodes old now and it deserves more than this speedy treatment put together seemingly for the concomitant promotional opportunity.

Anyway they have a Sit-n-Chat to catch John up on what they've been doing, including the living situation there at the bunker which includes an angel and the son of Lucifer. Goodness only knows what John is picturing.

Now that I think about it, the brothers should be hella wary too. I mean, what if the pearl is cursed? What if John is actually some shambling interdimensional beast masquerading as John? What if the whole thing is just a hallucination brought on by nefarious moon herbs in Paltrow's pookie pearl? They just uncharacteristically seem to rely on the pawn broker's ledger.

Fine! Fine! I’ll drop it.

They talk about how they met John's dad via time travel, too, but don't mention that's why John never saw him again after childhood. They talk about the Men of Letters, finally killing old Yellow Eyes, saving the world... Then just when they're about to tell him that Mary's back from the dead, she actually shows up and starts calling to her sons. What a coincidence! John is pained.

It seems like they didn't tell her, either? Did they just tell her to come over for a surprise or did she just happen to be on her way there anyway? Anyway John and Mary start in on a smoochy reunion so Sam and Dean quietly leave the room.

Sam's like, "How'd this happen?" And Dean's like, "We spent too much time on the teenager subplot instead of looking into this potentially dangerous thing, is how!"

For some reason, John is perusing the library alone instead of... um... making up for lost time with his hot wife. Sam goes to talk to him and finds out Mary's off writing a shopping list for Dean so she can make that emotionally important casserole again. This leads John to admit he fucked up with his kids. Sam is reluctant to blame John because he's had almost 13 years to get over it.

I hate that everyone's acting their little hearts out and all I can think is how painfully contrived the episode is. Whatever problems I have with the writing and the premise, I don't have a problem with the job the actors are doing. Okay, okay, I'm really letting go of it this time.

John rubs Sam's shoulder and tearfully says, "Son, I am so sorry." The cellos of sadness play sadly. "I'm sorry, too," says Sam. "You did your best, Dad. You fought for us, you loved us... that's enough."

It's one thing to decide you're going to move past the shitty, shitty things someone did because you're in the midst of the enormity of what's going on RIGHT NOW. But it's another thing for the show to minimize the past. John did NOT do his best. For fuck's sake, he left a little boy in charge of an even littler boy! Dean knew his Dad was possessed because his REAL dad would never be proud of him! When Dean stole food to feed Sam, John abandoned him to face the consequences!

God damn it I guess I'm not going to let it go, after all!

Anyway, Sam and Dean head into town for groceries and time paradoxes. The liquor store owner no longer recognizes Dean, which is the surest sign that something is Very Wrong. Dean is flabbergasted. "It's me! Dean Campbell! I come in here like... always!"

As Sam heads back to the car, he sees a wanted poster for his bro. It's the old Blue Steel one except I think Sam used to be on it too? He's not anymore. He heads back to the car to tell Dean, but Dean's already been a-googlin' on his phone.

He plays back a video of Sam as a turtleneck-wearing lawyer espousing a raw food diet with plenty of kale. Good lord how much raw food does someone the size of Sam have to eat to fulfill his daily caloric needs?

They kind of hand-wave how these new versions of themselves exist at the same time as the OG versions. "Our timeline is changing to this new one!" Sam says. He says they need to put things back the way they were or they'll be stuck. It's nice of the timeline to work slowly enough that they can figure this out.

Somewhere nearby, the angel Zachariah appears. Castiel moseys up beside him and he's brought some old friends.

They decide to head into the nearest pizza place. The teenagers are there because not even a paradox will get rid of this subplot. "Can I help you?" asks the waitress. I think the usual question would be, "Can I get you a table for two?" but whatever. Zachariah asks her who's been messing with time. "We sensed a disturbance in the, well, let's call it the Force," he says. Naturally, she's very confused, and even more confused when he says they're from Heaven.

He says he'll have Castiel murder everyone if they don't tell him what's going on. To emphasize this, Castiel whips out his angel mojo.

Sam and Dean see the bright light from across the street and come running in. Sam's like, "Zachariah?!" and Dean's like, "Cas?!" and Cas is like, "Is that with one S or two, and also who are you?"

Zachariah exposits that Heaven had big plans for the Winchesters but then their dad suddenly disappeared in 2003. Why wouldn't the angels assume the disappearance and the time event are connected? Why'd they have to just start asking questions in a random pizzeria? Fisticuffs ensue!

Zachariah force-chokes Sam while asking him for an explanation. Why do villains always try to make people talk while they're choking? Pick one or the other! But this gives Sam a chance to surprise Zachariah with an angel blade in the heart. Oh, Zachariah. Destined to die by Winchester in every version.

Meanwhile, Dean and Castiel are still tussling even though I'm pretty sure Castiel could kill them both pretty quick. Sam joins in for a bit, but gets flung into a table. If there's a table around, someone's getting flung into it. Then he goes back to strangling Dean instead of finishing off Sam, giving Sam a chance to make one of those angel-vanquishing sigils with his own blood.

They go back home. Dean explains the whole paradox thing to John. If he doesn't return to 2003, Dean will live the same life but alone, Mary will never have come back to life, and Sam will devastate kale crops like a moose-sized locust.

John agrees to go back. "Me versus your mom, that's not even a choice." That's... a weird way to phrase that dilemma. At the same time, Sam is delivering the news to Mary. He says "the lore is pretty clear" that if they destroy the pearl, everything goes back the way it was. What lore? They knew jack squat about it before they used it. Mary has some questions.

John tells Dean he's proud of him and I slightly expect Dean to whip a gun out on him. "I never meant for this.... I guess I hoped that eventually you get yourself a normal life..a family..."

WHAT.

WHAAAAAT.

He did nothing to prepare them for a normal life! Leaving your kids in motel rooms, never letting them settle down in one school, issuing ultimatums when Sam wanted to go to college? Man, Dean should've been like, "Nah, that was your other son, Adam, who got to live a normal life... at least until a ghoul ate him and his body was used by an archangel." But Dean is nicer than me, I guess. "I have a family," he says.

They decide to eat dinner even though who knows when the timeline is going to snap into place permanently. Oh my God they even take the time to wash the dishes after. They have a nice chat and again, everyone's acting their little hearts out and I'm trying not to be distracted. Dean tells Sam he doesn't want to change the past. "I'm good with who I am. I'm good with who you are." Please let that stick with no reversions to self-loathing and I'll retroactively like this episode more.

They cut to this shot and for a second I thought it was Sam and Dean holding hands at the sink.

Of course it's John and Mary. Sad piano plays sadly. John's not going to remember anything, but the rest of them will. Oh man what if John got Mary pregnant during his visit. Sam and Dean were out shopping for a while. I wish I hadn't thought that, but now that I have, you all have to be witness to my horrible brain's meanderings.

John reiterates that he's proud of them. So this time Sam pulls a gun on him! No, he doesn't. They all hug and cry genuine tears before John goes back to holding hands with Mary. Sam reluctantly smashes the pearl to bits. Seems like Dean would have to be the one to smash it since he's the one who made the wish, but it works and John slowly fades out of the present.

Everything goes back to normal, including the teenagers remembering and loudly discussing the existence of monsters in public.

Castiel returns to the bunker in his newer, homelier coat and less erotically tousled hair. "What happened?" he asks. The response in my brain:

Back in 2003, John wakes up in the Impala to the sound of his flip phone ringing. Smart phones are great and all but man I miss the battery life of my flip. It's the Dean of the day calling to check on him. John, although he's not supposed to remember anything from the future, seems to have experienced it as some kind of dream. He seems nicer, too. This will probably have no bearing on the timeline, though... right?

I mean, is that 2019 casserole still in his stomach? Did the wine turn back into grapes? Probably not but these are the kinds of things I think about.

Sigh.

I feel the episode does a disservice to its main characters. I've already ranted more than enough so I'll just pick one example:

If Sam had gone on to live a normal life, he would've become a cold-hearted douchebag who tells people that hobbies and families are a waste of time. Like, ha ha yes it's amusing that Sam is the leaf-munching Steve Jobs of law, but what's the meaning here? Are we saying that wanting to get an education for himself means he's a selfish asshole? Like this is the alternative to the codependent relationship with Dean that formed because of their father? Argh.

The John apologia is just so clunky and unnecessary. John could've said, "I should've done more than teach you to hunt monsters... prepared you for a normal life so you could have a family." Then Dean ccould say, "Being able to kill monsters kept us alive long enough so that we figured out things for ourselves. And we do have a family." Bam! It lets John be rueful without rewriting the past or having Dean swallow all the years of hurt and it even acknowledges that knowing how to hunt isn't a bad thing.

Thank you for sticking with the recap to the end! I do still intend to recap past episodes but things have been kind of stressful. Just staying afloat has been a chore some days.

For updates and info you can check here: https://www.gofundme.com/winter-rent-and-dog-care

I also have a virtual tip jar of sorts here: https://www.paypal.me/tippiblevins

#spn snark #supernatural #spn recap #tippitv #recaps #lebanon

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sage-nebula · 5 years

Note

So have you read Masuda's new statement about the National Dex because holy CRAP

Oh, I sure have. Those who haven’t read it can do so here, but here’s the TL;DR version:

“We’ve heard your complaints, but we don’t really care and aren’t going to do anything about it. You should buy the games anyway, though.”

Masuda didn’t say anything in that statement that we didn’t already know. Everyone already knew that any pokémon that weren’t in Sword / Shield could potentially return in other generations (potentially, because there’s no guarantee, especially for less popular / marketable ‘mon). We already knew that, but it doesn’t matter because every pokémon deserves to be in every generation, and there’s absolutely no logical reason for this decision that doesn’t have a solution (e.g. if the problem is they can’t program the games by November and they absolutely cannot push the games back*, then all they have to do is release the National Dex ‘mon as free DLC patches sometime in 2020). Of course, Masuda knows that, which is why he didn’t even attempt to explain this decision in more detail. That entire statement was the equivalent of the shrug emoji, except far less cute. It’s basically Masuda showing once more that even if he does decide to listen to feedback from players, he really and truly does not care about it and does what he thinks is best when making the games, rather than listening to what the people paying money for the games actually want.

Well, that’s fine. If that’s what Masuda really wants to do, clearly we can’t stop him. This doesn’t mean that we should quit, of course; I feel bad for the social media manager in charge of the Pokémon twitter account, but I encourage everyone using the #BringBackNationalDex tag on that site to continue doing so (albeit civilly; no name calling, no harassment, no death threats---be the best, the very best, that you can be as you go about this), tagging the main account and Masuda’s account as you do so. So long as you’re civil, that’s absolutely nothing wrong with letting them know exactly how you feel, and the longer this is kept up, the more attention it will gain and therefore the more weight it will carry (particularly if it comes with screenshots of canceled pre-orders---seriously, those are genius, keep them coming).

But know that while such campaigns do sometimes bring success (the Community fandom got that show revived after it was canceled, the Tales Series fandom encouraged Namco-Bandai to give localization another change, the Mario fandom got Super Mario Maker 2 multiplayer fixed, and so on), they don’t always. So in case this one doesn’t pan out either, I strongly encourage no one to buy these games new. If you buy Sword / Shield new, Game Freak gets that money. And when Game Freak gets that money, the message they receive along with it is that they can do whatever they want and it’ll work out for them in the end anyway. Postings on Twitter can be ignored. Not meeting sales expectations for one of the most successful video games series of all time cannot. If we don’t get the National Dex back now, and if Sword / Shield sell well regardless, the National Dex is gone for good. This is just like Let’s Go all over again: Masuda told us that if those games sold well, then they would be the starting point for the next twenty years of the franchise. Well they did, and now they are, but if people finally wake up and decide to say no and not support the nonsense, maybe we can salvage something. And keep in mind, I’m not saying to not buy the games at all: I’m saying to not buy them new. If you can wait just a little bit (or get very lucky on release day---I’ve had it happen before and I’m hopeful it’ll happen again) and buy Sword or Shield used, Nintendo and Game Freak will not see a single cent of that money. Instead, it’ll go entirely to Gamestop or whatever other retailer you shop from. This way you get to play the game, and bad messages aren’t sent to Game Freak. It’s a win/win scenario.

So please: Unless Game Freak decides to respect those of us who have been here for years by giving us a basic feature in games that are more expensive than their predecessors when we ask for it, do not buy these games new. You can still buy them, you can still play them, but just buy them used so that Game Freak doesn’t get that cash reward. And before anyone tries to start in on a guilt trip, no, this will not hurt the lower tier employees at Game Freak. Nintendo’s executives tend to take responsibility when their sales numbers are bad, and Game Freak are putting the bulk of their staff behind their new IP, Town, regardless. And even if they weren’t, you are not responsible for what Game Freak does. Particularly considering I would wager that most everyone reading this post right now isn’t exactly financially cushy, you’re allowed to be critical of how you spend your money (and in fact, you’re encouraged to be critical!), and you are not responsible for the lives of Game Freak’s employees. You are not to be held accountable for what their supervisors or bosses decide. Don’t ever let someone try to guilt trip you and make you believe otherwise.

Game Freak, and especially Masuda Junichi, have been blatantly ignoring player feedback, stripping out features and gameplay elements, and pushing Pokémon to the backburner for too long, and the only reason we’ve been given so far is that this is to suit Masuda’s personal taste. I love Pokémon with all my heart. I’ve been a diehard fan of the games since 1998 and Pokémon was there for me through some of the worst times in my life. But that does not mean I have blind loyalty to Game Freak, and if there is one running theme in Pokémon, it’s that you should always band together and stand up when something is wrong. Even if it seems hopeless, you keep fighting. My favorites have pretty much all been confirmed for the Galar Dex, but this isn’t just about me. It’s about everyone. And I’m not giving Game Freak another cent until they make this right. I will pay Gamestop before I pay Game Freak, and that is not a threat---it’s a promise.

(*The main excuse I’ve seen for why they “can’t” delay the game is the PokéAni, but that is nonsense, because the PokéAni exists solely to advertise and sell the games. The PokéAni is dependent on the games, not the other way around. If the games needed to be delayed, all they would need to do is make a filler season or two for the PokéAni, which they have done in the past. Hell, it might not even be necessary to come up with a whole filler region this time, given that the Alola anime is so fluffy as it is that filler episodes wouldn’t even feel like filler episodes. So no, “the PokéAni needs the games to be released!” is not a good excuse. The PokéAni exists to sell the games. It is not the number one priority in this franchise, and it does not get to call the shots. End of discussion.)

#pokemon #pokemon sword and shield #bringbacknationaldex #bring back national dex #Anonymous

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georgefancys · 5 years

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Degüello Thoughts - spoilers holy crap spoilers!!!!

- HERE WE GO LADS

- i definitely know that guy

- omg i was watching misfits before and was wondering where i recognised this guy from, he plays jago

- i want to make a whole post about win bc i love her but i will just say that i respect her so goddamn much

- when does max ever not say two o'clock for the post mortem

- nice to know you can borrow p*rn from the bodleian

- OH MY GOD THEY REALLY DID THAT NOT HALF AN HOUR IN

- social commentary on the grenfell tower disaster anyone?

- everyone looking to bright for what to do is fucking amazing thank you

- box loosing his nerve is perfection, max yelling 'put that bloody cigarette out' is greater than perfection

- i don't need these bright feels in the middle of all this else thanks

- jago is accelerating up my list of favourite characters

- you ever just get the urge to hug morse and tell him everything's going to be all right

- oh good, the ACC is as corrupt as acc deare was. fantabulous. who saw that one coming amirite

- sod off bottoms i wanna know what happened to fancy and nero

- can bright please just go off once. i'm begging

- 'we are not friends, nor, am i very happy to say, are we ever likely to be' OH I'LL TAKE THAT AS GOING OFF

- wow they gave miss frazil more than one scene this episode

- if box killed george i'm gonna

- 'where've you been?' 'oh nearly getting in an impromptu shovel fight'

- morse straight up telling thursday he can't trust him hurts me

- okay thursday got his conscience back, that's good.

- they better had outright say 'X killed Fancy' bc i don't want there to be any ambiguity. i want to know who killed my boy.

- THEY FULLY SHOWED THE MASONIC LODGE. THEORIES ARE BEING CONFIRNED AS WE SPEAK. THIS IS NOT A DRILL

- the fucking? lodge master is that stone guy who threatened morse? i guess he's a mason in more ways than one 👈👈

- THANK GOD FOR THE PELICAN. I LEGIT NEARLY HAD A HEART ATTACK THEN.

- i want to cry honestly. thursday having to either risk getting arrested for assisting in fraud, or sell morse out to either his death or getting the shit beaten out of him and having his resolve finally broken. shit's hard to watch man. seeing thursday finally punch box though. 10/10.

- a) MORSE JUST CALLED MAX MAX

- b) don't fucking hurt max you bitches. at least we know he doesn't die i guess. we gonna get morse cradling him in his arms?

- the fact that we have fifteen minutes left to resolve everything is concerning me

- forget that earlier remark about me liking jago thanks. he killed my boy

- so everything's resolved! the heroin thing. the nero conspiracy thing. even the masonic lodge thing from season bloody two. bright's been promoted. MORSE IS IN THE HOUSE HE LIVES IN FOR THE REST OF HIS LIFE. the Thursdays are happy. my concern: how the hell do we get to inspector morse stage where thursday and bright are gone?

- SEASON 7 BABEY

#endeavour #endeavour season 6 #endeavour spoilers #ep: degüello

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missjackil · 5 years

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My 3 Year SPNnaversary!!

3 years ago yesterday, I was reluctantly introduced to these lovely men. I didn’t write this yesterday because it was Jensen’s birthday and wanted to just give him some praise. Also, it was actually Feb 29th that I first started watching, it was a Leap Year.

My longtime friend and I had been binge-watching shows on Netflix, taking turns as to whom picked what show. We had watched Making a Murderer, Shameless, Nurse Jackie, and House MD. Id picked last and picked House because I had already watched the series and she hadn’t. What we both loved most was House’s bromance with Wilson. It was this toxic yet beautiful love between best friends, and I’ve always loved that kind of thing. Unconditional, deep abiding love doesn't need to be romantic.

So my friend, Dawn, told me “Well if you love that kind of thing, have I got a show for you!” She told me about Supernatural and I was reluctant because horror isn't my thing, but she told me “Well the brothers do hunt monsters, and it is a little scary, but it's not overly gory. The main focus of the show is the relationship between the brothers, and their lives and all the crap the universe throws on them” I was like “Well it sounds good, but 10 seasons is a commitment!” and she said “Well it’s in season 11 now actually, I don't know if there's gonna be another season, but if there is, you can be all caught up when it starts.” So I agreed.

We started watching The Pilot and I thought it was decent. The boys were definitely adorable, but too young for my taste. She assured me they get better looking every season LOL and she said: “I think you’re just gonna LOVE Sam.” so I took her word for it. I must admit though, my early impressions weren't the best.

Though I did like both of the boys and thought they were adorable. I felt like Sam was snobby, and a bit inconsiderate of Dean, and I felt like Dean was a bit clingy and possessive, and more than a little bit bossy. He was also a little inconsiderate of Sam IMO. After about maybe 7 episodes, I told her I didn't really like the show. It wasn't scary, the effects were cheap and cheesy, and the boys, as cute as they are, arent very good actors. I'm not getting this unconditional love kind of chemistry. She sighed and assured me it gets better. She asked me to give it till the end of S2 and if I still didn't like it, I could pick the next one. So I agreed.

The episode Faith was a turning point for me. I saw Sam in a whole new light. He’s spiritual. A believer and with all his “I'm better than you” attitude, he crumbled at the thought of his brother dying. Okay, now you have my attention!

This is the first time I saw unconditional love, and there was much more to this Sam character than being the smart little brother with psychic visions, and now I wanted to know his story. I wanted to know their story! And Dawn was right, it did get better. Season 2 was a lot better, there were a lot of new twists and turns and heartbreak. I thought Jensen was a decent actor by this point, I still wasn't sold on Jared’s acting skills yet. As much as I enjoyed Playthings, IMO I thought his drunk acting needed some work. However, it seemed like once Sam got the cast off, Jared’s acting got better. He was absolutely amazing, if not a bit terrifying in Born Under a Bad sign. He broke my heart in Heart (not to mention how his body impressed me... good lord kid, could you just not?) and even better, I learned that he prays all the time in Houses of the Holy, so it was season 2 I officially became a Sam girl. Then of course, All Hell Breaks Loose ruined me. After I was done sobbing and also falling in love with Dean for how devastated he was that Sam died, and how he thought nothing about selling his soul for him, Dawn asked me So, do we keep watching?” and I gave her a big “Yes!”

I was hooked now, but I had yet to drink The Kool-Aid. Season 3 was kinda bad IMO aside from a few episodes I really liked. Fresh Blood, Mystery Spot and Night Shifter. To be perfectly honest, if S4 hadn't turned up the volume, I think I would have stopped. However, it blew me away!! Sam’s superpowers, the demon blood arc, and the whole Winchester Gospels thing were exactly what I needed to become obsessed! I was scared though, Dawn wouldn't give me spoilers, but I loved Sam and I was afraid he would become a bad guy and I wouldn't love him anymore. Dawn said “I just want you to remember, they're both good guys, and they're always the good guys even if it looks bad for a little bit” And I'm so thankful she was right.

I have been head over heels in love since then. 3 years now, and Lord willing and my finances allow, I'm going to meet these 2 beautiful men in September and I hope I'm calm enough to form words and tell them how wonderful they are, and how happy they have made these last 3 years for me. I hope they have many years left in them for this show. I don't see me ever tiring of it, any more than I would get tired of a long friendship. And I know, that dreadful day that it does come to an end, will feel like losing my best friend. (I have lived through this very thing twice, and I know this is what it will feel like)

So you won't ever hear me wishing it would end or talking about beating a dead horse. I don't care if some episodes or story arcs suck, I'm thankful they’re still here.

#supernatural #my 3 year anniversary #show positive #sam and dean forever

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xfirechickx · 6 years

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Arrow Rewrite

So I’ve (finally) caught up with the latest seasons of all the DCTV shows on Netflix, and to the utter surprise of no one, including myself, Arrow has definitely not gotten any better since the first two seasons, and the only good thing that’s come out of this train wreck of a show since killing off the Black Canary, is bringing Katie Cassidy back as the Black Siren. But still, to say that this show is a huge disappointment is a gross understatement, so much so, that the only reason I still watch is for Katie and for the annual crossovers. But, to actually make keeping up with the show tolerable, I had to pretty much mentally rewrite most of the show and headcanon the shit out of it, and make my way through with all the denial I can manage. So, this is how I like to pretend that the show actually went. And even though I doubt anyone will read this - this is more for my getting my thoughts down - bear in mind, this is super anti F*licity with all the nolicity feelings I have. Also, after reading a whole bunch of posts with the same feelings as me, this became a sort of mashed clusterfuck of ideas that came together from everywhere.

SO first of all, Laurel is a metahuman, you know, like she should have been. What the fuck was the idea behind not giving her actual powers? That’s just stupid. So yeah, either Laurel was in Central City when the particle accelerator exploded, or some other freak accident gave her the canary cry. I don’t care how it happened, it doesn’t matter. What does matter is that Laurel is the team’s meta, and it caused her to want to don a mask even before Sara was killed.

Next, I’d like to think that she got the hang of street fighting a lot faster. Like, I appreciate that it took her awhile to be able to handle herself on the streets, but this “Oliver is the best fighter” mindset is absolute bullshit. Ik we’ve all been thinking of the Arrow as a bargain-bin Batman (and the horrendous bullet we dodged that was the mere suggestion that F*licity could ever be anything close to Oracle didn’t help), but I am so sick of Oliver’s fighting abilities being thought of as if he was the freaking Batman. Bullshit. I’ll admit, Oliver can fight and hold his own; he’d have to to be a vigilante facing down supervillains on a constant basis, that’s fine. But the Black Canary is one of the best fighters in the DC universe, and I will be damned if that was never acknowledged here.

So the way I see it, Laurel not only kept up with Oliver and Roy while on patrol, but after he came back from his new life in Ivy Town, Oliver comes to realize that she’s actually better than him. Like, I want them to be out on the field, and she’s literally outdoing him at every turn. And at first, he’s all, “Damn, I must be a bit rusty,” but it becomes clear after a couple more episodes, when he no longer has that excuse, that she’s actually running circles around him, whether it’s on patrol or while they’re sparring. In fact, I want an entire scene of them sparring in the bunker, and as distracted as everyone else is doing their own thing, everyone can clearly see that she’s holding back, and Oliver thinks that her head’s just not in it.

Oliver: Come on, I know you can do better than that!

Laurel: Nah, it’s okay. This is a good pace.

Oliver: Come on, you’ll never get better if you don’t give it your all. Let me have it!

And then she brutally knocks him on his ass.

“Lucky shot,” he grumbles as he gets up and gets ready for another round, and Laurel has a look on her face that’s almost annoyed, but honestly, she’s been waiting for forever to knock him down a peg. Diggle, Thea, and Roy are trying not to laugh in the background.

And speaking of Thea and Roy, holy shit, Roy doesn’t leave! Whoever came up with that idea needs a good smack. Team Arrow comes up with literally any other plan and Roy fucking stays! Thea, is instead given the mantle Artemis with her own outfit. Yeah, ik it still wouldn’t give us the Artemis Crock storyline, but it’s still better than the Evelyn Sharp bullshit that we ended up with. We currently have two tech geniuses on the team, what’s wrong with three archers? They could continue having their relationship ups and downs as subplots as the show goes on. I would even like that at some point, they decide to get their own place together, and Thea decides to sell her old apartment (you know, the one she was brutally stabbed in) to afford a nice one with Roy. And I would like F*licity try in vain to hide how much of an asshole she is by getting all indignant about it. Like, Thea offers to sell it to F*licity first, but she tries to spin it like, “You didn’t want it anymore, so I took it, so it’s mine now?” And everyone’s like, “What? No, that’s literally her apartment, which she bought with her father’s money? Idk how the hell it came to be thought of as yours anyway?” And she eventually has to break down and either buy it or move out because Thea and Roy have their hearts set on getting their own place.

As far as nolicity goes, I always thought that they would at some point have a brief relationship (a ship that I originally didn’t care for, but quickly became my ultimate notp) which would be doomed from the start due to having little to no romantic chemistry, and even though F*licity definitely had a strong sexual attraction to Oliver, she mostly seemed to view him as an older brother; or at least, Oliver viewed her as a slightly annoying younger sister.

But because of Guggenheim’s constant interference, the will-they-won’t-they crap just kept dragging on and on and on until holy fuck I have negative five care points to spend on these two assholes, just give me more BC! Their relationship has to be the most boring aspect of the show, something that’s definitely not helped by the fact that F*licity is an emotionally abusive and manipulative piece of shit Mary Sue. Seriously, for the amount of times that she’s been really vocal about how hypocritical and controlling she is, it just boggles the mind how few times anyone has called her out for it. I say few, because it has happened before, twice I believe, once by Oliver, who calmly insisted, “Enough,” and once by Ray Palmer after she threw his dead fiance in his face. Classy lady, isn’t she? But the farther this show goes on, the more she gets away with and the more infuriating it is that Oliver becomes the bad guy in her place. And holy shit the fact that literally everyone needs to assure Oliver - and the audience - that they are, in Guggenheim’s world, the perfect couple. I honestly can’t tell anymore if he actually believes this, and is just trying to shove his own weird obsession with EBR down everyone else’s throats, or if he’s just trying to get those of us who don’t like the ship to come to the dark side. Either way, I’m not buying any of this shit. SO, for every time that there’s a character to remind everyone how “good” Oliver and F*licity are together, take a shot, and then block out their words and then replace them with various observances and reassurances on Oliver’s behalf. I’d like to think that those closest to him, like Diggle, Laurel, and Thea were totally ready to call F*licity out on her shit whenever she started taking things out on Oliver, but he would subtly shake his head and calmly assure them later on that “F*licity’s right, I’m wrong. But no really guys, we’re totally happy together, I’d just appreciate it if you guys not confront her because she’s the queen of right on every subject ever and I’m just lucky to be with her.”

And the rest of Team Arrow just reluctantly agrees not to say anything unless Oliver is the one to bring up that he has a problem with her, but are totally ready to throw down at moment’s notice. Even people outside of Team Arrow notice it and tend to comment, with characters like Mick and Constantine on the crass side of the spectrum with phrases like “Does she occasionally let you take your balls out of her purse?” and more sensitive words from people like Barry and Sara, who actually try to get it through his head that, despite what F*licity says, not everything is his fault, and he does not deserve to be kicked around by her over situations that he had little to no control over (Samantha and William, anyone?)

And then there’s Damien Darhk. Hoo boy, my hate towards him killing Laurel burns with the fury of a thousand suns. There was literally no reason for it, you know, besides eliminating her as a threat to Nolicity. Except, she wasn’t even a threat?? It was pretty clear that Laurel and Oliver weren’t even considering a romantic relationship, and even I, as a hardcore GA/BC shipper, didn’t even want them to get back together at this point. Despite the unintentional victimization of Oliver, Laurel absolutely did not deserve any of his shit. So, as much as I wished that F*licity was the one who died, Laurel was still targeted by Darhk in order to get back at Lance, but she doesn’t just die and that’s it! She gets to be critically injured - getting intentionally stabbed by a former member of the League of Assassins tends to be pretty life-threatening - but she does get to heal while in the hospital and make it back out onto the field to continue as BC.

Hell, I’d even be okay with her actually dying that night if, and only if, they brought her back. For a universe based on superhero comic books, Guggenheim and company seemed to have totally forgotten (or just outright ignored) how often characters get brought back from the dead, at times in pretty nonsensical ways. But here, there was a way to conceivably bring her back; there were three in fact: In Arrow, the Lazarus pits would have been available; Flash could have brought her back with the introduction of Flashpoint, or you know, Sara, who happens to captain a fucking timeship could have brought her back, either by manipulating the timeline, or by pulling a Kingsmen II and had just shown up right after Darhk stabbed Laurel to revive her. I would’ve happily gone along with Team Arrow believing that Laurel was dead if the plot twist was that the Legends brought her aboard the Waverider so that Gideon could heal her.

Sidenote: ik that this would have never have happened simply because all of the Arrowverse shows have to check in with each other to some degree so that they’re all on the same page, but wouldn’t it have been absolutely fan-fucking-tastic if, after Arrow had confirmed that BC was for sure dead and wasn’t coming back, that Flash and LoT just totally undermined it. Like, if Laurel was brought back with either Flashpoint or the Waverider, and KC’s just hanging out on a different set while Arrow just tries its damnedest to discredit them?

Arrow: She’s dead.

Flash/LoT: Well she was, but she got better.

Arrow: She’s def not coming back.

Flash/LoT: Not until you learn to be nice to her anyway.

Arrow: She’s not the real Laurel. Our Laurel is D E A D

Flash/LoT: Nope, this is definitely her, and she’s going on cool adventures with us because SHE’S A DAMN GOOD CHARACTER AND YOU DICKBAGS NEVER DESERVED HER

All the while more of Arrow’s fans flock to every show except Arrow until the assholes in charge of the decision to kill Laurel finally have to (publicly) beg to have her back because literally no one will watch their shitty show anymore without BC, and then they’re forced to respect her character and give her a fair amount of screen time. That would just be poetic justice in my book.

So as season 5 kicks off, Oliver, Roy, AND Laurel take in and train the new recruits to join Team Arrow. I don’t have much to change about this season except that since Laurel isn’t dead, and as much as I like Juliana Harkavy, there’s literally no reason to bring in Dinah Drake. Also the shared hallucination in the Invasion! crossover partially rekindles the romance between Laurel and Oliver, which actually feels pretty heartfelt and like it could possibly lead to them getting back together for real.

And then F*licity ruins it because that’s what she does.

F*licity and Oliver get back together and things progress normally, with the rest of Team Arrow quietly building up a resentment towards the abusiveness of their relationship. I’d also like to think that since Curtis had progressed as a team member, that there’s a slight undertone of “what is she even here for anymore?” among them. Like, whenever she butts in with her hypocritical opinions, someone else will actually step in like, “Hey, you’ve had a long day, so why don’t you go ahead and go home. Don’t worry, Curtis knows what he’s doing, so we’ve got this. Yes, we’ll call you if we need something, but don’t worry. You’ve worked hard today! You deserve a break!” Meanwhile, the rest of the team is literally patching themselves back together with bandages and whatnot, blood and sweat everywhere, all giving each other The Look™ when she nods like, “Yeah, you’re right, I could use a hot meal and a shower. Plus, this tracking system is so simple an idiot could use it, just try not to fuck it up while I’m gone.” Still, no one says anything because Oliver is back to trying to make it work between them, and she occasionally helps William with his homework, so he can’t complain.

William btw, while appreciating the fact that F*licity brings intelligent conversation with her, has not forgotten how much of a bitch she was when trying to save him. Sure, he wasn’t present while all the shit-talking was going down, but there was no way that Samantha didn’t mention it at least in passing later on. “I’m amazed at how much Oliver has grown as a person. He was a real jackass when I knew him before, but he was genuinely worried about you and how we’d get you back. I just wish that the blonde chick he was working with wasn’t being such a pain about it. Like she had any right to any of our business, or any right to be a bitch about the rescue mission.” At this point, nolicity’s domestic life is pretty much out of some crappy fanfiction, and I will be damned if William doesn’t get to bring up F*licity’s pettiness at least once.

And since F*licity apparently feels threatened when Oliver’s past love life gets brought up, William tends to go to his Aunt Thea whenever he feels the need to talk about his mom without having to feel as if he’s the one bringing up a touchy subject. She’s also the one to get him out of the house whenever Nolicity gets especially nauseating at home, and he ends up growing a bond with the rest of Team Arrow in the process. While he still doesn’t want Oliver to be the Arrow anymore, he grows to respect the rest of the team, and ends up with all of their numbers in case he needs any of them to kidnap him for the day. He gets to spend some time in the bunker while they’re out on missions (with Diggle under the hood, of course). Funnily enough, after one mission without F*licity or Oliver, he asks Thea, “So what exactly do you need F*licity for anyway?” And Thea explains that she’s usually down in the bunker handling all the tech stuff while they’re all out in the field, but then he says, “Yeah, but Curtis was handling all that and working in the field??” And Thea and Roy exchange The Look™ again and change the subject.

Things finally come to a head during the Crisis on Earth-X crossover. Oliver, totally taken by the magic that is WestAllen still proposes during the rehearsal dinner, and F*licity, still very publicly says no. Classy. Naz*s invade and everything goes to shit, and Oliver and F*licity still try to make things about them while shit is literally falling apart around them, and to the people whose wedding actually got ruined for some reason. To her credit, Iris doesn’t outright tell F*licity that she’s being a self-obsessed drama queen at what is literally the worst possible time, but she does put out a few comments that both remind F*licity that it was in fact Iris’s day that was ruined, and gets her to shut the fuck up.

F*licity: Oh, wah! Oliver and I had a fight and then naz*s ruined any chance of makeup sex! Wah!

Iris: They literally ruined my wedding and abducted my groom.

F*licity: *internally* oh fuck I forgot about that

Meanwhile on Earth-X:

Oliver: Oh, wah! F*licity said she wouldn’t marry me after I proposed at your rehearsal dinner! Wah!

Barry: Yeah, what the fuck was that about anyway?

Oliver: Ikr? She wouldn’t say yes even after all the beautiful things that were said during the speech! If that doesn’t scream romance, idk what will!

Barry: I actually meant, why the fuck would you propose at the rehearsal when you can do it at literally any other time that isn’t supposed to be about Iris and I getting married?

Oliver: There was magic in the air!

Barry: *facepalm*

No, but the conversation between Barry and Oliver would go on to a touching, if not repetitive explanation about how Oliver was so taken, not just with Barry and Iris’s union, but the idea that Barry has been able to balance his life as a hero and his personal life. Oliver had once told him, “Guys like us don’t get the girl,” but Barry actually did it. And Oliver was envious, because his own life was one clusterfuck after another, with an on-again-off-again relationship that he’s only sort of making it work, and after the Dominator’s simulator, he realized how much he wanted his life as Oliver Queen to be fulfilling and filled with love, and how much he wants a partner in both halves of his life, like Barry and what he has with Iris. And throughout all this, Barry listens and quickly notices that throughout his whole explanation, Oliver never once uses F*licity’s name; he doesn’t even bring her up specifically. Barry probably means to point this out, but Oliver brushes him off thinking that he’s just going to tell him off some more, because that’s what he’s come to expect from having F*licity around all the time, and that’s what people who love you do, right?

It’s actually Snart’s doppelganger who points this out (after eavesdropping on their entire conversation) and suggests that maybe Oliver just hasn’t found the right person to be his partner the way he wants. “Just look at Barry and Iris, or me and Ray.” Oliver shrugs him off too, and just resigns himself to the loneliness of either being without F*licity, or being with her in all the wrong ways.

They get back to Earth-1, Supergirl is saved, yadda yadda yadda. I would like to change Stein’s death into him also making a miraculous recovery and leaving the show still intact. Just, using naz*s to kill off a Jewish character? REALLY?? Fuck all of that. Anyway, Barry and Iris still decide on an impromptu wedding right after *insert literally any event that doesn’t involve killing off Martin so disrespectfully* and Barry still brings Diggle to perform the ceremony, and Joe, Cecile and Wally are present because of course they fucking are. You could even argue for Cisco and Caitlin, but it doesn’t matter to me as much if they’re there. So Barry and Iris exchange vows, say their I do’s, and-

Fucking F*licity interrupts. Because of course she fucking does. “Would you marry us, too? Would you marry me?” A moment of silence and then everyone just explodes.

Barry: Seriously, though? After waiting my entire life for this, two more seconds is literally all I could have asked for

Wally: I’m a speedster, and I could have waited a couple more seconds

Iris: Really? Can I not just have one (1) wedding go uninterrupted?

Joe: In retrospect, we probably should have waited until these assholes left and done this at STAR Labs or something

And F*licity just gets overwhelmed because she’s literally never had so many people tell her she was wrong in her entire fucking life and Diggle tries to mediate (no matter how much he agrees with the rest of Team Flash).

Diggle: F*licity, you don’t even have a marriage license.

F*licity: Oh, no, it’s okay, John! We could just share the moment with Barry and Iris, and then go get a marriage license when we get back to Star City and have our own wedding there.

And then everyone explodes again because, seriously what the FUCK? “So I have to share my second interrupted wedding, and you’re just going home to have another one of your own?” And literally everyone is so fucking frustrated and angry, even more so because they all knew they should have been celebrating at that very moment but F*licity seems to think her awkwardness is still cute when it might just be the most infuriating thing ever. Finally she turns back to Oliver, who hasn’t said anything since she proposed like, “Hey?! A little help here?!” And Oliver is busy with finally seeing her without the rose-colored glasses and seeing her as the selfish and problematic person she is and it’s fucking glorious because he’s just so calm but everyone hears him when he just says, “No.”

F*licity: What? NO? What do you mean, NO?

Oliver: No, F*licity, as in, no, I’m not gonna help you ruin their second wedding, no I’m not going to defend you after fucking this up, and NO I won’t marry you. Not here and definitely not now.

Everyone else is pretty taken aback because up until now, no one’s ever told Queen Fefe off and they’re all doing an internal happy dance at how, for once, Oliver isn’t backing her up. Oliver and F*licity have a staring contest, F*licity waiting for him to back down, and Oliver holding his ground, until F*licity, finally realizing that she’s been unanimously outvoted, just storms off without saying anything, probably expecting Oliver to come running after her to apologize. But he doesn’t. He actually just quietly apologizes to Barry and Iris, and stays in his place as a groomsman (best man, my ass) and stands and waits for Cecile to take up her new place as matron of honor (how the fuck Fefe got that position is beyond me) all the while having this look on his face that says “It had to be done, but I’m gonna catch serious hell when I get home.” Diggle repeats himself in pronouncing Barry and Iris as husband and wife, they kiss, and the crossover ends with an UNBLOCKED shot of them two while their remaining wedding party claps it out.

I would keep everything in the gift scene in next episode of The Flash exactly the same except for Iris’s line is changed to, “Okay, not on the registry, but I guess trying to get married during our wedding wasn’t on the registry either. I’m not bitter.”

The whole wedding reception scene in Arrow is also completely done away with, and replaced with a long-awaited breakup scene, the one to end all breakup scenes (between nolicity anyway). Down in the bunker, it starts off with (what else?) F*licity trying to blame everything on Oliver. “Shit like this is why I didn’t wanna marry you. And then I put MYSELF out there and what do I get? Rejected, that’s what! I get rejected and humiliated in front of everyone!” And then she rambles on and throws in a couple references of the island and how he hasn’t changed since his frat boy days for good measure. Some guilt tripping and a few hypocritical statements later, and then she ends it. Or, at least, that’s what it’s supposed to be, but it really comes off as more of a threat to end it. Her closing statement sounds a lot like “You better straighten up because you’re damn lucky to have me.”

And Oliver just kind of silently stews until she finishes and he immediately jumps into how far he’d obviously come since his five years on the island, and how unfair it was for her to throw that in his face, and even worse how she tried so hard to justify butting her way into Barry and Iris’s special moment to further put herself in the spotlight. She tries to butt in a couple times (like she does) but gets immediately shut down because hell to the fucking no that was not okay. It ends with them trying to yell over each other, and F*licity yelling, “Well maybe I shouldn’t even be on this team anymore since you’ve made it pretty clear that you don’t need me!” right as the rest of the team walk in. They immediately try to backtrack, but F*licity, being her usual dramatic self yells, “No! No, you stay! I’ll go! He obviously doesn’t need me anyway!” and just leaves.

The rest of the team is just so shell shocked and embarrassed at having walked in at that exact moment (they’d all secretly been hoping to be there at that exact moment because that’d mean they’d officially have permission to drag F*licity the way she should have been several seasons ago) but the moment turned out to be more awkward than anyone could have hoped, so no one really knows what to do. “You alright, Hoss?” Oliver pretends that the past minute never happened and redirects everyone’s attention to the latest update on Cayden James. Meanwhile, Laurel, recognizing that Oliver is going to opt out of dealing with the problem, quietly excuses herself and leaves the bunker after F*licity. And Laurel finds her just outside the bunker, pacing because was she was actually expecting Oliver to run up after her after causing that big scene.

Laurel: That was some fight you guys just had.

F*licity: What, oh that? Nah, Oliver’s just being a jerk. Don’t worry about me, we’ll be-

Laurel: Where the hell do you get off talking to him like that?

F*licity: Wait, what?

Laurel then unleashes the mother of all lectures, bringing up every single problematic thing F*licity has ever said or done, which is pretty much anything and everything anyone has ever had to complain about the Mary Sue-ish nature of her character, every time she’s been an asshole, every time that she and the rest of the team has wanted nothing more than to tell her to shut the fuck up but how Oliver had asked them not to because of how much he wanted their shitty relationship to work, whether they were together or broken up at the time. F*licity tries to keep a stoic facial expression, but it’s pretty clear that she’s embarrassed and angry and incredibly surprised because damn, first Oliver and Team Flash, and now Laurel is calling her out on her shit and she was so far from expecting it. Laurel, to her credit, never even raises her voice, because she doesn’t want the rest of the team to hear and get involved, and she makes it clear that no one is kicking her off the team (if she wanted to leave, then that was her own prerogative) but she’s just so glad that she finally gets to unload everything she’d been holding back since Oliver and F*licity had gotten together and the bitch was not going to worm her way out of it this time. Her rant ends with the sentence, “Don’t think for even a second that you’re in the right about any of this,” and she turns on her heel and heads back down to the bunker while F*licity stays frozen where she stands, still trying to absorb that she’d just been told off, and how no one was going to apologize for it.

In the upcoming days, it seems like F*licity is gone for good; she hasn’t come back down to the bunker or contacted anyone on the team, and the team slowly adjusts to not having her around (and encouraging Oliver in that he did the right thing by breaking it off). Curtis pretty much takes over her role on the team (he’s the third smartest person in the DC universe, dammit! Why in the fuck has he been reduced to Fefe’s sidekick?!) and makes time to go out on patrol with the others and besides not having anyone back in the bunker, the team dynamic really doesn’t change. But just as things escalate with Cayden James, F*licity comes back; she shows up unannounced at the bunker after the team comes back from the field, and insists that she’s ready to resume her role as Overwatch. The rest of the team is pretty iffy considering all the drama that she’d left in her wake, but they agree to take her back because they’d probably need all the help they could get against Cayden. So the show goes on, with some tension still between Oliver and F*licity, but Laurel quickly shuts her up with a look every time it looks like she’s about to start some shit.

Team Arrow obtains the list of people on Diaz’s payroll, and after some celebrating on taking down the bad guy, F*licity announces that she was officially leaving the team. There’s a lot of confusion, since she made such a big deal about wanting to come back, but she explains how she only wanted to finish what she started with Cayden James, and now that the mission is over, she’s ready to go back to a normal life, like what she had originally planned when joining the team back in the first season. This scene is actually a bittersweet one; no matter any of our opinions on how badly this character was fucked up, she was a part of the original team, and her departure from it should be treated like the end of an era. She leaves, but not before assuring them that she would help out if they ever need it.

Idk what the future holds for the plot, but as far as GA/BC being endgame (because they were, dammit) I actually wouldn’t want it to happen in the next season. Now with F*licity gone, Oliver got bumped up from the second to the biggest asshole in the Arrowverse, and like I said before, Laurel absolutely does not deserve his shit. So I don’t want there to be any romantic relationship between them at all, for at least one whole season. Hell, I want them to date other people during this season. At this point, I’d just really like to see their friendship to become more solid. I want them both to come to terms with what happened between them in the past, and decide to extend their partnership. I want Oliver (and the rest of the team) to see Laurel as his equal, not as his potential love interest, and definitely not his sidekick. I want Oliver to start resembling his comic book counterpart at this point. I want him to more frequently crack jokes and become less like a Batman wannabe. It felt like that’s the Oliver we were supposed to get when this show started, after he’d had a chance to deal with some of his trauma.

The eighth season is when Oliver and Laurel start showing romantic interest in each other again. They maybe start flirting while on the field, and eventually they go out on dates without the masks. And at first it’s weird, because of all the history they share, and a running gag where every time they sit down, they’re immediately summoned on a mission (original, ik). But they not only find the time to be together, but they actually realize that the life actually works for them, because there are no more secrets between them anymore. I want them to start calling each other Pretty Bird and Robin Hood and pretty much all the fluffy (and probably smutty) scenes that it would take for their relationship to better resemble their comic book counterparts. And their chemistry is just as good as it was in the first season, when you could just look at Oliver and see just how in love he was with Laurel, only better now that they both share the vigilante lifestyle.

This all eventually leads to them getting married; it doesn’t matter if it happens in the eighth season or the ninth, but the proposal is similar to the 2010 Green Arrow short, where he proposes while in full costume after completing a mission together.

Their wedding could be the premise for the annual crossover, but I wouldn’t mind if it was purely an episode of Arrow. If it’s not a crossover, then I would at least like a brief cameo of Barry and Iris, probably calling or video chatting them before the wedding, wishing them luck because they sadly can’t make it due to having to deal with this season’s villain. But Sara has to be there, for sure; with or without the rest of her team, she needs to be present as the maid of honor.

And their wedding gets interrupted, because of course it does (probs by Orm leading the Atlanteans or some shit) so they break up the wedding party to suit up and join the fight. This is actually the first time we see F*licity since she left. They need her tech skills yet again because Curtis was either incapacitated during the fight, or he’s off on a trip somewhere with the hot police officer from this past season. Anyway, they’re at whatever office/genius bar she’s working at, hovering while she does her thing, and she’s rambling on as per usual until she says something like, “I expected to hear from you like everyday, tbh. I’m honestly surprised everything didn’t fall apart the moment I left.” And everyone just kinda rolls their eyes like, damn, what a bitch. And then she makes it more awkward when it comes out that Oliver and Laurel’s wedding was supposed to take place earlier that day, and it’s like, “Oh, so I guess you are willing to get married, just not to me!” And Oliver has to physically hold Laurel back from cussing her out because, “We need her, okay?”

The episode/crossover ends with the team (and William and F*licity because reasons) back in whatever location they’re using as the Arrow Cave at this point, everyone in full costume, patching up their injuries, and it overall looking like the shawarma scene from the first Avengers movie. And despite having just won the day, everyone’s still sorry that they couldn’t finish the wedding. So, just like how Barry and Iris should’ve had their second wedding in STAR Labs, they decide to hold their wedding in the Arrow Cave. So, everyone still tired and dirty from their recent fight, but it still makes for an interesting ceremony. But it’s mostly because I want Oliver to lift Laurel’s mask the way he would’ve lifted her veil. And not only do they actually have vows, they’re actually pretty fucking beautiful. Like, Oliver’s are about how he’s loved her for most of his life, but how this is the first time where he feels like he’s finally worthy of her, and how he sees her as an equal, and as his partner in both halves of his life. Laurel’s reflect on how they went from friends to lovers, to strained acquaintances, back to friends, to actual partners, and eventually back to lovers. And no matter how many times their paths lead away from each other, they were forever intertwined. And then Diggle pronounces them husband and wife and everyone cheers.

F*licity hangs back from the rest of the crowd that’s hugging and kissing and congratulating, because she really can’t stop herself from thinking “That should have been me,” but she manages to keep it (mostly) classy and only hints towards the thought twice in her rambling congratulations. In the end, she hugs the both of them, and makes her exit right after Oliver and Laurel stroll out to catch their plane to their honeymoon.

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